Books Changed My Life | Nick Hutchison on Longevity & Building Book Thinkers | Primal Shots Ep. 1

Books changed my life. That's got a little punch in there.

That's punchy, yes.

I have a tattoo on my neck that says memento mori, which is Latin for remember you're going to die.

When you realize you have a finite life, you start working on infinite things.

And I want people to say Nick was a creator. He created value. He impacted people in a positive way.

Nick, it raises your testosterone. So there you go. You're gonna be even more muscular by the end of this Primal Shots journey.

Gen Z is the first generation in human history to have a lower average IQ and lower reading comprehension and lower math skills than the previous generation. There is a book out there to solve every single problem that we face as human beings.

Cheers. Cheers. Welcome to Primal Shots, where we go from the ground to the cosmos. And as the shots get healthier, the questions get deeper. And today joining us on this primal journey is Nick Hutchison, who is the founder of BookThinkers, which has become one of the leading platforms for authors and influencers. I cannot wait to get into the conversation with him. So Nick, welcome to Primal Shots.

I'm excited to be here. As the shots get healthier, the conversation gets deeper. So I'm excited for it.

That's right. That's right. So Nick, first off, I have to say, you know, when I first interacted with you and BookThinkers, and one of the things that really stood out was the ecosystem and the community you have created. And when I was looking at the roster of guests and I said, we have to have Nick because it has been Very impressive what you've done with your platform. And I want to get into that. And I'm sure people viewing this and listening to this want to learn more about you. But we will journey to this step by step. And so why don't we just dive right in? You know, the first thing for people in this day and age, It's not about information, but it's about transformation, right? You know, you can, you can get information from a book, but is it transforming you? That's a whole different question. And one of the pivotal things for transformation is our ability to be present. and have that awareness. And we're gonna start there. Our first shot, Nick, this is our grounding shot. And the purpose of this is to bring us in the present. So cheers.

Cheers. I'm excited. Let's taste it. Mm, that tastes great.

I love the taste of that shot. What do you think? What ingredients-wise?

Ooh, I told you I'm going to be bad at this. Let's see. Carrot.

Carrot. Okay, you got it.

Lemon.

All right. Okay.

It's tangy. I definitely— 3 ingredients?

One more ingredient, which you may or may not taste.

Turmeric.

Ah, you are on the ball. You see, you said you were going to be bad at this. That is fantastic. So turmeric. is the, I guess, power ingredient there. Because, you know, one of the things is that in order to have clarity and be present in our day, one is there has to be a level of clarity and detox when we start the day, because we wanna start off with a clean slate and approach the day with new eyes.

Mm-hmm.

And so that brings us to the question, Nick, With everything going on, and I know you're building this Book Thinkers platform, working with authors, working with other influencers, how does Nick start his day to be present?

It's a great place to start. I am famous for having a very long, very detailed morning routine. So I don't know how much time we want to dedicate to this, but I will say that my routine has changed a little bit. Since having my son Levi about 19, 20 months ago. And I have a little bit less time to myself than I used to because he wakes up every day at 7:30. So I try to get a few foundational pieces of my routine done before he wakes up. I'll wake up in the morning, I'll brush my teeth, I go downstairs, I bring the dog out. Now, an important part of bringing the dog out is actually grounding in sunlight.

Mm-hmm.

So I go out into the backyard with my shoes off. I feel the grass, I feel the earth on my bare feet.

I love it.

And in the corner of my backyard, over the fence and around my house is where the sun peeks through. So within 5 minutes of waking up, I get early sunlight exposure into my eyes. I try to look at the sun for as long as I can while I'm grounding, feed the dog, and then I go upstairs. And I'll do a couple of different things depending on where I am in life and at what stage my routine has progressed or regressed. But I'll tell you about today. So today I sat down in front of my red light therapy device and I did 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing, which is something that fluctuates with me. Sometimes I'll be really into it for a few months. Sometimes I'll trade it out for something else, just like silent meditation, which has been a big part of the last 10 years. I actually went and got certified, I guess, for Transcendental Meditation. So I did that for a long time. And so I change what type of mindfulness activities I do every morning. And then I'll do a little bit of journaling sometimes. Sometimes I'll answer a few emails, I'll get some reading done. But today, that's the very first couple of things that I do when I wake up in the morning.

I love it. I love it. You know, my book, the first chapter is connecting with the earth, you know, and everything you said, those are some of the key takeaways I talk about. And so important, you know, it's amazing just the basic things that we can do to change our life, you know, in terms of wellness.

Yes.

But I'm sure all of that really puts you in the present, right? Gives you that clarity for the day. Because I think that just randomly beginning the day, you can— you get just caught up, right, with all the, uh, just, just all the noise, right? And—

Yeah, I think so too. When I started my personal development journey about 10 years ago, I was an emotionally unintelligent person. And so I studied emotional intelligence. I wanted to have a little bit more control over what happens when an input enters my brain, just that little fraction of a second where you either react or you choose a better option. And so I started meditating about 10 years ago, and I found that through meditation, through the different mindfulness activities and exercises that I've participated in over the last decade, I've found a little bit more control. I have a little bit more of a choice in how I react, and that's also created a lot of presence in my life. I feel more at peace. I'm not worried about what's happening later in the day during my morning routine. I'm not worried about what happened yesterday during my morning routine. I'm in the moment and I love being in the moment. That's where I feel at home. And so yeah, it's important to start the day in control. Otherwise, if I just get thrown into the chaos, I mean, the rest of my day is going to be a mess, and I don't want that.

And, you know, Nick, from a neuroscience perspective, you know, they say that we have all these wonderful faculties, right? But we tend to, in this day and age, tend to bounce back between our memory and our imagination. We think about regrets of the past or anxieties of the future, but we never exercise our awareness of the present. And that's one thing I had to train is stop playing ping pong between the past and the future, because you're always anticipating events. You know, I might have this trip coming up next month and everything like that. So you're playing ping pong between the past and the future, but you're not aware of what is in front of you.

Mm-hmm.

You know, speaking of that, that brings us to our next shot, which is our focus shot. And I'll just have you dive right in, and then we'll talk about it. All right. Cheers. Okay.

Sounds good. Cheers. Oh, that's sweet. Sweeter than I thought it was going to be.

What do you think ingredient-wise?

I think cucumber. No?

Okay. Yes, one of them.

I think, hmm.

It's an ingredient that you have tasted today. How about that? If that's, if that's, if that's a clue.

Ah, matcha green tea.

Matcha.

Nice.

Nick and I, Nick and I had, I had, I had matcha tea right before, right before this podcast. And so what's interesting about matcha, Nick, And, you know, you mentioned that you were cycling between coffee and matcha. What's interesting about matcha, it has natural caffeine, but it's paired with this ingredient called L-theanine.

Mm-hmm.

And what it's— it's L-theanine is an adaptogen, and it actually helps you maintain a balanced stress and focus, you know? And so, That's our focus shot, you know? And so speaking about focus here, I know that there are probably 10 different things you can work on.

Mm-hmm.

Right? In terms of your business and with everything happening with Book Thinkers and whatnot. And what are you focused on today? And in this season, what is your— where is your focus?

Well, just like you talked about balancing thoughts of the present and thoughts of the past, and what our goal is, is really to be right in the middle. I piggyback, you know, I bounce back and forth between diluted focus and singular focus. You know, I'm a multi-passionate quick-start entrepreneur. I love chasing the shiny objects. I get a lot of sustainable energy from diversifying my focus in certain periods of life. But I know at the end of the day that in order to make progress in my business and therefore impact more people in a positive way, I have to use most of my time, leverage most of my time on the highest impact activities. And so today, my agency BookThinkers, we have a full-time staff of about 15 people. We serve hundreds of authors a year. That's my primary focus. But every day I allow myself to focus on a couple of other activities as well. So I would say 80% of my day today is focused on bringing more value to my main business, which is BookThinkers. And then 20% of my workday, I allow myself to chase those shiny objects. Now, outside of work, I try to shut the laptop and shut the phone off the minute the workday is over because I'm also trying to be a very present and focused father and husband. And my wife and my son Levi are a huge priority of mine. And I wanna make sure that I show up every single day the best version of myself For them. And then if we add a third category, I'm also into the sport of Ironman triathlons. I just did my first half Ironman earlier this year. I have another one next weekend, and then I've, I've got a full distance Ironman later this year. So I also spend a lot of time on my fitness and training, sort of the longer endurance activity. So like I said, diluted focus, multi-passionate, but— When I'm focused, I'm focused.

I love it. You look great, by the way.

Thank you.

Great shape. You look like you're in better shape since the last time I saw you. Oh, thank you. So you've been training, right? Yes, yes, I have. You've been training? It shows. It shows. That's awesome. You know, one of the things you said, which I really like, is that you said you have a focus, but then you also have this wiggle room to play with some of the things that maybe not in that main area that you're working on. And what is interesting is, you know, from my neuroscience perspective, right?

Mm-hmm.

We talk about this concept of mastery, right? And, you know, you've heard the, everybody's heard about the 10,000-hour rule that, you know, that there are no experts, they're just people who've done deliberate practice for 10,000+ hours. What is interesting about that whole research is that, when we start applying that to corporate, what has worked best is that you have to have an area of mastery where you're spending 70%, 70 to 80% of your time. But then you have to leave that 20% to innovate. You know, and so what was interesting about what you said is that you're really following the recipe, whether you know it or not.

I didn't know it, but apparently I am.

But that is the recipe is that, 70, 80% of your time goes into mastery because you remain a master in that space. But then you have that 20% to work on innovation, to do something new, you know? And which in the long run, that gives you the highest return. That brings us to our 3rd shot, Nick. All right? This is the most colorful shot— Yes, it is. Of our offering here. But here we go. Cheers. All right.

Yeah, it's got a little punch in there.

Punchy. Yes, yes, yes, yes. What do you think?

I don't know. It almost— the aftertaste was like a little bit of ginger, but it's not the color of ginger. So like a prune or Cherry or something like that. I'm wondering where the color's coming from.

So you said you're training for the Ironman, right? So we talk about— this is our endurance shot.

Okay.

And we talk about endurance. There are certain ingredients that are key players here. And one is beet juice. Beet. There we go. You see all the marathon runners, I'm sure in your Ironman prep, you know, that's one of of the things, beet, and it's paired with pomegranate. That's giving you that berry taste. But those 2 ingredients together, they have polyphenols and nitrates, which actually improve performance. And the kick is from a bit of cayenne pepper, which gives it that kick, which also has a performance aspect to it. But this endurance shot, Segues into an important question that I want to ask you. And I know last time I was at your Book Thinkers event and you shared a story which I want to, I want to hear a little bit more about. And, you know, you took this idea of a platform for authors from infancy to now a 7-figure company.

Mm-hmm.

And I know creating something like that is not easy. It has its ups and downs, and you're dealing with different people, and I'm sure there are challenges that nobody knows about that only you know, and all the doubts and, and, and anxieties about starting a business like that. But maybe give us a little bit of a backstory. You had mentioned about Leaving the traditional route and going down this path and about finding a coin and that making a decision for you to follow this path. And maybe for the listeners and viewers of this, just walk us through that story because I think it's so important. Because endurance, it's about what keeps us going. And I think all of us need that meaningful drive. And I wanna know, what was the meaningful drive that took you through that journey?

I love telling this story, so thank you for the opportunity. When I was growing up, what usually surprises most people that know about BookThinkers is that I was not much of a reader growing up. I was more of the athlete stereotype, not much of the academic. And so I was always the capable student. I took AP classes, but I was famous for having a 0% homework average in AP Calculus, Right? So that's who I was in high school, and I carried a lot of that same energy with me into college. But when I was in college, I became fascinated by money and the idea of earning money when I graduated. So I took this internship, girl, going into my senior year of college at a local software company. It was a sales internship, and my boss at the time, Kyle, would bring me on these local sales trips, and we'd be in the car sometimes for a couple of hours together. In fact, we came to New York City a couple of times from Boston, just to show you how much time we spent in the car. And he would get sick and tired of listening to me tell him how great I was. And so he would say, hey, Nick, can we put on some business podcasts? And so I said, sure, as if I'd listened to them all the time. I'd never listened to them, but I said, sure, I wanted to be cool. And so he would play these long episodes where people would show up and they would talk about what they did to become successful. And as I continued listening to them, both with my boss Kyle, but also independently as I was— as I would commute to and from work, I noticed that so many of these successful people in many different disciplines would give at least some credit for their success to the books that they had read.

Mm-hmm.

And a lot of the personal development and business classics continued to pop up over and over and over again. And so I was faced with this question one day of, if all of these brilliant people who are making a lot of money, which is what I was interested in at the time, if they're all giving credit to books, but I'm not a reader and I don't think reading is cool, Am I missing the boat here? And I recognized that I was. So I went to my local Barnes& Noble. I grabbed about 10 books, which was a lot of money for me to spend at the time, $20 to $25 apiece. And I went back to the office and I fell in love with reading as a form of personal development, as a way to solve a problem or build a skill or diversify a perspective or live up to my potential. And as I fell in love with reading, my friends and family encouraged me to start sharing the books I was reading on social media. They were tired of hearing me talk about them. And so it was both an opportunity to express my creativity, but it was also an opportunity to find a community of like-minded people. There had to be other people on planet Earth who loved reading and implementing personal development content. So to fast forward a little bit, I continued pouring some energy into these book reviews. It was like a blog-style thing. And as my audience got bigger and bigger, I had authors knocking on my door virtually asking if I could help promote and market their books. And so I started Book Thinkers as a book review platform, kind of. And it was the greatest side hustle on the planet, getting paid from the world's smartest people to read and implement material from their books. I mean, who wouldn't love that, especially a book reader like me? I mean, that was a big part of my identity. And so fast forwarding a little bit more, we started offering other services to authors. We'd fly out and help them film content. We would interview them for our podcast. And so to bring it to your point, we were out in LA and I still had my full-time software sales job.

Yeah.

I'm a couple of years outta college now. I'm making a good amount of money because I read and implemented a lot of sales books, breaking company records. The company I'm working for was acquired by multiple VCs. So more responsibility leading a sales team. Life is good, but I'm not happy. What really brings me energy is this Book Thinkers side hustle that I have.

Mm-hmm.

Now my side hustle, Book Thinkers, already had a couple of full-time people in it. I was earning money through my full-time job and then using that money to build infrastructure in my side hustle. So we're out in Los Angeles one day, and in the morning I film content at Steven Pressfield's house. And for those of the, those in the audience that aren't familiar with Steven, he's the bestselling author of some nonfiction works on creativity, like The War of Art, but also some fictional books like The Legend of Bagger Vance, which got turned into a movie featuring Will Smith and Matt Damon. I mean, how cool is that as an author? Then we go— I actually go do a podcast, and then I go to Lewis Howes, his studio, and we're in his studio for the rest of the day filming podcast content, and he invites some guests by, and it's just the best day ever. So that evening, I'm back at my hotel with a team member. His name is Luke. And we're walking around this little area because we're both doing the 75 Hard program and we needed to get some outdoor workouts done. And so we're walking around this area and we're on the 4th or 5th or 6th lap around this little complex outside of the hotel. And I tell Luke, I say, man, I would love to do this full-time, but I just need a sign or something from the universe.

Mm-hmm.

And I look down And there's a penny heads up right in the middle of the walkway. How could you miss it? That was my sign because earlier in the day, that morning, when I was filming the interview with Steven Pressfield, he was talking about how he's always been superstitious, about how he's always looked for signs from the universe. And in that interview, he said if he ever finds a penny that's heads up on the ground, he knows it's about to be a great day. It's a little nudge from the universe saying, hey, you're on the right path. And so I looked down at that penny and Luke looked at me and I said, I'm quitting my job on Monday. And I went back to the office. I quit my job on Monday and I went full-time into Book Thinkers. And to wrap up the story, the following month we doubled our revenue, not because of the additional time that I was putting into the business, but I believe it was just confirmation from the universe that I had made the big, bold decision and that it was the right one. And so, that's how I ended up in the business full-time.

Oh, I love it. I love it. Oh my God. I think everybody is going to be looking for a penny on the floor after this, right?

I still look for them. Money is abundant. Nobody's too good to pick up a penny.

Amazing. Amazing. You know, everything you said involves other people. None of this happens without other people.

That's very true.

And that brings us to our next shot, Nick. And this one, you got to stir a little bit. Okay, let's do it. Okay. This is the one you've been waiting for. I know you were eyeing this one when you— when we were putting this out. So this is our tribal shot.

Okay.

All right. Cheers.

Cheers.

Mm, that is very smooth. What do you think?

Okay, so some cacao.

Yes.

Yes, which gives you some energy and reconnects you to the earth. It's, you know, it's like dirt and it tastes great. Was there pepper at the bottom? No?

Not much. Not much. So the— you catch— you caught the star ingredient. The performance ingredient in here, which is tough to taste because it doesn't have that much of a body, is maca. Maca root. And which is— it's an ingredient that helps with hormone balance. In females, it balances their hormone. In men, Nick, it raises your testosterone.

Oh, wow.

So, there you go. You're going to be even more muscular by the end of this Primal Shots journey. And, but chocolate has always been about connection, right? We give chocolate Valentine's Day. We, with our kids, we share hot chocolate during the holidays. But I believe creating the right tribe is very, very important. And as you journey through building BookThinkers, tell us a little bit about that aspect. Is that— what are the relationships you are nurturing and that have been the most treasured for you in this journey?

Well, as I highlighted a little bit earlier, books changed my life. I started to solve problems. I started to build skills. I started to live up to my potential. I started to diversify my understanding of the universe. And as a result, I found peace. And I think that's what most of us are after. And so because books changed my life and I found a way to help authors get their books in front of more people, I found that that's my purpose. You know, I think of authors as people with solutions, and I think of readers as people with problems.

Mm-hmm.

And it's my responsibility on this planet to help connect the two. And so what brings me energy is building a deep relationship with somebody else. I'm a genuinely curious person. I think we all have so much value to provide each other. And the quickest way to remove imposter syndrome is just to realize that, you know, something today, audience, that you didn't know a couple years ago. And if you could go tap your younger self on the shoulder, you could provide value. Imposter syndrome melts away. We all have something to offer. And so I'm that bridge. I love to help people understand the value that they can provide, and then I love to put them in front of the people they can provide that value to. So building deep connections through curiosity and then inspiring action. One of my favorite quotes is, is from Napoleon Hill. He says, action is the real measure of intelligence. Just like you highlighted before, books are great, knowledge is great, but they're nothing unless you take action on what you've learned.

Absolutely.

And that's the catalyst for the transformation that we talked about earlier. So the people that I network with today, they are impact-driven. They have a solution. They found that solution through a lot of trial and error, sometimes decades and decades of research, and then they've condensed all of that understanding into days of reading. into books. And so I love books. I love books as a way to change a life. Books are inexpensive, yet they condense decades of somebody else's greatest life lessons and sometimes millions or billions of dollars of research into something that you can use. They're practical, they're physical, and I love them. So those are the people that I spend my time networking with. And to come back to an earlier point as well, when I first started my journey 10 years ago, I thought that Financial success was success. Here I am, 10 years older, and I've realized that's not the case. I now admire people who have a more holistic sense of success. They have money, of course, but they're using that money in a positive way. Money is an amplifier. It's going to amplify negative activity or amplify positive activity. So I like people that are using it for impact. I like people that have a great Family situation. You know, I admire people who can build a business, but also build a family at the same time. I admire people who are healthy physically. I think that, I mean, this podcast, by the way, is aging me backwards, but I think that people who really focus on health and consuming products like this, they have a longer timeline to make a bigger impact. And we all know that the compound effect is real. Einstein, who we talked about earlier, Called it the 8th wonder of the world. And so the longer that we accumulate knowledge and build businesses and have families, the more exponential our impact can be. And so if we live longer lives full of more energy, that we can have a greater impact. And I also love people that are spiritually connected, that are present, that are aware of something else and are connected to it. And so it's the balance of all of those things that I admire. And those are the people that I like to spend my time investing in relationships. And you're one of those people. You really are. I'm excited that we're building this relationship through this podcast right now. And, you know, I love it. You have it all.

I love it. Thank you. And, you know, one of the things, Nick, you've said is that, and it echoes what, what I believe in, is that our true equity is our ecosystem, right? And those relationships, you know, when we look at the research, the longest running study from your neck of the woods, from Harvard.

From Harvard, yeah.

Right, you've heard about the— it's the study, I think it's going on 75+ years, and they looked at all the factors in terms of what brings you health and happiness. And they looked at factors such as whether you smoke or not, fitness level and everything like that, the number one factor was your quality of relationships, which was fascinating to me because that just shows. And, you know, you said that you respect people who build good family units, which speaks a lot about that person, because I believe that if a person can maintain a healthy family, then they're going to be a good business person. They're going to make good decisions. And that's the person I want on my team.

Mm-hmm.

You know? And speaking of longevity and going— looking to the future, it brings us to our last shot here, okay? This one we definitely need to stir because it is the healthiest shot of all, all right? And this is our pinnacle of health. Nick, you're definitely going to reverse your biological age after this one. So cheers.

Cheers. I'm excited.

Mm.

It's got a little tangy.

Yeah? Yeah.

Is that ginger? What's the taste? What's the tanginess from?

This one is tough. It's tough. It's tangy. Because it has a citrus element to it. The bitterness—you taste the bitterness. I do after. There is that bitterness, right? So the star ingredient here is bitter melon, and it's most people don't use it. It's used in Eastern cultures. It has tremendous benefits in terms of blood sugar control. And in many countries, it's used as such. The only thing is that it's tough to consume because of the bitterness, and most people just don't even go near it. So, but if you, you could see it's fairly tasty. The shot is fairly tasty.

It does, yeah. I don't mind the bitterness, like grapefruit and stuff like that.

Yeah, yeah. So if you're able to pair it right, as we did here, you can actually, you know, make a shot that can be very healthy. And, um, but it, it symbolizes to me, you know, um, the bitter truth in life.

Mm-hmm.

Is the fact that we all have an endpoint. There's an expiration date, right? Sometimes we think we have an infinite life, but we don't. You know, we have finite lives, but at the same time, we have the ability to make an infinite difference. And the question I want to ask you, Nick, here is, with everything you're working on, with BookThinkers going where it is going, I know you have this great event coming up in July, which is your annual BookThinkers conference, and looking forward to being there with you. Where— what is the legacy that you see? You know, I know you have a little one, and I'm sure you're thinking about that, right? And I guess maybe my kids are older, and I'm closer maybe than you are to that question. But I'm sure at the back of your head you're thinking that, you know, what is the lesson? What is the impact I want to leave behind? And where do you see BookThinkers going from here?

It's actually more front of mind for me than I would say most people my age. In fact, I have a tattoo on my neck that says Memento Mori, which is Latin for remember you're going to die. And so I see that every single day. I'm fascinated by death. I know there's a finite amount of time that we're all going to have on this planet. And that saying YOLO, you only live once, is funny because Most people use that phrase as an excuse to do something crazy or reckless. I use that phrase as a way to reprioritize and refocus my time and energy. I don't want to waste it. We're only here for a limited amount of time, and so I'm very conscious of that. So many of the authors that have written the books that I read, they talk about their mortality. They talk about the regrets that they have in life. They talk about the things that they wish they did differently. And I'm here to read those books, to absorb that understanding, and to change my life as a result of it. And so, you know, yes, we're all going to die, and it's our responsibility to make the time that we have on this planet the best time ever. And so I have a lot of fun. My wife and I travel a lot internationally and we definitely experience a lot of what life has to offer. When I was younger and when I didn't have my son, I did more of the adrenaline extreme sports type stuff. Now it's about building a foundation that my children can leverage for the rest of their lives. And when I, when I'm on my deathbed and I look back at my life, I want to say, wow, I really went for it and I really did the thing. And I don't have many regrets. I'm very proud of the life that I lived. I, Lived up to my potential. I impacted the world in a positive way. I left it better than when I came into it. And unfortunately, today we live in such a distracted society where people are consuming far more than they're creating. And I want people to say, Nick was a creator. He created value. He impacted people in a positive way. And yes, I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. We all could. But at the same time, I might live for another 100 years. And so I might as well leverage the compound effect and build some leverage now while I have the energy and while I'm aging backwards and getting healthier and healthier. And so I just, I love life so much and I wanna make the most of it. I really do. And so for my son, you know, one of the best pieces of advice that I've been given so far is that. Our responsibility as parents is to help our children become who they're meant to be.

Mm-hmm.

Not craft them into what we want them to be, but help them become who they already are. And so my wife and I, we want more kids, of course, but for our son Levi today, I just want to create a reality where he feels unconditional love and support and he has a role model. I, I, somebody said to me once, You know, if Levi grows up to be exactly who you are today, would you be happy? And I said, yes, I would be. I'm proud of where I am in life. Yeah, I've got a long way to go. Yeah, I have a couple of regrets, but I'm doing the thing. I would love if he was this healthy, this happy, had such a great relationship like I do with my wife, was spiritually connected. And I'm going to continue that for as long as humanly possible.

I love that answer. You know, I'm a bit ahead of you in terms of children. I have 2 boys, and that's how I see myself as well. You know, I, I want them to see their parents trying and out there.

Mm-hmm.

You know, I did not want to settle for a job and a paycheck, and I just wanted to show them that, hey, you know, Let's make an impact. You know, in my— the last chapter in my book, we talk about 7 paradigms. It's about connecting with mortality. And the beautiful thing about connecting with mortality is when you realize you have a finite life, you start working on infinite things. It's a paradox. And the people who think they have an infinite life, which is not true, They're the ones who are doom scrolling and, and then sort of wasting time because they think there's always tomorrow. But when you realize you have a finite life, you want today to count.

Yes.

Right? And I love what you said. And I think— I hope your son grows up like you because we need another Nick. We definitely need another Nick. You know, Nick, as we wrap up here, 3 rapid-fire questions.

Hit me. All right. I'm feeling good after all this.

You're good?

Yeah, let's go.

You look younger. You know, you look younger from an hour ago. So, 3 rapid-fire questions. Number 1, favorite book?

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.

Awesome. I love that book too. 2, one habit that you would recommend that would change people's lives tomorrow?

The sauna.

Sauna. Okay. Okay. Love it. Love it. I like the steam or dry?

I like a dry sauna.

You try dry sauna? Okay. Okay. I'm more of a steam guy, but close enough. Close enough. Last one. One person you would credit the most impact Hmm.

My mom. Yeah. Growing up, I had the greatest parents ever. So many people, so many of my friends, they say, when I have kids, I'm going to do this differently. And for me, I said, when I have kids, I'm going to try to replicate what my parents built for us, which is a household full of unconditional love and support. And I think my parents helped me, but also my 3 younger brothers, become exactly who we were meant to be. We're all happy, healthy, in great relationships. And I give my parents a lot of credit, but my mom specifically, just that unconditional love and support, I think is the foundation that a young person needs to then go take some risks and have the confidence that if it all falls apart, I can lean back on my mom and my dad. And so I'll say my mom's probably had the biggest impact on me out of everybody.

I love it. I love it. You know, I say the same thing about my dad. His work took us to Africa and gave me these experiences. We lived all over the world, 22 houses, but it was the most blessed life up till now. And I love that you mentioned your mom. Nick, you survived our primal journey today. And as we leave the listeners and the viewers here, what is What is one message you want to— I want to leave them with?

Something we talked about before. There are these studies coming out today that say that Gen Z is the first generation in human history to have a lower average IQ and lower reading comprehension and lower math skills than the previous generation, millennials. So I'm a young millennial, and that's sad because I guess we've been able to track things like IQ now for a couple hundred years, and it's progressively increased. bit by bit, generation over generation. And now we're seeing a decline. We're seeing a decline for a couple of different reasons. The data points out that short-form content on our cell phones is shortening our attention span. Therefore, we can't learn as efficiently. And all of that time consuming content rather than creating content is hurting the development of our prefrontal cortex. And so from very young ages up through 6 years old, and then all the way up through 20 years old, you know, your executive functions develop as a result of creation. When you're bored and you fill your time by creating a game or reading a book or collaborating with other people, that's how you build the skill of delaying gratification and effective communication. Yet kids today aren't getting access to those executive function development capabilities and facilities because of the short-form content and the consumption of social media. And then we're replacing the long-form content like physical paper books with audio only, or again, just scrolling on social media. And so I think kids are really missing out on how great long-form physical books have been for the development of the human brain and for IQ and reading comprehension and all of those other measurable baselines. And so I just want to say that there is a book out there to solve every single problem that we face as human beings. There's a book to help you acquire any skill or adopt any perspective. And so I think one of my missions now, Kaveen, is to help make physical paper books attractive again to young people. Because this atrophying of IQ and reading comprehension and everything else, social communication skills, Is sad, and I don't like to see it. There's so much power in physical books. They help you lengthen your attention span and develop great ideas. One of the great things about a book is that an author will lay out a premise, and then they'll start to layer in supportive evidence, supporting evidence, case studies, testimonials, research. All of that foundational knowledge leads to a different perspective. Like you say at the end of your book, Paradigm shifts. And that can't happen if I just say a cool quote to you. You're not gonna change your life, but if you read a book, you might. And so that long-form content is important for us in order to create change and transformation. And I just hope that somebody listening or watching this podcast says, yeah, maybe I'll give a physical paper book another try if they haven't read one in a couple of years.

I love it. Nick, I think people listening and viewing this will go from not just information, but transformation. I think everything you've mentioned, it's something that people could implement. And the last bit that you mentioned, I'm totally on board with you. It just jives with everything I'm reading in neuroscience and everything I'm seeing on my screen as a radiologist. But thank you for everything you're doing with BookThinkers. Thank you for creating that ecosystem. I'm glad to be on this journey with you because I think part of wellness, the world I'm coming from, it's also about connection and creating that tribe, and you're doing it so well. So thank you, and thank you for being On this show and taking the Primal Shots journey with us.

Thank you for reversing my biological age.