Brain Fitness, The Advantage in Learning and life

0:01 This program is designed to provide general information with regards to the subject matters covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services. Of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. Hello, and thank you for tuning in to a Sharp Outlook on pay for HD Radio and Talk or TV. Hi am Angela Sharp your host. I'll arm to your discussions with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and information to be successful in business and to prepare you to be your best self. Hello, and welcome to a Sharp Outlook. I'm so excited that you're joining us today.

1:00 You are going to learn so much about how to get prepared and get the brain fitness for success and for life. And I'm just glad you tuned in and so we're talking today about brain fitness. The advantage is that you will have in learning and life if you understand the skills that you should have so that you are able to do the critical thinking. What if student success starts long before greed and test scores. In this episode, my guests Dustin Dean and Jeff Apps of nine max Ed joins us to talk about brain fitness, the foundation behind focus, confidence, resilience, emotional regulation, and discipline and long term success. We explore why these skills matters and so much in education, and how they shape learning and behavior and what parents and teachers and students can do to strength of that. We'll learn what brain fitness is and what it actually means, and how to apply it, why it matters, how students can strengthen critical mental skills, and that is a major issue right now. Critical thinking is very very missing right now. What parents and educators can

2:35 do right now to change the trajectory of where our students are going, and how my max ed is approaching student development differently. In this episode, we'll talk about what brain fitness really means, why it matters, and my guests today are Dustin and Jeff, and I want to welcome you to the show right now so we can get into this conversation. Hi, good and so great to be back. It's always a pleasure. Yeah, it's always great to have you because you always have these just phenomenal projects that you're working on and things that are available for people so that they can make changes in their lives and be able to become all that they imagine and all that they dreamed and actually find out what their purpose for breathing is. And so it's really important. And I'm always excited when you're here because you you well, helps me learn a lot, and then it just expands the minds of everyone that's listening today. So I'm glad you're here on the show, and i want to give you this moment to tell us a little about your background and what has led you to this work.

4:03 Do you want to fire first, Jeff, or do you want me to go? You go for a dustin, I'll follow you. Okay, all right, Well, so you know what I've spent over twenty six years in healthcare. The majority of it has been in psychiatry, many of those in child and adolescent psychiatry, and then about five years ago I went back and became a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, which means I can prescribe and I can do psychotherapy and and you know, pretty much the similar to what a psychiatrist would do, but I went the nursing route. Instead. And then also I'm professor at Mental Wealth, well professor of Mental Health at Winona State University, Sat Kate University.

4:49 So a lot of experience in mental health. But what I'm really excited about now is, you know, I met Jeff OPSI and he has like just an extensive it has extensive experience in education, and it's always been something I'm passionate about because I really feel that if we can if we can educate people, the therapy practices and that sort of thing that I do will be probably less intensive and we can come in early with developing the skills to thrive rather than just survive, and train the brain through our Brain Fitness Academy to get those skills of resilience and accountability and just you know, focusing processing life through their power and potential rather than their pain and their past. And Jeff and I have developed a curriculum that's based on tapping your inner superhero.

5:49 We'd like to call ourselves the Marvel of mental wellness. And so that's kind of where I come from and my experience and I, you know, we just co authored I mean, he did the majority of it, but we co authored our first book and I'll just I'll let Jeff introduce himself and then tell a little more. Sure, Yeah, Jeff APSI. I've been an educator for oh my gosh, twenty seven years now, and I started out as a high school business and marketing teacher Decca advisor. I've been for the majority of my career a football coach, a track and field coach, and a soccer coach. My journey has been in the classroom for my first seven or eight years. Then I became a high school principal, and then shortly into the principal ship, I was approached by the school board of the district I was working in and they strongly encouraged me to apply for their superintendent role. And then I served in the role of a public school superintendent for thirteen years and a lot of highs, lots of lows, and seeing just a number of different things throughout my career. And after thirteen years, I stepped away from it and it was time to

7:20 move on to different adventures. I'm still associated with education, still in the admin role, but in my current role, I also get a chance to get in the classroom and get back into coaching and get back to doing the things that I've really loved throughout my career, gotten to know Dustin over the past few years. We discovered that we're both mutual nerds love sci fi, love fantasy, love adventure, strong passion for superheroes, the Marvel universe, the DC universe, and obviously you get into some of the other realms like Star Wars, and we've had a lot of just deep conversations on different things at we could do.

8:02 Dustin introduced me to the work of Russ Harris and practical act strategies, and then that led into some bigger conversations of how Dustin had leveraged some of his work, some of his curriculum, and then we got into conversations about, hey, I've got a very strong background and curriculum design, and we have taken some of that early work that Dustin had used, you know, in therapy sessions in in an effort to engage his clients, his patients to have breakthroughs, and we formed it. We basically revamped it, reformed it into what we call the Smart Strength Curriculum, and as Dustin mentioned, we're kind of on the verge of it.

8:48 Our first our first attempt, our first course is published it's live. We feel it's it's great for anyone of all ages, anybody who's got an interest in One of things that we've tried to do is turn it into something more than just your you know, from the world of education. There's been into so many different professional development presentations and setting where it feels to be like a camp PowerPoint or something else. And we've had conversations about let's make this engaging and not just engaging, but entertaining. So we've had a lot of fun curating a universe of characters and then tying in their adventures by tapping into research based practices on brain fitness and basically, you know, inspired by the work of experts, taking those strategies and building them into a curriculum that our characters are basically teaching the learners. So yeah, so I'm sorry I've got a little long winded there, but.

9:54 Yeah, wonderful. Yeah, it's wonderful. And because I'm the curious kind, I had to go check it out. I love I love the marvel world there, and they're being able to approach people, you know, not only stimulate the mind, but the visual which helps to stimulate the mind even more. Uh, and it's a world where a lot of the younger generation, you know, lives, and so they're going to they understand the superheroes, they understand the the attacks of the intruders out there and things like that, and so they they can apply that. They can probably apply it better than somebody you're reading some book to them. You know, it's just it's just how their mind is now wired because of what the stimulation they've all become, you know, exposed to, and with.

10:48 The approach, I mean, basically, what we've done is that all of those challenges that people deal with, from anxiety to stress to self doubt, we've personified them and they're actually the the the villain roster that we've treated with in this adventure. So yeah, yeah, and and and like I said, to reach the younger generation, I mean, I get excited by this stuff because I'm a sci fi and not myself, but you know, they are going to really be able to, uh look at that, get the message from it, and actually start applying it to their lives. And seeing what I'm seeing out there, you know, in social media and on the news and different things, and what's happening with our younger generation, I am just excited to introduce this to those that are watching and listening and going to share this because it is going to it's a difference between night and day. It's going to help your your student, you're you know, grandchild, your sons and daughters become more equipped to actually be able to deal with life and deal with setbacks. Most people don't know how to deal with setbacks. It used to be in sports, they learned in the competition someone was going to win and someone

12:20 was going to lose. But I guess the losing was so overwhelming. Now everybody gets to win, and so I think it's the wrong. I mean, I'm not wanting kids to get hurt, but I want them to understand there's a message there that when you don't get that award, then there's a little more that you need to apply to yourself. There's a little more that you may want to do. There's a little more studying you may want to do. There's a little more practicing you may want to do. There's a little more. But to cry is not the answer, you know, to get to practicism. I think the one thing that excites me too is even at a corporate level and an institution level. You know you have Jeff touched on it earlier, but you know, imposter syndrome, like imposter syndrome has become something. And what we really found and what I've found over the years, and what we've really been trying to stress in the Smart Strength curriculum is one not being overly entitled and thinking everything should just land in your lap, but two not doubting yourself once you get there. There's this combination and I think in a lot of other things have caused this that your value comes externally instead of internally.

13:42 And that's what we really want to help people see, is that these skills training your brain to see the amazingness in you and not listen to the deceiver or the accuser or any of those villains we've created that are in everybody's head right. And I think it's furthermore with a lot of generations that are obtaining their value from social media likes and and shares and like all this stuff, they are you know, when that's going good, they think, okay, I should be able to do anything without any effort. And when it's going bad or those the accuser comes in their brain, they think I'm not good enough. To handle this and really us using the act approach, which is acceptance and commitment therapy. But this is obviously education, but seeing that the value is in you.

14:39 The value is resilience. The value is training your brain to not operate from the fight or flight perspective, but from the perspective of locus of control, and that I do have a lot. Of good things about me. Instead of being all good, I. Should be able to access every everything, and I should be able to be president, or I suck and I can't do anything. When you train your brain right, everything is accessible and you have the ability to accomplish it anything. But that training is what gets you there, not just a natural way of external validation.

15:21 Right. I remember when I got my first job, and my first job was with this major Fortune ten corporation, and I felt so small there. I felt because I hadn't been exposed to a lot of the things, and I thought, yeah, I had the education, but I'm in an environment that's not familiar. When I went home and told my mother, I said, I don't know that I can do this. I don't know if I can compete. I don't know who said stop it. All of us put our pants on the same way. All of us eat food the same way, and then she went on about all the human things that are similar. She said, the only difference between you and them is opportunity. So you keep striving, you keep looking, you keep working to find out what it is that helps open that door and start making opportunities. And now you will be where they are and won't be sitting here crying talking about you're not good enough. You are good enough because you're my child. I mean, I had parents that talk me like that. You know what I don't care was somebody to say, you can call me all kinds of things.

16:40 I'd be like, you don't know me, get away from me and keep on stepping. I know me, I know who I am. And that's what I don't think. Will they tap that inner superhero and that's someone Jeff and I. There's some ability within the curriculum and some other things that as people go on, uh, they'll be able to see themselves as a superhero and and just that approach, you know, just like your mom said, you got this, it's in here. You just might not have all the access to everything, or haven't achieved access to everything that other people have, but in here. You are a superhero and that's really what what we want to tap.

17:28 Yeah, it's I'm sorry, I was gonna say the way we have this package, so Angel, like you shared the example, you know of your mom giving you that that pep talk, that reassurance, that confidence building approach. You know, I like to think I've taken that same approach with my own boys. I've got three sons. Those are the same types of things. I can remember anytime that I was sinking my head or lowering my head as a child, you know, my mom lifting me up in China instill in me like, hey, you've got this, you can get through this. And you know, in in education, one of the difficult things that you've seen happen is those same types of experiences that we had an opportunity experience growing up, where a parent, a strong parent is working in still grit and their children.

18:23 I remember, you know, as a principal sitting down with parents and teaching them how to do that. And I'm like, my boys were babies at that time. You know, now they're grown. But when I look back on it, I'm like, how am I sitting here giving you advice when your children are sixteen, seventeen years old, and you're twenty years older than me, you know, as a parent when I was a principal, and I think so much of that has been lost and I've seen how kids have grown up today compared to how we grew up. You know, we talk about sports, for one. I mean, how many times with if you want to play sports, was that you getting outside with your friends doing a creating your own pickup game. I can remember as a as a coach, I had to actually create scenarios or during the summer, I would just advertise pickup games because in the community that I worked in and where our team existed, we had poverty, had a lot of a lot of kids that didn't have resources. So I wanted to make sure that they had free access, free resources. So we just advertise these as pickup games. And I remember showing up to those in the summer, and you know, me being with my friends when I was a kid, you know, you know, playing paper rock scissors to determine who the captains were going to be. Well, they would sit there and look at each other with playing stairs and I'd be like, hey, guys, somebody's got to step up. Somebody's got to step forward. Well, coach, sure, I'll pick the teams today, but this is the only time I'm going to show you how it's done. After today, I'm going

19:54 to walk around the track and get my exercise because I got to get my steps in. But you boys take charge. You can just figure it out. You build your team. So whereas in the past, you know a lot younger riding your bikes to a park with friends and not not not only were you figuring those things out, but you're also figuring out how to resolve the different conflicts that you'd experienced with your friends too. And you know you're all trying to do different things. But so exciting thing about our curriculum. You know those core lessons you think of like lessons on self efficacy, you know, growth, mindset, learned optimism. You know those PEP talks that we used to get We talked a little bit about practical act strategies, psychological flexibility, a grit, perseverance. Dustin mentioned locus of ConTroll earlier in neuroplasticity, you know, and that ability to actually rewire your brain. Those are those those are the key tenants that we've tapped into experts their work to use that as the foundation to drive for our curriculum. And those are the those are the types of lessons that we're hoping if people take our course in future courses we develop those that they'll walk away with a stronger sense of each one of those aspects and become stronger human beings in the process.

21:14 Yeah, So tell us in in Layman's terms or whatever, what is brain fitness? How would you describe it? So you know, just admit the science. The scientific term would be neuroplasticity, but I will give it in Layman's term, so you know, to summarize it. Our brain has these pathways, right, and they're developed over like any other thing over repetition. And the natural state of our brain is the natural function of our brain is to keep us alive. The base state of that, the way it keeps us alive is to identify threats.

21:59 So our brain is negative naturally. Our brain is anxious. It's looking at everything that's going to hurt us. Right, we have to train it to thrive. We have to train it to be fit, just like we have to train our bodies. Right, if we want to be able to run five miles, we have to start training and start jogging and feel that pain and feel that uncomfortability that comes with that through repetition. So we get it with our bodies, but most people don't get it with your brain. So for every negative thought, you've got to counter it with at least three amazing things about you, three. Possible and realize that that fight or flight is the natural state. You actually have to train it.

22:44 You have to you know, rebuild, rewire those pathways to look at the good. It's naturally going to see the deficit. You have to train it to see where you're awesome. And how that works is through repetition. How it is to seeing what you control locus of control other than what is in other people's hands, you know. And there's there's so many concepts that that we go over. Our curriculum actually has about twelve lessons and we just launched the first so there's a lot of superhero skills to develop. So really, brain fitness is the same as physical fitness. Repetition, but the whole purpose is is for us to function in a healthy manner, for our brains to embrace the good rather than the fear, rather than the deceiver, And you know, those things are there for a reason. But we also have to look at the way our brains have evolved. Right, Like, we're not going to have like you know, you know, some big animal most times chasing us down with not a lot of shelter to run to.

23:57 But if somebody, you know, our brain still functions the same. If somebody sees the ZiT on our face, it's such a threat in our untrained brain as if we're being chased by something that's going to kill us. Okay, And that's the hard part is using these skills to counter that and go, this really isn't a threat and one good Where. Do I have power? And the more you do that, the more it reduces the reaction and the control that that anxiety and stress has over you. Just like the more. You do curls or the more you run, the stronger your muscles get or the stronger your heart gets. I could maybe give you an example too of kind of how things work and what we've got tied into this first course. Along with there are some different creative approaches that we can take credit for for actually creating the premise of them, the results what they're intended to do.

24:58 They're inspired by you know, the these core experts that we've called our cognitive masters, we've also tapped into some of the actual strategies that they embrace. And a prime example that we feature in our first course is Martin Seligman's A B, C D strategy, So where we provide people kind of what we walk them through, what that approach means, and how it leads them from embracing their the adversity that they're experiencing to developing creating a plan to challenge negative beliefs that they have to actually energize themselves. So we take them through adversity, we bring up the importance of beliefs. You know, we're talking about you've got to to uh two domains basically, if we're talking about Seligman learned helplessness and learned positivity, and so those beliefs.

25:59 You know, you if you just speak negatively, negatively about yourself, those negative beliefs, that negative self talk is going to have consequences. So we help people that this approach within our course will walk people through, you know, and now actually break out what those consequences are if you're going to keep if you're going to continue down that path. Well, now let's focus on some other things. Here's some beliefs, right now, you know what those consequences are. Now, what's your evidence dispute those beliefs, because there's actual evidence, there's things that you've done in your life that show that those negative beliefs don't hold merit, and not only don't hold merit, but don't hold control over yourself. So now you're disputing those, okay, And as you dispute those, now you start gearing yourself or energization, because ultimately we want people to be able to do is to move forward, So we'll take people through approaches like that within the course.

26:53 Don't get a chance to experience. It's actually a research based practice developed by one of our cognitive cognitive or who we attribute to the course the activity to no Martin Seligman, one of who we coin as a cognitive master. And then it provides people an opportunity like Okay, how can I how can I engage in that on a regular basis? And that's what this course will do. That's an example of brain fitness, Right, I can work through a b I can take five to ten minutes out of my day and walk myself through abcde or if I feel a negative thought coming in my brain, I can engage in that practice just as I would. You know, hey, if I set a goal like I want to bench press four hundred pounds, I'm going to have a physical fitness routine that's going to allow me to achieve that goal. Well, now I want to become more resilient, I want to become more forward thinking, I want to become more positive thinking. Well, now let's tap into that ABCD strategy for ten minutes a day for the next thirty days, and let's see what happens. So that's that's kind of in the nutshell, how you know, we're how we're hoping people will embrace us.

27:58 Yeah, and Angela that I think is interesting about how this and Rashida. You know, my wife who you know and you've add onto, uh you know, has contributed some with this toe White Jeff's wife has a lot of unique experiences. We have another business partner who's a principal at a school, Ryan Ryan Erkei's his name. And what's interesting I think is that a lot of we have the professional, we have the educational. But like with Rashida, you know, she survived the Somali Civil War. So a lot of these concepts and the contributions that she's you know, that she's talked about to all of them tie into proof.

28:41 Like Jeff said, with the abc d E approach, we know these work not only on paper and not only what you read about in a book, from all of our experiences that have have put this together, not only from a professional perspective, because we do know our stuff, but more importantly, in my opinion, from a personal perspective. Yeah a life, Yeah, yeah, because a lot of people, you know, even you know some people, and we have all made bad decisions at one point or another, and we beat ourselves up and don't seem to be being able to get out of the chastisement room and go to But I survived it, and now I'm better off from it. And you know what, in fact, I can maybe even advise someone else about the hole in the road so that they don't fall in it. So now I become a superhero by sharing with someone else. Don't go down there, because this is what happened when I fill in that ditch and it's a you know, a hard ditch, and it'll start pulling you. So you don't want to drop in that ditch. And now you know you've gone in there and been the protector. Yay. So don't think of every bad decision or a slip or a fall or whatever as being the end of your life, because you know, I just defeated the accuser.

30:03 You know, that's right right, You're already on your way, you know, And I just that just ties it all right back to. Adversity. It can be painful, but if we work through it, it's growth. And that growth is life experience. And that life experience doesn't necessarily mean it has to be things that we have to constantly repeat, nor do we have to constantly tear our own selves down because we've already been through the pain. So how do we use it?

30:44 How do we embrace it to help the greater good? Yea? And the thing is you made when you make it through the pain. You don't ever give yourself a pat on the back. I survived this. I'm made through this, even though, yeah it took you know, maybe a couple of years out of my life, but I made it out and I'm better for it because I'm smarter, I'm stronger, I have resilience now, I'm not so stupid anymore either. I can see you know. Well, that's one of our talking pictures there. Coming and let and read him his read him his papers really quickly. Let me tell you who you are and which you're not going to be. And yay, I got the victory. Oh sorry, Oh no, I was just saying, just using those for they're my cheerleading moment. Hey, look where you look, where you've been. So no, I'm not going to fight. I'm gonna be fighting.

31:48 And that's one of our talking points. You're focusing on our power and potential rather than our painter. Jeff, can you turn around and show the back of your shirt? Oh sure, I hopefully you guys and maybe you can see it. Maybe, yeah, yep, yep, yep. Unlocked. So it says, unlock your power and potential. So exactly what you said. Is realizing when we get through that pain, we got to realize that's powerful. I survived that pain. I've acquired the strength to survive that pain. Now, an untrained brain just worries about the next pain, you know, But a train brain that's that that understands this, that's starting to tap its super superpero strength, it's unlocking its power and potential rather than focusing on its pain.

32:35 So, like you just said, Angela. Well along with that, and I think another phrase that you'll hear regularly within our course is we want people to get to the point where they stop focusing on what's wrong with them and they start focusing and spending more time on what's strong with you know, what's wrong with me? No, what's strong with me? Because we can sit in that constant cycle of you know, for me, there's this, there's that, there's us, but my gosh, there's a lot of good in you too. So let's let's unlock that, let's embrace that, let's focus on that and use that to help fuel that next step forward that you're going to take. Yeah. Absolutely, And I mean I'm thinking about you know, all of this, you know, for our younger generation. But you know, I work in the corporate world and work with a lot of companies where there are there staff there that they're they're defeated every morning when they come in because they have taken on this this language that they just don't know or I don't do anything right.

33:42 I mean I used to have to tell me I don't ever want to hear that kind of talk in this office again. I mean, I do not want to hear it. Now. If there's something you feel you don't understand, let's go and find some courses so that you can equip yourself. So you now have that confidence that you're and capable to do this and anything else. You're going to ask me a question at any time. I'm not judging you. That's what you're supposed to do. That's how you learn is asking questions. But this defeatist I can't handle that kind of language. I stop people as soon as they start saying I stop him right there. You can't possibly believe that you were created of a being that was born to be creative, to be inventive, to be all of these things, and you've got all these problems. No, you've been listening to the wrong voices in your head.

34:37 You need to put a wrap around its mouth and lock him in the closet and don't let him out, no matter how much he bangs on the door, because he's not your friend. But I you know, but right now, the social media is so that they they enjoy the ugly and the negative and all of that stuff. And we've got to stop them. You don't know what you're doing. Go into your brain. You don't know what you're doing to yourself. And you've got yourself now in a stalled situation because you've got this thing that means you no good in the driver's seat instead of having the powerful person that really you were born to be powerful, you were born to be creative, you were born to be inventive.

35:21 You were born to be leaders and teachers because there's always going to be a next generation. So everybody has a role of teaching somebody something, and we're missing that opportunity because we're over there's still crying about something that happened at twelve, you're sixty. I'm sorry, I just can't. I know now, I know you've had plenty of time to get over that problem. But that's why I'm not the counselor, because I'm stuck. To what we call that the chaos king, like the chaos is the king of the king of all. Those the accuser and you know, all the all the enemies you know, and.

36:06 Of despair, of despair. And see they can come over there to mind max Ed and go down to the academy and learn about those minions and how to fight them. You don't know how to fight them, and nobody taught you to fight them. Mind max ed Brand Fitness Academy is the place to learn how to fight strong. I mean, it's one of the best games out there, and you get to see the superheroes and you know, and it's changing you inside at the same time, so you can be all you want to be. You do want to be better. I know, I know they want to be better. They just don't know how to get out of the rut and they don't know how to shut that part of their brain off the chaos the minions. You know, we're always beaten the minions, So why are we? You know, come on, just call them minions, give them names. What have you got to do and tell them to be quite? That's what Hey, I didn't give you permission to talk. Get out, get out, get out, get up, get out. Yeah. Absolutely, So with this kind of foundation of learning how to get that those skills, I think we'd have so happier people,

37:37 more productive people, people that are being inventive, people that are creating, people that are solving problems because they understand the atmosphere of what's causing the problems. Oh my gosh, the whole world would be different if we just get in there and learn these skills from the beginning. You know, your grandparents may not have known it, your your your parents may not have known it. But here you are. You have an opportunity to change the world going forward, because we're going to have a brand new language and a brand new approach in a brand new way of handling problems. Instead of inebriation and all those other things you run, you to silence the noise. We're gonna this program is gonna teach you how to silence the noise.

38:32 And you don't have to be knocked out to do it. You knock it out and keep on. Oh man, that makes me. I want to play the game. I want to play the game and it works. That works the breakthrough this situation, this situation. Well, I think that's where you know, Jeff and I, and especially with Jeff's background and education and and Ryan our other uh partners background and education, is you know, there's not, in my opinion, there's nothing like there in school that is laying that foundation for you know, we look at it as probably for about twelve twelve years and twelve years and up.

39:18 Did we say ten or twelve? Jeff Ryan thought maybe ten okay, be a little maybe it's a little dark with the chaos king, but definitely twelve and up. And like I said, we also think it's viable for adults too, And we have packaged yet as an individual course, and we also have an opportunity for if there's schools organizations that are looking for a different way to reach individuals, they can reach out to us and we can create a customized group learning package. But as far as like the individual piece, we've got to set where if there's a professional author who's looking for kind of a fun new approach to kind of develop their self resilience. Uh, if they complete the course, they'll get five content continuing need units, So obviously you'll see us they're important for for so many professions. And then the world of education, teachers need regular continuing need units to and administrators need regularly continuing need units to to apply for their relcense when their licensing period runs up, so we we we've tied that in there as well.

40:24 So again, twelve and up is probably the ideal age. But you say available for everyone, you know, if if a parent wants to sit with their with their child on their lap, uh, you know, to to help them fight through the chaos king at an early age. They're definitely they can. Definitely, they're watching the video games, they're watching the movies. So let's let's let's turn it on to something that has still a similar background but is actually going to impact them to the point where it's going to change their lives so that chaos can never be in their eyes, but that point claim them yeah. Point definitely not as dark as many of the things that they're.

41:05 Exposed to, right right, So I mean this is this is just regular standard television watching for them, so and and and something's going to come out of it so that they'll remember those voices telling them, you know, uh to not pay attention to that and not fall for that and different things like that, because we we've just got to kind of help our this generation right now be prepared to be parent and utilize these tools so that their children. Their children are going to be strong, they're going to be resilient, they're going to be able to make good sound decisions. They're not going to be you know, uh, having uncontrollable anger and doing things and making decisions that takes people's lives and things like that.

41:58 They're going to have more self control because this is how you're going to be training your brain that you don't take that frustration and that anger and react on someone else. You think through that and you realize it really wasn't that big of a problem. You have the choice and not even deal with that situation again, So there's no reason to be anger. You don't have to deal with it anymore. You know, they do have the on off button. Turn it off. That's all you have to do. Turn it off, turn it off in your brain, turn it off of your phone, turn it off at your door. You know, you don't have to let that in your life. You protect. My mother always used to tell me you protect your eye gate and your ear gate because it goes into your mind and now it becomes a part of who you are. So something as soon as I say, no, that's not me, I'm not watching it, I'm not putting that inside of me.

42:59 Really like we'd really like to, you know, especially laying that foundation in classrooms across the world. Actually, you know, because we can't actually change the. You know, the language and all that is can be adjustable, but you know, starting here, starting at home, like getting that foundation in the classroom of kids that you know, it's going to be a game changer and we would love to see it in every classroom, but also in every corporate meeting room too. We tried to be very mindful about. Keeping it for all ages because we're inspired by it, like this is what you know, a lot of people our age that you know, have been you know, exposed to sci fi like their whole life.

43:51 You know, I was born in nineteen seventy. Six and our words came out in seventy seven, and my life is like engaged and with. The comic books and all those things. I think there's a it resonates across the board, and I think this is something that. Yeah, I think lots of people that. Are listening can will reach out and and and let us know because we can. I think it can really resonate with helping people overcome there is a way out. There is a way to overcome all that anxiety and stress and imposters, all those things that you think is just the way your brain works. These can you know, really help train it in a different way, Just like like any workout video or anybody you watch on YouTube that you know helps you get those biceps or those pecks that you want, or you know what we can we can do that for your mind. And I think so many people think that it's hopeless and that they're helpless, and that's not the case.

44:55 Let's superhero. The thing is, if you can learn the latest song, and you can learn the latest dance, you can learn how to retrain your brain. I mean, I'm just thinking about how wonderful this could be if it's in the schools, so that those that have not gotten that training at home aren't coming in to a school ready to you know, harm one of the other students there because they turned them down for a date. Hey, you know, let Grandma just be honest. She's just not the one. She doesn't realize how wonderful you are. Let her go. She's not worth it. There's another one waiting for you that's got everything you need. You don't need to go through all that.

45:43 She's not worth it, man, it's not worth it. Well years of Grandma. When I worked in child and adolescent psychiatry inpatient facilities, this could have avoided so many hospitalizations. If there was something this engaging and this applicable in schools, it could I truly believe it could have greatly reduced hospitalizations in regards to just like you said, those rejections that then led to thoughts that, you know, external validation is important, which then leads to thought of thoughts of you know, am I worthy?

46:26 Do I want to be here? Which then leads to being hospitalized. Where if you catch that before and they're seeing their locus of control and they're seeing their value and they're being able to defeat the accuser and you know all the different minions of despair we have, that's going to work across the board to build a foundation, right and as. We've as we've worked on developing this one of the one of the great memories that I had as a teacher, and I shared it with Dustin, I shared it with Ryan as we're working on building the curriculum pieces is I still can remember a student. I'm out there in front, young teacher, you know, early twenties, and the student was just bored to death by the lecture that I was presenting.

47:17 And she looked at me and raised her hand and she said, mister APSI, you need to focus more on entertaining us. I'm like, well, you guys want me to be like a stand up comedian or something like that. But it's that's a piece that really resonated with me, and as I moved forward as an educator and as in teaching, it wasn't necessarily about entertainment, but it's about engagement and what am I doing to purposely make sure that I'm able to relate to, to engage to. You know, granted we've fully embraced the entertainment aspect. We wanted to make this fun, but our hope with that is that people do have fun when they're taking these courses, well the first course that we have in the future ones that will be coming, but not only that, but if they do enjoy it, if they those and they have those endorphins from that opportunity to experience something kind of fun, that those lessons, those core, those core lessons on on bring fitness and self resilience and growth, mindset and grit and perseverance, that they stick and they hold onto those that much more.

48:25 Right, Well, I want you to inform our audience of how to get in touch with you, how to join the academy, how to identify the minions and the protectors and get signed up for this. Sure I you know, I mean to give a kind of a. Yeah, yeah, go for it. Yeah yeah. The most way to find the easiest way to find us is mindmax dot com, M I N D M A X E ed dot com. And there's a direct link to the academy. It's one of the first links that people will see when they go when they go on there, if they go to the academy, if they click on that link, it'll take it to It'll take learners to the Academy's page and they'll get an opportunity where they can register directly for the course. They can explore the graphic novel that we've just recently had published that's available out there as well. They can search Dustin's Name, my Name, or mind Max on Amazon, Walmart dot com and they can actually and soon we'll have the link available on our on our website as well, but they can actually actually purchase a graphic novel that tells the story that learnings learners actual experience within the course, so they get a chance to read from the recruits perspective, and then they get to actually if they take the course and bed themselves in the exact same learning experience that their recruits receive in the graphic novel, so I think.

49:57 And the graphic novel is brand new, and like like Jeff said, if you go to mind Max, Brain Fitness on Amazon, anywhere, the novel. Will come up. We'll be there, yeah, minemax dot com. And then Academy is where you go for the curriculum. But the book is everywhere now. And we just got that was it the seventeenth or the fifteenth. The fifteenth it officially published and we're you know, people should watch too. We're in the process of launching a preparing to launch a Kickstarter campaign to help us not just again, we've got the first course, and as Dustin mentioned, there's twelve courses within our curriculum that we have a vision for mapping out. But we're in the process of launching a Kickstarter campaign, hopefully within the next month, to help me, you know, generate funds to help us take things to the next level. So we're very excited.

50:52 Well, I'm excited that this is out there because I can see that this is a tool that's going to make changes in a lot of lives and maybe curve the emotion to do some of the things that we've been experiencing in the news. I just want to thank our audience for tuning in. Please download this and share this with your friends and family and on your social media because this is a very, very very needed tool and I know that you have learned a lot. I want to thank you Aur Shower Sharp Outlook. We're here every Monday at eleven am Eastern eight am Pacific time, and we're here to inform you so that you are able to be able to be your best self. So as I always say, whatever you do, stay informed. I want to thank you for joining us on a Sharp Outlook.

51:53 We have been informed and energized to take the next steps. We have posted links to websites and videos to learn more on today's topic. Please join us again next week or another thought provoking conversation right here on k for HD radio and Talk for TV. Listen to the podcast on all the podcast apps, and until next week, stay informed.