#54, Jim Kwik, Brain Coach and Author — How to find your dominant question, what we can learn fro...

Welcome to From Startup to Grownup, the podcast. My name is Alisa Cohn. I'm an executive coach, an angel investor, and the author of From Startup to Grownup. Each week I talk to founders, creators, advisors, investors, and builders of all kinds about their insights and experiences in going from startup to grownup. Welcome back to From Startup to Grownup, and today I'm thrilled to welcome Jim Quick to the show. Jim is a brain coach. He's the founder of Kwik Learning and the author of Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life. His clients include GE, Nike, Zappos, Virgin, NYU, and Harvard. Jim's story starts with trauma. He had a traumatic brain injury when he was a kid, and that impacted his ability to learn. We discuss his journey from there to becoming a brain coach and lessons that you can personally learn from this and apply to your own lives. Now, asking good questions is one of my favorite things, and Jim talks about the idea of the dominant question and why it's so important and useful to be aware of your own dominant question and possibly change it if you wanna do big things in the world. We also cover Jim's framework that everyone can use to move their own visions forward. This is a rich conversation with a lot of practical tools, so please enjoy my conversation with Jim Quick, author of Limitless. Jim, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you today.

Alisa Cohn, it's a real pleasure. I've been looking forward to this, and thank you everybody who's tuning in.

I've been looking forward to this too. And you know, Jim, you have such a, if I may say so, compelling and significant backstory about how you became a coach yourself. I mean, some would say a guru and an expert on the brain. A lot of my listeners are not going to have known that story. So could you kind of recap some of your early history that, that brought you here today?

So you could say my inspiration was my desperation, really turned my— what was a mess into my message. And when people see me speaking at business conferences, I'll often do these, uh, demonstrations where I'll have 50 or 100 people stand up and pass around a microphone and, and introduce themselves, and then I'll memorize all their names, uh, or something like some kind of mental feat. And I always tell people, I don't do this to impress you. I really do this to express to you what's possible, because the truth is, each and every one of everyone that's listening, regardless of your age or background, you could do this and a lot more. We just weren't taught. And the reason why I know it's possible is because I, I had some very severe learning challenges growing up. I had a traumatic brain injury when I was 5 years old. I was in kindergarten class. I took a very bad fall headfirst into a into a radiator. And that was not a fun time. Where it really showed up was in school. Because of that traumatic brain injury I had, I was labeled learning challenged, and I had poor focus, couldn't remember anything. I had processing issues according to the experts. Teachers would repeat themselves over and over again, and I would pretend to understand, but I didn't really understand anything. It took me 3 years longer to learn how to read. That was very There was a lot of shame and embarrassment around that. And I remember when I was 9 years old, I was slowing down a class and I was being teased, you know, pretty harshly for it. And a teacher came to my defense and she pointed to me in front of the whole class and said, "Leave that kid alone. That's the boy with the broken brain." And, you know, that label really became my identity. Everyone knew me in the school as that. Adults have to be very careful of their external words because they often become a child's internal words, right? So every single time I did badly in school, which was every day, every week, I would always say, oh, because I have the broken brain. I wasn't picked for sports, I would say, oh, because I have the broken brain. So I struggled all through school. It wasn't limited to elementary school. It was junior high, high school. And eventually, when I was 18, I found, came across a mentor. Who really believed in me and the power of learning and the incredible ability for somebody to adapt and learn new knowledge, skills, and abilities. And I learned the science and the art of brain optimization, accelerated learning. So now that's— let's say I'm 50 now. That's for the past 3, over 3 decades, I've been a brain coach of sorts for entrepreneurs and executives, founders, helping them to level up their life by leveling up their learning. And so I think one of the most important skills to master in the 21st century for us not only to survive but really thrive is our ability to learn rapidly and translate that learning into action. And that's more my superpower. I just want to point out that I wasn't born with these traits. I believe with struggle in life come strengths. That with challenges come change. And, you know, our mission really is to build better, brighter brains. No brain left behind, if you will. And, you know, we do that through the largest platform for accelerated learning, speed reading, memory improvement, focus, concentration, all these skills that would give an entrepreneur or an executive, a founder, competitive advantage.

Yeah.

When you can learn and relearn and unlearn, you can easily remember client information, product information, read multiple books in a week, give speeches without notes. Anybody. Again, there's no such thing as a good or bad brain. There's a trained brain and an untrained brain. And we write books and we have a podcast and we have our academy, and we're just very passionate about showing people their mental potential.

I love that, the mental potential. That's so beautiful. And I mean, Jim, it's really— it's extraordinary what you've overcome and all the things you said. And I want to dive into a few of those things, but specifically, the first thing I want to ask you is, Listen, many people have challenges in their youth. People have challenges, and some people, many people, I would say, don't overcome them. What was it about you that allowed you to overcome your challenges and turn them into such a superpower?

You know, it wasn't easy. And so I don't want to— it was pretty simple, but not easy. I think in life we, we have to choose our hard, you know, Being slow is really hard and learning these things was, was, you know, not so hard, but just same thing with business, you know, struggling is hard and, you know, being broke is hard, but also starting a company is hard and we choose our hard.

Yeah.

Being unhealthy is hard and, and doing all the right things to be healthy is hard, but we choose our hard. It was interesting in school, I would work 2 or 3 times harder than everybody else because that was my upbringing. My parents immigrated to the United States. My dad was 13. He unfortunately lost both his parents and he moved to the States to live with his aunt because they couldn't afford to, you know, to feed him and everything back where he came from. And, you know, we live in the back of a laundromat that my mom worked at and my parents had multiple jobs. My primary caregiver was my dad's aunt, who I only knew as my grandmother. And when I had my accident at 5, she started showing early signs of Alzheimer's. And that was really hard, especially as a child, to process and not really understand when he— when she called me by my father's name or repeated something that she just said 30 seconds ago. And that all informed my, my journey, if you will. So because my parents worked so hard, you know, they're not the wealthiest or the most intelligent or the health— most health-conscious or spiritual, or they never had a, you know, juice and do yoga or anything like that, but they're just really, really good people. You know, very— they work very hard, very, very kind, and they instill those values. And so I also wanted to be a good role model for my younger siblings. So I feel like in order to get through hard times, you really need purpose. And my family was a big motivator for that. And so what got me through those difficult times— there's a quote in my, my new book, Limitless Expanded, that says life is the letter C between the letters B and D. Where B stands for birth and D is death, life in the middle. C stands for choice. And I believe that for all of us who are listening, our lives are the sum total of all the choices we made up to this point. And I truly believe that these difficult times can distract you. These difficult times can diminish you, or these difficult times, they can develop you. You know, we ultimately decide. So I feel like hard work was one thing, but just working hard doesn't always get you where you want to go. I think when people come to me, if they are motivated because they need some kind of drive and they need to have an open mind, they're willing to learn something new and try new things. And I was willing to do that because I had a real reason to do that, you know, whether it was making my parents proud or being a good example for my brother and my sister. And yeah, I think entrepreneurs and executives, they have drive, right? They're pursuing something. Maybe they value freedom. Or growth or a level of contribution, and they want to make a certain level of impact. And so I feel like working hard is definitely part, and then all the other part is working, you know, intelligently.

Yeah.

So able to get through that with those, those values.

Yeah. And it sounds like also to your point, there was like purpose. So there was purpose inside of your tight-knit family that really helped. You had, you had the drive, you had the hard work kind of ethic instilled in you, but then also the purpose of the surrounding folks around you who are so meaningful to you. So it's like the people people, I think, sometimes really make the difference for us. And then you mentioned you had a mentor. How much of a difference did that mentor make for you? And I guess I would ask you also to think about what advice you have for other people to help them seek out mentors, because it's such an important part of everyone's story.

Absolutely. It's kind of like— I opened the book with the hero's journey and actually explaining Joseph Campbell's work, you know, these stages that every good fictional book or documentary or Star Wars. It just kind of follows stages where you feel this answering the call and going from the ordinary to something more extraordinary. And it could be— it takes courage to take those steps, to leave something that's secure, like a 9-to-5, to pursue your dreams. My dream, again, was just to make my family proud. And I realized when we were growing up, didn't have the education. We definitely didn't have the finances or the network. We didn't know anybody. But it's not a matter of, I realize, of resources as much as it is being resourceful. And so I was lucky enough when I was 18 to get into a local university. And I thought being a freshman that I could make a fresh start. I thought that's what it meant. And so I took all these classes and I wanted to really show the world that I could do it for for the first time, and I did worse. And that was really hard because our family didn't have really the money for me to be in school. So I was going to quit. And it was really hard because I had all this pressure because of my drive, right? I wanted to make them proud and be a good example for others. And but it was that I didn't know how to tell them. And when I mentioned that to a friend of mine at school, he said, hey, why don't you get some perspective. I'm going home this weekend to visit my family. Why don't you come with me and just kind of clear your mind so you can make a good decision? And I realized that, Alisa Cohn, when you, when you change a place or people you're spending time with, it gives you a different point of view, right? You can see something through a different lens. I had a lot of fear and doubt and shame, and it was so embarrassing that I was going to quit school and I didn't know how to tell my family. And very smart mentor, he changes my perspective by asking me a question. And often a new question gives you a new answer and a new focus. And he said, Jim, well, tell me, why are you in school? And honestly, I didn't know. Like, I just— this is just what you do, right? And then he was like, well, what do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to create? And, you know, and have— and I didn't have any answers for that because no one's ever asked me those questions before. So I want to encourage everyone who's listening to really analyze our questions. And I have this kind of theory about a dominant question we could talk about. But I start to answer him and he puts his hand out and he says, stop. And he reaches out into his back pocket and takes out a notebook and gives me a couple of sheets and makes me write it down. And I realize for an entrepreneur or for anybody aspiring to do something new, it helps to take your thoughts and put it on paper. It's kind of the first step where you take something invisible in your mind and make it visible outside of yourself. And I start writing like this bucket list, right? All the things I want to do before I kick the bucket. And when I'm done, I don't know how much time went on. I start folding the sheets of paper to put it back in my pocket, and he rips them from my hands, and he starts to read my dreams to himself. And, and I'm kind of flipping out because person's obviously, you know, very successful. And anybody has a fear of being judged, right? You know, I have this kind of imposter syndrome, you know, that a lot of people face. And I don't know, he looks at me when he's done reading my goals and my dreams and says, Jim, you are this close to everything on this list. And if you're watching this on video or not, I'm spreading my index fingers like a foot apart. And I was like, no way. Give me 10 more. Like very close. Right. Yeah. Very close. But I said, no way, because I'm, you know, I don't believe it, right? So I say, give me 10 lifetimes, I'm not going to crack that list. And he takes his fingers and he puts them to the side of my head, meaning what's in between my brain, if you will. It was the bridge or the key. And he takes me into his home, into a room that was pretty intimidating. I've never seen one before, but it's wall to wall, ceiling to floor, covered in books. And remember, I'm not a strong reader and I'm very intimidated. I've never read a book, you know, cover to cover before. It's like being in a room full of snakes. Talk about, you know, facing your fears, right? And what makes it worse is my mentor starts grabbing snakes from the shelves and handing them to me. And I started looking at these titles of books and there are these biographies of some incredible women and men in history and some very early personal growth, power of the mind books like Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking, Napoleon Hill, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, you know, all the classics. And he says, Jim, you read to succeed. And he said, I want you to read, commit to reading one book a week. And automatically I go back to my limitations. I was like, go back to my story, right? And I always tell people at events, people always invariably pull me aside and they say, Jim, I'm so glad you're here. I can't wait to see you speak. You're a memory expert. And they say, I'm just not that smart, or I'm too old, or I have a horrible memory, right? And I would say, stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them, right? If we fight for our limits, they're ours, right? And so I'm fighting for my limitations, telling him about my brain injury and how I'm not a good student. I have all this schoolwork. I can't read all these books. And when I said schoolwork, very smart man, he whips out a quote from Mark Twain. He says, Jim, don't let school interfere with your education. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. And that's very insightful. But I still, I can't commit to reading all these books because the way I was brought up, if I say I'm going to do something, I have to do it. And I don't have the capacity. Right. And then very smart man as a mentor, he reaches into his pocket and he pulls out my dream list, the list I just created minutes before. And he starts to read, Alisa Cohn, each and every one of my dreams out loud. Or so I could hear it. And something about hearing your dreams in another person's voice, incanted out into the room or the universe, it messed with my mind and my spirit something fierce. And honestly, a lot of the things on that list were things I wanted to do for my family, things they could never afford, or even if they had the money and the means, they wouldn't do it for themselves. So with that purpose, going back to the power of purpose and drive, you know, starting with why, I, I agreed to read those books. So fast forward, I'm back at school and I have a pile of books I have to read for school and then a pile of books I promised to read. And I already couldn't get through pile A. So I don't— so if I don't have time, what do I do? I don't eat, I don't sleep, I don't exercise, I don't spend time with friends. I just live in the library for weeks and weeks. And I end up passing out from sheer exhaustion one night at 2 AM, and I fall down a flight of stairs in the library and I hit my head again. And I woke up in the hospital 2 days later. And at this time, I'm down to 117 pounds. I lost all this weight, you know, hooked up to all these IVs. And I thought there had to be a better way. And when I had that thought, the nurse came in with a mug of tea. I'm a big tea drinker. And it had a picture of a genius, Albert Einstein. But even on top of that, there was a quote that said, the same level of thinking that has created your problem won't solve your problem.. And it made me ask another new question. What's my problem? Well, I have a broken brain and I'm a very slow learner. And I was like, well, according to Einstein, how do I think differently about that? Well, maybe I could learn to fix my brain and learn how to learn better. And so I set my schoolwork aside because I wasn't making traction on that. And I started studying these books and then also things like The Power of the Brain and learning. I wanted to know the latest science, adult learning theory. I wanted to know what ancient civilizations did to memorize things. Before there were printing presses, how did they retain information? And about 60 days of learning speed reading and mnemonics and everything, light switch flipped on and I started to understand things for the very first time and my grades shot up, but so did my confidence in myself and my life just got better. Now, the reason I'm here with you today is I started to share these strategies that I learned with other people because Shame on me if you know something that could help somebody else and you didn't share that with them. So I started to tutor, and one of my very first students, she was a freshman. She read 30 books in 30 days, not skim or scan. And I wanted— because I know how she did it. I taught her, but I wanted to know her purpose again. Like, so many people know what to do, but we don't always do what we know because common sense is not always common practice., and I found out that her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, was only given 2 months to live by doctors, and the books she was reading were to save her mom's life, and she ended up doing so. And when I found out that news, it just changed everything. I realized that if knowledge is power, then learning is our superpower. And I also realized my purpose in life.

Yeah. Wow.

Find that power and develop it.

Right. Find that power and find that purpose. And also, to your point, make an impact. So I just, again, want to bring the thread from, like, your mentor came from— obviously came from God, came from the universe, right? Such a, like, a beautiful story.

Yeah, teachers really appear when you—

yes, that's a good way. Yeah, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. And helped you, you know, kind of get yourself together, even again through difficult circumstances, in order to make this impact in the world. And I It's just so beautiful. And one thing you alluded to was questions and even the Einstein point about like, you can't solve the problem from the same consciousness that created it. I am also a fan of, an aficionado of, a passionate purveyor of questions myself. And I know you have this idea of the dominant question and I'd love you to talk about that, why it's important and specifically what people can do to use their, how do they use the idea of the dominant question?

Yeah, let's unpack this. This is such a wonderful tool for all of us to have. So I realized that research shows we have about 60,000 thoughts a day. And a lot of those thoughts come in the form of questions, right? And you have part of your brain called the— and I don't get too brainy here, but it's called the reticular activating system, RAS for short. And what that does is it shines a spotlight on your focus, allows you to focus on certain things because the brain primarily is a deletion device. It's trying to keep information out because if we let everything in, we would go insane. We would be overloaded and overwhelmed. So what you let in to your mind is really determined by the things that you value and shaped by the questions that you ask every single day. And I realized that when I was coaching even 30 years ago, we created this idea around a dominant question that there's a question that we all ask more than any other questions. And that question is shaping your life because when you ask a question, so for example, years and years ago, my sister, my younger sister would send me emails and postcards with a very specific breed of dog. It was a pug dog, right? And she kept on doing it over for weeks. And I was, my question was, why does she, she keeps sending me these photos of pug dogs, right? And I realized she had a birthday coming up. And she's a good marketer and she was kind of seeding, you know, this gift. And funny thing happened, Alisa, is that I started seeing pug dogs everywhere in my neighborhood. I would be at the health food store ready to check out and the person in front of me was carrying a pug dog. I would be jogging in my neighborhood and there'd be a gentleman walking 6 pug dogs. And my question for all your listeners, is an obvious one is, did these pug dogs just magically appear in my neighborhood? No, they were always there, but I was deleting them because it wasn't important to me until I started asking the questions. And then I started seeing the pug dogs everywhere. So the idea behind this dominant question is your questions determine your focus, right? It shines a spotlight on something you might not see. Like, if you're reading a page in a book, book and you get to the end, have you ever had this enlightening experience and you forgot what you just read and you go back and you read it and you still don't know what you just read? If you had questions about what you're reading, then you would say, oh, there's a pug dog, there's a pug dog, there's a pug dog. And that's your focus, your comprehension, your retention that comes from that focus. And for example, a friend of mine years ago, I took her through a process and we determined, we found out that her dominant question, the question she asks hundreds of times a day, consciously and unconsciously is, how do I get people to like me? Or how do I get this person to like me? Now, your listeners don't know anything about my friend, you know, what she looks like, what she does for a living, where she lives, you know, any of that. But you probably know and can extrapolate and deduce a lot about this person's personality. If you're obsessed with asking the question, how do I get people to like me? I mean, Yeah, how— what would you hallucinate her personality is like? How would you like— I—

a pleaser, you know, always wanting to make sure everyone was happy. Um, and, uh, yeah, and definitely sort of always saying yes even if she might not want to do the thing.

Yes, and that's exactly— so you know a lot about this individual, that she's a people pleaser, people take advantage of her, her personality changes depending on who she's with because, you know, she wants to be like that person, right? And you know so much about her and you only know one question that she asks herself on the repeat and it shapes her life. And my question for everyone listening is, what do you think your dominant question is? For me, as an example, I grew up with learning difficulties and my question was, how do I be invisible? Because I never knew the answer. I never wanted to be called on in class. And I saw myself as not that smart. So, and I would get answers, right? I would sit behind the tall kid, or I'd always shrink down all the time when I was around people because I just wanted to take up less space. And questions became, you know, those answers, right? I think questions really are the answer. Later on, it evolved into a more useful question like, if I have a broken brain, how do I fix it? Right? And my question evolved then to my dominant question, how do I make this better? And then I started just trying to— I'm like, there's an answer. There's a pug dog. There's a pug dog. And I started getting answers. And so it's interesting to be able— the dominant question usually comes up either in quiet, you know, some kind of calm or some kind of challenge.

Yeah.

When you're quiet and you're meditating or you're journaling, see where your thoughts go and kind of follow those, that, those thought patterns and see if there's a some kind of pattern, right? And, or if it's not coming from a calm place, it's coming from a challenging place. When you're stressed or you're in conflict, you're experiencing anxiety, or somebody is, is, you know, kind of triggered some kind of emotion. What's the question you're asking? Because some people will say, why is this happening to me? Why does this always happen to me? And then you're going to get answers. Oh, because you're not that smart, or because you just have a lot of bad luck. And those answers probably aren't the most empowering and useful.. And so, yes, I think it's the people that really has created things in any industry, usually that they ask, uh, especially if they're innovators, they usually ask a different question than other people. Yeah. And there's a great book called The Structure of Scientific Revolution that says most, the majority of all innovation invention are usually comes from people outside the industry. Because if you're inside the industry, you have the same blind spots and cognitive biases, same education as everybody else. But maybe it takes a, I don't know, an Elon Musk or somebody to look at the automotive industry and say, hey, let me ask a question. If we were to build a car today with today's technology, how would we go about doing it?

Right? Yeah. There, there are so, there are so many examples of actually founders coming into a space that they know nothing to do about it, that they know nothing about it and being able to disrupt it. So I think that's very powerful. And I think what you're saying is become conscious of the questions you're asking yourself. Like make the unconscious conscious, either through journaling or through meditating or just like having it in your mind. And then maybe it's to add what's a more powerful question you can ask. I mean, it sounds like transforming the question you're asking will also transform your experience. Is that how you see it?

Without a doubt. And that presupposes that— that's why self-awareness is such, you know, a critical element to, to success, to personal achievement, to transformation, because you can't change something unless you know where you are, right? That you, you acknowledge that something needs to, needs to change. And so there's a level of agency that comes with it also as well.

Yeah, definitely. So is there any— I'm gonna put you on the spot a little bit here. If you think about a general answer for founders, what the questions they should be asking, um, is there general advice you have for that would be applicable to all founders with the kinds of dominant questions they can be asking that will help drive propel them forward.

Yeah. So let's take their personal performance or their time management, their productivity. You know, maybe a useful question is, what's the best use of this moment? Right? You have founders and angel investors like Peter Thiel, who wrote Zero to One, right? Who's, you know, has a question, one of his dominant questions. You could have a few dominant questions that you ask more than any other question. You know, talks about how do I reach my 10-year goal in 6 months? Because you can't possibly work harder to reach, you know, to be able to 10x something because you're all, you know, that would be incremental. But you ask a new question, you're going to get a new answer. When it comes to learning, for instance, for founders, a lot of them, it's been my experience. And we know we do these mental fitness, accelerated learning, brain optimization trainings at Facebook, Nike, Google, You know, for WordPress, for Matt Mullenweg, for Zappos, Tony Hsieh. You know, the book is endorsed by the chairman of Paramount, the vice chair of, you know, Beth Comstock of GE. You know, there's this thread where you could ask— they don't just learn for the sake of learning because so many people just— they'll buy a book and it'll sit on their shelf and it'll be shelf help, not self-help. But, you know, you want to remember that the mindset around learning is you don't learn just for the sake of just taking in information. You learn for the purpose of acting on it, right? An ability— an individual's ability to learn rapidly and translate that learning to action is the ultimate competitive advantage. So what's a question that could drive learning and application? Even simple questions like, you know, when people are listening to this episode and they ask themselves, how can I use this? What a great question, because then you're like, oh, there's an answer. That's another way I could use it. That's another way I could use it. And then to get to Purpose, ask, why must I use this? Because some things you don't need to do, right? But if you find purpose, it goes from your head to your heart. You could have a vision and goals and KPIs, you know, mission in your head. But if you're not acting with your hands, then you have to tap into the heart, which are the emotions, right? The feelings of purpose, you know, who's counting on you to be at your best, who, you know, and really feeling it because so many people, it goes from your head to your heart to your hands. 3 H's. I tend to alliterate a whole lot to make it more memorable. But yes, if you're not acting with your hands, you're procrastinating or sabotaging. And but you have a clear vision in your head, check in with the second H, which is your heart. So I ask myself to learn faster, to apply. I ask myself, how can I use this? Why must I use this? And the third question I ask is, when will I use this? Because I believe one of the most powerful productivity performance tools that an entrepreneur or C-suite executive or founder has is their calendar, right? But we will schedule our parent-teacher meetings or investor meetings, you know, doctor appointments, but we don't always schedule our implementation. I believe that as a rule, for every hour you spend learning something in a seminar, training, coaching, a book, podcast, whatever, then we should spend at least an hour an equal hour putting it and applying it right in the real world.

I love that. I love the way you talk about the calendar. It's a simple tool and people are like, well, how will I remember this? And then say, well, how do you think you should remember it? And they'll say, the only thing that comes to mind is putting on my calendar, right? Because your calendar is what you see and it's the landscape of your day and the landscape of your day actually impacts the results you're gonna get. It's, it's a prime determiner of the impact of, of the results you're gonna get.

You can tell a lot about a person based on things like the books on their shelf. You could tell a lot about a person by looking at their calendar because that will show their— what they value, what they're committed to.

Totally. Yeah, I totally agree with that. So I love that you said that, and I love especially that you said this idea that you could— so first of all, number one, it like, set aside time to learn. So read books, go to seminars, do coaching, whatever. Find the time to learn, carve out the time to learn. And then number two, Carve out the time, put on your calendar the time to implement the learning. It's not just gonna happen by itself. Don't think that someday this beautiful, you know, this idyllic moment's gonna come or ta-da, you're gonna have nothing to do on your calendar. So you've gotta input it in so you make room for that. I just love those ideas so much. And the next thing I wanted to ask you about, Jim, was about change because really we're talking about for founders and entrepreneurs and other leaders, how to, optimize their learning, how to optimize what they can do. But founders especially always have to be dealing with adapting, right? They're adapting to COVID. They're adapting to the current macro environment, which is very challenging. They're adapting to different issues in their team. What advice do you have for founders to help them, first of all, understand when they have to change and then how to change?

Yeah. And change really is— You know, I think change is a constant, but progress isn't and growth isn't, right? So change is always happening in the economy and politics and in the market. And you're right, absolutely. Our power lies in our ability to adapt. And adapt, another word for adapt is to be able to learn, right? And so I think self-awareness again is a superpower, you know, knowing and recognizing not criticizing and judging, but just seeing where, where you're at. I also believe that, you know, when we make these choices, I was talking about that life is the C between B and D, that these difficult times, they could distract you. These difficult times, they could diminish you, or these difficult times, they could develop you. But we decide with the choices that we make. So to really succeed today and be an agent of change and an agent of transformation, I believe you control the controllables. And that's really the key because founders identify more with a thermostat than they do with the thermometer. And I use analogies sometimes because it's a quick way for people to understand, meaning that a thermometer on your wall, what does it do? What's the function of a thermometer? It just— it gives you information, right? It just reacts to whatever the environment is giving it. Sometimes human beings, we react to the economy and politics and how people treat us, the weather, what have you. The people that really succeed at the highest level, they don't just react, right? Because that would be you're just fighting fires all day, you're on the defense. A thermostat doesn't react to the environment at all. It gauges, it knows the temperature of the environment. But what does it do? What does it do? It sets, it sets another temperature. And what happens in the environment? The environment reacts to you, right? And so I believe that you could set a temperature, a goal, and a vision for yourself and, you know, and use your force of will to be able to make it the way that you, you see it. And a lot of belief issues come up during this time, right? You know, in mindset, I define mindset because the 3 things you could always control as a founder or as a human being, 3 things. Your mindset, your motivation, and your methods. You could always decide what you're going to think and believe. You could always decide, you know, your purpose in terms of your drive, and you could always decide what you're going to do. You're right, you get what you think, what you feel, and what you do. And so I call this the Limitless Model. There's many graphics in the book about this. It's a Venn diagram, mindset, motivation, and methods. So for example, mindset are the set of assumptions and attitudes you have about something. So if your attitudes and assumptions about change is change is risky, you know, change is dangerous, it's uncertain, you're not gonna use the methods. You're gonna still be stuck in a box. So as your listeners are listening, we could turn this into a little masterclass. Think about an area where you're not advancing, where you feel limited, where you feel stuck in a box. That box has— is 3-dimensional. And the 3 forces that contain that box are the same 3 forces that will liberate you out of that box. Which is your mindset, your motivation, your methods. So what's under mindset for change? Things like what I believe is possible. Because if you don't believe it's possible, you're not going to act accordingly, right? What you believe you're capable of, because you could believe it's possible, those listeners, you know, for, for Alisa Cohn, but, and maybe, but you might not believe it's possible for you, right? And here's another one for mindset. What you believe you— how about let's get real raw. What you believe you deserve. Right? Because unconsciously, if you don't believe you could deserve to be happy or healthy or, you know, have that impact, you're not gonna operate accordingly cuz that's gonna inform your methods right now. Somebody could have limitless mindset for change and believe change is good, that they deserve it, they're capable, and they could still be stuck in a box because they lack the second M, which is motivation. Right? They're not motivated to get themselves unstuck. And for me, motivation is just 3 things and 3 things only. If you want greater levels of motivation to overcome your personal procrastination, or you want to motivate somebody else to do something, to invest in your company, to come work for you, to your kids to clean their room, whatever, there's only 3 forces. The formula for limitless motivation for change is P times E times P times S3. So let's break that down. The P stands for purpose, and you and I have talked about purpose throughout this conversation, right? So you need to feel that purpose. If you don't feel it, you're not gonna do it because we are not logical. We are biological. You think about what comes from feelings, dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins. We are this feeling chemical soup, and if it doesn't touch your heart, you're not gonna act with your hands. But let's say you have limitless purpose. You know, why you're doing it, right? The E is so important because the E stands for energy. Some people will not get out of that box because they're exhausted, right? The box of relationships, you know, stale relationship, or, or, you know, they're flatlining their company, right? And they're not having growth there, their impact, or their reading speed, or their memory. They feel stuck because they lack energy. And people have seen photographs of me and Oprah, or photographs of me and Elon, or whoever,— people always want to know, hey, Jim, how did you connect and bond with these individuals? And I'll tell you, we bonded over books. Because again, if somebody, somebody has decades of experience like you do and you put into a book, which you did, and somebody could read that book in a few days, they could download decades in a day. What an incredible advantage that is in today's economy, right? Because today, knowledge is not only power, knowledge is profit, right? And the faster you can learn, the faster you can earn. And how do you learn faster besides speed reading, memory, focus, all the things we teach? You learn from other people's experience. In the book, one of the largest chapters is how to optimize your brain full of energy for people suffering from brain fog, mental fatigue. Like if your kids, for example, eat a big processed meal, they're not going to be very— and they're in a food coma. They're not going to be very motivated to study that day. Right. So we show people how to optimize their sleep, how to manage their stress. And everything is science-based, the best brain foods to lower anxiety and stress in the system and help to protect your brain. Whole area of science we talk about called neuro nutrition, but you have to master your energy. And then finally, somebody could have P&E, purpose and energy, and you know what? They could still not be motivated because I realize that sometimes people have in their mind this goal or this vision, and that thing is just too big. It's too intimidating, right? Or it's confusing. And a confused mind doesn't do anything. Just like if you want to influence somebody to invest or buy your product, become a client. If they're confused, they're not gonna do anything. So S3, the final part of the equation, stands for small, simple steps. Let's say we know working out is great for your brain, right? You create brain-derived neurotropic factors, BDNF, when you work out, and that's like fertilizer for your your brain for neuroplasticity, neurogenesis. And if you don't work out, let's say maybe it's because you never— it's not part of the routine. A small, simple step is putting on your running shoes and just getting to the gym, right? And I just— on our podcast, we had a famous global biological dentist, right? And we're talking about oral health, good for your brain health. We're talking about things beyond just brushing and, you know, we talk about flossing and other things, and I was like, you know, hey, if your kids don't floss their teeth, maybe that's too big of a habit. Small, simple step, get them to floss one tooth. Yes. Nobody's going to stop. If somebody's not reading 30 minutes a day, which I think it's important, you know, Warren Buffett reads, said to read 500 pages a day, right? Because leaders are readers. And maybe that's too big. Maybe opening up a book is a small, simple step. Maybe reading one line in a book is a small, simple step. And how you find your small, simple step to be an effective change agent is this one question. We talk about dominant questions. This is a question I ask dozens of times a day. If I feel stuck or stalled or intimidated, I'm facing a dilemma, I ask myself, what is the tiniest action I could take right now that will give me progress towards this goal where I can't fail? Just break that down. What is the tiniest action I can take now? Operative word, now, that will give me progress towards this goal. I'm not going away from this goal that I simply can't fail. And that's where you're going to find your S3, your small simple step.

Yeah.

That's what motivation is for me. And you want to unlimit your mindset, unlimit your motivation. And then finally, the third M are the methods, right? Which are abundant. We have unfettered access to the world's information. And most of your listeners and readers, they probably have forgotten more about success success than most of their, most of their peers, right? But the thing is, is are you using methods, knowledge, skills, and abilities that are for today's environment based on today's research? You know, so you could be stuck in that box and have— you could have a limitless mindset and limitless motivation, still be stuck in that box because you're using old methods of marketing or old methods for fundraising or old methods. The baseline principle here, the mistake I see founders making more than any other, when they're scared, especially because of today's global environment, post-pandemic, a lot of them are shrinking down. They're literally downgrading their dreams and goals to meet the current situation. When I suggest you do the opposite, instead of downgrading your dreams and goals to meet the current situation, what if instead you took time to upgrade your mindset, your motivation, and the methods you're using to be able to meet those bold, audacious dreams and goals.

I love that. And also, you know, a lot of what you just talked about is identity too. It's like accepting what is so, and then, you know, understanding that things have changed and you have to upgrade your own identity and upgrade constantly your, your 3 Ms and kind of what drives you. So there's a lot, oh, there's so many things here to, to continue to cover. But Jim, I'm gonna have to let you go in a few minutes, but I guess I just have a couple more questions for you. So, um, what do you wish you had known earlier on your journey?

So I struggled a lot with self-doubt, um, a lot of fear, uh, like everybody, you know, I think it's a natural response, uh, imposter syndrome, you know, all of that. And I, and I realized that, you know, I went for, I go for a walk and I want to get my steps in every day. I think it's very good for your brain. And I was looking at this, um, bird. And I have this, I do these thought experiments because I think it's, remember I was saying it's important to get a new fresh perspective. And I was just being playful in my mind. I said, if I was that bird, I'd be really scared to be all the way up in that tree because again, I've had 3 head injuries. I wasn't very well supervised as a kid, took a lot of bad falls. And I said like, but that bird is chirping and cheering, like singing, like, and I realized that, that bird, it's, it's, it's cheerful and it's calm, not because it puts its trust in the tree branch. It's cheerful and it's calm and it's confident because it puts its trust in its own wings. And, you know, if I was to go back to that 9-year-old self, I would say that you are 100% responsible for your life. I think responsibility and agency is so very important. It's a starting point to do anything., you know, at any kind of impact. Meaning, years ago, I got to introduce two of my mentors together and they wanted to meet and I was like, okay, let's go to dinner. And it was Richard Branson and Stan Lee, you know, and I'm a big superhero fan for people that know me because I taught myself how to read by reading comic books late at night. And that's what allowed me, you know, those few years to be able to— the pictures and stories gave it the words meaning.. And when I'm in the car, I asked Stan, I was like, Stan, you've created all these amazing superheroes. I asked, who's your favorite? And he says, Jim, it's Iron Man. And he said, Jim, who's your favorite superhero? And he was wearing a Spider-Man tie that I put on social media. And I said, Spider-Man. And without a pause, in his iconic voice, he goes, with great power comes great responsibility, right? And we all know that. Now, because of my head injuries, I have a tendency to, to switch words around when I read and when I hear. And I heard something different. I was like, Stan, you're right. With great power comes great responsibility. And the opposite is also true. With great responsibility comes great power. When we take responsibility for things, we have great power to make it better. And that this is where we're not a victim and things are happening to us. They're happening for us.. And I, I really do believe, you know, having that, that, that, that level of agency allows you to feel like you could do something about something because you could always control your mindset, your motivation, and, and, and your, your behavior, your methods.

Totally. I love that. I love that. So beautiful. Last question is, what advice do you have for founders as they embark on their journeys to grow into leaders?

One of the things I think restricts founders is their belief in themselves, right? You know, you and I mentioned imposter syndrome and, you know, I feel like there, there are things that could help you overcome that, right? Until you live into it. Part of it is self-awareness. Some of it is redefining failure. Like the, I have a belief there's no such thing as failure. There's only feedback or there's only failure to learn something that failure is not the opposite of success. Failure is part of success. I think to get over even, you know, the founders that are limited by some kind of imposter syndrome or lack of belief in themselves, self-doubt like I was facing, is to acknowledge yourself. We're really quick to beat ourselves up over things that we do at a lower level of expectation than we're hoping for. But it's so important to put that same energy into acknowledging your achievements, right? Reflect on what you have accomplished, right? So you could start owning it. And also seeking feedback, you know, from a mentor, from somebody who holds you accountable to something and start for founders also limiting comparison, right? A lot of founders, you know, and again, I'm not perfect either, but my experience has been if you're green with envy from people on social media, for instance, right? They have more followers that are achieving this award or whatever. You know, sometimes on social media, it's greener on the other side because of the filter they're using. Or there's a lot of artificial turf online also as well, if we're going to be real. But the truth is comparison is— they say envy is the thief of joy. And you can't compare or even complain. Like, we can't be upset by the results we didn't get from the work that we didn't do. Right. And so my advice for founders is now is the time is to not shrink what's possible to fit your mind. Instead, let's expand our mind to fit all that's really possible in our lives.

I love it. Jim, you're telling everyone to be limitless. Whoa. Limitless. Pick it up, the expanded edition, Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life.

Jim, can I give everybody a Please. Thank you. Can I give everyone a quick gift?

Please.

So there's a chapter in the new expanded edition, and I really appreciate everyone who supported the first edition, the original edition. We donated all the— my author proceeds to charity to build schools. And because we built schools in Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya, Alzheimer's research for women also, because in memory of my grandmother, women are twice as likely to experience Alzheimer's than men. Yet most of the research is done Men, Treatments on Men. So thank you for supporting that book. What I would say is in that book, we share new research on something. It's a brain assessment that I created. And this will absolutely transform the lives of the founders and the entrepreneurs and everybody listening. I realized that when I work with coaching clients to get over the change and the transformation, everybody learns a little bit differently. Differently, and they think a little bit differently. And I could put them into 4 buckets. And these are cognitive types. And I created animals, a code, C-O-D-E. The cheetah, the C is the cheetah. These are the fast actors. These are the people that implement very fast. They have strong intuition. They thrive in fast-paced environments. The O are your owls. They are logical. They love data, facts, and figures and formulas. The D are your creative dolphins. They are your visionaries. Right. They are great at pattern recognition, solving problems. And the E are your elephants. And their trait is they are highly empathetic. They love putting groups together. They're community leaders and so on. And we all identify with one, with one of them more than the rest. And once you understand your brain type, it informs so much. And when people— the quiz is at mybrainanimal.com. It's free, nothing to buy. It takes 4 minutes to go through. But we're doing this throughout our corporate clients, and we're getting such amazing revelations that people are going through it because it informs based on your animal how you can read faster, improve your memory, focus, solve problems, even hire, manage, and lead. And so that's just a gift that we wanted to provide just as a thank you for everyone listening. And the book, the new edition, you can find at limitlessbook.com. You can find it anywhere where books are sold. But when you go to limitlessbook.com, we have some free brain training, speed reading, memory, course for you as a thank you for supporting this book. And again, all of the author proceeds are going to worthwhile causes.

Amazing. So Run, Don't Walk. It's amazing. And it's such a pleasure to talk to you today. I really enjoyed this conversation. I know people are really going to benefit from it.

Alisa, thank you so much.

Thank you. Thanks for listening to From Startup to Grownup. If you like what you heard, give it a review on Apple podcast so other people can find it. And if you know of a founder or someone else who is meant to be on this podcast, drop me a line through my website, alisacohn.com.