Brain Hacks for Business Growth with ST Rappaport

Episode 46 – Transcript + Timestamps

Brain Hacks for Business Growth with ST Rappaport

Introduction

[00:00:00] Yvonne Heimann: Oh yeah, guys, you guessed it. We are back to another episode of Boss Your Business. And today guys, we’re talking all efficiency today. I have a fellow efficiency nerd here. And as let’s see how found her way to efficiency. You guys are already starting to know how I found my way here.

[00:00:18] To introduce my guest today, ST Rappaport is a brain engineer, this kind of stuff, who works with high achieving entrepreneurs to unleash their potential via peak brain performance, as they assist them with improving their 28 thinking skills so they can remove overwhelm, get more done in less time and maximize their productivity with more ease and flow.

[00:00:44] And if you guys been around for literally just five minutes. This is going to be fun, because I love this kind of stuff. The whole brain hacking, body hacking, how are we just being our own [00:01:00] worst enemy, all the things. I’m excited to have you.

[00:01:05] ST Rappaport: Hey, I’m so excited to be here with you. Thank you for having me.

[00:01:09] Yvonne Heimann: Thanks so much for coming on. So, how does one become a brain engineer? I’m assuming one doesn’t just wake up in the morning and it was like, Oh yeah. Let’s be a brain engineer.

[00:01:22] ST Rappaport: No. Officially you have to go through a training and then you’re a brain engineer, a couple of years process. And I’ve done that. But it actually started back when I was 11 years old. I was struggling with reading and went to a lot of reading tutors and spent a lot of time out of the classroom in which my parents weren’t very happy about, especially when there was really high bills and they weren’t really seeing results.

[00:01:46] And so they decided to go and do something else about it. And they brought in brain engineers to help me improve how I was actually thinking. So we did none of the typical reading stuff that you do when [00:02:00] you’re going to reading tutor, we literally improved your, my thinking, like how my brain was actually thinking.

[00:02:06] And because of that automatically my reading improved, but not only did my reading improve also every single other area in school did, socially, academically, like my confidence went up and it was at that time that I knew that I had to learn this. I didn’t realize it’d be my whole life though, but I did know that I wanted to learn to get trained how to be a brain engineer.

[00:02:27] Yvonne Heimann: I love that. So how did you go from, Ooh, this is helping me in so many different ways. I’m like literally in so many different ways. What was your path to getting where you at now?

[00:02:43] ST Rappaport: Yeah. I started the training when I was 17. Even though it’s a couple years process as you’re doing it, you start working with people. And at the time I started working with children similar to me, like they were having struggles in school.

[00:02:58] And [00:03:00] during this process, like I love learning, like I was always taking coach, always taking programs, always like working with coaches. Like I just love this type of things. And I took a Tony Robbins course called Rapid Planning Method, which is essentially a way to plan based on your motivation instead of your to do list.

[00:03:20] That was like, that was pretty cool. Like I’m a really big planner, but is there a way to do it where it’s not just like checking things off your list or what you think you have to do? The problem was I couldn’t actually implement it because a lot of what Tony spoke about was planning for six months, a year ahead. Think of your goals and your motivations for them.

[00:03:39] Yvonne Heimann: Initially, I couldn’t even think that far. I’m like when I started with my business, it’s like, you want me to set six months goals, one year goal. I barely can wrap my head around the next three months.

[00:03:52] ST Rappaport: Yeah, exactly. So I feel you so much in that. Cause I. Could I would plan my day every single day the night before, since I was in [00:04:00] school for tomorrow, not for this week even, okay? Not for this month. So six months was like crazy. Like I, I know like I want to have a really successful business. I’m like, I could tell you like very vague things, but nothing, anything that will actually be tangible.

[00:04:17] And I could go into that. So I was like, okay. This is a cool program, but it’s not for me. So a couple months later, I took another training that works on a specific thinking skill called categorizations. Now, categorizations is about taking a group of items and like splitting it into groups. So let’s say take a group of marbles and splitting it into color or take, splitting them into size, right?

[00:04:43] And like that, I could do no problem. But what about when you have a bunch of random items and you have to put them together in a group. This is the thinking skill behind big picture thinking. In order to be able to plan six months ahead, [00:05:00] you have to use this thinking skill of categorizations. And for me, it was just really weak and I just couldn’t do it.

[00:05:07] But during that training, I improved this thinking skill. And automatically, I was able to do Tony’s program. I saved over 10 hours every week by just changing how I structured my day and like literally like it could go on forever. Like all the things that changed in my life that it was at that point that I was like high achieving adults, people who have businesses who have success need this.

[00:05:30] Also, they need to have the ability to improve their thinking skills. So that way they can really take their business to the next level.

Brain Exercises To Elevate Thinking Skills

[00:05:38] Yvonne Heimann: I would love to dive a little bit deeper into that categorization thinking, because I’m like it’s easy with standard stuff where it’s I don’t even know business growth or stuff, but often enough we have, when that’s one of my experiences too, where when I go into business planning that’s farther out.

[00:05:59] I [00:06:00] know, hey, I want to do this and that. And here we literally have an improvement list and an ideal list for me when my brain goes crazy. I’m one of those people that have notepads everywhere. I’m trying to finally just concise it on my phone and have one spot. We are working on that, but often enough, it’s like.

[00:06:17] And interestingly enough, literally last night I’m sitting here, I’m like, I need to put this in certain categories. And I was like, I don’t even know how, where this, I went to AI, which was a great starting point, honestly. I’ve put it on Instagram stories where I’m like, okay, thank you Magai.

[00:06:35] This actually helped me and it gave me a starting point, but I don’t think I’m the only one struggling with this specifically in business growth of I know I want to put this in categories to be able to really focus and make those plans, but how?

[00:06:56] Can you, is there any tips you can share that helps [00:07:00] be able to determine that better and figure this out?

[00:07:04] ST Rappaport: Yeah. So like you said the simple stuff we could all do. So the point is we want to get our brain to go from simple to a little bit more complex, to a little bit more complex all the way till it could do like extremely complex, abstract items.

[00:07:17] So start by taking random items in your house for some reason, when we can hold them and we could look at the items, it makes it a little bit easier. So let’s say you are organizing a closet. Okay, this will actually have benefit, not just doing the exercises, but it will also improve your house.

[00:07:31] So let’s say you have to organize a closet. Instead of just reorganizing the mess and putting the things back neatly in the same place where it was just a little bit neater. Take a few minutes to think about what you have here and what are the groups you can make with what you have in your closet.

[00:07:48] Don’t just do what you had before. Is that the smartest way to group them? Is there a better way to do it? And once you’re done with that Then you could move on to something a little bit more abstract, let’s say all your tasks [00:08:00] of the day. Can you group that? And then you have all your tasks of your week, can you do that? And slowly you’ll build up to something that you can do easily and naturally.

[00:08:11] Yvonne Heimann: So my brain goes totally into my silverware drawer right now where it’s like standard, knives, forks, spoons, but you have different knives. You have different use cases. Some go onto the table. Some don’t.

[00:08:26] I like that exercise. Maybe I should also look in my closet and maybe rearrange that. Yes, I do grouping in my closet people. Yes. My closet is actually organized. I’m that crazy person. Oh my God.

[00:08:39] ST Rappaport: I’d like to say something on what you just said about the knives.

[00:08:42] Yvonne Heimann: Go for it.

[00:08:43] ST Rappaport: You could, if you want to do this like on paper, you could also do it on paper. And you could then split it into more groups. So you have a big group of, let’s say, cutlery, somewhere. And then you split it into like knives, forks, spoons. And then each one of them gets split into something else. Like big spoons, little spoons, right? Like teaspoons, dessert [00:09:00] spoons.

[00:09:00] And you could like continue building it all the way down into the smallest groups possible, just to give your brain another challenge.

[00:09:09] Yvonne Heimann: I like me some challenges. So you had your own struggle, discovered this whole brain engineering thing, which I am always nerding out on brains. It’s it is so insane what’s happening in our heads.

How A Brain Engineer Reinvents Your Mindset

[00:09:25] You did all the learning. You did all the testing. What are you doing now? How are you working with people? What are you offering? What, how, what do you do?

[00:09:36] ST Rappaport: Yeah. So like I said, what do I do? I do brain engineering. Essentially I work with entrepreneurs in small group settings of six entrepreneurs at a time, and we come together twice a week to do very specific brain exercises to improve our 28 thinking skills. These are the skills behind all skills. And actually we will have stronger ones and weaker ones.

[00:09:57] So let’s say my case, one of the really weak ones was categorizations.[00:10:00] And by doing these pencil and paper exercises, just like the one I just gave you, there’s like a whole bunch of exercises like that, that each work on different ones of the thinking skills.

[00:10:09] You actually improve how your brain thinks, and then you can go and apply it to your life and make things a whole lot easier.

Thinking Skills Persists Throughout Your Life

[00:10:18] Yvonne Heimann: Can you lose those again?

[00:10:22] ST Rappaport: It’s a really good question. You, once you develop it, it’s like you literally create neuron connections in your brain and like they’re there forever. The only way you’ll lose it is A, if you have some sort of like brain injury, been in like some sort of accident or something, or with like brain deterioration, like Alzheimer’s or things like that.

[00:10:41] However, even if the person has such sort of conditions like Alzheimer’s, if they do exercises to actively work on their brain and to challenge their brain. Doesn’t prevent it, but it most definitely slows it down. So even when you’re old be working on your brain. [00:11:00]

[00:11:00] Yvonne Heimann: So it’s riding a bike you never lose it. But it also sounds like we shouldn’t just do this, just quote for the fun of it, or be better bosses, be better entrepreneurs. It sounds like it’s a general advantage of simply getting better. And I’m like, I’ve been on my health hacking and brain hacking and all the things just building those new neurons on those new connections continuously, because I’m like, as much as I know, brains don’t get better with age. They do slow down no matter what.

[00:11:34] So continuously doing different exercises will help us stay more on track with our brain if I, if I assume this right.

[00:11:45] ST Rappaport: If you stop using it, then it becomes like it will slow down but as long as you are doing new Challenging things. This is the big one, new challenging, not just new and not challenging. So let’s say take some sort of dance lessons you’ve never [00:12:00] done before. Go to places you’ve never done. If you avoid some crossword puzzles now do like sudoku. Do new challenging things you have to, your brain has to grow your neuron connections.

[00:12:11] So it will Reduce the likeliness of you losing your brain.

Categorization Streamlines Thoughts And Saves You Time

[00:12:19] Yvonne Heimann: Did I mention I’m a brain nerd? How does your every day, every week, every month look like right now? How are you running your business? What are you doing? Because I’m like, there is, there’s a lot going in with school coaching programs and doing those trainings and doing stuff. So how does your week look like?

[00:12:37] ST Rappaport: Yeah. So because of categorizations, I like to group everything. Everything gets grouped. So let’s say I have a podcast. It gets grouped. I spend three weeks to record for the next five months, right? Record everything for five months. I’m grouping it all together. I send out email six days a week to my email list one day for the next four weeks, right?

[00:12:59] [00:13:00] Every single thing that I want to do gets grouped, but not just in tasks also in how I operate. So I try to do all my goals for the most part on Monday and Thursdays. Those are my zoom days and I do all zooms back to back. I know today’s Wednesday because that’s the times that just worked out for us.

[00:13:17] So I’m not saying there’s no exceptions and you know how that works in business, but literally Mondays and Thursdays, I’m just doing call after call, whether that’s podcast recordings, client meetings, sessions, right? Everything is just zoom. So that way it’s grouped in zooms and I just. My brain is in that phase.

[00:13:33] It doesn’t have to go from creative of trying to write to being outgoing and trying to talk to someone. And I’m like the most efficient that way. Don’t have to like waste time between meetings. Everything is grouped. Now I take this to another level. I’m not just grouping my podcasting, okay?

[00:13:51] Every task within my podcasting gets grouped. My podcast is a solo show, and I literally write out my shows before, because [00:14:00] they’re full of so much it’s not so much story, it’s much more Intellectual things. And I don’t want to, I have to like, keep it,

[00:14:09] Yvonne Heimann: Get nerdy.

[00:14:09] ST Rappaport: Nerdy is a good one. And so I literally write it out. I don’t even just write out all the episodes and then recall, record all of them. It goes categorizing them even deeper. There’s like sections within my podcast episodes. So I write, let’s say all the introductions for all of them. All the CTAs for all of them, this way my brain literally has to stay in that mode the whole time because every time we start a new task, your brain uses the most energy, just like when you turn on a car.

[00:14:37] So the more I group, the more time I save and the more efficient and actually even more creative your brain runs.

[00:14:46] Yvonne Heimann: So I love how you are grouping everything as in social media and all the stuff, batching, same thing, right? Now, I know for people that are just starting out with batching, with grouping, with time [00:15:00] blocking, whatever you want to call it in the end, it’s the same thing, same idea. Even for me and I’m grouping, I do group things, even for me going into this detail, I’m like, I’m getting getting heart palpitations.

Categorization Tips And Techniques For Beginners

[00:15:20] Do you have a tip for somebody that is getting ready? That is okay, I want to do this. They’ve done some exercises. They’ve done some completely out of business. Go group your cutlery, go group your closet. Just, they did a little bit of training to get their brain into the right mindset.

[00:15:37] They want to take this into business now. And they are starting out guys, me, we’ve all, it’s taken us years to get here. So please don’t try to start where we are like 10 years in, but do you have some tips for somebody that is just starting out with grouping? That’s Oh, I’m never going to get there. How can they start easy? [00:16:00]

[00:16:00] ST Rappaport: Yeah. Start easy. Okay. This is literally where I started and I’ll share with you exactly how I did this. But start by thinking of the things that you do a few times in one day and see if you can do it in just one or two times. So for example, if you replied to emails, whenever you get an email, see if you could just set a time, the one or two times a day.

[00:16:21] You are replying to email or if let’s say you are responding to dms on instagram instead of doing it whenever they come in once or twice a day you do it. I was so bad at this okay. Just so like you shouldn’t feel bad for like where I came, before I improved this cognitive function of categorization, whenever I remembered that I had an errand to do, I would go out to do an errand.

[00:16:44] But then I would come home, and two hours later I would remember that I have another errand, and I would go out again. Yeah, so there is hope for you guys, okay? I hope you’re not on that level. If you are… I feel you. I was there, but then start there. Do you go on errands [00:17:00] out three times a day because every time you just do an errand?

[00:17:02] Or can you go out of the house once and do all of them? And then if you’re ready to do that once a day, then you could move up to like weeks

[00:17:10] Yvonne Heimann: And I think your example with the email is one of the easiest and one of the highest impact. I’m one of those people, I admit, I am one of those people and it has taken quite some habit development to not jump into my email constantly.

[00:17:30] And guys, that’s not just a grouping exercise. It’s also a boundary exercise for your client. Just saying, because clients are going to expect you to answer within an hour if they’re getting used to get answers within an hour, but it also pulls me constantly out of everything. So my phone is set on work mode throughout the day.

[00:17:49] So I don’t get the constant dings of messages. Are a couple of people allowed to sneak through those? Yes, but [00:18:00] really just on my calendar of, okay, first thing in the morning when I sit down, yes, it’s email one time in the afternoon and done. And I have fallen back into my old habit of, Ooh, I got an email, let’s reply right now.

[00:18:15] I’m like, it is time for me to get back into the habit of, and I think one, one of the things that has helped me actually establish habits like those easier is setting public expectations. What I mean by that is when I publicly announce I’m doing this, it’s an easier for me to stick to than when I just decide doing it.

[00:18:42] So we are working actually right now on a nice auto reply in my email where it’s like, sorry guys, we only check email once or twice a day, you’re gonna get a reply within 24 to 48 hours. Now, I set the expectation, but I also hold [00:19:00] myself accountable, where it’s I said I’m gonna take 24 hours, so I better not reply now, or…

[00:19:06] Batch my email, get it ready and get it scheduled. So guys, there’s a whole bunch of tricks and things you can do to really get into this and it’ll make your life easier. It really does.

[00:19:19] ST Rappaport: And so much more time, so much more time back into your life.

[00:19:26] Yvonne Heimann: So what happened? What happened in your mind between S day off?

[00:19:34] I’m running out three times a day to run errands and now I’m able to vlog. What has it done for your brain and your mindset throughout the day?

[00:19:44] ST Rappaport: Yeah, can I go back even a little bit earlier from when I was 11 years old? My mom told me I need to improve categorizations when I was 11. And I didn’t listen.[00:20:00]

[00:20:00] I didn’t believe her. Okay? I was like, I know how to categorize. Like I said I could categorize simple things like split marbles into colors. That I had no problem with. And the exercises that I did them two or maybe even three times as a kid. But because I was so thought I was so good at it, it did nothing for my brain.

[00:20:18] Speak about mindset. I literally did the exercises that I shared with you, but I thought I’m just so good about it. So nothing changed. And then when I took the training as an adult and I was like, Hey, I want to learn this so I can help my clients most. And I actually want to know this in the best way I could.

[00:20:33] It’s where everything shifted. Literally, like from a fix to a complete growth mindset is where the switch happened and I keep on thinking back of like, how my life would have been different if I would have just not been so arrogant and thought that I just knew it when I was a kid.

[00:20:53] Yvonne Heimann: Yeah, I think when we get into a situation of, yeah, but I know it comes easy to me, it’s right here. [00:21:00] We, we often forget that there is different nuances to it or more layers underneath. I think we all do that to some level at some time. And sooner or later, the universe smacks us over the head and is told you right? I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help it.

[00:21:20] You have some goodies for the audience that want to dive into the whole cognitive function and figure their stuff out. Tell us about your cognitive function assessment.

[00:21:35] ST Rappaport: Yeah. So like I mentioned earlier, thinking, we tend to think of thinking as like one big thing. Oh, I’m thinking that, but it’s actually made up of 28 thinking skills. And these are the skills behind all skills. So in order for you to plan your day, you need to use your cognitive functions. In order for you to make a decision, you need to use your cognitive functions.

[00:21:56] Now, naturally we all have stronger ones and weaker ones, [00:22:00] but those weaker ones are making it a challenge for you. So in my case, it was really, a lot of them, but mostly categorizations. So this is an assessment. It’s a free 10 minute assessment. And you’ll get a very clear picture of where you are with each one of the 28 cognitive functions.

[00:22:17] So you see which ones you need to improve. Just one thing. There’s no such thing. A thing is being perfect as a cognitive function. You can always be improving all of them. So yeah, I’m still improving my categorizations.

[00:22:31] Yvonne Heimann: But I’m perfect. What are you talking about?

[00:22:33] ST Rappaport: Fixed mindset.

[00:22:36] Yvonne Heimann: And I’m just joking here. Guys, if you’re listening to this episode for the first time of any of my episodes, I’m joking. I am a recovering perfectionist, but it’s, it’s yeah. We always want to be perfect and we know we are not. Where can people find you? And yes, you will find all of the links in the description. Don’t worry about it.

[00:22:55] You’ll get your assessment link right in the description. ST, do me a favor. Share with [00:23:00] people. How can they find you? How can they learn more about you?

[00:23:04] ST Rappaport: Yeah. So everywhere you search, whatever your favorite social media platform is, website, everything, is Life Pix University. So that’s Life P I X University. And that assessment is lifepixuniversity.com/brain.

[00:23:19] Yvonne Heimann: Look at that. She made it extra easy. So guys make sure Boss Your Business. We are talking about how to run your business around your life and not your life around your business and yes, we are also diving into your brain and how to be more efficient by brain hacking yourself.

[00:23:37] ST, thanks so much for joining me. It was fun nerding out with you. I will be diving into the assessment here pretty much within the next five minutes. Thanks so much for joining me and guys, remember hit that follow button. I want to see you or hear you in the next episode.

[00:23:53] ST Rappaport: Oh, I love it. Thank you so much for having me. It’s always fun talking to a brain geek.

[00:23:58] Yvonne Heimann: Oh, hell yeah. We can, I [00:24:00] can nerd out on brain every day. I’m going to have you back here at some point. Bye everybody.

Timestamps

00:00 | Introduction

05:38 | Brain Exercises To Elevate Thinking Skills

09:25 | How A Brain Engineer Reinvents Your Mindset

10:18 | Thinking Skills Persists Throughout Your Life

12:19 | Categorization Streamlines Thoughts And Saves You Time

15:20 | Categorization Tips And Techniques For Beginners