Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 86

The Secrets of Gymnastic Strength Training

This is what a GST athlete looks like.

“If the best in the world are stretching their ass off in order to get strong, why aren’t you?” – Christopher Sommer

If you loved the Pavel, Poliquin, or Dom D’Agostino episodes, you’ll love this one.

My guest this episode is Christopher Sommer (GymnasticBodies on Instagram/Facebook), former US national team gymnastics coach. He is also the founder of GymnasticBodies, a training system that I’m currently testing (and have no affiliation with). As a world-renowned Olympic coach, Sommer is known for building his students into some of the strongest, most powerful athletes in the world.

During his extensive 40-year coaching career, Coach Sommer took meticulous notes on his training techniques—his wins and failures—so that he could translate the best elements into a superior exercise system for both high-level and beginner athletes. His four decades of careful observation led to the birth of Gymnastics Strength Training™ (or GST).

In this episode, we cover A TON, including:

The 3-5 exercises everyone should be doing (you’ve never heard of some of them)
His opinions of kipping exercises, such as the kipping pull-ups common in CrossFit
What bodyweight goals non-gymnasts should target
Which exercises to remove from the gym entirely, at least in the first 6-12 months of training
How to optimize biceps strength and mass with straight-arm work
And much, much more…

I also asked Coach Sommer to gather some interesting stuff (samples, videos, etc.) at gymnasticbodies.com/tim, so take a gander. I don’t get any compensation for any of it; I just want people to consider more bodyweight training. I’ve found it revelatory and mind-expanding.

If you want some quick training tips, here are Coach Sommer’s mobility movements that will increase strength.

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast on fitness and training from a world-class coach? — Listen to my conversation with Pavel Tsatsouline. In this episode, we discuss the science of strength and the art of physical performance (stream below or right-click here to download):

This episode is brought to you by Headspace, the world’s most popular meditation app (more than 4,000,000 users).  It’s used in more than 150 countries, and many of my closest friends swear by it.  Try Headspace’s free Take10 program —  10 minutes of guided meditation a day for 10 days. It’s like a warm bath for your mind. Meditation doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive, and it’s had a huge impact on my life. Try Headspace for free for a few days and see what I mean.

This episode is also brought to you by Exo Protein. These guys are making protein bars using cricket protein powder. Before you look disgusted, I bet they taste better than any protein bar you’ve ever had before! With recipes that were developed by a three-Michelin-star chef, the bars are paleo-friendly, with no gluten, no grains, no soy, no dairy, and they won’t spike your glycemic response. In fact, they’re less processed than any other protein bars you’ll be able to find.

Exo Protein is offering a deep discount to Tim Ferriss Show listeners — if you go to ExoProtein.com/Tim, you can try a sampler pack with all of the most popular flavors for less than $10. This is a startup with limited inventory that sells out all the time, so act fast!

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: Which of Coach Sommer’s tips or exercises would you like to learn more about? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Learn more about Paradiso CrossFit
Learn more about Awaken Adult Gymnastics in Denver, Colorado
Listen to my conversation with Amelia Boone
Watch Allan Bower on the still rings
Learn more about Forma GST in the UK
Learn more about Robb Wolf
Listen to my interview with Paul Levesque (AKA Triple H)
Listen to my podcast with Tony Robbins
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
Learn more about probiotics: Klaire probiotics | VSL3
Connect with Coach Sommer

GymnasticBodies.com | Instagram | Facebook

Show Notes

How to define Gymnastics Strength Training™ (GST) [7:54]
Types of strength that most non-gymnasts will not have [12:55]
Biggest mistakes made by those who self-teach handstands [16:30]
Top exercises for identifying weaknesses in strength and mobility [22:12]
The problem of focusing on muscular fatigue when training [35:07]
What is a pike pulse and why does it matter [44:26]
On kipping pull-ups [46:19]
Identifying solutions to pain [54:08]
The Jefferson curl [58:27]
Why weighted mobility work needs to be approached with a different level of intensity than conditioning work [1:03:31]
If someone is 35-years-old, a former athlete and never done gymnastics, what’s a good exercise and what should be avoided? [1:09:04]
3-5 joint mobility exercises for getting strong [1:14:52]
Preferred way to work on shoulder extension [1:21:37]
A good goal for those seeking to improve mobility [1:27:30]
Yoga handstands vs gymnastics handstands (aesthetics vs. gold medals) [1:30:34]
Who are some of the coaches who have impressed you the most? [1:37:39]
The story of Dmitry Bilozerchev and Alexander Alexandrov [1:38:01]
Differentiating immature athletes and mature athletes [1:47:05]
Training for success [1:50:34]
Describing the systematic approach to gymnastics strength training [1:53:41]
What exercises to avoid for the first 6 months of GST [2:02:11]
Breaking down the muscle-up [2:05:34]
Understanding the purpose of using various grips [2:10:27]
How do you mentally prep your athletes for a big competition? [2:18:49]
What questions would Coach Sommer ask a gymnastic coach before sending his/her children off to train with them [2:29:38]
What questions would Coach Sommer ask a gymnastic coach who trains adults? [2:34:24]
Balancing stretching and training time [2:37:19]
When you think of the word successful, who is the first person to come to mind and why? [2:42:36]
Most gifted books [2:48:56]
Morning rituals [2:52:05]
What would you put on a billboard? [2:56:41]
An ask or a request for the audience [3:02:41]

People Mentioned

Greg Glassman
Allan Bower
Dmitry Klokov
Dmitry Bilozerchev
Ivan Ivankov
Archilochus
Tony Robbins
Yuri van Gelder

The Importance of Being Dirty: Lessons from Mike Rowe

Photo credit: Michael Segal

“Just because you love something doesn’t mean you can’t suck at it.” – Mike Rowe

Mike Rowe (@mikeroweworks) is perhaps the best storyteller and pitchman I’ve ever had on the show.

You might know Mike from his eight seasons of Dirty Jobs, but that’s just a tiny piece of the story.

His performing career began in 1984 when he faked his way into the Baltimore Opera to get his union card and meet girls, both of which he accomplished during a performance of Rigoletto. His transition to television occurred in 1990 when — to settle a bet — he auditioned for the QVC Shopping Channel and was promptly hired after talking about a pencil for nearly eight minutes. There, he worked the graveyard shift for three years, until he was ultimately fired for making fun of products and belittling viewers.  Now, he is a massively successful TV host, writer, narrator, producer, actor, and spokesman.

Why listen to this episode? You will learn:

Secrets of the perfect pitch


How Mike flew around the world for free (until he got caught)


Why to pursue opportunity instead of passion


How being different can help you win in business and life

The business of Mike Rowe
Favorite books, voice-over artists, and much, much more…

If you’re in a rush and just want a fantastic 5-minute story about his selling pencils for the QVC audition, click here.

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast from someone transforming the way we enjoy modern storytelling? — Listen to my conversation with Dan Carlin of Hardcore History. In this episode, we discuss his meditation practice, morning routines, and creative process (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Audible. I have used Audible for years and I love audio books. I have two to recommend:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

All you need to do to get your free 30-day Audible trial is go to Audible.com/Tim. Choose one of the above books, or choose between more than 180,000 audio programs. That could be a book, a newspaper, a magazine, or even a class. It’s that easy. Go to Audible.com/Tim and get started today. Enjoy!

This podcast is also brought to you by MeUndies. Have you ever wanted to be as powerful as a mullet-wearing ninja from the 1980’s, or as sleek as a black panther in the Amazon? Of course you have, and that’s where MeUndies comes in. I’ve spent the last six months wearing underwear from these guys 24/7, and they are the most comfortable and colorful underwear I’ve ever owned. Their materials are 2x softer than cotton, as evaluated using the Kawabata method. Check out MeUndies.com/Tim to see my current faves (some are awesomely ridiculous, like the camo).

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What did you do after high school? How do you feel that decision impacted your life? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Five Complete Travis McGee Novels by John D. MacDonald
A Curious Discovery by John Hendricks
The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
Dune by Frank Herbert
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
A Walk in the Woods, The Lost Continent, At Home and In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Levels of the Game and Giving Good Weight by John McPhee
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (on Audible)
About Face by Colonel David Hackworth and Julie Sherman
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
The Baron In The Trees by Italo Calvino
Listen to Dan Carlin’s Wrath of the Khans or Blueprint for Armageddon I
Learn more about Samasource
Listen to Mike Rowe’s Podcast:

iTunes | Stitcher | Google Play

Connect with Mike Rowe:

MikeRowe.com | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Foundation

Show Notes

Dirty Jobs and the surprising respectability of biting the balls off a sheep [7:22]
Developing the skill of impromptu performance [15:40]
How Mike Rowe started working at QVC [18:30]
Describing the QVC audition process and selling a pencil [21:00]
The distinguishing characteristics of the best sellers on QVC [24:12]
How Mike Rowe was fired from QVC three times [29:18]
American Airlines and unlimited access to first class travel  [32:57]
On being a sanguine freelancer from the age of 28 to 42 [39:24]
When hubris led to a change [42:44]
On selling Dirty Jobs to Discovery and the authenticity critical to the show’s success [46:22]
Constraints, antagonists, and parameters for creative projects [57:06]
The Ford project [1:00:31]
Pursuing opportunities when you’re not passionate about the projects [1:02:41]
Daily practices or morning rituals [1:07:27]
Procrastination and managing distractions [1:09:38]
Most gifted books [1:13:34]
Most astonishing narration work [1:24:16]
While William Shatner was always ahead of his time [1:29:06]
Why do great storytellers find it hard to tell their own stories [1:33:07]
On starting “The Way I Heard It,” Mike Rowe’s podcast [1:39:22]
When you think of the word “successful,” who is the first person who comes to mind and why? [1:50:02]
If you could have a billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say? [1:50:55]
If you could have every high-school graduate in the US read/watch/consume 2-3 things, what would you prescribe? [1:55:41]
Advice to your 30-year-old self [2:10:56]

People Mentioned

Jeff Corwin
John Hendricks
Morgan Freeman
James Earl Jones
Peter Coyote
Ray Donovan
Liev Schreiber
Sally Kellerman
Orson Welles
William “Bill” Shatner
Paul Harvey
Ira Glass
Bruno Mars

Joshua Skenes — Playing with Fire

Photo: The Chronicle

“The answer is either yes or no. If it’s ‘no,’ then I have to start over.” – Joshua Skenes

Joshua Skenes (IG: @jskenes) has become famous for his use of fire.

As chef-owner of Saison in San Francisco (three Michelin stars), he has classical training and loves his high-end Japanese Nenohi knives, but nothing captures his imagination quite like the open flame. The back of his business card sports three words, stark on ivory stock:

Play with fire.

In this episode, we explore his obsessions: simplicity, food, and martial arts.

We became friends during the collaboration of The 4-Hour Chef, and this was a long overdue catch-up.  Enjoy!

If you only have five minutes, listen to how he dealt with a last-minute catastrophe involving a sewage water flood.

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast where I discuss food with a world-class chef? — Listen to my conversation with Andrew Zimmern. In this episode, we discuss his meditation practice, morning routines, and creative process (stream below or right-click here to download):

This episode is brought to you by Headspace, the world’s most popular meditation app (more than 4,000,000 users).  It’s used in more than 150 countries, and many of my closest friends swear by it.  Try Headspace’s free Take10 program —  10 minutes of guided meditation a day for 10 days. It’s like a warm bath for your mind. Meditation doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive, and it’s had a huge impact on my life. Try Headspace for free for a few days and see what I mean.

This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I’ve also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you’re happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What questions about food or nutrition would you like me to cover in future podcast episodes or blog posts? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Enjoy!

Selected Links from the Episode

Check out Nenohi Knives
Learn more about Tang Soo Do and Baguazhang
Watch Meat Eater with Steve Rinella
Learn more about Kam Lee 
Watch Chef’s Table (Francis Mallmann Trailer)
Seven Fires by Francis Mallmann
The Mission Chinese Food by Danny Bowien and Chris Ying
Escape to River Cottage
Cocktail Techniques by Kazuo Uyeda
12 Gems of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Learn more about Cliff Hodges and survival skills
9 Tricks for Getting a VIP Table
Connect with Joshua Skenes:

Saison | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

Show Notes

What does the back of your business card currently say? [5:08]
Earliest memories of martial arts combined with cooking [6:22]
How do you use fire and why do you use it? [9:15]
Defining freshness in food [10:57]
On hunting, becoming a vegan, and returning to meat [13:05]
On studying bagua [18:19]
The impact of martial arts on Joshua Skenes’s cooking [22:53]
On reducing and simplifying [25:29]
What do you say to yourself when you get good or bad reviews? [29:08]
Describing the most exciting developments in cooking now [31:00]
Joshua Skenes’s biggest influences or mentors [33:46]
Starting Saison, the toughest times and catastrophe management [37:07]
Training and prep-talk for new members of the Saison staff [45:30]
The subway story [49:03]
Thoughts on Francis Mallmann and Chef’s Table [50:05]
Most gifted books [53:50]
When you think of the word ‘successful,’ who is the first person who comes to mind and why? [56:18]
What is the most joy that you’ve felt in recent memory [57:35]
If you could pick anywhere outside the US to immerse yourself in the woods, where would you pick? [58:50]
Morning rituals [1:04:35]
Discussing the value of martial arts and becoming an immovable mountain [1:05:57]
Advice to your thirty-year-old self [1:17:20]
Where would you like to have food that you have not yet had food? [1:22:00]
Why the 80’s? You’re always playing 80’s music [1:28:31]

People Mentioned

Steve Rinella
Danny Meyer
Francis Mallmann
Guy Fieri

 

On Zero-to-Hero Transformations

 

Photo: The Legendary Dan Gable, from my Instagram page

In this episode, we don’t have any special guests, unless you count the multiple personalities in my own head.

We are not talking to Arnold Schwarzenegger, black-market chemists, Josh Waitzkin, Jamie Foxx or anyone else per our regular interviews. Today, I’ll be responding to questions you upvoted on Reddit.

This episode includes gems like:

My favorite books
Learning to take better notes
How I develop skills
Things that I’m excited about in the next 3-5 years
Plus much more…

Only have a few minutes? Listen to my latest thoughts on cheat days and how to manage sugar cravings.

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast where I answer your questions? — Listen to 5 things I did to become a better investor. In this episode, I discuss making hundreds of survivable mistakes, the strategy behind my startup bets, and why I’m more successful (on paper) with my investments than my publishing career (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by Audible. I have used Audible for years and I love audio books. I have two to recommend:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

All you need to do to get your free 30-day Audible trial is go to Audible.com/Tim. Choose one of the above books, or choose between more than 180,000 audio programs. That could be a book, a newspaper, a magazine, or even a class. It’s that easy. Go to Audible.com/Tim and get started today. Enjoy!

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: Do you enjoy this format or would you rather hear nothing but interviews? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Interested in AcroYoga? Check out Jason Nemer
40 oz. Hydro Flask Water Bottle
Will you be in San Francisco? Visit flour + water
The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
The 4-Hour Workweek
The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
Set up social accountability and/or a betting circle:

Coach.me | Stickk.com | Dietbet.com

How to Lose 100 Pounds on The Slow-Carb Diet and The Perfect Posterior
Listen to my conversation with Cal Fussman
Learn more about the Buxton School of Wrestling
Interested in cryonics? Read this article on Wait But Why
Learn more about Coach Sommer for gymnastics training
Check out developments in virtual reality: Valve and Vive
Learn more about MDInsider.com
Dog training resources: Crate Training by Ian Dunbar
Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor
Watch my video describing The Most Important Skill to Teach Your Dog
Learn more about renting the SS Jeremiah
How to Take Notes Like an Alpha-Geek
Interested in the ketogenic diet? Listen to my conversation with Dom D’Agostino
Keto Clarity by Jimmy Moore and Eric Westman, MD
Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny and Ron McMillan
Lying by Sam Harris (listen to our conversation here)
Why I love Japan – Spirited Away and KARATE by BABYMETAL
Guide for Travel in Japan – Hacking Japan
Letters from a Stoic by Lucius Annaeus Seneca (audiobook here)
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Slaine: The Horned God by Pat Mills and Simon Bisley
The Baron In The Trees by Italo Calvino
The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Show Notes

If you were to do a zero-to-hero transformation with someone, what would be the path you would take? [8:17]
If you were tasked with building a person from a blank slate, a la Frankenstein’s creature or an android, what skills/qualities would you give him first? [15:21]
How do you build rapport with your podcast guests? [18:10]
Expand more on your teens and twenties. What were you doing? What kind of person were you? What were your influences? [21:32]
Do you believe that people have personal callings? [23:52]
Do you believe in coincidences? [26:22]
What is something you are increasingly getting excited about in the next 3-5 years? [28:31]
Dogs and positive constraints [32:15]
What have you learned about human behavior from Molly? [38:02]
How did you meet and become friends with Kevin Rose? [41:45]
If you were to go back to college, what would you choose to major in and why? [43:00]
What do you think of studying abroad? [47:26]
My exact note-taking system [47:38]
Comparing the ketogenic diet and The Slow-Carb Diet [50:32]
Cheat days and managing sugar cravings [51:14]
Do you have any practical tips for dealing with people you dislike? [56:22]
Why I love Japan [1:00:08]
Most gifted books [1:02:28]

People Mentioned

Sean Thackrey
Neil Strauss
Dan Gable
Seneca the Younger

My 10 Favorite Purchases in 10 Months

Photo: From Tim’s Instagram

I love testing new gadgets and products. It’s an obsession.

For The 4-Hour Chef alone, I tested well over $100,000 worth of gear. OCD + Amazon Prime = expensive.

Why on earth do I do it? Simple–I love sharing the 5-10 things out of 500-1,000 that really work. Strange fetish, perhaps, but I get off on it. Readers seem to enjoy it, too.

In the first ever 5-Bullet Friday newsletter, I recommended my favorite all-purpose sandals, and more than 100,000 people clicked on the link within the first 48 hours (!). This type of click-through assault was nicknamed “the hug of death” by one Facebook fan. It crashes websites, wipes out inventory (e.g. Mizzen+Main, sardines at Whole Foods), creates nutty pricing spikes (e.g. used books going for $1,000 after the Sacca podcast), etc.

Below are 10 recent purchases that have given me—and continue to give me—value, joy, or both.

They are from a handful of 5-Bullet Friday newsletters (here’s a full sample). For the data nerds out there, I’ve listed the below products in descending order of click-through rate.

I’ve provided two sets of links for each.  The first link (usually the name of the item) is often an Amazon affiliate link, if you’d like to chip in a few pennies to support my compulsive gear-testing habit. The second link, labeled “non-affiliate link,” is exactly that—a plain old link where Uncle Tim gets to fend for himself in the wild. I’m cool with either. Some items lack affiliate links altogether, as I was too lazy to search.

Here we go… (and what the hell is it with you guys and shoes?)

Vans Unisex Classic Slip-On (Gumsole) Skate Shoe (Non-affiliate link)



This makes me seem like one of the grups, but I love these shoes. Not for skating. My criteria: great for airports, zero-drop soles for restoring Achilles mobility, usable at semi-casual but nice dinners, and small enough to pack in carry-on luggage. I’ve worn these for everything from business meetings to canyon hiking (in a pinch), and they’ve held up beautifully.

My elixir for warm-weather sipping



Here’s one of my favorite rosé wines in the US, perfect for summer sipping: The Wolffer Estate Rosé from Long Island (many years are good).

[I’ll also give you a cold-weather alternative: YakTrax, for modifying normal shoes when you need to walk on snow and ice. They are amazing and fit in a jacket pocket. I bought the basic “Walk” model, but there are many options.]

My preferred oddities on Kit.com…

Many of you have asked, so here’s my favorite gear for podcasting, coffee, everyday carry, survival gear (some ridiculous), and much more.

Rumble Roller  (travel size) ( Non-affiliate link)

I’ve tried every foam roller imaginable, but this is my new favorite for opening up hamstrings and IT band prior to AcroYoga and other gymnastics practice. That front lever is still eluding me, but I’ll keep at it. WARNING: This will smash you 10x more than smooth rollers. I got overzealous my first session and, the next day, felt like I’d been leg kicked by Buakaw (my fave kickboxer, BTW).

Mini parallettes (“p-bars”) for travel ( Non-affiliate link)

These are small enough to stick in carry-on luggage. I use them primarily for pushups, planche leans, and L-sits for time. If you want to make a homemade version out of PVC that can live in your garage or living room, here’s another option.

Original Buddha Board ( Non-affiliate link)

A zen-minded Etch-a-Sketch. Use the included brush to paint designs onto the board with water. As the water evaporates, your image fades, all within 30-60 seconds. This is a great tool for learning to let go… or rekindling your artistic side. If you have 60 seconds a day, you have time for the Buddha Board.

Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB mic ( Non-affiliate link)

I had to highlight this one. This is the best bang-for-the-buck USB mic I’ve found. I use it for all phone interviews for my podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show. It’s traveled with me around the world. With this, ear buds, and ECamm Call Recorder, you’re set. For my more complete gear list, see the podcast bullet above from Kit.com.

Wild Planet Canned Sardines in Olive Oil ( Non-affiliate link)

I’m sitting in the Bahamas as I type this [back in December, at least], and 24 cans of sardines are sitting next to me in my suitcase. That’s my MO. I open one can upon waking, drizzle about half the oil over my dog’s kibble (which she sometimes refuses to eat dry), and then consume the fish myself. My skin and her coat have never looked better. Hat tip to the incredible biochemistry beast Dom D’Agostino, PhD for intro’ing me to these beauties.

Epsoak Epsom Salt (39.5 Lbs.) (Non-affiliate link)

I take hot baths every night when at home in SF. Nearly always, I add epsom salt (typically 4-8 cups), which facilitates muscular relaxation and recovery. Rather than buy small boxes at CVS or Safeway, I buy in bulk and store it in rolling dog-food containers. This is a good use of Amazon Prime.

Nayoya Gymnastic Rings (Non-affiliate link)

These are super portable (easily fit in a small backpack) and incredibly durable for the price. I’m using them for mostly dips and muscle-up progressions. My pull-up rig [written during the summer] is finally complete, and I suspend them from this (I do not do any kipping work on this rig). The Nayoya allow me to leave the rings outdoors. BUT: If you’re going to travel without chalk, I highly suggest wooden rings.

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So… do you enjoy these types of recommendations?

Would you like to get a short e-mail from me every Friday with the five coolest things I’ve found that week? It often includes gadgets, books, supplements, albums, articles, new hacks, and — of course — random, useful stuff I find around the world.

Achtung! You can only get “5-Bullet Friday” if you subscribe to my free e-mail newsletter.

Why not test drive it for a week? You know it’s making your temples tickle, and you can unsubscribe anytime. Click here for a taste of why “5BF” (5-Bullet Friday) usually has a 70%+ open rate.

If you have any special requests for what you’d like see more of in the newsletter, please let me know in the comments.

The Habits of a Master — Paulo Coelho, Author of The Alchemist

“A successful writing day is the day that I suffer in the morning, and I have fun in the evening.” -Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho (@paulocoelho) has long been one of my writing inspirations.

His books, of near universal appeal, span from The Alchemist to the most recent Adultery and have been translated into more than 70 languages.

Few people know that The Alchemist, which has sold more than 65 million copies worldwide, was originally published by a small Brazilian publisher to the tune of… 900 copies. They declined to reprint it. It wasn’t until after his subsequent novel (Brida) that The Alchemist was revived and took off.

I, for one, have always been impressed with consistent writers. Paulo, who averages one book every two years, is staggeringly consistent. As I type this, I am under the pressure of deadlines and often feel as Kurt Vonnegut did: “When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.”

My output is erratic at best, and I wondered: how does Paulo write? What is his process? How does he think about it?

I reached out to him, and he was kind enough to reply with the audio I’ve included in the podcast. In it, he provides some gems and answers the following questions (see below), which I posed to him (I provide my own abbreviated answers in brackets)…

If you only have 3 minutes, I recommend this portion on avoiding writer’s block.

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

– When on deadline, what is the first thing you do in the morning? What does your daily schedule look like? Do you take any days off, and what determines if you’ve had a “successful” writing day?



[TIM: 2-3 hours of fasted writing in the morning to Mozart and pu-ehr tea. Success is two shitty pages of drafts.]

– How do you capture ideas that might be helpful in your writing? These days, what software and tools do you use for writing?

[TIM: Evernote, Moleskine notebooks]

– How much of your books do you visualize/outline upfront vs. writing organically piece-by-piece? In other words, how much of the story arc have you decided before you start writing? Let’s take two books as examples — The Alchemist and Aleph. Otherwise, how did your process differ for these two books?



[TIM: Though it changes as I write, I outline everything before starting. I suspect organic writing is more common in fiction.]

– What are the most common mistakes that you see first-time novelists making? Most common weaknesses?



[TIM: N/A]

– Do you base your characters on real people? Why or why not? If not, how do you develop those characters?



[TIM: N/A]

– What are the 2-3 things you personally find most invigorating or helpful when you’re stuck or feel stagnated with writing/ideas? Do you have a team of any type (researchers, etc.) who help you?



[TIM: Rereading Bird by Bird when I doubt/loathe/chastise myself, deadlifting, and doing sprint workouts.]

Paulo offered a few additional notes and resources for further exploration:

As for the sentence in Alice in Wonderland: “Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

If you want more, here are three podcasts on his writing process:

1) On writing I http://youtu.be/vKBOKLF3Ul8

2) On writing II http://youtu.be/3_TJ4MIGeg8

3) Inspiration http://youtu.be/VWRmbSgS2Yw

For more musings, see Paulo’s Facebook fan page, with almost 30,000,000 fans (!).

###

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: If you write, what have you found most helpful for the first and last questions? Here they are, and I’d love your thoughts in the comments.

– When on deadline, what is the first thing you do in the morning? What does your daily schedule look like? Do you take any days off, and what determines if you’ve had a “successful” writing day?

– What are the 2-3 things you personally find most invigorating or helpful when you’re stuck or feel stagnated with writing/ideas? Do you have a team of any type (researchers, etc.) who help you?

###

Want to hear another podcast with a successful writer? — Listen to this podcast with Maria Popova. In this episode, she discusses being interesting, creating more time in a day, and how to start a successful blog (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by MeUndies. Have you ever wanted to be as powerful as a mullet-wearing ninja from the 1980’s, or as sleek as a black panther in the Amazon? Of course you have, and that’s where MeUndies comes in. I’ve spent the last 2-3 weeks wearing underwear from these guys 24/7, and they are the most comfortable and colorful underwear I’ve ever owned. Their materials are 2x softer than cotton, as evaluated using the Kawabata method. Check out MeUndies.com/Tim to see my current faves (some are awesomely ridiculous) and, while you’re at it, don’t miss lots of hot ladies wearing MeUndies.

This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Enjoy!

Selected Links from the Episode

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Aleph by Paulo Coelho
Brida by Paulo Coelho
Adultery by Paulo Coelho
Subscribe to Paulo Coelho’s YouTube Channel
Like Paulo Coelho’s Facebook Fan Page

Show Notes

When on deadline, what is the first thing you do in the morning? [8:53]
What does your daily schedule look like? [11:11]
Do you take any days off? [13:13]
What determines if you’ve had a “successful” writing day? [14:12]
How do you capture ideas that might be helpful in your writing? [15:35]
Why Paulo Coelho wrote The Alchemist [16:53]
What software and tools do you use for your writing? [20:51]
How much of your books do you visualize or outline upfront versus writing organically piece-by-piece? [23:37]
Most common mistakes and weaknesses made by first-time novelists [24:24]
Do you base your characters on real people? Why or why not? How do you develop those characters? [30:07]
What are the 2-3 things you personally find most invigorating or helpful when you’re stuck or feel stagnated with writing/ideas? [31:50]

The Man Who Studied 1,000 Deaths to Learn How to Live

“The small things ain’t so small.” – BJ Miller

At the end of our lives, what do we most wish for? And how can knowing this help you live better lives now?

BJ Miller (@zenhospice), MD, knows.

BJ is a palliative care physician at Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, where he thinks deeply about how to create a dignified, graceful end of life for his patients.

He is an expert in death, but he’s also learned how we can dramatically improve our own lives, often with very small changes. When you consider that he has guided or been involved with ~1,000 deaths, it’s not surprising that he’s spotted patterns we can all learn from.

BJ is also a triple amputee, and his 2015 TED Talk, “Not Whether But How,” is a moving reflection on his vision to make empathic end-of-life care available to all, ranked among the top-15 most viewed TED talks of the year.

If you want to know what being around death can teach you about living, you’ll want to listen to this.

I LOVED this conversation, and I hope you do as well.  Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast that challenges conventional medical doctrine? — Listen to my conversation with Adam Gazzaley. In this episode, we discuss building a video game to rewire the brain, the crossroads of hallucinogens, neuroscience and more (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by Boll & Branch. There is a lot of nonsense in the bedding business. For instance, did you know thread-count is not a good measurement of quality? It’s a total myth. The “Made in Italy” label? It isn’t something you should necessarily pay extra for because it generally means it’s just finished in Italy and woven in places like China.

The general industry mark-up for bedding is 700 to 800 percent at most retailers. Boll & Branch creates incredibly high-quality bedding. They are the same sheets you’ll find at my home in San Francisco.

The best part? You can try anything you order at home for 30 days. If you don’t love it, send it back and get a full refund. Go to Boll & Branch and use promo code “TIM” for 20% off your entire order. Whether sheets, towels, blankets, duvet covers, or anything else. Shipping is always free.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What are some of the “small changes” you can make that will have a big impact on your life? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Princeton Alumni Weekly on the work of BJ Miller
Listen to my conversation with Adam Gazzaley
Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach
Learn more about BJ’s close friend, Justin Burke
Read The New Yorker article The Trip Treatment by Michael Pollan
Learn more about the RiverstyxFoundation
Learn more about the Heffter Research Institute, which is researching entheogen compounds
Learn more about compasspathways.org, which is researching mental health
Learn more about Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
Read Vonnegut’s letter describing why he goes out to purchase envelopes
Waiting for Guffman directed by Christopher Guest
Kentucky Fried Movie directed by John Landis
Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog
In San Francisco? Visit Scuderia
Learn more about Joseph Swan Winery
Learn more about Symptom Management Service at the UCSF Cancer Management Center and Michael Rabow
Learn more about the Hospice Action Network
Connect with BJ Miller and Zen Hospice:

ZenHospice.org | Facebook | Twitter

Show Notes

How do you answer the questions, “What do you do?” [7:43]
What does the first meeting look like for a new patient at the Zen Hospice Project? [9:22]
Defining palliative care [11:14]
What happens when a patient dies in Zen Hospice compared to a regular hospital? [15:24]
How many deaths have you experienced? [20:07]
What has observing hundreds of deaths taught you about living? [20:42]
On keeping a mindfulness or meditation practice [28:51]
About the Dinky (a terrifying story of electrocution) [31:06]
The Snowball Story [41:49]
BJ Miller’s experience as an undergraduate student at Princeton [45:27]
On the idea of art [46:33]
How BJ Miller would support someone who suffered injuries similar to his own [53:29]
What helps people most in hospice care [56:30]
Why cookies matter [1:01:11]
Thoughts on the use of psychoactive compounds in end-of-life care and treating existential suffering [1:04:48]
BJ Miller’s secret habit that might surprise most people [1:14:40]
Suggested material for an introverted hospice patient [1:19:48]
What do you think of when you think of the word “successful?” [1:26:55]
Daily practices for seeing good in people [1:30:43]
How to ride a motorcycle when missing three limbs [1:33:39]
What purchase of $100 or less has most positively affected your life? [1:38:10]
If you could have one billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? [1:40:06]
Advice to your thirty-year-old-self [1:41:42]
What have you changed your mind about in the last few years? [1:43:37]
BJ Miller’s requests/asks/suggestions of the audience [1:45:23]

People Mentioned

Adam Gazzaley
Mark Rothko
Jackson Pollock
Kurt Vonnegut
Ludwig van Beethoven
Oprah Winfrey
Deepak Chopra
Mert Lawwill

 

How I Built a #1-Ranked Podcast With 60M+ Downloads

 

The kitchen table where I’ve recorded the majority of my podcasts.

This is my first public exploration of the business and art of podcasting. I still have much to improve, but I’m ready to share a few lessons learned. It’s my hope that they’ll save you a ton of time.

I’m still flabbergasted by how this experiment took on a life of its own.  It started with too much booze with Kevin Rose, and I expected it to die a quiet death after six episodes.

That said, here are a few quick stats on The Tim Ferriss Show after 150 episodes of mucking about, screwing up, and refining (as of this writing):

Nearly 70,000,000 downloads as of April 2016
More than 2,500 reviews on iTunes, 2,100+ 5-star reviews
Selected for “Best of iTunes” in 2014 and 2015
Out of 300,000+ podcasts on iTunes, it’s generally the #1 business podcast and an overall top-25 podcast
Won “Podcast of the Year” in 2015 for the Jamie Foxx episode (via Product Hunt)

I’ve certainly stumbled a lot, but that’s how you figure things out.

I’ll share the first batch of big lessons in this post. If you like it, there’s a whole lot more to divulge (e.g. exactly how I get guests, etc.). If the response is a collective “meh,” I’ll play with my dog instead.

I’ve formatted this little ditty as a Q&A, based on the most common questions from readers, podcasters, and journalists.

Hope you find it useful!

The overarching principles explored apply to a whole lot more than podcasting…

###

QUESTION: Why did you start the podcast? How has it evolved over 150 episodes?

The podcast was never intended to be a business.

I was burned out after The 4-Hour Chef, which was nearly 700 pages, and I wanted a casual but creative break from big projects. Since I enjoyed being interviewed by Joe Rogan, Marc Maron, Nerdist, and other podcasting heavies who really move the needle, I decided to try long-form audio for six episodes. If I didn’t enjoy it, I would throw in the towel and walk.

My rationale: Worst-case scenario, the experience would help me improve my interviewing, which would help later book projects. This is a great example of what Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, would call “systems” (win even if you lose) thinking. He discusses this at length with me here.

Flash forward to the current day, the podcast has found a nest in my “business,” but there is a clear hierarchy. Here are the pieces, in descending order of importance:

1) E-mail newsletter and “5-Bullet Friday” — Unlike, say, Facebook or Twitter, I own this communication directly and it’s less subject to the whims of algorithm changes (e.g. “Oops! Now you only reach 10% of your audience.”). Some people insist that e-mail is dead for younger generations, and they’re right… until those young people get jobs. E-mail will stick around for a while, despite attempts to kill it.

It’s still the most reliable delivery mechanism, although mobile push notifications are increasingly interesting to me. Though I use Slack for internal team communication, email is still #1 for external.

2) Blog and website — Based on WordPress VIP, ditto for the above. Even if Automattic goes out of business (disclosure: I’m an advisor, so I think this unlikely), WordPress is open source and I’ll survive. Video and audio are fantastic, but few things travel as well as text. Unlike video and audio, I feel there is a greater appreciation of page value with solid long-form, evergreen text content. The vast majority of my most popular posts are years old (e.g. Hacking Kickstarter: How to Raise $100,000 in 10 Days, Scientific Speed Reading). The best SEO is good, non-newsy content that remains relevant for years.

3) Podcast — This is the fastest growing piece of the puzzle, and I’m heavily investing here. Unlike the above two, audio can be a secondary activity. In other words, people can listen to my podcast when they commute, cook, walk the dog, work, etc. There’s also no degradation of experience when moving from laptop to mobile. Last but not least, I’m currently having the most fun with audio.

All that said, I put “business” in quotation marks in this answer because I don’t rely on my writing, etc. for money.

The majority of my finances come from early-stage startup investing, which I started in 2007 (portfolio) and stopped about six months ago. For this reason, I don’t feel pressured to monetize, per se. I put out what I want to put out, when I want to put it out, and that’s it.

Paradoxically, this seemingly lax approach appears to generate more revenue than if I focused on pushing product. My fan dedication (and occasional conversion) is high precisely because I don’t constantly bombard them with sales pitches and calls to action. Sure, I could make $5-10M additional per year for 1-3 years until I burned my audience out, but these people (you!) are worth far more to me than that. They’re a high-calibre bunch, people I want to be friends with rather than irritate.

Your network is your net-worth, and there are many ways to build it. Content is definitely one tool.

QUESTION: Does the podcast make any money directly, though?

Yes. If I wanted to fully monetize the show at my current rates, I could make between $2-4M per year, depending on how many episodes (“eps”) and spots I offer.

So why “if I wanted to fully monetize?” Because “fully monetizing”–bleeding the stone for all it’s worth–is nearly always a mistake, in my opinion.

I want to convert casual listeners into die-hard, fervent listeners, and I want to convert casual sponsors into die-hard, fervent sponsors. This requires two things: 1) Playing the long game, and 2) Strategically leaving some chips on the table. As a mentor once told me, “You can shear a sheep many times, but you can skin him only once.”

So, don’t skin your fuckin’ sheep, kids. In practical terms…

The podcast over-delivers for sponsors (here’s one example), partially because I deliberately undersell downloads. If I hypothetically get 1M downloads per episode, I might only guarantee (and charge for) 750K downloads.  This has attracted and kept sponsors ranging from Audible and Wealthfront to MeUndies and 99Designs.

I don’t have any sophisticated “funnel” or loss-leader campaign. I charge each sponsor per thousand downloads/listens that I guarantee. This cost per thousand (e.g. downloads, impressions, delivered email, etc.) is abbreviated as “CPM,” and the amount you charge per M (“thousand” in Roman numerals) is your “CPM rate.”

I’m not going to give my exact rates in this post, but I’ll give you something better: the bigger picture.

Premium podcasts tend to charge between $25-100 CPM. By “premium,” I mean high-converting, (often) single-host (due to Oprah-like sales impact), iTunes top-50 podcasts.

Let’s look at some numbers. If you can hypothetically guarantee 100,000 downloads per episode, as measured at six weeks post-publication (which seems standard for some odd reason), here is how the math shakes out at different CPM rates:

$50 CPM x 100,000 = 50 x 100 = $5,000 per sponsor per episode

$75 CPM x 100,000 = $7,500 per sponsor per episode

$100 CPM x 100,000 = $10,000 per sponsor per episode

Now, if a podcaster can guarantee 500,000 or 1M downloads/listens, you can see how the numbers add up.

To put these rates in context with other advertising, consider banner ads and email newsletters targeting high HHI (household income) demographics.

On the cheaper end, display/banner ads often cost less than $10 CPM, but a high-converting email newsletter can sell ads/sponsorship at $200-250+ CPM (with no guarantee of opening, only delivery). Premium podcasts currently fall in the middle.

Some podcasts charge $100 CPM or more and are worth it, but… I like setting numbers I can easily beat.

Any marginal short-term loss is made up for by repeat sponsors and larger, long-term purchase orders.  I also rig the game to tilt ROI for sponsors by including blog posts (~2.5M uniques/month), e-mail newsletter (500K-1,000,000+ with sharing), and social (2M+) in the podcast sponsorship versus charging separately a la carte. That might change, but it currently guarantees that 90%+ of my sponsorships clobber competitors, as the cumulative CPM is probably 50% below market.

(Related: If you spend at least $100K per year in marketing and are interested in test sponsoring the podcast, click here for more. Minimum test spend is, at least, $50K-$100K. Seriously inquiries only, please, and pricing is non-negotiable.)

Note to everyone asking “How do I get sponsors?”:  It’s critical to realize that I didn’t accept advertisers for the podcast until I had 100,000+ downloads per episode, as measured six weeks after publication.

Novice podcasters (which I was) and bloggers get too distracted in nascent stages with monetization. In the first 3-9 months, you should be honing your craft and putting out increasingly better work. Option A: you can waste 30-50% of your time to persuade a few small sponsors to commit early and stall at 30,000 downloads per episode because you’re neglecting creative. Option B: you can play the long game, wait 6-12 months until you have a critical mass, then you get to 300,000 downloads per ep and make 10x+ per ep with much larger brands. If you can afford it, don’t be in a rush. Haste makes waste; in this case, it can make the difference between $50,000 per year and $1,000,000+ per year. To reiterate a phrase more often used for blogging: “Good content is the best SEO.” Read The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing to be different, not just incrementally better.

But…all this advertising talk is important to consider in the context of higher-level strategies. In podcasting, it’s easy to get stuck in the CPM and what-preamp-do-I-need? weeds. Decide on your larger framework and philosophy first.

Example — In general and across the board, I split my content in a very binary fashion: free or ultra-premium.

“Free” means that 99% of what I do is free to the world (e.g. podcast, blog) or nearly free (books). I write on topics A) that I enjoy and want to learn more about, and B) that I think will attract intelligent, driven, and/or accomplished people. This is what allows “ultra-premium.”

“Ultra-premium” means:

Once in a blue moon, I offer a high-priced and very limited product or opportunity, such as an event with 200 seats at $7,500-$10,000 per seat. I can sell out a scarce, ultra-premium opp within 48 hours with a single blog post.

I use the network and contacts I’ve built through “free” to find excellent non-content opportunities. I already mentioned one example: my early-stage tech investing. This came from the first book, blog, and social. I found Shopify, for instance, via my fans on Twitter while updating The 4-Hour Workweek. I started advising Shopify when they had ~10 employees. Now they have 1,000+ and are a publicly traded company (SHOP).

An openness to indirect paths means I don’t obsess over selling my content, and I never have. If the podcast sponsorship stuff turns into a headache, I’ll just drop it. Not to beat a dead horse, but let’s restate the most important takeaway — my network, built through writing, is my net worth. That travels with me. If you’d like more practice thinking laterally, try the work of Edward de Bono as an introduction.

Back to the money…

Whenever possible, I avoid what I consider the “blood-bath zone” — products or services priced from $20-100. This is where your customers will be at least 1/3 high-maintenance and cost-sensitive. For my minimalist preferences and operation, that’s too much customer service headache for the ROI, unless it’s automated like my book club with Audible.

[Afterword: I asked my Managing Editor to proofread this post, and he gave me the below comment. I’ve decided to simply copy and paste it.]

*** Tim: I think you should dig in more on just how much money you actually pass up. Including:

1) You don’t do more than 2 sponsors per ep (you could).

2) You vet [and use] all products and turn down >80% of advertisers.

3) You turn down sponsors that want you to do ridiculous reads. I’ve seen it multiple times where advertisers are like, “We need this to be longer” and you tell them to fuck off. This is important. You value your listener waaaaaaay more than they ever realize, and do it to the tune of legitimately millions “lost.” It’s not lost, but is worth mentioning and understanding.

4) You want the ads–like the content–to add value. You’re hoping when you hear it for the first time that you think it’s cool, new, different, or interesting. Otherwise, you wouldn’t share. When you hear it the 4th time, are you tired of it? Maybe. But your fourth time might be someone else’s first. It’s like complaining about shared content on social media. Just because you’ve experienced something before, that doesn’t mean everyone has, and your job is to best serve the audience. You do pre/post roll [instead of mid-roll] to make avoiding this easy: if you don’t like it, they can simply fast forward.

QUESTION: What’s your long-term revenue strategy with the podcast?



There is no long-term revenue strategy. I focus solely on making it as fun as possible for me to do. But — perhaps this itself is a solid strategy, not a lack of one. Simple can be effective. At least 50% of the venture capitalists I’ve met over the years laughed at my simplistic “scratch my own itch” investing approach. Net-net, I’ve now beaten most of their IRR. (Don’t get me wrong; many investors perennially kick my ass.)

For me, the moral of the story is this: Revenue opportunities often present themselves if you focus on creating something you’d pay for yourself.  If you can easily sell it to 10 friends and do some basic market research on top of that, the odds improve.

Of course, “scratching your own itch” doesn’t always work, but I think of it as necessary but not sufficient. If you have enough at-bats, and if you know how to limit losses (knowing when to fold ’em and walk away, like my six-episode commitment), you’ll eventually hit the ball.

The recipe is straightforward — Study the craft like it’s your job (e.g. Find people like master interview Cal Fussman), make yourself smile, don’t rush, don’t whore yourself, test a lot of wacky ideas, and think laterally. If you want to increase your income 10x instead of 10%, the best opportunities are often seemingly out of left field (e.g. books → startups).

Just remember that, even in a golden age, podcasting is a squirrely opportunity and not a panacea on a silver platter. Even if you work smart, you still have to do the work and take your lumps.

Amelia Boone, the world’s top female obstacle racer, said on my podcast that she’d put the following on a billboard: “No one owes you anything.” I think that’s a good mantra for life.

Try your best, take notes, and do better the next time.

QUESTION: What gear do you use for the podcast?

The recording gear is better and cheaper every year. It’s extremely easy for me to travel with a small recording studio in my backpack. If you’re on a budget, even an iPhone will do, but–bang for the buck–the ATR-2100 is hard to beat.

My mantra for gear is borrowed from my podcast with Morgan Spurlock: “Once you get fancy, fancy gets broken.”  Keep it simple.

For post-production and editing, I used Garageband for the first 30-40 episodes, but I now outsource to people who use primarily Ableton and Hindenburg. The simplicity of the latter is very appealing to me, but as a pure editor, it doesn’t include sound effects, transitions, etc. as a Garageband does.

Pat Flynn, a seasoned podcaster who’s helped me a ton, made a great and free podcast-editing tutorial for you all. This covers nearly everything you need to know for basic post-production.

For free options, Audacity is also popular. My suggestion: use the simplest editing software you can, or pay someone to do it for you. If Garageband appears too amateur for your first 1-3 episodes, I’d bet money you quit before episode 5. Keep it simple.

I host episodes on Libsyn for reasons I can elaborate on in future posts.

Regarding consumption and promotion — I love Marco Arment’s Overcast, both as a listener (smart speed) and podcaster (can link to specific time stamps). My wish and ask for them: to embed a small player on my blog instead of having to link out.

QUESTION: Is it too late to start a podcast? Don’t you feel pressured by all the competition? it seems like thousands launch every week.

Competition makes you better.

Everyone should try podcasting for at least 3-6 episodes, even if just to get better at asking questions and eliminating verbal tics. Those gains transfer everywhere.

If someone ends up better than me (or ranking better than me), they deserve to beat me. I’ll be the first person to buy them a beer. Remember that podcasting isn’t a zero-sum game, and a rising tide raises all ships (Check out the “Serial effect”). There’s plenty of room for more good shows, and the pie is expanding. Bring your A game and the cream will rise to the top.

Of course, you don’t need to be perfect (and you won’t be), but you need to try your best.  As Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited, told me over coffee before I wrote The 4-Hour Workweek: “If you’re going to write a book, write a fucking book.”

If you start out bad but are incrementally improving towards awesome, that’s totally fine. If you’re half-assing it and coasting, find something else you can whole-ass.

QUESTION: How much time do you put into the podcast? Aren’t you The 4-Hour Workweek guy?



The 4-Hour Workweek is, first and foremost, about 10x’ing your per-hour output. I have no problem with hard work, as long as it’s applied to the right things, and I never have.

This is partially why The 4-Hour Workweek and the podcast have attracted some of the world’s most successful hedge fund managers and start-up founders. They might work 80+ hours per week, but they value efficient and elegant solutions.

The objective is to control your time — a non-renewable resource — and apply it where you have the highest leverage or enjoyment. For me right now, the Archimedes lever is clearly the podcast. I get to interview the most fascinating people I can find, including Rick Rubin, Jamie Foxx, Maria Popova, General McChrystal, Tony Robbins, and dozens of others. I would pay a small fortune to do this. Instead, I somehow get paid. For the time invested, especially when batching (e.g. I try and record eps on Mondays and Fridays, two weeks a month), it has the most disproportionate hours-to-ROI imaginable.

I don’t want my readers to be idle. Mini-retirements are wonderful (here’s a month-long example), but I’m not going to spend my entire life on the sidelines. This is all covered in the “Filling the Void” chapter of 4HWW, but it bears repeating.

For those curious, here’s what one of my days looks like. No two are quite alike.

QUESTION: But–for God’s sake–I don’t have bestselling books or a big blog! You had an unfair advantage. What can I do?

Get started.

Remember Amelia Boone, the most successful female obstacle racer in history? No one owes you anything. So… gird your loins and fucking get amongst it. Prepare to bloody your knees and learn a lot.

Yes, I came into podcasting with a text-loving audience, but guess what?

#1) Like everyone else, at one point, I had zero readers and zero listeners. We all start out naked and afraid. Then your mom starts checking out your stuff, or perhaps a few friends give a mercy-listen, and the fragile snowball grows from there. Here are a few ugly first versions of popular blogs. Mine was incredibly unpopular and hideous.

#2) Coming to the party with a pre-existing audience isn’t enough. Celebrities, YouTube icons, and bestselling authors start podcasts every week that get abandoned three weeks later.

Fortunately, the most common pitfalls are easy to avoid.

Here are a few things I found helpful that might help you:

1) Upload at least 2-3 pre-recorded episodes when you launch your podcast (real-world example). This appears to help with iTunes ranking, which — like bestseller lists — can be self-propagating. The higher you rank, the more people see you, the higher you continue to rank, etc.

2) Keep the format simple. Most would-be blockbuster podcasters quit because they get overwhelmed with gear and editing. Much like Joe Rogan, I decided to record and publish entire conversations (minimizing post-production), not solely highlights. I also use a tremendously simple gear setup and favored Skype interviews for the first 20 or so interviews, as the process is easier to handle when you can look at questions and prep notes in Evernote or a notebook.

As Tony Robbins would say: complexity is the enemy of execution. You do NOT need concert hall-quality audio; most people will be listening in the subway or car anyway, and they’ll forgive you if recordings are rough around the edges. Audio engineers will never be fully satisfied with your audio, but 99.9% of listeners will be happy if you’re intelligible and loud enough.

3) Don’t pursue or even think about sponsors until you have a critical mass. I discussed this earlier. It’s a distraction. Play the long game.

4) Get transcripts and send highlights with pitch ideas to print/text journalists. I have done this with several outlets, and it’s resulted in some outstanding original pieces like this one from Business Insider, who came up with the story angle on their own. I suspect this type of coverage also helped the Jamie Foxx episode win “Podcast Episode of the Year” on Product Hunt.

5) If you use blog posts, utilize graphics to increase podcast downloads/listens for your target platform. This is a tip I got from podcasting veteran John Lee Dumas. Here is one example of mine, where the iTunes button is exceptionally clear.

6) Experiment constantly. I have tested conversations in a sauna (Rick Rubin), solo Q&As based on reddit submissions (e.g. Maria Popova, Round Two), drunk dialing fans via Skype, audiobook excerpts (e.g. Tim Kreider), and more. It’s easy to assume that labor-intensive, polished episodes get the most downloads. Luckily, sometimes the opposite is true—the easy, low-labor stuff kills. This experimentation also keeps things fun for me. Podcasting isn’t radio, and there aren’t any hard-and-fast rules. Go nuts and let the world tell you what works.

A Few Closing Thoughts

There is no reason to bore your listeners (or yourself) because you’re slavishly following someone else’s playbook.

This post explains a few things I’ve found useful, but they’re guidelines at best, not rules.

Borrow, be ridiculous on occasion, and be yourself. This is one medium where it can pay 100-fold to simply be you: warts, weirdness, and all.

How about throwing chimpanzee screeches in the middle of an episode? Fuck it, sure. Making weird Mogwai noises during the intros with no explanation whatsoever? If I’ve had enough wine, definitely.  Recording last-minute guest bios in an airplane bathroom? Done it.

If you make yourself laugh every once in a while, at least you will have fun.

And that is perhaps the best strategy of all.

###

Last but certainly not least, I want to thank a few smart people who generously spent many hours educating me on the details, tech, and craft of podcasting. In alphabetical order by first name (and if I forgot anyone, please let me know!):

John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire

Jordan Harbinger of The Art of Charm

Lewis Howes of The School of Greatness

Matt Lieber and Alex Blumberg of Gimlet Media

Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income

Rob Walch of Libsyn

If you’re curious to know my top-10 most popular podcast guests (as of April 2016), here they are.

If you enjoyed this and would like more on podcasting, please let me know in the comments, and I’ll write more. Specifically, w hat would you most like to know?

On Philosophy and Riches

“Riches have shut off many a man from the attainment of wisdom.” – Seneca

Whenever I succumb to social pressure to treat time as less valuable than income, that’s when I turn to stoicism.

In this special episode of the podcast, I’m sharing one of my favorite letters from Seneca, “On Philosophy and Riches.” This is a must-listen for anyone obsessed with increasing wealth or material possessions.

My favorite portion begins with, “I might close my letter at this point,” which you can listen to here.

If you want to learn more of Seneca’s teachings, I’ve compiled his letters into a collection called the Tao of Seneca.

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast featuring lessons from Seneca? Listen to the episode on achieving self-ownership. In this letter, Seneca offers lessons related to being a good man and the true costs of things that appear free (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I’ve also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you’re happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: Are you unhappily striving to gain wealth? If so, how has this letter from Seneca helped your mindset? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Show Notes

On Philosophy and Riches [5:38]
On the fear of poverty [7:00]
On prioritizing wisdom over wealth [9:53]
“I might close my letter at this point…” [11:53]

How to Overcome Fear – Lessons from Firefighter and Luger, Caroline Paul

“You gotta work within your human limitations. Women and the smaller guys, we know right away where our limitations are, so we’re going to compensate with other things.” – Caroline Paul

Caroline Paul (@carowriter) is a blast and can also probably kick my ass… seriously.

Caroline is the author of four published books. Her latest is the New York Times best seller The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure.

Once a young scaredy-cat, Caroline decided that fear got in the way of the life she wanted–of excitement, confidence, and self-reliance. She has since flown planes, rafted big rivers, climbed tall mountains, and fought fires as one of the first female firefighters in San Francisco.

In this episode, we discuss various types of fear and how to overcome them, using stories, habits, and tactics.

If you only have a couple of minutes, you might find this section valuable.

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast featuring a daring woman who challenges perceived limitations? — Listen to my conversation with Amelia Boone. In this episode, we discuss how she beats 99% of men in endurance races like the World’s Toughest Mudder (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by Audible. I have used Audible for years and I love audio books. I have two to recommend:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

All you need to do to get your free 30-day Audible trial is go to Audible.com/Tim. Choose one of the above books, or choose between more than 180,000 audio programs. That could be a book, a newspaper, a magazine, or even a class. It’s that easy. Go to Audible.com/Tim and get started today. Enjoy!

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What creates the most fear in your life, and how would now overcome your previous mindset? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

The Gutsy Girl by Caroline Paul, illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton
Why Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared? by Caroline Paul
Learn more about Pacifica Radio
How to join the San Francisco Fire Department
Cus D’Amato – The Coward and The Hero
Watch Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Learn more about Olympic Women’s Skeleton
Learn more about Wendy MacNaughton
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Watch Maidentrip (on iTunes) about Laura Dekker, the 13-year-old girl who sailed around the world
Lost Cat by Caroline Paul
Connect with Caroline Paul:

CarolinePaul.com | Gutsy Girl Club on Instagram | The Gutsy Girl Website

Show Notes

On Chris Sacca’s excellent introductions [6:18]
Providing context for “pulling a dead body from the bay” [7:51]
The story of the milk cartons [12:13]
On “free range” parenting [18:13]
How Caroline Paul became a firefighter [22:02]
How fighting fires works [27:28]
What makes a good firefighter [33:13]
On being the 15th woman in an organization of 1,500 men [37:36]
Life lessons from fighting fires [39:28]
Specific memories from medical calls as a firefighter [41:11]
Most terrifying moments [46:41]
Strategies for prioritizing fear and other emotions [50:58]
On coming out in the 1980s [54:33]
The thinking behind the op-ed, “Why Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared [1:01:53]
Most gifted books [1:09:55]
Caroline Paul’s current workout routine [1:10:43]
The path to the Olympics [1:11:55]
When you think of the word successful, who is the first person who comes to mind and why? [1:23:31]
Three books Caroline Paul would give every college graduate[1:25:50]
Most important historical figures [1:27:34]
If you could have one billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? [1:32:30]
Morning and daily routines [1:32:53]
Do you wish people would break more bones as kids? [1:37:05]
Caroline Paul’s request to the audience [1:40:21]

People Mentioned

Chris Sacca
Cus D’Amato
Wendy MacNaughton
Jim Lee
Rosa Parks
Beryl Markham