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We Study Billionaires

TIP779: Richer, Wiser, Happier Q4 2025 w/ Stig Brodersen & William Green

134 min episode · 2 min read
·
Stig Brodersen,William Green

Episode

134 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Productivity, Health & Wellness, Personal Finance

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Flow State Entry: Brodersen enters flow through walking in open spaces with good lighting, using movement as a trigger rather than sitting still. He describes it like starting a campfire—creating the right conditions (rested, not hungry, appropriate environment) before the state ignites, typically at consistent daily times to build habit.
  • Affirmation Evolution: Van Den Berg shifted from saying "I am happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise" to "I am a loving, kind person, and I'm happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise" after realizing unconditional love represents true success. He repeats affirmations thirty to forty times during cold showers to access suggestible states.
  • Harry Carpenter's Alpha State: Green uses an eleven-minute MP3 track from thegeniewithin.com that teaches progressive relaxation with a metronome background. The technique includes a physical anchor—touching thumb to forefinger while saying "three two one alpha"—to quickly re-enter the state without the full recording.
  • Subconscious as Pathfinder: The subconscious mind illuminates potential paths toward goals but requires conscious execution. Brodersen visualizes the endpoint and works backward through a mental maze, testing different routes. He emphasizes needing multiple flow sessions per goal—not just ten sessions for ten insights, but persistent practice with acceptance of unproductive sessions.
  • Loving-Kindness Practice: Tara Springett's technique involves visualizing white light surrounding difficult people while repeating "I wish you to be happy and healed" for several days before confronting conflict. Sharon Salzberg's meta meditation extends this to benefactors, neutral people, antagonists, yourself, and all beings using phrases like "may you be safe, happy, healthy, live with ease."

What It Covers

Stig Brodersen and William Green explore practical techniques for accessing the subconscious mind through flow states, affirmations, and visualization, drawing heavily from investor Arnold Van Den Berg's fifty-year self-hypnosis practice to achieve goals and cultivate compassion.

Key Questions Answered

  • Flow State Entry: Brodersen enters flow through walking in open spaces with good lighting, using movement as a trigger rather than sitting still. He describes it like starting a campfire—creating the right conditions (rested, not hungry, appropriate environment) before the state ignites, typically at consistent daily times to build habit.
  • Affirmation Evolution: Van Den Berg shifted from saying "I am happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise" to "I am a loving, kind person, and I'm happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise" after realizing unconditional love represents true success. He repeats affirmations thirty to forty times during cold showers to access suggestible states.
  • Harry Carpenter's Alpha State: Green uses an eleven-minute MP3 track from thegeniewithin.com that teaches progressive relaxation with a metronome background. The technique includes a physical anchor—touching thumb to forefinger while saying "three two one alpha"—to quickly re-enter the state without the full recording.
  • Subconscious as Pathfinder: The subconscious mind illuminates potential paths toward goals but requires conscious execution. Brodersen visualizes the endpoint and works backward through a mental maze, testing different routes. He emphasizes needing multiple flow sessions per goal—not just ten sessions for ten insights, but persistent practice with acceptance of unproductive sessions.
  • Loving-Kindness Practice: Tara Springett's technique involves visualizing white light surrounding difficult people while repeating "I wish you to be happy and healed" for several days before confronting conflict. Sharon Salzberg's meta meditation extends this to benefactors, neutral people, antagonists, yourself, and all beings using phrases like "may you be safe, happy, healthy, live with ease."

Notable Moment

Green shares how he wrote a detailed message to a relative explaining his admiration and respect. The recipient, typically tough and unemotional, attempted reading it aloud to his wife but became so moved he could not finish, demonstrating William James's principle that humans fundamentally crave appreciation above all else.

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Episode Transcript

You're listening to TIP. Every quarter, I sit down with my friend and co host, William Green. This time, we explore something that might sound mystical at first. We're talking about the power of the subconscious mind. We explore how you can tap into a flow state so your deeper intuition can guide you towards your goal and then share the practice that I've used since age 26 through trial and error. We also wrestle with whether we all want the same things in life, including respect, appreciation, love, and independence, even if those needs show up in wildly different ways. In a world that feels so full of confusion and anger, how do we keep showing gratitude? How do we treat adversity not as a curse, but as a gift, a chance to behave well when it matters most? If you are curious in joining William and me and our quest to explore how ancient wisdom, modern psychology, and everyday life collide, I think you will really enjoy this conversation. Since 2014 and through more than 180,000,000 downloads, we've studied the financial markets and read the books that influenced self made billionaires the most. We keep you informed and prepared for the unexpected. Now for your hosts, Stig Brodersen and William Green. Welcome to the Investors Podcast. I'm your host, Dick Brodersen. And today, I'm here with my friend and co host, William Green. William, how are you today? I'm great. It's lovely to see you. This is always one of the, the highlights of my quarter. So, yeah, it's a delight to be back with you. Stig Brodersen (zero zero three:forty nine): Thank you so much for saying so, William. And it's no secret that it's always a privilege to get the opportunity to speak with you. So thank you for making time. The first topic we're going to talk about here today is about the power of the subconscious mind. And I was listening to one of your episodes or re listening to one of your episodes here the other day with Alan Van Den Berg. And I mean, both from your books, and I know I said this multiple times on the show, but I'll just say once again, that's my favorite person in your book. It's the most beautiful story and I'm just going to put you a bit on the spot here before we sort of like dive into it just for the listeners who might not have been as lucky tuned into your most recent episode with you, it's Richter, Wise and Happier episode 61. We'll make sure to link to it. But if people don't know who Arnold is, perhaps you could just give us a brief introduction to this incredible, incredible person. Yeah. Arnold is a wonderful human being, and I often say that he's not the most successful investor I've interviewed and written about, but he may be the most successful human being in the investment world that I've encountered. …

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Books

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  • by Harry Carpenter

    Green uses an eleven-minute MP3 track from thegeniewithin.com that teaches progressive relaxation with a metronome background.

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