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Today's Success Story podcast is brought to you by Vanta. Now listen up. This matters for your business. In today's digital landscape, security isn't optional, it's essential. Without it, deal, stall, sales cycle stretch out and scaling becomes really difficult. Why? Because investors, customers, partners, they all expect businesses to demonstrate strong security practices before they commit to anything. And if you can't prove trust, you lose opportunities. So whether you're a startup founder trying to land that first big client or an established company scaling your security program, Vanta helps businesses of all sizes prove they're trustworthy by Automating compliance across 35 frameworks like SoC2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA. The exact certifications your prospects, your customers are demanding. And here's why you need to pay attention. Vanta gives you back precious time you're currently wasting on compliance. Their platform automates up to 90% of the tedious compliance work and it helps you respond to those endless security questionnaires up to five times faster. And they also connect you with to get your security program running immediately. And the results they speak for themselves. A recent IDC report found that Vanta customers achieve over $535,000 per year in benefits and the platform pays for itself in just three months. So join over 10,000 global companies like Atlassian, CORA and Factory who use Vanta to manage risk, improve security in real time, and don't miss this for a limited time, only my listeners can get a thousand dollars off Vanta. That's real money back in your pocket. Visit vanta.com Scott now this offer expires. That's V A N T A dot com Scott For $1,000 off a huge shout out to Federated Computer for supporting today's episode. Let me explain why I love Federated Computer. Why they are friends of success story. They are changing the way businesses buy software because we all need software to run our businesses. I don't care what kind of business you're building, but the best business software doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars each month. So Federated Computer replaces a lot of the software that you're using right now. Let me explain. The average typical Federated computer customer saves 75% or more on their software built and gets great software, top notch customer service and support and a software solution that is uniquely installed for your business without any sort of surveillance or breaches of privacy. For example, if you use Google for email, Salesforce for CRM, Slack for team chat, list Monkey for customer acquisitions, and Airtable for data management with a team of 10, you'd save $9,000 per year on software costs by switching to Federated Computer. They replace all of those. And what's wild is that the cost of Federated Computer doesn't grow as your team grows. You can use Federated Computer savings to grow your business. Rather than feed the woke Silicon Valley software companies. The Federated Computer team literally invented cloud software. They actually have the patents to prove it. And they are taking a hammer to the ridiculously high prices of business software that all entrepreneurs are suffering from. Federated Computer. They've been a longtime supporter of success story. They're offering 30% off their already low prices when you use the coupon code freelance. So go to www.federated.computer to begin saving 75% or more on your monthly software costs. That's www.federated computer. These folks are gonna do you a big favor. Check them out. In this lessons episode, we'll explore why selective attention might be your greatest untapped resource. Through stories of high performers, from Steve Jobs to everyday entrepreneurs, we're gonna see how the most effective people aren't superhuman. They've just mastered where they direct their mental energy. You're gonna discover why your brain naturally pulls you towards distraction. How modern life exploits this, how and practical ways to reclaim your focus for what truly matters. The ability to care deeply about a few things rather than superficially about many isn't just a productivity hack. It's a path to doing the work that matters while maintaining your sanity in an increasingly chaotic world. Today, I want to talk about weaponized apathy, basically the science of selective concern. And look, I get it. You're thinking another podcast about not caring what people think. It probably seems like the last thing you need. But the thing is that most advice on this topic is surface level garbage that never addresses the real problem. We are living in the most distracting era in human history. Your attention is being monetized, your outrage is being harvested, your anxiety is being leveraged, all to keep you scrolling, consuming and emotionally reactive. And the cost is your mental bandwidth, your creative potential and your ability to focus on what actually matters. And for people in this audience that are ambitious, which I'm pretty sure is most of you, this is derailing your hopes, your dreams, your chance at living a life that you actually deserve. Not to sound too motivational, but if you are an ambitious person and you're trying to build a business, of course we have the tools to make it easier. But the environment that we're building it in is harder because your attention is being hijacked 24 7, 365. So this isn't about feeling better or avoiding drama. It's about reclaiming your neurological resources in an environment that is specifically designed to hijack them. It's about understanding. In 2025, the ability to choose what you care about isn't just a life skill. It is a survival mechanism for your mind. So what we're going to talk about today, it's not gentle, it's not wrapped in comfortable platitudes, but it works because it addresses the root of the problem. The neurobiological reality of how your brain allocates its limited resources. And right now, for the majority of us, with the environments that we live in, those resources are not being allocated to the right things, the things that matter. Because our brain is being systematically hijacked, full stop. Every notification, every headline, every. Every social validation marker, they are all targeting the same neural pathways that evolution designed for genuine survival threats. The amygdala, the part of your brain that is trying to figure out if the thing that you're doing is going to kill you. Can't distinguish between a saber tooth tiger and a negative comment on your post. It is the same biochemical cascade. And this isn't philosophy, this is neuroscience. And I think it's about time that we applied it ruthlessly. So most people waste their very limited cognitive resources on things that don't matter. They drain their mental energy worrying about what somebody said about them online. Political arguments that change nothing. Minor inconveniences that are forgotten in a week. Manufactured outrage designed to hijack attention. Meanwhile, they ignore the things that actually move the needle in their lives. So I think it's time to take back control. Let's talk about the neurobiology of not giving a damn. Your average human has approximately 70,000 thoughts per day. Research indicates that 80% are negative and 95% are repetitive. And this isn't random. This is your default mode network. The brain circuitry that's active when you're not focused on a specific task. It's constantly scanning for threats. It's literally wired to give a fuck about everything, especially potential social rejection. So weaponized apathy isn't about becoming emotionally dead. It's about neural optimization. Ruthlessly eliminating emotional expenditure on stimuli, on things that happen to you that deliver zero evolutionary advantage. The modern world is bombarding you with stimuli, with things happening that your brain was never designed to handle. Your ancestors never had to process 247 new cycles of global catastrophes. They never had access to the opinions of thousands of strangers. They weren't constantly comparing themselves to to curated highlight reels. They didn't have unlimited access to information without context. And your brain processes this onslaught as if each piece of information represents an immediate threat. So this leaves you perpetually stuck in a low grade fight or flight response, pumping out cortisol and adrenaline in response to things you can't control. And I think this is the most important idea that we're going to talk about today. And everything else is going to center around this idea. You are not morally obligated to care about everything. In fact, caring about everything is the fastest path to achieving nothing. Because what you don't know is that your ability to care is not unlimited. It is a finite neurological resource. Every ounce of emotional bandwidth that you waste on Instagram likes or political arguments with strangers or office gossip or perceived slights is bandwidth that is stolen from the neural pathways that could be dedicated to your actual goals. Every time you allow your nervous system to activate over something inconsequential, you are literally restructuring your brain to become more reactive and less effective. This is the attention death spiral. Because you engage with emotional triggers, then your brain gets hit with stress hormones, and then you become more sensitized to similar triggers and your attention becomes increasingly fragmented and your ability to focus on high value activities diminishes and you become less effective at everything that matters. And you repeat until your life consists entirely of reacting to bullshit. And breaking free from this spiral isn't just a nice to have. It's a foundational skill of effective entrepreneurs in the digital age. Now, what's the solution? The solution is not gentle mindfulness. It's aggressive neural rewiring. Your brain's default settings are not optimized for survival in conditions that no longer exist. So it is time to update the operating system. Step one, the neurochemical reset. Your brain has been conditioned to react emotionally to things that don't matter. So it's time to break that pattern. When you notice an emotional trigger, observe it without engaging. This isn't about suppression, it's about rewiring. Think about it like this. When your brain signals this deserves your attention, you just have to respond. This offers no real advantage. Not worth my bandwidth. And you can just start small, read headlines without clicking the bait, scroll past all these outrage inducing posts without commenting, you can notice criticism even about yourself, without feeling compelled to defend yourself. Just let it go. And with practice, your automatic emotional reactions are going to start to weaken and eventually disappear. Now step two. Dopamine redirection social media platforms have hacked your brain's reward system. They've trained you to chase likes and comments and arguments for cheap dopamine hits. So it's time to take your brain chemistry back, create new reward pathways around selective apathy. You need to feel a sense of victory when you choose not to engage. You need to enjoy the peace of mind that comes from ignoring manufactured drama. You need to immediately do something you genuinely enjoy after successfully disengaging. So for example, when you resist jumping into an online argument, go make your favorite coffee or go take a quick walk, your brain will start associating selective attention with pleasure. Instead of fomo, you are actually rewiring your brain to ignore things that don't serve you. And third step, you have to do an evolutionary audit. So our brains evolve to manage about 150 relationships and to respond to immediate physical threats, not infinite social drama or global catastrophe. So when something demands your attention, you have to run it through this filter. Does it directly impact my physical safety or health? Does it affect my ability to advance my goals or status? And does it significantly impact the people that I genuinely care about? If you answer no to all three, your concern is is an evolutionary mismatch. You got to let it go. And I use this daily. Like when I catch my mind spinning on something, I literally ask myself if it's truly relevant to my survival, my goals, or my inner circle. And if not, I consciously redirect it that thought to something that is a shout out to NORDVPN for supporting today's episode. I have to tell you a story. So I was actually in Toronto visiting family last month and I went to binge some of my favorite Netflix shows. I forgot and I realized that half of my US shows weren't available in Canada. Super annoying. Flipped on NORDVPN within seconds, I got access to everything. Now it's not just about watching shows. What makes NordVPN a game changer really? Just imagine having this personal security guard for your entire digital Life. With just one click, you're connected to one of their 7100 servers across 118 countries. I mainly use it for accessing streaming services when I travel, but I've also saved hundreds on flight bookings by checking prices from different countries and their new threat protection pro blocks all those endless pop ups and suspicious links before they even get to me. And what I love most is how simple it is. One account, 10 devices. So laptop, phone, iPad, everything's covered. And the speed, Honestly, it's so fast that I forget that I'm even using a vpn. And the best part? I've got a special offer just for success story listeners. So head over to nordvpn.com success and you'll not only get their best discount, but they'll throw in an extra four months on the two year plan. And don't worry about commitment because they offer a 30 day money back guarantee. The link is in the episode description. Trust me, it's worth checking out, especially if you travel or stream content regularly. That's nordvpn.com/success. Thank you NetSuite for supporting today's episode. Now, what does the future hold for business? If you ask nine experts, you're going to get 10 answers. Bull market, Bear market Inflation up. Inflation down. Honestly, I just need a crystal ball. But until we get one, over 41,000 businesses have found the next best thing. They future proofed their operations with NetSuite by Oracle, which is the number one Cloud E ERP. Imagine having your accounting, your financial management, your inventory, your HR all flowing together in one fluid platform. Here's what makes NetSuite different. It gives you one source of truth for your business. You get the visibility and control to make quick, confident decisions while others are guessing. You're working with real time data insights, forecasting. You're basically looking into the future of your business with actionable data. Whether your company is earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and helps you helps you grab your biggest opportunities. And speaking of opportunities, they Put together the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com ScottClary this is the playbook for understanding how to use AI for your business. The guide is free. Go to netsuite.com ScottClay that is netsuite.com ScottCl Cary A big thank you to indeed for supporting Success story because hiring people is one of the hardest things you're ever going to do as an entrepreneur, as a founder, as somebody who's trying to build a business because it's important to hire. Well, it's important to hire and find the right person. But it takes so much time. It's so labor intensive because like most entrepreneurs, you have a thousand things going on and there's a good chance that you just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find that great amazing right fit candidate fast? It's easy. You just use indeed because you don't have to waste time struggling to get your job post seen on all these other job sites. If you're using Indeed, you can just use their Sponsored Jobs to help you stand out and hire fast. Your post jumps right to the top of the page for relevant candidates so you can reach exactly who you're looking for faster and the results really speak for themselves. According to Indeed data, Sponsored Jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored Jobs. You know what I love most about Indeed? It really just makes hiring so fast because everything is streamlined in one place. No more juggling multiple platforms or waiting weeks for the right candidate. How fast is Indeed in the minute I've been talking to you. 23 hires were made on Indeed according to Indeed Data worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com Clary just go to Indeed.com Clary right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com Clary terms and conditions apply. If you're hiring, Indeed is all you need, and those who can choose what they care about operate on an entirely different level from those who can't. While others are depleting their cortisol reserves over social media debates, burning cognitive resources on office politics, and wasting neural real estate on celebrity opinions, you will be preserving your executive function capabilities and directing neurological resources towards high value targets your competitors cannot defeat what they cannot emotionally manipulate. Consider Steve Jobs. So in his biography Walter Isaacson, he detailed how Jobs practiced extreme focus not just in product design, but in emotional investment. Jobs famously wore the same outfit daily to eliminate all decision fatigue. And he maintained a ruthless approach to saying no to projects, features, concerns that did not align with his core vision. This wasn't just about productivity. It was about preserving cognitive and emotional bandwidth for what actually mattered. And while competitors spread themselves thin trying to please everyone, Jobs concentrated Apple's resources on creating breakthrough products that redefined entire industries. One of his most famous quotes People think focus means saying yes to the things you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. The same principle applies to your emotional investments. Now let's get practical. So I use Personally, I used to waste mental energy on everything. Industry gossip, social media arguments, news cycles that change daily. They were all living rent free in my head while my actual goals were collecting dust. So I had to develop practical filters or the only other option Was to watch my ambitions die this slow death by a thousand distractions. So here are three approaches that I've used that actually work. First approach is the 72 hour test. So when something triggers an emotional response, ask yourself, will this matter 72 hours from now? That's it. Simple but ruthless. Most concerns that you have, most stresses, fail this test instantly. Arguments online, minor criticisms, small rejections. They do feel world ending in the moment, but they evaporate in a few days. Elon Musk does something similar. So when he was asked how he handles criticism, he said he filters by asking if it will matter in a week or a month. And his answer was almost never. So this isn't about ignoring legitimate problems. It's about not treating every input as equally deserving of your limited mental bandwidth. Second strategy, impact to effort ratio. So for everything demanding your attention, you have to evaluate the potential impact divided by the energy required. So this cuts through the emotional noise and forces you to be rational about where your attention goes. A project that might transform your business, but requires focused work, that's high priority. A random comment questioning your approach, that would take hours to address. Low priority math doesn't lie. When you start calculating this consciously, you're going to be shocked at what you're actually prioritizing. And the third strategy, the intervention question. So for any concern, any stress, just ask yourself, can I directly affect this situation? If you cannot meaningfully intervene, it doesn't deserve your sustained attention. Global news cycles, other people's opinions, problems from five years ago, none of these pass this filter. This isn't callousness, it's acknowledging reality. Your emotional investment should align with your ability to influence outcomes. Now, what I've observed over years and years and years of being an entrepreneur, of working with entrepreneurs, those who can selectively deploy their attention consistently outperform those who can't. Not because they work harder, because they work cleaner. So look at any high performer that you respect. They're not reacting to everything. They're proactively focused on what moves the needle. Bill Gates doesn't split his foundation's resources across thousands of issues. He chooses specific problems where focused attention can create leverage. Elite athletes don't waste mental energy worrying about the crowd or their last mistake. During critical moments, they channel 100% of their focus to execution. This isn't about dismissing real concerns. It is truly strategic allocation of a finite resource. Your attention. And when I work with entrepreneurs who feel scattered, I just do a simple exercise. Track exactly where your mental energy goes for three days. Note what you get in return from each investment and then identify what high value opportunities are being neglected. The pattern is very consistent. Most people are investing heavily in low return mental activities while they're neglecting the few activities that create real leverage. So let's talk about the last fuck you'll ever need to give. Here's the cognitive trap. You have been conditioned to believe that caring about everything makes you a better person. The truth. Indiscriminate concern is not a virtue. It is neurological self sabotage. The people who achieve extraordinary outcomes aren't caring more. They're caring with laser precision. They've mastered the ultimate psychological skill. The ability to choose without guilt or hesitation exactly where their finite neurological resources will be deployed. They understand that every unnecessary fuck given is a strategic opportunity lost. In my own work, I see this pattern all the time. The entrepreneurs who break through aren't the ones who care about everything. They're the ones who ruthlessly prioritize their emotional bandwidth for what matters most. Remember, at the end of the day, your brain has limited bandwidth. You have to deploy it wisely. It's not about becoming cold, it's about becoming becoming calibrated. It's not philosophy, it's neurology. And what we're really talking about, the sort of the high level idea, is neurological sovereignty. Reclaiming your brain from those who profit from hijacking it. It's not just self help, it's revolution. Your attention is the most valuable commodity on the planet right now. Companies worth billions exist solely to capture and monetize it. Naval Ravikant. He nails it. The modern devil is cheap dopamine. Your brain's reward systems have been weaponized against you. You've been programmed to seek emotional engagement with things that don't matter. Taking back control isn't easy. Your brain is going to resist because it's addicted. Society will resist because your independence threatens the status quo. You're going to face accusations of being disconnected and cold and uncaring. But remember, you can't set yourself on fire to keep everyone else warm. You can't contribute anything meaningful if your brain is scattered across a thousand meaningless concerns. You can't achieve your vision if you're constantly reacting instead of creating. The path forward isn't complicated, but it does require discipline. So choose ruthlessly. What gets your attention? Practice daily disengagement from low value concerns. Redirect your mental energy towards what actually moves the needle and make this your default operating system. Your neurology is too valuable to waste on things that drain. Without giving back your attention it's too precious to surrender to those who profit from your anxiety and your potential is too important to sacrifice on the altar of indiscriminate concern. It is time to take back control. It is time for neurological sovereignty. Today's Success Story podcast is brought to you by Vanta. Now listen up. This matters for your business. In today's digital landscape, security isn't optional, it's essential. Without it, deal, stall, sales cycle, stretch out and scaling becomes really difficult. Why? Because investors, customers, partners, they all expect businesses to demonstrate strong security practices before they commit to anything. And if you can't prove trust, you lose opportunities. So whether you're a startup founder trying to land that first big client or an established company scaling your security program, Vanta helps businesses of all sizes prove they're trustworthy by Automating compliance across 35 frameworks like SoC2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA. The exact certifications your prospects, your customers are demanding. And here's why you need to pay attention. Vanta gives you back precious time you're currently wasting on compliance. Their platform automates up to 90% of the tedious compliance work and it helps you respond to those endless security questionnaires up to five times faster. And they also connect you with experts to get your security program running immediately. And the results, they speak for themselves. A recent IDC report found that Vanta customers achieve over $535,000 per year in benefits and the platform pays for itself in just three months. So join over 10,000 global companies like Atlassian, Quora and Factory who use Vanta to manage risk, improve security in real time, and don't miss this for a limited time only my listeners can get a thousand dollars off Vanta. That's real money back in your pocket. Visit vanta.comscott now before this offer expires. That's V A N T a dot com Scott for a thousand dollars off A huge shout out to Federated Computer for supporting today's episode. Let me explain why I love Federated Computer. Why they are friends of success story. They are changing the way businesses buy software because we all need software to run our businesses. I don't care what kind of business you're building, but the best business software doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars each month. So Federated Computer replaces a lot of the software that you're using right now. Let me explain. The average typical Federated computer customer saves 75% or more on their software bill and gets great software, top notch customer service and support, and a software solution that is uniquely installed for your business without any sort of surveillance or breaches of privacy. For example, if you use Google for email, Salesforce for CRM, Slack for team chat, list, Monkey for customer acquisitions and Airtable for data management With a team of 10, you'd save $9,000 per year on software costs by switching the Federated Computer. They replace all of those and what's wild is that the cost of Federated Computer doesn't grow as your team grows. You can use Federated Computer savings to grow your business rather than feed the woke Silicon Valley software companies. The Federated Computer team literally invented cloud software. They actually have the patents to prove it and they are taking a hammer to the ridiculously high prices of business software that all entrepreneurs are suffering from. Federated Computer They've been a longtime supporter of Success story. They're offering 30% off their already low prices when you use the coupon code Freelance. So go to www.federated.computer to begin saving 75% or more on your monthly software costs. That's www.federated.com. these folks are going to do you a big favor. Check them out.