Maneesh is the founder of Pavlok and Shock Clock, products designed to help people change their habits for good. In 2008 Maneesh took a 2 year break from studying at Stanford to travel and start hackthesystem.com, a travel blog about credit card hacking/digital nomads. In 2012 his article, titled “Why I Hired A Girl On Craigslist to Slap Me In The Face — And How It Quadrupled My Productivity” on HTS went viral.

Naturally in 2013 he took that slapping idea to start a company that has earned almost 8 figures in revenue, building devices that use psychology and sensory stimuli to help you change habits and wake up early.

Places to Find Maneesh:

Pavlok website

Follow on Facebook at Maneesh Sethi

Instagram @Pavlok

Show Notes:

[2:30] minute: Set the stage for us, what was life like for you growing up and what beliefs around money and success were ingrained in you early on?

• Grew up in suburb of Sacramento with immigrant parents.
• Entrepreneurial at a very young age with multiple businesses during his school years.
• Tells the story of his idol telling him a person his age could never write a programming book and then Maneesh going out writing a bestseller.
• “Make money but don’t worry about having stuff”

[6:30] minute: What did you take from your hero telling you something like that, that had to build some self-confidence, has that served you well?

• How we respond to negative criticism.
• Negative reinforcement vs positive reinforcement.
• Examples of why people respond to different cues.

[9:45] minute: I think the accountability piece is so crucial there. Take me back to when you wrote this article about hiring a girl on craigslist to slap you, how did you get that idea and what was that like?

• Previously wrote a blog called hackthesystem.com where he wrote about experiments he was doing on himself to try to create habits.
• Would ask followers to pick a random thing for him to go figure out how to do, and this turned into an interest in biohacking.
• Went viral for a blog about him paying someone off of craigslists to hold him accountable for writing all day long.
• Using the app RescueTime his productivity score went from 38% productive to 98% productive.
• Became famous for a 3 day news cycle. Decided he should try something else interesting, so he built a shock collar for himself to help form new habits, and that turned into his business, Pavlok.

[15:20] minute: Dorothy tells the story of her first interaction with Pavlok.

[16:00] minute: What is the psychology behind Pavlok that makes it work so well in breaking these bad habits?

• Behavioral training device that can vibrate for positive reinforcement, beep for warnings, and zap for negative reinforcements.
• Three areas they work in: breaking bad habits, creating good habits, and helping people wake up in the morning.

[17:00] minute: Walk me through breaking bad habits.

• Aversion therapy explanation, history, and benefits.
• Explanation of one of the biggest aversion therapy experiments conducted on heavy cigarette smokers.
• Tested their product on cigarette smokers first to large success.

[21:45] minute: How does the component of self policing play into it? How do you make sure people stay accountable to themselves and zap themselves?

• Everyone goes through a course that is training your brain. It’s a 5 day course, and the success rate for those who do the full course are very high.

[24:15] minute: Eliminating bad habits with Pavlok makes a lot of sense so talk to me now about creating good habits, does there have to be the negative reinforcement involved there too?

• Pavlok is world class when it comes to stopping bad habits, but is not a magic pill for creating good habits.
• Negative reinforcement can help you start to form a good habit, but positive reinforcement is what will solidify that habit.
• Secrets to habits is the variable of consistency.
• Explainer of Pavlok habit creating apps and products.
• How the alarm clock works and the science behind it.

[31:30] minute: Want to change course to the impact you are having outside of your business, could you tell us a little about your journey in giving back?

• First felt the power of giving back when he was teaching others to program when he was young.
• Shares a story of a large school related project in India while running his NGO.

[33:00] minute: How has your success with Pavlok has impacted your ability to give back?

• Pavlok is a big way to give back. Helping others change habits is what he was put here to do.

[34:25] minute: Who has been the most impactful person in your journey to do well and achieve financial success?

• His brother, Ramit Sethi who runs I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

[34:45] minute: Who has been teh most impactful person in feeding your drive to do good and have a meaningful impact?

• His parents.

[35:00] minute: When you are having a bad day what do you do to get out of the funk? Any regular habits or morning routines that really work for you?

• It is almost always because he hasn’t slept enough, meditated, eaten correctly, and talking to someone he likes.

[35:45] minute: That reminds me, your Facebook post about drinking some water really worked on me yesterday.

• Importance of water and how many of us don’t get nearly enough.

[36:30] minute: What book do you find yourself recommending to people most often?

• Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
• Brief synopsis of the book.
• Second one would be Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

[38:45] minute: What is the best piece of advice related to happiness you would give our listeners?

• Make sure you are following the big six habits: Sleeping enough, drinking water, eating healthy, exercising three times a week, meditating, conversing with people you like.
• “If you create a solid morning routine you can naturally create habits as a byproduct.”

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