The Principle Podcast

If you’re subscribed to this podcast, I know exactly who you are. Even if we haven’t met yet.

You’re ambitious, curious, and motivated. You want the most out of life.

You tend to think logically. You try not to let your emotions guide you. You’re always looking for opportunity.

But, I bet you’ve ignored about the most life-changing trait a human can have:

Showmanship.

When was the last time you interacted with someone, and all you could think immediately after was, “that was dope!”?

Don’t worry if nothing comes to mind. Like I said, most people ignore this.

Here’s the opening scene in The Dark Knight Rises (the one with Bane).

It’s objectively dope.

Watch it, even if you’ve seen it!

If your first thought after watching that scene wasn’t, “holy shit, that was dope!”, stop listening.

It’s hard to put into words the feeling that you get after something is masterfully executed in front of your eyes. You’re awe-struck.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “that’s cool, but I don’t make movies.”

Don’t worry about it. Everyone can and SHOULD be a showman.

Here’s how. I call it, the P-E-D framework:

Personal.

Energetic.

Different.

Imagine you’re a barista at a coffee shop.

As you can imagine, your average interaction is pretty forgettable.

Take an order, make it, next customer.

It’s monotonous.

What if you started putting some effort into breaking that monotony?

Be personal.

Instead of saying “hey, what can I get you?” Say, “hey, I’m _____. What’s your name?”

Be energetic.

Smile. Laugh. Walk with some pep in your step.

Be different.

Crack a joke. If the customer’s name is James, write ‘Bond’ on their order.

Here’s a secret – no one cares if it’s corny! You’re still different.

You do get bonus points for actually being funny though…

In short, you want to find a way to make interactions memorable.

The fancy term for this is: pattern interrupt.

We’ll call it having some sauce.

That sauce will be key ingredient to get people coming back for more coffee.

In a world where everyone is competing for your attention, you have to stand out.

And you won’t do that by being like everyone else.

Go put some sauce on whatever you do.

Thanks for listening to The Principle Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new episodes.

Ever find yourself lost in a conversation with a friend about nothing?

Nothing important. Just a fun back and forth. Shooting the shit.

Hours pass before you notice that familiar feeling setting in.

You know the feeling I’m talking about.

It’s not anxiety… but it’s close.

It’s that overwhelming sense of guilt that feels like a pit in your stomach.

The voice in your head starts whispering:

“Why are you wasting time?”

“This is so unproductive.”

It kills the vibe immediately.

Every high-performer I know can relate.

Want to see something fascinating?

Google the words “productivity hacks” right now.

Almost all the search results follow the same playbook:

We’re OBSESSED with feeling productive.

But what does that even mean?

To me, productivity is learning or creating at a high speed.

For example, reading Atomic Habits is “productive.”

Watching Gladiator is “unproductive.”

Now, that begs the question:

If it’s easy to classify whether something is productive, why not cut out all the unproductive things?

Well, not only is that unrealistic (good luck having any friends if you do pull it off), but it’s also short-sighted.

* You’re a human. Not a robot (yet).

Picture a life where all you do is work or read.

No vacations. No hanging out with friends.

Who wants to live like that?

Some of my favorite times in life have been while completely unplugged from my phone. Savoring the moment.

* You’re missing out on the 8th wonder of the world: serendipity.

We’ve talked about expanding your surface area for luck. Let’s take it a step further.

Having an original thought is so cool. You feel smart for thinking of something before anyone else.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, so I’ll let Mark Twain do it instead:

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope."

What I’m saying is: Star Wars, Harry Potter, and The Lion King are all the same movie.

Each one follows the beloved Hero’s Journey.

The same goes for your thoughts.

Our ideas are iterations of things we’ve exposed ourselves to.

Articles, experiences, conversations.

Ideas have to come from somewhere. They need inspiration.

Without the unproductive moments, you lose that ability to connect the dots.

This isn’t an excuse to lay in bed and watch Netflix all day. Rather, it’s a simple realization:

There is no productivity without un-productivity.

You have to LIVE so you can SPRINT again.

In a few weeks, we’ll share some strategies from an expert on understanding productivity guilt.

In the meantime, I want to hear from you:

* Is productivity guilt something you relate to?

* How do you deal with it?

Thanks for listening to The Principle Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new episodes.

Picture the boxing ring of business:

On one side, you have the old-reliable fighter. Sustainable, cash flowing, profitable-from-day-one. This fighter’s slogan is: build a business that works, and do it better than everyone else.

On the other side, you have the kinda crazy fighter. Pick the biggest problem to solve. The needle-in-a-haystack. This fighter’s catchphrase is: chase the vision, the profits will follow.

Each fighter gets chirped by the other side, but either one can win.

What kind of fighter are you?

It all comes down to your definition of reality.

Let’s go back to college for a second. Remember the risk-reward tradeoff?

It looks like this:

Stupidly straightforward.

Think US government bond on the bottom-left and boom-or-bust pharma stock on the top right.

This model works fine for investing.

It only breaks when you use it to figure out your life.

Let's say you want to invent bed sheets that make themselves. How risky is that?

On a scale of 1-10 — 1 being a lemonade stand, and 10 being mining the moon — maybe a 7?

If you ask 10 people, you’ll get 10 different answers.

My point is — no one knows.

Most people would tell you “it's impossible, move on."

If that were true, there would be a tiny amount of businesses, which would all be competing with each other.

Thankfully, that’s not the case.

You can't base your idea of what's possible on someone's opinion. Especially when that someone isn't even in the game.

That ability is what creates visionaries. It's called distorting reality.

Listen to this story about Steve Jobs:

In 1984, Steve Jobs asked one of his engineers, Larry Kenyon, to reduce the Mac’s boot time by 10 seconds.

Kenyon, stunned by the ask, said it wasn't possible.

Jobs then said, "if it would save a person’s life, could you find a way to shave 10 seconds off the boot time?"

Jobs found the nearest whiteboard to make his point:

If 5 million people each wasted 10 more seconds booting the Mac, that would equal 100 lifetimes every year.

Kenyon returned, a few weeks later, with code that booted 28 seconds faster.

Magic.

Jobs had this reality distortion field that let him suspend his team's disbelief. Making even the most outlandish tasks somehow seem doable.

It's what led to the creation of the best Apple products, including the one in your hand.

I know, Steve Jobs was a legend. Most people aren’t like him.

But I use that story to illustrate a point: stop adopting someone else's reality as your own.

Advice is only useful in certain rare instances. Most of the time, you should ignore it.

Being more detached from a commonly-held idea of reality makes you powerful.

Create your own reality distortion field and see where it leads you.

Thanks for listening to The Principle Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new episodes.

Image courtesy of André Carrilho.

Every subscription you sign up for is competing for your attention.

Don’t believe me? Go on YouTube right now and read the first 3 video titles you see.

Now hit refresh and do it again.

And again.

See what I mean?

For online creators, your attention is currency. The more they capture, the more they make.

Everyone gets distracted.

Your phone lights up with a link to an Andrew Schulz clip. You end up down a rabbit hole when you’re supposed to be working.

It happens.

The good news is — these distractions are obvious.

Go on “Do Not Disturb” mode.

Boom. Problem solved?

Not quite.

Here’s the bad news — the obvious distractions aren’t the problem.

It’s the distractions you can’t even see that keep you from who you want to be.

Don’t kid yourself. You want to control your time. You want to make more money.

The opportunities are endless.

So, you set a goal: learn graphic design.

For two months, you spend an hour every day on a graphic design course.

Until one day, your friend tells you how much she makes as a software engineer…

You think, “I should try that!”

So you ditch graphic design, and start learning how to code instead.

The next week, another friend tells you there are too many programmers for hire…

“Shit. What do I do now?”

All along, you’ve been so excited about getting paid to be creative.

The harsh reality is: these so-called opportunities are distractions. Throwing you off course without you even realizing it.

Remember when I said the opportunities are endless? That’s not always a good thing.

Each of us has a voice in our minds. This voice speaks when it likes something, and avoids when it doesn’t.

But it’s influenced by our surroundings. Making every new opportunity look like a shiny object you should chase.

With information everywhere, we forgot how to listen to ourselves.

Here’s a simple framework for you to use.

Next time you’re about to jump into an opportunity distraction — ask yourself:

* Can I spend hours sucking at this and still enjoy it?

* Would I do this for free?

If you answered “no” — STOP.

Go outside. Slap yourself. Splash some water on your face.

Recognize that no one great was born great. They stuck with it and became great.

Stick with your thing. Put your own spin on it. You’ll get what’s yours.

This episode is inspired by my boy, Marcus Aurelius. Couldn’t get him on the pod, unfortunately.

Let me leave you with a quote from his private journal, Meditations:

“Do external things distract you? Then make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile; stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions. […] People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time - even when hard at work.”

Thanks for listening to The Principle Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new episodes.

Today’s conversation is with Arpit Gupta, an Associate Professor of Finance at NYU Stern.

Arpit runs a newsletter called Arpitrage (clever!) in which he researches fascinating ideas that almost nobody is paying attention to.

In this episode, we explore two topics in detail:

* How Finance Killed Democracy

* Incarceration’s Social Spillovers

Expect to learn why wealth inequality has increased (20:34), how to protect yourself from inflation (38:53), how a judge’s strictness can impact students’ test scores (41:31), why we might be completely wrong about how to reduce crime (51:24), and much more.

Enjoy!

Timestamps:

(0:42): Arpit’s research style.

(6:13): How Finance Killed Democracy.

(40:13): Incarceration’s Social Spillovers.

Today’s conversation is with The Gut Expert, Nishtha Patel.

Nishtha’s gut health journey was a very personal one — in 2010, her daughter became extremely ill.

Since then, she’s spent over 13 years researching how to harness the full power of nutrition, helping dozens of clients regain their health along the way.

Expect to learn why all of us should care about digestive health, all the factors that determine gut function, how having pets can positively impact your gut health, the importance of rotating your foods, and much more.

Enjoy!

Timestamps:

(0:20): Nishtha’s gut health journey.

(7:17): Why gut issues are so difficult to diagnose.

(14:00): What is the gut microbiome?

(19:30): How to reduce stress levels.

(25:47): Easy techniques for a healthier gut.

(37:12): The impact of specific foods — coffee, stevia and other sweeteners, probiotics, alcohol, and lecithins.

(51:50): Enzyme supplementation.

(54:00): Developing intolerances to specific foods.

Links:

* The Gut Expert, Nishtha Patel.

* Listen To Your Gut by Jini Patel Thompson.

* The Notecook gut-friendly recipes.

Today’s conversation is with Evan Burk, a leadership coach who is obsessed with building championship organizations.

Evan spent years coaching college and NFL athletes before coming to a realization: character is a competitive advantage.

We overvalue talent and past experience — Evan flips this thinking on its head, digging deep to uncover traits like resilience, coachability, and humility.

Expect to learn about the talent paradox, intangible traits of elite performers, creating your own games, how to be memorable, and much more.

For more leadership content, be sure to check out The Highest Level podcast, and Evan’s book, Finding Intangibles.

Enjoy!

Timestamps:

(0:41): Who is Evan Burk?

(4:05): From coaching 4th graders to coaching in the NFL in just 6 years.

(19:43): The Talent Paradox.

(26:43): Finding the championship traits.

(29:32): Why so many talented people fail.

(35:41): Decision-making is an emotional process.

Today’s conversation is a masterclass on negotiation with Sandy Hein, a coach and instructor alongside Chris Voss at The Black Swan Group.

We all think we understand negotiation — ask good questions, control the narrative, don’t lose your cool.

Sandy dives deep into each aspect of negotiation through the lens of tactical empathy, providing us with a blueprint to influence the outcomes we desire.

Expect to learn the five levels of active listening, the benefits of addressing the elephant in the room, why tone of voice is the number one tool in your toolbox, and much more.

For more on effective negotiation, check out The Black Swan Group’s YouTube channel.

Enjoy!

Timestamps:

(0:30): What is The Black Swan Group?

(3:27): The most common negotiation mistakes.

(9:19): How to build rapport.

(15:20): The power of labels.

(21:35): The 5 levels of listening.

(34:37): Mirroring.

(37:36): The #1 Tool: Tone of voice.

(44:43): Don’t tell people they’re wrong; ask calibrated questions.

(49:36): “Negotiations are won by whoever demonstrates that they care more.”

(1:02:44): Why women should lean into empathy.

Today’s conversation is with The Real Estate God, an anonymous account on Twitter sharing ideas on entrepreneurship, real estate, and most importantly, mindset.

Our conversation today unpacks a number of his principles that challenge conventional wisdom. The common thread amongst these ideas is simple: always bet on yourself.

Expect to learn why you should prioritize learning over money, why the 401k mindset is cancerous, what skills to focus on in order to ensure you don’t get left behind, and much more.

To dive deeper, check out his article, A Roadmap For The Future, and his course.

Enjoy!

Timestamps:

(0:42): Who is The RE God? Growing up with a chip on your shoulder.

(10:12): “The highest Return On Investment items in life have no clear ROI in the beginning.”

(14:51): How to approach risk.

(17:10): “The 401k mindset is cancerous.”

(28:54): Finding passion in any line of work.

(32:18): Competition.

(41:31): Audience building in 2022.

(43:58): How to position yourself for success in the future.

Today’s conversation is with Bill Stainton, a 29-time Emmy Award winner, TEDx, and Keynote Speaker.

Bill believes we are all innovators — his mission is to unleash the creativity that we all have inside of us.

Experiences are dots. Creativity is simply connecting these dots. The more dots, the more variation, the more opportunity for creativity.

Expect to learn why creativity loves constraints, why outsiders are able to see our blind spots, the role open-mindedness plays in creativity, daily habits to exercise your creativity, and much more.

Enjoy!

Timestamps:

(0:38): Who is Bill Stainton?

(2:57): How did we start to believe we’re not creative?

(15:20): Creativity loves constraints.

(20:25): Corporations and creativity.

(34:40): Open-mindedness increases your receptivity to creativity.

(38:12): Reactive vs. Proactive creativity.

(45:15): An innovator’s mindset.

(55:42): Bill’s most unique experiences.

(1:02:06): Bill Nye the Science Guy.

(1:05:14): Daily habits to exercise your creativity.

(1:11:00): Creativity during N1 sleep.