This is a transcript of a Radical Responsibility podcast episode (host Dr. Fleet Maull) featuring John Assaraf. The episode introduces neuroplasticity and the idea that repeated mental practice creates dominant, automatic neural patterns. Assaraf recounts a transformative origin story: at 19 he was mentored by Alan Brown, who guided him to write a concrete vision, list supporting beliefs, and rehearse them daily — a practice Assaraf credits with rewiring his brain and producing dramatic life changes. The conversation situates these practices within both historical positive-thinking traditions and modern neuroscience.
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When we are born, we're born with what we call as the neuroplasticity switch in an on state. So we learn how to see. We learn to integrate what we see with what we hear. And the very art of neuroplasticity is we are creating new connections. The connections that are reinforced, whether they're positive or negative, constructive or destructive, empowering or disempowering patterns, the ones that are repeated become dominant. The dominant ones run automatically, and that's called automaticity. So what does our brain do? It uses effort to develop the pattern. Then once the pattern is reinforced, it becomes an automatic pattern that self perpetuates and reinforces itself. And so the question then becomes, is that neuroplasticity always on? And the answer is.
Welcome to the Radical responsibility podcast. I'm Dr. Fleet Mahl, and I'm excited to guide you on a journey of authentic transformation. In each episode, I'll bring you insights from leading experts to explore trauma recovery, mindfulness practices, positive psychology, and innovative breakthroughs in health, wellness, and life optimization. This is a space for real conversations that inspire meaningful change, helping you find alignment with the person you were always meant to be. Let's get started.
What if you could rewire your brain to break through limits and achieve your biggest goals faster than ever before? What if the key to success lies not in luck or talent, but in how you train your mind? In this episode, I'm joined by John Assaraf, a renowned expert in high performance coaching and behavioral neuroscience. Known as the Brain Whisperer, John has built a billion dollar business, authored New York Times bestsellers, and pioneered tools like Innersize to help people unlock their potential. We'll dive into the science of neuroplasticity, explore how to reframe limiting beliefs, and uncover practical strategies for building lasting habits. Whether you're aiming for personal growth, professional success, or greater fulfillment, this conversation offers transformative insights to help you get there. Let's dive in.
I'm really thrilled to be here today with none other than John Athrap. Welcome, John.
Thank you so much, Fleet. It's so great to be here with you.
Yeah, well, we're just really excited that you could be part of this and I've really been looking forward to doing this interview with you. So you have spent a significant part of your career exploring the power of the brain and how we can rewire the brain for success. So I wonder if you could share your journey. How did you end up becoming such a neuroscience informed? Not only neuroscience informed, but a neuroscience researcher and coach. Who could really help people learn ways to rewire their brain for success in life.
Sure. So My journey started 43 years ago when I was 19. And at that point in my life, I had left high school at grade 11. I had failed English, failed math. I was working in a shipping department of a computer company. Shipping boxes, receiving boxes, opening the boxes, putting them up on the shelf and repeating that cycle day in and day out. And at that time, I was getting to a lot of trouble with the law on top of it. And my brother had been very, very concerned for my well being. And he said, hey, would you mind, you know, coming to lunch with me and one of my clients who's a successful entrepreneur? And I said, yeah, sure. And so I took the train, actually about 350 miles just to go and have lunch with this one man. And at lunch, this one man, his name is Alan Brown, was a real estate developer, wonderful philanthropist from what I have been told, and something was very, very successful. Started to ask me some questions. And he asked me questions like, why are you doing the things that you're doing that are getting you into trouble? And, you know, my standard answer was either I don't know, or because I want to make some money to fit in and, you know, be able to afford to buy some stuff for myself. And he said, don't you know that you have a brain that's worth $100 billion? You just need to learn how to use it better. I said, well, no, I don't know that. And so he asked me if I would do a little exercise for him that would help him guide me and coach me. And so he gave me this document and he said, answer these questions and then I'm going to ask you one question once I reviewed it. And the answer to that one question will determine, okay, what your life is going to be like. And so I'm like, okay, sure. So he gives me this document that says, you know, at what age do you want to retire? And I said, I'm 19. How am I supposed to know when I'm going to retire? So I asked him, what should I write there? And he said, just pick a number. So I wrote 45. The second question was, how much net worth do you want to have upon retirement? And so I looked at him and I said, excuse me, sir, what does net worth mean? And he explained to me and I said, well, what am I supposed to put there? He says, pick a number. So I picked the number 3 million. What kind of lifestyle would you like to live? I said, what am I supposed to put here? He says, just write a lifestyle that you would like to live. Use your imagination. So I wrote, I'd like to travel the world, I'd like to see all the countries, I want to retire my parents, I want to buy a four bedroom home, I want to, you know, give to charities, I want to have a nice car. And I wrote down this vision and these goals that I had no idea how to achieve. Then he asked me one question. He leaned in and he said, are you interested in achieving this vision and these goals or are you committed to achieving it? And I was thinking about it, thinking, am I interested or am I committed? And I said to him, I said, Mr. Brown, what's the difference? And he said, if you're interested, you'll do what's easy and convenient. He said, if you're interested, you'll allow your old stories, your old excuses, your circumstances and why you're doing what you're doing to keep you stuck and hold you hostage. He said, but if you're committed, you will upgrade your identity to match the destiny that you wrote on this sheet of paper. He said, if you're committed, you'll upgrade your beliefs, you'll upgrade your habits, you'll upgrade your knowledge and your skills so that you can become the man capable of achieving every one of those goals which are all achievable. So he said, are you interested or are you committed? And in that moment, I remember feeling the hair stand up on my, you know, back of my neck and I don't know why Fleet, but I just said, well, in that case, sir, I'm committed. And he reached out his hand and he said, in that case, I will be your coach. I will mentor you to be able to achieve every one of these goals and dreams. I said, wow, thank you. And that's when my life changed. Because every day thereafter when I moved from Montreal to Toronto, I took the real estate course because he was in real estate for five weeks passed the moved in with my brother to his apartment, then worked on commission only for this gentleman. Every day he had me looking at that document that I created. And he said, by looking at this document, you are going to fire brain cells in your brain. He then asked me to write down what would you need to believe in order to achieve these goals. And so I wrote down, I would need to believe that I'm smart enough, I would need to believe that I'm worthy enough, I would need to believe that I can develop the skills I would need to believe. And I wrote down 15, 20 new beliefs. And he said, now what I want you to do is as you read the vision for the goals that you have in your life, I want you to believe, read the beliefs, run your fingers to the left, run your fingers to the right. So the signal would be sent through your fingers to your brain to light up, to fire or to re fire the brain cells that you needed to rewire your brain. This is 42 years ago. So I read the vision every day, I recorded it and listened to it every day. I read my beliefs, I emotionalized the beliefs, even though none of it was true. But what he told me was the more you fire those brain cells, the more you reinforce them. So practicing something that isn't even true or real right now creates and reinforces neural patterns. The neural patterns that are reinforced become dominant. The dominant patterns now take over thinking, take over emotional regulation, and creates the behaviors required to match whatever it is that you are training your brain for. That was the beginning of me being fascinated with the human brain. Because the results that I achieved over the next number of years blew my mind. And the more that I blew my own mind and then shared how to do what I did with other people and they got the results they wanted. I was hooked for life on this amazing brain that everybody has and everybody's brain functionally works the same.
What a great story. It's a great. It's amazing how people like yourself that are out there really making a difference in the world so often have a great origin story and that's really a great one. I could have used a lunch like that when I was 19. Pretty amazing. The understanding of the brain that this gentleman had 42 years ago, that predates really our understanding of neuroplasticity and so many other things. That's really pretty amazing.
That is correct. And what's interesting is he was a big fan advocate of Thing Can Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. He was a big believer in Maxwell Maltz's Psycho Cybernetics. James Allen, as a man thinketh, you know, book. So he was a, an early student and pioneer of the positive psychology or the positive thinking movement that the neuroscience and neuropsychology field over the last 40 plus years has now proven what I call are the neuromechanics of positive thinking, the neuromechanics of emotional regulation. And this is where I think you're aware of this. You know, remember Dennis Wakely? He did all of these techniques with Neil Armstrong, you know, before Neil Armstrong went to the moon. So the neuroscience stuff came after. You know, the pioneers forged a trail for us.
You know, there's a pattern there because neuroscience has also been confirming the effectiveness of various meditative and contemplative practices that have been around for thousands of years. And so a lot of the people in those traditions go, well, duh, we didn't really need you to tell us it works. But still, I think the neuroscience is adding a lot because it's helping us really refine our methodologies and refine our teaching methods and refine the practices and the tools, I think, because we're getting a subtler understanding of how it really works.
I totally agree with. And this is where, you know, science and spirituality aren't opposing each other. Science proves, in my opinion, what a lot of the spiritual masters, you know, and disciplines have taught for years now. We just have more evidence. So I think there is a visceral evidence from practice, but then there's a scientific evidence, you know, from going through rigorous scientific research and study to prove something more than once.
