Get Yourself Optimized

Imagine the euphoria of learning that an investor is willing to bet $20 million on your company. Then imagine the stress that sets in after you realize what you just signed up for. After all, that investor is expecting you to quadruple their money. My guest on this episode has been there. He not only lived to tell the tale, he wrote a book about it. Rand Fishkin is the author of Lost and Founder which charts the rise of his multi-million dollar company Moz and his rocky dealings with venture capitalists along the way. Rand all is my co-author on The Art of SEO which is considered to be the Bible on search engine optimization. Back in 2009, that book put me on the map and I'm forever grateful for our collaboration. If you've ever considered growing your business or courting investors, stick around. You're about to learn some valuable advice and uncomfortable truths you won't get from anywhere else.

Would you say you have a great memory or just a so-so memory? Would you like to improve it? Everybody could improve their memory and there are some pretty straightforward tools, tips, and techniques that will help you to improve your memory. You're going to learn all about it in this episode from one of the world's experts on memory and learning, Jonathan Levi. Jonathan is our guest and he's the author of the bestselling book, Become a SuperLearner. He's a serial entrepreneur, published author and life hacker. He's one of the top performing instructors on Udemy, which is an online learning platform. He's hosted the award-winning Becoming SuperHuman Podcast. Jonathan's media products have been enjoyed by over 150,000 people in 203 countries and territories. 

Two books have had a profound impact on my life: Rich Dad Poor Dad and Outwitting the Devil. There are more than that, but these two are particularly pertinent to this episode. The authors of these two books, Robert Kiyosaki and Napoleon Hill respectively, have become household names but someone else had a hand in both books and she doesn't get the limelight. Her name is Sharon Lechter and she's our guest in this episode number 165. Sharon is an entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, international speaker and licensed CPA. She's regarded as a global expert on financial literacy. She served as a national spokeswoman and presidential advisor on the topic. She co-authored Rich Dad Poor Dad with Robert Kiyosaki and edited Napoleon Hill's Outwitting the Devil, which incidentally sat for 70 years without getting published. Both books have been pivotal in my life and you're about to learn why.

Therapy is about understanding yourself and changing behaviors, but Marisa Peer, world-renowned speaker, Rapid Transformational Therapy trainer, and bestselling author, is a great believer that you can't change what you don't understand. We live in a fast world and people are no longer willing to go and spend a year talking about a symptom when they can use the technique that can show them the cause of the symptom and removing it. Marisa says her therapy and most hypnotherapies is about finding out why you do something and simultaneously stopping it, whereas conventional therapies really just talk about it for a long time with the idea that they might find out why you do it and they might stop it, but they might not. Marisa says people are saying your mind's job is to make you happy. Unfortunately, it isn't. Your mind's job is to keep you alive, and so the only way your mind can work out what's going on with you is by the way you talk to yourself. The way we think and feel about anything is down to two things - the pictures we make in our head and the words we say to ourselves. If you can just take control of the words, then the pictures tend to follow.

It was back in the mid '90s where I had first heard of the marketing legend, Jay Abraham. I never would have imagined for my life that I would eventually count Jay as a friend and yet here we are. I'm so grateful that he has joined me on this episode of The Optimized Geek. He's been on Marketing Speak twice. Once where I interviewed him and once where he interviewed me about SEO. Those are definitely great episodes you should definitely check out. Jay is known as the $21.7 billion man because that's how much he has generated for his clients. He is the quintessential marketing guru and a prolific author. He has authored a dozen books including Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got, The Sticking Point SolutionandRecession Proofing Your Business, which had a $1,000 price tag when it first came out. It sold out the printing in two weeks. It was, at the time, one of the most expensive books available. Jay also counsels business gurus like Tony Robbins and Daymond John, the Shark from Shark Tank. Here's episode number 163 with Jay Abraham.

It's been awhile since we came out with an episode on style or fashion. It was episode eight a long time ago, that was with Luke Storey. It was an amazing episode. If you haven't read it, you definitely should go and read it. I don't think of myself as having a lot of fashion sense. I did not dress well a decade ago. I didn't know any better. I rely heavily on my wife and also we rely on stylists for things like closet cleanses, outfit combinations, buying new items. A lot of times we'll buy stuff on our own, but we also will do big buys with our stylist. This topic may seem superficial to some of you. It does feel good to look stylish and to feel you have some competence in this area. It helps in business. It helps if you're dating. It's definitely something worth reading. This is episode number 162. Our guest is Lauren Friedman. Lauren is an artist, stylist and the author and illustrator of three books published by Chronicle Books including her book50 Ways to Wear Accessories. Her first book, 50 Ways to Wear a Scarf, has sold over 200,000 copies and has been translated into multiple languages. She's the creator of the My Closet in Sketches project and Illustrated Style Blog. Lauren's work as a professional illustrator has appeared in numerous publications including Lucky Magazine, Travel + Leisure Magazine and The Washington Post. Her books have been sold at MoMA, The National Gallery ofArt, Paper Source, Target and retailers across the world. In addition, Lauren acts as an image consultant and personal wardrobe stylist for clients in Washington, DC and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In this episode number 161, you're going to learn how to identify your genius and leverage it. You'll also learn how to find or even create a peer group of high performers as well as take your relationships to a whole new level. Our guest is Mike Zeller. He's a social entrepreneur who started eight different businesses in five different industries producing over $100 million in sales. He's been featured in the Huffington Post, Business Insider and Entrepreneur. In addition to having his own marketing agency, he mentors and educates other budding entrepreneurs.

Life is all about energy. Life is energy after all. Without energy, you die. The key to vitality is having access to energy. In other words, energy utilization. In this episode number 160, you're going to learn how to elevate your energy from a true master. Our guest is Dr.John Amaral. He's a chiropractor, energy healer and educator who works behind the scenes helping celebrities, entrepreneurs, pro athletes and influencers elevate their energy so they feel and perform their best. John has worked with thousands of people from over 50 countries. He is the Founder of Body Centered Leadership.

If you've been following the show for a while, you'll probably know I'm an avid biohacker. I love biohacking. We've had a lot of episodes on biohacking. I've had the Godfather of Biohacking, Dave Asprey, on the show. I've also had other amazing biohackers on the show like Luke Storey, Dr. Daniel Kraft, Mark Sisson, Nick Delgado, Dr. Daniel Amenand Michael Morelli. We never really deep dived into QS, Quantified Self. This is where you measure and record everything. Peter Drucker said, "What gets measured gets managed," and I firmly believe that. I'm a big believer in QS. We're going to go deep into this topic and also talk about learning independently, productivity, ADHD and a bunch of other topics. I think you're going to enjoy this episode number 159. Our guest is Lisa Betts-LaCroix. Lisa is a podcaster, speaker, actor and dancer. As host of the Super Power UPodcast, she digs into mental models and skills used by experts and everyday rockstars. She's been in over 100 films and TV shows as a dance performance speaker who inspires audiences to embrace vitality and passion in later life. At age 50, she is a world champion Pro-Am American Rhythm Ballroom dancer.

You are about to get some coaching and mentorship on raising performance, short-circuiting burnouts and eliminating drift. Drift you ask, "What the heck is that?" You are about to find out. It's a crucial concept. My guest and your coach in this episode number 158 is Dominick Quartuccio. As an international keynote speaker, trainer, executive coach and author of the book, Design Your Future, Dominick works with the best of the best. Those who have an insatiable desire to achieve more and continuously improve themselves.