In this motivational talk, the speaker outlines a practical approach to turning reading into a productive habit that supports business planning and industry awareness. The core message is that merely acquiring books or news headlines does not create value; one must actively prioritize reading time, protect attention, and use incremental, uninterrupted sessions to rebuild focus. The speaker recommends putting the phone on airplane mode, starting with five‑minute reading blocks and gradually extending them, to counteract the attention‑erosion caused by platforms like TikTok. For staying informed about one’s industry, the speaker advises digging beyond headlines by following independent journalists on Substack and using X (formerly Twitter) to discover angles, then conducting deeper research. The overall takeaway is that disciplined, focused reading—supported by specific tools and sources—expands knowledge and strengthens the brain, whereas passive consumption of headlines does not.
Chapters
Help prioritizing. Oh, law. Okay, so this is a very important business planning skill. How are you going to read those books I gave you? A lot of y'all will probably hunt them down, buy them, and there they will sit. That's probably not going to improve your life a whole lot if you just buy the book and let it sit there. That's why if your Bible has dust on it, it ain't doing your spiritual life not a darn bit of good. So how do you prioritize that? You're going to have to decide that that's worth spending your time on. You're going to decide to put your phone in airplane mode. You're going to decide that you want to spend 15 minutes reading. And I'll just say this, when you're trying to prioritize your life, figure out again where you are. And I'll take reading as an example. Most of us have become terrible readers because we are watching our attention span reduce because of things like TikTok and the internet and the notifications that come in like this. And life is surprised all the time. You can't focus on reading because you need to slow down, let your brain absorb. So you might only read 2 paragraphs before you doze off in your flower chair. Excuse me, that's me. So before you doze off in your regular chair, so give yourself permission to read for 5 minutes uninterrupted, and then the next week stretch that out to 6 minutes. You'll find that you can get back to reading, and that's going to help your brain grow in a different way. So if you want to know what's happening in your industry right now, you're going to have to read the briefings from lawsuits. You can't just read the headlines. We can't read the headlines on anything, y'all. Go deeper. I go to Substack for my news. For those of y'all that want to know where I get my news, it ain't from the mainstream media because I don't trust nary one of them. But I go to Substack and I follow independent journalists. I look at X as a way to find some angles and then I go digging. That's how I do my research. And the fact that I can sit and read for 15, 20, 30 minutes is what allows me to become more educated. You're not going to get educated on headlines, y'all.
