11. JIM KWIK: Unlock Your Brain’s Full Potential

Episode Transcript

Note: Transcript is AI-generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the episode audio or video for exact quotes.

Jim Kwik: I remember when I was nine years old, I was slowing down a class and I was being teased more than usual.

Um, and a teacher came to my defense and said, leave that kid alone. That’s the boy with a broken brain.

Cross: Ooh. Oh.

Jim Kwik: And you could say that that label became my limit.

 

Michael Hyatt: We’re excited to bring to you a show with Jim Quick. Now, I didn’t really know Jim’s work until about a year ago, and um, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect in this interview, but I was not only pleasantly surprised, and I don’t think I’m saying too much here. I was blown away. Yeah, I mean, I am been challenged and inspired in a way that I haven’t been in a long time.

Megan Hyatt Miller: Well, I think you and I may be the only people that weren’t familiar with his work. Yeah. 

Michael Hyatt: Apparently prior 

Megan Hyatt Miller: to a year ago. Because his book Limitless. Upgrade Your Brain, learn Anything faster and Unlock Your Exceptional Life has sold well over a million copies, which is something almost no book does. No, I mean, this book and, and by the way, this is a big fat book.

I mean, this is not like a little skinny fast read book. This is like a very. Thoughtful, well researched book and it has been unbelievably successful. You know, he has coached celebrities and entrepreneurs and organizations including organizations like Google Virgin, Nike, and SpaceX, and he is worked with a bunch of Hollywood actors to help them memorize their scripts.

You know, when I went into this conversation, I was kind of like, how will the ideas of speed reading and all this brain science and everything, how does that apply to. Somebody like me who’s a professional, you know, a knowledge worker basically. And what I realized was, oh my goodness, there is a whole lever that you and I before coming into this conversation, did not even know, existed.

To improve our productivity, to free up more time, to allow us to focus on we what we do best. I mean it, it was kind of like our heads exploded. 

Michael Hyatt: Yeah. I think you’re gonna see a potential for yourself. That you’ve never seen before. We are capable of so much more and this particular episode begins to unlock that.

So enjoy.

Jim, welcome to the show.

Jim Kwik: So good to be here. I’ve been looking forward to this conversation with the two of you, and thank everybody who’s tuning in. 

Michael Hyatt: Look, we wanna start at the, at the beginning you describe yourself as a brain coach. What is a brain coach?

Jim Kwik: So this wasn’t offered by my guidance counselor, but it’s my, um, 32nd year as a brain coach. I guess my role is really helping individuals and organizations enhance their mental capacities. This could involve teaching strategies that improve memory, uh, focus, learning effectiveness, overall cognitive health and performance.

It’s kinda like a personal trainer will get your body more flexible, more pliable, more energized, stronger, faster. I I want your mental muscles. I want your memory to be a sharper, I want your thinking to be more pliable and flexible. I want you to have more brain energy. I want you to have, uh, you know, stronger, uh, decision making, uh, tools and, and fitness.

I. So, yeah, I, I kinda like a personal trainer for the brain.

Megan Hyatt Miller: love this because I think this is an area in terms of domains, you know, as we talk about the double win, winning at work and succeeding at life, that often gets neglected. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. do think about mindset and we obviously have written a book about that, but in terms of do I get my brain to perform better, you know, we often say like, if you don’t have your health, it’s really difficult.

To do all the other things in your life that you wanna do to reach your full potential. But I mean, even more foundational than that, if your brain is not functioning optimally, your ability to, to focus on the things that matter most, to even know what those are, your ability to remember all those things are, are really going to diminish your ability to get the double wins.

So I can’t wait to dig into this ’cause I think it’s so applicable and we’ve never talked about it before. 

Michael Hyatt: No. And we’ve got fitness trainers that we’ve utilized. That’s right. But never a brain trainer or a brain coach. Yeah. So I, I guess what I’d love to start with is a vision of what’s possible that most people are not aware of in terms of, because I know you do stuff on speed reading, you do stuff on memory, on productivity.

But what’s possible if somebody really adopted Yeah, teach and what you coach, what would be possible for them?

Jim Kwik: I think we’re best suited to support the person we once were, and so my work really is. Is tailored towards somebody that was struggling. ’cause I was struggling when, Hmm. when, when I speak at events, uh, you know, this past week I was in three continents in one week. Woo. a lot of, a lot of, a lot of feedback and a lot of things that aren’t so good for your brain, uh, in terms of sleep and jet lag.

Um, but it’s, uh, I do these demonstrations. If there’s time where I’ll have, uh, pass around a microphone. Maybe to 50 or a hundred people in an audience, and I’ll memorize all their names. Uh, or an audience will challenge me to memorize a hundred words or numbers. And, and I’ll do it forwards and backwards.

But I always tell people I don’t do this impress you. I really do this express to you what’s possible. Because the truth is each and every one of your listeners could do that and a lot more, uh, we just weren’t taught. what I believe is possible, and we have a lot of data ’cause we have students in every country in the world, um, in our online academy, 195 nations.

So we get a lot of. Lot of data, a lot of feedback, and. I believe we’ve discovered more about the human brain in the past 20 years than the previous 2000 years 

combined. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: Yeah. 

Jim Kwik: one of the conclusions that I’ve drawn from it is that we’ve grossly underestimated our own capabilities and, um, and potential meaning regardless of your age, your background, your career, education level, your financial situation, your gender, your history, iq, we can all improve in these areas.

Our book, limitless was endorsed by like the founding director of the Cleveland Clinic, the top Alzheimer’s researcher out of Harvard. And we know when I speak at these institutions that about one third of our brain’s potential is predetermined by genetics and biology. but two thirds is in our influence and, and more of our lifestyle and how we’re using it now with epigenetics.

Some people suggest we have a hundred percent influence. You know, in terms of how those genes express and our potential expresses. But regardless, it’s a, it’s a high amount, you know, so I focus on levers that move the needle there. But I’ve learned this through personal experience because my inspiration really was my desperation.

You know, I, I, you know, you. And I yet another was one of those individuals had taken their mess and turned it into their message. I, I had a traumatic brain injury when I was a child. in kindergarten class at five years old, and I took a very bad fall into a heater, into a radiator head first, and, and I was rushed to the emergency room and I.

Kind of lost consciousness. And my parents said before, I was very energized and very curious, very playful as in, you know, as a 5-year-old would be. But I became afterwards very shut down. um, where really showed up was in school I would have these migraines every day of my life. You know, like when I was that age.

I thought it was normal. I’ve had balance issues, so always like bumping into things and didn’t have good coordination. Uh, poor focus, poor memory. It took me three over three years longer to learn how to read, and that was just very embarrassing. I mean, you can imagine at that age this, all the self-doubt kicks in, lack of confidence, self-esteem issues.

Why am I not. You know, why am I different from the other kids? Because I would work hard. You know, my parents immigrated here and they had many jobs. We live in the back of a laundromat that my mom worked at, you know, so hard work was built in, but I wouldn’t get the results as everybody else. And I remember when I was nine years old, I was slowing down a class and I was being teased more than usual.

Um, and a teacher came to my defense and said, leave that kid alone. That’s the boy with a broken brain.

Cross: Ooh. Oh.

Jim Kwik: And you could say that that label became my limit. Adults have to be very careful their external words, ’cause they often become a child’s internal words. So where did it show up? Every time I did badly in school or wasn’t picked for sports, which was pretty much every week, I always, my self-talk was like, oh, it’s ’cause I have the broken brain and, those are my struggles.

And then I, it was every day like that. Until I was about 18 years old and found a mentor and, and, found some real hope and help, you know, and changed everything around. Um, and when I did. I started to tutor ’cause I couldn’t help but help other people ’cause shame on me if somebody’s struggling with something I was struggling with and I didn’t help them.

Right. I feel a, a moral impetus to do what I do. I can think of a lot of other ways of, of making a living. Um, especially ’cause I’m very introverted, like very, very introverted. Even though I’m in, you know, in front of two, 300,000 people a year. Um, you know, cameras and attention that spotlight maybe a.

from being that kid that never knew the answers, never wanted, was always shrinking down ’cause didn’t want to take up a lot of space ’cause I didn’t wanna be called on. I didn’t want to be picked on. Um. You know, so it’s like, and in the uni, you know, God has a sense of humor because my two biggest challenges growing up were learning and public speaking.

And all I do for a living is public speak on this thing called learning. Um, but it, it is really my, my, my passion is helping people build better, brighter brains. No brain left behind. But when I started to. To help others. One of my very first students, she was a freshman in college, answer even more of your question about what’s possible, she read 30 books in 30 days now, not 

skim or scan, like a traditional speed reading, skipping words, and just getting the gist of what she read.

She really read them and studied them, and I wanted to find out not how she did it. I taught her how, I want to know why, like what was her purpose, you know, I think with reasons. Reasons re results, right? And it has to go from your head to your heart, to your hands. Uh, and, but that, that heart, that emotion, it was, um, her mother was dying, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, was only given a couple months to live.

And the books she was reading were books to save her mom’s life. And, you know, I wished her luck uh, six months goes by, get a call from this young lady and she’s crying hysterically. when she stops, I realized there are tears of joy that her mother not only survive, is really getting better.

Doctors don’t know how or why the doctors are calling it a miracle, but her mother attributed a hundred percent to the great advice she got from her daughter who learned it from all these books. And in that moment, I realized two things. I realized that if knowledge is power, then learning is our superpower.

just not a superpower. We’re taught like there’s no class on how to learn. And I think it’s a, it’s an important. Thing to add into our education or, you know, professional training development because, you know, they teach you what to learn, math, history, science, but there’s no classes on how to learn how to, how to focus, right?

How, how to concentrate, how to remember. Um, and so I feel like this area, meta learning, 

the science and art of learning how to learn, it’s very important. But the second thing I learned, um, was my dharma, you know, my mission in life was to help people in this area who are struggling with distraction or forgetfulness or information overload.

I believe Alia lived in the millennium of the mind where it was. It’s not like what thousands of years ago where it was our brute strength. You know, where we added value in society today. It’s our brain strength. No longer is it our muscle power today. It’s our mind power and the faster you can learn, the faster you can earn. ’cause knowledge today is not only power, it is, it is profit and not just financial. Kind of obvious. If you can easily remember names and faces and client information and product information, give speeches without notes, you know, read three times faster.

You’re gonna have an edge in business. But I mean, all the treasures of our life. And so, um, yeah, my mission is no brain left behind and I just wanna help people have their best brain possible.

Michael Hyatt: I love this and there’s so many different questions I wanna ask and so I may just be kind of random here, 

Jim Kwik: Yeah. 

Michael Hyatt: I, I’m kinda going back to this vision thing. First of all, on Strength Finders, my fourth strength is learning. 

Jim Kwik: Oh 

Michael Hyatt: And, you know, I feel like I’m at a stage in my life when I’m, you know, I’m, I’ve got less runway than I did 20 years ago, and there’s still so much I wanna learn.

So, what’s possible, like if I taught myself the kind of speed reading that you teach, 

what would 

Jim Kwik: yeah. 

Michael Hyatt: possible? And so many of the people at our audience I know are committed to learning. Mm-Hmm. And 

Jim Kwik: Yeah, 

Michael Hyatt: and wanna read more. And they struggle with that. So what’s, what’s possible? Give us a vision for what’s possible.

Jim Kwik: Regardless, again, of our age or stage in life. There, there’s this huge potentiality for growth. I mean, it, there’s this myth that we only use 10% of our brain. We actually use a hundred percent of our brain. It’s just some people use it more effectively and more efficiently than others. It’s like we all, if you’re climbing a hill, we all use like a hundred percent of our body.

It’s just some people could do it easier with more enjoyment ’cause they’ve, they’ve trained it. Right there. Um, and same thing with our brain. Um, but our brain doesn’t come with an owner’s manual and it, and it’s not user friendly. Um, and so that’s why, you know, we have our podcast on our books and, you know, and really the goal here.

In terms of what’s possible for like reading, uh, we have this program that’s been online for about, uh, f more than 15 years. Uh, 17 years. And so we have a lot of data. We average improve reading speed 300%, so with a three, three 

x with. With the same or better comprehension 

because it’s not traditional speeding.

Reading has been more associated with skimming words or skipping words and getting the gist of what you read. And we have, we train a lot of like. Doctors and, and financial advisors attorney. You don’t want your doctor to get the gist of what she’s reading, right? Like it’s not probably the 

best ever. So essentially reading something at 20 minutes, it normally takes an hour, right?

If, if people have seen photos with me online. With Elon or Oprah or whoever, people always wanna know how we connected and or bonded. We bonded over books, right? I mean, you know, this, you know, with your family being in the industry, you know, and, and publishing and as, as authors, you know, somebody has decades of experience and they put it into a book.

And you could sit down and read that book in a few days. You could download decades into days. That’s a huge advantage. And so it’s very possible for the average person to be able to triple their reading speed with the same comprehension or better. Could be. And one of the main reasons is because reading is a skill.

It’s not something we’re born being able to do. And so it improves through training and discipline. But when’s the last time we took a class called Reading? How old were we? Six years old. Six or seven. So the difficulty of demand has increased tremendously, but how we actually read and learn it is pretty much the same.

So that growing gap creates a lot of stress. They call it information anxiety, higher blood 

pressure, a compression of leisure time, more sleeplessness like you’re taking a sip of water out, a fire hose. I mean, how many people do you know that buy books and they just sit on. Their shelf unread and it becomes shelf help, not, not self-help, right?

As the adage says. Um, but it’s, it’s absolutely possible. It’s just we haven’t learned how to read or taken a class usually since we were a child, and that’s probably not the most effective way, um, to be able to absorb, understand, and retain information.

Megan Hyatt Miller: That makes a lot of sense. You know, one of the things that, um, I’ve learned about as a parent, I have two children who are dyslexic, and that’s been really interesting because that’s not something that I was aware of previously. Um, my older children didn’t struggle with that. And so as I’ve learned about that, I’ve also noticed as I’ve gotten older that I feel like my working memory, you know, my ability to.

Hold information in my mind is, is not as good as it used to be and my distractibility. Feels like it’s increased also, you know, so I don’t, I have not been diagnosed with A DHD, for example, or a working memory deficit. But I, I think that we’re all becoming more aware of these learning challenges and neurodiversity and all kinds of things.

So when you think about, um, you know, high achievers like are in our community, Where are some of the ways that, um, adults struggle with learning that they might be unaware of?

Jim Kwik: Yeah, the, um, so I talk about four, the four Horsemen and Limitless. I talk about the four horsemen of the mental apocalypse. Kind of an interesting like analogy. And I, um, I. One of ’em, and it’s driven by technology. I don’t think technology causes ’em, but it certainly has amplified it a lot. So, and a lot of these forces are invisible.

So, uh, so one of ’em, for example, is digital distraction. How do you maintain your focus, your concentration and a whirl full of rings and pings and dings, app notifications, social media alerts? Um, so I think that’s, that’s one of the challenges, you know, so that’s why we, we. Focus on focus in terms of strategies on how to do that.

The second, second one that could be holding you back your productivity, your performance, definitely your peace of mind is, uh, digital deluge, which is a term i, I coined ’cause I wanted to iterate and make it all D’s. But is that, that’s the information overload, right? The amount information. Now, uh, I assume a program at Google.

And, uh, the chairman there had a, as a quote saying the amount of information that’s been created from the dawn of humanity since humans walked the earth to to, to year 2003, which was only what, two decades ago. That amount of information now is created. In two days online today, um, you think about podcasts and YouTube and blogs and social media, just, there’s so much content.

So we’re drowning in this information and, but we’re starving for ways to, to keep up, catch up, keep up, and get ahead. So, and that information overload again, has health effects also, again, 

that higher blood pressure compression, leisure time, more sleeplessness, so on. So digital distraction, digital daily.

The third one that people might be experiencing is something called digital dementia, and this 

is a term in healthcare, basically says the high reliance on technology, it your brain, while it’s an organ, it acts like more like a muscle and it’s use it or lose it. But if I put my arm in a cast for a year, it wouldn’t grow stronger.

It wouldn’t even say the same. Right? It would, it would atrophy. Digital dementia is saying we are using technology to remember things for us. So think about your phones. It probably keeps your to-dos, your calendar, uh, all your phone numbers, right? Just all this data and like how many phone numbers did the two of you used to know,

Megan Hyatt Miller: All of them. 

Jim Kwik: right? 

Michael Hyatt: them. 

Jim Kwik: Yeah. And how many. 

Michael Hyatt: even know my own phone number

Jim Kwik: Right, Yeah. and I think, I think most everyone listening would, uh, identify with that, that they used to remember all the numbers. And today they could count on one hand how many numbers, current numbers they know. And let me stay upfront. I don’t wanna memorize 500 phone numbers, but it should be very concerning.

We’ve lost the ability to remember one phone number or a pin number, or a password or something we just read. I, I believe two of the most costly words sometimes in life are, I forgot mm-Hmm. to do it. I forgot the appointment. That meeting, I forgot what I was gonna say. I forgot what was said to me.

I, I forget that person’s name. I mean, every time we say these words, we lose trust. We heard a relationship, right? That whole idea. Uh, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. And what’s the message we, you know, we’re sending people when we forget things about them. And, um. So on the other side when you could easily memory is a magnifier when you could remember important, 

you know, anniversaries and you know what’s important to loved ones and things you need to do, and things that you read and things like numbers and you know.

Names and faces, right? It just makes life a little bit easier. And then the third one, besides digital distraction, um, digital, uh, dementia, digital deluge is just a term I coined called digital deduction. I read a study where they said they tested, um, they found that it, they concluded that this generation had, for the very first time, less logical, rational abilities than the previous generation.

And they were attributing it to technology. The technology’s not just remembering things for you. It, it’s, it’s thinking for you. Um, I mean if you think about, I mean, just algorithms and like recommendations or what to eat or, or even how to get from here to there. 

You remember there was a time when we would have to try to figure out or use a map to be able to 

get from here to there, but now, you know, on our phones we have that, those GPS maps or whatever, and we don’t even have to think.

And so our visual spatial intelligence, you know, struggles and suffers. You know, there’s a study done I talk about in the book, it’s very popular one, a taxi, uh. A, a taxi cab driver’s, uh, study at Oxford and they analyzed their brains ’cause you had to study for years. To know every road and street, um, you know, and in that area, and that, that part of their brain was highly developed.

Um, but nowadays you don’t have to do that with technology. ’cause technology is doing the thinking for us. And so we, in the chapters of Limitless, you know, we have the opposite. So if you’re, if you’re digital distraction, we, we have chapter on focus. If there’s digital overload, we teach speed reading, accelerated learning, digital dementia.

We teach the largest chapter in the book is memory improvement Digital, uh. Deduction. We, we teach people how to think, right? How to make decisions, how to be more creative. And I just wanna stress and underscore it’s not things that you have, it’s things that you do. A lot of times I feel like what we’re doing together in this community is about transcending.

You know, we’re ending the trance and ending this massive hypnosis, maybe through marketing or media, that, that were not enough and that were broken or some, you know, something there. Or self hypnosis, the words that we’re saying to ourself, you know, at events, it happens all the time. People pill me aside in the lobby and say, I know your memory coach.

And they almost are embarrassed about it. They’re like, or take some, or some people take pride in it. I have a horrible memory. I’m just getting too old. I’m not that smart. And I always say the same thing. I always say, stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. 

If you fight for your limitations, they’re yours.

Right? And so that, that Henry, you know. The, the, the quote, the, uh, if, if you think you can or think you can, either way, you’re, you’re right, right? Henry Ford said that. And so, you know, going, going back to this, um, to answer your questions, I, I feel like a lot of this is possible and a lot of people are struggling with the same things, and I think it’s not really a hundred percent their fault because they were just never taught, we weren’t really taught these things.

Michael Hyatt: But it feels like technology is changing faster than we can process whether or not it’s good for us. Yeah. And so we’re, we’re just sort of imbibing of this, uh, uh, fire hose of information and technology and the Yeah. need to upgrade and go to the new thing. And I, I wanted to come back to a question about reading and, uh, this is a confession and if you tell me that this is a bad thing to do, then I will change Mm-Hmm. But I typically read on a Kindle

Jim Kwik: Mm-Hmm. 

Michael Hyatt: and or audio books. 

Jim Kwik: Yeah. 

Michael Hyatt: I’ve, kind of, I’ve accumulated so many books that, for physical books, I don’t really have any room left in my house. And, you know, there’s a solution for that. But is, is it better to read a physical book?

Jim Kwik: Yeah. Great, great, great. Great question. A lot of is personal preference. So there, there’s a quote in Limitless from a French philosopher. It says life is a letter C between letters, B and D. Life is C between B and D, or B is birth. And D is death, life, C, choice. And, and I believe our lives are the sum total of all the choices we made up to this point, right?

What are we gonna feed our minds? What are gonna feed our bodies? Where are we gonna live? Who are we gonna spend time with? What are we gonna do for all that things, right? Um, and I believe these difficult times, they could distract you. These difficult times can diminish you, or these difficult times they could develop you.

We, we ultimately decide, um. And when it comes to reading, I think reading is like, reading is to your mind, what exercises your body. People always ask like, what’s the best brain training app or exercise? And I really think it’s reading, uh, personally. Now we could ingest this, uh, form, you know this as authors.

People could read it on a screen, they could read a physical book, they could listen to your audio books and such. So the answer would be the research I’ve seen say that when you’re listening to a podcast on an audio book, as opposed to somebody who’s reading, physically reading the book in terms of the things that matter, comprehension and retention.

For people reading the book tend to have better comprehension and retention, and I would guess one of the reasons why is because usually when somebody’s listening to an audiobook, they’re doing something 

else. 

Cross: Mm-Hmm. 

Jim Kwik: driving, they’re cleaning the house, they’re working out. And so it, that multitasking, which, you know, we understand is more of a myth.

They’re task switching. So ultimately they’re not, they’re not paying, their attention is not fully there. As opposed to when you just have a book, you’re not gonna be driving 

Cross: Mm-Hmm 

Jim Kwik: when you’re reading that book. Um, yeah. And I read on a digital device when I’m traveling. Um, my personal preference when I’m home is to read a physical book, but you’re right, it’s running on a shelf space, so that, that’s a real issue.

But if I’m traveling, I do read. A lot. Like, uh, there was a time when I was reading a book a day for four and a half years. Now it’s more like three to five books a week. But if I’m traveling for an extended period of time, it’s, you can’t possibly travel. At least I can. I don’t wanna lug books 

around. Um, so I do read on screens.

It’s just, I prefer to read on paper personally. So that’s why when I say life is c, the choice, my personal preference is. Physical books when I can. ’cause I just, I spend so much time on a screen, so I’m just myself 

trying to where I can limit it. Um, but reading on a screen is, is, as I understand it, the same is reading a physical book. 

Michael Hyatt: Well I’ve, I know in my own practice. I read on the Kindle, on the iPad, it’s a better experience, but I’m 

Jim Kwik: Hmm. 

Michael Hyatt: to get distracted 

Jim Kwik: Yeah, 

Michael Hyatt: it just on a Kindle device where that’s literally the only thing I can do that isolates me from all that, that distraction. 

Jim Kwik: That’s a great tip for, for people 

listening 

Michael Hyatt: so I wanna go back to something you just said that my jaw just dropped. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: You just glossed over it, like, you know? Yeah, like just like everybody does this every day. I go get the mail at the end of the driveway. So you said 

Michael Hyatt: you read how many books a week typically?

Jim Kwik: three to three to five now, I mean, when I, yeah. At, at, at most, I was reading a book, a, a book a day for, for about four years.

Michael Hyatt: Wow. And okay to do three to five books a week, how much time does that take? 

Jim Kwik: Yeah. 

Michael Hyatt: I think I, I’d love to make, I’d love for you to make the case that it’s possible for even busy people to do some version of that.

Jim Kwik: Yeah, even if people weren’t a, a fast, a fast reader, like, so let’s break this down. an average book. Yeah, depending on the statue you look at has approximately on, on Amazon. I did it like an average and the medium, actually the medium was, uh, 64,000 words. Now, probably a little bit more than that, but the average person reads approximately, let’s say two, 200 words per minute on the low end.

If you divide 64,000 by 200 words a minute, that means it takes 320 minutes to get through one book. Now, that sounds like a lot, but if you break that down into seven days, that’s. 45 minutes a day of reading, we’ll get you one book a week. 52 books a year and 45 minutes is, is a lot. Um, you know, but it’s, you know, an hour is what, 4% of our day.

So it, it takes, it takes discipline, it takes scheduling, it takes a commitment to doing so. It may be 20 minutes, you know, in the morning and in 20, 25 minutes in the afternoon or evening, you could break it down. Now if you triple your reading speed, you could do that in 15 minutes a day. Which is very, you know, very, very doable.

Also. Also, right, right. So if it, you know, it gets below that, that threshold where it’s just, you know, I believe inch by inch is a inch yard by yard, it’s too hard. 

But if you could break it down to its component parts, it, it’s, it’s very doable. You know? ’cause the average person reads what, 2, 3, 4 books a year and, and 

you know, somebody who’s reading a book a week, you know, 50.

Plus books a year has, has a huge, I feel like, has a huge advantage. 

Cross: Mm-hmm. 

Jim Kwik: especially if they understand, they’ll be able to retain and, and execute and implement what, what they’re reading. And I, I also want to just say, even though I have said knowledge is power, we all know that it’s potential power only ’cause power when we use it.

My, my general guideline is for every hour I spend learning something, I just feel compelled to spend an equal hour. Putting it into play, you know, putting into action. There’s this Chinese proverb that says What I hear, I forget what I see. I remember what I do. I understand what I hear. I forget. Um, I heard the name, I forgot the name.

What I see. I remember I saw your face. I remember the face and what I do. Going back to the power of practice, practice makes progress and I feel like we don’t know it unless we could do it. But also I think also people don’t read because. For most people, since they haven’t had training since they were six years old, they’re, they, they’re not very good at it.

Like reading, have you read of something? Ga just forgot what you just read. 

Michael Hyatt: Oh 

Jim Kwik: Or you, you know, you get distracted Or or you think of other things or you fall asleep or, you know, and you know, if you say, if you’re not, if you’re not good at something, like I’m not very good at golf. Um. So I don’t play it often, right?

’cause it’s not fun for me ’cause I’m, I’m not that capable yet. And so I feel like when people improve, there’s, in psychology, there’s that confidence competence loop that the more confident you get at something, the more confident you get at it and the more confident you get at something more you’re gonna do with that activity.

So you get better. And it’s just a positive feedback loop. But I would say, um, and the important thing is, you know, I have a to read list. Um, I think it’s important to schedule it. I think one of the most important productivity performance tools we have is our, our calendars. You know, you schedule your parent teacher meetings or investor meetings or doctor meetings, but I don’t think we, we schedule our implementation or our own personal growth, you know, as much.

And if it’s not in your calendar, at least for me, it just doesn’t get 

done, um, as easily.

Megan Hyatt Miller: Absolutely. Uh, okay. Well, I love that and I’m so motivated, by the way. Me too. If you’re thinking to yourself, I have got. To get what this man has. You wanna pick up the Limitless book, and this is an expanded edition. You can get it anywhere. You know, books are better, books are sold, better books are sold.

Michael Hyatt: If we were talking to somebody that was a fitness coach,

Jim Kwik: Mm-Hmm? you know, we’d be saying, okay, what’s the best things, you know, the four or five 

Yeah. 

Michael Hyatt: we could do to optimize 

Cross: Yeah. 

Michael Hyatt: Our physique or a physical prowess.

Mm-Hmm. What are those similar kinds of things for mental prowess?

Jim Kwik: Yeah, let, let, let, let’s do it. So there’s a software and there’s the hardware. And so for me, how to remember languages, how to remember, I help a lot of actors or Ted speakers memorize their speeches or scripts. you know, how to focus. These are things you have, these are the things you do, and the benefit of taking a noun and turning to a verb.

Is it gives you your agent, it just reminds you of your agency,

right? You don’t wake up and say, I hope I have creativity, I have focus, I have motivation to do X. These aren’t things you have, because then that’s like hope, right? We don’t know. Hope’s not a great or good strategy. These are things you do.

And when you turn into a process, then you have power to, to be able to make things better, right? And so focus for me is a process. Remembering is so you don’t have a memory. There’s a three-part process for memorizing something. You don’t even have energy. There’s a. Process. It’s a verb where you could generate energy, 

you know, having to do with your sleep and your diet and your exercise and so on.

Um, okay, so let’s unpack this. One of the quick tips I would recommend for reading faster and improving reading focus is very simple and sometimes I find that the simple things. Because it’s so simple and easy to do. Sometimes people don’t do it. Um, so one of the things, and I don’t, and I’m I’ll give people a challenge and they could post it on social media and, and you tag us on it, you know, all of us on it.

So we get to see it, see how effective it is. But you need a baseline, right? Like how you know if it’s gonna work, if, unless you test it. ’cause ultimately the person listening, I think really is. The expert on themselves. And so you could trust, but you could, you could definitely validate and verify it. I would recommend everybody start here.

Pick up a book, put a mark in the margin, and just read how you’d normally read for 60 seconds. And when you’re done, put ’em finishing mark in the margin, and then count the number lines you just read in 60 seconds. Right. It gives you a baseline, a base rate, and then you know, in order to be able to manage it, you have to measure it.

And then what I want you to do is pick up where you left off, time yourself for 60 seconds and just do one simple thing different. Just underline the words I. As you’re reading it, it doesn’t matter if you’re on a screen, if you’re on a Kindle, just don’t touch the screen. Don’t touch the actual paper on the book, but just going back and forth.

Margin, margin. 

You’re not skipping with your finger 

or a pen or a highlighter, a mouse on a computer, but you’re not actually writing on it or touching the, the, the book itself. You’re just right above it. Right, and you’re just going margin to margin, not skipping anything. ’cause traditional speed reading, the reason why people get a gist is ’cause they’re taking their finger and going right down the page or making S forms or Z forms, but they’re missing big chunks of information right here.

You’re not skipping anything, you’re just going forward, going back, back and forth. Do that for 60 seconds and then put a mark in the margin and then count the number lines you just read. And for almost everybody listening, that second number will be about 25 50%. Uh, better. 

Cross: Wow. 

Jim Kwik: Okay. Now it doesn’t sound like a lot 25, 50%, but little things add up.

50% would say you 20% twice, say 20 minutes on every hour. I mean, just think like if everyone could just double their reading speed, the average person. Is processing information approximately, depending on what you look at, about four hours a day. You think about the information you’re processing through research or reading or emails, social media, whatever, proposals about four hours a day.

If you could just double your reading speed. You save two hours a day, two hours a day, over the course of a year, or even one hour a day over the course of a year is 365 hours. How many 40 hour work weeks is the nine more than nine weeks, two months of productivity you save just saving an hour a day on something ubiquitous like reading.

So the reason we do so much, you know, we serve half of the Fortune 500 companies, we work a lot of corporate is because, you know, if someone’s getting, if four hours a day is spent reading, that means half of their salary is being paid to read. Right? And so we get that time could be better spent towards something else.

Um, so. Underlining the words as you read. ’cause what it does, it helps you with the number of things. One of the obstacles of effective reading is regression that back skipping. We do unconsciously. Have you ever found yourself rereading words or rereading old lines by accident? So when they have these sophisticated technology where they could shine a light in your eyes and it could show you like, um, where the person is looking, right?

They use this in um, ads so they could see what. Product placements. See where people’s eyes unconsciously go. They can put their product or brand in a line of sight, but they do that for reading. And you can see a lot of times people will read and it’s, it’s very sporadic. They go forward, then back and then forward and back.

And um, there are these fixations that they call fixation is a stop. It’s like an eye stop. And think about it, like if you’re reading a book and there’s about 10 words per line in the average book, that means their eyes fixate. You know the fixation 10 times it stops. And now if you relax your eyes, you are able to take more in, maybe see the word to the left and to the right of the original word.

Then you see three words in one fixation. So like, kinda like when you’re driving, it’s like if you’re in heavy traffic, you’re like, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. As opposed to maybe somebody could take three or four words in, in one glance and maybe only make. Two or three stops across the page. Um, so the, the focus, they call it a visual pacer, using something to help you to focus, it prevents you from back skipping.

It also helps your focus because, okay, so I. Here’s the reason to use a visual pacer. First of all, children use it like we have a 17 month old who’s starting to read, and he naturally is pointing at the, the words 

Cross: Mm-Hmm. 

Jim Kwik: until, maybe some education, you know, uh, systems say, tell you not, not to use your finger.

Now, children naturally, organically do it. It’s kind of interesting. We do it too, so nobody usually reads with their finger. But when I ask you to count the number of lines you just read in 60 seconds. Everybody’s going, using their finger pointing, using it as visual pacer. And the reason why is our eyes are attracted to motion.

If something ran across your room, you wouldn’t no longer look at me as a, as a hunter gatherer. You have to look at what moves. ’cause it’s your survival. If you’re in a bush hunting lunch, like a rabbit or a carrot, depending on what people’s lunch is, if the bush next to you moves, you have to look.

’cause number one, it could be lunch or number two, you could be lunch. Right? We’re hardwired to look at what moves the most, and so when you’re, when you’re underlining the words, your eyes are attracted to the motion and you’re pulled through the information as opposed to your tension being pulled apart.

The other thing though is it’s how your nervous system is set up. Certain senses work very closely together. I. Like, I don’t know if the two of you ever tasted like a, a fresh piece of, uh, a fruit, like Right. Not something that’s been sprayed in wax and, you know, sitting in a store for six months, but right off the vine farmer’s market.

Have you ever tasted a great tasting peach before? Yeah.

Megan Hyatt Miller: I have some at my house right now. Absolutely. Right now it’s

Jim Kwik: likewise likewise here too, and you’re not actually tasting the peach because your tongue’s not capable of tasting what a peach tastes like. You’re actually smelling the 

peach, but your sense of smell and taste are so closely linked in your nervous system that your mind can’t tell the difference.

It knows the difference When you’re congested and you can’t breathe through your 

nose, food tastes. More bland, right? Just as your sense of sight and your sense, your sense of smell and taste are so closely linked in your nervous system. So is your sense of sight and your sense of touch. So people literally using their finger while they read will say they, they feel more in touch with their, with their reading.

Right? And even with their, my, my, our, our son. I take my keys and I say, look at my keys. Look at my keys. Naturally, in order for him to see it, he has to touch 

them. You know, another, in fact, if someone loses their sense of sight, how do they read? They, they use braille, 

right? Their sense of touch. So I would encourage everybody, you know, a takeaway from this that could save you hours and hours that you could put towards things that, that matter.

You know, more is, um, is using your finger while you read. And then the second thing that would help you not only improve your focus, and I know the two of you talk about this, is just asking, asking more. Questions and better questions. 

You know, when your brain primarily is a deletion tool, we’re trying to keep information out.

Like even as I’m talking to you, I’m trying to keep, like our dogs are outside and by the, on the beach, like, like barking. I could hear them from here and I’m trying to delete it, right? Because if. At any time there, there is so much information. If we let it in, we would be overloaded and overwhelmed. Right?

We would go insane. So what do we allow in are things that matter to us? And one of the filters is that part of our brain is a reticular activating system. RAS. Right. And how we hijack it, one of the tools is asking questions. So when we ask a question, we shine a spotlight on something. We weren’t, we were deleting.

Right. Uh, an example is. I have a younger sister and years and years ago, she would send me emails and postcards of very specific breed, a dog. It was a, a pug dog and I don’t know why she’s doing it, and, but I realized her birthday was coming up and she’s a really good marketer and she’s seeding a gift, right?

But the funny thing happened, the two of you, like I started seeing these pug dogs everywhere in my neighborhood. I would go to the grocery store and the person in front of me is checking out. At the cashier holding a pug dog. I’d be jogging in my neighborhood and I swear there’s this guy walking six pug dogs. And my question for everyone listening was, did those pug dogs just magically teleport and manifest into my neighborhood? No. They were always there, but my brain was deleting it. ’cause it wasn’t important to me until I started asking the questions. So my question for everybody here is when they’re reading, what questions are they asking?

Because if you’re, if you have questions about how can I use this? So I must say, use this. How does this relate to what I already know? And so on. Then when you’re reading, you’re like, oh, there’s a pug dog. There’s a pug dog. There’s a pug 

dog, right? And those questions give you focus, and the focus leads to comprehension, you know, and, and better retention. And then if you ask questions that nobody’s asked before, you’ll get answers nobody’s ever gotten before, right? So I feel like even when you’re meeting somebody for the first time, you wanna remember their name. Try asking yourself why? Like, why do I wanna remember this person’s name? Maybe to show the person some respect or create a, a business contact, a referral, a sale, a practice.

These things I learned on this podcast, ’cause again, reasons reap results. If we don’t have a reason to remember something, we’re probably not going to. And so I think a couple ideas to improve our reading ability. Use your visual pacer. If you want greater speed, use your finger while you read. If you want better comprehension, ask more questions.

You know, so like every, at the beginning of every chapter of limit list, you’ll see I have three priming questions. So that way they’re looking, there’s a target, you know, when they’re, when they’re reading, um, 

to be able to find those answers. And then the, the other thing, the questions force focus, right?

Force you

to be present as opposed to. Maybe disempowering questions like, how come I can’t learn this?

Or, why does this always happen to me? Or this end role, and endless cycle of negative momentum.

Megan Hyatt Miller: That’s really what we’re doing in the Full Focus planner. You know, Mm-Hmm. are using the full focus planner and they open it up to the daily page, they’re asking themselves, what are the three most important things I must accomplish today? Which is very different than how am I gonna get all this stuff done?

Jim Kwik: Yeah. a very different kind of question. Same thing when they’re doing a weekly preview and they’re looking back and they’re looking ahead and they’re, you know, doing that on a quarterly basis, annually. I mean, I, I think that’s such a breakthrough. So 

Michael Hyatt: I have another question

Jim Kwik: Yeah.

Michael Hyatt: that I wanna explore just a little bit, the mind body connection.

And I wanna give you a scenario that happened to me just this week. I was in Chicago for a workshop that I go to once a quarter, and the night before I was very agitated because I was attending a meeting. was a lot of conflict involved so I could go to sleep. I only slept five hours, and normally I get about eight, seven or seven and a half to eight, got five hours.

The next morning I woke up and I felt like I had sleep deprivation induced dementia.

Jim Kwik: Hmm. I literally could not, and I don’t even know if that’s a thing, but I couldn’t remember stuff. My short-term memory was gone. I could hardly talk it was the craziest thing, but then I got a good night’s sleep.

Michael Hyatt: Everything’s back to normal.

Jim Kwik: Yeah. 

Michael Hyatt: What’s happening there?

Jim Kwik: Sure. Um, so sleep is, is so very important for the brain. I mean, you just illustrated when you don’t get a. That poor night’s sleep. How’s your focus the next day? How’s your ability to solve problems? How’s your mental energy? How’s your memory? Um, three things for the brain. When you sleep, you consolidate short to long-term memory.

And so if people have a long-term, anyone listening has long-term memory issues. Might want to get a sleep. Study your doctor. You don’t, no longer do, you have to go into a clinic. They could send it to you, you could do it at home. It’s pretty simple and straightforward. The second thing that happens when you sleep, the sewage system in your brain kicks in and, uh, you clean out the, the beta amyloid plaque that could lead to brain aging challenges.

So I, I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer’s when I was seven. 

Cross: Hmm. 

Jim Kwik: And, uh, she, she was, my, my parents worked, you know, a lot. Uh, she was, she was like everything for me, right? So we did, we, we. We donated all the proceeds, author proceeds to limitless, to chair, to Alzheimer’s research for women. Uh, women are twice as likely to experience Alzheimer’s than men, yet most of the research is done on men and treatments, on men and, and also to build schools in Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya.

Um, but we’re very passionate about, you know, scaling people to have, again, better brains and better learning. Um, I would say also when you dream, when you sleep, you dream and people don’t realize, um. They might not realize that a lot of things in culture were, were created in dream states. Like Mary Shelley came up with Frankenstein in her dream.

Uh, Paul McCartney came up with the song yesterday. In his dream, a chemist came up with a framework for the periodic table in his dream. And my question for everybody here is like, what do you, because your brain doesn’t shut off at night. In some ways it’s more active, uh, integrating which it’s learned and long-term memory and cleaning out your, your brain and what are we dreaming at night?

That could be very significant, you know, to solving problems that we’re focused on during the day. That’s why in the morning I write down my dreams, like I have the, this, this process that just, uh, help us remember our dreams. ’cause I feel like there’s a lot of treasure 

there also as well, I. 

Cross: cool. Oh, cool.

Jim Kwik: Yeah, but sleep is so very important.

My favorite sleep ideas to that really move the needle. And there’s a whole chapter in there, direct sunlight, first thing in the morning, 10 minutes not through, um, the glass window. ’cause that could filter out some of the spectrum of light. And the reason is your eyes are only part of your brain that’s out outside your skull and it helps to reset your circadian rhythm so you sleep better that evening.

Um. And then number two, I’m very sensitive to caffeine, so I have to be careful past noon and personally, um, I would say most people have an alarm to wake up. I would highly recommend use that same alarm to go to sleep, meaning your brain loves a rhythm, your sleep loves a schedule. Even on the weekends, if you go to sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time, you’ll get better sleep overall.

And then the big ones we would know. Y thousands of years ago, it would be time to sleep because the environment would tell us there’d be a decrease in temperature and decrease in light. So cooler, you know, darker, you know, the better. And what’s hard is like, you know, when you’re on your screens ’cause that produces light and it fools our mind into thinking it’s still daylight.

And so that’s why I don’t like touching my phone the first 30 minutes of the day and then the last 30 minutes of the day. It’s just kind of my non-negotiable.

Megan Hyatt Miller: That’s a good rule. Well, Jim, I feel like we could talk to you for a day and a half about this, and I hate to cut it off, but I know you have a hard stop. So we have a quick lightning round 

Jim Kwik: Yeah, let’s do it. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: to ask you. Um, the first one is, what’s your biggest obstacle right now in getting the double win?

Winning at work and succeeding at 

Jim Kwik: or so. Um. We have a 17 month old,

Megan Hyatt Miller: You could just put a 

Jim Kwik: uh, 

Megan Hyatt Miller: right after that

Jim Kwik: yeah. So 5, 5, 5, 5 hours of sleep would be, would be a blessing. Uh, right, right about now. Um, yeah, it’s so that, and, you know, I don’t see it as a balance. Like, it, it’s so, like the words affect me a lot. So for me, balance feels, um. Like, uh, if you look up, balance is equal weight.

You know, and I feel like not every, my life is not equal weight. Like I don’t wanna spend an equal amount of time in the gym as I do on my mission. And you know, like if you look at a, like an orchestra, not, not every instrument or, or a person, I. Contributes this equal amount, but they come together and there’s a science and an art to it and create a symphony, and there’s harmony.

And so that, that’s what I’m striving for. I think what gets in my way besides, a growing family would be, um, I wanna do so much, like, I feel like this, this, this moral impetus to, to help as many people as possible. And sometimes when I allow myself time to. Self care or do something else, you know, I feel like, am I not doing enough?

Um, so

Megan Hyatt Miller: Yeah, that, that’s, that’s an internal struggle.

I think a lot of people will relate to that. Um, how do you know when you’ve gotten the double win? perfectly. ’cause you 

Jim Kwik: Yeah. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: of us ever get it perfectly. But

Jim Kwik: Oh, I, I could tell you exactly what works for me. Um, instead of that. Touching my phone first thing in the morning. I do a mental exercise I’ve done for forever. I keep my eyes closed when I wake up and I just do a thought experiment. I imagine myself coming back to bed and my wife asked me how my day was and I was like, today was amazing.

Today was incredible. We really like really crushed it today. And then I asked myself what had to happen in order for me to feel that way. And I come up with, this is interesting for double wind. I come up with three things personally and three things professionally. I. And those six things and they don’t have to be, huge things become my target and I, those are my six things I focus on for that day.

Michael Hyatt: Beautiful. 

Jim Kwik: uh, 

Megan Hyatt Miller: that. 

Jim Kwik: yeah ’cause I feel like, like in sports and I don’t watch a lot of sports, you know, when it’s time to break, you know, to celebrate. ’cause the scoreboard tells you, 

but we don’t think we create that for our,

our 

Megan Hyatt Miller: true. 

Jim Kwik: And I’m not gonna like your to-do list has 300 things and that’s. Yeah, that’s not giving me the, uh, I focus on the thing.

I think the most important thing, it’s not about time management, it’s about priority manages, it’s about mind management and the most important thing is to keep the most important thing, the most

important thing. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: well 

Jim Kwik: I like that. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: to 

Michael Hyatt: that. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: Okay, 

Jim Kwik: Yeah. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: question. What’s one ritual or routine that helps you do what you do?

Jim Kwik: Okay. Um, besides that thought experiment, I do about the kind of the three and the three in the, in the morning, um. I just wanna make sure I get my, my, my Meds and everyday Meds. And they’re not pharmaceutical, it’s just an acronym. M is meditation. Uh, I need that 10 minutes or 20 minutes. Uh. The disconnect to reconnect, and that’s very important to me.

That’s like my time. Uh, the e is exercise movement is key for the brain. When you move, as your body moves, your brain grooves. And so when you exercise, you create brain derived neurotropic factors, BDNF, which is like fertilizer for neuroplasticity. Um, and you also create dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, these neurotransmitters as so important for cognitive health.

Uh, the d is my diet. So one more ritual is just what you eat matters, especially for your gray matter. And there’s certain is a whole, I have two chapters in the book on neuronutrition, one on diet and one on supplements. And there’s certain ingredients that have just are neuroprotective. Some foods like, like, like avocados and blueberries.

I call ’em brain berries, you know, wild salmon, uh, sardines, turmeric. Eggs if your diet allows a choline, you know, is very good for cognitive health, dark chocolate, um, and then also nutrients that have, or nootropics that have moved the needle to help me focus, to help improve memory. Um, I have a list of people don’t wanna get the book.

It’s a free one at, uh, brain nutrition.com and I list 30 supplements, ingredients with human studies that have been shown to be good for cognitive health and performance. So that’s diet. And then finally the sn, uh, in meds is sleep. You know, what we were talking about earlier is so, so very important. So I guess my one thing is meds, but it’s really like, you know, there’s really four things.

So I kind of game that.

Um, So practical and I’ve, I think it gives us a good track to run on. 

Michael Hyatt: And you’ve added so much value. Yeah. In this podcast. I mean, my 

Jim Kwik: thank you. 

Michael Hyatt: exploding. I feel like we’ve scratched the surface and probably the listeners do too. So pick up Jim’s book, limitless. Go 

Jim Kwik: Thank you. 

Michael Hyatt: check out his courses.

Can you give us the URL for that?

Jim Kwik: Yeah, people just, uh, um, easy to find online. Just search Jim Quick. K, it’s spelled right. KWIK. It’s my real name, my father’s name. My grandfather’s name. I didn’t, I didn’t change it to, to do what I do. And, um, yeah, in the podcast app on, on YouTube or wherever you’re listening to this, you know, I, I just wanna thank both of you for having me on, on your show.

You know, I, I would do this just to catch. Just to, to be able to connect deeper with you, and I look forward to having you on our show, and I just wanna remind everybody that. I, I believe that there’s a version of yourself that’s patiently waiting, and the goal is we show up every single day until we’re introduced.

I’m not talking about hustle. I, I think actually, you know, it’s this pendulum you can stretch, but you know, there’s this surrender, there’s this force and there’s this flow. You know, the things that, that we do, I, I always tell people life is like an egg. If an egg is broken by an outside force, then life ends.

But if an egg is broken by an inside force, then life begins and great things begin on, on the inside. And I wanna remind everyone, if they’re listening to this, they have greatness inside of they’ve self-selected. They’re on this path to reveal and realize they’re fullest potential. And then it’s a real honor to to, to be on this journey with all of you.

Megan Hyatt Miller: Thank you so much, Jim. 

Michael Hyatt: Thanks, Jim. Phenomenal. 

 

Michael Hyatt: Okay. I gotta be honest, my head exploded. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: I know, right? 

Michael Hyatt: That was so powerful and I’ve got so many things I wanna do. I feel like I just added 10 things to my to-do list. But at the very top for me is I have got to learn speed reading.

Yeah. Not because I wanna read more content, which I do, but I also wanna retain more. And so I, I, I’m just amazed to think that you can actually do both of those things at the same time. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: I know I kept thinking about my kids with their learning challenges that they have and how much his strategies could help them, but I’m also, like many of you, I am a very busy.

Mom with five kids until recently I’ve been in a home renovation and trying to run and grow a business and a coach. Like there’s so many things going on. I love to learn, but I don’t have a lot of time to do it. Right. And that’s, I would say that’s at the top of my list of frustrations. You know, it’s, it’s like, um, our daughter for Mother’s Day filled out this little thing, you know, all about my mom.

And it said if my mom had more time and she said she would take a nap, which is true, but she would also read even more. And so I feel like I just got time given back to me. That I can reinvest in other areas while really fulfilling my potential as a learner. 

Michael Hyatt: Yeah. I think it expanded my vision for what’s possible.

Megan Hyatt Miller: Yeah. 

Michael Hyatt: You know, I can read more books, I can recall more information. Yeah. And the whole memory thing, that also was outstanding because I thought, yes. You know, I really want to convey to people that I’m passionate about this, that they matter, that they’re seen Mm-Hmm. That they’re acknowledged and nothing does that better than remembering their name or remembering facts about them.

Yes. But I’ve, up until now, I’ve struggled with that and Yeah. And I even try like be, before we have a mastermind or some kind of event, I’m always trying to review the names and everything to get Mm-Hmm. Familiar with them, but there’s gotta be a better way. And Jim’s got that. I’m excited about what that’s gonna make possible for my relationships.

Megan Hyatt Miller: Yeah, I think so too. And relationships are such a huge part of being a professional, you know, I mean that’s really where the magic happens. Um, or where it doesn’t happen. Yeah, and I think this, again, it’s another. Leverage point that we have not taken advantage of until now. And you know, I mean, at this season of our careers, there’s not a lot of things we’ve literally never heard of before.

But like the ideas that he shared, I was like, I’ve never heard that before. That is so fascinating. I cannot wait to dig in to the details of the book and see how I can put this into practice. 

Michael Hyatt: As a professional speaker, one of the things I enjoyed was not only his content, but how he packaged it. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: Yes. Like he 

Michael Hyatt: was a master of having very clear.

Frameworks like the MEDS framework. Yes. And being very pithy in terms of how he said things so that they were memorable. Yep. So that’s also an aspiration that he didn’t really talk about, but it’s an aspiration for me. I wanna be more like Jim and I’m an introvert. You’re an introvert. So he shared that.

Megan Hyatt Miller: Okay. So my favorite, one of those that he shared was breaking an egg and when he was talking about the egg. Yes. You know, what did he say when you, when it breaks from the inside? 

Michael Hyatt: Well, he said when it breaks from the outside, that’s a bad thing. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: Right. 

Michael Hyatt: That’s death. 

Megan Hyatt Miller: Yeah. And when 

Michael Hyatt: it breaks from the inside, that’s a good thing because that’s the beginning of life.

Megan Hyatt Miller: Yeah. I mean, will you ever forget that? No. No. You can see it in your mind. It’s so great. Great metaphor. 

Michael Hyatt: Well, guys, I hope you’ll take one thing from this show today and put it into practice. We’d encourage you to leave us a review, preferably a five star review, but only if you can do that, honestly. But do that for us, wherever you listen to podcasts. ’cause it will help us to expand the reach of the podcast so that we have a greater impact and get this message of the double win out to the public.