Optimized Geek | Reboot Your Life

From facing jail time and bankruptcy to owning a stake in a professional sports team with an NBA championship ring, Joel Steele's journey proves that your lowest moments can become your greatest catalysts. In this week's episode of Get Yourself Optimized, Joel shares the exact framework that took him from $500,000 in debt at age 24 to financial independence in under two years. His "Life Switch" methodology isn't about positive thinking—it's about tuning into the emotions most people suppress and using them as your personal roadmap. Key insights you'll discover:  ✅ Why your uncomfortable emotions are "gold" (and how to decode them)  ✅ The two-step success formula Joel used to escape bankruptcy  ✅ How to delete doubt the same way you skip a bad song  ✅ The 3 P's that power transformation: Potential, Passion, Purpose Joel didn't get lucky. He got intentional. And he's breaking down exactly how he did it. The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at getyourselfoptimized.com/551.

What if the key to better decisions isn't just willpower—it's how we support our daily performance? I just interviewed James Schmachtenberger, co-founder of Neurohacker Collective and creator of Qualia, who went from severe adrenal failure at 21 to pioneering a new approach to human optimization. After a life-changing experimental IV therapy in Mexico transformed his brain function, James asked himself a powerful question: 'Could we make cutting-edge cognitive enhancement accessible to everyone—not just those who can afford $250K/year in precision medicine?' The answer led to a complete reimagining of supplement science, using complex systems modeling rather than the standard "one problem, one pill" approach. James found that when he started exploring nootropics during his burnout period, they helped give him the foundation to start making better choices in exercise, nutrition, and other areas of life—creating powerful compounding effects. If you've ever felt like you're capable of more but can't consistently

The IRS has a new weapon: AI Audits that move at lightning speed And most taxpayers have no idea it's coming. Here's what's happening: The IRS is using artificial intelligence to match 1099s and other reported income against tax returns. When there's a mismatch, you get a letter—but here's the catch: you might have only 5 days left to respond by the time it reaches your mailbox. Don't respond in time? They can freeze your bank account faster than you can say "tax audit." I just released the Get Yourself Optimized episode with Diane Kennedy, a CPA who's been in the tax strategy game for decades. She's seeing the AI audit revolution firsthand—and she's here to help you navigate it (and save money in the process). Diane's philosophy is simple: The same legal tax strategies available to billionaires should be available to everyone. The difference? Knowledge and implementation. Financial stress blocks your potential. When you're constantly worried about money or caught off guard by tax problems, there's less bandw

What if you could give yourself an extra week every year? That's exactly what my guest, Sam Richter, did by automating just ONE repetitive task in his business. Sam, a keynote speaker and AI-powered sales intelligence pioneer, discovered that by creating a custom AI assistant for his presentation slides, he reduced his prep time from 25 minutes to 5 minutes per presentation. Across 100 presentations per year, that's 2,000 minutes saved—essentially a free 53rd week in his year. In this Get Yourself Optimized episode, Sam breaks down:  ✅ The GUIDE framework for writing prompts that reduce AI hallucinations ✅ Why treating AI like an intern gets better outcomes than treating it like a search engine  ✅ How a retail company used AI to optimize staffing in under 5 minutes (a task that would have taken days manually)  ✅ The difference between traditional AI and generative AI—and why it matters  ✅ Custom GPTs, system prompts, and memory features that personalize your AI experience This isn't about replacing humans—it'

Ever feel like you're fighting battles that aren't truly yours? You probably are. Emunah Love just explained in Get Yourself Optimized that most of us carry cellular imprints from ancestors, past lives, and childhood trauma that create invisible ceilings—and we don't even know they're there. Traditional therapy helps you manage these patterns. Emunah clears them at the root. Her journey started with profound trauma. Father was killed by the police at age 8. Emotionally unavailable mother. A world that felt fundamentally unsafe. But she had this unwavering faith that kept her searching for "more." During a trip to Israel, she met a stranger named Emunah (Hebrew for "faith"). Her body lit up like firecrackers. She instantly knew: That's my real name. That's who I am. Fast forward 30 years of healing work, and she's now channeling high-vibration beings to help leaders transmute energetic blocks in single sessions. Her clients report shifts that years of traditional approaches couldn't touch. She intentionally cr

What if your best marketing decisions came from a place beyond data and analytics? In this week's episode of Get Yourself Optimized, I sit down with Ava Carmichael, a digital marketing strategist who reveals how she combines intuition, data, and experience to create breakthrough marketing strategies for her clients. Ava shares the turning point when she realized she was splitting her energy between fashion design and marketing, giving each only 50%. The moment she made a clear, committed decision to focus entirely on marketing, everything exploded: her career, her income, and her impact. Here's what you'll discover:  → The three-pronged approach to developing marketing intuition  → Why quality content beats SEO technicalities every time  → How to distinguish genuine intuitive guidance from fear-based thinking  → The power of making a 100% committed decision in your career  → Why video content is becoming non-negotiable for brands If you've been hedging your bets or splitting your focus between multiple paths,

In the "wisdom economy," ideas aren't the bottleneck. Engagement is. In Get Yourself Optimized, I sit down with Matt Church (Sydney-based leadership thinker, creator of the Pink Sheet Process, author of Rise Up: An Evolution in Leadership) to unpack a practical framework for turning messy thinking into clear, high-impact communication. A few highlights: "Someone's attention is the currency, not my ideas." Why the best leaders charge for experiences, not ideas How one Pink Sheet can become a book, short video, or social post—without starting from scratch If you lead teams, sell expertise, or build a personal brand, this episode is a direct hit. Listen to Episode 545 and then do one thing: try a Pink Sheet today. The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at getyourselfoptimized.com/545.

The sources of your biggest pain are also your greatest teachers. In this episode of Get Yourself Optimized, I sat down with Matt Diggity, a well-known SEO entrepreneur who's now on a profound journey of inner exploration. We dive deep into why anxiety creeps up so gradually that you don't recognize it, how IFS therapy rewrites the emotional impact of past trauma, and the power of resonant breathing to release tension in real-time. Matt also shares an extraordinary experience where he and a friend shared the same psychedelic vision, and why going more analog matters in an increasingly digital world. Tune in! The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at getyourselfoptimized.com/544.

The "success lie" nearly destroyed this award-winning entrepreneur's life—until a blackout on an airplane forced her to face the truth. Janelle Bruland had it all: a thriving multi-state business, three daughters, and the appearance of having life "figured out." But when she lost time during a flight and underwent a brain scan, doctors discovered classic PTSD symptoms—her amygdala was "lit up like New York Times Square." What she learned changed everything about how she leads, lives, and defines success. In our latest episode, Janelle reveals why society's definition of success keeps us overwhelmed and exhausted, and how unresolved trauma shows up as invisible barriers to authentic leadership. She shares the framework she created to move from overwhelmed to inner peace, and explains why accepting the present moment "as if you had chosen it" is transformative. One of the most powerful moments comes when she describes the divine message at a funeral that led her to spend her precious final years with her father

Most people don't realize they enter trance states multiple times every day. Ever drive home and can't remember the journey? Get so absorbed in work that you don't hear someone calling your name? That's your subconscious mind taking over—and it's the same state hypnotherapists use to create lasting change. In this Get Yourself Optimized episode, my wife, Orion Talmay, reveals how she helps clients access their subconscious to heal beliefs formed decades ago. These aren't beliefs you can just "think" your way out of—they're patterns wired into your neural connections through repeated experiences. Orion explains:  → How metaphors and symbols speak directly to your subconscious  → Why healing one root memory creates a ripple effect across your entire life  → The difference between stage hypnosis and therapeutic hypnosis  → What makes someone ready for transformational change She also shares her three top tips for living a stellar life: practicing gratitude to shift your state, grounding in nature to balance your

What if your biggest failure was actually a trampoline? In this episode of Get Yourself Optimized, I sat down with Sagi Shrieber—UI/UX designer turned 7-figure entrepreneur—who went from being two weeks away from not being able to feed his family to building multiple successful businesses. Sagi shares how he:  ✓ Hired a coach with money he didn't have (and turned his business around in 2 weeks)  ✓ Wrote himself a check that manifested exactly 6 months later  ✓ Created his "9-12 Club" morning routine that led to his first 7-figure year  ✓ Used the 75 Hard challenge to build unshakeable mental toughness If you're facing challenges in your business or feeling stuck, this episode will shift your entire perspective on adversity.

Sometimes the worst disruptions lead to the best innovations. When COVID hit, Chas Gessner had built a thriving concierge medical clinic doing in-home hormone optimization across Southern California. Overnight, everything changed. Instead of folding, he pivoted to a completely virtual telemedicine model—and scaled his impact beyond what he ever thought possible. But here's what I love about Chas's story: His business didn't start from ambition. It started from necessity. After 7-8 years in the NFL dealing with head trauma and physical wear-and-tear, Chas was experiencing hormone dysfunction in his late 20s—issues most men don't face until their 40s. Traditional healthcare offered band-aids. He wanted root causes. So he reconnected with a naturopathic doctor from Brown, "popped the hood" on his labs, and discovered a lot was awry. That personal quest became Vitality RX, now helping thousands of men reclaim their energy, focus, and vitality. In Get Yourself Optimized, Chas shares:  ✅ Why the "normal" testostero

Are you using AI as a yes-man or as an interface to infinite intelligence? In my latest solo episode of Get Yourself Optimized, I reveal why most people are getting mediocre results from ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI platforms—and how to transform your AI sessions into channels for genuine intuitive insights. Here's what's costing you breakthrough ideas:  ❌ Treating AI as a conversation partner instead of a tool  ❌ Skipping the "before unit"—the critical priming phase  ❌ Accepting surface-level outputs without discernment  ❌ Ignoring your intuition when selecting platforms and modes The game-changer? A three-phase framework (before, during, after) that combines intentional setup, optimized prompting, and sacred discernment. I share my exact process for:  ✅ Raising your vibration before prompting  ✅ Using prompt optimizers to create "super prompts" in 30 seconds  ✅ Applying the three-part truth test to distinguish divine guidance from ego-feeding  ✅ Asking "What are my blind spots?" to uncover hidden insights

Most people think manifestation comes AFTER desire. But what if you already have everything you want—just in a different realm? In this episode of Get Yourself Optimized, my wife, Orion Talmay, and I discuss the Kabbalistic principle: The desire wouldn't exist in you if you hadn't already received its fulfillment in the upper worlds. You've already achieved it. Now it's just manifesting here. Orion is a hypnotherapist and transformational coach who helped a mega-successful executive cure her social anxiety in one session (and accidentally cured her insomnia too). In this episode, she reveals: ✅ The body-sway technique to access your intuition on demand  ✅ Why "being" trumps "doing" for real transformation  ✅ How she manifested her son despite doctors giving her only a 5% chance  ✅ The secret to making difficult people miraculously change (or disappear from your life)  ✅ Why what's "hidden from the eye" retains more blessing If you're a leader who knows there's more available to you but can't quite access it,

PayPal. A Fortune 500 company. 13 years. 8 different CMOs. One brand strategist. How does a 25-person firm retain a client like that? Sasha Strauss says it comes down to one thing: treating every single touchpoint as a brand experience. From the way his team answers emails to how they structure invoices, everything is intentional. Even for billion-dollar clients, they include language like "we're honored to do this work" and "if you need a payment plan, we can work with you." In this Get Yourself Optimized episode, Sasha breaks down:  → Why brand strategy is NOT advertising or marketing (and what it actually is)  → How to leverage heritage assets that competitors can't replicate  → The "teach, don't sell" approach that converts the toughest audiences  → Why he teaches at three universities despite running a thriving agency This episode is packed with actionable strategies you can implement immediately. Tune in!

Worried AI will replace your job? Alexander Zheltov thinks it's our chance to become more human. As founder of Flylane, he's helped 10,000+ students across 35 countries through personalized learning. But his story began with one question at age 10: "Can I study at that UK boarding school?" Everyone said it would cost a million dollars. He proved them wrong—and changed his future in 60 seconds. On Get Yourself Optimized, Alex shares:

Dr. John Demartini’s “Breakthrough Experience” has transformed lives across the globe. In this episode, we uncover how to turn pain into purpose using his neuroscience-backed methodologies.

✨ He Had Millions. A Platform. A Perfect Persona. Then One Molecule Blew It All Up. After 14 years in ministry and building a top-tier marketing agency, Nicholas Kusmich walked away from it all—not for a bigger business, but for a deeper truth. One therapeutic psychedelic experience cracked open his identity, his faith, and his life’s meaning. What followed was a complete unraveling… and the beginning of everything real. In this episode of Get Yourself Optimized, Nic shares:

What if your calendar could predict your mental health? Meet Chris Dancy – once dubbed “The World’s Most Connected Human” – who didn’t just track his steps and calories. He tracked his soul. From mood mapping and ambient data to organizing his apps by values instead of function, Chris built a system to actually understand himself. But here’s the twist: it’s not about more data. It’s about better data.

What if the key to breakthrough business growth isn't working harder, but finding the right mentors at the right time? Greg Merrilees went from a struggling t-shirt designer drowning in $100K debt to running a thriving AI-powered design agency - all because he learned to seek mentors and act on divine guidance. His bold move of creating a free logo for podcast hosts Ezra Firestone and James Schramko opened doors that transformed his entire business model. In our latest Get Yourself Optimized episode, Greg reveals how he uses AI to generate $60 photo shoots that outperform $1000+ professional sessions, restructured his services around the SCALE methodology for recurring revenue, and why being "impeccable with your word" literally changed his business relationships. Listen to Episode 532 to discover Greg's practical strategies for AI integration, mentor relationships, and conscious business growth! The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at getyourselfoptimized.com/532.