Episode 556: The Mindset Myth & What Actually Upgrades Your Mind and Business

Summary

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Episode Overview

Title: The Mindset Myth & What Actually Upgrades Your Mind and Business
Podcast: Habits and Hustle
Host: Jen Cohen (with co-host/guest Shani)
Date: May 22, 2026

In this lively and insightful episode, Jen Cohen and her favorite “foil,” Shani, challenge the common notion that mindset is the primary driver of success. Instead, they present a paradigm shift: your physical health is the true foundation for mental resilience and business performance. The duo dives deep into actionable strategies for prioritizing physical health, the flow-on effects for mindset, and ultimately business outcomes—sprinkled with personal anecdotes, practical tips, and their signature witty banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Paradigm Shift: Health Over Mindset

• Main Argument: The episode’s central thesis is that “mindset” alone is overrated when it comes to personal and professional success. The real bedrock is health, specifically physical health.

  • “The most important thing is not your mindset. It is your health.” – Jen (04:12)
  • Jen likens health to the actionable, tangible base that supports everything else: when you build your physical strength, your mental toughness and business acumen naturally follow (04:30–05:43).

• How the Steps Build:

  • Physical (health) → Mental (resilience/mindset) → Business (performance).
  • “Once you start changing your body, your mental just is on a different page... You become physically stronger. You automatically become mentally stronger, mentally more tough, much more resilient.” – Jen (04:22)

2. Actionable Health Habits as the Foundation

• Action Points:

  • Create measurable, specific health habits (“exercising X amount of days,” “cooking X number of meals at home every week,” “increasing water intake”) that are easy to incorporate and track (05:51–07:59).
  • Jen positions the New Year as the perfect time for listeners to consciously make health their primary resolution, rather than vague goals like “improve mindset.”

• The Power of Fitness:

  • Physical health influences how you show up in relationships, conversations, and business: “When you feel physically strong, you show up differently. Your relationships are different, your conversations are different, your self esteem is different. Everything that you do, how you show up in the world, your mannerisms change.” – Jen (06:05)
  • Shani highlights that the body is a literal tool: “Your mind only comes from your body. If your body can't work, then what can you even do?” (05:43)

3. The Special Role of Strength Training

• Longevity and Brain Health:

  • Shani underscores the long-term cognitive benefits of weightlifting, even for aging parents: “He needs to start lifting purely because that actually does create that longevity in your mind to be able to stay sharp for longer.” (07:59)
  • Jen affirms, “If you start strength training and feel stronger … it will make you feel stronger mentally. Not to mention for bone health and all that other stuff, which is a whole other podcast.” (08:25)

• Evidence and Advocacy:

  • Both cite studies supporting the links between weight training and improved memory, sharper cognition, and better brain chemistry (09:02).

4. How Exercise Fuels Decision-Making and Creativity

• Jen uses solo workouts as a form of “therapy” and time for creativity:

  • “Some of my greatest, like, personal decisions and business decisions … happen because I have that time to myself where I can actually, like, go through in a real way what I need to do… If not for any other thing, again, the amount of benefits you get beyond just the physicality that happen by just doing it for the physical reasons is just so off the charts.” (12:08–13:43)

• Practical Trick from Shani: Save responding to tough texts or making hard decisions until after a workout. “The response is just tremendously better.” (14:02)

5. The Importance of Sequence and Starting Now

• Jen wraps up by driving home that mindset and business success can’t be rushed if the physical foundation is missing:
  • “You can’t get to a strong mindset or discipline… by not doing the thing. The first step is taking ownership and control of your health and your life. And when—what better time to start than now?” (14:19–15:26)
  • “If I put physicality on the top of my pyramid, then my mental, then my business… you will 100x your life in all the ways.” (14:19)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jen: “The most important thing is not your mindset. It is your health.” (04:12)
• Shani: “Your mind only comes from your body. If your body can't work, then what can you even do?” (05:43)
• Jen: “Anybody and everybody could work out a little bit more and focus on their health a little bit more.” (06:24)
• Shani: “Weightlifting… actually does create that longevity in your mind to be able to stay sharp for longer.” (07:59)
• Jen: “You can't get to a strong mindset or discipline and all those things and productivity and happiness ... by not doing the thing. The first step is taking ownership and control of your health and your life.” (14:19)
• Shani: “Go get it, guys.” (16:14)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction and playful banter: 01:42–02:49
• Unpacking the “Paradigm Shift”: Health before Mindset: 03:20–05:43
• Building actionable health habits: 05:51–07:59
• Longevity, strength training, and brain health: 07:59–09:16
• The effect of exercise on mental clarity and making decisions: 12:01–14:00
• Saving hard decisions/texts for post-workout mental space: 14:00–14:19
• Final encouragement and call to action: 15:26–16:15

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Closing Advice and Audience Engagement

• Jen urges listeners to “start somewhere”—even small changes in physical routines can transform mindset and business outcomes. She encourages feedback: “Let me know in my comments… Do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you already do this? Are you going to try?” (15:37–16:14)
• Wraps up on a call for proactive action: “Go start. Go get it.” (16:15)

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Overall Tone:
Candid, motivational, actionable—with the warm friend-energy fans expect from Jen Cohen and Shani.

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Summary Takeaway:
Don’t get stuck trying to “think” your way to success. Start with your body—prioritize your physical health through specific, repeatable habits. The stronger and healthier you become, the more everything else—mindset, resilience, business—naturally falls in line.

Transcript

[A]

Hi, guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to thank our sponsor, Momentous. When your goal is healthspan living better and longer, there are very few non negotiables. One of them quality. And when it comes to supplements designed for high performers, nobody does it better than Momentous. Momentous goes all in on NSF certification, which means every single batch is tested for heavy metals, harmful additives, and label accuracy. And that's why they're trusted by all 32 NFL teams and top collegiate sports dietitians across the country. Here's the thing. They don't sell every supplement under the sun because they believe in nailing the basics with rock solid consistency. And those basics are protein and creatine. Momentous sources. Creapure, the purest form of creatine monohydrate available. An absolute must for both men and women who want peak physical and cognitive performance. So if you're serious about leveling up, go to livemomentous.com and use code Jen for 20% off. Just act now. Start today. Jen for 20% off livemomentous.com. Welcome, welcome. Welcome back to Habits and Hustle. And I'm here with one of my favorites. My. Well, my favorite foil is Shani.

[B]

Oh, do you have a. Whatever. You don't have any other foils? Like.

[A]

No, I was gonna say with one of my favorites, period. But also my favorite foil. No. And my foil just so happens to be that my foil is also one of my favorite people. So.

[B]

I love you. I love you.

[A]

That's what I mean.

[B]

Guys, I told Jen earlier I want to get like a wind up action figure doll with just like all of her favorite sayings in there. Because first of all, Jen's a big ego booster, but she's also, like, really good at, like, these hilarious sayings. She's got these little, like, really funny saying that it came in hell in a hand basket, whatever the hell it is.

[A]

Hell in a handbasket.

[B]

That's so good.

[A]

I don't know. This is not just my saying. I feel like it's been around that just kind of shows how. How old.

[B]

But, you know, all of them. You know, I've heard all the things, too. I don't use them. But you use them like you got them in your repertoire. You know, I have them handy. Like, you pull them out.

[A]

Gosh, I feel like I talk like an old per. Like, I talk like I'm like 77 years old or 107. It's really kind of vintage. I am. I'm kind of vintage, but I've. I think I was also vintage when I was, like, 14. Yeah, you're.

[B]

Yeah, for sure. Because you're not actually that old, but you use slang as if you are, like, in your 70s. But it's good slang. It's fun slang.

[A]

Thank you.

[B]

Like, it's good things.

[A]

Oh, thanks. All right, you guys here. Another episode, by the way, if you guys can. It would be so amazing if you guys could comment and leave reviews because it helps the algorithm. I'm trying hard in one of my New Year's resolutions, I should say, is to try and be more present with YouTube as a business New Year's resolution. Like, really focus on my YouTube, because that's what they say. That's what they say. That's what all the young people are telling me to do. And so with that being said, maybe you guys can help me, because part of my whole platform is asking for what you want, right? And now I'm asking you guys to help me by leaving reviews, comments and get that algorithm, like, churning a little bit more. So please do that. That's a little. That's a side comment. But today we're going to talk about something that I think is so interesting, and it is. There is a paradigm shift. There's a paradigm shift here. The biggest paradigm shift. I want to tell you about it. It's not mindset. We all hear so much about mindset, mindset, mindset. But here's the paradigm shift. The most important thing is not your mindset. It is your health. Health is actually first, because, yeah, it is. And I'm going to explain to you why. Because health, if you don't have health, you have nothing. But it goes physical, mental, and then business. Because once you start changing your body, your mental just is on a different page. You are literally like. It's a. It's a. You become physically stronger. You automatically become mentally stronger, mentally more tough, much more resilient. It really does start with the physical because you. You feel. It's like an actionable thing that you're feeling yourself doing. It changes your mindset. It changes your mentality. It really is a re. It's a difference. Like, I think people are. So the word of 2023 and 2022 is my. In 2021 has always been this hashtag, a mindset. But a lot of times people don't even know how to change that mindset. So they get stuck. And instead of being stuck, I'M going to give you a very actionable thing to create real mental resilience. And that is changing and working on your physicality, that is focusing on your health, focusing on the habits that you do to be healthier daily. And that will create a tougher, better mental resiliency. And then third is your business, because you will approach your business very differently if you basically reverse engineer it by focusing on your health, which is your physical, that will turn into your mental, that will eventually change and translate how you work and deal with business.

[B]

I love that the body is your literal tool. Like all of these things, your mind only comes from your body. If your body can't work, then what can you even do?

[A]

Right?

[B]

It's so empowering to physically feel better.

[A]

The most empowering. And I think like, I know that I talk about this like in different ways and I focus on different pieces, but at the same time fundamentally at the foundation. The core of what I always talk about is the physicality, the fitness of it, because I do believe it is the foundation where everything comes from. And if you don't feel healthy, you really don't perform as good as you would in every area of your life. When you feel physically strong, you show up differently. Your relationships are different, your conversations are different, your self esteem is different. Everything that you do, how you show up in the world, your mannerisms change. And so giving someone something that's actionable, that's measurable and that you can actually do, anybody and everybody could work out a little bit more and focus on their health a little bit more. And we are in 2024, we're right in there where everyone has these New Year's resolutions, are trying to change things. The top five resolutions, number one is always fitness, you know, number two is finance. We went through all of these in another episode. But I will say that if you actually follow through and create daily habits to really make health your number one goal, I'm going to basically you're going to make health be your number one resolution to help. Like, let's just say I want to improve my health and I'm going to do it by exercising X amount of days for X amount of time. I'm going to make three meals at home weekly that I cook myself. And that way you can really see what you're eating. I'm going to increase my water intake. Like be very precise and deliberate and create these things to create your daily habits that will improve your health, that will improve your mind, that will improve your business. They all work hand in Hand.

[B]

Yeah. Yes. I think that also, by the way, longevity of the weightlifting that affects your mind. I've been telling my dad this nonstop. Like, he needs to start lifting purely because that actually does create that longevity in your mind to be able to stay sharp for longer. So even if you don't think of it like now, okay, your mind is sharp, whatever. Even if you don't work out, it actually will be 10x the sharpness. And also just in terms of, like, in the future, do you want to maintain this, then you have to also maintain the body to be able to do that.

[A]

Well, I think, I think weight training, strength training is so crucial for so many different things. I think it's very important as you age, for sure, for your lean muscle mass. That's. That's a whole different conversation. But I will say again, if you are, in terms of how that really reflects on this conversation, that if you start strength training and feel stronger and you end up feeling stronger physically, it will make you feel stronger mentally. And that's why weight training. And not to mention for bone health and all that other stuff, which is a whole other podcast, like for your

[B]

brain and for your brain, for your brain, 100% connects. So it's. It's like, even if it might make you feel good, it literally will change your brain. Like, your brain chemistry will improve with, and your memory, your. Everything will improve significantly with actually training, with weight training. It's like there's studies on it.

[A]

Yeah, there's a lot. But I, I think at this point, what I'm trying to tell everybody is when they focus on their, their health and the physicality part of it, that will play a big instrumental role in your overall mentality and your mindset. So without just kind of just blankly saying mindset, mindset, I'm taking it back a little bit further into focus on your health. And your mindset will follow, and then your business will follow and we'll do a whole other podcast on all the benefits of strength training, because as you all know, I'm a big advocate for it and of all the benefits. But at this point, find something that you like to do and then do it a measurable amount of times a week and start incorporating it, integrating it into your life. And that is the paradigm shift that I really wanted to kind of talk about. I'm all about finding sustainable ways to optimize performance, the kind of work that actually moves the needle and how you feel and function. And that's why I really need to tell you about Prolon's five day program. Most of us are chasing quick fixes that never get to the root of the problem. And the result is sluggish energy, brain fog and bodies running below its full capacity. But Prolon changes that by triggering your body's natural repair and renewal process at the cellular level. It's not a cleanse or crash diet. Prolon is the only patented fasting mimicking diet developed at USC's Longevity Institute. It's a plant based program with soups and snacks and drinks that nourish your body while keeping you in a fasting state. The benefits are backed by science, deep cellular rejuvenation, fat focused weight loss, no injections and better metabolic health and energy. Plus improved skin and even reduced biological age. And here's my favorite part. It's a complete reset in just five days. No willpower battles, no extreme restrictions. Just a structured plan to let your body do what it's designed to do. Repair, renew and optimize. And right now Prolon is offering 30% off site wide plus a $40 bonus gift. When you subscribe to their five day program. Go to prolonlife.com Jennifer Cohen and use Jennifer Cohen to claim your discount and bonus. That's prolonlife.com Jennifer Cohen and use code Jennifer Cohen.

[B]

Do you ever save decisions for a post workout? Like mind space, mindset, like any big decisions in life? Sometimes I'll do that and I find it really fun.

[A]

Yeah. Well I always, this is the. Actually what happens is that I get my best ideas when I am working out. Yeah. So if I do have a big life decision to make, like you're saying I figure it out while I'm working out. Yeah. Because I have time to myself. It's a. You know what? It is also time. Right. Like, like I don't love. I'm not a big person who loves to work out with other people. I know having an accountability partner is a really big thing for some people. I don't need that motivation myself to get my ass to work out because I've been doing it for so long and it's, it's become so ingrained in who I am that now if I don't do it. And this will happen to you too, if you're just starting it, eventually it becomes so second nature and part of who I am. When I don't do it, I feel off and I feel weird. So I don't need that piece. So I use it as really like kind of like therapy in a way where I literally can like think through some of The. The troubles I have in my life or, like, the decisions I have to make. And some of my greatest, like, personal decisions and business decisions and all the other things happen because I have that time to myself where I can actually, like, go through in a real way, like, what I need to do and what would be the best outcome. So if not for any other thing, again, the amount of, like, benefits you get beyond just the physicality that happen by just doing it for the physical reasons is just so off the charts, you know, in terms of. There's too many to even talk about. But that's what I really want people to focus on. I want the focus to be, is on your health as the crux of what is important. And so many other things will fall into place when you have that in check.

[B]

True. You know what people should try.

[A]

I.

[B]

So this is my favorite thing is saving a hard text message for, like, after a workout to answer because, you know, I'll get something maybe, like, at nighttime or whatever that I just. Oh, I'm angry or whatever. I'm gonna respond. I don't know. It won't be good. And then I'll just save it for the next morning after my workout, and I'll revisit the text, and the response is just tremendously better.

[A]

Well, also because, like. Yeah. And also because it, like, is a mood enhancer. Yeah. Yeah. And it changes how you. Like I was saying earlier, it's how you show up in the world, how you respond to people, how you. How you react. All of those things start to shift and change once you start putting other, like, changing your priorities and creating a structure that's a little bit maybe different than what you originally did. Right. If, like, if I put physicality on the top of my pyramid, then my mental, then my business. Right. And you start doing it that way, you will 100x your life in all the ways. Right. But you have to start somewhere, and you can't get to a strong mindset or discipline and all those things and productivity and happiness and all these, like, all these, like, buzzwords by not doing the thing. The first step. And the first step is taking ownership and control of your health and your life and when. What better time to start than now? Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So start. Because if not, you are. You'll be missing out. And we talked about. Yeah, you don't. You don't miss out on. You don't want to miss out on this.

[B]

You don't want to miss it.

[A]

I don't know what order we're putting this up. So I just want to make sure that you guys start, focus on your health, focus on your physical, because with that, your mental will come the mental mind, shift the mentality, and then the business will shift and change for the better. I promise. And let me know in my comments down below or the comments. Not my comments, the comments. What you think. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you already do this? Have you started to do this? Are you going to try? Let me know and get back to me and then we can, we can evaluate anything else you want to add.

[B]

I think that's it. Go get it, guys.

[A]

Go start. Go get it.