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Tired of feeling overwhelmed by information, struggling to focus, or forgetting key details that could unlock your next level of success? Today we sit down with the world's number one brain coach, Jim Kwik, author of the global bestseller Limitless, who breaks down the exact mindset, motivation and methods you need to supercharge your cognitive performance. This is the owner's manual for your mind, covering everything from finding your brain animal to fighting digital distractions. So get ready to learn faster, earn more and completely transform how you operate rate. It all starts right about now.
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Your brain is like this incredible supercomputer and your self talk is a program that will run. So if you tell yourself I'm not good at remembering names, you won't remember the name of the next person you meet because you program your computer not to. People truly understood how powerful their mind is. They wouldn't say or think something they didn't want to be true. And that's not to say you have negative thought and ruins your life any more than eating a donut will ruin your life. But if you ate that donut 30 times a day, every single day, there would definitely be consequences. Same thing with our thoughts. This is Right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years in over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.
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What's up guys? Welcome to Right about now. Ryan Alford, your host. Neuroscience is kind of on my mind. I'm fascinated by what it takes to learn and how the brain works. We gotta go to the expert. That's Jim Quick. He's the author of Limitless and just a brain badass. That's what I'll call you. Jim. What's up? Block Trust IRA is changing how investors approach crypto. Crypto offers impressive returns, but it's also stressful. Sharp dips, sudden surges. 24. 7 volatility. Most investors panic, sell or hold too tight, losing gains. That's why Block Trust IRA offers exclusive access to Animus AI, an AI trading system that spots key market movements ahead of the game, manages volatility, reduces risk and accelerates growth while taking the stress out of investing. Since 2020, Animus AI has outperformed Bitcoin by over 250%. Visit writeaboutcrypto.com today. That's right about crypto.com to get started and earn up to $2,500 in bonus crypto. Hey guys. Consolidation is a wonderful thing and I know as a small business owner, it is everything. Let me tell you. Juggling multiple apps, managing business finances, being anxious about taxes, being behind on the books. Yes, that's why I love consolidation and why I love Found. It can all become so much to deal with. Foundation helps you solve it all. They've automated things like tracking expenses, finding write offs, budgeting for tax time. You can even send invoices for free and pay your contractors. Everything, all from one app. That's consolidation. Found makes it easy to regain control of your business finances so you can get back to doing what you love. I wish a program like Found had come around years ago when I first started my entrepreneurial journey. I've never felt more control of my finances though. Now take back control of your business. Today, open a Found account for free@found.com that's f o u n d dot com. Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by lead bank member fdic. Join the hundreds of thousands who've already streamlined their finances with Found.
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Thanks Ryan. I appreciate it. Thanks everyone who's tuning into this brain upgrade conversation.
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How are we going to learn more about the brain? How we learn better? I've got four boys and they're young and they're growing up. I see the homework they're doing that I did myself 40 years ago and I'm like, these guys should have mandated reading of Limitless. What do we have to do to make that happen?
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Limitless is really an owner's manual for your brain. Your brain is your number one wealth building asset. Everyone is listening, nobody is paid. It's not like it was hundreds of years ago where our value in society was our brute strength. Today it's our brain strength. It's not your no longer your muscle power it's important to have, but it's also your mind power. And the faster you can learn, the faster you could earn. This knowledge today is only power. It's knowledge is profit. That's interesting. In school they teach you what to learn. Math, history, science. But there's zero classes on how to learn. And I really feel like that's the thing that's missing. You talk about your children, they're learning things that may or may not be that relevant. But certainly what is very relevant is learning how to focus, learning how to concentrate, learning how to think, learning how to understand, learning how to solve problems, learning how to get in like flow states and master your habits, learning how to remember things you could do all those things. Then everything in your life gets easier. You learn faster. You can apply that towards money, marketing, management, martial arts, music, everything gets easier. It's the ultimate skill to have. It's an area called meta learning. The science of learning how to learn. And learning can be fun. Something that could be easier. People are working way too hard to learn, to study, to memorize a speech they have to give on stage or video sales video or script and remembering names. Or they, they buy books and they sit on their shelf unread and become shelf help, not self help. There's a huge opportunity here for people to upgrade their number one wealth building technology which is your brain. And that's the nature of my work.
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If you can master yourself, you can master anything. We're such complex people. We externalize so many things. It's like how do I master these things around me? We try to control when we need to focus more internally.
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External world is a reflection of our internal world. No doubt there's a version of ourself that's patiently waiting. The goal is we show up every single day until we're introduced, you know, to that person. I feel like we're happiest when we make progress. Limitless is not about being perfect, it's just about advancing and progressing and you control the controllables. We created a four minute test that's in the book, it's also online. And I'll tell you, you're a brain animal and once you understand it, it opens up whole new worlds of possibility and potential. It's interesting. People could take the test@mybrainanimal.com people could go through it and they could post it online, they could tag us both so we can see what the dominant animal is in your community. Remember this word code. The sea are your cheetahs. And if you're a cheetah, your dominant trait is action. These are individuals that adapt extremely quickly. They thrive in fast paced environments. They have strong intuition, they implement and they act. It's just like a second nature to them. The O are your owls and their dominant trait is logic. So these are people who love data, they love facts, they love figures of formulas. They're very logical and rational. Even think about it. A cheetah would learn differently, but they'd also buy differently than an owl who needs evidence, who needs, he wants case studies. The D in code are your dolphins and your dolphins, their dominant trait are creativity, giving incredible imagination. They're great problem solvers. They are often entrepreneurs that could see they have a vision of their brand or their business that maybe other people can yet catch up with. You know, they don't see it yet. They're very passionate about behind it. They're great with pattern recognition. And then finally the E are your elephants and your elephants. Their primary dominant trait is empathy. These are people who are very compassionate. They are people people. The interpersonal skill is very strong. They have a lot of empathy. So they care. They want people to feel seen, they want people to feel heard. They use inclusive language instead of I. They'll use more words like we and us. And it's interesting because these four brain types, they learn differently. It's kind of like if somebody's listening and they remember a time where they didn't get something for some reason they're frustrated. Maybe the way the teacher teaches is different, the way that you learn. And like their brain type is different than your brain type. And you're like two ships in the night. You pass each other and there's no connection. You don't even recognize the other ones there. Everybody has a dominant brain type. It could change over time. But just like if you're right handed, doesn't mean you don't use your left hand, doesn't mean you're not strong in other areas. But you have a certain trait that is dominant and it makes your life easier. We had our team take this assessment and we're making it free for your audience. So it's again, mybrainanimal.com you know, they'll get prescriptions on how to read faster, improve their memory, give speeches without notes, but also how to sell and how to be able to market, how to be able to parent, because that's all brain type. Everything is coming from this control center between our ears. For example, our team took it and 100% of our customer service team are elephants. Like we didn't even hire for that. But when you know what your strength is, you're going to look for places where you're in your element, right? The roles and responsibilities that go to your passions and your power. And our customer service team are elephants. Why? Because they have high empathy. They want people to feel seen and heard. Their success is based on our students success. There are community builders. They pull people together. Our CFO is extreme Owl loves the numbers, loves the data. My business partner, our CEO, she's a dolphin. She's our visionary that's holding the vision constant. You understand how people's brains are. You would sell to these different brain types, different. You would coach them differently, you would Market to them differently. You would even relate and relate personal relationships differently because it's kind of like love languages, you know, love languages.
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I was thinking that same thing, Jim. I was going thinking about my wife and I communicating. This would work for our communication probably too.
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So much so because in love languages we tend to express love the way we prefer to receive it. But two people could be, you know, have different types and then miss each other even though they sincerely love each other. And even in communication style, you'll see cheetahs are direct and they're decisive. Decisive. They try to get straight to the point. Their speech is concise, they focus on action. They dislike beating around the bush because it just takes time. Owls communicate differently. They prefer details, they prefer logical sequence of presentation of facts and figures and data. They're just more rational that way. Dolphins would communicate differently. They'd be more expressive. They would often speak about the bigger picture, about future plans, about innovative ideas. They're very passionate and excited about possibility and your elephant. Their communication is keen on understanding, understanding and validating the feelings and perspectives of others. They're more patient, they take the time to listen. But even when you think about from a sales situation, you have had tremendous success as a business marketing podcast. Also, if you're selling to a cheetah, they appreciate directness, they appreciate value, efficiency. Skip the small talk. Present the key benefits, Demonstrate how the product or service can give them media results. But for an owl, they're different. They respect evidence. They appreciate well researched presentations, statistics, case studies. Be prepared to answer in depth questions. Give them time to ponder over their decisions. And dolphins, we're selling to them, speak to their visions, you know, show them how your offering fits into a larger picture or how it could pave a way to future innovations. Engage them in possibility and big ideas. And if you're selling to an elephant, yes, vision is good and data is good, but the relationship is paramount for an elephant. So the value relationship, they value trust. You want to spend time understanding their needs. Demonstrate you genuinely care about their success, that you're going to be there post sale. And so there's different ways. But my point of bringing this up is once you understand how your brain works, you could work your brain, then you could personalize it. It's interesting, you text this to your team, text it to your family, your spouse. It takes a judgment out of also because it explains their behavior a lot based on their brain type and then also takes a self judgment off of ourselves in terms of recognizing where we're strong and the Traits, traits and that we have our lack.
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What Jim just broke down for you. There isn't just so you know yourself, which is super important. It's so you how you know how to apply yourself against different types to lead to the activities and the actions that you want to happen. And that's real value. Jim, I really appreciate that breakdown. And I was sitting there going, so here's my problem. I was sitting there listening to you talk and I go, damn. If a cheetah and a dolphin had a baby, I'm it. And I'm not sure which one I am. I know I'm creative probably more than anything. I'm not type A. I'm definitely more creative.
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Focus is a superpower. Nowadays we need to be able to generate focus and concentrate to get things done. Cheetah would prefer short bursts of focus. They use techniques that we teach in limitless, like the Pomodoro technique where you focus for 25 to 45 minutes with intensely for short periods, then you follow, then you do a little brain break. But this would, this would align with a cheetah's fast paced nature. They could also during these brain breaks incorporate some kind of physical movement. Because they get a little restless sitting all the time before and after a focus session, they help them to focus. A cheetah would give them clear goals. You know ts work best when they have a clear target and a destination. So setting specific achievable goals are very strong for them. But owls, they work a little different. You can enhance their focus by like something simple like organizing their workspace, minimizing clutter, having a structured plan for meetings and tasks. Breaking things down into bite sized bits to keep their maintain their focus, prevent overwhelms, scheduling deep work sessions. A dolphin's different. With our dolphins we have the mind mapping things things which is a visual, note taking, making way that they can see the whole picture. We give them creative breaks to help them reinvigorate, to prevent burnout. We have a variety of tasks because dolphins could lose focus if they get bored. Elephants are different. Elephants, it's all about their focus comes from other people. So working in teams or groups can help elephants stay focused and stay on task. They draw energy from social interactions they love. Maybe even having said, they benefit from contact. Constant consistent routines that involve regular breaks and time for them to connect with themselves and reflect and have empathy and all that.
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This is one of my favorite quotes from the book. I'm going to jump right into it. Knowledge is power. That's lie number four. New Belief knowledge has to be acted on. Knowledge combined with action equals power.
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Your brain is like this incredible supercomputer. And your self talk is a program that will run. So if you tell yourself I'm not good at remembering names, you won't remember the name of the next person you meet because you program your computer not to. People truly understood how powerful their mind is. They wouldn't say or think something they didn't want to be true. And that's not to say you have negative thought ruins your life any more than eating a donut will ruin your life. But if you eat that donut 30 times a day, every single day, there are definitely be consequences. Same thing with our thoughts. When I go to events and speak, if there's time, I'll do these demonstrations. Let's say there's 5,000 people in audience. We'll pass around the microphone and 100 people introduce themselves and I'll memorize all their names or they'll give me, we'll put a whiteboard on the stage and they'll write down 100 words or numbers or whatever. I'll memorize it. I always tell people I don't do this to impress you. I do this to express to you what's possible. Because the truth is, every single one of your listeners, they could do that too. Regardless of their age or their background or education level, financial situation, gender, history, iq. We just weren't taught on this mission for the past 32 years. I grew up with learning challenges. I had a traumatic brain injury when I was five. I had migraines every day. I thought it was normal. I would have balance issues. I would be very awkward. It took me three years longer to learn how to read. I had put in special education when I was nine. I was slowing down the class and being teased pretty harshly. Teacher came to my defense and from the whole class pointed me, said leave that kid alone. That's the boy with the broken brain. But that label became my limit. So talk about mindset. Every single time I did badly in school, I would say, oh, because I had the broken brain. Every time I wasn't picked for sports, I was a guy with a broken brain. So that was my mindset. And it's really hard to achieve anything beyond what you believe is possible, right? Especially your belief about yourself. At the same time, when I was going through my challenges when I was seven, I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer's. It's heartbreaking to anyone who's ever experienced a family member having dementia, you know, especially when I was 5, 6. She would call me by my father's name. She would repeat something she just said 30 seconds ago. So we donated all the proceeds to Limitless. In the first couple years, we sold a million copies of the book, 40 different languages. We donated all to charity, and we built schools in Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya, Alzheimer's research, you know, in memory of my grandmother. But I bring this up because I think that is philosophy. You learn to earn, to return, to have more, to be able to give and have that impact. That being said, I will do this tirelessly, and I'll do this in front of audiences. And even though I'm very introverted, my superpower growing up as a kid was being invisible because I never knew the answers, and I was always being picked on. So I always slump down, try to take up less space because I don't want to be seen, sit behind the tall kid in class or sit all the way in the back. My two biggest challenges were learning and public speaking, because I never knew anything. The universe has a sense of humor because what do I do every day? Is I public speak in this thing called learning. Just a reminder to everybody that our challenges lead to change, that our struggles give us strength. I don't know one strong person that had an easy life. I just don't. My thing is, I believe that we are the pilot of our minds. We don't have to be the passenger. I just want to show people really what they're capable of. Because I had so much struggles, I've learned some things to compensate, and I feel a more obligation to share it with people because shame on me if other people are struggling with lack of focus, lack of motivation, lack of belief in themselves, just forgetfulness. All the things that we help. Brain fog. All the things I was struggling with for most of my life.
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It's from his book. It's not his quote. It's underthinking. We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. And so if you want to change, you got to take action on what Jim talked about today. And if you really want to take action, you need to get this book Limitless. I've got it. I've skimmed through it and read it. I did my speed reading that I learned from Jim. I'm learning a lot. Jim, I can't thank you enough for your time and your gifts. Where can everyone keep up and learn more about everything you're doing?
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Go to brainnutrition.com and get our guide. The 30 different ingredients that have human studies that will enhance your focus, your memory. My brain animal is probably the most exciting revelation we've made in personal learning. It's a free test for your community. It takes four minutes. Text it to your friends and family members, see what brain animal they are. It'll definitely engage some in the stream conversation. You also get reports from me on how to sell and market and learn and read faster based on your brain animal. So that's@mybrainanimal.com you get the book anywhere books are sold. Limitlessbook.com is probably the easiest place. We have links. Just connect on social media. I would love everybody to make me take a snapshot of wherever they're consuming this right now and tag Ryan, tag Mike myself. So we get to see and share one thing you're going to do for a better brain. Because I think like when you share it, you get to learn it twice. It's called the explanation effect. When you learn something with the attention of teaching somebody else, you're going to learn it so much better. So if you post like the one nugget that you got out of this to your fans, your followers, your family, your friends, then you get to be able to learn, earn and return because I feel like that's what we're do. Like how to become limitless in a limited world.
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Jim, I really appreciate you coming on and we'll have all of that information in the show notes. You know where to find us. Folks, folks, ryanisright.com we'll have the show notes, the links to these things and let's go find out what animal you are. Baby, you gotta know how you gotta how you learn. When you know how you learn, you can apply that to how you learn and grow with others. Thank you so much, Jim.
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Thanks, buddy.
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We'll see you guys next time. Right about now, this has been Right.
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About now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast network production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.
Host: Ryan Alford (Radcast Network)
Guest: Jim Kwik, Author of "Limitless"
Date: December 16, 2025
In this energetic episode, Ryan Alford sits down with brain performance coach and best-selling author Jim Kwik to unravel practical, actionable strategies for optimizing learning and cognitive performance. Kwik shares the science, mindsets, and daily methods that can help anyone—from entrepreneurs to students—unlock greater focus, memory, creativity, and ultimately success. The conversation flows from understanding your unique "brain animal" to actionable routines that fight digital distractions and empower real transformation.
Jim Kwik:
Ryan Alford:
Jim Kwik’s insights are instantly actionable, blending neuroscience with personal stories and real-world tools. The “brain animal” concept and his insistence that meta-learning (learning how to learn) is the ultimate edge make this episode a practical playbook for self-improvement. Listeners are encouraged to understand their cognitive strengths, ditch limiting self-talk, and take real action—not just to learn, but to earn and return. Both host and guest keep the tone loose, direct, and motivating, serving up “real wins, real screw-ups,” and the conviction that there’s no limit to our ability to learn and succeed.
Takeaways:
[Find your brain animal and actionable tips at mybrainanimal.com. Grab "Limitless" for the full manual. For more: ryanisright.com.]