Finding Founders

Today we cover conformational and contradictory evidence and why you should try to prove yourself wrong. Joyce Mok, our scriptwriting team lead, and I do a test, analyze the results and see where these results apply in our own lives.  --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

We're back for part 2 of the Mac Davis' quest for immortality! (If you haven't listened to part 1 there are links below). In the second half of the episode we'll cover a near death explosion, revolutionary discoveries, mysterious deaths, incredible experiments, and the founding of a successful company: Minicircle. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving! Listen to Part 1 Apple Podcasts Spotify Anchor --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

On today's episode, FF's own Adrian Tapia (editing team lead) and Samuel Donner talk about the issue with second hand information. We delve into why you can't trust any conversation that starts with "My friend did [this]." --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

When was the last time you skimmed over a book or article and realized that by the time you finished, absolutely nothing stuck? Well, it turns out speed-reading isn’t as easy as 1-2-3; like any superpower, it needs to be trained. Today we sit down to talk with Jim Kwik, author of Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, & Unlock Your Exceptional Life and founder of online brain-training platform Kwik Learning, which aims to enhance memory and teach speed-reading techniques. With students from over 195 countries, Kwik Learning has become an incredibly successful way to realize Jim’s mission: “No Brain Left Behind.” In this episode, Jim will discuss his early struggles with memory and reading; the life-changing trip to California that sparked his passion for “quick” (no pun intended) learning; the origins and impact of the Kwik Learning platform; and finally, the Limitless legacy that he wanted to leave behind. So kick back, relax, and let’s learn all the ways we can each unlock our own inner geniu

Storytelling is an essential part of any business whether you are trying to sell a product, raise money, or get your team on board with a mission. And so it's essential that you know how to tell interesting stories. At Finding Founders we have a motto: "No story is boring, it's just too long." Through a method of contracting and expanding certain parts of the story we are able to make almost anyone an engaging storyteller. In this episode of Founder Wisdom, we delve into how to expand and contract stories to create riveting narratives, and how you can too!  --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

Today we talk to Andrew Warner and we start with Andrew describing the impossibly fast pace of his first business’s success. Shortly out of college, Andrew was handling millions of dollars and taking on massive risk. Only a few years later, he’d give up that frantic lifestyle, jump ship and head for a respite in the Caribbean. Andrew’s life with all the peaks and valleys of the entrepreneurial journey, mirrors that of his initial mentors who lived within the pages of books. He took those lessons, founded a few companies, and now continues to learn from entrepreneurs with his show Mixergy, asking the question what do startup founders know that you don’t?.  Today, we’ll explore Andrew’s story, a page-turner that started in Brooklyn, NY and a community infused with entrepreneurial vision. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

What are questions you can ask to get people more vulnerable? How can you get someone to open up to you in a short amount of time? These are questions that can help us in our personal and professional relationships. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

Today we talk to Brad Lea and he starts with his first few weeks in LA. Not long before he was at the mercy of a crack pipe, he got kicked out of his home in Oregon at 16, convinced a friend to quit his job, and drove to California to pursue his dream of becoming a movie star. And while this dream didn’t exactly pan out, that same charisma he hoped would end up on the silver screen, has helped him become a master salesman. Today, Brad runs his multi-million dollar business, Lightspeed VT, which gives companies world-class virtual training systems with the goal of getting knowledge from those who have it to the people who need it. Brad understands the potential of knowledge to improve lives and a lot of the passion he has for his company comes from his experience growing up with less than everyone around him. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

What is the formula for interesting storytelling? Today we discuss the essential components of a great story and how to craft narratives that matter. It's enough to just have a subject that is of consequence, you have create an interesting and unique take on that subject. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

Today we talk to Cory Allen, meditation teacher, author, podcast host, musician, and today’s featured Founder. Cory’s story begins in Austin, TX, with a choice to live a markedly different life from that of his gun-toting, Republican, cynical, and distrustful father. He tells me about his moment of awakening, and teaches me that enlightenment can happen anywhere, even in a urinal. He speaks about his relationships with his mom, with organized religion, with drugs and Nietzsche and death metal. He talks about his audio mastering company, AlteredEar, and his universal-truth-giving podcast, The Astral Hustle. Telling Cory’s story is hard, because I feel like I’m trying to cram the weight of the universe, all its intricacies and wisdom, into peanut... but let’s delve into it anyway and start a few in Austin. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

Why can't you lie in a podcast? Today we talk about authenticity, otherizing, presidential debates, and why podcasts are better lie detectors than videos. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

Today we are talking to James Altucher and we start just after James went broke. This wouldn’t be the last time he lost money, and we’ll learn that James has an interesting relationship with risk, in fact we’ll talk a lot about risk in this episode. Regardless, James has been incredibly successful. He’s published 25 books and founded over 20 companies, many of which failed. But it seems that failure is something that has defined James.  His entire career, and for that matter his personality, is incredibly erratic. One year he’ll have 10s of millions of the dollars in the bank, the next close to nothing. And he oscillates between these two extremes frequently. Yet every failure, every challenge is met with resiliency. Every challenge presents an opportunity to learn. From training with the homeless to become a chess-master, to an obsession with computer science, to getting sucked into poker, to making large bets in angel investing, each of these experiences forced James to learn and grow. Some of the lessons t

How can great work be a curse? Today we look at exceptional work, how to deal with it, how to avoid the Sports Illustrated jinx, and how statistical regression can help us make sense of it all. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

We start with Dan Pashman's his live event to promote his food podcast, Sporkful. After seemingly endless hard work and sacrifice, Dan finally felt the excitement, the palpable energy his audience invested into his work. He’s been able to create such an enlivened community around his podcast due to the passion he has for food and high-quality audio storytelling. Today, Sporkful has evolved into something deeper than food; food is just a vehicle Dan uses to explore science, history, culture, and economics. But if we go wayyy back, the podcast started out as a humorous outlet for Dan to ramble on about any given food for 30 minutes. And if we go even further back, to the origin of Dan's love for food, we arrive at his Jewish upbringing, in a family culture centered around eating. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

Does success breed success and does failure breed failure?  We asked Barry Ritholtz what book he recommends to understand the stock market and he recommended the book 'How We Know What Isn't So' by Thomas Gilovich.  We talk about the clustering illusion, coin tosses, basketball, hot hands, and attaching emotion to success and failure. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

Today we talk to  Travis Chappell who starts by describing to us just one of the many rules he was taught to abide by in the small, religious town of Lancaster. Growing up in a structured environment where your appearance, your music, your profession are monitored, it seemed that Travis was destined for a life of rigidity and conformity. However, Travis didn’t follow the path his community paved for him, he forged his own and became the host of Build Your Network and the founder of Guestio. And that entrepreneurial spirit was uncovered at a young age. As soon as Travis could walk, he was shadowing his father in the world of real estate. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

How can you persuade people and your team more effectively? Persuasiveness essentially boils down to two things: expertise and trustworthiness. Expertise describes whether someone is worth listening to; that is how intelligent and knowledgeable the person is about the subject at hand. Trustworthiness describes whether someone should be listened to; that is whether the person has your best interests at heart. To boil it down a little further, expertise is whether they have the knowledge, trustworthiness is whether they are using that knowledge to help you. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

Today we are talking to John Lee Dumas, and much of John’s life, centers around impact. From joining ROTC, to serving in the military, to going to law school, and ultimately to pursuing podcasting, impact is something that John has successfully curated. Now, with the Entrepreneurs on Fire Podcast, John releases interviews with inspirational entrepreneurs and impacts the lives of millions of his listeners. It’s not just his listeners that are rewarded, since 2012, the podcast has brought in a gross income of almost 20 Million dollars. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

How can we easily categorize people’s personality? This is the Founder Wisdom. Where we’ll answer that question by distilling advice from our founders and the books they recommend. Then we’ll show you how we are applying that knowledge ourselves! Last week we talked about how we could categorize emotions into four categories. Interestingly enough we can also do the same thing with personalities. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support

This is Finding Founders, I’m Samuel Donner, and this is the story of Jason Stapleton. Initially we see Jason as a Blackwater mercenary in Iraq and this experience embodies a certain magnitude of intensity that he’s taken with him throughout all his endeavors. He’s been a sniper in the marines, a broke truck washer, a trader, and a wealth coach. Nowadays, he sits safely behind a microphone, hosting his libertarian podcast Wealth, Power and Influence. The though line of his life and his business ventures is built on the core foundation of pursuing liberty and achieving authentic freedom. Growing up, though, he was anything but free. He was stuck in a crummy little town in the middle of nowhere. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support