In this episode of the Science of Success podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jamie, a psychology expert, on the topic of agreements versus expectations. The conversation delved into the distinction between agreements and expectations, highlighting the negative impact of living in a world of expectations. Jamie emphasized that expectations often lead to premeditated resentments, setting oneself up for disappointment and frustration. The discussion then shifted to the concept of the Drama Triangle, a behavioral model developed by Stephen Carpenter in the 1960s. The Drama Triangle consists of three roles - victim, perpetrator, and rescuer - representing negative ways of relating. Jamie explained how individuals can get trapped in these roles, leading to false intimacy and suffering. Jamie provided insights on how individuals can shift from the Drama Triangle to the Green Triangle, which represents healthy ways of relating. By focusing on ownership, boundaries, and negotiation, individuals can empower themselves to make conscious choices and avoid falling into patterns of victimhood or rescuing. The conversation also touched on the importance of addressing shame and fear, which often drive individuals to stay in unhealthy patterns. Jamie highlighted the need to confront shame and fear, as they can cloud one's sense of self-worth and prevent personal growth. By acknowledging and working through shame, individuals can move towards a healthier and more empowered way of living. Overall, the episode offered valuable insights into the power of agreements over expectations, the dynamics of the Drama Triangle, and the importance of confronting shame and fear to foster personal growth and well-being. Jamie's perspective on shifting from victimhood to empowerment through ownership and healthy boundaries provided listeners with practical tools for navigating challenging relationships and situations.

In this transformative episode titled "Smiles That Transform: Unlocking the Power of Positive Energy," we delve into the groundbreaking insights of Dr. Rich Castellano, also known as The Smile Doctor, exploring the profound impact of smiles on our personal and professional lives. Drawing from his best-selling book "The Smile Prescription," we uncover the science and stories behind the life-changing benefits of smiling, from enhanced happiness and health to greater abundance in life. Dr. Castellano challenges entrepreneurs to manage and measure their Emotional Intelligence (EQ) with innovative tools like the SMILE Score, offering a fresh perspective on the critical role of smiles and EQ in achieving success. We explore the intricacies of how our facial expressions not only reflect our internal states but also influence them, and how this understanding can lead to improved patient compliance, sales call success, and overall life satisfaction. Listeners will learn practical strategies for maintaining a positive demeanor even in the face of stress and burnout, fighting resistance to adopt a more positive outlook, and leveraging the power of positive energy to create lasting change in their lives and the lives of those around them. With compelling evidence that smiling more can increase pain tolerance and even extend life expectancy, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to harness their greatest asset—their smile—for a happier, healthier, and more fulfilling life.

In this enlightening episode of "The Art of Supercommunication: Unleashing the Power of Connection," we dive into the transformative power of communication, exploring it as the ultimate superpower that can redefine our relationships and interactions. Our journey takes us through the nuances of the three critical conversations we engage in: practical, emotional, and social, uncovering how an understanding of these layers is crucial for meaningful connections. With vivid examples ranging from a jury room's tense deliberations to the high-stakes world of international espionage and the delicate conversations in medical offices, we illustrate the potent combination of skills required to navigate and influence these interactions effectively. We delve into the Matching Principle, a strategic approach to identifying the type of conversation you're in and aligning your communication style accordingly. Through discussions on looping for understanding, asking deep, impactful questions, and the importance of laughter and active engagement, we reveal communication not just as an art but as a learned skill accessible to anyone—even those who feel awkward or out of their depth in social situations. This episode is an indispensable guide for anyone looking to harness their communicative potential, transform their interactions, and master the secret language of connection.

In this episode we start with a dive into evolutionary psychology and how biases have been programmed into you by millions of years of evolution, look at why our guest condemns the concept of Empathy, how the science demonstrates that empathy has no correlation with doing good in the world, how empathy creates disastrous outcomes, and more with our guest Dr. Paul Bloom

In this episode we discuss how your environment plays a tremendous role in shaping who you are, look at how personality develops and what underscores it, talk about how to engineering your own environment to make yourself more productive and effective, examine at how to battle self sabotage and much more with our guest Benjamin Hardy.

In this episode, we take a journey into the inquiry know as “The Work’ and uncover the 4 question framework that you can use to break down negative thoughts and limiting beliefs. We examine what happens when we argue with reality, look at the difference between being right and being free, explore the causes of suffering, and much more with our guest Byron Katie. Byron Katie is an American speaker, author, and founder of the method of self-inquiry known as “The Work”. She has worked with millions of individuals at both private and public events in prisons, hospitals, treatment centers, universities, and schools. She is the author of three bestselling books and her work has been featured in TIME, The Huffington Post, Oprah, and much more!

In this episode we discuss the danger of getting addicted to your screens. We look at how technology is designed to be as addictive as possible, and how those addictions specifically make you spend more time on things like social media and news that make you less happy. We discuss how screens rob us of time and attention and why it’s so hard to break away from them. We also look at how-how you can structure your environment to spend more time away from your phone and create ways to get out of these addictive behavior loops with our guest Dr. Adam Alter.

In this episode we discuss how to become a “superconnector." We look at the idea that networking is not about tactics, it’s about a fundamental shift in how you think about interacting with people. We examine how to break free from the lazy and shallow networking that social media often creates, discuss why you should never ask “how can I help?”, look at the power of curiosity and asking better questions and much more with our guest Scott Gerber.

In this episode we discuss becoming a SuperLearner. We dig into questions that I’ve pondered for a long time - does speed reading work? Can we actually speed read and increase our reading comprehension? Are there strategies you can use to improve your memory? And perhaps most importantly - how can we align the way we think, learn, and remember with the way our brains actually operate? We go into this and more with our guest Jonathan Levi.

In this episode we discuss how our guest went from a childhood head injury to becoming an accelerated learning expert. We cover memory, speed reading, improving your focus, taking notes like an expert and go deep into tactics for accelerated learning. We talk about the importance of mastering the fundamentals, and get into tons of highly specific and actionable advice you can use today with our guest Jim Kwik.

In this episode we explore emotions and facial expression in depth with one of the world’s top experts - the psychologist who pioneered much of the work in this field - Dr. Paul Ekman. We discuss the 6-7 major universal emotions, how emotional reactions are unchanged across cultures, ages, and even species, we discuss micro expressions, reading people’s faces, how to manage and control your emotions, and much much more.

In this episode we discuss whether time speeds up as we get older, why your life story only makes sense looking in reverse, whether or not brain games actually work, the importance of proactive learning instead of passive learning, why psychology confirms all your worst fears about studying and getting smarter – and much more with a special TWO GUEST interview featuring Dr. Art Markman & Dr. Bob Duke!

In this episode we look at how to live a healthy, happy, successful life - from the inside out. We explore what it means to have an “integrated” brain, look at lessons across vastly different scientific disciplines, and share the accessible, simple strategy you can use in 20 minutes to integrate the most important learnings from scientific research to create an integrated brain, body, and mind - to improve your health, happiness, wellbeing and success with our guest Dr. Dan Siegel.

In this episode we discuss how you create your own reality. We explore the idea that your life experiences are not random or arbitrary, but rather a direct result of your subconscious beliefs. When the conscious and the subconscious conflict, the sub-conscious wins and you’ll never get over your past until you realize how you use it to justify yourself. We dig into the powerful revelation that life only ever changes in the paradigm of action. You must do something differently than what you’ve done before in order to change. All of this and much more with our guest Gary John Bishop.

In this episode we discuss how to beat FOMO - the Fear of Missing Out. How do you overcome the emotional barriers and fears of missing out and saying no to things? How do you get over the awful feeling of turning down opportunities? We share simple actionable strategies for you to say yes to yourself and for you to say yes to what’s really important and actually matters in your life. We share a great strategy you can use to make a huge difference in your life in two minutes or less and we dig into the important concept that in a world drunk on speed, slowness is a superpower - all that much more with our guest Carl Honore.

In this episode we discuss PRIDE – and why it may not be the deadly sin that it’s often cracked up to be. We dig into how the research defines pride, examine the critical distinction between self esteem and narcissism, the deep importance of being able to accept criticism, and look at the difference between strategies of dominance and strategies of prestige with Dr. Jessica Tracy.

In this episode we discuss what Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking all consider the single greatest threat to humanity, why “death” is not binary event that makes you transition from being alive or dead at a specific moment in time, we ask if you would spend $1000 on a chance to live forever, we look at the biology behind cryogenics, vitfrication, and putting your body on biological pause, and we explore why poverty, climate change, war, and all our problems melt away in the face of one massively important issue with our guest Tim Urban.

In this episode we discuss why you should not follow your passion, the two biggest pitfalls people struggle with trying to build a career they love, the incredible importance of DEEP WORK, why deep work is so valuable and how we can cultivate it, as well as how you can structure your lifestyle to attain autonomy and mastery with Cal Newport.

In this episode we discuss the incredible power of kindness, show how kindness triggers “the helpers high” and causes dopamine and oxytocin to flow through your brain, look at study data from 136 countries showing science behind why kindness is so powerful, we walk through several concrete examples you can use RIGHT NOW to take action and be kind to someone today, and much more with John Wang.

In this episode we discuss the errors people make in their reasoning and how to correct them, we explain a number of statistical principles to help sharpen your thinking and make you a better decision maker, why every $1 spent on a “scared straight” program creates $400 of cost for the criminal justice system, the illusion of objectivity, why you should NOT rely on your intuition and much more with Dr. Richard Nisbett.