Do You Have the Only Skill that Matters – In Just 7 Minutes with Jonathan Levi

Resources/Links:

• Access Superhuman Academy: superhumanacademy.com/squad

Summary

Jonathan Levi is a serial entrepreneur, published author, and keynote speaker born and raised in Silicon Valley.

Since 2014, Jonathan has been one of the top-performing instructors on online learning platform Udemy, and has snowballed this success into the launch of his rapidly growing information products company, SuperHuman Enterprises, which produces such products as the award-winning SuperHuman Academy Podcast; the bestselling “Become a SuperLearner®” print, digital, and audiobooks; and numerous other online courses through its own online training portals, SuperHuman Academy™ and Branding You™ Academy.

Jonathan’s media products have been enjoyed by over 250,000 people in 205 countries and territories. His latest book, The Only Skill That Matters, was published by Lionscrest in 2019 and details his own journey and the techniques that anyone can use to learn faster. Jonathan lives in Tel Aviv, Israel, with his wife, Limmor.

In this episode, Jonathan shares how to unlock your superhuman potential, hack your learning, reading, and memory skills, empowering you to learn ANYTHING and everything faster and more effectively.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:15 – Jonathan’s ideal client: My ideal client is someone in-between the age of 18 and about 45 and they are in a transitionary period in their life.
• 02:13 – Problem he helps solve: not being able to select the right information to learn, not being able to absorb it quick enough, not being able to implement that.
• 03:12 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Jonathan: information overload where they start and then they’re not sure they’re going the right way
• 04:23 – Common mistakes people make when trying to solve that problem: Trying things like rote memorization, which we all know doesn’t work. And they’re going to try rereading books that they’ve already read. Realistically, that the biggest thing they’re going to do is just resolve themselves.
• 05:20 – Jonathan’s Valuable Free Action(VFA): This two technique: pictures and connections. Everything I want to remember becomes a picture and that picture becomes connected to an existing memory.
• 06:11 – Jonathan’s Valuable Free Resource(VFR): SuperhumanAcademy.com/squad
• 07:28 – Q:’Can anyone do this?'” A: The answer is Yes. I’ve interviewed more World Memory champions, USA Memory champions, world record holders… Well here’s what we find. Their brains work differently but they have no structural difference. Meaning exact same hardware. They use it differently than the average person. And research has shown that within six weeks you can permanently change the way that your brain works and wired in this way.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“You don't have the worst memory you just don't know how to use your memory.” -@entreprenewer Share on X “This two technique: pictures and connections. Everything I want to remember becomes a picture and that picture becomes connected to an existing memory.” -@entreprenewer Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland: Hello everyone and a very warm welcome to Marketing The Invisible. I’m joined today by Jonathan Levi. Jonathan, a very warm good day to you sir. Where are you hanging out?

Jonathan Levi: I’m in Tel Aviv. I’m after two workouts and I’m ready straight to go into the interview, Tom.

Tom Poland: You are walking the talking, sir. For those of you who don’t know Jonathan. He is like this small nuclear bundle of energy and vision and passion. He’s a serial entrepreneur. He’s a multiple published author, podcaster, born and raised in Silicon Valley, but living right now in Tel Aviv I believe. And he’s got a crackerjack book coming out which is pretty much the same title as this interview which is, “Do You Have the ONLY Skill That Matters?” Jonathan, our seven minutes is going to start right now. Question number one, who is your ideal client?

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. My ideal client is, I mean we teach accelerated learning so who can’t benefit from learning more. But there are many people who teach that online and there are many ways to learn that. My ideal client is someone in-between the age of 18 and about 45 and they are in a transitionary period in their life. Whether that means they’re about to enter the workforce or they’re looking for a big promotion they’re actually trying to go back to graduate school. They’re trying to get another degree or they’re trying to change careers so they’re in that transitionary moment where they go, “Whoa, I have a lot to learn to get where I want to go and what I want to achieve”. And by the way that doesn’t have to be a professional or academic, the transitionary period maybe you know, I need to fix my interpersonal issues or I need to fix some of this psychological baggage that I’m carrying around. Anyone who’s in a point where they find, “I have a lot to learn and I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”

Tom Poland: Interesting. So, question number two, six minutes left.

Jonathan Levi: How was that, under a minute?

Tom Poland: Yeah. That’s pretty good, actually. We’re doing, we’re on track for an answer per minute. Question number two, you might have already actually articulated this. What’s the problem you solve?

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. Well, the problem is right now you know, Tucker Max said it best. He wrote it on the back of the book. Every knowledge worker in the world has a choice to make in the next 10 years. There are you’re going to get really good at learning and be able to keep pace with the rapid change of technological progress, industrial change, new information being published because you know the gatekeepers are down and people like Tom and I can publish super valuable information. So, there’s more information being published by more people in books, podcasts, blog posts, YouTube channels. So, there’s so much more valuable information being produced and no one has taught us how to keep up with that information or choose which information to consume. Or most importantly remember and implement the information that we learn so that’s the problem.

Tom Poland: Oh yeah baby. So, if someone’s got this problem of not being able to select the right information to learn, not being able to absorb it quick enough, not being able to implement that, what are some of the symptoms they’re going to be experiencing? That’s question number three, just under five minutes left.

Jonathan Levi: Yeah absolutely. We call this information overload where they start and then they’re not sure they’re going the right way. And then they read a book but they don’t remember anything from the book. And then they try to you take a class and they’re just, they’re not processing. I spoke to a woman recently who’s not exactly my target audience, 74 years old, and she’s like I’ve spent the last eight years trying to learn and prepare for my next career. I so admire her, at seventy-four years old she’s starting her next career. And she’s like, I have no knowledge to show for it because I’ve just been accumulating and it goes in one end and out the other, and that’s the symptom. And I guess the other thing is we all walk around today because we have these little distraction devices in our supplement brain, we don’t have memory. You know many times some people tell me, “Oh, I need that class I have the worst memory.” I go, you don’t have the worst memory, you just don’t know how to use your memory, yet.

Tom Poland: Right. Thank you. Question number four and we’ve got four minutes left. People like the 74-year old got this problem trying to learn stuff fast and they got these symptoms of lack of retention, lack of implementation. They’re going to wake up and go, “I’ve got to fix this”. So, what are some of the mistakes that they’re going to try in attempting to fix this problem before they find out about you?

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. They’re going to try things like rote memorization which we all know doesn’t work. They’re going to try rereading books that they’ve already read. They’re, realistically the biggest thing they’re going to do is just resolve themselves. I have a lousy memory. I’m terrible at faces. I’m terrible at numbers. And then they’re going to come up with a crutch, like you know, writing it down on their phone everything they need to remember. Using a To-Do List, the grocery shopping list, which is fine because why waste valuable time memorizing things that you can. But there are some things you know, if I’m a CEO of a company or I start a new job, I’m not going to walk around with my phone and go, “Oh, hey you’re Tom Poland, nice to meet you, Tom”. There are some skills even though we have these devices we still need to memorize.

Tom Poland: Right. So, question five, three minutes left. Really kick sticking well to the track here. What’s one valuable free reaction that a listener could take that’s going to help them with this? Just a step in the right direction, not the whole solution, just one valuable free action.

Jonathan Levi: So I’m going to give you a lot. I’m going to give you what Harry Lorayne, who is the godfather of memory improvement, built his whole career on. This two technique, pictures, and connections. Everything I want to remember becomes a picture and that picture becomes connected to an existing memory. Now someone in your audience right now is going, “Well, I’m an auditory learner.” You are because you’ve been forced to be. But there is research that proves that our brains are wired to remember pictures better than anything except taste or smell. So, create a picture and then you know I have you, Tom Petty, standing over a flag of Poland. Connected to two things I already know about. And just by that, I will remember your name 10 times better.

Tom Poland: Great artist, great country, and we’re not even talking about me yet. Very clever, thank you. Question number six, two minutes left. Bang on track. What is one valuable free resource that we could direct listeners to that’s going to help them even more?

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. Well, I would love to invite people to just try out our entire program and series of programs they can choose whichever one they want at superhumanacademy.com/squad. Completely free, they can try it out, and it’s a seven-day free trial. You can actually take our five-day memory mastery. Take the whole course and finish it. And if you aren’t in love and you don’t want to learn more with me and you don’t want to learn the speed reading, how to maintain your memories, how to do number systems, all the other amazing stuff we’re teaching the 10-week program then you can just cancel. So, but the five-day mastery course is so good that many people get by just on that.

Tom Poland: You’re kind of the answer to Alzheimer’s in a way aren’t you because you’re getting people to exercise new neurons in their brains and all sorts. It’s not just mental benefits or physical health benefits, relationship benefits. I will stop rabbiting on because you’ve only got one-minute left now, thanks to me. And question number seven is, what’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Jonathan Levi: I guess the question I love to be asked is, “Can anyone do this?” You know, “Oh, I’ve always had a lousy memory”, or whatever. And the answer is, “Yes”. I’ve interviewed more world memory champions, USA memory champions, world record holders, than you can shake a stick at, including someone who spent six years doing his Ph.D. researching memory champs. Here’s what we find, their brains work differently but they have no structural difference. Meaning exact same hardware, they use it differently than the average person. And research has shown that within six weeks you can permanently change the way that your brain works and wired in this way. In the early 2000s, Joshua Foer went to write an article about the World Memory Championships, I’m sorry, the USA Memory Championships. A year later he came back and won it because he was so intrigued by it.

Tom Poland: Incredible.

Jonathan Levi: So, you hear the story, again and again, anyone can do this.

Tom Poland: Anyone can do it.

Jonathan Levi: If your audience goes away with one message, you don’t have a lousy memory. You just don’t know how to use it.

Tom Poland: Jonathan Levy, thanks so much for your time.

Jonathan Levi: It’s been a pleasure Tom.

Tom Poland: Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.