Unleash the Genius Part of Your Brain to Financial Success - John Assaraf

All right. And we're back with my good buddy. And most people know that there must be a faster way to achieve their financial goals. But they've never learned how to use their brains the right way to do it. And based on the latest brain research, my next amazing expert, it's not his first time on the brain. A thon Dr. Srini Pillay is going to show you how to unleash the genius part of your brain so that you can take the smartest path to financial success. And Srini is an award winning author and world renowned Harvard trained psychiatrist and brain imaging researcher. And he was one of the top overall medical students in his class and won the most national awards of anybody in his class in the history of psychiatry at Harvard. And he's widely sought out all over the world. Oprah Network, cnn, Martha Stewart radio, Cosmopolitan, Elle, New York Times, Wall Street Journal. He also is the CEO of Neuro Business Group and the author of another one of my favorite books, Life seven revolutionary lessons to overcome fear and your business and your brain and the neuroscience of great leaders. And how did we connect? Because of his book called the Science behind the Law of Attraction. For all of you attraction folks out there, so help me welcome Dr. Srini Pillai. Give him a big welcome in the community. Hey. And so this is what your third or fourth brain a thon it is.

And I always love being here, you know, from my heart to yours and the rest of the world and my brain to yours and the rest of the world. It's fantastic to be here because I think the brain is one of my greatest passions in the world. And to have someone like you celebrate it so that people can celebrate theirs I think is fantastic.

And you see all of you saw my brain before, right? Srini brought his Harvard brain. So we're talking about his bigger brain in just a moment. So let's talk about what's one of the biggest reasons people are watching right now that they don't achieve whether it's their financial goals or the other goals that they can achieve.

So I think for a lot of people on the surface it looks like there are a lot of different reasons. So for example, some people don't actually have the goal articulated. So do they want to make $50,000, $500,000, a million dollars? And so because they're unclear about the goal, they're not able to reach it. For other people, they're unclear about how to get to that goal and how to execute in order to get to that goal. And then there's Another group of people who know what the goal is, they know how to get there. But somehow, despite their motivation and their best efforts, they're not able to get there. And I know in my practice, when I talk to people about this, a lot of people say, listen, I know what I want to do, but. But I've got to pay the bills and I'm at home and I can't really change my job, so I'm stuck. And so, even though these sound like a whole lot of different reasons, the truth is, if you look closely, there's one pattern that emerges. And that pattern is that people are stuck in the habit circuits in their brain.

Hold on, hold on. People are stuck in the habit circuits in their brain. So let's talk. What exactly does that mean?

So what it means is that early on in life, we develop certain patterns of thinking, and we get to a certain point and we think we're fine. The problem is the habit circuits, also called conditioning, start to rule our lives. They dominate our lives. And we tell ourselves we want to change. I can't tell you how many people have said to me, I definitely want to make more money. I definitely need half a million dollars. I definitely need to pay off my mortgage. People have a really good, sincere intention when they think about money. But the problem is the moment you start to think about change, your brain goes into what I call brain chaos. And the technical term for this is cognitive dissonance. And what that means is that when you say to yourself, okay, listen, I know I've got these habit circuits. I'm going to make a change. And you talk to yourself and you say, I'm really committed to this change. But people must be saying this right now, right? They're like, should I make this change? Should I not? The first thing to recognize is that your brain is going to rebel. It's going to say, nope, don't do that. Change is not good for you. Let's go back to the old habit.

And does that happen in the form of self talk? Does it happen in the form of emotions? Does it happen in the form of behaviors? What is that? How does it show up so people know how to recognize it? That's one of the first things we teach is, is how to recognize this.

Yeah. So I think one of the things. So firstly, this can be both conscious and unconscious. And I think we're lucky if we're conscious, because the truth is, about 95% of mental activity is actually unconscious. So you may not even realize that this is happening. But what happens Is you hit a wall in your life, or you feel like you keep on making errors in your life, or you feel like you're really exhausted because you're trying so hard and you can't do that. And a lot of people will come home at the end of the day and say, I didn't really do that much, but I'm really exhausted. And they're exhausted about thinking about the change. And it's just these clues. Fatigue, exhaustion, hitting a wall, feeling like you're not really getting anywhere, making mistakes. It's these clues that you need to think about and say to yourself, wait a minute, Maybe this is the brain chaos. Maybe this is the cognitive dissonance. Maybe my habit circuits are trying to dominate my life, and I'm going to do something to try to change this.

Love it. So, first and foremost, is it possible to change these habits circuits, turn them off, create new ones?

Absolutely. I mean, that's my whole excitement about this field, and the reason I'm excited to be here. The technical term for this is neuroplasticity. And simply what it means is that a long time ago, we used to believe that the brain could change in childhood, but not in adulthood. And now we know that even in adults, you can see pretty dramatic changes in the brain. So the first thing is that the brain can change. Secondly, we have a lot of data to show that with very specific techniques, a lot of which you teach people, you can actually access your brain and change brain blood flow, and in the process, change your habits as well. In fact, what you want to do is develop new habits, habits that serve you rather than habits that defeat you.

So when we're talking about habits, we're talking about thinking habits, emotional habits, and behavioral habits. And so, you know, I talk about stuff in circuits. Flip on your brain's success, which starts by saying yes to yourself. How can somebody who's watching right now, somebody who wants to earn an extra 500 or $5,000 a month, how can they start today to do what they need to do to use their brain better? So we teach them some skills right now so that they can start making progress towards getting out of these habit circuits or traps, and they start achieving those goals.

So two things briefly. The first is what I call possibility thinking. A lot of people say they want to change, but deep down, they. They don't really believe that this change is possible. Now, we know from studies on sugar pills, placebo, that the moment you start to say, I think becoming wealthier is possible, your brain will be on board and will try to figure out how to actually do this.

And that's that left prefrontal cortex.

Well, it's a lot of the brain, but that's a really important part of it. I think if you say to your brain, this is not possible, I'm just not going to do it, your brain says, thank you, good night. I'm going to sleep and I'm not going to do anything. So the very first thing I would say is, please write this down. Number one, possibility thinking. And really, the way to do this is through self talk. As you pointed out, we now have thousands of studies that show us that with self talk, you can change brain blood flow. So with possibility thinking, two things are happening in the brain. One is you're increasing opioids so you're feeling more chill. So those stressful days that are usually in your way that create these habits, they're gone away. And the second thing is you're activating reward pathways in the brain, dopamine pathways. And so you're feeling a bit more motivated. So once you get possibility thinking down and you write that down, the second thing to do is to ask yourself, how do I become committed to this new change? So let's say people are listening now and they're thinking, boy, you know, I really love this program. And I just heard somebody whose life has changed, and I'm thinking, should I commit to this? And why are these people so excited? And should. Should I suspect them and what are they? All these thoughts are going through people's heads. And I think one of the things to remember is that your brain is just going to rebel against you. So when you make a change, you pay a price. And that price is called switch cost.

Let me repeat that. When you decide to make a change, you have to pay a price. And that price is called switch cost. Somebody tweet this, Facebook it, share it. Take a picture of us right now and share this. Switch cost. So what is this thing called a switch cost?

Well, the moment you say to yourself, self talk, okay, I'm committed. I'm sold on this. I want to change. Your brain starts activating all these emotions. Fear. What if I get lost? What if I fail? For some people, what if I succeed? You know, then there are also. It's also uncertainty, ambiguity, you know, fear of the unknown. All of these are the prices and the emotions you have to learn how to manage. And you know, in your program, you actually teach people how to manage those emotions. So what's really cool about this is that once you say to yourself, I'm prepared to pay the switch cost. The next thing to do, and this has been shown by a large number of studies, is to actually convince your brain that the change is essential. Now Tomas Hubel, who's really one of my favorite spiritual thought leaders, actually says that when something is essential, it does not require time.

When something is essential, it does not require time.

And what that means is that for the majority of people there's this thought of I really want money, but is it essential? You know, here I really want to make more money, I want to pay off my mortgage, but is it essential? The question is, how do you make it essential? The way you make it essential and the way you get your brain to come on board is, is you make a column and please do this right now. Take out a piece of paper and a pen, have column A and column B. In column A, write down what you're doing right now and in column B, what your financial goal is. The kind of thing that John asked you to do earlier today. And now I want you to write down all the possible reasons for what you could do with this new change in your life. So for example, if you could pay off your mortgage, if you could, you know, pay for your kids college education, if you could buy yourself a new car, if you could splurge on a vacation until your brain buys the thought that it's essential, you're always going to be using extra effort and you're not going to be activating a lot of these unconscious circuits to get you to your goal. This is called spreading of alternatives.

Spreading of alternatives, I love that.

Which means alternative A is the situation I'm stuck in, alternative B is the situation I want to go to. And the more you tell your brain, listen, where I want to go is so different from where I am that I really want you to buy into this. By doing that, that's when you actually activate this left prefrontal cortex and you become more committed to change.

So what I heard Srini say, and I hope you caught this, is you.

Can actually direct your brain absolutely with self talk.

So you can direct your brain with self talk and you can manage your emotions to get over that neural dissonance that you're going to feel. Okay, when that error detection mechanism kicks in and override that. So let's talk about for just a moment, if somebody has low self worth or they have fears, how is that holding them back from achieving success and, and what do they do about it?

So when you have fear, often it's fear of failure, fear of being lost, fear of the unknown. Fear activates the fear center in the brain. And the technical term for that is the amygdala. Well, if we take a look at this brain and we take a look at what's going on, I wouldn't encourage anybody to do this to their own brain.

So let's show them.

Yes. So if you look at this, the prefrontal cortex is where think is the thinking brain, and the thinking brain is connected to the feeling brain. So when you have fear, it's activating the feeling brain. And as a result, you get earthquakes in the fear center, metaphorically, which then cause these other earthquakes in the prefrontal cortex. Which means that even though you're thinking to yourself, I really want to make this change, I really want more money, you really can't think straight. You can't attend, you can't find creative solutions to how to make more money. And so part of what we have to learn, and I think what you teach people, is how do you manage emotional overwhelm? By calming down this amygdala. And here, the reason I love this is that there's so much research to show this. And when you do that, you actually release your thinking brain to do its best thinking.

Love that. And that again, is that's how you get your genius part of the brain to activate versus that old reptilian or lizard brain to prevent you from achieving your goals and dreams. I want to shift, if we can, for just a moment. You've not only helped in crafting, you know, and sharing with us some of this brilliance, and we've molded a lot of our programs. You've had a chance, you know, to see the program developing the way the game of money, success coaching and brain retraining program. What are your thoughts to people who are watching it right now and what it could do for them in its entirety?

Well, a lot, really. I mean, so I think there are a couple of different levels of, really evidence that I feel I respond to. The first is that the program is structured around frameworks that are research based. And so because they're research based, I feel like these are solid frameworks that are actually worth testing out. The second thing is something that in some way, I actually prize even more than that, which is that I've been coming here now for a few years. And every time I come here, I meet real people who have actually had real transformations in their lives. And mathematically, I've always believed if it's possible for one person, it's possible for everyone. And so, of course, there'll be individual differences. Of course there'll be different challenges that different people will have. But for me, the biggest evidence is seeing that this is actually transforming people's lives. And I think one of the things that I particularly like, and you'll remember this from when we first met, is that I love that you don't just address conscious factors, that this program also addresses unconscious factors. And it's really the unconscious factors. And I think a lot of people say, well, how can you address what's unconscious? It's unknown. Well, we actually had an interaction like that where you actually demonstrated to me that you could induce a different feeling state. And I was, you know, I really didn't believe it when I met John that day. We actually met at the Harvard Club. We were at the Harvard Club in New York. And John was like, you know, try this out. And I was like, oh, my God, here comes another person with this nonsense. And I tried it out, and I was very humbled by it. You know, I really was humbled by it. And so I feel like, personally, my clients try these methods. I think that I try them when I have challenges myself. And I know you do too. So I think for me, I know this is a pun, but it's a no brainer. It's a no brainer, which is really that I think if you want to make a change in your life and if you want to really say, I want to take the bull by the horns and make more money, then this program is one that I feel uninhibitedly enthusiastic about because I've been here so many times and I've seen real change occur.

I love it. And one more thing. When somebody listens to the guided visualizations or the guided meditations or the cognitive behavior strategies that we give them, what's actually happening in their brain when they use it and inner size every single day. Because this is not something that I take lightly. It's something that I know works. But what's happening in their brain that elicits the change.

So there are two ways in which you can think about executing strategy. One is focus, which is a cortical, more deliberate cognitive strategy, which you have in the program five ways to move brain blood flow from the fear center back to the thinking brain. But the other, as I said, is the unconscious or subcortical. These are the unfocused circuits. And so when you bypass the cortex and activate these unfocused circuits, you are actually giving the focus circuits a break. And you're increasing your creativity and you're finding ways around the slow, linear strategies to be able to take you to your goals. And actually, there was a pilot study that was done recently looking at sounds and its effects on the brain. And in the study, they actually found that these sounds bypass the cortex and go directly to the brain stem. And that's where a lot of the action is.

I love it. And what Srini is specifically referring to is in our, the brain training part of our program, the 12 levels has some incredible sound wave technologies to do some magical things in your brain to help you imprint those beliefs and habits and perceptions. And so, Sweeney, I know you have a gift that we've put together for everybody, and it's called strategic speed. Use your brain to achieve your financial goals faster. And the value of that, when you take action today is $197. Let's talk just a little bit about what they're going to learn in that program that you're offering everybody as a gift for taking action today.

Sure. So, you know, research has shown that there are three factors that lead to your increase in speed of making money. Clarity. How clear are you about your goals and how clear are you about the strategy? Unity. Is everyone in your life on board or people pulling you in different directions? And agility, which is how do I fail fast, how do I recover fast? And how do I change with the changing times so that I can be successful? And so this program actually is based on that research and will teach people how they can address these three factors.

I love it. And that's going to be in the million dollar success library when you order it today. We're going to unlock it over the next few months.