Dan Clark — Why Binaural Beats Are Basically Pop Science And How Brain.fm Is Helping People Unlock Creativity and Focus Through Functional Music

Welcome to the Conscious Creators Show; where through intimate and insightful interviews with authors, actors, musicians, entrepreneurs and other podcasters, you'll learn tools and tactics to 10x your creativity and strategies to grow and monetize your audience.

In today’s episode, Dan Clark, CEO of Brain.fm talks about how a near-death experience led him to re-evaluate his life, how he found Brain.fm and his journey from contacting customer support to becoming CEO. We also talk about his early childhood experiences, being picked on and learning martial arts, and how that relates his ‘why’ behind Brain.fm.

If you enjoy this episode, feel free to reach out to Sachit and Dan at [email protected] + [email protected].

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Episode Highlights:

• Dan had a near-death experience that led him to reevaluate his life.
• He discovered Brain.fm and had a healthy skepticism about it.
• Dan didn’t finish college because he found that his body clock didn’t work with the schedule, and he had the same experience when he tried going into advertising.
• He found Brain.fm so incredibly valuable to him, so he contacted customer support persistently until he was put in touch with the Founder. They weren’t able to hire him for what he was charging, but he decided to work for them for free to prove his value.
• Dan believes he got that discipline and persistence from training in martial arts.
• Dan is always trying to optimize communication.
• Ask yourself why you want something and why you’re doing something so you can align all of your goals to that why.
• One of the biggest challenges we have in today’s society is plugging into deep focus and then disengaging from it on a set schedule. Some people aren’t made for that.
• Using Brain.fm has helped people with everything from general focus and productivity to PTSD, ADHD, and autism.
• The idea of music being capable of changing lives and mental states is not new.
• Brain.fm is different from the pop science theory of binaural beats, which does not have as much scientific backing as the audio research done for Brain.fm.
• Dan got grant funding to research alternative treatments for ADHD and therefore validate the science behind Brain.fm.
• Right now, Brain.fm is used for focus, relaxation, sleep, and meditation. Their next step is to improve what they already have before they expand what they do.
• They are working on integrating wearable technology to measure an individual’s baseline and change the music selection based on your needs.
• Developing workout music requires changing the fundamental ideas behind the music because unlike focus music, for which the goal is you ignoring the music, workout music requires focus on the music itself to distract you from your workout.
• Sachit asks Dan what their process is for developing new products. Dan says they have a resident neuroscientist on staff.
• You can use Brain.fm as part of the Pomodoro method.
• Dan struggled with focus as a kid, dealing with bullying and other distractions.
• For productivity, Dan emphasizes forming good habits rather than relying on tools.
• Every morning, Dan gets an iced coffee and writes.
• For Dan, work sprints are the most effective way to structure his day.
• Multitasking does not work or increase productivity, so Dan limits the number of times he context switches each day.
• Understand that everyone is different; people with the same goal will have different reasons for doing it.
• Dan thinks of his company like a ship—when he helps people, he expects them to help him back. Even if he’s the captain of the ship, he can’t run it alone.
• Common traits that Dan sees in entrepreneurs are perseverance and the ability to find meaning in things that happen.
• Dan had a severe stutter as a child and he sees the speech coaching he got in elementary school as one of the most valuable things he received in his education.
• Dan bought a bracelet in Laos that he hasn’t rem...