Transcription
Brian Johnson just sat down with me to share his three-step plan to obtain limitless energy whilst building your dream business. Brian has spent over $4 million decoding the human body, becoming the most researched human in history, all while scaling multi-million dollar businesses. In this episode, he breaks down how optimizing your health is the ultimate cheat code for entrepreneurial success.
Sleep is the most powerful performance enhancing drug in the entire world. So this is an important thing because right now most of society does not think of themselves as a professional sleeper. They sleep when they have time. They sleep when they want to. They sleep when they're done with watching the movie. They sleep when whenever like when they're done with their homework.
Okay. So uh the way you're going to do this uh one you're going to optimize for your resting heart rate. Do you have a wearable? >> Yep. >> Okay. Before you go to bed tonight. So, lay down in your bed on your pillow, pull up your phone, and then look at your live resting heart rate. Okay? Take a few breaths, >> calm yourself down. Let's just say it's 60 beats per minute, >> your goal over the next week or two weeks or month is to lower your resting heart rate to 55 or 50. Now, what you're going to see is as you lower your heart rate, your sleep quality is going to improve. >> Oh, really? >> So, here's what you're going going to do to lower your resting heart rate. Two is eat your final meal at least 2 hours before bed. >> So if your bedtime is at 10 p.m. then your last meal of the day will be at 8:00 p.m. And if you do that, it gives your body some time to digest. >> I've been doing this 3 hours before. I have been doing this. >> Your bedtime is when? >> Well, depends. So I've just traveled here. The time difference caused me a bit of confusion, but normally around 10:30, 11. >> And so do you have your final meal around 7:00? >> Exactly. >> Great. So have you tried earlier? >> If I can eat at 5. >> Yeah, I I prefer it. I'm a little bit hungry when I go to bed, but I sleep better. >> Exactly. >> The earlier I eat, the better. >> Exactly. That's exactly right. So, you've experienced it. So, the earlier you eat and the lighter you eat, >> the better you'll sleep. And then, uh, next to lower your resting heart rate is a windown routine. So, this is at the end of the day, you are cycling through all the stress of the day. So, you're thinking on set today, you said something that we were embarrassed by or you were mad at someone or someone did something to wrong you or like whatever the case may be. You're cycling through all these thoughts and your head is the pillow. And if you haven't processed those, what happens? >> Well, you just play on your mind. Keep your mind active. >> Just rolls, right? It rolls. >> I had that last night. Exactly. >> Yeah. You were cycling. Cool. So, the goal is to basically take those thoughts and you have to somehow put them to bed themselves. They have to be at rest. So, I do this routine where I talk to myself. >> I give myself various character names. So, I identify with ambitious Brian. He's always the first guy to show up. So, my bedtime hunt's at 8:30 p.m. So, at 7:30 p.m., I say, "Okay, sleep Brian is now in charge." And the first person to show up is Ambitious Brian, >> right? >> And he says, "Guys, I've got a new idea." >> It's It is spectacular. Like, it is absolutely phenomenal. >> I know Ambitious Brian quite well. >> Yeah. And so, Eden Brian says, "Ambitious Brian, we love you. You're doing a great job." >> Yeah. >> We are now in sleep prep mode. So, we're going to write down your idea and then tomorrow we're going to think about this new idea. And ambitious Brian says, "Are you sure?" And then, and sleep Brian says, "Yeah, we got it. You sure?" >> So, then he goes away and the next person to come up is anxious Brian. And he says, "Today in that conversation, you said something that was probably offensive and very shortsighted and now they probably really hate you." And so, sleep Brian says, "Anxious Brian, thank you for bringing that to our attention." Increasing self-awareness is very helpful. But going through this process and that way by writing down all the various Brians and their needs, whether new ideas or whether concerns or whether it makes case upset, by the time my head is a pillow, if I've reconciled, I will be out in 2 minutes. When you go through your wind down routine, you're trying to calm your body down, >> including resolving your internal conflicts. You can also do things, this is my favorite, read a book, like hold a book in your hand and read it before bed. That is my number one move for calming myself down. So if you remember this, so you now end up approach this, you are a professional sleeper. You take that very seriously. You now have a measurement or a metric to say if you lower your heart rate, your sleep is going to go up. And to do that, you're going to eat earlier and lighter. You're going to have a windown routine uh to calm yourself down. You're going to have red or amber light. So at 7:30 p.m., I try to turn all screens off. And then we just have a red light in the house. So screens and blue light are going to make your melatonin not be produced, which will make it harder to go to sleep. So turn screens off, have red and amber light in your house. And then be consistent. I'm going to write plus or minus 30 minutes. So I I recorded the best sleep score in history. I did eight months of perfect sleep using Whoop. 100% per night. Great night. Eight months. So yeah, when I was doing that, I was in bed of 8:30 p.m. around a few minutes every night. I didn't actually look at the data, but it like I tried to be in bed like plus or minus a minute. It was very very tight. >> What time you getting up? >> Uh 4:30. >> 4:30. Yeah. >> So if you look at these all these things, what you're basically saying is the world is a very hard place. >> It's hard to be human. >> Mhm. >> And we experience a lot of angst and consternation on a daily basis. The single best thing anybody can do for their mental well-being, their physical well-being, for their emotional resilience, for their performance at school, the performance at work, everything is sleep. >> How many hours of sleep would you think is optimal? >> 7 to eight. >> I listen to this as, you know, a 50-year-old rich guy, and I think I can easily do this. I I'm I'm half doing already. >> Um I'm not consistent travel, blah blah blah. There's lots of reasons, but >> I just think that the audience, 50% of the population just like they're working a second job in the evening. How can we help people get to this stage when they can't even afford to like do any of this?
So, for for those of you who are working two jobs and have constrained time, what happens if if two jobs are being worked, then the person comes home and let's just say you're feeling stressed that you've been working all day, you want some alone time. So, let's say you pull up your phone, you want to scroll, you turn, you know, the TV on, you have something you're watching, and then like you want to eat some food. And what happens to doing that is doing all of those things makes sleep worse. >> So and then you're more tired the next day. >> Exactly. So this this is what I would say to my 21-year-old self, right? And I was in that situation. I had no money. So I grew up poor. My mom made my clothes for me. I was dead poor until the age of 34. Nothing. Like so I know what this is like. You're working uh every second every day. I had babies. So I was like up at night sleeping and not sleeping till the kids were up. So I understand it is a grind to do these things. So what I'm saying is if I could travel in time and I could coach myself, I would say to myself, sleep is nonnegotiable. >> You can't push through not getting sleep. And working an extra two or two or three hours a day trying to be more successful is not worth it. It is it is a foolish endeavor. >> Does it matter if you go to bed at 8:00 and get up at 4:30 or go to bed at 11:00 and wake up at 7:00? Just choose your >> your routine. Choose your routine and just be consistent.
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Okay, so you're a professional sleeper. Anyone listening now? You're a professional sleeper. So, let's say people are doing this. What else do you think people should do? >> Back at zero. So, exercise every single day. You can pick the thing you want to do. Basketball, Pilates, yoga, running, walking, weightlifting. Pick your thing. just be active every single day. You want to spend uh roughly 150 minutes per week in uh zone two. That's like uh when you and I are walking together and >> 130. >> Yeah, exactly. >> We can maintain a conversation and uh we're not like we can still exercise and then 90 minutes a week in zone five, >> right? >> That's where you can't speak because you're working out so hard. >> So this this is walking. Zone two is walking. Uh proper little jog. Maybe zone five would be running, doing proper exercise, football, you know, moving around for us. >> Now, if these seem excessive to you, that's okay. Just be active every single day. >> The thing that is good about this is if you're in a habit of doing something every day, if you don't go, if going to the gym is a lot of work, go for a walk. Maybe during a phone call, walk during your phone call or during lunch, go for a walk. >> But just have a goal of doing that every single day. It's a good habit. Then nutrition. Now, this is really important because only after you've mastered sleep and exercise is nutrition on point because we did a study at my my brain interface company, Colonel, where we measured my willpower after a bad night's sleep of deep sleep and after a good night's sleep. So, deep sleep is the first sleep window that opens up after you go to sleep. You fall asleep, you drop into the deep sleep first. You come back up and you do REM. Deep sleep is like when the trash collector comes to the body and picks up the trash. If you miss your deep sleep window, you can't make it back. So, this is the idea that if if someone's normal bedtime is 10 p.m. and then they go to bed at 1:00, they say, "Oh, I'll just sleep until 9." It doesn't work that way. You've you've missed your deep sleep window. Now, if you miss that deep sleep window, what happens the next day when it arrives and 7:00 p.m. arrives, you're going to crave junk food, bad food. >> And that happens to me. >> Yeah. And the likelihood that you're going to resist it is very low because your willpower is dramatically lower. So this goes back to the example somebody has two jobs. They come home, they're on time for themselves. They scroll. They watch something. They eat some snacks. That raises their heart rate. It lessens their sleep quality. It lowers their willpower. So the next day when they come home, they're even more tired. They have even less willpower. So they snack even more. Now you're putting on weight. You don't feel like exercising because you don't feel good. Right? So it has this vicious cycle. This is why being a professional sleeper is so important. It sets the foundation for all things. If you sleep well, you feel well. If you feel well, you exercise. If you exercise, you're going to eat well in nutrition. So, you have to get yourself in the positive feedback loop. There's a death spiral that begins with bad sleep. >> You eat one meal a day, don't you? >> I eat three. >> So, three meals a day. But nutrition wise, is there any any quick guides on that for people listening? >> Yeah. So, actually, I'll just give you we have a plate that we've designed. Yeah. >> Of the foods that are best for longevity? >> Okay, we'll just chuck it up on the screen now. You can have a look. flip screen. So that is we basically went through all the scientific evidence. We said which foods have the best evidence for health and longevity. Okay. >> And so that's the selection. >> And you eat breakfast, then you must eat again, and then lunch, and then nothing. >> Yep. And so I eat I personally eat 2,250 calories a day. My 130 g of protein. Some people I know will eat like 250 g of protein a day. Uh there's like this idea that you need a lot, but most people consume uh too much protein. And then two is measurement. So over the past couple years, I've become the most measured person in human history. There's more data on my body than any human that's ever existed. Measurement is an absolute superpower. >> And so people are often times trying to assess how am I doing? Is this therapy working? Is this food good for me? The best thing you can do is measurement. And to measure, you want to do that basic blood panel. >> I just did this one. I did a blood test because I was taking vitamins. I did a blood test. I've taken the wrong vitamins. >> You think you know what you need and then your blood tells you what you actually need. >> Exactly. So listen to the body. So at Blueprint, you can go to our blueprint website. We have blood panels that are low cost and they give you more markers. They give you 117 markers. You just can't get it from your doctor. If you go to your doctor, it's a hassle. You have to persuade them. They can't really do it. There's a limited set. So get a panel uh blueprint that's 117 markers and that will give you a great baseline of >> expensive to do this. How much is it? >> Uh I think it's 350 I think. Yeah. To be clear this like with my incentives I arguably have the best biomarkers of anybody in the entire world which is a pretty amazing thing when you think about it >> considering how much technology is meant to be out there. Yeah. >> And so I've shared this and I share everything I do with everybody. And so I share it for free >> so anybody can do what I do. This is one of the reason I really love what you're doing because you've based it on scientific information on your own body and understanding the body. >> Yes. These things are based upon population level evidence. So a lot of people say, "Oh, but Brian, that's you and your body. My body's different." This stuff is based upon population level evidence. So it's as applicable to me as it is to someone else.
Three is a realization that we have a culture of die. So if you think about the things we do on a daily basis, uh what is in our society? We celebrate die. You know, it's like when your birthday comes around and you're celebrating life, what do you do? >> Think about when you're going to die. >> Well, you have a sugar fil cake. >> My birthday's coming up. My birthday is next week. So I'm think you're right. We we eat crap. >> So just realize that basically our 2025 culture is trying to kill you. >> Yeah. So when you're >> patched it up as fun. >> Exactly. We >> big lie. >> It's a It's a gigantic lie. All of our all of our cultural norms like you do a good job, you celebrate some big win at work, you go out and get drunk and like lessen your life. Birthdays, you fill yourself full of sugar. So just if you start looking around, you're going to realize like it feels funny. U you walk down the street and everywhere you go, it's like fast food, you know, people starting sugar. >> I think people resign to it. I'm going to die. I might as well enjoy myself until I die. Yeah. >> And that goes back to our previous conversation. This is why like it's very hard to understand these ideas. When you realize we are the first generation who won't die, it changes your outlook on everything. >> Like now you see a fast food joint. >> That's for like primitive people who didn't realize that we are the first generation won't die. >> So we are a new species and that's why it's a really big disruption how we think. >> A lot of people listening to this will be eating in and out and five guys on these. It's very hard to change habits, isn't it? I think that's what it is if you're already in that habit. Yeah. >> And a lot of 21 year olds are in that habit already that you know like you say at college and stuff you know >> let's do this. So none is better than some. >> So my challenge to each one of you don't eat fast food ever. No cheat days. No one off. Don't eat it >> because when you say every once in a while it never is once in a while. >> Cheat days become cheat weeks. Cheat weeks become cheat months. Cheat months become cheat years. And so embrace this idea that we are evolving into a new species. We are the first generation who will not die. We're giving birth to super intelligence. This is the most spectacular moment in this part of the galaxy. It's an extraordinary opportunity. Don't waste it by eating junk food, by drinking, by smoking. Go to bed on time. Take care of your health. Like this is an epic opportunity to be human. The most epic in our history right now. Think of everybody in your life. Is there anybody in your life or your viewers's life that is encouraging you to not die? Like like wholesale wholesale don't die. Like don't do anything >> even the ones that love you still give you the the junk in your life. And yeah I I that's that's a really interesting point. >> Anybody love you and they don't they don't do anything. >> Is there any human on planet Earth >> you >> that I'm you such a weird situation. It >> is. It is. It's crazy. >> No one's no one's talking about it. It's crazy. Everyone else is just like they're trying to show you their love by helping you die. >> I want as a successful business person that you are I want to build a financial model around making this happen because I think what I like what you just said there. Okay. So they can have chicken just don't have the fries. In fact, they're saving money. Yes. >> Right. So what else can what else can people do to financially be able to live this way? So my short-term hack is start a side hustle. A business that buys back time. So, if you're selling something online, like Tik Tok shop now is actually amazing. I can leave my Tik Tok shop running all day and in the morning I can wake up and I've sold a load of stuff. I've got money coming in. I can afford to like eat well and spend the day, you know. Is there anything that jumps into your mind when you go back to your younger self? >> Yeah. >> You know, you were like a lot of young people, you wanted to make money and you know, you built a company up, you sold it for 800 million, you know, and you built you built this incredible brand. What would young people do today? They're going to copy that right now. By the way, that's that's that's the blueprint they have. The the principle I've always worked with is I didn't want to trade my time for money. >> Yep. That's what I should teach you at school. You can't get time back. >> Exactly. So in college, I thought, okay, I can I can get a job in college. I can make $11.50 to do a given job. If I work, you know, 10 hours a week, I get that, you know, that much money. I thought I don't think I want to trade my time for money. I want to invest in something where I can determine the value of what I do. And so I basically made the gamble. Like entrepreneurship is the gamble that if you work for nothing for some duration of time, >> but there's a big payout over time. From when I started Brainree to when I sold it, I forget the actual math, but it was something like I made the equivalent of like uh $15,000 per hour around the clock >> from the time you started it. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Exactly. Now, now if you realize like if you're an entrepreneur and you're doing that, you realize that that 60 minutes you just spent, you just got paid $10,000 for that 60 60 minutes. >> That's mind-blowing. But you can do that. You just have to realize that you're trading time to build on this bigger outcome. Well, that's it's basically equity in something. Yes. Isn't it that simple? Cuz I mean, I think a lot of people are selling an hour and which you can't get back. Whereas what we're talking about that one of my basic principles for what I try to share with people is like buy time don't sell time. >> Yes. >> Which I think very related to what you're talking we can buy time by eating better. >> Yes. >> Right. We can we can get back time the most valuable thing by having more time if we look after our sleep and our nutrition. My argument is like as well like can you build something where eventually like your son for example who's clearly very smart. If I was him I would drop out of university and I'd be build something maybe an AI advisory service. I don't know something that can last 5 10 years maybe that has some value as an equity item and yes for the first few years he probably won't earn a lot of money from it but he doesn't have will have to worry because he can live with you >> so if someone's listening and they can live with their parents and build something out that isn't selling time do you think that's still a good bit of advice for today despite our kind of slightly scary future >> it is like equity is good also like if you build something via software you build a software application >> and then you build it once but you can sell it a million times that's the appeal of software now you have to update it up keep it like improve it but you're still you're building something once you're selling it some n number of times. >> And so versus if you uh like are washing windows or walking dogs, you're constrained to only doing that thing. >> Right. You can only make money by walking the dog. You can't walk 300 dogs at the same time. >> Such a good point. Yeah. >> So, you're always trying to scale the value of your time. >> Well, one way to do it now on the modern I think social media is totally underrated. A lot of people a bit like we're talking about with nutrition and sleep. Um also social media has given this very bad rat as a negative thing. I actually think it's a liberator. >> So if you're dog walking and you go live on TikTok and you video it, you might then put the video up, that video can make money while you're not walking the dog. >> Exactly. >> So the walking the dog was just a byproduct of how you make money. >> Exactly. >> And I think I worry about building software products now cuz I think um AI is going to replace that quite quickly. All the SAS businesses are going to get wiped out. >> I think personal brand is quite a big opportunity for people. You can have small following and build, you know, quite a nice income stream from it. Again, you post a video, it go I got a video up I put up a year ago. It's a business video. How to do business. 10 million views. In the last 30 days, it's made 35,000 US. We made it a year ago. >> Yeah. >> Any anything else you think? I mean, tech businesses still of course are very big. Any other If you were trying to make money 21 years old now, what would you >> Yeah. So, I I would equate this money thing with health. I mean, right now the grand prize in society is money. And I'm saying right now the grand prize is shifting to become life extension because the more time you have the more things you can do that you enjoy money you can make uh like money compounds over time is one of people have always assumed if death has always been inevitable when that's inevitable >> people then say like okay in my short period of time I want to maximize wealth creation if I do that status power of wealth and cars and homes and whatever the case may be And I'm saying that you you can do those things. Certainly. Very cool. Also, I'm trying to be a voice of wisdom that the world is moving so fast, you'll need to be adaptable to how things change. Like you have ideas now what you're going to do. Maybe you start doing that today. In 3 months, like we said, maybe that's no longer possible because AI is now doing it. So now you have to redo your entire plan. So as you like try your different iterations of what to do and deal with this changing world, the best thing to do is have your sleep in place, exercise in place, nutrition in place, then you'll have the emotional resilience because there's there's nobody in the world right now, nobody that can give somebody advice on what to do. And if I were to try to suggest I do like do this or do that, nobody knows. And so the the wisdom is realizing that nobody knows. Don't listen to them. Like you really we're in an unknown landscape and that's true for everybody. I what I really like about this is is as well it's like what can you control? Well, you can control your own body. Yes, >> you can control your own well-being. That should never change. In fact, hopefully technology can only help you do that better, especially with the pioneering work that you're doing, being able to measure your biomarkers and understand yourself. I think I think the I I want to help your mission like it is exploding, but I want to I want to amplify it. And what I'm what I'm seeing at the base level is that people don't necessarily want to live longer. >> Yes. >> So it's a problem they don't think they need solving because they're like, well, if I live to 70, that'll be all right. And you know, a lot of people in their 80s like, I'm in pain. Do I want to keep on living? But of course, if they're better, they probably wouldn't be as much pain. >> I think the the the reason that this 21year-old's not going to do it is because I don't think we've taught them how to buy time. I think buying time is just as important as extending the amount of time you've got. So maybe there's something we can think of there together cuz I I again I give you a copy of my book and you can see where I'm going with this. >> People can't buy time right now. They're selling time. And if they're selling time, they value their life less. >> Yes. >> Cuz they're in slavery. Basically the modern day slaves. A lot of people they have to do the job. The rent's so high cuz the property companies own everything. They can't afford the rent. They can't afford to buy. Then they they're basically having to pay food. They can't afford. And we're talking junk food most of the time. Electricity bills are too high. People are literally doing two jobs just to survive. >> Yeah. >> And again, I've been there. You've been there. So, so I I I just go back to that younger us and I think what can we do to help people get out of fight or flight so they can think about this stuff that you're talking about? >> Yes, that's true. People are in this loop. And what I'm trying to point out is that there's probably no one in their lives, no one, who's telling them that the best thing they can do for themselves is to make their health their number one priority. >> Don't do die. It is bad for you. It's going to make you a lesser human. You're going to have less willpower. You'll be more cloudy in the mind. There's just nothing virtuous about it. And so that's one take-home message is like I let me be on your shoulder encouraging you to don't do those things and adopt your positive habits. Like that that really is the yield. And like you can go survey the world of everyone's advice on what business to build and like everybody's got good ideas. There's nothing I'm going to say that's unique. What what I am unique at is I'm going to tell you I'm going to be your best advocate that making your health your top priority is the highest yield investment you can make with your time. >> I feel quite emotional about this. I think I I really hope people listen and I will join you in this battle and share this story. Um, because I think at least people have control over their own body. It's a great start to having control over your own life. >> And in many ways like it's very hard to wrestle control in your daily life. Like you've got a job, >> you've got a manager, you've got a boss, you have all these things happen to you, >> but you can control your own body. >> Yeah. >> And so it really does help people wrestle control. >> Thank you for sharing this knowledge today. It's an important message and I hope you guys got value. Um, there's links down below. You can go check out the blueprint that Brian Johnson and his team have built. Listen to this carefully. Learn. We're off to have 130 g worth of chicken protein now. We'll see you later.