

MindHack
Cody McLain
What happens when you give an overthinking entrepreneur a microphone, a curiosity obsession, and access to the sharpest minds on the planet? You get MindHack - the podcast for founders, builders, and high-performers who want to upgrade their brain like they upgrade their software. Each week, Cody McLain (entrepreneur since 15, burnout survivor, and productivity nerd) sits down with scientists, psychologists, and successful entrepreneurs to reverse-engineer how extraordinary people think, feel, and execute. We unpack the mental models, weird routines, emotional rewiring, and psychology-backed strategies that actually work—so you can build your business without losing your mind. 🎯 Think: startup grit meets cognitive science. 🎙️ Guests include bestselling authors, startup OGs, and unreasonably curious humans. 🔥 Warning: listening may result in existential clarity, better habits, and fewer panic Googles at 2am. New episodes every week. Subscribe and hack your brain before your brain hacks you.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 12, 2022 • 52min
How Important is Your Visual Intelligence with FIXED Author Amy Herman
Amy Herman is a visual educator who in her 2018 Ted Talk, explained how we can use our understanding of art to enhance our powers of perception and connection with those around us. In this interview, we discuss multiple works of art and how training ourselves to observe small details about the world around us can help us all to become more empathetic and capable people. Art is a universal language and it can be used to expose deep-seated truths about ourselves that might otherwise be hidden by our own ego. We talk about behavior science, self-awareness, and how to avoid self-confirmation bias. From Sigmund Freud to Carl Jung, Amy and I discuss her recent book “Fixed: How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem Solving” the psychology of human consciousness, and how art can serve as a pathway to allow us to become closer to the self-actualized person we all so wish to become.Support the show

Jan 25, 2022 • 1h 35min
Maximize Your Confidence With West Point Director of Performance Psychology Nate Zinsser
Dr. Nate Zinsser has spent his career training the minds of the U.S. Military Academy’s cadets as they prepare to lead and perform when the stakes are the very highest—on the battlefield. Alongside this work, he has coached world-class athletes including a Super Bowl MVP, numerous Olympic medalists, professional ballerinas, NHL All-Stars, and college All-Americans, teaching them to overcome the pressure and succeed on the biggest stages.Today we talk about Dr. Zinsser's new book The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance. We dive deep into what confidence IS and what it IS NOT. What are the five affirmations that make you successful? Come find out. Support the show

Nov 8, 2021 • 1h
Flow and the Personification of Emotions - Troy Erstling
Today we’re interviewing somebody who is a world traveler and expert in flow states. He’s a writer and consultant and has even given a TEDx talk on freestyling. Besides designing his digital nomad lifestyle, he employs a variety of activities to get into a flow state, including slacklining, freestyle rapping, exercising, and meditating. His name is Troy Erstling and he’s an extremely interesting and well-spoken guest. In this episode, Troy shares his thoughts on flow state, how meditation makes you less distractible, resources for productivity, how to set up successful systems for the absence of friction, how to dial in and out of the flow state, and how to maintain the most important relationship in your life. MindHack is a podcast by Cody McLain that seeks to break down successful people's routines, habits, mindsets, and ideologies, scientific studies, and popular books. This is a self-help podcast dedicated to finding out the keys to success, happiness, and limitless productivity. Support the show

Oct 26, 2021 • 55min
How to Hack your Motivation and Productivity - Nick Winter
MindHack is a podcast by Cody McLain that seeks to break down the routines, habits, mindset, and ideologies of successful people, scientific studies, and popular books. This is a self-help podcast dedicated to finding out the keys to success, happiness, and limitless productivity. Nick Winter is the co-founder of the highly successful startup, CodeCombat, a free-to-use educational gaming company that teaches players the fundamentals of computer programming. He's also the author of the book, The Motivation Hacker and conducted a series of experiments over 3-months time to create good habits, learn new skills and push himself to achieve more. In this incredible episode, we dig into goal-setting, creating new habits, dealing with burn-out and so much more!Support the show

Aug 17, 2021 • 53min
26 Years and $15M Later, How this Power Couple Managed to Create an Award Winning Ice Cream Brand - Nicki Schroeder
Nicki Schroeder, Co-Founder, and CMO of High Road Craft Ice Cream, one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing craft ice cream manufacturers in the US. They produce ice cream for some of the largest retailers including SAMS club and many more under their private label. Nicki runs the business along with her husband, Keith, and together they manage over 50 employees at their production facility in Marietta, GeorgiaIn this episode we take a look at how Nicki and her husband managed to start an Ice Cream company from the ground up, some of the challenges they faced, and how they managed to overcome obstacles as business partners, but also as husband and wife. For full episode information visit: https://www.mindhack.com/episode/nicki-schroederSupport the show

Jul 7, 2021 • 59min
How to Balance Your Ambition and Contentment with Forbes Entrepreneur Jodie Cook
Today’s guest is Jodie Cook. Jodie founded a social media agency at just 22 years old and sold it in 2021. She is a regular contributor for Forbes on entrepreneurship and was also included in Forbes list of 30 under 30 social entrepreneurs in Europe. She is the author of “Stop acting like you’re going to live forever” and several books on raising entrepreneurial kids. On top of all of that Jodie even finds time to compete in powerlifting for Great Britain. In this episode, Jodie shares her experience in building businesses, from tips regarding her daily routine to how to land your first client. Jodie is a jack of all trades and gives great advice on how to seed your ambition without becoming burnt out. She shares a unique perspective as an entrepreneur and writer.For full episode information visit: https://www.mindhack.com/episode/jodie-cookSupport the show

Jun 29, 2021 • 50min
How Founder of BestSelf Co Went From Quitting Her Job to Building a $30 Million Dollar Self-Improvement Empire - Cathryn Lavery
Today’s guest is Cathryn Lavery, the founder of Best Self Co, a multi-million dollar company that specializes in selling journals, card decks, and online courses. Best Self creates meaningful products and tools that help you create positive change in your life - so you can show up better for yourself, your connections, and the world.Cathryn originally migrated to the United States as an overworked and underpaid architect and in this episode she shares how she went from quitting her job to starting a company that has in just a few short years, generated over $30m dollars in sales. She shares everything from the mindset that helped her succeed, to how she overcame multiple obstacles from employee embezzlement to leaving a hostile business relationship and coming out ahead.If you’re at all interested in entrepreneurship then I think you’ll like my conversation with Cathryn Lavery.For full episode information visit: https://www.mindhack.com/episode/cathryn-laverySupport the show

Jun 21, 2021 • 1h
Focusmate.com Founder Discusses Importance of Internal Values in Business - Taylor Jacobson
Taylor Jacobson is the founder & CEO of Focusmate (www.focusmate.com), a virtual coworking community on a mission to help everyone do their best work. Thousands of people in 160+ countries sit side-by-side, via video, to keep each other company, cheer each other on, and hold one another accountable. He's been featured in The New Yorker, CNN, The Guardian, Bloomberg Businessweek, and more.In this episode, Taylor & I discuss how healing trauma can lead you to become more productive, how spirituality ties into your business, and the importance of staying true to your internal values as you navigate the world in your career and relationships.If you’re someone who has had to adapt to life as a virtual worker in the past year and want to learn more about Focusmate or the person behind it, then please welcome Taylor Jacobson.For full episode information visit: https://www.mindhack.com/episode/taylor-jacobsonSupport the show

Apr 16, 2021 • 43min
How This Startup Founder Plans To Hit $10 Million - Aleksandr Volodarsky of Lemon.io
Aleksandr is the founder of Lemon.io, a service that matches startup founders with vetted developers. He is publicly committed to getting to 2.5m revenue by the end of 2021. Aleksandr is a true professional in business development and R&D out-staffing. In this episode, we look at a variety of topics ranging from co-founders, what mistakes not to make, and why being a non-technical founder is less of a problem than ever.For full episode information visit: https://www.mindhack.com/episode/aleksandr-volodarskySupport the show

Apr 15, 2021 • 53min
Navigating Neurodiversity and Evolutionary Biology - Andreas Hofer
Andreas Hofer has been interested in evolutionary psychology for almost 30 years now. His blog The Bigger Picture discusses ideas he has when he tries to understand the patterns he sees in the world. A self-published author of over 30 books with topics ranging from neurodiversity in children to how misunderstood human beings become misfits. In this conversation, we’re taking a dive into a theory on evolutionary biology that seeks to explain why up to 0.8% of the world's population has Asperger’s, or high functioning Autism, amongst other topics. What Andreas proposes personally interests me since I myself have a mild case of Asperger's. This is a fascinating conversation for anybody interested in knowing more about neurodiversity in our modern age. For full episode information visit: https://www.mindhack.com/episode/andreas-hoferSupport the show