#723: In Case You Missed It: January 2024 Recap of "The Tim Ferriss Show"

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1:42 Optimal minimal. At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. So now I'll do a personal question. No, it is. A cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal and those colour. Hello, boys and girls, this is Tim Ferris. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferris Show, where it is my job to deconstruct world class performers of all different types, to tease out the routines, habits, and so on that you can apply to your own life.

2:18 This is a special in between episode which serves as a recap of the episodes from the last month. Features a short clip from each conversation in one place. So you can jump around, get a feel for both the episode and the guest, and then you can always dig deeper by going to one of those episodes. View this episode as a buffet to whet your appetite. It's a lot of fun. We had fun putting it together and for the full list of the guests featured today, see the episode's description probably right below where we

2:44 Press play in your podcast app, or as usual, you can head to Tim.blog slash podcast and find all the details there. Please enjoy. First up Greg McKewn

3:00 Author of Essentialism. The discipline pursuit of less. And Effortless. Make it easier to do what matters most.

3:10 So you have that farewell with your daughter sending her off to Manaus. Right, which I've always wanted to visit, but that's a separate story. So where do you go from there, right? Because people have these realizations. Maybe they go I have no idea. They go on a rafting trip with friends and they think to themselves

3:29 Oh my God, this was so nourishing. I deepened my relationships with three of my most Cherished. Friends and I need to do more of this. But then it Like

3:40 Sand through the fingers slips away as they re enter their daily lives. And that's kind of it. Things get busy, things get crowded out. So what do you do? Well what did you do or what are you doing? After you have that realization.

3:54 Let me answer this. A conceptual way first of all, right? Like Well I have all sorts of limitations that make Focus challenging that make prioritization challenging that That make relationships challenging.

4:07 And all of us have our own mix of Literally uh DNA can predispose us to various weaknesses. And so the key for me seems to have been I have to build I mean the word gets overused, like build a system that's equal to that challenge.

4:24 And so I have like a paper planner that I built and designed myself and keep adapting. All the time. As soon as I learn oh that's kind of a weakness to me, I I build something in and oh that that's a tendency where I make trade offs that No.

4:37 Pleased with later. I build something in the So that it I On me And this really is the whole idea of effortless, right? Like effortless execution is

4:46 I don't want to trust Maio Weaknesses. I want to build a system. That

4:55 Means My weaknesses become something like irrelevant. That's what I'm trying to build. So One of those things, like I mean literally physically my

5:04 I take it with me everywhere. My personalized plan I take everywhere, literally everywhere I go, I will have it. And so in it I have the key relationships of my life, right? And that for me is very simple. That's my wife, Anna.

5:18 Let's have four children. They are the thousand X's. In my life. And then there is A select.

5:25 Group of friends. And then there's a a much broader group of people that I also am building relationships and making sure I'm checking in on. that really matter to me. If I fail in those relationships. Then

5:37 Probably everything's probably okay, but But if I fail in my relationship with the Thousand X's, it's like no, nothing's okay. Like with my white channel, like let me use that as an example. If I mean it's an an old saying, but it's like if things are bad in your marriage It doesn't matter how good anything else is, nothing's good.

5:55 And if everything's good in your marriage, like It doesn't matter how bad everything else is, everything is Everything is good. It's like This is so disproportionately important and so I don't think I can separate my answer to your

6:07 Question. Without saying Yeah, it's actually the establishment building

6:14 There is a permanent system in place. To help me Remember what matters and who matters. When do you revisit that? In other words, if you're carrying this with you everywhere. And it seems like

6:26 And again, I'll I'll just I'll add in my thoughts and then you can refine as we go. But it seems like unlike a lot of folks, and this would include me, who probably start with what should I do? Right. What? Should my priorities be? Seems like you are starting with Ku.

6:42 And if you have this constant reminder which acts as a system I'm wondering how you use that system. Right, because I think about my phone. I have One million. Three hundred and seventy nine thousand making that up uh notes on my phone. And I'm like, Oh, I I this is so important. I'm definitely gonna come back and read this. And ninety nine percent of the time I never look at it again.

7:01 So How do you use this? List of people The way that My binder works like the first section

7:09 Is all about Direction. Sort of let's say essential intent. for my whole life. Like what really, really matters. It's as succinct as possible. It's a few pages in total. That's always the place to begin, right? Because I want the

7:24 Come back and get centered in. What I have Having to learn Yeah.

7:29 Closest approximation. To the purpose of it all. And I literally have to come back to it, right? Like you've heard the metaphor before, but you know, the idea of a flight is off track ninety percent of the time. Like an airplane literally only gets to where it's supposed to get to at the time it's supposed to get there because it readjusts.

7:46 Constantly along the way. And And I feel like that myself. So Like, for example, I don't think that I'm better At being an essentialist than anybody else. I think it's a little bit more than I

7:57 If there's any advantage I've had in that journey, it's that I just really admit I'm a non essentialist easily. And so it's this idea like there's only two kinds of people in the world. There are people who are lost and there are people who know they are lost. It's like I know how easy it is for me to get washed. Never heard that. That's good. I'm looking that definitely I will look properly at those few pages once a week.

8:20 Right, like every Sunday morning I will look through that. I will read through it all underline. Schedules that's in your calendar? Yeah. Sunday morning. That's right. And But but then At other times through the week if I feel Yeah.

8:32 Sensation I know People feel this. You know, that just sort of feels a bit crazy, it's feeling just a bit frenetic and frantic, like what? I just texted Anna yesterday like man in in the morning, I'm like, Man, I just feel so lost. And I don't mean

8:46 for the last six months, I mean for the last Half hour. Okay, that's right. That's the signal. Go back, get centered. Take a moment, what really is the intent, what matters in your life. Okay, now from that

9:01 You know, and then you start designing your day. And I have some thoughts specifically about that, but You know you're asking the the year process I guess you're asking my system. So that's once a week. Okay. So for per day, let's get to that. So

9:14 I've Come to call this the one two three method. I do not do it every day. Man, I wish I was doing it every day. But I do it more often than I don't do it.

9:25 And it's simply this and it has to be written down for me in paper and pen. Like not in technology. Free of technology. And I try now. More often than not to

9:37 have this power half an hour, right? Like where I don't go to text an email Or apps or My phone. For the first thirty minutes. And I do that.

9:48 I haven't been doing great at that recently. But I still do that more often than I don't. And so in that, then instead of doing that, I'm in my planner and I'm literally writing okay, what's the essential for today? What's the one most essential Today, most important person, most important action for that person.

10:06 Number two is I write two things that are essential but urgent. That's like you know, it could be all sorts of things, any you know. Uh, whatever's got a deadline on it, finish this writing assignment. By this deadline, it could be finish these financial things for, you know, retirement documentation stuff that I don't really want to get to, but I know it's important and there's a deadline.

10:25 And then the third thing is three things that are Maintenance. items, right? So that's just I mean I that's anything that if I don't do it. It's not important today, but if I don't do it It will make life a lot harder later. It's like an effortless Strategy.

10:40 And so that's the one two three method, right? One essential two Things that essential and urgent, three maintenance items. Would you mind Greg giving me Just uh some concrete examples so we can visualize what this looks like. They they don't have to be real. I mean, they could be hypothetical.

10:55 But just to give an example of what a one, two, three might look like I'll just sort of talk through I talked to you yesterday. So Yesterday.

11:05 I was in California, in LA Or an event, as doing a keynote. I had my oldest daughter Grace with me, so the When I text the And they're like, Oh man, I'm just kinda feeling a bit lost.

11:18 After I Expressed that I was like, Okay. Yep, focused. What is the essential for today, the number one thing. Oh it's

11:25 Grace is here, it's my relationship with Grace. I need to make sure that we connect today, that we're not just with each other all day. Like I tried to travel with one of my children About eighty percent of the time for keynote and And so that's built into the system. But

11:39 You still have to be present and connected and so That was the priority. The two things that are essential. And urgent. Right, like one of them the keynote.

11:48 Right, that's coming up. And I don't really know how to phone it in on a keynote and I certainly fear Phoning it in. Because it's like such an opportunity missed.

11:58 The thing is coming, like that that moment will arrive and you you're gonna be on stage and it was for There's five hundred people, it's the non trivial event. And all the senior leaders of the organization and that was one of the key urgent tasks and then Yeah, the next urgent task was

12:14 To do it. Some family members who are I won't get into the But There's some health challenges involved. So I've sort of taken it upon myself to say, Okay, how could I maybe

12:26 Kind of be a little bit of a coach, which is not really a the natural relationship I have with them. But I'm risking it because I think it really matters and they seem to have responded really positively. And so I wanted to keep that going. That would be the next thing. And then of course maintenance items from there. Maintenance items.

12:43 Literally included. I was in Florida the couple of days before California, so like literally I have to unpack everything, put everything Make sure that that's just in order. So that you don't get behind on those things.

12:56 I needed to respond. to a key email about a contract that we've been in negotiation with over the last couple of months. That would be an item. Of maintenance. So when you're talking about the few pages that you would review on Sunday mornings, what would be an example of something

13:11 from those few pages because I feel like this would be very helpful for me. In the sense that I feel like I am pretty good at staying on task. I'm pretty good at keeping the Important things in mind and majoring in the major things. However

13:26 There are certainly times when And weeks when I get a little lost. And end up doing a lot of minor things and at the end of the week couldn't really point to what I've achieved. What might be some examples from

13:40 Those few pages. If you don't mind, Sherry. I have two pages at the beginning. Yeah. I don't share anywhere, but it's very carefully

13:49 Would it be The highest expression of what I think The fullest Manifestation of my life can be. It's not goals. It's beyond that. It's like

14:01 Who you can be what your most r important relationships can look like. And And It's

14:08 Sacred. Right, like that's how I Feel about it That's And so that's still the most important centering part of it because

14:16 Literally. If you don't get clear on that. Nothing else matters in the system, right? If you execute superbly what your life needed to be about.

14:29 Then it doesn't matter. Efficiently doing what Should not be done at all, of course, is like It's a form of madness, right? Like it's You speedily go in the wrong direction.

14:41 Next up Doctor Nolan Williams. Associate Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. and director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab.

14:58 Maybe in her fifties, sixties. female in uh Bay Area who Has suffered from bipolar disorder much of her life. And

15:09 Pretty successfully treated for the mania side of things over the years as a psychiatrist. Taking care of that part in Moran and Happened to slip into this pretty severe depressive episode a couple of years back, I guess it's been maybe like four or five years now and

15:25 Her psychiatrist had actually gone to see A talk that I gave at this mood disorders day, like The year before we were talking it was really early on when we were working on a rapid acting neurostimulation approach So the psychiatrist had heard the talk and then her patient kind of fell into this really bad suicidal depression and so she

15:45 reached out to me to treat her and I got on the phone, I I'll never forget it was like a Wednesday And I I got on the phone with her psychiatrist and She was telling me symptomatically how bad off she was, and I was like I don't think we can treat her outpatient. She's like way Too ill. I think she needs to go in the inpatient hospital.

16:02 So essentially gave her some information on how to do that. So I I see her the next morning and and she's in Really bad shape. What does that mean? Like how did that show up? When people are at the level where they like kind of definitively need to go into the hospital, they're not really totally communicative anymore and they've got some cognitive issues, um, sometimes. And so in her case, you know, she couldn't look you in the eyes.

16:25 You look at the ground and she was doing this rocking thing. Which you can see in pretty severe depression, it's kind of these catatonia overlap symptoms, you know. I mean she's like at the And at the very end of the spectrum, one of the highest severity patients we've ever treated. So she was like a score of fifty on the moderate out of sixty, like very, very severe, right? And and just rocking and not really talking and And the husband's were counting everything and she had bipolar one, so she's

16:51 Hypomanic, I think, or manic. Like two weeks before and then dropped into this very, very severe depression. So it was her daughter and the husband they're sitting in the room with me and I've said they want me to Treat her and I say listen like It's Friday, we go Monday to Friday, like

17:06 You have to find a way basically to keep her well from now until Monday, and that means And by well you mean safe. Like preventing self. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So keep her not having a suicide attempt basically from now until Monday. Very suicidal. And I said, You're gonna have to like Take every Knife.

17:25 I don't think they need guns, but gun, chemical, like scissors, everything out of the house. The whole all of it has to go. And you guys have to be on like a twenty four hour you know, watch until Monday. And so um Monda morning rolls around and we uh we bring her in and The craziest thing we had like an a repair on the motor threshold coil, which is the coil you use to kinda get

17:48 Calibrated on the intensity. And it shorted out the device and blew the uh capacitor bank up on the first stimulant. Blew your flux capacitor. Yeah, yeah, at like seven AM. And I mean you can't imagine how stressful that was. So we had a second machine. I'll tell you about this later, but we were running this you know, trait hypnotizability modulation study and it was over at the scanner, so it was like Pretty far away and this thing's weigh like hundred pounds, so I had to send my team over there, run over there and grab it.

18:17 Bring it over and luckily we were able to Kind of get her going and treat her with the second machine. She was in really, really bad shape. That morning and by Five o'clock that afternoon she was

18:28 Basically normal. And the next morning she was like Totally zeroed out and and completely normal. Meaning no suicidality. Meaning no depression, no nothing. And she looked like Any

18:41 person walking the street. Like totally normal. And that was in twenty four hours and We've seen this with bipolar patients quicker. But it'll happen really quick for like a bipolar one patient. You can get it done and sometimes in a day. Just for clarity, but get it done and don't worry people listening, we're gonna

18:57 Define terms and get into all this, but you're talking about accelerated TMS. Yeah, we're talking about accelerated TMS. Our rapid acting neurostimulation approach. we're able to get people out of these states and into normal mood. You know, and in short periods of time generally, like two point six days on average for Major depression patients, but it's quicker with bipolar, we've seen especially with bipolar one patients. So she was totally out of it in twenty four hours. I remember it was like

19:22 Right around July fourth or something, and so we You know, the whole team left. I guess we'll tell you about caffeine later too. So so my wife and I are like big Phil's coffee fans and so I'll never forget this either. So we go down to the Phil's Coffee uh in Palo Alto after I saw them. I'll never forget Clark Lehman, her husband, was also into Phil's didn't know I was gonna be there. And I look over and this guy's just kinda staring at me.

19:45 And I was like Hey, how are you? Good to see you again. I just like just saw the guy like ten minutes ago. And he's like, I still don't understand what happened. And it it makes sense, right? Like To take somebody from the worst you've ever seen them mood wise to like normal in such a short period of time.

20:02 was remarkable for him and You know, it ended up being that, you know, after that period they actually went out and really were helpful with a lot of the philanthropy that led to the Trials being funded and ultimately. The clearance and Clark.

20:14 And Deirdre really were advocates and have continue to be advocates for this to kinda get it out into the world. And he It was totally based off of that experience of feeling him feeling helpless, you know, and going from that to to feeling like uh it was all solved. And I think she went Maybe a year. Completely asymptomatic, ended up needing to get retreated again at some point. But gets like these little touch ups here and there and uh is able to stay

20:38 Well ongoing and depression. As they tell me, depression's not her problem anymore. And so that's good. She's a great illustrative case of what this can do and I think what the promise of it can be. Next up.

20:55 Noah Kagan. Founder of Appsumo.com And author of Million dollar weekend. The surprisingly simple way

21:04 To launch a seven figure business In forty eight hours. Just to share another story of that. I

21:14 noticed through all of my work that I was like, I like deals, I like marketing. And I think the software thing's gonna be big. How do I do this? very quickly to find out if this is something people actually want. And that's the reason you have weekend,'cause you have fifty two chances to change it.

21:27 If it doesn't work one, guess what? You have another one. And another one. And at least understand a process. You're so good at this. You're so good at thinking about that. So how do I experiment? And so with absolutely I was like, I think there's something with these three things. Let me try to do in a weekend. I cold emailed. MJ.

21:40 This college kid. Said, hey, I wanna do software. I'll pay seven dollars for everyone I sell. For him he's like, I get free money, that's cool. So cold email. It was just a And it was funny I how did you find the college good to called email?

21:51 Because I went to Imjur.com. Oh sorry. Yeah. No no not around. Okay. No. The website. Imjur.com. So I knew that the problem with software deals at good prices. I knew that I'm a Redditor and I was like, Well that's who where the customers are and then That's who the customers are and where they are. And I was like, they want Imjur. That was the most popular product at the time. That was all over it. So basically cold emailed Alan, just Alan at MJ dot com. It's like, Hey, I want to promote you, seven dollars per deal.

22:19 You get free money. No cost to you. And then I was like, Well, I can get this posted on Reddit. And I even Cold emailed the founders of Reddit. And was able to get them to give me free ads.

22:29 Yeah. How did you do that? So curious. I know Why would they give you free ads I don't really know, actually. That's bullshit. No, no. Now what was the pitch though? The pitch is twofold. One I n said I knew someone they knew.

22:39 So I worked with Chris Smoke. When I started previous companies, he knew Chris slow. Sweet for smoke system. So when you're sending an email, it's really strong subject line or any messages like referred by blah. At least you're gonna get an open or reply.

22:52 And by the way, don't bullsh that'cause you'll get fact checked. I just got someone fact checked with me, like Jordan Har you know Jordan Harbinger? Yeah. He's a good buddy of mine. He fact checked someone who messaged him like Hey, Noah Kagan's working with you hit me and but Jordan messages me. Yeah. I was like, No, I'm not. Yeah. It was a little bit more than that. Basically I said, Hey, I'd love to just treat you to lunch and share more what I'm working on.

23:12 And so I took him to a Pork Store Cafe in in hate. And I just shared what I was working on and said I'm doing this idea for software deals. I wanna focus on Reddit. I'm a huge Reddit or been Reddit since two thousand six. It's injure. I'd love to see if you can give me free ads. There wasn't a bigger ass than that. Again, we come back full circle. It's uh because it you know, I like asking, I practice asking, everyone can ask.

23:30 He's like sure. Crazy part of that story, fast forward about six months. I asked him again. And he's like ten thousand dollars. Yeah. But I highly appreciate Chris and and Reddit for giving me that free it was they were just getting their ad platform out. Mm-hmm.

23:45 Yeah. Okay. That was a good chance for them. to showcase something or have a case study. That it worked well. So I launched it, I was like if I can do two hundred sales, this is obviously a little bit bigger than what I'm encouraging others. If I get two hundred sales within a very short time, this is it.

23:59 And let me just break down the website. I paid forty eight dollars to a guy named Muhammad, who I can still recommend to people. To help me put a PayPal button on Appsuma.com and I spent twelve dollars on Appseo.com. Which w I know, I should have maybe done even not the website. But that PayPal button. People would and I post on Reddit Hey, I've got a deal on Imjur Pro, instead of twenty four dollars, it's twelve. And I gave Alan seven dollars. Immediately.

24:20 That first twelve dollars that was the best, dude. Yeah. That was so sweet. And I remember and this is the thing people were like, Well, how do I scale? I emailed. The codes for every two hundred person. Do you know what my back end was? Gmail. Yeah. I got the PayPal notification and then I sent him an email saying, Thank you so much. Here's your code for Imjur Pro.

24:35 What other deals do you want me to get? And that is what's led now to like a hundred percent team and we have all these crazy products. We've launched On so many different things from Map Sumo. We have Think a twenty Twenty five person engineering team.

24:47 It started with literally manual Gma codes. And so the concept there is just how so fucking basic. I didn't let all these other things get in the way. Yeah, and also That Super primitive back.

24:58 And that you're talking about. Highly manual, but high touch with the customer. Yes, yes. Gives you a lot of really valuable input. And Even though we've been talking about The word scale is kind of a four letter word. In one of the very first episodes of Masters of Skill.

25:15 That Reed Hoffman did. He interviewed Brian Cheske of Airbnb. And it's a great episode, and one of the key tenets in the beginning for Airbnb was do things that don't scale. And Those things tended to be highly manual.

25:30 Helping people take photographs of their places. And what they learned then led to A lot of what we've seen. Next up.

25:42 Dr. Andy Galpin. Professor of kinesology and co-director of the Center for Sports Performance at California State University Fullerton. and host of the new podcast Perform.

25:56 last year slash this year do you have a plan for supplementation? What I have done over the last say nine months, which has And th this is gonna sound like a shameless plug'cause I'm involved with these guys. But Probably what I would do this

26:11 Ski season is I would have an never ending supply of Maui Nui venison sticks, like the unsweetened. Like no additional sugar. And that has proven for me to be just about the easiest way to get nutrient dense thirty grams of protein in the morning. I can just throw those in my ski jacket, too. So that will probably take the place of eggs. Yeah. also just for convenience. In terms of supplementation, I would say last year Kept it pretty simple. I would say I was taking magnesium, some electrolytes. Generally magnesium in the morning.

26:45 And then I went back and forth on creatine. I know that there are so many different benefits to creatine. I was cognizant of not wanting to carry too much weight. like additional water weight if I was gonna retain a lot more water. Oh.

26:58 Yeah. So I use that intermittently. I would often use that around cross training, so I was like kinda going to the gym. Yeah. Athletic green is again, this can sound like a plug, but I've been using that stuff since two thousand whatever. Nine, ten. And supplementation we could say You know I I can be brief here if you'd like. Mm.

27:15 But Absolutely making sure magnesium is there. Magnesium is released in sweat at very low quantities, but it's still enough when you sweat. The amount that you're potentially Oh yes, also with with skiing, like I'm gonna sweat my ass off. Yeah. I'll be working. So you we want to make sure that that

27:30 Stuff is high. Creatine is Great. If you're going to use it, I wouldn't use it the way you did. Okay. Oh use it or don't.

27:39 Okay, okay. So having it like on certain days or not is probably not. Yeah, because it takes a chronic effect. Yeah. For it to really start to matter unless you're going really high dosage. So I wouldn't be super concerned about the water retention aspect of it because it wouldn't be a plus. Yeah, I was gonna say we're having a problem with that anyways, right? Any recommendation if you try and d doesn't work, you don't like it. And what are we talking about? It's like five grams a day, or what are we That's the number. That's the standard. That's everyone throws out. But I would say the same thing of like the protein. Yeah.

28:05 Yeah. Candle for Guys our size. Fine. I'm probably going higher. I'm also never measuring great team to be totally honest. Like I'm just taking big scoops and throwing it in there.

28:16 Yeah. Like seeing what happens. There's actually really interesting data on The more recent stuff, the more interesting stuff on creatine is around bone health. Brain health.

28:25 And overall even like mood. Brainhall is no joke. Yeah, but that's been ten to twenty grams a day. I have experimented with that chronically. And just looking at verbal I mean it's Recall. Yeah. And also just like verbal acuity and and stuff in podcasts. I mean I've looked at This somewhat it's N of one. It's just self reporting, but for me it's pretty noticeable. You don't have to do N of one, there's data.

28:46 Yeah. There's tons of it out there that's Nothing's perfect, but There's actually another review article. Just this week came out also on Creating and brain health.

28:54 Mm-hmm. So whether you're looking at Dementia Alzheimer's. It's an There's no perfect answer there, but yeah, you can see the data. Anything else you'd

29:03 Add to the list? The rest of it would be dependent upon Your labs and your physiology. Yeah. What we knew there. You could throw in you're never going to be hurt for the most part, adding vitamin D. It's a very Yeah. Common one. You're gonna be out in the sun all day, so Well, half of my face will be out in the sun all day. There'll be significant sun blockage, I hope. So Yeah. Uh yeah, I I did supplement with D last year. Yeah. And fish oil.

29:27 I also supplement it with visual. Yeah. Could be Uh placebo, who knows. There's probably literature out there on this, but I Found it to seemingly help with sleep quite a bit.

29:37 Those would be the standard kinda Without knowing anything about you. You throw in that cocktail, you're talking about things that are fairly cheap. Yeah. Yeah. Again. Relatively. Yeah.

29:47 They have very little Cross reaction. Mm-hmm. Unlike minerals. Yeah.

29:53 Unlike even high doses of vitamins. Mm. You're playing a game there? That you may want to be a bit careful of. But things like vitamin D and things like omega C meaning just unintended side. Unintended yeah. Side effects, yeah.

30:04 Yeah, you don't wanna what problem you're solving really, and so you're just sort of throwing stuff in there. That can technically happen with anything, even vitamin D. And Heavy metals. Mm-hmm.

30:12 Can be concerned there, but It's a very Right. thing. So most of the time like you're fine. I I feel comfortably like Most people can jump on that train for all those.

30:22 Be totally fine. Last but not least Chris Beresford Hill. Chief Creative Officer of the Americas.

30:33 At BBDO Worldwide So who Is David. And what does this mean and any other any other lessons learned or principles? So David is the

30:46 worldwide chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO. I worked for him for eight years. And I've kind of not shy of saying he was the best boss I ever had. He was the best boss I ever had because he He was very clear and he was very consistent. And that's what you need in leadership. And so You could show him a bunch of work and he would tell you what he liked.

31:06 And what he chose right away. And that was that. And He didn't need to split hairs, he would he would come give you his response and he knew that he would make a bigger impact. in this giant company by going around and saying, I think this is the m most right thing, the most creative thing, the most interesting thing, and just go and do that and not be afraid.

31:24 Two Make decisions. Create progress. And by the way, you know, if he picked something that was wrong What do you do? We'd we'd have to go back and do it again, or maybe we had one that

31:33 That wasn't as good as it could have been. But he never inhibited progress. He always facilitated progress by doing that. Meaning sort of catalyzing some type of forward motion. Exactly. He never would say, let me Take this back, let me think about it, or let's pull more people into it. He would just give you these gut reads. And it always gave you permission to go forward and it really taught that um

31:55 Someone who's really pushing everyone And keeping everyone in motion just happens to always be at the center of so much and that's why you know, for that eight years, I mean the agency was one of the most awarded in the world and There was my little corner of the universe, but there was all these other corners and he just

32:09 Amplified himself by empowering his people and saying a lot of yes. Sometimes a no, but he was You know, he was always game to move forward. Were you able to emulate that at the time in some small way, or is that something that you were only able to implement later as you had more and more direct reports or

32:27 I used it. I used it then. Because BBO at that time was David's place. So we David said to do it. David said, Let's go.

32:36 I don't think we ever got to look at an org chart or reporting structure. I don't think we ever knew That carried mustard. Loved the decisions he was making, and so enough of us would constantly say that's what David wants, and so whether or not that was be all end all, it became be all end all. And so

32:53 We were all emboldened to make moves. I myself couldn't. There wasn't much I could do. In terms of making your own decisions. No. No, I was kinda probably working through my own process, but it was it was invaluable later because you do see people

33:07 That in a high creative role. you've really gotta make things happen. And you will see some people in very senior roles that really guild the lily. And that really obsess over such a great expression. It it is. And and by the way the

33:20 Yielding the lily of two minute case study for an award show and changing the mix on the music eight times and you're like, listen. Doesn't really matter.

33:30 And there's times to craft the hell out of it, but there's also this step back. And I think In our industry and in in creativity Fast decisions. are really stepping back. You know, as opposed to

33:41 Getting in the weeds. riff on a little bit is How you think about fast decisions? Uh-huh.

33:50 This is a source of constant fascination for me. It's something I revisit a lot. To what extent do I prioritize like speed and just catalyzing? Things happening. Versus Honing. Minimizing mistakes. I think that's what it comes down to for a lot of people. It's like what error rate are you willing to accept?

34:07 Right? Is it ten percent? I I know it's hard to track these things, but is it like you're willing to accept a kind of breakage of making the wrong call ten percent of the time because The speed net. net over time is just a huge competitive advantage and good for what you're doing.

34:23 That's a long question, but With a fair amount of lead up. How do you think about that? I remember that at the end of the day it's subjective. It's not Mathematics. It's not mathematical.

34:33 And so you know, I've learned to trust myself and I've learned that If you A B something too long. You're lost. So I think the more

34:43 I get stuck in something, the more I realize I need to make a fast decision. Because I don't think Obsession. When you're really deciding go, no, go, good idea, bad idea. Excited about this, not excited about this.

34:56 I don't think time is your friend. I think time pulls every it slows everything down. It takes the energy out of it. So I think Sometimes you just gotta let it fly. And then by the way, you Can correct and you can change. As you go. I mean You know, I've approved ads that wound up being completely different ads that were really

35:13 Proud of so tha that's the other thing is that you know Nothing is Totally fixed. It also strikes me that there are so many things Just pulling from my own experience that get worse with time.

35:24 And more deliberation, like deals. And just deal structures, right? Negotiating. often in my experience. Like the longer it takes. The more that is a harbinger of

35:36 Pain to come. Right. Or just a bad, wasteful outcome that ends up stalling out. There are so many things like that where it's like, okay, if there isn't some speed to this Likely the outcome's gonna be worse. For sure. Time kills all deals.

35:49 Yeah, for sure. And it kills momentum and it kills energy. And it takes people so if you've got people going, if you need to take something offline for yourself Just know that their muscles are gonna cool. They're gonna take a break and they're gonna, you know, restart and Many times.

36:03 The wrong decision can become a The right decision. And now here are the bios for all the guests. My guest today.

36:14 is a guest who is very relevant for me personally right now, Greg McEwen. Yeah. And he is relevant because he is easily one of my favorite thinkers on all things related to effectiveness, efficiency, and At the end of the day. quality of life and keeping your priority or priorities.

36:35 Top of mind. So that you are laser focused to do what really matters, the high leverage things, which are sometimes the small things. Done with relentless focus that deliver. Incredibly, incredibly important. Mm.

36:49 So Let's get to it. This is a walk and talk with Craig McEwen. And overall, it is about how to find your purpose and master essentialism in twenty twenty four or in the new year, if you're listening to this later. And the walk and talk format is something I wanted to experiment with because Let's face it, most of us.

37:07 Sit too much and if we consider sitting the new smoking on some level with its health implications, and I want to give credit to Kelly Starrett, who is also a multiple time podcast guest for, I believe, coining that expression, we should get out and walk more. Part of what makes us human, part of what enabled our brains to become these incredible machines they have become. Which are powered on less electricity than a light bulb, by the way. Is walking, the fact that we perambulate, the fact that we walk historically. much of the day. And

37:39 I wanted to also contend with some back issues that I have that are exacerbated by extended sitting and many different health issues are correlated to extended sitting. So This is a direct oppositional approach to perhaps the YouTube build TV show approach, which is this is audio only.

38:00 And When I'm recording this, I am out walking. I have a high fidelity headset on And Greg is doing the same. We are Doing something good for our bodies while we are having a fun and productive conversation. And my suggestion to everyone listening is if you can.

38:19 Do a walk and listen. There is no reason for you to be parked in front of a laptop watching a video contributing to your own physical demise hour by hour. If you can be out. walking around listening to this. Also doing something.

38:35 good for your body and therefore for your entire life. So get out, try a walk and listen while we walk and talk. You can be part of the conversation and that's enough preamble on the format. But I really feel strongly that this is something I'm going to do more of. I loved doing it, and my hope is that you will join us in walking more. It is the cure all for so many things. Greg McEwen, who is he? You can find him on Twitter at Gregory McEwen, spelled M C K E O W N. Greg is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, mega bestsellers, Essentialism, The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. Which is a book I've read many times, and then I've reread my Kindle highlights, probably Fifteen, twenty times?

39:22 And his second book, Effortless. Subtitle. Make it easier to do what matters most. Together they have sold more than two million copies in 37 languages. He's also a speaker, host of the Greg McEwen Podcast, and founder of the Essentialism Academy with students from 96 countries. More than 175,000 people have also signed up to his one minute Wednesday. newsletter. He is currently doing a doctorate at the University of Cambridge and he is As I mentioned, easily one of my favorite thinkers on many, many, many, many, many different areas. And he is intensely practical. Originally from London, England, Greg and his wife Anna are parents to four children. You can find everything, Greg, at GregMckewan.com.

40:06 Yeah. My guest is Nolan Williams MD. You can find him on Twitter at Nolan Rye, R-Y, Williams. And Nolan is an associate professor within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine and director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab. And we're going to go deep. Into a lot related to brain stimulation. He has a broad background in clinical neuroscience and is triple board certified in general neurology. General psychiatry and behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry. Themes of his work include examining spaced learning theory and neurostimulation techniques, development and mechanistic understanding of rapid acting antidepressants, and identifying objective biomarkers that predict neuromodulation responses in treatment resistant neuropsychiatric conditions.

40:59 That is a long way of saying. that he specializes in Looking at I would Say, and these are my words, of course, cutting edge treatments.

41:10 And new technologies that can be applied to treatment resistant psychiatric disorders, let's just say so treatment resistant depression, things that are notoriously difficult to address, like OCD, there are many others. Nolan's work resulted in an FDA clearance for the world's first non-invasive rapid-acting neuromodulation approach for treatment-resistant depression. And I've tested this myself, and we get into this in the conversation. He has published papers in Brain, American Journal of Psychiatry, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Results from his studies have gained attention in science and the New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch. He received two NarSad Young Investigator Awards.

41:53 The Gerald L. Clarman Award. And the National Institute of Mental Health Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists. Again, you can find him on Twitter or X at Nolan Rye Williams. We'll link to this in the show notes as well. And you can find him online at NolanRWilliams. D No Kagan.

42:17 Tim Ferriss. It's been a minute. Nice to see ya. Great to see you. Really our last Rodeo. From an audio perspective. Was ages ago.

42:26 Number seventy five. On the podcast now close to seven hundred episodes. Wow. Yeah. And at that time it was how Facebook's number thirty employee quickly built four businesses and gained forty pounds with weight training. I feel like my headlines have deteriorated over time. They've become Very set of pedantic and pedestrian and and descriptive.

42:48 That is better copy, so I need to I need to work on that copy. Maybe you drafted that copy yourself, actually. For all I know that could have been the case. We have a lot to talk about. But for people who don't have any context. Could you give a little self intro? Great to see you first off. Yeah, it's been great to see you.

43:04 Now we're at eight million dollar businesses. Which is pretty amazing. I was number thirty at Facebook, number four at Mint dot com. I was a cubicle monkey at Intel for a very brief moment, which sucked, which led me to this entrepreneurship journey. And then I've started so many different businesses that failed. Some worked and now I help run appsuma.com, number one side online for software, to do about eighty million dollars a year. Which is unreal. It started bootstrapped in a weekend. I couldn't believe it when I saw that. I can't believe it. I remember I remember day one. Of App Sumo, effectively back in the day. It's been crazy. And you were big help with it.

43:34 You're super good help with getting it going, so thank you. You're welcome. YouTube channel's done press, million subs, got a book, million dollar weekend coming out to help people Very similar complimentary to for our work week. Mm-hmm. And we're here today.

43:47 Andy Galvin. Who is Andy? Andy Galpin is a tenured full professor at California State University Fullerton, where he is also co director of the Center for Sport Performance and Founder Director of the Biochemistry and Molecular Exercise Physiology Laboratory. He is a human performance scientist with a PhD in human bioenergetics and and more than one hundred peer reviewed publications and presentations. It turns out he has done research, his team has done research on many things that have been on this show. I didn't realize some of it in advance. Dr. Galpin has worked with elite athletes, including all stars, all pros and MVPs, Psy Young and major winners.

44:25 Olympic gold medalists and world titleists and contenders. Across many, many different sports that include MMA. So For instance, UFC, MLB. NBA, PGA, NFL All the acronyms, Olympics, Boxing, Military Special Forces, and much more. He is also a co-founder of Biomolecular Athlete Vitality Blueprint.

44:44 Absolute rest and rapid health and performance. You can find all things. Andy Galpin atandalpin.com and you can find him on Twitter and Instagram at doctor Andy Galpin spelled G A L P I N. The guest, Chris Beresford Hill.

45:03 is best known as a creative leader in advertising. He's an adman. He's a very, very good adman. He started off as an unpaid intern, the journey is wild, his techniques highly effective. But he's not just an admin. This conversation is really about coming up with good ideas. How do you come up with Original And good. Ideas that not only

45:26 can say sell product, but also change narratives, change stories, change the stories people tell, change culture on some level. And I loved this conversation. So let me get to the bio and then I will give some teasers. Chris Bertsford Hill is one of the most sought after creative leaders in advertising and has led brands with a combined market cap of over one trillion dollars. He was recently named Chief Creative Officer of the Americas, BBDO. Previously. Chris served as North America President and Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvie and Chief Creative Officer at TBWA Shiat Day.

45:58 His work for clients like Guinness, Mountain Dew, Dove, Workday, Adidas, FedEx, McDonald's, HBO and Foot Locker have driven sales while putting dent after dent into pop culture. But it's not just these huge brands. We also get into the early stories of how cold email To Mark Cuban changed the game for him completely. So we do talk about the super scrappy bootstrapped very, very novice days when he made a mark and slowly built his trajectory up to the stratosphere. Back to the bio. Chris and his teams have won every award for creativity and effectiveness many times over. They even have and I didn't even realize this was a thing, five campaigns in the permanent collection at MOMA.

46:38 He has been named to Adweek's list of best creatives. Adweek's Creative 100, Business Insider's Most Creative People in Advertising, and the Ad Age 40 Under 40, back when he was under 40. And you can find Chris Bertsford Hill. On LinkedIn, that is the best place to connect. And we'll link to that in the show notes at Tim.blog slash podcast, but it is LinkedIn.com slash I-N slash Chris Barritsford Hill. Hey guys, this is Tim again, just one more thing before you take off, and that is Five Bullet Friday. Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little fun?

47:16 before the weekend. every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. It's kinda like my diary of cool things. It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading, albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmos, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcast guests. And these strange esoteric things end up in my field, and then I test them and then I share them with you. So if that sounds fun, again, it's very short, a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about. If you'd like to try it out, Just go to Tim.blog slash Friday. Type that into your browser, Tim.blog slash Friday. Drop in your email, and you'll get the very next one.

48:13 Thanks for listening.

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