Lead-Lag Live
Welcome to the Lead-Lag Live podcast, where we bring you live unscripted conversations with thought leaders in the world of finance, economics, and investing. Hosted through X Spaces by Michael A. Gayed, CFA, Publisher of The Lead-Lag Report (@leadlagreport), each episode dives deep into the minds of industry experts to discuss current market trends, investment strategies, and the global economic landscape.
In this exciting series, you'll have the rare opportunity to join Michael A. Gayed as he connects with prominent thought leaders for captivating discussions in real-time. The Lead-Lag Live podcast aims to provide valuable insights, analysis, and actionable advice for investors and financial professionals alike.
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Lead-Lag Live
Kevin Bambrough on Stress Management Techniques, Mitochondrial Optimization, and Achieving Peak Performance through Passion and Purpose
Kevin Bambrough, a prominent figure in finance and private equity, shares a personal story of transformation, highlighting the intricate ties between stress, success, and health. Kevin recounts his journey from a high-powered career to prioritizing well-being, catalyzed by a dramatic marina incident that forced him to re-evaluate his lifestyle and coping mechanisms. This episode promises insights into managing stress for a balanced life, offering listeners a candid glimpse into the emotional shifts that led Kevin to embrace healthier habits and retire early.
Listeners will be captivated by Kevin's exploration into cellular biology and human behavior, drawing parallels between investment strategies and life decisions. He delves into the power of mitochondria, our cellular powerhouses, and their critical role in enhancing mental and physical performance. With the global workspace theory as a backdrop, Kevin investigates how we can retrain our biological systems to unlock our full potential, much like optimizing a network of microprocessors. The episode underscores the journey from fear to personal growth, providing a manual for self-discovery.
Kevin's insights culminate in a reflection on the importance of purpose and passion in achieving peak performance. He contemplates the philosophical question of what truly matters, finding fulfillment in science and biology, and the positive feedback loops they create. As Kevin prepares for an exciting trip to New York, he shares his enthusiasm for future collaborations and the ongoing quest for growth and success. Join us for a compelling narrative on nurturing focus and staying true to one's goals, all while navigating the complexities of life.
The content in this program is for informational purposes only. You should not construe any information or other material as investment, financial, tax, or other advice. The views expressed by the participants are solely their own. A participant may have taken or recommended any investment position discussed, but may close such position or alter its recommendation at any time without notice. Nothing contained in this program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in any jurisdiction. Please consult your own investment or financial advisor for advice related to all investment decisions.
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One of the big takeaways from all the research I did was that our minds, our brain, the energy that we have in our that we need, like you know, the brain's 5% of your body, but it uses 20 to 25% of your energy, and so you know, it seems pretty obvious to me that if you want to be able to, whatever it is your brain's doing, you're working on something, you're thinking, or your body's doing you're if you can up your energy production, you're going to have more power, whether it's power for learning, power for reasoning, power for lifting, running, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:First of all, I want you to talk about, throughout your career being in the industry, how you dealt with stress. You've had a lot of big successes, but with success often comes a lot of struggle and frustration and cortisol levels increasing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that was something that really the health thing and the stress and the enjoyment was something that ultimately led me to decide to walk away. I had sort of racked up the financial score enough personally that I just didn't really see the point. I actually have joked numerous times that there was a point where I'd walk into the office and I'd feel like I'd have to yell cut. I want to ask the director what's my motivation? Why am I here?
Speaker 2:My name, is Michael Guy. I'm the publisher of the Lead Lager Forward. Joining me here is Kevin Bambro, the man, the myth, the man who's lost a lot of weight himself. Kevin, I know you hate talking about yourself, man, but introduce yourself to those who are not familiar with your background, because you've got a hell of an illustrious career.
Speaker 1:The short version or maybe it's an edited version, because I just finished writing a book, as you know, and there's a long version in that book, but the short version is I've been sort been a jack of all trades started in construction, went into tech, always had a love for computers.
Speaker 1:My success in using computers and computer consulting took me into studying markets and ultimately into finance. Got a job with Sprott self-taught, by the way, so that's sort of, I guess, one of my claims to fame or whatever. Ended up going from being an analyst to I got hired as a tech analyst, which was something I actually didn't want to be. Ended up being a research analyst, market strategist, president of Sprott. I ended up being a research analyst, market strategist, president of Sprott Rose really quickly to become, I guess, the president of Canada's largest alternative asset manager. I created a private equity division. Along the way set a bunch of different records personally with portfolio management and private equity, but also got known for finding a lot of multi-bagging stocks, really helped a lot of our various funds perform and set global records.
Speaker 2:But all that pales in comparison to what you've done physically. First of all, I want you to talk about, throughout your career being in the industry, how you dealt with stress. You've had a lot of big successes, but with success often comes a lot of struggle and frustration and cortisol levels increasing. Talk about that because there's a stat that shows that for every week that somebody's traveling, when they're out there prospecting or meeting with clients, they gain one and a half pounds.
Speaker 1:It's not exactly easy to be healthy when you're a high performer yeah, I mean that was something that uh, really the health thing and the stress and the enjoyment was something that ultimately led me to decide to walk away. I had sort of racked up the financial score enough personally that I just didn't really see the point. I actually have joked numerous times that there was a point where I'd walk into the office and I'd feel like I'd have to yell cut. You know like I want to ask the director what's my motivation, why am I here? And I'd feel like I'd have to yell cut. You know, like I want to ask the director what's my motivation, why am I here?
Speaker 1:And I'd been through just too many fights, too much stress. There was a lot of. You know, as companies grow, people start going in different directions. But also in the private equity world you're often dealing with a lot of management struggles. You know having to replace management teams or just you know it's not as easy as selling a stock where you just punch out. And I was actually quite used to the stress I got. I sort of stress inoculated myself for portfolio manager very to be a portfolio manager for stocks like publicly traded stocks very early on and um, but the private equity stuff it was, uh, it didn't have to keep me on the market hours, but, uh, there was a lot of different stresses and, uh, at the time, I just, you know, it was the time to sort of walk away, for for me, and I'd been on a trend like most of the you know, by the way, I retired at 43.
Speaker 1:And at that, leading up to that, I'd been sort of on a similar treadmill that a lot of people are on, where they kind of, you know you, you focus on work, you add a few pounds, and then you're, oh, it's Christmas or whatever, and you know, you add a couple more and then you're like, oh, it's new year's, let's lose some. And but, bit by bit, you know, know you're aging and you're kind of adding that one pound a decade sorry, one pound a year adds up to 10 pounds a decade. Next thing, you know, you find yourself 10, 20, you know you. So you find yourself 50 years old, which is where I was a few years ago 50, just turning, uh, 55 soon. And, um, you know you're 30 pounds overweight or more and you have to sort of sort of check yourself. So what are you, what are you going to do? Overweight or more? And you have to sort of check yourself what are you going to do?
Speaker 2:There's a Romans right that says sound mind, sound body right and that kind of connection. A large part of the industry also is just about not just stress but overall anxiety because you know you're having to talk to clients having to deal with unpredictable markets, whether it's private equity or public. Clients having to deal with unpredictable markets, whether it's private equity or public.
Speaker 1:Was there a point where you said to yourself like this is actually killing me? Yeah, I mean, I sort of get into that in the book and that's a good lead into the, I guess a couple of things. One there was a late, I'll touch on it. There was a. I had a traumatic episode a couple of years ago but early on. My father's health growing up suffered up and down and he was on these you know fairly serious health swings and ultimately died at the age of 51. And that was always sort of lingering in my mind Like, am I going down that path?
Speaker 1:At certain times in my life I was actually very depressed, where right around the time when he died obviously was one of my real low points in life. I was 23 years old and kind of um, to say depressed is sort of an understatement. I, I remember you know basically doing if you think about the protocols for health that we would be following now and you'd be following and everyone's talking about circadian rhythm and all this type of stuff. You know healthy eating, you know all those things. I was doing everything exactly the opposite. You know sleeping in uh, didn't want to participate in the day. You know having some drinks, eating, you know, ordering pizza, uh, just eating crap. And I felt no passion, no purpose and more than just depression. I was, was sort of thinking am I, am I broken Like my father? Am I never going to be happy? And, by the way, he, he was, um, he was a very successful businessman who ultimately had um problems with alcoholism and uh, uh, cirrhosis of the liver was the final thing that sort of took him down after an operation for for cancer, so for cancer. So that really stuck in my mind and led to me deciding that I needed to sort of walk away at 43 because I'd made enough money to retire and I'm, you know, a couple of times over and I was like I'm not where I should be. I could feel the stress, the habits that I had learned from my father of you know, you're, you're wound up and you know I need a break after work, let's go for a drink, let's have this comfort food. And I started sort of realizing I was stuck in that cycle and I needed a new lifestyle.
Speaker 1:But it still took me probably, you know, eight years or seven years of retirement and when I was in retirement I was doing trying to do all different things and explore different ways what should I do, what's the point of life? And going down all these rabbit holes reading all types of different stuff, and I ended up really digging into some. I have a background I'm half Finnish and so I always grew up with the cottage and the sauna cold plunge, basically. You come out of the sauna in the spring or the fall and even times when you know we've cracked, we crack the ice and jump in the water and you feel the surge of dopamine and this energy. And I read some books like Breath by James Nestor, I think, and the Wim Hof book and a few other ones a couple of summers ago and I was sort of getting back into this deep meditation stuff that I'd been doing when I was young. You know, um sort of a. I'd read about chakra stuff when I was young and actually it pulled me out of the depression that I was in in my early 20s.
Speaker 1:And then I got into self self-teaching and so I took those skills from teaching myself computers, teaching myself finance to start really digging into this health biology side of things, you know, with the goal of trying to. You know I'm trying to optimize myself. So I'm like, okay, what protocols do I need? And I'm going to start bringing these things into my life. But, like most people, you know, you're sort of reading these and you're thinking about them, like the recipes, and you're like, okay, I'm going to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And you know I was making these modest improvements. And then you know, you, you know if I guess for years, you know you do the old, I'm going to get healthy and do some stuff around January, february, and then you're like I feel pretty good, good enough, let's, let's, you know, slide back to the old habits.
Speaker 1:And this and this particular incident I'll bring up here. This trauma had happened a couple summers ago and a woman, an elderly woman, unfortunately, drove a car into the lake at my marina when I happened to be arriving and I ended up. You know, I was like sort of first responder. There was actually a woman right there screaming. I heard a scream. I was actually loading my boat with some construction materials and I hear this scream. I run across and, you know, kick off my shoes, I dive in the water and the car's down in the water, upside down, and I managed to get three car doors open. I'm up, you can imagine. I'm up and down 12 times. I'm trying to open car doors and you know your heart's racing and you know you're trying to control your breathing, control your mind, and you're focusing in and anyway, I, uh, I couldn't find her in the car. There was airbags and I think she was up in the back. Um, maybe she had tried to escape the water, she just had her seat belt, we don't know. But, uh, we ended up getting a tractor on it, pulled it out of the water and, um, you know, by the time I got out of the water, there was a police and everyone was arriving on the scene and, uh, somebody screamed. You know, I see a body or I see an arm, and they pulled her out and unfortunately she had passed away and they, they managed to resuscitate her, um, but she died on the way to the hospital and I ended up going off.
Speaker 1:You know, I just sort of wandered away from the scene and I, you know, I typed a note out on my phone to send to the marina um, my friend at the marina that runs it and, um, you know, like just sort of saying what happened, because I know the police are going to want to talk to me. And then I ended up arriving at my cottage and I'm sitting there and I'm stewing and I'm sort of like, well, I did everything I could. You, you know, I'm like breathing's back to normal, but just it's. It's like this anxiety, this, this tingling in me, you know of. You know, I guess I'm in somewhat of a shock, right, depending on what, what terms you want to use and then, all of a sudden, it's just a feeling came over me, like I'm going to have some drinks tonight. I need, like I want. I just knew it, like it wasn't about needing or what I'm going to be drinking tonight. So, and I want cigarettes and I hadn't had cigarettes in quite a while, you know, I hop back in the boat, go to the Marina, buy a pack of smokes, get back there and I'm like start drinking and I'm like sharing the news, talking to some people a little, you know, getting a little upset as I'm reliving the story. Anyway, I drank about two and a half bottles of wine, smoked a pack of cigarettes, I think, I had a half a tub ice cream and went to bed at like one 30, you know, teary eyed.
Speaker 1:And, uh, the next day I wake up and you know, I walk it down to the dock and I see, you know, there's this diving mask and I'd been screaming get me a mask, get me a mask. And I see this mask and I'm like where the fuck were you yesterday when I needed you? You know, it like comes into my head and then you know, and I'm hung over and I'm feeling like shit. I'm like why do I do that? Why would I? Just because I'm upset, I go to these things, right. I'm like I got to dig into this more. I want to. I want to try to change this wiring that I have.
Speaker 1:And I'd been reading a lot about epigenetics and wiring and I realized I'd inherited all these different little triggers and you know habits, you know these go-tos, my default biology from my father and my mother. But you know, I got some great stuff from them. But I got a few things that I was like, you know, maybe it'd be better to you know, not to compare myself to Newton or anything, but I've actually you know, it's like the apple falling on the head and then discovering gravity. For me it was. I decided like I'm feeling like crap. I'm going to do my regular thing and have a little sauna and jump in the lake and I'll feel better, drink some water, you know, freshen up and then get back to the, the project I was working on, and you know I'm in the sauna and then, just as I'm about to go, get in the water. It's just like this feeling and it was like.
Speaker 1:You gotta remember, I grew up, I love water, I love being, I love, you know, going to the sauna, swim, I dive a scuba, love it. Um, all of a sudden, I just felt this strange aversion, like this uncomfortableness, and I dove in the water, and you know, in the dark, murky water, and that's where it was really murky and dark in the Marina, you can imagine, with a car in there and weeds and all the crap in the Marina, and so I, you know, I couldn't really see well, and as I dive into the water, it's just like, yeah, right in front of my face is this, you know, I can see the car door. Still, you know, like it's like my mind's trying to make out an image in the in, in, in this murky water, and it's creating this visual and I, and at one side it hit me like wow, I am nervous, I feel uncomfortable in the water. But at the same time I got out of the water and like holy shit, like I can feel it in myself, like I could feel it more than just. It's not just this, I've been changed, I've got an aversion. And then, instead of um, you know, letting that affect me, like you know, when you a lot of times trauma, you know things happen, you get aversion. You end up kind of going I'm never doing that again, I'm going away. Well, you know, I grew up with the get back on the horse. My dad one of the great things about my father is always used to push me got to just have positive experiences and you know, and I'm going to get back, I want the comfort back. It's worth doing. I, you know, it's one of my loves.
Speaker 1:But what struck me? It was profound then, cause I was like, wow, if I could change, if my cells and my legs and my body could change in my stomach and everything, these nerves, these, you know, if that could change that much, like that from you know, like a 15 minute traumatic experience, um, maybe I could figure out how to like change more things. I could actually reprogram like I'm much more malleable than maybe I thought, and that's what led me down this whole deep dive into cellular biology, and and then I started unlocking all these amazing parallels, because one of the things you'll know, like as a guy looking for investments, you look at patterns, right. So you're always looking at patterns, and then you're looking for analogies. You're like, oh, this is like this, this is like this.
Speaker 1:Well, for me, when I started uncovering all of this, I realized, wow, this biological pattern is very similar to human behavior and it actually relates to market behavior and it actually relates to everything from FOMO to why some people don't want to look at their portfolios and why you avoid your taxes and then you end up in the lot. Or you don't study. You think I should study, but you don't feel like studying to the last minute. You're like, oh, I got to study and now it's too late. And now you're in a panic and you know, and you don't perform as best you should, but you're dealing with things sometimes on this emergency basis or on an as needed basis. You're going with your preference, so anyway, what do you think of that?
Speaker 2:There's a lot I want to unpack. I didn't actually realize about your father at that age. My father passed at the age of 60. I was 26 at the time, in 2008, smoked, had a bottle of wine every night, was managing a hedge fund, managing large-cap growth institutional portfolios always stressed, but also knew how to enjoy life, and I think that probably your dad and my dad had the similarity of to your point. Get back up right, just keep going, keep going, you can do it right. It's interesting, though, because it's like do as I say, not as I do, right. So my father was a fighter, right, but when it came to his own health, he really just didn't care. He gave in right to the poor health choices, as it sounds like your father did as well, and it's sort of more than saying given in, because I don't want you to say that you know.
Speaker 1:It kind of like triggers me a little bit, because it's my own father too and you're very, I'm sure you are. I don't I don't see it as giving in and I want to. It's really just about habits, choices, and when you understand, when you dig into the biology, you realize you're doing what works, you're doing what you need, and sometimes it's about I work so hard, I do this and I need this now, and that's for a lot of people it's like I need this break. This is that's for a lot of people. It's like I need this break. This is how I get what I need my nourishment, my replenishment. I need my serotonin. You know you need the neurochemicals and you don't realize that you can get them somewhere else and have a more positive effect in a longer lifespan or health span.
Speaker 1:But a large part of this is also that we don't have an education system anywhere in the world where any of this is either taught or explained, and we're taking everything from our parents right, who also weren't taught any of this stuff to begin with, which is why I'm writing the book, because the motivation for writing the book is that I feel like I've got to share this stuff and it just it's a passion, like I just feel like I think I could really help a lot of people here to really give them the tools so they could look inside themselves and find those little triggers, those drives, and it's part of understanding how it all works will allow you to do that.
Speaker 1:It unlocks the keys. I kind of call my book like, um, it's like the manual for the human body that you never really is you needed. And it's like the manual for the human body that you never really you needed. And it's more than just the health side, it's the, it's deep psychology and how to like, retrain and understand how your consciousness works so that you can then focus on, you know, having a long health span um, you know, the mind, the body, good physical health, but also having enjoyment and then also achieving, like you know, upping your income, upping your performance, upping your efficiency in whatever it is you do.
Speaker 2:But that's not easy, right In the sense that you have to look within, right and spend time with yourself, and nobody likes to actually do that. Everyone just wants to be told what to do, not what makes me the way that I am must be told what to do, not what makes me the way that I am.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's funny, you know. In some ways, I guess I should just sort of frame what I did a little bit, because I approached the health side of things. When I decided I was going to do it, I was like, okay, I'm a bit of an extreme guy. I'm known as being rather extreme and sort of an all in person Right, and so I'm a bit of an extreme guy. I'm known as being rather extreme and sort of an all in person Right, and so I'm like, instead of just quitting drinking or quitting smoking or cutting out this, I'm like give me all the protocols of doing them all at once, which sounds most people. I actually said what I was going to do on Twitter, just because one of the things I read is you should tell people what you're going to do and it makes you kind of stick to it more. And so I sort of announced that I was going to do all these things a couple of years ago and people are like, oh, that's crazy, you're going to fail. And even people I know like close friends are like oh, you sure you're not biting off too much and I actually found it way it was in work Like it was, because I saw big results quickly and the biggest difference was is that I use the science approach to the whole thing, because I understood, or one of the big takeaways from all the research I did, was that our minds, our brain, the energy that we have in our that we need, like you know, the brain's five percent of your body, but it uses 20 to 25 percent of your energy.
Speaker 1:Seems pretty obvious to me that if you want to be able to, whatever it is your brain's doing you're working on something, you're thinking, or your body's doing you're if you can up your energy production, you're going to have more power, whether it's power for learning, power for reasoning, power for you know, lifting, running, whatever it is you want, you want to have that power and the power house is the mitochondria. That's very popular in conversations these days. But it's more than that and that's the amazing thing is, you know we've got 30 to 40 trillion cells in the body, but we've got like 10 quadrillion mitochondria and that they produce the energy for ourselves, and in a regular cell there's maybe 100 or 300. But in our brain you've got 10,000 to 30,000 or more of these little mitochondria. I don't know if you have that image, I don't know how to bring it up here, but I just find it fascinating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got the video here of a look at the mitochondria and all the movements that are taking place.
Speaker 1:Anyway, when you look into that and I don't know if you could go full screen on that for the viewers, but I just find it fascinating, I actually like to look at it while I'm talking. So you know that's what's going on in ourselves 10 quadrillion of these little guys in our 30 to 40 trees. It's just insane. And not only are they producing the energy we need to like flex muscles or think or move, but they're actually responsible for all the signaling that happens throughout our you know the neuro, our neurons, communicate in different, six different ways. Our cells communicate and it's sort of mainly separated into physical messages, like creating molecules and releasing them in the blood, or electric messages, sending electric signals to each other, and that's what forms our whole consciousness. And so we got if these guys are healthy and strong and and you get them focused and trained, you could do anything like that's. You know you're going to be at your max potential, and so that's what I started focusing on and that's what started delivering me results where I felt better right away. I upped my energy levels and it's following those protocols. But the interesting thing was is that when you start looking at cognitive abilities and the idea that I actually went at a really deep dive. I don't know if you've ever heard of this. They call it the global workspace theory, anyway, the, the idea being, when I first heard that term I was like what it actually? I didn't even want to read about it. A friend sent it to me and it made me think it was going to be some boring. Uh, you know economic, you know model, and you know I thought what does this have to do with what I'm interested? He goes no dig in. And so what actually is? It's sort of a model for how our consciousness works. And so you can picture that if you're in a relaxed state, you're in a relaxed state and your mind's wandering, and so you've actually got these different cortexes and different parts of your brain and it's, it's the you're, you're, the seed of your consciousness is in where you have the most neurons and the most activity. But when you're relaxed and you know, you're like oh, should I? Uh, what do I want for dinner tonight? Oh, and then you're over here, right? Oh, oh, you really should have washed the, you know whatever, right, and you, I should do this. And then, and then all of a sudden, you're like oh, I really got to do this now and then you're focused, and so that idea that there's this, the global workspace, is how thoughts are sort of percolating and where the spotlight of your focus goes. And so when you start thinking, okay, I got to keep going back to analogies so we don't get too theoretical and bore people. But the amazing thing about this is so you're trying to focus right and you can be like, oh, I need to focus on the markets, I need, I'm doing some research here and it's really important.
Speaker 1:But then, to use an extreme example, you stepped on some broken glass or you burned your hand because you weren't really thinking about the present moment. What happens? Those cells scream at you, they're like, ah, and you stop thinking about whatever you're thinking about and you focus on what. It's actually a very high frequency and it's this. The atp, the mitochondria, just go boom and they throw out this burst of energy. So as I'm thinking about that, I'm like, okay, well, this, let's go beyond global workspace theory the way it's been presented to me in these books and everything I read this. But bernard bars, by the way, he's been working on this stuff since the 80s and the model model, the global workstation theory model, actually relates to AI.
Speaker 1:A lot of this works together with how do we create all these microprocessors and get them to? You know they're going to work on this and work on this, and then they agree on something and then they spit out the result. And so you know I keep jumping around but the idea. There's a couple of things I want to get. So brain runs on power and runs on frequency, so you think about cycles, right, you've got your cycles, cycle of your cognition, just like you know the basic computers.
Speaker 1:You get back in the early late nineties. You know I was a computer guy and one of my first internet powered computers, one that I could get on the internet, was like 33 megahertz right, and it's that there's about 33 million cycles per second. Right, it could little tasks, right, little infinitesimal tasks, um 33 million per second. Today's computers you're up to like five gigahertz and you've got multi-processors right. So it's like five gighertz, eight cores or 16 core processors. So you're doing 16 tasks at once and at five gigahertz it's off the charts in terms of speed.
Speaker 1:But the human body it runs between, say, when we're sleeping we're at like 4.5 to 4 gigahertz and when we're really like right now, I'm pretty jacked up talking to you. You know I might get up into the a hundred gigahertz or more Right, and if you're super excited max flow state you're dialed in. You can get up into a. You know you're in the zone in a sport you could be humming at like a 200 or 250 frequency. Now when pain shoots through you or something absolutely shocking, it could be a spike of a thousand Hertz. But the human body is much different than a computer because we have this 10 quadrillion or 30 trillion cells and 10 quadrillion mitochondria. You could almost think of all these little mitochondria as like little mini microprocessors. So we're doing all these little things and working and it turns out that even compared to a one of the you know, a super powerful pc, today our bodies are doing more things every second by a tune of like 40 to 60,000 times more little instructions and little routines are happening in us which just you know.
Speaker 2:It's just mind-blowing what's actually going on yeah, yeah, I don't know and but I want to get into sort of, how do you, how do you even to get into sort of how do you, how do you even go about that sort of retraining. I mean, first of all, what do you, what do you yourself do, and what does the research suggest when one should do right? I mean, when it comes to trying to retrain the biological aspects to get a better, you know outcome yeah, well, part of it is understanding.
Speaker 1:I have to just finish one thing on the understanding part, because where consciousness goes relates to this power and frequency. So you have to have that understanding and you've got to feel it, you've got to grasp it, because a good analogy for this is imagine, you like music and you may have heard that when a band's playing music together, they all get in sync, right. When a band's playing music together, they all get in sync, right, they're all in focus and they actually their brain waves go into the same frequency and they get literally in sync because they're playing the song and they're doing their thing. And so you can picture that when you're working on a problem, you're actually using a whole bunch of cells in an area of your brain and it's like an orchestra trying to play some music. But it's doing a task and they're all this region of your brain is all in sync, and so you, you then have another area that jumps in and maybe it's gonna say uh, you picture the orchestra as an open air thing and they're doing acoustic, right, they're acoustic, playing acoustic music in the park, and then all of a sudden, a bunch of guys plug in their guitars and start playing, you know, punk metal at a very high volume, it totally breaks the concentration. They can't continue. And so that idea of frequency, of recognizing why, why are you getting distracted, why is this coming in, and how to like? Um, you know, it's through meditation in part, but there's a bunch of other techniques and just by the more you practice getting into this zone or flow state in different aspects of your life, you can then say, okay, now I need to focus in and I need to, I need to. You can get there easier in many different tasks, right? So it's not just in sport, it's in study, it's learning, it's you know, know.
Speaker 1:And obviously, when we're dealing with the markets and I think you know it's a lot to get into I mean my book. If I were to turn it into an audio book, which I plan to someday, it's going to be, you know, I don't know, probably 12 or 14 hours or something like that. So it's really hard to summarize all the different techniques, but there's a whole bunch. And it's it's really hard to summarize all the different techniques, but there's a whole bunch, and it's sort of like breaking down into little habits. But the key thing is and I read the atomic habits and the tiny habits.
Speaker 1:And the big difference is in my approach is understanding this idea about frequency and power and amplitude and order and feedback and reward and optimization and preparation, and so if you're just like an AI computer, it needs all this power, right? You know there's all this talk today and you know I'm sure that people watching this hoping I'm going to talk uranium, will say, oh, you know, it's so exciting right now that the power needs for AI are going to cause a shortage of power and is resulting in this big investment in nuclear power and the same thing for electric vehicles, and so we have to get into nuclear and such. So there's your little tie in there, but where it ties into is our bodies. The same way, the more you engage in these things, you're ramping up focus and you're consuming more power, and so it's one thing to get the base thing. It's another thing to start like the base power.
Speaker 1:It's another thing to start being able to control where your focus is, and part of that is realizing that you can only keep doing certain tasks for a certain amount of time, but as you train you can extend that time, just like you know. It's like you don't want to go out and try to run a marathon. You want to work your way up to it, and it's the same thing about studying and practicing. And we have this thing called neuroplasticity, where our brains grow the health of our mitochondria. You can see, I'm just bubbling now. I jump around like crazy because I'm so, uh, I'm so wired these days. You know, I haven't had a drink in over a year, so, uh, I'm pretty jacked isn't that funny how, like, removing things actually makes you more energized yeah, and you know I'm actually working on building this like a media company to to talk about these.
Speaker 1:This is like a main core theme because I believe if you fix your, your consciousness, you fix yourselves. Uh, it spills over this three pillars, I call it the the mind, body and finance. It all ties together and, um, you know. So we're trying to incorporate the protocols and the strategy so we don't burn out trying to build this business.
Speaker 1:Because I do have a tendency to like I just want to work, work, work, work. I want to read, I want to write, I want to keep focusing, I want to research. I keep finding great things to work on, work, work, work, work. I want to read, I want to write, I want to keep focusing, I want to research, I keep finding great things to work on. So I got to slow myself down and then you feel like you get the burnout. Well, you know, switching states is a really important thing. When I go down, when I feel like I'm burning out and I can't read anymore, you know I hit the gym, do some exercise or some other state where I'm moving around and exercise or some other state where I'm moving around, and it actually gives that area of your brain a chance to rest. You're increasing your, your blood flow, um, and what?
Speaker 1:Some of the things I'm concluding to just to give you a tease as to where it's going in the book is that, um, we, you know the idea that we have this nine to five work day and, uh, you know the number of days we work a week and the number of days we work.
Speaker 1:It's killing us, it's killing too many people, and it's not only that, it's completely inefficient. And I think what we're going to be able to show is we get more testing and we're using more, um, you know, bio monitoring equipment, and we're looking at truly trying to optimize how we, we work. We're going to get into something like, maybe you know, for, especially if you're doing like computer work, desk work, it's like four to six hours a day is probably enough that you could do if you're super focused in those times and you're doing it in like 15 to 20 minute bursts, and then you're like, ok, I need a break, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do something different Switch, let this area rest Right, recharge the batteries and then come back again and then you're able to focus. In that there's going to be a dramatic change in how we think about the workplace but how we design our homes.
Speaker 2:Okay, so so is the. Is the ultimate plan to sort of be the go-to source for all things related to not just improving your health but improving your biological state and how that can make you a better performer, because it seems like you know everyone leads with a focus on the job as opposed to invest in yourself. I guess you're saying like what's my focus?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I look at it like I need to. I need to have purpose, right, I need to have, I need to. I need to pursue passion projects Like what do I want to do, how should we, or how what's the goal? You know it gets back to and I've been very, I've been very philosophical lately, like what's worth doing? I mean I've been very fortunate that I could retire so young. So I'm like what's worth doing? What's the point, what's the purpose?
Speaker 1:And I realized, as I started getting back into this research, into science and biology, that I just I love it, like I love reading and researching because I get my dopamine, I get my neurochemicals. You know, um, when you get into the flow state, they say the path to the flow state is this passion, purpose and curiosity. And so, um, when it comes to me doing, uh, brain work, I know I'm like I need passion projects. I want, I want things that I could really focus. I know I'm like I need passion projects, I want things that I could really focus in. That I'm curious, like, hey, is there a better way to explain this? Can I help people? It makes me very passionate and focused and then I get the reward circuit right. That's how I fire up my dopamine Like I get literally you can get it's like getting high, but in a different way. Dopamine Like I get literally you can get it's like getting high, but in a different way.
Speaker 1:One thing I also always like to point out to people, to sort of frame this thing, is that you know, there's times in my life where I've kind of been going down this path where I was thinking like, oh, am I just leading a hedonistic lifestyle? Am I just sort of pursuing pleasures and the you know the balance? Oh, I deserve a break, and sure, I want these nice foods and you know to have a drink and you know. But but I also was getting ground down in energy because I was making bad choices that were draining me. And I guess my new philosophy is is that I want to be in the flow state, be in the zone, as much as possible. So that means I have to be right, sizing challenges all the time. Right, I have to be challenging myself. I have to be, uh, pursuing passion. I've got to be following my curiosities and I have to write do the right mix of, uh, some physical things, like you know, whether it's sports or activities or free diving or going fishing or whatever, uh, and then I'm mixing in activities where I'm like super in the zone.
Speaker 1:I really want to dial in and look at investments, or I want to look at, and I'm looking at all three, like, at the end of the day, what am I going to do in my retirement? Well, I need to monitor my health. I want to monitor my physical health and my mental health. That's two of the main pillars. And the other side is I want to keep. You know, why shouldn't I make money? Why shouldn't I keep trying to make more money? Because I wouldn't mind a nicer fishing boat or I wouldn't mind be able to One of the things I actually want non-profit in a way.
Speaker 1:So I got one thing. They say when you're in the flow and everything's going right, if you were to sit down and ask me all the things I'm working on, all the things I want to work on, I could just keep going and going and going. That's because I'm so hyped up and so enthusiastic about, about life and it's just a. It's a. It's a sea change from where I was a couple years ago and it's because I'm getting those neurochemicals all the time, and I'm generating them through doing stuff and it's a positive feedback loop that just keeps growing do you have a sense of when the book's going to be ready?
Speaker 1:Right now I'm actually just retooling a little part. I tried to restructure it. I mean, I think you can see and maybe the feedback. I'm interested to see the feedback from people. I mean, I really my mind goes into. I like to go into the minutiae. I get very.
Speaker 1:I like to try to find analogies to take complicated things and make them simple, but I do like trying to explain complicated things, which for some people becomes overload. I lose them, they burn and so they, you know, you find yourself flipping through the page and I have to keep going back and going. How do I make sure I'm leading the person where we need to go? Because I am a bit um, you know, I jump around a lot and I have a lot of background, so I got to make sure that I bring people there. You know, one of the guys I'm working with on my book right now is saying I got to meet people where they're at and I want to tell um, I want to tell this story through story, and it's partly it was explaining the different times of my life, including the, the investment side, because so much of this and this idea of focus and frequency relates to the training of yourself for investing. So if you're getting distracted by NVIDIA or you're looking at what's Bitcoin doing, are you actually going to buy Bitcoin or are you actually going to buy NVIDIA at this point in time? I don't think you should. If you're focused on the biggest companies in the world, you're not going to find the next 10-bagger because the biggest company in the world is probably not going to 10-bag. I mean, it's how often when something becomes amongst the biggest companies in the world, despite them being high volatility and sure, you can mess around and try to trade options, but that's trading psychology and short-term moves much harder to predict than trying to look at long-term trends. So the FOMO, the frequency of this mania when stocks are bubbling and everybody's excited, it draws people in, it attracts them and they're like, oh, I should be looking at this and it's like, no, you shouldn't be. You should be looking over here where no one's looking, because that's where you're going to find this deep value.
Speaker 1:And I explain in the book how I have trained myself to do that. You know, when I see nobody looking somewhere, I'm curious. And it's this philosophy that started from my father as an early. You know, one of my earliest memories maybe is him reading Robert Frost's poem to me about the road not taken and me picturing. You know that, the two paths in the woods and I get excited. My dopamine gets fired up when I'm looking at that path. It's, you know, a little bit more rough around the edges and you can't see down it and you're wondering, oh, am I going to stumble into this, am I? No one's been down there today. Is there going to be an animal? Can I see a deer? Or you know, as you start building a philosophy and going the extra mile all the time, I want to go dig for what no one's looking at, find it before others do, and you get that excitement from it.
Speaker 2:That's one of my favorite poems by Frost. I actually have a long history using that as a quote in some of my writings. Kevin, I know you want to. You know probably get the word out once the book is obviously fully published. But for those that want to track you right now, where can they follow you?
Speaker 1:Oh, I mean, just follow me on Twitter and you'll see. I'll update my bio with other links, as I'm still my to do list is things like get the website ready and all that type of stuff, but I'm going to start doing. I want to do more of these videos. I'd like to do some more pre-recorded with you and actually one of the things I want to do with AI. I've been studying AI a lot and I've actually got a bunch of tools. I'm training bots now and stuff. It's just incredible the advancements.
Speaker 1:And I think that, if we're going to do this, what I want to do with energetic media. I want to be able to tell these stories. I want to be able to tell these lessons. I basically want to teach, but I want to teach as best I can and I think to do that having maximum respect for the viewer's time, trying to really distill down the message and work with a team of people that can say look, you know, we're obviously having a good conversation. It's going to be interesting to some people, but could take it you and I could take this to the next level and bring in more visual imagery. Um, so it's more visceral because two things happen that idea about analogies and helping you remember, but the the more we can bring visual and sound and good stories to fire people's what they call their mirroring neurons, to get them in the first person. So they light up, then we're off to the races. That then we're actually teaching and they can feel it. Then then they get inspired. You know, I talk about it like um.
Speaker 1:A good example is, as you know, as a kid you went and saw rocky, maybe right. Or you saw a james bond movie and you come out of the theater and you're just like all right, you know, and you're like give me some eggs, I want to punch this. That type of enthusiasm is what we need to bring to the viewer. So they go. You know, I want to look at this, I want to research this and not like, oh, I don't really want to. You know, this isn't pleasurable and the big message, one of the main messages I want to to give people is, is that this idea of changing we're very malleable. We can change much quicker than we thought and the key is that we are getting rid of bad habits, but you're appreciating what they did for you. So you know what, why was I choosing the drinking and the smoking or this or whatever. And what neurochemicals was I getting? What? What was I getting? And what I'm doing is I'm really focused on trying to replace those habits with something better that does the same thing but more.
Speaker 1:And then you fall in love with your new lifestyle, one habit at a time, like if you were to think about who you are today versus a few years ago. And you have these new routines and you're like I wouldn't go back there. Why would it, you know? And so it's. You can't, you can't just think it's. What's hard is going. I'm going to, you know, normally on Thursdays, I watch my favorite show or something, and I sit there on the couch with my glass of wine and maybe some cheese or a chocolate, or this is my little night routine. Well, you can't expect to sit on the couch, watch Netflix without the wine, right? Because you're going to feel like something's missing, right? This is not fun. This is not as fun. So, but you start finding new things and I even joke, like in in tiny habits and atomic habits. Have you? Have you glanced over those books ever?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, actually I have the audible version of atomic habits. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they talk about habit stacking and whatnot right, and you know this idea of you know substitution, right, and that all is fine and dandy. But you, you know I was joked like if you try to give up cocaine, you're not replacing it with washing the dishes. Okay, like it's just it's not happening. So you know, maybe at first you're going to be like and for me, one of the big things that helped was and I wasn't giving up cocaine, I was giving up these other you know, stimulants and depressants, but it was dopamine I needed.
Speaker 1:And hitting the cold plunge, whatever. I was like, oh, I feel like I need this. I'm going to put my ass in the cold plunge. Now I'm focused in again, I'm re-centered, my breathing's changed, I get the surge of dopamine and I'm ready to go. And you're taking up maybe different activities that give you this surge. So the difference between somebody who is successful in their work and super healthy and someone who's not is they're both dopamine addicts. Okay, we're all addicts, but but the healthy, successful people learn to get dopamine from things that make them smarter and stronger, and that's, that's what I want to teach.
Speaker 1:That's that's what I want to get dopamine from things that make them smarter and stronger, and that's what I want to teach, that's what I want to get people to feel, so that they're not living in this world of denial. The path to this thing is on this journey. You're like, oh, I don't want to give these things, I can't imagine giving them up, and so another good analogy is thinking about when you're taught to drive a car. What do they say? You need to look down the road Life. Thinking about when you're taught to drive a car. What do they say? Like you know, you need to look down the road. Life is full of ditches.
Speaker 1:If you concentrate on the ditches, you're going to end up in the ditch yeah what you need to do is you need to focus on where you want to go, and then you get there yep, speaking of that, I have to head to new york.
Speaker 2:Socket change, uh for a bell ringing everybody. Uh, make sure you uh try kevin bambrough on x and uh, we see, I think he and I are going to be doing some stuff together.
Speaker 1:I hope so. I appreciate his energy.
Speaker 2:Thank you, buddy, for watching Cheers.
