Thriving Through Health Trials with Jim Kaveney

Everybody suffers pain in some way, shape, or form. Like, you can, you can, you can, you know, you can go ahead and accept the fact and do something about it positively, or you can wallow in your self-pity. And so, for me, I'm like, I'm not doing that. I'm going to go do something and I'm going to do something good with it. And how do I go out of those conversations with people that are struggling? And so, that's the whole point of the book.

Jim, welcome to the Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books Podcast. To kick things off, I'm going to say a statement and I'd love to hear your reaction. So here it is. The New England Patriots are the greatest football franchise of all time.

Well, that's false. That's false. Yeah, I'm probably gonna get some hate mail after that one, but yeah, no. I mean, I guess technically they can be declared that, but as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, yeah, we're not gonna let them have that honor just yet.

Yeah, I was reading about some of the things that you wrote about the Patriots in there. And as a lifetime Patriots fan, it was just fun to read. And I figured, yeah, I'd throw a little jab to kick off the podcast today. And funny enough, behind the scenes, we have 2 Steelers fans that work for Book Thinkers. And so, we get plenty of Steelers love as well.

Yeah. Well, that's great. Well, Nick and Luke, thank you very much for having me today.

Yeah.

So, tell us a little bit about you. Tell us about your book and what you're looking to raise awareness for.

Yeah. So, thank you. So, the whole purpose of the book, as it's entitled Unlimited Heart: How to Transform Your Pain into Purpose, is really a story about the challenges through my life. It is a memoir-y business book. So, it's the challenges of my life and how I utilize my mind and my heart collectively to overcome a significant amount of challenges. And, more importantly, it's also around the concept that You know, as you guys have read this, you know, early on in my life, I was just a kid and I didn't know what I was doing, but I was dealing with a fair amount of anxiety. And you never really know what those pieces and parts and things are in your life until later in life when it comes back to you and you realize, oh, that, that event, that moment strengthened me for this where I'm at today. And so, I'm a faithful person as well. So, I'm like, I was teed up for this. I had no idea what this was all about, but now I do. And so, it's really a battle of the heart and the mind. And if you can align those two together, Anybody can really accomplish pretty much anything they want to.

Tell us about the family work ethic when you were growing up. It gets highlighted a number of times throughout the first couple of chapters, and it sounds like you came from quite the hardworking family.

Yeah, we did. We did. So, I'm the youngest of 9. And so, of course, being the baby out of 9, of course, everybody thinks that I grew up on shrimp cocktails and some champagne. But But no, I mean, for us, it was growing up in the '80s. I mean, we had a responsibility. My father worked for IBM for 30 straight years, but he didn't make a ton of money. And my mom was a schoolteacher. So, the whole idea was if we want something in life, you got to go out and get it because nobody's going to give it to you. And it was one of those things. And I can remember my mom specifically, she's like, we make just enough money not to get food stamps. 'Cause I always used to look when we got groceries, we'd go in and I'd be like, oh, I want what's in that basket. And she's like, well, we can't get that 'cause I don't have enough money to pay for it. And I'm like, well, why do they have it? And she's like, well, we don't qualify for X, Y, and Z. And so, she's like, we've gotta really work hard for every single thing we get. And so, that was an absolute treasure that my parents gave to us. At the time, you had no idea what it was gonna mean to you or do for you in your life, but it set me and my siblings up for a— Yeah.

And then you go to highlight that although you were just above the food stamp level, somehow they found a way to pay for 144 years of collective Catholic education.

Yeah.

Which was a lot of fun. And you mentioned that you're a faithful person. So, you know, maybe we'll dive a little bit into that as the podcast progresses, but I'll kick it over to Luke for the next question.

That's great. Well, Tim, I'm just so curious, you know, As I was reading through your book, I'm like, okay, I can ask him about leadership. I can ask him about being a father, and I can ask him about entrepreneurship. Like there's all these things in your life that you've done, and it's so impressive just seeing what you came from and what you've gotten to. So what I'm really curious about—you just mentioned your parents and how they were like really hard workers, but they never really had the finances to back up their hard work. So my question is: Why do you think that is? Some people work. work really hard their entire life, but they never actually get into that financial stability piece versus working hard and actually being able to be financially free. Now, having 9 kids might have something to do with it, but—

Right. Well, it's interesting, right? So, my folks, they never would've told us. I mean, obviously, they both grew up in very difficult households. Both of my mom's parents died tragically. when she was 14. So, she had to raise herself with her 5 siblings. And so, she had nothing else but to go out and work for herself. And my dad was in the same situation. But I think for them, and they were babies of the Depression, right? So, they never really talked about it, but we saw it in some of their actions, right? And we always joked about it with, like, if we ever had hot dogs for dinner, like, my mother would wrap up a shriveled-up hot dog because that would be eaten the next day. And we never really understood that, but my parents never ever communicated what it was that they either had or didn't have. And so, sadly, when my mom passed away right before COVID she passed away and we expected absolutely nothing because our parents gave us whatever we needed. And then, she left us with, all of us, each with a nice chunk of money. And we're like, where did this come from? And she just was always, for her, it was, I'm saving it for the future for my kids. And we're like, but there's no reason for you to do that, right? But she quietly just kept it aside and she and my dad did that together. And we're like, holy cow, you guys could have lived a hell of a lot nicer life if you just didn't worry about us because we're all grown men and women, right? So, my parents ultimately achieved that success, but they never really claimed to be. For them, success was making me and my brothers into good men and my sisters into good women. And that for them was the most important thing.

Now, you talk a little bit in your book about your father drinking and then, you know, your mother, like the— all the work, the hours and everything that she worked. Now, I'm curious, how did that affect you? You know, you're the 9th kid. Did you feel like you were getting the attention you deserved? Did you want more? What was your feeling growing up? Or was it just like, this is normal? So didn't really think about it.

Yeah, no, it all felt normal, really. You know, again, for me, I never felt like I was not loved or attended to. It was just, you know, and I explained it because I've got 2 young boys, you know, I got a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old, and they're contemplating going to college here in the next few years. And it's funny when they hang out with my older brothers and sisters, they're like, Dad, what was that like growing up with them? And I'm like, listen, when I was 7, I was literally going into fraternity parties because they were taking me to their— because they were all in college. So, I was going to my brother Tommy's. He belonged to Tau Kappa Epsilon, and I'd go there at the fraternity house and I'd help him set up for the beach party at night, right? So it was like they always had me under their wing. I was being exposed to so many cool adult-like things, and I'm like, this is incredible, right? I couldn't wait to get to that experience in life. But, um, it was just, it was just different. But I never felt alone or without anything. So they found a good way. Even to this day, they still take care of their baby brother even though I'm 50 years old.

I love that. You know, I have actually quite a few friends. I grew up in a very Christian conservative kind of bubble, and a lot of my friends and family had 7, 8, 9 kids. Um, one of them had 12 kids. So I grew up a lot around a whole lot of big families. With those people though, a lot of their kids actually don't want to have a big family, don't want to have kids. So I'm curious, did it, did it dissuade you from wanting to have a big family? You have 2 boys now. Did you want to have more than that? Were you happy with that? Like, what was your thought process around having kids?

Yeah. No, I mean, for us, again, being Christian and Catholic, I mean, we got what God blessed us with, right? So, at one point, we didn't think we were going to be able to have kids. And then, all of a sudden, well, we have 2 boys, right? And then, so, it's like, and at that point, I also got to a point where I was like, all right, I got to do the quick math. I think it was like 36 or 38 when my youngest was born. And I'm like, I don't want to be the old dad, right? Like, I want to be able to run around with these guys. So, we just decided God gave us 2 boys and we'll run with it. And my wife My wife grew up in an Italian Catholic family. And, it's funny because— and she told me this from the day we got married, she's like, you know, I've only dreamed of having 2 boys and serving them massive pasta meals on Sundays. And so, we got our 2 boys and I'm like, okay, well, maybe this is what we're supposed to just do. Let's just stick with the 2 boys and run with it. So, that's where we're at.

That's awesome. Luke has 3 kids and a 4th on the way, and I just had my first. And so, I'm curious, how has it been for your 2 boys to read this book and get to know you at a deeper level?

It's been great. So, they lived some of the tragic aspects of it, which was scary for them. And they were both 8 and 9 when I almost went down. But for them, it was kind of cathartic because they always saw me writing it, right? So, every morning I got up, I wrote 1,500 words, and they're like, Dad's writing again. Dad's writing again, right? And, when it came out and they've read it, and it's funny, it's like my youngest son has read it, my oldest son wants me to tell them the stories, right? So, that's kind of how it's been going. So, audiobook for my oldest, and then my youngest is reading it along the way. But, it's been good because I think while there are some things in there that aren't perfect about their grandparents and the challenges in life and everything else, it's okay, right? They still see like, as my oldest is in high school now and, of course, he's getting exposed to alcohol and things like that. And, we just keep telling him, we're like, listen, it's not in your genes or it is in your genes. Alcoholism and addiction is in your genes, unfortunately, because of my family. I said, so, you have to understand what control means. And so, by sharing these stories, and they had such deep love for both my parents, they didn't see those scars of their life until we told them about it. But then they realized like, okay, those things aren't really worth it. It's the love and taking care of yourself is so much more valuable. And so, it's been good for them to hear that their dad is not perfect and their mom is not perfect either. Well, actually, I should say their mom's perfect, their dad's not.

Yeah, and, you know, I know that they were there for this incident in 2018, but I think that this is the core of your message here and what we wanna talk about today. I'll just read from the book here because I think that it's summarized really well. You say, on a cold, cozy December night in 2018, you think you're dying. You're a husband, you're a father, you're a business owner, an athlete, an innovator, but now you're an AFib patient. So, tell everybody, what is atrial fibrillation? And, why did it cause this massive cardiac event for you and how did that trauma kind of spill over to the rest of your life?

Yeah. So, interesting. So, we'll start with the brass tacks about atrial fibrillation. So, it's the number 1 arrhythmia in the world. So, in the United States alone, there's over 6 million patients that are living with AFib. And then, by 2030, there's going to be 12.2 million patients with AFib. It predominantly hits patients 50 and over. So, as you get older, the propensity and the incidence of AFib increases. For me, I was 38 years old when I was diagnosed with it. So, I was an outlier, but why was I an outlier? So, when I was in college, I was also a rower. And so, I was a competitive rower, and rowing is an extreme sport up there with all the other extreme like marathoning and all the Ironman and women competitions. anything that pushes your heart to a high level. What they have found now is where they're seeing younger patients developing AFib, it's exercise-induced. So, there's actually a book that was written and maybe you can bring this gentleman on, Dr. John Mandrola, cardiologist, electrophysiologist out of— he's actually out of Kentucky as well. He wrote a book called The Haywire Heart: How Too Much Exercise Can Kill You. And, it's fascinating stories about case studies of athletes that some of them unfortunately dropped over and everybody's like, She was the picture of health, or he was the picture of health. How did he die? And it was just their hearts went haywire. Now, so back to the general concepts around the AFib. So I had it in college. I ignored it when I was in college because it came and went. And I didn't think— I thought it was just me growing up and getting older. No big deal. But then it reared its ugly head at the age of 38, most likely in alignment with my starting my business in 2012.

Yeah.

Stress is a trigger for AFib. Alcohol is a trigger for AFib. Hypertension, diabetes, all those things that can come along with can all be triggers for AFib. And so, that's ultimately how AFib came into my life. I think ultimately was around my rowing and my experience. I'm 6 feet tall. I'm 6'5. And so, being 6'5 as well as being a rower, I actually have a 30% increased likelihood of getting AFib. So there's interesting demographics with this disease, but it's predominantly a disease of older patients, but it's one that people can control. And so that's, you know, with what we wanna get out there and share with everybody, it can be a lifestyle-managed disease. And so what do we mean by that, right? So there's the opportunity to prevent it. So AFib is familial as well. So if somebody in your family has AFib, there's a good chance that somebody else in your family will also have it. So, you have to take a look at the lifestyle choices that you're making. So, are you obese? Are you diabetic, hypertensive, any of those things? If you start to erase that, then you actually reduce your risk of getting AFib. So, those are some things that we're trying to talk about. So, I'll stop there because I think I could ramble for quite a while.

We love the rambles. We love the rambles. We get good stories that way and everything else. And, such good information. I can work out too much, so I got to just dial it back.

I'm just kidding. That's not what— well, you don't want to get your heart rate too high because From a rower's perspective, you know, we, we would work out 3 times a day, and we would get our heart rates to, you know, 130, 140, and hold them for 2 hours at a time. And that's, that ultimately, that exposure is not good. That's what ultimately what the heart wants to transform itself then into because it's a muscle. So it wants to transform itself into that level because it likes to stay at that pace. And then when, what they found is if you remove that exercise, that extreme exercise, the AFib can go away. But, Luke, the challenge is you have to work out. The recommendations are at least 200 minutes a week of some level of working out, lifting weights, et cetera, et cetera.

I love that. And, I think that working out is a very big part of my life and it's been a big part of my life for a long time, but I'm glad that we tapped into that a little bit further because I don't want people to get the misunderstanding that, oh, workout is bad. It's easy for us to get all those excuses. Right away.

Yep.

So, I'm really curious about, in 2018, you had this event. I want to ask you, what perspective shift happened after that cardiac event? Before, you're kind of on top of the world really. You said it was like a Rockwell painting, right? It's like this picture-perfect night, this great evening. You have a business that's running well, all this stuff, and then all of a sudden, this event happens. So, I'm just really interested in what your perspective shift Like, from the before and the after that, like, what changed?

Yeah. So, so it's interesting, right? Because it all, you know, there's, there's that level of invincibility I think we all hold on to, you know, when you're younger. And when I was diagnosed with it at 38, even at that, even at that age, I thought to myself, I can beat this. This is not a problem. You know, I went to my cardiologist and I said, I got this. And then eventually the heart took over, right? And it got worse and worse. And so, For me, when I had that actual event to occur, for about 6 months prior to that, which then I had just found out about, I had transformed into what is called tachybrady syndrome. And, tachybrady is tachycardia, so you get an elevated heart rate, and then the bradycardia is when your heart pauses. And so, for about 6 months, what was happening was I would get elevated heart rate up to almost 200 to 240 beats per minute. And then my heart would just stop. It would pause for 6 seconds. So hold your breath for 6 seconds. And so that's what was happening to me. And so my cardiologist saw me and said, oh, we're putting a pacemaker in you. And so he puts the pacemaker in me, uh, the week before this event that we, that I write, write about in the, um, in the book. And so there I am sitting, enjoying that Rockwell evening. And, um, and all of a sudden my heart's taking off 240 beats per minute. I'm like, well, wait a minute, I've got a pacemaker in my heart. I'm okay. Like, I'm okay. But no, I wasn't because the pacemaker was in there for when it stopped, but not if I went into complete cardiac failure or whatever was going to happen. So, for me, once that was controlled and erased, then I realized like, okay, this is like I am— I've been running a thin line of grace. Let's call it grace because that's really what it was because when I talked to my electrophysiologist, Just to put this in perspective, with 6-second pauses that were happening for 6 months, like my heart was pausing 32 times every 2 weeks. It wasn't necessarily on average, it was on average 32 times, 'cause that's what they were capturing on the monitors. Any one of those moments I should have died, is what he said. And so how I was doing that, how I was surviving, I literally, and so Nick, you know the Northeast, like I'm driving up and down I-95 between New Jersey and New England. And I'm punching myself in the leg to stay awake because I think I'm just tired. I had no idea. I didn't think it was my heart. I just thought I was just tired. But lo and behold, at any one of those moments, I could have just— I could have been done, could have taken out 100 other people on I-95 as I was making my way up. So, back to answer your question, Luke, my mortality certainly came into full picture at that moment. And I'm like, okay, this is when I need to have a complete change of mindset on what I'm doing moving forward.

Now you were actually like, you went to college and you were into biology and sciences. You even like were maybe gonna be a doctor at some point that was in your head. So you kind of had, and you also worked in some healthcare things, right? So what was, what was happening in your mind? Like, okay, you get, oh, I have AFib, I know this in college. And then you're kind of getting into this, this healthcare world and not really taking it seriously. Is it just this? this invincibility that you felt that made you just kind of push it to the side? Like, what was going through your mind?

That's a great question. And honestly, I don't know what was going on in my mind. I think it probably was still a little bit of that invincibility, but it's also that thing. So, the company that we built was— and I was always in pharmaceuticals and biotech, so we were a learning and development company. So, we built learning modules for all sorts of drugs and disease states. So, of course, I had access to all of this information. So, well-versed, well-educated, self-described well-educated gentleman. But still, I was so ignorant around how the management of this disease. And I, again, maybe it was that invincibility. I'm just like, oh, I got this. I know what I'm doing. I'm in control, when really, in fact, I wasn't. And I think it was probably a little bit of that I don't want to give up control because the other aspect that I was dealing with, and I think this is where the stories become compounded, I was building my business, right? And there was no other income. Like, it was my wife and myself, right? And we had no other income coming in. So, like, I needed to keep working. My wife needed to keep working because this is what we had to do. We had to keep— we had to start surviving for our family. And so, I think maybe that was probably part of it. Like, maybe that's where my Cavani work ethic got a little toxic and was like, all right, we'll strive through it. But I was also addressing my cardiac issues too. I mean, I want the public to know that I was still seeing my cardiologist, electrophysiologist. I was being guided in the right ways, but there still was that level of I probably could have acted a little bit more intensely at first, but I didn't. And maybe I could have avoided some of the challenges I had faced.

You just mentioned building a business at the same time and about how stressful that was. And we'll come back to the cardiac piece in a second, but I thought it was really interesting when you talked in the book, page 160, about getting— or you got a phone call from your friend Doug, and Doug recommends this book, Think and Grow Rich. And then the house is quiet, you sit down, it sounds like you had a couple of beers, you're in the bathtub, and you called it an entrepreneurial baptism.

Yeah.

So, what impact did that book have on you? And when you think back to that book, like right now in this present moment, what feelings do you get?

Oh, I was absolutely euphoric, to be quite honest with you. And it was one of those things, right? I mean, the quick story of it, it was like we had launched our business, my business partner left me, I was left all alone. And then, I was out redefining what the business was all about, driving to and fro New Jersey to New England, New Jersey to New England, and getting lots of traction but not really getting any results. And so, you could probably picture this, Nick. I'm literally driving through Worcester, on my way up into New Hampshire. And that's when my buddy called. And he's like, you haven't read Think and Grow Rich yet? Get it and read it and whatever. And the minute I started reading it, I was like, this is what I needed, right? Because one of Napoleon Hill's greatest phraseologies in there is like, knowledge is not power. It's when knowledge becomes focused towards a definitive end is when it becomes powerful. And it wasn't until that— and also, Believing a little bit of being a faithful person, right? So, this is the interesting twist. And I don't know, have you guys read the book at all, Think and Grow Rich?

A couple of times, yeah.

Yeah. And so, in there, when they talk about Edison's cohort, Ed Barnes, Edwin Barnes, right? And why is that intriguing is because at that time, and this wasn't the guy that recommended the book, but at the time before I started my business, my boss's name was Ed Barnes. And he had just literally moved to Edison, New Jersey. And I'm reading the book and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like fate. Like, I was supposed to read this book. But so, I woke up the next morning and I wish I still had the sticky note. Like, my mom bought me this big paperclip that you put on your desk and it was a massive paperclip. And I went down there and I wrote on a squiggly note how much money I was going to make. And I put in there, I said, I'm going to make $1.5 million in 5 years. And I put it on there and I left it. And I lost that note. I don't know where that is, but that became my driver. So, I literally started visualizing because what I learned from that whole concept, and I didn't know anything about mindset training too much at that point. I just, what I did and our Cavani work ethic is what got me to where I was. But it's when, you know, somebody says to me, things happen to you twice in your life, once in your mind, and the other time is when you're in the real world. And so, I started visualizing my success and where I was going to go. And then, all of a sudden, those things started happening. Now, they didn't happen the next day or maybe even 30 days from then, but eventually, they started happening. And that's when I said, there's something to this. And that's why I make that recommendation anytime I can to people that are looking for something.

Luke and I have spent a lot of time driving together and we're all over the lower 48 for the most part. And oftentimes, we'll drive into a city and one of us will say, I can't believe every single one of these buildings started as an idea in somebody's mind. And they were bold enough to take the next steps to turn that into reality. And it's mind-blowing. But just like you've highlighted with the Think and Grow Rich concepts, when you start to focus all of the knowledge in one direction and you start to take action— there's another Napoleon Hill quote, action is the real— action is the real measure of intelligence.

Yeah.

And I love that because once you start to take focused action, your life starts to change. So, What do you say to people in the audience that are like, okay, Jim, a little bit woo-woo there, man. Like, you had me up until you're talking science. You're in the biospace, but all of a sudden, now you're talking about law of attraction. Like, what do you say to that person?

Well, so, I say to that individual is go and look at all the people that are wildly successful. And also, couple on top of that other books that are more scientific, right? So, I'm sure everybody on this podcast has probably read Atomic Habits like 6 times, right? It's like that takes— I think that was the beautiful thing about what James Clear did was he's like, this isn't woo-woo. Here's the science behind this, and this is how you do it. And it's not just a matter of obviously, and I think one of his greatest quotes is not about setting— we don't succeed to the level of our goals. We fail to the level of our systems. And so, it's not just enough to say, oh, I'm going to go build a beautiful building and it's going to happen. No, you then have to put the system in place. So, there's some practicality. And there is some work and energy and effort. You've got to put the effort to do that. But if you have your goals, ambitions, desires, plus a system, you're going to do it. So, yeah, it's a little bit woo-woo, but that's where you get your motivation from.

So, I want you to bridge the gap for us a little bit between you have these businesses, you have this event, and now you're writing a book about it. So, what was the reason for you writing a book? And I know that Like, there's, I don't know, Amazon sells something like 12 million books a day or something crazy like that. And there's, I don't know how many millions of books every month that come out, but what was your motivation behind writing your book? Like, ultimately?

Yeah. So, I had no desire ever to write a book. That was never in my mind. But, when we were building Alchemy Partners and back to the whole concept of Think and Grow Rich, so to speak, we had grown so fast that we were recognized by Inc. 5000 for 3 years in a row. as being one of the fastest companies in America, privately held companies in America. So, unfortunately, you get on those lists, then everybody comes out of the woodwork, right? So, I was starting to get contacted by publishers left and right. Write a book. You're a business genius. You should do this. You should do that. And I kept saying to them, no, I'm not a business genius. I work hard. My wife works hard. We're just like every other small business out there. Our story is not unique and different. That actually conversation went over, happened for 3 years. And it wasn't until the 3rd year in which I got a new salesperson from this publishing company and she called me up and she's like, don't write a book until you actually find a purpose. And I said, okay, good point. She's like, you find a purpose, you call me. I said, great. So, I went and I started reading another book about a gentleman that I didn't know. I never met personally, but I had some business engagements with he and his business partners. And I was reading his book and his book I thought was all about mindset, which it was. But it was more so about how he used his mind to overcome and manage his diagnosis with cancer. Now, he ultimately succumbed to his cancer, but, you know, with this— and biliary cancer is one in which I think you die usually within a couple of months. He lived for 2 years. And how did he do that? And he did it in a way that— because he controlled his environment. He wasn't telling people he had cancer. He wasn't accepting the fact that he was a cancer patient. So this was all the thoughts that were in his mind. And I saw him, I'm like, oh my goodness. I could literally rip his entire story out, plug in my cardiac journey, and then I could go and help people. And so then I was sitting there, I was telling my wife the whole story, and she looks up from me at dinner and she's got tears in her eyes. And I'm like, what are you crying about? And she's like, that's beautiful. Go do it. Right? And it's like, okay, I'm starting to write. So now, the book was written to share the story. Again, as you and I were talking pre-podcast, that it's It's about me, but it's not, right? It's more so about like everybody suffers pain in some way, shape, or form. Like you can, you can, you can, uh, you know, you can go ahead and accept the fact and do something about it positively, or you can wallow in your self-pity. And so for me, I'm like, I'm not doing that. I'm gonna go do something and I'm gonna do something good with it. And how do I go out and have those conversations with people that are struggling? And so that's the whole point of the book.

Oh, I love that. And Through the writing process, you said you never had a desire to write a book. How was that process for you? Was it— did you find it difficult? Did you find it daunting, like bringing up old stories and things like that? Or were you like, did it just all flow out easily?

Yeah, no, it actually all flew out pretty easily. Because little did I know, I mean, I'm a— people have told me I'm a pretty good storyteller. So I guess I just, I just pushed it back in the recesses of my mind, and all the facts come up But, you know, my father was an amazing writer and I ultimately got his gift. But I also got his gift and— but I unfortunately write slowly. And so, so my first— the first chapter that you folks read probably took me about 2 weeks to write. And then my editor said, yeah, the book will never be published if you, if you write at that pace. So Megan Barnes, my editor, she said, just let it go. And so I just started spewing it out on the page. And then she's the one that said, I'll add in the periods, the commas, and everything else and tighten this thing up. So once I got that permission to do so, it just started flowing beautifully. And then it came out pretty easily. And, you know, from the writing perspective, and I actually, I did an AFib screening event a few weeks ago, and I had a patient come running into the AFib screening event, and she's like, I just wanna talk to you. And she's like, I have suffered this, this, and this. And her life was, Amazingly cumbersome with tragedies. And she's like, I just want to know, was it cathartic? And I said, 100%. I said, you have no idea how many times I'm writing paragraphs, I'd stop because I'm crying, right? Like, I, you know, I guess the other thing with, with my family, we're not sometimes not the greatest communicators. So we're Irish Catholic, right? So we just stuff the stuff down, right? Like, like the comedian Bill Burr often says, we just, we just jam it down into the recesses of our soul and we never talk about it ever again. But it came out on the pages for me and it made me feel so liberated.

Yeah, well, you are—you're doing a great service with the book and you're bringing awareness to something important. You mentioned earlier that AFib, like the percentage of people diagnosed with AFib, is continuing to increase.

Why is that? So well, one detection, right? So I don't know if you folks are you know wearing a. an Apple Watch or anything else like that, but there's so many monitors. Yeah. Or the Oura Rings or all that stuff, right? Maybe you'll get a sponsor for this now based upon our conversation with that, but—

Oura, pay attention. Yeah. Or Garmin.

Or Garmin, right? So, there are, there's so many ways to detect it now, right? So, that's increased at number 1. Number 2, and this is the sad story about things, is Americans are not healthy, right? Um, you know, chronic disease, and this is, you know, and I think This has come obviously to forefront, and we can all see this, right? I mean, if you go back to the '70s, chronic disease did not exist in the United States. Chronic disease does exist now. We're morbidly obese, hypertensive, diabetic, all those things, right? So we're not the healthiest of people. So because we're not the healthiest of people, we're also seeing the increase in AFib. And so that is all correlated with the way we live our lives. And so that's why my mission, in addition to everybody else, American Heart Association, stopafib.org, all these other AFib organizations that are doing it. I'm joining them to help raise awareness because we can control this. Like, don't let something— don't let that Twinkie or whatever potentially control your life down the road, right? So what we do in our 20s impacts what we— who we are when we're 40. So let's take care of ourselves when we're 20 because we'll be stronger when we're 40. Be stronger when you're 50 because you'll be stronger when you're 70. And so we're trying to say, hey, let's tackle these lifestyle things that we can do. It's going to be hard, But let's tackle it. So that's why we're seeing an increase in a lot of it. And not to say it's all lifestyle modification issues, right? 'Cause AFib also comes from other surgical procedures. So some people might just go in for a knee replacement or something like that and come out and they, oh my gosh, they had trauma. So guess what? Now you have AFib. So those are some things that happen just by happenstance because of exposures that you have. Also, there can be some physical abnormalities in your heart. that can cause it as well. So, it's a genetic thing there too. So, there's a number of different ways that it can present itself, but it is increasing globally and it's a huge issue.

Do you have any idea what percentage of diagnosed AFib patients are receiving that diagnosis because of lifestyle and not family or surgery or something like that?

So, I don't know that specific statistic, but What's interesting, and this is— this we do know for a fact, is about 30 to 40% of all AFib patients never had one symptom.

Wow.

So you could just be walking around and never ever feel anything, but you're in AFib. And those are the scariest types of AFib because you're not paying attention. And the number one risk for AFib is stroke. And stroke with an AFib patient is 5 times worse than a regular stroke. Okay? So you actually increase the— your chance of mortality by 200%. If you have an AFib stroke. So that's why just invariably, now, how do those people get detected? Well, they might go in and what happens? Well, I have a cough or something going on. So they take your blood pressure, they check you out, and somebody might say, oh, wait a minute, you know you're in AFib? No, I had no idea. And so that's when those folks present themselves. So the quiet ones are the scarier ones.

Well, I'll wrap up and then hand it over to Luke for the last couple of questions, but I'll just say that it's, It's been a pleasure speaking with you today. And we love supporting people who are trying to make the world a better place. And you're raising awareness for something that, in a large number of cases, is preventable. But also, if not prevented, it becomes life-threatening. And so I'm happy that you're talking about it. Just like you, we want everybody to be happy and healthy. And that comes with a little bit of exercise and maybe some lifestyle changes in diet, etc. you can live a long, healthy, happy life in a lot of cases. So anyway, thank you for doing good work and appreciate it.

I appreciate your time.

Yeah, Jim. So I will— I'll close up with these last 2 questions. The first is going to be this, which is where can people go to find out a little bit more about you? And obviously, we'll link everything in the show notes.

Sure. Yeah. So thank you for that. So unlimitedheartbook.com, you can go there, you can see where to order the book, one of the 12 million hopefully that's being purchased every day on Amazon. And then you'll— my bio's in there and my connection to, to the business that we're launching as well is there. So excited. I'm all over. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Facebook, and also on Instagram. All the place.

A quick Google search of Jim Cavney. Cavney is how you say your last name?

That is correct.

Okay. All right. So yeah, quick Google search, all your stuff pops up. But yeah, we'll link all that stuff in the show notes. This is a question I like to ask all of our guests, and it's this. It's you pass away and all of the information that you put out— books, courses, website, blog posts, everything, podcasts— they all disappear, but you can leave the world with a single piece of advice. What would it be?

Honestly, just make an impact with somebody, change somebody's life, because then that'll spread, the whole butterfly effect.

I love that. I love that. Be a good person, make an impact. And that's how the world changes. Beautiful.

That's it.

Thank you so much, Jim, for your time today. This has been amazing. It's been a pleasure to get to know you.

Thank you, Luke. Thank you, Nick. Take care.