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EP567: TL Nugget #158 - John Graham - How Chaos Training Helped Me Win 3 National Memory Titles
134 Plays6 months ago
“People want genuine authenticity and real humanity to show instead of the mask and the charade that everyone's putting on to conform.”
“We're all haunted by certain things that have happened to us that still trigger us. How do you release those boulders inside of you so they're not triggering you anymore, they're not haunting you anymore, they're not affecting you anymore, and take those and transmute those. Integrate those in your life so that you can expand again out of your comfort zone.”
Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a memory champion? Becoming a memory champion wasn't easy. Success requires setting ambitious goals and embracing the journey, no matter how long it takes. You will face challenges, including initial failures and self-doubt. However, through perseverance and a commitment to continuous learning, you’ll ultimately rose to the top. This episode will serve you as a powerful reminder that greatness is achieved through dedication and resilience.
Expert action steps:
- Make peace with every single thing that bothers you.
- Stop blocking your distractions; embrace distractions.
- Practice unconditional love and acceptance.
Visit Releasepanic.com to learn more about John’s program called “Released”
If you have any questions or need personalized support, don't hesitate to reach out to John directly at [email protected].
Visit eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.
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Transcript
Overcoming Struggles in Entrepreneurship
00:00:00
Speaker
I'm a human being and I went through an intense amount of struggle mentally, emotionally to get to the top of that. I had to overcome my own inner demons. Because when you go on a route of entrepreneurship, you're on your own. If you're struggling, your business will struggle and that was me. Something I call catalyst integration. It's where you take, like we're all haunted by the past. We're all haunted by certain things that have happened to us that still trigger us. How do you release those boulders inside of you?
00:00:29
Speaker
and take those and transmute those, integrate those in your life so that you can expand again out of your comfort zone.
00:00:39
Speaker
Welcome to the Thought Leader Revolution with Nikki Ballou. Join the revolution. There's never been a better time in history to speak your truth, find your freedom, and make your fortune. Each week, we interview the world's top thought leaders and learn the secrets of how they built a six- to seven-figure practice. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.
00:01:10
Speaker
Welcome to another exciting episode of the podcast, the Thought Leader Revolution. I'm your host, Nicky Baloo. And boy, we have an exciting guest lined up for you today.
Meet the Memory Champion: John Graham
00:01:20
Speaker
Today's guest is a U.S. National Memory Champion. This man is the very best in this field, and we here at the Thought Leader Revolution bring top thought leaders at the top of their game
00:01:34
Speaker
to come and teach you how they became that. I am speaking, of course, of none other than the one, the only, the legendary John Graham. Welcome to the show, John. It's probably gotta be the best intro I've ever received. Thank you.
00:01:53
Speaker
I'm glad to hear that. That's what I was going for. You're very welcome. So John, first of all, welcome to the show. Good to have you here. Secondly, we do this show because we believe in the majesty of the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur is society's greatest hero. It's because he has a dream and he's willing to go after it.
00:02:13
Speaker
that all progress in society happens. And with the exception of the men and women who fight, bleed, and die, so the rest of us get to live under the blanket of freedom, they're the most important people we have. And they listen to the show, my listeners, because they want to learn. Not from me, I'm here every week. They want to learn from you. But before they can open themselves to you and to your message, they got to get to know you. So tell us your backstory. How'd you get to be the great John Graham?
00:02:45
Speaker
You know, it's easy to say I'm a three-time national memory champion in all the glory, but the secret is I'm a human being and I went through an intense amount of struggle mentally, emotionally to get to the top of that. And as an entrepreneur, as a creative, I'm sure a lot of people can relate. So, you know, I've always been someone to strive for more. I've always questioned the rules of society and like why people are going to jobs and why we're being told to do certain things. And I've always wanted to excel. So I think I've,
00:03:16
Speaker
what's always driven me is just I never fit in anywhere. I never liked the conformity of things. And I always thought I could excel as something greater than most people could. So that was the driver for me was just not liking the molds of society and the molds around people. So I decided to just follow my heart and go with something that I thought I could be extraordinary in. And it led me, as we can talk about through a lot of anxiety, a lot of panic, a lot of
00:03:47
Speaker
Strife and a lot of reward to get to the top of a field and a mastery that I think some people have no idea what it takes or just Imagine what it can be like, but it's pretty It's pretty glorious when you master something that a lot of people look up to It's a very glorious thing I don't unpack what you said about not fitting in anywhere I Think There's a beautiful
Embracing the Misfit Mentality
00:04:17
Speaker
ad that Apple made when Steve Jobs came back to Apple after his decade plus layoff. And the ad is called Think Different. And it begins the original version of it with a voiceover by the great actor Richard Dreyfus. And later on, Steve Jobs himself made a version of the ad with his voiceover.
00:04:45
Speaker
The entire ad was black and white with some of the greatest visionaries, change makers and thought leaders the world has ever seen. And it begins something like this. Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the visionaries, the round pegs in the square holes. I mean, just saying those words gives me goosebumps because I think that the people that listen to this shows, they are the misfits.
00:05:15
Speaker
The visionaries, the square pegs in the round holes, or the round pegs in the square holes, however way you wanna say it. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. That part, they're not fond of rules, that's me. I ain't fond of frickin' rules. Screw the damn rules. The rules are just somebody else's idea of how I should live my life and I ain't interested in that, I'm gonna live my life the way I see it. And I believe that's what you're saying, isn't it, John?
00:05:45
Speaker
It's conformity. I was in high school and surrounded by a group of people every morning who talked about cars and engines and girls and certain things that everyone talked. Everyone said the same things. Everyone thought the same things. And I'm sitting there in my head thinking, why does everyone think the same way? I don't even like some of the stuff people are talking about. I always felt like that misfit. I always felt like, why are people always following
00:06:15
Speaker
the crowd and just like conforming to everything. And I just always had this voice inside that didn't agree. But like many people, I followed that crowd for years. And I think that was part of the reason I became so anxious and so troubled mentally, emotionally early on is because I followed what everyone should be doing. I got a job. I graduated. I went to school. I did all the things you were supposed to do, even though
00:06:43
Speaker
internally, I had a mission and a calling to express my authenticity. And I'll say this, like, this is the year, like 2024 is the year where everyone who's square pegging around hall, the misfits, the people who didn't fit in, now we're going to start to shine because authenticity. And we're talking about real human moments and real human feelings are going to come to the forefront. People want
00:07:10
Speaker
Genuine emotion people want genuine authenticity and real humanity to show instead of the mask And the charade that everyone's putting on to conform. So I think if you're a misfit and you're listening to this This is good news because people are craving this people are craving reality and and don't want to follow along anymore No, they don't brother oh they don't so let's go back to your story so you saw that you were a misfit and you didn't fit in and
The Influence of 'Moonwalking with Einstein'
00:07:38
Speaker
What led you to choose a path to go and become national memory champion three times? I'm sitting in a cubicle in Denver. I worked for a bankruptcy office. It was my first salary job. Bored out of my mind. I was like scrolling on Twitter all day. I was a misfit. I didn't I did the bare minimum. I just I was a horrible employee, even though I was a really good kid. And this book moonwalking with Einstein
00:08:07
Speaker
There was an article about it. It's this book, The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. And I thought, this book called to my soul. This is talking about something beyond a human capacity of what we believe is possible with the mind. I'm like, I'm in. I'm buying that book. So I went to Barnes & Noble, bought that book at 20, I was like 27 years old. This was 10 years ago. And just learned that people could do really incredible things with their mind. I'm not a savant. I'm not a genius. I'm not anything like that.
00:08:37
Speaker
But I found an avenue to explore a realm in my mind and achievement that I did not think was possible. So that was the start of it, was just like, this is it. This is something that geeks me out, nerds me out. And I want to pursue this and see where it takes me. That's a really cool title for a book, Moonwalking with Einstein. Wow. So tell me about the book. The book?
00:09:04
Speaker
was written by a journalist who went to the US Memory Championship, expecting to find people who were savants, people who had photographic memories, geniuses. And what he found was there's a bunch of ordinary Americans who learned mental techniques and strategies and associations, visualization, imagination, to learn to
00:09:27
Speaker
in a structured, organized way and using creativity to memorize more than we thought was possible. We're talking about memorizing a deck of shuffle cards within minutes or seconds. Talking about hundreds of strings of numbers, names. I was like, I really want to see if this is possible because this guy expected geniuses. I think we're all conditioned. No, geniuses know this. No, photographic memory is real and it's all a myth. I thought, I've been lied to.
00:09:56
Speaker
Like people want you to believe you're ordinary, you can't do that stuff, and you're showered with that your whole life. So I was like, someone is telling me that it's possible. And so I think not only did I learn it was possible with a mind, these extraordinary things, but once you start doing these extraordinary things with your mind, you start learning, you can do it in business, you can do it in relationships, you can do it in all these different realms once you excel in one area.
Dedication Over Genius
00:10:19
Speaker
And that was the gateway for me. So you read this book, you realized that
00:10:26
Speaker
the path to becoming extraordinary wasn't so much about having been favored by God with a touch of genius, but it was about a decision that you made within yourself to say, I'm going to excel in this field and I'm willing to suck before I'm any, before I'm even mediocre, I'm willing to be mediocre before I'm average, I'm willing to be average before I'm okay, I'm willing to be okay before I'm good, willing to be good before I'm great.
00:10:52
Speaker
Will I need to be great before I'm a master? Or will I need to be a master before I'm the best that ever lived? That's what you're saying, in essence, isn't it? Yeah. I'm saying too, on the reverse side, if you believe that people are ordained to be geniuses or predestined, you're cursing yourself, right? Because if you believe God gifted you with certain abilities over others or avenues, like you're missing out.
00:11:18
Speaker
And so I started from the low, I started from not believing any of that. Like someone convinced me from this book that I could do it and I took that advantage. And that's why people listen to this podcast. They're looking for someone just like them to say, you can do it too and inspire them. And that's why I'm here too, is because, shit, I've been through a ton of stuff, insanely lows, and I've done it. I've done incredible things, but it was because of something like that book that said, no, all this BS you're listening to,
00:11:48
Speaker
Or people say, no, you got to be a genius. No, you got to be pretty qualified. No, you have to have credentials. No, you don't need any of that. You just need to have an interest and a drive and you can achieve that. Yeah. 1000%. 1000%. Um,
00:12:06
Speaker
You know, about a year ago, I went through a journey. I was 55 at the time, 56 now. And I used to be one of the top fitness trainers in North America. I worked with Olympic champions and I loved it. But I left that field and I got into the world of business coaching and advisory services.
00:12:31
Speaker
And something in my mind shifted and I was not nearly as focused on my health and fitness as I had been when I was a trainer. And over about a dozen years, I put on about 50 plus pounds. And every year I tell myself, this is the year you're gonna turn it around. And I didn't. Every year it got a little bit worse. I got a little heavier. Until I looked myself in the mirror and I saw my belly hanging over my belt. And I was so disgusted that I said, fuck it.
00:13:01
Speaker
no more, this will not be how I look and feel anymore. And I made a decision that I needed a coach because even though I used to be a coach, I wasn't one anymore in this field. And I found somebody who'd had a track record of success with people like me, my age, et cetera, and I hired them.
00:13:25
Speaker
And in the six month period, I went from weighing 227 to weighing 169. So it was a 58 pound drum. Big ass fucking deal. Yeah. And, um,
00:13:40
Speaker
When I did that, I realized how small I'd been playing in so many areas. Now since then, I asked this guy to help get me ready for a competition. So I've put back on about 20 pounds trying to get ready for this competition. I've gotten injuries that I got to overcome. So God's given me a whole bunch more adversities to deal with, but that's cool. It's part of the process that we're going for it. But what I realized, as I said, is how small I've been playing
00:14:08
Speaker
And achieving this type of result showed me that achieving big results in other areas of my life is not only possible, it is what I'm here on this earth to do is to just look at something and push myself harder. And in any event, 2022 and the first half of 2023 business wise were, eh,
00:14:34
Speaker
Not horrible, horrible, but not great. In 2023, especially the first half of it, just income was not where it needed to be. And I just said, I'm going to turn this around. In October, we had a really good month. November, we had a decent month. In December, we had a really good month. January, we had an excellent month. February, we had a good month. And March so far has been a very, very good.
00:15:04
Speaker
And what this showed me, again, was that for me, if I put my focus on something and I do it in the right way with a great coach like Marc von Meuser, you know, not only is he my coach right now, we're working on a couple of projects together, then I can do it.
00:15:29
Speaker
And it sounds to me like you made a decision, you were inspired by something. So walk us through the process of from the moment that you said, okay, I read this book, I'm gonna take this on. How did you go from there to being memory champion and how long did it take?
The Journey to Memory Mastery
00:15:48
Speaker
So I read, yeah, it's a really good question, really important too. It's a journey. 2014, I read the book and I started thinking about dinking around with the techniques
00:15:59
Speaker
learning how to do this. And I thought, okay, I'm going to go to a competition. I'm going to get a certificate, read a search and level, get a goal and call it good and tell everyone how amazing I did. Well, I got my ass kicked in that competition, like completely bombed. I went to the world championship in China after only maybe four to six months of training on my own and just completely couldn't handle the pressure
00:16:27
Speaker
I was using really poor techniques. And so at that point, you can either give up and be like, OK, I tried whatever. And I think a lot of people understand give up. But I thought, no, I'm going to learn from these abysmal because I could feel I could do better. And I really wanted to to ascend. So what you learned, like with the coach, right? I started meeting all these people from all over the world, from Germany, from from Asia, from, you know, like even from Americans, top Americans.
00:16:56
Speaker
And they were teaching me their techniques and where I failed, right? You need someone with insight, with experience to look at you, guide you along and say, hey, correct here, correct here, correct here, right? And then you'll perform. And you listen to those coaches, you listen to those people. There's no different from any other realm. Like I think you try it on your own, you're gonna hit, you're gonna fail. You're gonna get the shit kicked out of you. And I did too. So I took that experience. I trained for a couple more months.
00:17:26
Speaker
And I competed at the U.S. Championship a few months later, and I got seventh place in the country. And I thought, okay, there's something to this, right? From that point on, it took me three years of training to win the national title, okay? In the meantime, I was on TV shows with Mike Tyson. I was still training in the meantime. And actually, to the coaching credit,
00:17:53
Speaker
I took the initiative to reach out to the top because memory has 10 different disciplines. There's words, there's cards, there's numbers, there's names, right? I sought out the best person in the world in each discipline. I looked at all the scores. I said, who's the best in names? Who's the best in cards? Who's the best in words? And I messaged them. I befriended all of them.
00:18:16
Speaker
And not just like neediness, like, hey, help me out, but like, giving some value, helping them to, giving them what they needed, but I developed relationships. And they taught me what they did. They gladly shared their techniques, how they did it, and I started to morph my
00:18:33
Speaker
my own abilities and their techniques to improve in each of the disciplines to really excel. And I thought, I asked the question, if I'm going to win the U.S. Championship, what do I need to be good at? How do I need to be good? What scores do I need in that? That's all I needed. From then I was just training blood, sweat, tears in practice and I reached that three and a half years later.
00:18:59
Speaker
So the entire journey from the moment that you decided to read this book and go down the path to your first national title was how long? Between three and a half and four years. So I just want my listener to really understand
00:19:18
Speaker
why this is an important thing to understand. Because if you are listening to this today, and let's say you're in business, and let's say you're struggling, let's say you're doing, I don't know, 60K, 80K, 100K a year, and you're telling yourself, I wanna make a quarter million, half a million, a million, two million, five million a year,
00:19:41
Speaker
If your expectation is that you're going to have that quantum leap in results in a week, a month, a quarter, you're an idiot. It takes time. It takes time from the time you make the decision to the time you actually start taking the actions to the time those actions bear fruit. It takes time. So we're talking three and a half, four years for you.
00:20:11
Speaker
And most people come in here and they listen to this and they go, why am I not a gazillionaire already? I listened to your podcast yesterday and I made a two phone calls. Why am I not a gazillionaire already? And I think this is an important point for both of us to hammer home for people. You gotta be in it for the long haul. You gotta be in it to win it. It's gotta be from beginning to victory, not from beginning to an artificial timeline.
00:20:41
Speaker
Yeah, you make a decision, you're just in it. You don't even have a timeline. You just say, I'm going to win a championship. I'm going to be a millionaire. And you don't put a cap, a how, you don't figure out the middle part. That's your mindset the whole way. My mindset was, yeah, I'm going to win. It's inevitable. If I keep this up, if I hit my scores, I'm following the best advice in the world. It's just inevitable. I'm not expecting. I think the reason I failed in that first
00:21:11
Speaker
World Championship after training a couple months, cause I had that initial mindset of why am I not a gazillionaire now? Why didn't I hit this? I was trying to be a grand master. I was trying to hit certain scores and I bombed because I was forcing it in the way I thought it would be and it didn't work, right? So I learned from that short term gotta be a gazillionaire mindset to like stepping back and like, no, follow a proven way, follow the best advice in the world and it will be an inevitability.
00:21:40
Speaker
Honestly, that really is what we need to offer to people. For myself, in this journey of now wanting to do a competition, a bodybuilding competition, I started that process, got back in, I think November. It's now March.
00:22:02
Speaker
I went from eating to drop weight to eating to gain weight, to gain muscle. And boy, that was tough. I did not understand how much food I'd need to eat. I just had no conception. And there were days where I'm like, I'm stuffed to the gills. It's 10 o'clock at night and I need to eat another 600 calories worth of food. You know what I mean?
00:22:27
Speaker
And it's like, I don't want to even look at food, but I had to do it. And just a few weeks ago, I injured my shoulder. It's better, but it's by no means ready for prime time. And I've got to find a way to still train. I can't do certain exercises, that's for sure, but I don't get to stop training. You know what I mean? I got to still train, so I'm still training.
00:22:56
Speaker
If you're looking at this, you're listening to this, you're thinking, I'm in business, I'm making whatever you're making and I want to make a million dollars this year. Let's just put that out there because I think for a lot of people, that's a very beguiling number. It's a number that is attractive to people. You have got to say, I want to make a million dollars.
00:23:16
Speaker
and you've got to say, I'm gonna do it over the course of a year and you've gotta be okay that it won't, maybe it won't necessarily be 2024, even 2025 or 2026. But as long as that is the goal and that you are learning what you have to do and who you have to become in order to do that, it'll be inevitable, just like you said, it was for you. You need a North Star mindset. When you're shoving down those,
00:23:42
Speaker
Calories, like you said, the hardest part. You can't be thinking about how miserable it is. You got to remember your North Star. You got to remember the end goal. Right? So same thing. I got to remember when I'm sitting down in training and looking at flashcards of numbers or learning to memorize decks of cards, it's annoying sometimes. But I still have that vision of standing on stage and holding that trophy. Look, I got three of them right there. That's the North Star mindset. I see those. They're good looking trophies, eh? National championships. Nice.
00:24:12
Speaker
nice buddy so every time i'm sitting there training in my mind saying i don't want to do this right now i want to go outside i want to play with my friends i want to like whatever i remember that trophy i remember that moment i want this moment and that's what keeps you in the game right the inevitable moment where you achieve it that's the north star you got to have that north star
00:24:32
Speaker
look up and see it there every time. Otherwise you're gonna make decisions to give up to, oh, this is too hard, right? Cause it is very hard in the middle of it. It's no question. No question. Amen. Well said. Well said. So you became a three-time US national memory champion and then you also
00:25:01
Speaker
went on an entrepreneurial path. Tell us about that journey and what that's been like. Yeah.
Entrepreneurial Trials and Triumphs
00:25:09
Speaker
Same time, 2014 was the fork in the road for me. I went down memory path. I sold everything I owned. My wife was a girlfriend at the time. And I traveled the world. We backpacked around the world. That's where I did my first memory competition. Coming back, we could have lived anywhere. We could have done anything. And I thought, you know what?
00:25:30
Speaker
Of course, I'm gonna have to make money, but I really wanna start a business. And I've tried everything. I've tried websites, I've tried real estate, I've tried everything. And I realized early on, after I failed in my first four businesses, failed to me means I gave up and went on to something else. I thought the problem was the business. I realized the problem was me. Because I personally, and this is where I'll share my struggles, I struggle with anxiety,
00:26:00
Speaker
overwhelm mental paralysis, even developing nasty panic attacks. I was having debilitating panic attacks and we can talk about that too, but the problem wasn't that the businesses weren't working is that I wasn't following through because I was self-sabotaging, right? I was afraid to step out and make certain calls or I was like, and I would make excuses like, oh, this isn't the right business. I'm not aligned to it. Let's do something else. When in fact,
00:26:27
Speaker
I was dealing with this crippling anxiety and procrastinating and knew what I needed to do. We all know we got to pick up the phone or send the email or put ourselves out there, post on social media, but we don't do it, right? So it's not that you need another business course all the time, it's that we need to improve ourselves. So we not just take action, brute force ourselves, but overcome the limitations that are within us.
00:26:55
Speaker
So when I started going after entrepreneurship and working on my own, I had to overcome my own inner demons. Because when you go on a route of entrepreneurship, you're on your own, right? You're on your own at first. And of course, you can have coaches and mentors, but your success depends on your action and your ability to move forward and be decisive. And if you're struggling, your business will struggle. And that was me.
00:27:26
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense, man. That totally makes sense. So once you figured out that you were the bottleneck, how'd you overcome it? You know, I tried brute forcing it at first. Everyone wants to hack their mind and get into a flow state, remove distractions, be productive,
00:27:57
Speaker
And that was sort of my method at first, right? I think everyone kind of tells you, or you kind of hear these people like Tony Robbins and others like, get into a state, jack yourself up, perform, right? And everyone wants to be motivated at all times. And I thought that was the answer. I thought I need some supplements, some nootropics, some meditations, get in the zone, right? And I'll be good. But in fact, it was a performance, right? That's a mass, that's a performative, like pump up state. And we always crash back down to our
00:28:27
Speaker
level of conditioning. So for me, all that mental gymnastics is it only gets you so far. And I'm saying this as a memory champion of a master of the mind, right? Your mind will only get you so far because there's a lot of conditioning that's holding you back subconscious. And there's also a lot of suppressed emotion. People call it trauma, you call it whatever you want that holds you back.
00:28:54
Speaker
So I started going like, what's the real root of this, like the real deep raw root of this, and how do I transcend it?
Conquering Anxiety: A Personal Narrative
00:29:02
Speaker
And once I stopped trying to force my mind to do things or force it to focus or manipulate all these things with my mind, I realized the mind was the issue. And I started to learn how to release control of my mind. A lot of what I teach and what I do now is actually
00:29:20
Speaker
counterintuitive to a lot of the stuff that's being taught today. Because to get to the actual root of anxiety, panic, overwhelm, all of these things, which like to transcend it for good, to release it for good, you got to go deep. You can't just tell your mind to believe something else or affirm something all the time. You have to, number one, release control of your mind, which is very hard for people because we're conditioned to
00:29:51
Speaker
you know, brute force our mind. You have to release control of the mind and get into harmony. And you have to, number two, release all the suppressed emotions that are causing you to pacify or cope or soothe yourself, like to avoid the things that you're needing to do. Cause we all have, we've all pushed away experiences in our life and emotions that are shoved down inside of ourselves, of our body, right? We want that out. We want to express that out.
00:30:21
Speaker
so we can transcend our trauma and we can expand as a human being and we don't have these destructive patterns all the time. So that's the journey I went. I did not want to take Xanax. I did not want to do all these soothing strategies. I wanted to go deep and like get rid of this stuff for good. Yeah, so you did that, you got rid of it. What was the outcome?
00:30:50
Speaker
Well, that'll come some still in progress, right? The biggest thing is no more panic attacks, no more waking up with dread, heavy anxiety in my body, no more tightness in my chest, no more hyperventilating, no more like dizziness, brain fog, all of those things that come with overwhelm, no more shutting down and freezing up. I used to freeze up like a deer in the headlights when I would work or when I would memorize, like it just lock up.
00:31:20
Speaker
Right, so these things that used to limit me are no more. Right, now I'm on to the next thing, but it's still an evolving process. There's still shit in there, there's still conditioning that always prevents us from expanding to our next level. Right on. So tell us, John, about your business. What is it exactly that you do right now? Who do you help?
00:31:52
Speaker
I help high performers transcend and release panic attacks, crippling anxiety for good, like forever. Because that used to be me, right? And people who are high performers, top performers, everyone listening to this, right? That's you, is people wanting to excel in something.
00:32:11
Speaker
If anxiety and panic in the mind and everything is shutting you down, that's an issue, right? There's no business strategy that will help you because you all know what you need to do to get to the next level or the next action. If something internal is causing the issue, we need to transcend that, right? So I help people.
00:32:32
Speaker
Not with mental strategies. The real root of this is emotional. So I help people, number one, get themselves into a regulated state that's mandatory, regulated nervous system, because most of us are always busy, busy. Our minds go, go, go.
00:32:47
Speaker
and anxiety thrives in that state. So we regulate, we have to learn how to release this trapped emotion. Any negative thought or negative emotion, what do you do in that moment? And then the third thing I teach people is something I call catalyst integration. It's where you take, like we're all haunted by the past. We're all haunted by certain things that have happened to us that still trigger us. How do you release those boulders inside of you? So they're not triggering you anymore. They're not haunting anymore. They're not affecting you anymore.
00:33:18
Speaker
and take those and transmute those, right? Integrate those in your life so that you can expand again out of your comfort zone. So those are the, we go deep, like this is real actual work only for people willing to go through and feel through some of their darkest suppressed energies that they've faced, right? But if you're willing to do that, you can transcend that and expand beyond the limits that you currently have in front of you.
00:33:49
Speaker
So if someone's interested in finding out more about you, about the work that you do, get in touch with you, get on your calendar, what's the best way?
Get Help with Anxiety from John Graham
00:33:57
Speaker
Go to releasepanic.com. I've got a program called Released. It's an eight-week method. Really simple on those three strategies I just talked about where I walk through and really guide you in a simple way. Not again a cognitive way, but how do we release control of that conditioning? How do we regulate you so that these panics
00:34:19
Speaker
situations and this visceral anxiety can really literally release from your being right so that you can transform and it's all all the information's there if you have any questions too you can reach out to me john at memoryjohn.com and i'd be happy to answer any personal emails as well okay so say the url one more time release panic.com
00:34:45
Speaker
Good URL. All right, we'll make sure that's
John's Top Action Steps for Growth
00:34:47
Speaker
put in the show notes. So John, we finish every episode by asking you our guest expert for your top three expert action steps. These are your best three pieces of advice in bullet point form that you want my listener to take his life to the next level with. What say you? Number one is to make peace with every single thing that bothers you.
00:35:14
Speaker
Every single thing that bothers you is limiting you, it's triggering you, it's affecting you, it's spiraling you, making peace with that. That's how we release these boulders inside. The second thing, stop blocking your distractions. Stop trying to push away distractions, embrace distractions. Allow everything in. Stop trying to control everything around you.
00:35:43
Speaker
You're going to perform better. And then third thing that comes to my mind, something I teach people is unconditional love. And what that means to me is unconditionally accepting everyone around you. I mean, this goes with my first bullet. Making peace with the people that bother you, making peace with the situations. Having unconditional acceptance allows you to flow with life
00:36:10
Speaker
anything that's brought your way and you become invincible. You know, these are three really good expert action steps. The second one is one I've never heard before. Yeah. And in fact, it goes against everything I know to be true. Exactly. But you're saying embrace distractions.
Mastering Chaos through Training
00:36:28
Speaker
You got to give me some more about that. Yeah, absolutely. I the reason I've won three US memory championships is because I train I call it chaos training.
00:36:39
Speaker
So when all my competitors are at home putting earmuffs on, trying to practice in nice, peaceful settings and memorize, I do the opposite. I will get down, I will drop down, do 20 pushups, holding my breath really quickly. I'll put a podcast in my ear, one that I really want to listen to, blast it on full volume, and then get up and try to memorize something. Like try to memorize my deck of cards or my numbers or whatever I'm practicing on to produce chaos.
00:37:09
Speaker
Because when I'm in that moment, on stage, there's pressure. And if I'm training for conditions that are harder than the event, then the event's easy. Every single time I've won the championship in the final event, I've been like, I'm so glad I trained in this chaos. I'm so glad I even trained with my toddler daughters trying to pull the cards out of my hands in front of them.
00:37:32
Speaker
Because I embrace the pains in my body, I embrace the heart rate, I embrace the noise, I embrace it all that allows me to live in that moment instead of trying to, oh shit, force that voice away, force that away, force that away, block that out. Because that's more control and more effort.
00:37:52
Speaker
Look, you said a lot of smart things. That's the best thing you've said all podcast. And I'm just gonna tell you, as the man who's the world's greatest podcast guest and I teach people how to guest, you wanna lead with this next time, not end with this. This is fucking brilliant. I've never heard this. I've interviewed the smartest people in the world. They call me the Napoleon Hill of the modern age because I literally have interviewed the smartest, most accomplished people in the fucking world.
00:38:20
Speaker
Nobody has ever said this. Nobody. This is your zone of genius. This is what's going to make you $10 million a year. If you listen to me and this is what you lead your podcast with, you're going to call every episode you go on chaos training. I won three memory championships. That's how you're going to do it because all that other stuff is great, but it's terrible marketing. This is brilliant marketing. Well done.
00:38:43
Speaker
I've got a whole podcast on the chaos training, a whole podcast on that too. So it's out there for you if you're interested more.
00:38:52
Speaker
Well, absolutely. I'll check it out. But, you know, that was that was a great way to pique my interest right at the end. God bless you, man. Well done. John Graham, thanks for coming on the show, brother. It was awesome, man. Thank you, Mickey. Appreciate you. Yeah, you bet. And that wraps up another exciting episode, the podcast, the Thought Leader Revolution to find out more about today's incredible guest.
00:39:16
Speaker
chaos training champion of memory himself, the one and only John Graham. Go to the show notes at thethoughtleaderrevolution.com or check it out at wherever you happen to listen to this episode, be it iTunes, Spotify, Audible, Google Play, YouTube, Rumble, or what have you. Until next time, goodbye.
00:39:41
Speaker
This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.