The Ultimate Hack To Limitless Thinking w/ Jim Kwik

Tap into your inner GENIUS and revolutionize how you think, learn, and succeed! This week, we're diving into the art of maximizing your brain's potential with the incredible Jim Kwik, a master in brain optimization techniques. He was once known as the boy with the BROKEN BRAIN. But Jim overcame a severe childhood injury to become one of the world’s foremost experts on learning theory, neuroscience, and brain performance. It's not just about Jim's inspiring journey; it's about what his insights can do for YOU. We're going to explore practical, powerful strategies to elevate your cognitive abilities and unlock new levels of personal and professional achievement. Together we’re going to help you put on your thinking cap and dig into how to OPTIMIZE YOUR BRAIN to help you live better and accomplish more including: Discovering your BRAIN TYPE How to REMEMBER more LEARN at maximum retention How to harness diverse thinking styles for extraordinary results. Understanding your RAS and the brain's role in filtering information. Mastering the art of note-taking for better recall and understanding. Exploring Neuronutrition and the impact of diet on cognitive function. Strategies for developing brain health from an early age. Tips for achieving your peak Flow State for maximum productivity. This episode is about transforming how you think, learn, and grow. It's about taking your brain health into your own hands and unlocking your limitless potential. Join us for a session packed with actionable insights and start your journey to a smarter, more capable you! 🧠💡🔥 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 p.m. And my third day, 6:00 p.m. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  Over 20 years in business, over $12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff. Borrow better.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  On October 2nd.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me.

• 1:11Speaker 02

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 1:18Speaker 03

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25Speaker 03

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  This is The Ed Mileage Show.

• 1:40Ed Mylett?

  All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. Today's a treat for me because I have a friend here. And not only just a friend, it's somebody that I really admire in my personal life. He's always the smartest man in the room, yet he never has the need to make you feel like you need to know that. His level of humility is so inspiring to me because he's become such a successful man. But he's a coach to so many famous people, celebrities, actors, entertainers, behind the scenes, on their brain, on their life. He's been somebody who's helped me with my own life. Every time I see him, I just want to give him a hug, tell him how much I love him. He's just a tremendous human being. And having said all of that, he's also a brilliant man.

• 2:23Ed Mylett?

  And he's one of a kind. And we're going to dial right in to one of his great strengths today, which is your brain and how it functions and how you can get it functioning better. I can't think of a topic I'm more excited about covering with the best in the world. So Jim Quick, welcome back for the second time to the show, brother. It's been too long.

• 2:40Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, Ed Mylett, thank you so much for having me on your show and thank you everyone who's tuning into this brainy conversation.

• 2:47Ed Mylett?

  Well, here's his book, everybody. It's the expanded version of Limitless. And I have to tell you, if you look at me holding it up, most of you listen to this on audio, but there's just pages marked after marked after marked for my own usage because it's so... Jim's been on before and we talked a little bit about this, but this time I got to read the entire book in this expanded version today. You guys, it's really a textbook on your brain and how to get it to optimize to your full potential. And we're going to talk about that on today's show. So let's start with this. I just took a quiz right before I came online here that's in the book about the different brain types. It turns out I'm a cheetah. What are you, by the way? And then explain to them what the heck this means because I think even understanding your own brain and what type you are gives you a lot of insight on how to make it optimal.

• 3:31Jim Kwik?

  So I am an elephant. My primary, my secondary is an owl. And yeah, we'll talk about for people just tuning in, they're wondering like, what does that even mean?

• 3:40Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 3:41Jim Kwik?

  So we created as part of the new expanded edition, creating momentum in your life. I believe one of the most important... Parts to having fulfillment, greater levels of success is knowing yourself. I think a big part of our own success and fulfillment is having the curiosity to know ourself. And then the other part is having the courage to be ourself, which is a totally different game. So I created this assessment for people and to know themselves a little bit better and know the people around them. I pulled from, it's a cognitive type assessment, uh, which only takes about four minutes to go through. And I pulled inspiration from things like, uh, personality types like Myers-Briggs.

• 4:24Jim Kwik?

  Science and psychology is like left brain, right brain dominance theory, visual auditory kinesthetic processing. We pulled from multiple intelligence theory, Howard Gardner's work out of Harvard University. Introvert, extrovert, and so on. And, uh, I realized that after thirty two years as being a full-time brain coach, that not everything works for everybody, just like, uh, we're all bio individual and not everybody reacts to every food the same way. And just like there's personalized medicine based on an assessment, like your, like your DNA, or, uh, personalized nutrition based on a nutrient profile, or maybe your microbiome, uh, your microbiome test.

• 5:04Jim Kwik?

  We created this simple test for personalized learning and performance based on our dominant brain type. And so there are four brain types we found out that are four buckets. And once you know yourself, you can lean, really lean into your strengths and leverage them, uh, not only for reading faster, improving your memory, having better focus, but also for negotiating, for sales, for parenting. Once you understand other people's brain types, it really informs your, your next moves, if you will, to have greater levels of learning and, and, and life.

• 5:36Ed Mylett?

  What's the, what's the difference between a cheetah and an elephant, for example, those two types?

• 5:40Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, let's, let's go through all four. There are four animals.

• 5:44Jim Kwik?

  I I'm like the king of acronyms, so. I love it. Shortcuts. Code. Remember your brain code. C O D E. The C stands for cheetahs and cheetahs, their primary trait is action, like you are a man of action. So cheetahs think and act at lightning speed. They thrive in fast paced environments. They adapt. Uh, making very quick decisions. Uh, they they trust their instincts. They have extremely strong intuition. And they're able to adapt in rapidly changing environments. They're very, very swift. The O in code stands for the owl and the owl, their dominant trait where cheetahs go for action.

• 6:25Jim Kwik?

  Owls are go for logic. Okay. So they're very analytical, methodical, detail oriented. And by the way, we are not just one, we are a composite of all these animals, but usually there's one that's a primary. That's more dominant. So the owl are your deep thinkers. They uh. They analyze information. They consider every angle before making a decision. They love facts and they love figures. They love data. The D in code are your dolphins. And these are interesting people. They are, their primary trait is creativity. They are creative visionaries. Uh, they um, they see the bigger picture. Maybe other people can't yet grasp this vision. They're guided a lot by their innovation, by their pioneers in their field.

• 7:10Jim Kwik?

  Uh, think about the Walt Disney's, the J K Rawlings in the world. And finally, the E in code are your elephants. And their primary trait is empathy and collaboration. So elephants are at the heart of any team, any friend group. They have keen sense of empathy, which allows them to understand and collaborate with a diverse group of individuals. They often serve as the glue that holds teams together. They um, they want people to feel seen. They want people to feel heard. Uh. And it's interesting when we had, I, this is a model and remember all models are. We know that the the map is not the territory, that the menu is not the meal, right? But it gives you distinctions and a lens to look at your performance and the decisions you make.

• 7:55Jim Kwik?

  Also, the people around you, and it kind of takes a judgment out of it. Even with something like speed reading, which we've talked about in a previous episode with you about memory improvement, I realized that it's not how smart somebody is. It's not how smart you are, it's how are you smart? It's not how smart your kids are, it's actually how are they smart? And everybody expresses genius in in different ways. You would think that even your career paths, uh, owls, if their brain animal type is an owl, they these are your data analysts, these are your engineers, these are your accountants, these are your research scientists, your software developers. Cheetahs are your entrepreneurs, right? They adapt, they have strong intuition, they're action oriented mindset.

• 8:38Jim Kwik?

  Could be also a cheetah could be an EMT or a sale or a sales, a professional athlete like Serena Williams. Dolphins would be uh, find roles, responsibility where the hat of like a graphic designer or maybe a writer, a marketing specialist, a film director. Elephants would fall in in the, maybe they're a social worker, a PR specialist, a teacher, a project manager.

• 9:01Ed Mylett?

  Well, I think also, Jim, it helps getting people on the right seat on the bus when you're hiring too. Or moving people around like, you know, for me, I was, when I was doing this, I'm like, I need to give this to my team. Cause I have a funny feeling, I have a few people on the bus, they should be on my team, but I have them in the wrong seat. Based on their brain proclivity, I have them in the wrong seat.

• 9:19Jim Kwik?

  Very, very, very much so. And so we could use this with the, we have companies, we serve half of the Fortune 500 companies. And they, they, they, they apply this to be able to communicate better, to be able to sell better, to be able to hire better in the area, or even parent better, but certainly for hiring a cheetah, think about hiring a cheetah. Tends to value efficiency and results, so they might lean towards hiring candidates who demonstrate initiative, candidates that could quickly adapt, which is one of the most important, you know, traits nowadays, people who are decisive, they would manage, cheetahs would manage a very specific way, too. They're great at delegating tasks to set, they set clear expectations, KPIs.

• 10:03Jim Kwik?

  They might need to ensure that they're not pushing their team maybe too hard or too quickly. And so there's, it definitely informs an owl, you think about hiring as an owl, they would appreciate candidates who exhibit strong analytical skills, attention to details, more systematic approaches, they would manage in a more structured, predictable work environment. And they might need to be a little cautious also by, because every, every strength also has, coupled with is some kind of maybe drawback that they might have a cognitive bias or blind spot for.

• 10:37Ed Mylett?

  Well, that was me. I, I gotta jump in and tell you that. One of my biggest mistakes I made young was I hired people that were my brain type, because I thought they were the smart ones. So everybody around me was a, was a, was a, was a doggone cheetah. And I needed some dolphins, I needed some elephants, right? I didn't, I, I thought, well, the smart people are just like me. So I had a, that's not the right seat on the bus. I don't think you want your CFO to be a cheetah, right?

• 11:02Jim Kwik?

  Exactly. It's like love languages. If somebody had their love language, people tend to, whatever their love language happens to be, that's what fulfills them, but that's also how they often communicate. So words of affirmation, but if your partner loves acts of kindness or service, then it's, it's like, we're not meshing. And that happens all the time when we're trying to learn something. Often a coach or a mentor is different than, so you have to be able to adapt. Like for, so for an owl, their drawbacks, they can be overly cautious and overanalyze and become too rigid in the process and never take action. They're just ideate all the time. Dolphins can inspire very well because they have a lot of passion, because they have this vision, where they may motivate teams with their enthusiasm.

• 11:46Jim Kwik?

  However, they might occasionally overlook the details, the nitty gritty logistics of things. And finally, the elephant, if you're thinking about hiring and managing candidates that

• 11:58Jim Kwik?

  An elephant would hire for our team players, right? However, you know, a drawback might be they might occasionally struggle with making tough decisions that might upset somebody also, also as well. But it's, it's interesting. Once you understand your brain type and people could go through the quiz online or they through the book, it also determines how you can parent or, or even communicate.

• 12:20Ed Mylett?

  Let me ask you this. So when we go through the brain, one of the things about Jim's work is like it helps you hack your brain. And for me, because I am a cheetah wanting to be productive, right? Like I want to be productive and I, I think sometimes I lose my ability to retain information and to stay focused. So I'm reading, I read this again, and these are just things that stuck out for me that I want people to know on the brain. Like literally, you guys, we could do an hour and a half in the book and I give you hacks in that are in the book, which we're going to do now, and it still wouldn't be 20% of the book. There's that much in there. Okay?

• 12:54Ed Mylett?

  This episode is sponsored by Ro. A lot of people assume GLP-1's cost a fortune and that assumption keeps them from even looking into treatment. Ro helps people find a more affordable path to FDA-approved GLP-1 treatment. Ro wants to help people lose weight. That's why they have more affordable GLP-1 options, whether you're paying with insurance or cash. Ro's free insurance checker makes it easy to see if you're covered for GLP-1 injections. Just submit your insurance card and Ro handles the rest. No paperwork, no waiting on hold, no confusing phone calls. And if insurance doesn't cover treatment, there are still options. Ro offers the lowest cost cash pay FDA-approved GLP-1s such as daily pills and multi-dose pens. I use products by Ro and you should too.

• 13:37Ed Mylett?

  Go to ro.co/milet to see if you qualify. That's R O dot C O slash Mylett to get started on Ro. For side effects of GLP-1 medications, including boxed warning, go to ro.co/safety. Ro dot C O slash safety. So when I, when I ended up buying the island, we had to do all of our outdoor decorating and I spent a fortune in the first half of the place. And I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore, but I want the best stuff. And that's where Wayfair came in. My wife wanted to get this new garden bed and Wayfair was the place that offered the perfect solution. Wayfair. Also helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value and trusted reviews. Wayfair verified products are hand vetted by product specialists. They use a 10-point quality inspection system. Here's all I can tell you. The stuff has lasted over time.

• 14:21Ed Mylett?

  It looks great and I get compliments on it. Shop thousands of products across every style and budget, whether you're trying to refresh your space for fall or transform your space for Halloween. Use filters, custom photos and reviews to find the right fit for your home. More than 20 million verified five-star reviews. 20 million. So transform your space with the pieces that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5% back on every purchase. Head to wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W A Y F A I R dot com.

• 14:54Speaker 05

  Wayfair, every style, every home.

• 14:58Ed Mylett?

  So I'm gonna tell you something that'll shock you about him. And I said, one, he's introverted and two, I gotta tell you the story from when he was a little boy. And I could see my son getting emotional and I was getting emotional telling this story. But I think in some way, every person can kind of relate a little bit. So just tell them, tell them the story you know I'm asking about.

• 15:14Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, and I'll build up to just the 30 seconds before that. I mentioned I had an accident when I was five years old. A very bad fall in kindergarten class. I went headfirst into an iron grade radiator and, and that's where I became very shut down. My parents said before I was very energized and very curious, very playful, but I just emotionally, socially just isolated myself. I mentioned the migraines and the sensory balance issues. I was never picked for sports ever. I was always the last one that the team had to have. And, and when I was, it took me three years longer to learn how to read, which I mentioned, when I was nine years old, I had processing issues. So teachers would have to repeat themselves over and over again in order for me to, to understand.

• 15:56Jim Kwik?

  And I was being teased one day more than others, other days. And the teacher came to my defense. She pointed to me and said, leave that kid alone. That's the boy with the broken brain. And you know, I didn't know I was broken and adults have to be very careful of their external words because they often become a child's internal words, right? And so that label became my limit. So every single time I did badly in school, I would say, oh, because I had the broken brain wasn't for sports. I had the broken brain. So that that was tough, but because of it, my superpower, I talk about superpowers a lot.

• 16:29Jim Kwik?

  Mostly because I got exposed to comic books and they they taught me how to read something about the illustrations. It just kind of bypassed and helped me understand in my learning language and superheroes offer hope and help and one person can make a difference. I loved all those themes, right? And I would escape in those comic books because I was in a lot of pain. You know, my parents, they immigrated to the United States and my dad lost both his parents at thirteen. Couldn't afford to feed them. We live in the back of a laundromat that my mom worked out and everybody has their own story. But for me, that was like superheroes just was my my escape and my inspiration. But going back to that, my superpower growing up was being invisible, like even talking about it, I could

• 17:12Jim Kwik?

  feel it in my voice. Like I would compress myself so small, punch my shoulders in, collapse my diaphragm because I didn't want to take up a lot of space because I never wanted to be called on in class, right? Because I never knew the answer and I would always like sit behind the tall kid. I would, you know, get sick before every quiz or test. I would be sent to the nurse's office and it wasn't just like it was just, it was a big challenge. And so I my superpowers was being invisible. But because of it, I would just watch people and I would be able to detect suffering because I know what it feels like. And also, I wanted to be very quiet because I didn't want to be bullied, you know, that day or, you know, picked on. And so this is every day through school. It was elementary school,

• 17:57Jim Kwik?

  middle school, junior high. In high school, what you're referring to is I was failing high school English. And they called my parents in and that was so embarrassing because I'm the oldest of of three siblings. I want to be a good role model. Uh my parents, they sacrificed a lot, had many jobs. That's probably why I had so many head injuries as a child. I wasn't very well supervised. And um but I was so much pressure and in this, you know, with the teacher, my parents, me. She was explaining to me, to my parents, how I was just, I was gonna fail. And I begged her to be able to give me a second chance, give me some kind of opportunity to make up for it.

• 18:39Jim Kwik?

  Cause I was very hardworking. That was the frustrating part. I would work three times harder than everyone. I mean, that was. You know, how I was raised, but I couldn't keep up. And um so she gave, offered to give me extra credit to do a book report on Albert Einstein. And, you know, pretty smart guy. And I was like, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna, I'm gonna show this class, the teacher, my parents, that I'm, I'm worth this. So every day after school, we would go, I would go to the library. This is before internet, right? And uh and I would spend hours there. And so after doing that for weeks. I was so proud of this final product, uh because I just did so much. I found out, by the way, Einstein had his own set of learning challenges, right?

• 19:22Jim Kwik?

  And he learned differently than than people around him. And so that gave me inspiration. But the day it was due had. My parents surprised me and had it professionally bound. And when I saw it, I was just so excited to hand it in. And throughout class, class wasn't until later in the day. I was just, I, I was always thinking about was handing this piece in. To the teacher and uh class comes towards the end of the class. I can't wait to hand it in. The teacher says, okay, class, we have a surprise for all of you. Jim, come to the front of the class and give your book report. Now, I didn't know I had to speak on this book report. I was just, I just thought I had to write it and be able to turn it in and get my extra credit.

• 20:03Jim Kwik?

  And um and I was so scared. It's not like, I know public speaking is a big fear for everyone, but I'm phob, I was phobic. So I couldn't breathe, like my heart's beating out of my chest and I'm shaking, panicking. And I spit out. I lied. I said I didn't do it to the teacher and from the whole class. And you could see her disappointment there also as well. And after the class ended, I was the only one there. And I remember it's like it was yesterday. I'm getting choked up even thinking about it. Getting up from my desk, walking over to the doorway. And on the way out, I reached into my book bag. I took out the professionally bound book report. And I threw it in the trash that was sitting, you know, by the doorway.

• 20:47Jim Kwik?

  And I think I felt like I was throwing out, I don't know, hope, my potential, my worth. And that that was kind of the place I lived in. A lot of self doubt, a lot of embarrassment, shame, fears. And it's it's funny though, right? Because Ed, that my two biggest challenges growing up were learning and public speaking. And life has a sense of humor because all I do is public speak on this thing called learning. And it's just a reminder to everybody that our struggles can be strengths. That that difficult times, they could distract you or diminish you, or they could, they could develop you. You know, we always decide.

• 21:27Ed Mylett?

  It's amazing to me that the number one brain guy on the planet was the boy with the broken brain. And the the young man who literally lied that he didn't do his extra credit report and throws it in the trash because he didn't want to get up and speak in front of thirty other kids in class is one of the most prolific public speakers in the world. And everybody hearing this, the reason I wanted you to hear that story is because it is true that in life, you're most qualified to help the person that you used to be.

• 21:50Jim Kwik?

  Oh, I love it. I just got goosebumps.

• 21:52Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, and it's just a fact. It's just, it's just an absolute fact. And that's not my saying. It's it's been out there forever, but it's a fact. And Jim is is living proof of that. But this this notion of the forgetting curve.

• 22:04Jim Kwik?

  Yeah.

• 22:05Ed Mylett?

  And how your brain really works from a neuroplasticity standpoint, but also your ability to stay focused. Can you explain to them what the forgetting curve is and why it's relevant when we're doing work that matters?

• 22:14Jim Kwik?

  While there's a learning curve, there's also a forgetting curve. And the forgetting curve states that when you're exposed to information just once, then within two days, eighty percent of it is forgotten. Right? And so what in the nature of our work, when it comes to memory training, helping people remember client information, product information, languages, give speeches without notes, is about mitigating that that forgetting curve. And when you talked about neuroplasticity, neuroplasticity is this phenomenon, this incredible phenomenon that our brains have to be able to adapt to novelty. It's neuroplasticity is driven by two factors,

• 22:53Jim Kwik?

  novelty and nutrition. And the reason why neuroplasticity, and you've covered this a lot with experts on your show, is so important because that means that our brains aren't fixed, like our shoe size, that we could grow our memory, our happiness, we could change our thoughts, we could change our routines, our behaviors, our habits, because our brain is more plastic in a positive way, because it's malleable. And just like building your your physical muscles, you have to give it novelty and nutrition, right? You have to give it some kind of stressor, some kind of workout, and then you have to give it proper nutrition. So what you nourish flourishes. Same thing with your your mental muscles. So one of the things that we added

• 23:33Jim Kwik?

  in the updated version, the expanded version, besides the the cognitive types and all the applications towards learning and leadership and sales is nootropics. And I've never covered that in thirty years.

• 23:45Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 23:45Jim Kwik?

  These are supplements that could help boost your focus, your memory, your mood, your mental energy also as well. But that's how you create neuroplasticity. And so while we could get older, we could always learn. And so it's not true that the older we get, kind of teaching an old dog new tricks is absolutely a fallacy. It does require a little bit more work when we're past the age of twenty five. You know, I'm in my fifties. But it's but it's having strategies. And this is the challenge in school. They teach you what to learn, like math and history, science, Spanish. But there's zero, literally zero classes on how to learn. There's no classes on focus, concentration, how to get into a flow state, how to be creative, no classes on on memory.

• 24:28Jim Kwik?

  I always thought it should have been the fourth R in school. They teach you reading, writing, arithmetic, obviously spelling, they'll just spell not with an R. This is not one of them. But what about retention? Right? Socrates said, learning is remembering. And so we want to be able to fill in those gaps for every people of every age and stage of life.

• 24:46Ed Mylett?

  Let's talk about remembering. So you're going down the road I wanted to go down. One of the other things I talk a lot about is the R A S. So I'm rereading the book. This is like, I don't know, two weeks ago. And there's this little blurb in the book where you say, the question, the questions are the answer. And it's kind of an RAS hack. This is huge for those of you that want more retention, want more focus. So explain that to him, Jim, because this is right up my alley and a use of the RAS that I'd not thought of before.

• 25:14Jim Kwik?

  So primarily, our brain is a deletion device, right? It's trying to keep information out. At any given time, there are millions, if not a billion, different stimuli we could focus on externally or internally. And if we let all that in, we would go insane. We'd be completely overloaded and overwhelmed. And so what we pay attention to, our RAS kind of acts like a spotlight and draws attention to something that maybe we weren't paying attention, based on something that's important to us. Like, hardwired into our reticular activating system is our name. That's why names are so important, because it's one of the early things that we learned, you know, when we're children, probably one of the very first words we heard, one of the first words we learned how to write. And think

• 25:59Jim Kwik?

  about the love and the encouragement most people were given around their name. That's why they say a name is the sweetest sound to a person's ears. So that that is part of your RAS. If you're, I was running a marathon years ago in Washington DC, and I remember at the 18th mile, somebody was shouting my name, Jim, right? Very common name. And I know I didn't know the person, but I still looked because I'm wired to look because my RAS allows that in. So one of the ways of stacking and utilizing your RAS is by asking questions. So questions shine a spotlight on the things that are important to us. So as an example, years ago, a long time ago, my younger sister would send me emails and

• 26:44Jim Kwik?

  postcards of very specific breed of dog, a pug dog, right? And my question was, why does she keep on sending me all the dozens and dozens of photos of pug dogs? And I realized that her birthday was coming up. And she was, she's a great marketer, and she was seeding her gift, right? And a funny thing happened, Ed, is I started seeing these pug dogs everywhere. I'd be at the health food store, and the person in front of me, I swear, is holding a pug dog. Ready to to to to pay the register. I was jogging in my neighborhood and there's this guy walking six pug dogs. Now, my question for every single person listening is, did those pug dogs law of attraction just magically pop into my neighborhood?

• 27:27Jim Kwik?

  They teleport and manifest around me. No, they were always there, but my brain was deleting it. Because that wasn't important until I started asking the questions and then I started seeing these pug dogs everywhere. Even a basic study tip is you read all these reading comprehension, all these paragraphs, maybe multiple pages. And then you get 10 questions at the end that the the testers want you to be able to answer. Well, the first and foremost, you should read those questions first, right? Because you don't want to get to the end of reading, you know, multiple pages on a timed test and then say, oh, that's what was important. Then you ask the questions at the end first and then all of a sudden, when you're reading it, you're like, oh, there's an answer, there's an answer, there's an answer. And it just makes it more seamless, like even how we design the book.

• 28:11Jim Kwik?

  It's not just teaching you accelerated learning, speed, reading, memory improvement, focus, flow. But it's also it's also structured in a way, like every chapter starts with three questions. Right to get people's RAS engaged. So when they're reading, they're looking for those answers specifically.

• 28:29Ed Mylett?

  Okay, that's brilliant. That is brilliant right there. Okay, so everybody. You're teaching something to someone and you're trying to retain information. It's the questions that guide that light in your RAS to find the answers. Here's the other thing I've always struggled with, and I know the answer now because it's in the book, but I want you to give it to everybody or one of them. I had a hard time in college, particularly during lecture where I would write notes and then I'd remember nothing. And then a lot of the people listening to my show go to events, they go to business events, they're taking notes the entire time. And I know this because I host events and I speak at a lot of them. The retention level, I think even most people listening to this, to be honest, to say is very, very low. So, one of the things in the book, you actually teach hacks on how to properly take notes.

• 29:14Jim Kwik?

  Yes.

• 29:14Ed Mylett?

  This is stuff, you guys. This will help the students in your life. This will help those of you that are trying to learn and grow. Here's how, I know this is big. Sasha, my producer, just leaned in as I asked that question. Because people want to know this because it's something everybody relates to. I've gone back and looked at notes from meetings that are two and three years ago in my life, brother. And I'm like, I have no recollection of writing this down. I have no recollection of anything this person just said. And I even noticed this with my son. He's a really, really good golfer. When you play golf, Jim, with someone who's a great golfer, you and I have talked about golf quite a bit, actually. And my son can remember every shot on every single hole that he's played. I can't, I could play a golf course on a Saturday, come back on a Sunday, I don't even remember the fourth hole.

• 29:56Ed Mylett?

  And one of the reasons, I believe, is my son is taking notes on his round as he plays it. And it upgrades his retention. So, give us some note-taking tips and hacks for retention.

• 30:08Jim Kwik?

  So, as you mentioned, you and I, we, we produce events, we speak on the same stages. And we know that with the forgetting curve, if they hear a speaker just once, within a couple of days, most of it is gone, 80% at least. And then over time, it just, uh, it just disappears for a lot of people. And one of the ways of mitigating that is by taking proper notes. Now, it's interesting because people could take digital notes or handwriting notes. But when university students are tested for the things that matter, comprehension and retention of the information. Then actually handwriting notes by far, uh, get, performs better for both understanding information and retaining information. I would say also, one of the reasons, like, digital note-taking is great for storage and sharing information.

• 30:51Jim Kwik?

  But if you can do the handwriting notes first and then digitize it, or you have a device that allows you to take notes and it digitizes it automatically. Uh, then that's preferred. Uh, but the reason, one of the reasons why is most people could type pretty fast. And you could probably type and transcribe as fast as Ed and I are speaking, but nobody can handwrite notes that fast. So, part of handwriting notes. One of the reasons why it's more effective is it forces you to to filter the information, to organize it and prioritize the information because you're not writing every single word down. Right? Even when university students are tested, the actual worst way of taking notes, besides not taking notes, is full transcription.

• 31:30Jim Kwik?

  The best way is having key ideas and key thoughts, you know, and maybe putting it and capturing it in a way like more whole brain, like mind mapping is a very famous way of using both your left and right brain. I have a very simple way that anybody, a lot of people won't, they won't grasp mind mapping because it has colors and it looks a little bit too creative. Uh, so if you're not a dolphin, maybe it doesn't really mesh with you. Then I would say, simple way of taking notes is take a piece of paper. And a few people happen to be watching this video, I'll just illustrate it. But just, you don't even have to see this, put a line right down the page. And on the left side, I want you to capture, on the right side, I want you to create. Now, that's very, very subtle. So on the left side, the things we're talking about here, what are the best brain foods?

• 32:15Jim Kwik?

  What are the top entropics to boost your, your focus and your productivity? How do you read faster? Right? That would, that's your capturing. But if your mind is gonna wander, your right brain is gonna search for entertainment elsewhere. I'd rather it go on the right side of the page instead of thinking about other things. So what you're gonna write on the right side is you're gonna write your impressions of what you're capturing. So I'll say it in a different way, on the left side, you're capturing your note taking. On the right side, you're creating your note making. And so it's a very, very subtle difference, but you're on the right side, you're writing your impressions of what you're capturing. So maybe you're putting things like, how does this relate to what I already know? How can I use this? When will I use this? What questions do I have?

• 33:00Jim Kwik?

  You know, about this, about this subject matter? And so that's a very left brain, right brain, more whole brain way of taking notes. It's very simple. And I feel like it's so important nowadays. Most of your listeners have forgotten more about personal growth and wellness and, and success than most of their friends and family have, right? And they're probably thinking like, you know, but you still need to keep it elegant. Taking complex information, I'll read all the white papers, but I always realize that education doesn't really get the result. If you can make it super simple, like what is the tiniest action I could take right now that will give me progress towards this goal, where I can't fail. And this is something so simple and the return is so, the reward is so huge.

• 33:44Ed Mylett?

  What about teaching something? So when you leave an event, is it healthier for retention? If, say you go home and your boyfriend or girlfriend or your spouse says, hey, what did you learn there to actually download and teach them what you learned? Do, I've always felt like I retain more when I teach, or is that a fallacy? Or is there some accuracy to that?

• 34:02Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, it's absolutely true. They call it the explanation effect. The explanation effect basically states exactly what you said. When you learn something with the intention of teaching somebody else, you're going to learn it so much better. And so even when people are listening to this episode, why wait? Do it right now. Think about if you had to, think about somebody you wish was listening to this. And obviously they should post it and share it and spread your podcast, you know, I think everyone listens to your podcast already. But if they had to give a TEDx talk the following week, would they focus better? Of course they would. Would they take better notes? Of course they would. Would they post more questions on social media? Of course they would. They would own that

• 34:44Jim Kwik?

  information. So when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. And that's the explanation effect. It's a wonderful way of accelerating your learning.

• 34:52Ed Mylett?

  Okay, so I'm going to ask you a dual question. I want to go back to something you said earlier because I, you finished it and then I was so excited to ask you the next question. But this nootropics idea, there's a couple of things in the book that are new. The nootropic stuff I'd like you to talk about. And this is going to sound disconnected, but to me it's like nourishment. So I'm going to ask both questions together and then you can go. You also talk about the second brain in the book. The second brain being the gut. So talk about nourishment and I'm just going to throw the ball at you and let you kind of kick it around and answer it back. But you know why I'm asking them together. One, what nootropics do you recommend if you do? I know you do, but if you do. And then tied into that, because it's like kind of nourishment for the brain, so to speak. What about this

• 35:36Ed Mylett?

  second brain aspect as well with, with your gut?

• 35:40Jim Kwik?

  So I mean, everyone can imagine like their brain is the leaves of a tree and then going down and the soil is and the roots are coming from your gut. And so your second brain is incredibly wise, but if it's clogged up with all this processed foods, high sugar food, refined foods, lots of ingredients that we don't even know how to pronounce, then there could be some issues there.

• 36:05Ed Mylett?

  So you know those pieces in your closet that you find yourself wearing like on repeat all the time? That sweater that kind of just goes with everything or these perfect pair of pants? Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy and that's what Quince does best. Quince focuses on high quality wardrobe staples with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton. The styles are timeless, versatile and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for every day. It's what I'm wearing right now. They give you the softness and quality you'd expect from a luxury brand without the price tag. Quince also makes premium pants, fitted tees and polos and breathable activewear. Quality basics designed to work with your wardrobe and hold up to everyday wear. I love their cotton tees. I'm wearing one now and I get a ton of compliments when I wear them on the podcast and when I speak. So find your next fall favorites at Quince.

• 36:50Ed Mylett?

  Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com/ed for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's Q U I N C E dot com slash ed. So you know, I've been trying to take my health and my morning routine to the next level and I used to do a whole bunch of different stuff, tons of different supplements. And then I found all in one in a drink with IM8. IM8 is the way to simplify your supplement routine, finally, once and for all. 16 supplements replaced 90 ingredients across nine major organ systems in one drink. You can have all these supplements for $2.61 a day. I've changed my mornings. The whole IM8 routine has changed my mornings.

• 37:33Ed Mylett?

  I feel great and I bring energy to the entire day. Go to im8health.com/ed10 right now or click the link in the description and use code ED10 for a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets plus 10% off your order. That's code ED10 at im8health.com/ed10. Code ED10 at im8health.com/ed10. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

• 38:06Jim Kwik?

  There are certain foods, every ingredient that we talk about, we talk about the best brain foods, but also we added a new chapter. The new book's all about momentum. You know, it's all, we talk about mastering your mindset, your motivation, how to overcome procrastination. I have a formula for that. And then also the methods for accelerated learning, speed reading, memory enhancement, focus flow and all that. And the focus of the new book was really about momentum. And so knowing your brain type gives you momentum, right? And knowing the brain type of other people allows you to sustain it. AI, we talk about AI improving your HI, your human intelligence and different ways you could do that to create momentum. And nootropics is, is, and this whole area of science called neuro nutrition.

• 38:48Jim Kwik?

  So there's certain things that, ingredients that your brain is only 2% of your body mass, but requires 20% of the nutrients. And some of those nutrients are different than the rest of your body. And so in no particular order, and I would always prefer people get it from foods, but we know how depleted foods are. And sometimes when we're traveling and eating at hotels or fast food, we don't get those nutrients. So for example, there are brain supplements and they're nootropics. And I'll go through some of, some of each. So choline would be a brain supplement. It's a, it's a nutrient, you know, it's usually found in eggs and soybeans. It plays a vital role in brain health. It's a crucial component of acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter that supports things like memory, things like cognitive function.

• 39:33Jim Kwik?

  And so, you know, if you're not getting it from your eggs, then you could supplement with it. Another brain supplement are omega-3 fatty acids, particularly DHA, because your brain is mostly fat. And DHA is the primary, it's the, it's the structured component of the brain that plays a key role in memory and overall brain health and function. And so if you're not getting it from Wild salmon, sardines, you might need to supplement. So a nutrient profile, because I talk about in the book meta learning, the art and science of learning how to learn. But that's the software. We still need to take care of the hardware, that three pound matter between our ears called our brain.

• 40:12Jim Kwik?

  And so if you're lacking vitamin D, your, your, your B vitamins, so important, especially B six, B nine, which is folate, B 12. It's vital for brain health. You're not going to be able to get, it affects your mood, it affects every brain function. Magnesium, I mean, these are the basic supplements. It's so important. It's literally responsible for hundreds of physiological processes. But it affects your learning, your memory, your mood. Then it could also affect your sleep also as well. The magnesium three and eight has been shown to help people to, to sleep better. But going into the nootropics, some of my favorites, ashwagandha, it's an adaptogenic herb.

• 40:50Jim Kwik?

  And again, I'm not a nutritionist or a doctor, you could just, but everything we put into the book, I reference all the human studies.

• 40:58Ed Mylett?

  I've noticed, I just jump in, ashwagandha has helped me with like anxiety as well.

• 41:02Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, it's, it's incredible for, it improves mental and physical resilience. It can help, as you mentioned, reduce stress and anxiety and also improve cognitive function. There is a nootropic, it's a, it's a whole coffee fruit extract. So whole fruit from the coffee plant, it's usually a byproduct that they throw out. But it has, it's an extremely strong antioxidant. It has a positive impact on cognitive function. There's something called phosphatidylserine, which is a phospholipid, and these are big words, but it is so important for, for brain cell membranes. It's been shown to improve memory, learning, cognitive function. L-theanine is an amino acid. It's often found in green tea. It's a very popular nootropic.

• 41:47Jim Kwik?

  It promotes relaxation without the drowsiness and it can enhance brain function. What I like about it is if you pair it with caffeine, for me, I'm very sensitive with caffeine. Personally, it really could affect my sleep and my, my, kind of my, give me the jitters. But L-theanine helps to mitigate that. And so if you pair it with caffeine, you know, it's when in the morning, I have to do it in the morning because I can't do caffeine past like 12 or two o'clock. It gives you more of a relaxed alertness, if you will. But something that I think that people don't realize is a popular workout supplement called creatine.

• 42:25Jim Kwik?

  It's a substance that's naturally produced in our body. It's primarily found in meats and fish. But if you're not getting enough of it, it plays a crucial role in energy metabolism, specifically not just for your muscles, but also your mental muscles. So it helps you to to create more energy, more brain energy. So if people suffer from mental fatigue, a little brain fog, you know, it could improve your cognitive function, especially in tasks that require a really strong short term memory.

• 42:55Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 42:56Jim Kwik?

  And quick thinking. So creatine's a fun one. We talked about last time, some of the foods, turmeric was one of the brain foods, but it's the curcumin.

• 43:06Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 43:06Jim Kwik?

  That's the active ingredient that has potent anti inflammatory and antioxidant benefits, very neuroprotective. Many people know I had a traumatic brain injury when I was five years old. I was put in special education because I had learning difficulties. I had migraines every single day. I just thought it was normal for kids to just kind of be in chronic pain. I had balance issues and it took me three years longer to learn how to read. And then the last one I'll mention is lion's mane mushroom. It's getting a lot of, especially the past few years, a lot of, lot of attention. It's a unique nootropic. It has neuroprotective effects, whole area of science we're talking about. It's called neuro nutrition again, but it's been shown to stimulate the synthesis of nerve growth factor, which could enhance cognition by reducing inflammation

• 43:50Jim Kwik?

  and promoting overall good brain health.

• 43:53Ed Mylett?

  You said something about trauma when you were young. And I'll let you in on something. Both Jim and I are shy. I think we bond over it. So when we're in green rooms or there's lots of speakers around, Jim and I usually try to find a way to be alone together or we actually get alone because we're both extremely, I think it's safe to say extremely introverted, both of us, which surprises people because we're both speakers. We're in public all the time. And but it's definitely true for me and I.

• 44:21Jim Kwik?

  And I think people are surprised to hear that if they're hearing that from you the first time, because you were like the best speaker on stage. And I think people, but you have to be that expressive because otherwise you want your stories wouldn't land, right? Or you won't have the impact that you desire and that, you know, people deserve.

• 44:41Ed Mylett?

  Thank you.

• 44:42Jim Kwik?

  But yes.

• 44:42Ed Mylett?

  Well, I think they'd be surprised at that with you. And I think one of the reasons I love Jim, one, he's just a kind, gentle, generous, brilliant man. He'll give you the shirt off of his back. He's done things for me. You guys, just so you know, like, on short notice, moved things, moved his world around to be there for me. And it's something I've told him I'll never forget, and I will never forget. But the other thing that I've never forgotten, if you just share it for a minute. You talk about trauma when you're young, is I picture little Jim in school, and he's not doing very well. So he gets a chance, I think the story is do the extra credit, and to do an extra work. But this notion of, I think every human being can relate on, in their way, to this moment that happened to you in your life. And I don't want to tell the story, I want you to tell it because you lived it.

• 45:27Ed Mylett?

  But I actually was telling my children, because they knew I was interviewing you today for Thanksgiving. I was talking to them about, hey, what do you have coming up? I said, I'm excited to get to talk to Jim again. And I said, my son really loves Jim's speaking style. It fits my son's personality very, very well. For memory, I want a memory hack here. And I think my new favorite is the storytelling element of remembering things. Because I, for some reason, it just works with me. I'm sure you know the reason. But everyone here loved to be able to remember words better, names better, whatever it might be. And, and, or, you know, there's an exercise in the book with 10 words and then telling a story. So would you just give us that?

• 46:10Ed Mylett?

  I call it a hack, but it's a strategy for recall and memory. Because Jim can go into a room and remember 200 people's names like that. It's just insane. But give them, give them that strategy, or a strategy you think that they probably have not heard before.

• 46:24Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, so there's this story method here. Let's, let's, let's, let's make it interactive. We can just like, until a little, kind of like, uh, I'll test everybody right now. Let, I'll give everybody a list of, let's say, a list of random words, right? Because if you want to remember languages, or vocabulary, or speeches, it comes down to words.

• 46:43Ed Mylett?

  Can I, can I push you, and I'm gonna have you do it with Sasha? Can we do it with Sasha right now?

• 46:47Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, let's do it, yeah.

• 46:47Ed Mylett?

  Come on in here, Sasha. Sasha's getting on my show. Come in here. I'm gonna put Sasha on. I'm gonna watch you do it with Sasha.

• 46:53Jim Kwik?

  So Sasha, we're gonna use a story method. You know, we've done the previous episode, how to memorize like foods and speeches. This is a way, and Ed is a master storyteller. One of the reasons why, and one of many reasons why, he just crushes it on stage and makes everyone knows the stories because they stick in people's minds. I mean, before we had printing presses and everything else, we would remember things through stories, right? Through sitting around campfires before all the external technology. So let me, let's, I'm gonna give you 10 words to memorize. You could do the best you can. Don't write them down. But just, just however you would normally memorize these 10 words, right? You ready?

• 47:34Speaker 06

  Ready.

• 47:35Jim Kwik?

  Awesome. Fire hydrant, balloon, batteries, barrel, board, like a surfboard, diamond,

• 47:51Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 47:52Jim Kwik?

  Sir Lancelot,

• 47:55Jim Kwik?

  mask, toothpaste, sign.

• 48:01Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 48:02Jim Kwik?

  Alright, so those are 10. Actually, I should memorize this with you. Okay, yeah, those are 10 words. Now, notice, and you're thinking, Jim, shut up, so I could like write these down.

• 48:15Jim Kwik?

  Nobody gets all 10. Very, very, very rarely. I'll say some kind of technique, but do you remember some of the words?

• 48:21Speaker 06

  Fire hydrant.

• 48:22Jim Kwik?

  Yes.

• 48:23Speaker 06

  Battery, balloon, board, Sir Mix-a-lot,

• 48:31Speaker 06

  balloon again. Um, that's it for me.

• 48:36Jim Kwik?

  Alright, so this is interesting because the other thing I'll teach everybody here when you're listening, we tend to remember, so the first word was fire hydrant. I'll give you the list of words. Fire hydrant, balloon, batteries, barrel,

• 48:55Jim Kwik?

  board, diamond, Sir Lancelot.

• 49:02Jim Kwik?

  Mask, toothpaste, sign. So, and I'll tell you, this is, I'll even give you more than just this method. If you, if people listening here, and I hope they did it with us. If you tend to remember fire hydrant, it's a principle of memory called primacy. We tend to remember things in the beginning of something. If you tend to remember the last word, which was sign, then that means recency. So if you go to a party and you probably remember the first people you met and the last people, the most recent people, right? Um, what other words did you remember?

• 49:41Speaker 06

  Balloon.

• 49:41Jim Kwik?

  Balloon. Why did you, why do you think you remember balloon?

• 49:44Speaker 06

  Um, I think I was like, oh, all these Bs. So I locked that one in.

• 49:49Jim Kwik?

  Another principle, so what we're pulling out of here are principles of recall. So the first one was primacy, the second was recency. The other thing is chunking. When you organize, because it went the three, it went balloon, battery, barrel, board. And some people will remember four or three of them because it's the alliteration, right? Bs. So it's chunking and organizing. We tend to remember things. So if I gave people this 20 random words and see how well they did. But then I said, okay, well now these are presidents, state capitals, fruits and colors. You probably remember more because there's an organization you're looking for.

• 50:28Jim Kwik?

  Any other words that stood out for you?

• 50:30Speaker 06

  I said Sir Mix-a-lot, but it was Sir Lancelot.

• 50:34Jim Kwik?

  And that could have been, maybe you didn't, you know, hear it because I was going kind of quickly. Or, you know, there's always this deletion and a little distortion. We never, even when they take expert witnesses, you know, not everybody experiences the same thing. But, um, other things you might remember are things that you pictured. I don't know if you pictured any of these images or some people would remember something like, uh, toothpaste because they, it's something they use every single day. And that's a principle for memory familiarity. You tend to remember somebody who, uh, has the same name as someone familiar to you, right? Um, if you remember something like a diamond, some people, there's some emotional content there that people associate to it. So they're more likely to remember it.

• 51:15Jim Kwik?

  Or if I said mask, maybe because people remember masks with the pandemic or something, right? So my point in bringing this up, and I'll tell you, I'll give you the method, is that when we remember something, it's not random. There are, there's a principle that's being in play. And if you use those principles for the other things you want to remember, you'll remember a whole lot more. So I'm going to take, like, you notice that, did you, any of these you put together? Did you remember like two of them because they kind of like you linked them together a little bit?

• 51:44Speaker 06

  Um.

• 51:46Jim Kwik?

  You know, like, like, maybe there was, you saw them, the two of those objects together.

• 51:51Speaker 06

  I tried to link the first two balloon and fire hydrant.

• 51:55Jim Kwik?

  Well, let's do it. So let's everybody do this. This is so, remember this, everyone, and do this with me. And you could close your eyes if it's safe to do so. If you're not working out or driving a car and take a deep breath, breathe normally, helps you focus a little bit. There's no such thing as a good or bad memory. There's a trained memory and an untrained memory. So let's do this. I'm going to walk you through this, take the principles of recall and turn it into a story. And I want you just to imagine this, and if you can't imagine it, imagine you can imagine it. We'll do it very quick. All right. I want everyone in listening, imagine a fire hydrant in your neighborhood. Even notice what color it is. What color is yours?

• 52:34Speaker 06

  Red.

• 52:35Jim Kwik?

  Right. It's red. And I want you to imagine tied to it is a gigantic helium balloon, a gigantic helium balloon. Or many, many big helium balloons tied to it, so many that it lifts and tears the hydrant from the ground and water spews everywhere. And you look up in the sky and there's this fire hydrant going up in the sky, like, like, kind of up. And all these balloons tied to it. Now, out of nowhere, a barrage of batteries come and pop the balloon. So just imagine it and keep your eyes closed if you want. It helps you focus. But imagine all these batteries. Notice what brand the batteries, what brand the batteries are popping the balloon?

• 53:13Speaker 06

  Duracell.

• 53:14Jim Kwik?

  Duracell. This is a branding question. So it could be C batteries, Ds, double As, but it's Duracell batteries. And the batteries are coming from this guy that's hiding in a barrel. So just imagine this barrel and that all the battery, full of batteries. And the guy's just chucking these batteries out. What makes this barrel unique on the side of it is a surfboard, a board. Right, right on the side and rolling down the board is a diamond, but not like a half a carrot or one carrot diamond. It is like a hundred twenty eight carat diamond. It's like the size of a, let's say a basketball and it's rolling down the board and it falls off the board, the diamond, and it hits a knight in the head in his helmet.

• 53:58Jim Kwik?

  Sir Lancelot, right? Sir Lancelot and it knocks him out cold. And you go to save Sir Lancelot by bringing him a mask, an oxygen mask. But before you put on the oxygen mask, so imagine you're taking off his helmet, you're putting on oxygen mask. But before you do, you notice the mask is dirty. So you clean it with toothpaste. You're cleaning it with toothpaste before you put it on. So mask, toothpaste. And when the toothpaste is done, you throw it and it goes to a big neon sign. And it explodes toothpaste everywhere on this neon sign. Right? And maybe the neon sign says limitless, right? And it just explodes.

• 54:38Jim Kwik?

  All right. Now that's a story. We're using some of the principles of emotion, making things a little different. And now what I'd love for everyone to do is start with a fire hydrant. And when I say fire hydrant, what was attached to the fire hydrant?

• 54:53Speaker 06

  The balloon.

• 54:54Jim Kwik?

  The balloons. And what pops the balloons?

• 54:57Speaker 06

  The batteries.

• 54:57Jim Kwik?

  The batteries, the Duracell batteries. And the batteries were, there was a guy hiding with the batteries in a what?

• 55:04Speaker 06

  Barrel.

• 55:05Jim Kwik?

  A barrel. And on the side of the barrel was this surf board, right? And rolling down the board was a what?

• 55:15Speaker 06

  Diamond.

• 55:16Jim Kwik?

  Gigantic diamond. And the diamond fell off the board and hit who in the head?

• 55:21Speaker 06

  Sir Lancelot.

• 55:23Jim Kwik?

  Yes. And then you bring him an oxygen.

• 55:27Speaker 06

  Oh, wait, mask, mask.

• 55:29Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, it's all good.

• 55:29Speaker 06

  Toothpaste and then sign.

• 55:33Jim Kwik?

  Perfect. And then you have all ten. And I bet you could do it backwards too, right? If you go from the neon sign and right before the sign was what?

• 55:44Jim Kwik?

  Was it toothpaste?

• 55:45Speaker 06

  Toothpaste, mask.

• 55:47Jim Kwik?

  Mask.

• 55:48Speaker 06

  Uh huh.

• 55:48Jim Kwik?

  The Lancelot, so great, great job.

• 55:51Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 55:51Jim Kwik?

  So, thank you so much.

• 55:53Ed Mylett?

  That was a lot of pressure right there.

• 55:55Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, that was definitely not, definitely not planned.

• 55:59Ed Mylett?

  That was pretty good. So I, I'm back there going, I, I have some of this. So I wasn't, I could even hear all of them. You got fire hydrant, you got fire hydrant, balloons, batteries, barrel, board. I'm skipping some, I'm sure, but I didn't even get to hear all of it.

• 56:13Jim Kwik?

  You're right, you're right on.

• 56:15Ed Mylett?

  Barrel, board, diamond. I think diamond ends up with Sir Lancelot.

• 56:22Jim Kwik?

  Yeah.

• 56:22Ed Mylett?

  Like, that's crazy.

• 56:24Jim Kwik?

  The mask and the toothpaste and the sign.

• 56:26Ed Mylett?

  Toothpaste explodes into a neon sign that says limitless on it.

• 56:29Jim Kwik?

  And, and, and here's the thing.

• 56:30Ed Mylett?

  Crazy. And I was just in the background.

• 56:31Jim Kwik?

  I'll show you real quick, Ed, like how you could use this in every day.

• 56:35Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 56:35Jim Kwik?

  Let's say, let's, and it only takes a couple of minutes, but let's say that you wanted to memorize something that was just back in school. All right. Something that's very boring, non-relevant to your life, um, technical. Like what was a, a class that you had to do with some, some of that memorization back in, let's say, high school? Like what are some classes that just, a lot of tech, it's just technical stuffs?

• 56:58Ed Mylett?

  Oh gosh, algebra.

• 57:01Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, like algebra or math or science.

• 57:04Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 57:04Jim Kwik?

  Right? So if you take something like, um, I don't know, what science did you study back in high school?

• 57:09Ed Mylett?

  I'll take biology.

• 57:10Jim Kwik?

  Biology, lots of things there, right?

• 57:13Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 57:13Jim Kwik?

  Or bio, was it biology, chemistry?

• 57:15Ed Mylett?

  Chemistry.

• 57:16Jim Kwik?

  Like in chem, in chem, let's say chemistry, right? What was something that people needed to memorize in chemistry? There was that big thing on the wall.

• 57:23Ed Mylett?

  Periodic table.

• 57:24Jim Kwik?

  Yeah. So people wanted to apply to memorize a periodic table, right? Using this story method where you could see it, feel it, some emotion and hear it. Then all you have to do is, is take the things that you want to remember and turn them into a picture or a sound alike. And so if you know what that element happens to be and what it's used for, you could picture that or something that sounds like it, kind of like you're playing Pictionary. If you got to think of people to say a word and you draw an ear and it says sounds like. So even like this. So the elements are hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine and neon. And I could be making this up for people, but they're absolutely true. Okay. Jeopardy is my, my plan B. If this whole speed reading, everything doesn't work out.

• 58:09Jim Kwik?

  So hydrogen, like just think of something that sounds like hydrogen or sound or like close enough that will remind you of, of like a picture that you could picture, something that sounds like. So for me, hydrant would be like a hydrant, right? So everyone could picture that as the first element. And then helium is the second one. So what can you picture for helium? What's a picture?

• 58:33Jim Kwik?

  Like, what can you, what's helium? When I say helium, what do you think of?

• 58:37Ed Mylett?

  Oh, you're asking me. Uh, I'm thinking of an athlete that I know named Thelium.

• 58:42Jim Kwik?

  You can do something sound like or for most, a lot of people listening helium like is used like for balloons, right? Helium balloon. So all the, the story method is, is taking the fire hydrant and attaching it to the balloon to help you remember the periodic table. And then, um, some people are thinking like, oh, this sounds familiar. Um, the next element is lithium, which is used in batteries. So all you have to do is attach batteries to the balloons. So imagine a lot of barrage of batteries popping the balloon and the batteries, the next one is a beryllium, beryl ilium. So for me, I picture a barrel. So imagine a barrel full of batteries popping the balloon that's holding the fire hydrant, right? And for people

• 59:25Jim Kwik?

  listening from before, that's the same exact story that we did. So

• 59:29Ed Mylett?

  So good. Why do we?

• 59:31Jim Kwik?

  Barrel ilium. The board is boron. What was going down? A diamond made of carbon. That's a sixth element. It falls on a knight's head. That's nitrogen. You bring him an oxygen mask. Oxygen is the eighth element on the periodic table. And then you clean it with toothpaste, fluorine, like fluoride. Fluorine is the ninth element. And then the toothpaste goes into the neon sign and neon is the 10th element on the periodic table.

• 1:00:01Ed Mylett?

  Jim Quick, what the heck? I got a, I got a, I got a D, I got a D in chemistry in high school. And by the way, I'll never forget this. Where were you in my life? Do you know how much, you would have just saved me so much stress? I'll never forget this. Anecdotally, everybody, Mr. Park, God bless him, I don't know if he's still alive or not. I remember Mr. Park would sit there, because I was an athlete, and he would say, "Mr. Mylett," I remember the direct quote, "you were unequivocally the dumbest student I've ever had in chemistry." He would say this to me. And my buddy Rich Fry, if he's listening to this, Rich Fry and Ed Mylett are unequivocally the two dumbest students I've ever had in my class. The truth is, I wasn't dumb. I just had no memory skills that I hadn't developed.

• 1:00:45Ed Mylett?

  And I, I gotta tell you something, brother. Every time I'm with you, I learn. And I told you guys this in the beginning. He's the smartest guy in the room who never feels the need to let you know that he is. He makes you feel smart. And so just to think that the boy with the broken brain becomes this expert is just, it's mind blowing to me. And I hope you guys today, like for me, I've never had Sasha sit in this seat before and put her on. That was incredible. I'm off, I'm off, I, by the way, I always say that I, I know I shouldn't say this out loud, that I don't have a great memory. So I'm off camera, I can't even hear all the words. And I can go right now to the fire hydrant with the balloons, all the way up to the ba, I mean, the battery, in the barrel with the surfboard, and then all the way down to Sir Mix, Sir Lancelot, who's got the mask on. I mean, it's just crazy that I can have this memory.

• 1:01:31Jim Kwik?

  And this is, regardless of people's, we have students in every country in the world. You know, I've been doing this for three decades. And I realize that it's not, again, when you understand how your brain works, you can work your brain. When you understand how your memory works, you can work your memory. And there's no such thing as a good or bad memory. There's really just a trained memory and an untrained memory. And it's so important in life. You know, I believe two of the most costly words in life sometimes are, "I forgot." "I forgot to do it, I forgot to bring it, I forgot what I just read, I forgot what they said, I forgot what I was gonna say, I forgot to go to that meeting, I forgot that person's name." And so the reason why we made the largest chapter in the book on memory improvement, there's simple techniques to be able to remember client information, product information, give speeches without notes, and, and so, so, so much more, because I think memory is a multiplier.

• 1:02:15Jim Kwik?

  It can make every area of your life better. And, um, yeah, it's a superpower we all have.

• 1:02:21Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company foreme of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:02:25Speaker 02

  On October 2nd.

• 1:02:26Speaker 01

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me.

• 1:02:31Speaker 02

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess, and Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Ravenette.

• 1:02:38Speaker 03

  What would happen if I stopped doing it? You start, you freeze in there, that's what.

• 1:02:42Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:02:45Speaker 03

  I'm not the first daddy.

• 1:02:47Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a middle out parent.

• 1:02:53Ed Mylett?

  I'm just curious, this isn't in the book. Jim's a new dad. He's got a 10 and a half month old at home. Is there something you're doing with your child that we should all know you're doing to give this person the quick brain, the super brain? That there's just something you're doing or things you're doing to cultivate this young brain that's developing right now that someone should be doing with their child, their children, they could be doing for themselves. Future children are gonna have grandchildren. I know you're doing something that we should know about as you've entered.

• 1:03:26Jim Kwik?

  I think baby development, and this is a new field for me. I'll pull back and say that I'm in my 50s. This is our first child, and I was ready to just teach everything. And I realize that I'm learning so much more than I feel like teaching, at least at this stage of his life. You know, the act of being present, like this child, this child is like so curious. He just always looking and trying to figure things out. Also, the importance of movement, you know, because that crawling motion is so important for brain development. Because as your body moves, your brain grows. So, you know, I would say in no particular order. Okay, movement, I just mentioned.

• 1:04:11Jim Kwik?

  So that's important for sensory integration, important for motor skills, important for cognitive development. Even there are studies done in the area of educational kinesiology. Simple things like if people take their hand or elbow and touch the opposite knee and just kind of raise your knee and go back and forth. They're called cross crawls by Brain Gym. I'll do this with him, you know, first few months, just kind of taking his hand and touching the opposite leg and go back and forth. Helps with cognitive development, you know. But my ideas I'm thinking about is social emotional growth. Uh, which is so very important. Um, so practical things for movement are like

• 1:04:53Jim Kwik?

  things that we know that are proven like tummy time, uh, safe exploration space. So they could just discover things and just be fascinating, curious, interactive play. Uh, so very important. Think about how fast children learn because they play so much. And sometimes I said this to an audience recently and they're like, oh, some guy said, I, I stopped playing because I grew older, but it could be the opposite. Maybe you grew older because you stopped playing, right? And I like adding play so much to our, my, uh, speeches and presentations because I feel like we learn best when we don't even realize that we're, we're learning, that we're willing to make mistakes when we play as opposed to, oh my goodness, what's everyone going to think?

• 1:05:34Jim Kwik?

  Children have a lot of the, these mirror neurons and just like adults have it. A mirror neurons, like a mirror that gives you a reflection, allows you to imitate, it creates empathy. So these kind of mimicry games that you could play, like clapping hands or making faces, uh, where babies could, could, can learn. Um, I'm a big fan of spending more time outdoors also as well and doing some baby yoga or something. But, um, frequent talking, verbal interactions. So very important for, for the baby. If they're not talking and speaking yet in the beginning, giving them exposure to different vocabulary, not just the simple stuff, but I feel like it's also very stimulating. Singing songs, it also introduces to child rhythm and can enhance an

• 1:06:18Jim Kwik?

  infant's ability to distinguish sounds, which is a key component to, uh, language learning. My, my wife, uh, speaks Korean, uh, with the baby. So exposed to both, you know, languages could help differentiate languages. And even there have been studies shown that you could even teach potentially where I, I believe genius is not born, it's built, um, because everything, nothing's fixed. We stimulate learning all the time. I mean, it's, there's interactive engagement, you know, but you don't have to make it so like, because nobody's going to do it perfect, right? It's, it's, it's messy. Just like learning is messy. Life is messy, but repetition, positive reinforcement, getting on a good routine, especially sleep routines.

• 1:07:00Ed Mylett?

  Let me tell you where he's helped me a lot. Um, his work has thi- this new work and I'm processing it because I want to use it and then, you know, I want to be able to teach it as well. I'll give Jim credit when I do it, but that's getting into flow state. We've all had into flow. We've all had those moments in our life. You've had it on stage, Jim. So have I. We were like, wow, this is just better than I feel like I really am. We've all had those moments. If you're an athlete or as a mom or a dad or at your work, it's you're just in that flow state. And I've never really been able to describe very well publicly. I do it privately with my one-on-one coaching, but like, how do you get in there? What is it? What's the, what's the process? What's a hack?

• 1:07:39Ed Mylett?

  And you do. And so I feel like one of the great gifts of my podcast is that people get access to information they should be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for. And I feel like this bit right here goes, you know, right to that point. So let's talk, I'll just turn it over to you. Talk about flow state for us.

• 1:07:54Jim Kwik?

  Yeah, there's a whole chapter in the, in the new book on accessing flow states. So let's define it. A flow, your, your flow states are the state where you feel your best and you perform your best. I mean, who doesn't want to spend more time there? Right? It's people call it like the zone and where it's just like the three markers for it. Uh, to keep it simple, uh, just remember set S E T. The S is self. We lose our sense of self, our ego. We're not thinking about ourselves or how we look or anything like that. The E really is effort and there's very little effort to get this incredible reward, right? For this activity. And finally, the T is time

• 1:08:35Jim Kwik?

  where we lose our sense of time. So we lose our sense of self. We lose our sense of time and things almost feel almost effortless. Because you lose your sense of time where it's like, you don't know five minutes or five hours went by. And I'm sure some people listening, they've had this experience and, uh, and I realized that with all kinds of, with everything, there's always what looks like magic. There's always a method behind the magic. Always when people are succeed in their relationships or their health, they look younger, they feel great or they're making money. They're doing something other people aren't doing, right? Maybe you said it like this genius leaves clues, success leaves clues, right? So my work is really trying to figure out the method behind what looks like magic.

• 1:09:18Jim Kwik?

  Even at events where I memorize a hundred people's names or a hundred random words or numbers forwards and backwards. I always tell people I don't do this to impress you, I do this to express to you what's possible. Because the truth is, we all could do that, includes flow states. So, so the three factors again, lost us, you don't have a sense of self, it's very low effort and you lose your sense of time. Now, one of the ways to get into flow state is understanding challenge and capabilities, right? The two Cs, because we won't get into flow state if, for example, the challenge is too big and the capabilities to meet that challenge is too low, right? Because then you're just gonna be stressed out of your mind. Challenge is too big, but your competency is too low, your capability.

• 1:10:00Jim Kwik?

  Now, if you reversed it, you're also not gonna get in flow state because the challenge is too low, it's easy and your capability is way too high, so you're just bored, right? So it's not gonna get you into that flow state, that zone. So what we're looking for is a closer match where your capability and the challenge is there because it forces you to raise your alertness, right? You have to pay attention, you can't mail it in, but it's not so overwhelming because chronic stress will shut down different parts of your brain. It'll keep you from not being creative and not flexible, not be able to tap into your executive functioning. And so one of the ways to access flow is to challenge yourself in a way that your capabilities

• 1:10:43Jim Kwik?

  and sometimes you have to lower your challenge or up your challenge and up your capabilities also as well. But it can definitely be done by design and there's also brainwave states that could also support this. So we have, if you're hooked up to an EEG to measure your brainwave activity, there are four primary brainwave states. There's beta, alpha, theta, delta. Delta is your sleep, right? Beta is when you're most alert, you're awake. What's interesting is in the two, the two brainwave states in between. So theta state is a state right before you go to sleep. So it's slow wave state, but not so slow, you're, you're resting, right? You're asleep. And so theta state is a state of creativity.

• 1:11:28Jim Kwik?

  And so by design, you could get into a theta state and be more creative to come up with ideas, to be able to solve problems. In fact, Einstein and at Princeton would sit outside of his home and sit on a rocking chair and he would, he would hold a rock or something like that. And he would do these thought experiments, right? Whether it's, you know, sitting on a beam of light and heading towards a clock and is the clock, you know, what does that look like from that beam of light kind of thing? But he would hold a rock. Why? Because he didn't want to fall asleep. Because if he fell asleep, he wouldn't be able to do, access that theta state. But he just wanted to be right on the edge. You know what puts you in a theta state? Showers, water, running water. Have you ever noticed like when you're taking a shower,

• 1:12:13Jim Kwik?

  you come up with some more ideas and insights? Very much so. Yeah, I took six showers, Ed, right before, just to prepare for this. I could tell, brother. It's obvious. But the, but the water would put you in that theta state. And that's a relate relaxed state. So you don't have to wake up and say, oh, I hope I'm creative so I could write today or do my music. It's, it's, you know what it is? It's about taking the nouns in our life and turning them into verbs. So you don't have flow. There's a process for getting into flow. You don't have motivation. There's a process for motivating yourself. You know, our mutual friend Brendan Burchard says, you don't have energy, you generate energy. There's a process for, for generating energy and you don't even have focus. There's a process for focusing. It's a verb.

• 1:12:55Jim Kwik?

  And the benefit of taking nouns and turn them into verbs, it gives you your agency back. Because you don't have to hope, because hope is not a really good strategy. You hope you wake up energized or motivated or focused. You don't even have a memory. There's a three-stage process of encoding, storing, retrieving that you could actually memorize, right? And so we have more power than we think. The last phase, though, alpha is really interesting when it's related to flow, because the alpha state where theta is where you're most creative, where information is coming out, alpha state is a state of accelerated learning. So it's a state of relaxed awareness. And that's where they've done studies in Russia where they can learn languages faster and just by getting accessing this alpha state.

• 1:13:39Jim Kwik?

  And even that's how hypnosis works. Like a good hypnotherapist will put you in a relaxed state of awareness, where your critical mind is set aside and you're just more susceptible and to be influenced by positive affirmations or new belief systems, right? And so that would put you in alpha state. Three things that everyone could do to access that brainwave state. It's visual, auditory and kinesthetic. So visualizing and using your imagination will put you into an alpha state. Um, auditory music, there's certain music that will put you into an alpha state. It's not heavy metal and rap. It doesn't put you in a relaxed state of awareness, but classical music, specifically we talk about in the Baroque, like some of my

• 1:14:21Jim Kwik?

  favorite, if you're going to make like a, you know, playlist, uh, Baroque music from the Baroque era, it's uh, Vivaldi, Handal, it's 60 beats per minute. So it, it harmonizes with the resting heart rate. So visual, visualize auditory music and kinesthetic, uh, feeling based breathing. So rhythmic breathing with, with a longer exhale will put you into an alpha state. And isn't it interesting that some meditation processes use all three? You could visualize this mantra or this word that you're, or the candle, whatever you're visualizing, or good hypnotherapists will take you down an elevator or a set of stairs visualization. And then they'll have people relax and do the breathing and maybe they'll have sounds of nature or classical in the background to put

• 1:15:05Jim Kwik?

  you into that deep state. And, but instead of this hypnotherapy, uh, to be able to install new belief systems, uh, which is extremely, uh, relevant and, and powerful, rewarding. You could do this for accelerated your learning. So you could, you could, you could put yourself in this state. So whatever is going on, you're listening to an audio book, uh, or reading, processing something, all that information, uh, will be better retained because of it.

• 1:15:30Ed Mylett?

  Um, you guys, I love Jim Quick. I think I've said that today several times. And now you all know why I love him so much. I want you to go get Limitless, the expanded edition. He's giving all the money away that he told you from the book. It's Jim Quick, which is K W I K. Make sure you're following my dear friend on social media and everything that he creates and innovates is worth your time. That's why the most famous people in the world, he's their coach.

• 1:15:54Jim Kwik?

  Thank you so much. You know, I love, we have to have you back on our show also as well.

• 1:15:58Ed Mylett?

  I would love that, man.

• 1:15:59Jim Kwik?

  Our podcast and yeah, it's just, I believe there's a version of everyone listening that's patiently waiting and the goal is we show up every single day until, until we introduce that person.

• 1:16:10Ed Mylett?

  Bro, I love you. Thank you so much. All right, everybody. Share today's episode. Max out your life. God bless you.