Mike Cernovich

An admixture of mindset and media

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Mike Cernovich

How to Improve Your Life by 100 Times, Be More Creative, and Have More Ideas with this Journal

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It is possible to improve your life by 100x? That depends on how you measure large improvements in your life. What you can do is improve your life to such a degree that your past life was unrecognizable. Here’s one way how.

  • (By the way, first-time readers will wonder who am I to give life advice. Go read my bio here.)

Step 1. Choose an area in your life you want to improve on.

If you get stuck, remember that “life” is not an abstract concept. Your life is the sum of your actions + the people you spend your time with. And if you want to improve your life, you almost certainly want better relationships, better health, and more financial freedom. (Notice I didn’t say get rich. I am not rich. In fact I gave most of my money to my daughter so that she will never have to worry about money. I’m basically starting over from scratch.)

Step 2. Write 10 ways to improve one area of your life.

(The 10 Ideas a Day Notebook is from James Altucher. Read his article here.)

Literally write out, “How to Improve _____________.”

Be specific. You’re not going to write, “10 Ways to Improve My Life.” You’re going to write, “10 Ways to Lose 20 Pounds,” or “10 Ways to Read More books,” or “10 Ways to Spend More Time with my Family.”

Step 3. Each day write 10 ways to execute one of those ideas.

Example: 10 Ways to Expand Gorilla Mindset

It may come as a surprise, but media and journalism does not pay the bills. My mindset work and seminars do. Journalism is a time and money sinkhole, but hey, “What did you do when free speech was about to be abolished?”

And so there are two rules applied to this exercise specific to my business.

  • 80/20 Rule
  • 1,000 True Fan Rule

The 80/20 Rule.

Eighty percent of your revenue (or hassle) will come from twenty-percent of your audience. This applies to nearly every business.

If you’re a small business owner, figure out how to best serve the top 20% (which you should love and adore, as they keep you alive), and how to get rid of the bottom 20% (which causes you problems).

I give refunds when people complain and ban them from events. It was actually hilarious when people complained to me about an event I put up considerable money to make happen. They’d email me, “But I didn’t ask for a refund.”

Trust me, that little money you give back will be a smart investment. People who complain before an event even happened are going to ruin the entire vibe. Get rid of those people!

The 1,000 True Fan Rule.

According to the 1,000 True Fan Rule:

To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.

The math isn’t that clean, you need more than 1,000 true fans, but the concept holds.

There are people who buy Gorilla Mindset in all formats, give it to friends as gifts, attend seminars, and support every project I do. They make this work possible. They are the true gorillas.

Focus on the “true fans” rather than spend time dealing with complainers.

Although this seems obvious, it’s not. We are hard-wired to deal with complainers. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” as the saying goes. Every minute dealing with a customer complaint is a minute not spent with a customer who loves you.

Here’s the actual journal entry for 10 Ways to Expand Gorilla Mindset.

Ideas are easy, execution is hard. The magic happens when you choose one idea, and write 10 ways to improve on it, and execute on it.

I did a Gorilla Mindset video course over two years ago. However my skin was in a flare, and given the lighting, it didn’t look good visually. I shelved the project, because if you’re going to charge for a premium product, then make the product premium.

I then got too busy making a film on free speech, traveling all over the country raising heck, and lost focus on my mindset work.

Now that “Masterclasses” are all the rage, it seems like a great time to launch my own video class.

When you’re listing ideas, be a writer not an editor. A writer says yes to bad ideas, an editor says no. I am not going to make stickers or have Gorilla Mindset coffee mugs. Those are bad ideas, and they were included in the initial 10 Ideas journal entry. The editor said to focus on another 80/20 project.

But a Masterclass will be a major expansion of the Gorilla Mindset life.

As you go through the list, you find out what ideas will be practical to execute. And if you’re a business, focus on the ideas that will matter most to your bottom line.

For example, there is no single product I can launch in 2018 that will bring in more revenue than a Gorilla Mindset class. It’s a digital product, which is a better business to be in than a physical product.

You’ll have to decide what ideas to execute on in your own life. I only showed you my notebook as an illustration.

Will you really improve your life by 100X

I choose 100X in an arbitrary manner. If you write out 10 ideas, and build on those 10 ideas or find ways to execute those ideas, then you have 100 (10 times 10).

A 100X gain isn’t as unrealistic as you think. Most venture capitalists won’t invest in a company unless they can see a 1,000X return.

Grant Cardone has a book on how to 10X your life.

And if you “only” 3X your life, that would be an astounding improvement.

The process is straighforward

  1. Step 1. Choose an area of your life you want to improve on.
  2. Step 2. Write out 10 ways you can improve that area of life.
  3. Step 3. Write out 10 ways to execute one of those ideas from the list of 10.

I know a bunch of people are going to nit-pick this article by saying I didn’t list 10 ways to execute my course. What I posted was more of an outline of the Gorilla Mindset class. You’ll be banned, as I have no interest in having people argue with me about the right way to do an exercise you just heard about from me, and experience has told me that people who obsess over “contradictions” are the worst customers to have. (See what I did there?)

In fact, one of the biggest lessons I learned early on was to ignore or block all haters, or people who are “just asking questions.” They aren’t just asking questions. They are playing out deep emotional issues on you, and they are a waste of time.

Remember: Focus on your quality clients rather than people-please nasty people.

P.S. Gorilla Mind (Smooth) is only on sale for a few more hours. (It was a Tax Day Sale.)

Miami Herald Sues for Court Records Involving Jeffrey Epstein’s Alleged Sex Trafficking Ring

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“Recent court filings, both in federal and state court, have raised new allegations about his involvement in a wider sex trafficking ring,” the Miami Herald writes in its Motion to Intervene and unseal records in a case involving Jeffrey Epstein. The full motion is here, and Cernovich readers will find it interesting because it’s one of the free speech case I’m involved in.

Over a year ago, at great financial cost and risk to my safety, I sought to uncover records that could implicate Epstein and others in a sex-trafficking case. Sources within the national security community told me to never mention Epstein’s name again. “You did what you always do, which is to rush in, and you have no f-cking idea what you just got yourself into,” one source told me.

Now that the Herald is involved, I can talk about the case again.

The Herald writes in its motion:

For over three years, the Miami Herald has reported on and investigated Mr. Epstein and others who were involved in the sexual abuse of underage girls. Recent court filings, both in federal and state court, have raised new allegations about his involvement in a wider sextrafficking ring. The Miami Herald has covered, among other subjects, the initial investigation by the Palm Beach state attorney, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the negotiations between those law enforcement agencies and Mr. Epstein’s legal defense team, and the ultimate decision by the U.S. Attorney’s Office to sign a non-prosecution agreement that was negotiated in secret and sealed in return for a guilty plea to a lesser state crime. The deal, which was not revealed until well after it was signed and Mr. Epstein was sentenced, resulted in him serving 13 months of an 18-month sentence. He now lives in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Specifically, Court transcripts in the Giuffre/Maxwell case make several references to Ms. Maxwell being the” madame” of Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking enterprise, and to witnesses who may be able to provide evidence of a wider, cross-border sex-trafficking ring.

Although the media unfairly maligns me as a conspiracy theorist, here are the facts.

I filed the first lawsuit for these records. The trial court denied my motion on flimsy grounds, and I appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief supporting my lawsuit:

Michael Cernovich sought access to certain sealed judicial records in Giuffre v. Maxwell, a defamation action in the Southern District of New York. The district court entered a standing order in the case permitting the parties to file documents under seal without first seeking judicial approval, resulting in the filing of the majority of the substantive papers in the case under seal, including the papers in support of an opposition to the Defendant’s motion for summary judgment. The amicus brief argues, among other things, that the district court’s order permitting the sealing is contrary to the First Amendment and common law presumptions of access, and there are no compelling or countervailing interests justifying sealing in this case.

I’m involved in litigation against a billionaire with the power to have me killed, and my legal arguments are supported by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and now the Miami Herald is seeking the same records I sought.

As a preliminary matter, one of the main reasons for closure identified in the Court’s denial of the Cernovich Motion – the ongoing status of the litigation – is no longer relevant because the case has settled. Accordingly there is no more risk that the “release of contested confidential discovery materials could conceivably taint the jury pool.” (ECF No. 892, at 7.) Any weight given to the fact that, at the time of the denial of the Cernovich motion, the case was “mere weeks from assembling” trial, should be disregarded. The legal rights of the parties are now settled, and if the public’s interest in this matter was at all tempered in light of the on-going litigation, it is now renewed.

What’s the Gorilla Mindset lesson?

How many journalists in a career can say they broke a story that led to a Congressman resigning, and filed a lawsuit that was supported by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press?

There’s no magic. I’m not special. I simply applied the principles of Gorilla Mindset, which you can buy here, to media and journalism.

P.S. This litigation is expensive.

If you want to support it, you may do so here.

 

The Energy has Shifted

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Several high consciousness people I’ve spoken to independently told me they felt a shift in energy. Something is going on. This feeling happened 2-3 weeks ago, and it wasn’t about politics or elections. The feeling is much bigger. There has been an energy shift.

Whenever you talk about Energy, haters appear. “It’s woo-woo,” but this only shows they are morons. You see Energy measured every day, though it’s wrapped up in terms like consumer confidence, inflation, and bubbles.

Keynes called this Energy the “animal spirits,” or animating force of human behavior. We all know Energy when we see it.

On a personal level, we all know the experience of having a person suck out the energy of a room. There are people who seem to suck away energy with every interaction, and we call them emotional vampires.

Mass movements don’t come from out of nowhere. They only seem that way, as most people don’t notice the Energy propelling human behavior until some event has happened. (November 8, 2016 was one example.)

There’s always some force behind mass movements, and these forces are largely invisible. My work and study is devoted to finding and channelling this Energy.

The Act in the movie we are living in is changing.

“The movie is getting dark,” is how one friend described what we’re feeling. Dark doesn’t mean evil or bad. It mean a transition to something new.

Scott Adams, when asked about the change in Energy said, “I feel it too.”

Adams explained that,

You have a country that is off-balance because we moved from a place where facts rule the world to where facts do not rule our world. We live in a non-factual, mostly-subjective world…

Once you start realizing how much of an illusion we are all living in, you can start to deal with your reality with a better understanding of it.

We’re entering a period where our biggest problems are simply psychology, simply the way we recognize our reality and the way we deal with it.

If we can just figure out how to be friends and how to work together in a positive way, we have an opportunity within the next 100 years to be something so special that it’s almost indescribable….We’re on the cusp of this, but we’re not there.

Why do we feel something “all at once.”

Although we must think of ourselves as individuals in order to survive, it’s more accurate to describe ourselves as being part of a “hive mind” or what Howard Bloom calls the global brain. We are nodes in a social brain:

A complex adaptive system is a learning machine, one made up of semi-independent modules which work together to solve a problem. Some complex adaptive systems, like rain forests, are biological. Others, like human economies, are social.

We are constantly learning and adapting, and social media is accelerating humanity’s shift.

Have you felt the energy shift?

What do you feel is going on?

P.S. If you like this article, read Gorilla Mindset.

Malcolm Gladwell Masterclass Review

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The Great Courses meets your favorite celebrity experts is the type of “idea sex” (combining two great concepts, like peanut butter and chocolate) designed to excite, and l I bought a Masterclass subscription for Malcolm Gladwell’s course on writing after seeing it advertised to me on Facebook.

Like the other masterclass courses, Gladwell’s is shot beautifully. It’s a personal experience, and you’ll feel like you’re chatting in a living room.

Each 10-15 minute lecture – it’s more accurate to say it’s a conversation – contains a PDF worksheet.

 

Masterclass delivers on the celebrity experience aspect of its marketing, and the course is fun.

Will it help new or struggling writers? That’s harder to say, as the course isn’t as deep as it could be.

For example, “Episode 21 – Working as a Writer,” contains this advice in the 2 page download:

Different doesn’t necessarily mean better. Trying to be better than everyone you’re competing with is setting the bar too high. But you do want to give readers a reason to read you. Embrace the parts of your style or identity that make you different. People want a glimpse of a perspective different from their own.

This is the type of advice you’ll find in the success meme-o-sphere, “Mindset is everything,” “You have to really want it,” and, “Buy low, sell high.” Yes….And what exactly does that look like?

Gladwell’s says he hasn’t become a U.S. citizen because being Canadian makes him feel different. This, like a lot of the material in the course, is shallow and lacks vulnerability.

What makes Gladwell different is his ability to churn complicated academic research into smooth theories. Why does he have this ability? Was he curious as a child? Does he push boundaries in personal conversations, asking you what only your therapist is allowed to ask? Is he nosey? Does he walk around people’s homes and look at what books they read?

Gladwell also has a calming voice, which is another way he’s different from most writers. His voice is hypnotic. The pacing is too good to be natural. Did he take voice lessons? Was he born with this magnificent voice?

I’d bet that people who know Gladwell would undoubtedly say he struggles with vulnerability. He doesn’t go deep in his class.

(Funny story: Via synchronicity, I once sat near Gladwell while he was on a date, and took notes and listened in more than I should have.)

Should you buy Malcolm Gladwell’s Masterclass?

Yes, it’s a no-brainer, at least if you’re a writer or even a fan of Gladwell. It’s the type of celebrity behind-the-scenes stuff we all love. (I don’t have sponsorship with them or anything, you can pick up his masterclass here.)

What No One Tells You About Writing.

Writing is a mental illness.

Writers can’t not write. If you don’t feel like risking your personal relationships and reputation for your art, you’re likely not cut out for writing.

There’s a reason writers don’t sell you on the idea of writing. Think about that for a minute. If you’re doing something you love, like taking hot yoga or soul cycle, you tell your friends.

When is the last time you read an article saying, “Writing is great. You should become a writer!”

There’s a reason for that. Writing is a terrible profession to be in, and you’d have to be literally insane to choose the profession.

Writing isn’t an identity, it’s a habit.

Writers write. This should be obvious. Move to Los Angeles or New York. Everyone is working on a script or a book. Everyone loves the idea of writing. How many people have published a book or made a movie?

You’ll toil in obscurity for years.

No one outside a few friends or family members will pretend to care about your writing. If you’re lucky, they’ll only have to pretend for a year or two, as by then you’ll have 100 or so readers. If you’re not lucky, it’ll take decades for you to make it. You won’t have any influence. You’ll wonder why are you spending thousands of hours writing. You’ll do the math and see you’re making less than $1 an hour.

Writing is the worst business to be in.

As a self-published author, I make $6 a book. Those who go with big publishing houses earn $2-3 a book. I average 2.5 books per person. (Some buy the audio, paperback, and Kindle versions of Gorilla Mindset, and others buy additional copies.) That’s $15 per customer. Run the math on that.

From a business perspective, I’d rather have people buy a Cernovich brand of toothpaste, because that’s a product people use regularly for years.

Speaking of new companies, we recently launched Gorilla Dream. Almost everyone has some sort of sleeping problem, and 75% of people have tried a “sleep aid” in the last year.

If you love Gorilla Dream, you don’t buy a bottle once. You buy a bottle every 45 days for years. (Thank you for that!)

Writing is selling.

Oh you don’t like selling?

In my most charming Southern house wife accent, let me say, “Bless your heart.”

The average book sells 2,000 copies in its lifetime and 250 copies per year. Yes, that’s right.

People aren’t going to discover your books and do the marketing for you. You’re going to have to learn how to sell books.

And if you can sell books, you can sell anything. You can sell high-margin, subscription-based products. If you’re effective at selling, why sell books?

(Because writing is a mental illness, that’s why!)

Books are a declining business.

I used to read 1-2 books a read. Now I read….1 a month? Although reading is a book is more rewarding than scrolling news headlines, social media gives us an immediate dopamine spike, where as books make us work for the payoff. Welcome to Internet addiction.

“Should I become a writer?”

If you’re asking that question, the answer is obvious. (Hint: Run, don’t walk, away from writing.)

Writing does have some huge upsides, once you’ve “made it.”

Some say I have influenced world affairs as well, which is simultaneously odd and gratifying to think about.

Others have told me that their lives were changed and sometimes they were saved after finding my writing. More than one person has said my writing prevented him from committing suicide.

I’ve met people all across the world, we have incredible seminars, I’m able to work from home and have dinner with my daughter every night.

 

 

If you want to be a writer, don’t quit your day job. Wake up 30 minutes before a real job to work on your writing. After a few years, it’ll have been worthwhile, even if you never reach Gladwellian heights.

P.S. If you like this article, you’ll love my book. Buy it today.

What is a Natural Child Birth with No Pain Killers Like?

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Shauna and I agreed that a traditional hospital birth with drugs wasn’t right for us. It wasn’t about doctors, who are great, and it wasn’t about judging pain killers, which some need. We tend to live an unconventional life, and a natural child birth without pain killers fit with our lifestyle. Shauna also wanted to have an active role in her pregnancy and natural birth with a midwife allowed that.

We weren’t ready for a home birth and thus decided to have our daughter in a midwifery. We started our research by watching The Business of Being Born, a documentary about child birth.

We formulated a game plan. Rather than have a traditional child birth, Shauna would give birth:

  • Using self-hypnosis (she took a Hynobabies course) rather than pain killers,
  • Have a doula (a natural birth mindset coach),
  • With me in the room the entire time.

Now when you tell people you’re going to have a natural child birth, the first reaction from others is concern or hate. AREN’T YOU WORRIED YOUR BABY IS GOING TO DIE?! People tend to get angry when you make choices they didn’t make, it’s as if they view your choices are somehow being a judgment on theirs.

Midwifery is far different from the stereotypes:

Midwifery, as known as obstetrics, is a health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), besides sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many countries, midwifery is a medical profession. A professional in midwifery is known as a midwife.

Everyone has a “horror story” about a midwife, and most of those are fake. What about hospital horror stories? Confirmation bias for the dominant narrative (hospitals are good and midwives and doulas are for hippies) means you’ll only hear about problems during birth that happen at midwiferies rather than at hospitals.

The midwifery has a full staff of nurses and mid-wives. They all have education and experience. There is also a hospital nearby for emergencies. According to our midwifery, fewer than 3% of women need to leave for a doctor’s office. Also, midwives and the nurses are experts in delivering babies. They are present the whole time unlike many OBGYN’s who come in right when the mom is ready to push the baby out.

Our midwifery only selects women with low-risk pregnancies. You’re required to undergo extensive childhood education.

Doulas.

A doula is a birthing coach, and the right doula is a game-changer.

A doula (/ˈduːlə/), also known as a birth companion and post-birth supporter, is a nonmedical person who assists a person before, during, and/or after childbirth, as well as her spouse and/or family, by providing physical assistance and emotional support. The provision of continuous support during labour is associated with improved maternal and fetal health and a variety of other benefits, including lower risk of induction and interventions and less need for pain relief.

Shauna’s contractions began increasing in intensity around 2:30 p.m.

Our doula arrived to our home at 3:30p.m., she began coaching Shauna through the process.

Shauna’s doula was also her self-hypnosis coach, as Shauna and I went through the Hypnobabies course together.  

We arrived at the midwifery at 6:02 p.m. There wasn’t any drama or freak-outs, which is unusual if you’ve ever seen a movie depicting birth. Americans tend to make child birth, a highly natural process, like a medical emergency.

We got settled in. It was low-key at first. When the midwife did her cervical check Shauna was 7cm dilated.

Once it was go-time, I stayed in the delivery room (which as you can see above is a bedroom) with Shauna and used mindset coaching during the delivery. We had developed some mantras and Gorilla Mindset framing techniques to guide her through the pain.

One technique we developed together was to imagine what she’d say to Cyra when she was born. When in “discomfort” (Hynobabies teaches you to change language patterns, so rather than saying “pain” we use “discomfort”), we’d change Shauna’s focus. “Imagine Cyra is on your chest. What are you going to say to Cyra when you see her?” During the transition phase of her labor when her contractions were really strong and intense I kept saying “You can do anything for 1 minute.”

Shauna rocked it.

Our first child, Crya, was born at 8:38 p.m., weighing in at 6 pounds and 11 ounces. It was a smooth delivery process at a midwifery assisted by a doula. Shauna did not take any pain medication. Cyra arrived with eyes wide open, looking alert.

While I am not here to sell anyone on midwifery, my experience with the process of delivery was another reminder that most of what we know (or think we know) is a lie.

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