Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery)

01/28/24 • 74 min

2 Listeners

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Jonny Miller is the founder of Nervous System Mastery, a course that has helped hundreds of founders and tech leaders cultivate calm, reduce nervousness, enhance resilience, and elevate their sense of aliveness. Having personally benefited from Jonny’s teachings, I’m especially excited to have him on the show. In this episode, we discuss:

• How shifting your focus from the mind to the body can help ease nervousness

• The power of breath in changing states

• The importance of “interoception”

• Specific breathing exercises to both calm and excite your nervous system

• The A.P.E. (awareness, posture, and emotion) framework for recognizing body signals

• The “feather, brick, dump truck” phenomenon

• The concept of emotional debt and how to release it

• The competitive advantage of feeling emotions

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Jonny’s five-week boot camp, Nervous System Mastery, will equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate greater calm and agency over your internal state. Learn to rewire maladaptive stress responses and improve your sleep (use code LENNY for $250 discount). Apply here.

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Brought to you by:

• Teal—Your personal career growth platform

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security.

• Miro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/managing-nerves-anxiety-and-burnout

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Where to find Jonny Miller:

• X: https://twitter.com/jonnym1ller

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnym1ller/

• Website: https://www.jonnymiller.co/

• Podcast: podcast.curioushumans.com

• Email: [email protected]

• Course: https://nsmastery.com/lenny

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Jonny’s background

(07:19) The bottom-up approach to nervousness and anxiety

(09:42) The power of breath in changing states

(11:47) The concept of state over story

(13:56) Personal experiences with nervousness

(15:01) Breathing exercises to calm you down

(20:40) The “espresso” breath exercise to give you energy

(25:44) Interoception and the A.P.E. framework

(34:47) The “feather, brick, dump truck” phenomenon

(37:40) Recognizing emotional debt and avoiding burnout

(40:47) Using somatic-oriented therapy for healing

(45:26) Telltale signs of emotional debt

(48:13) The competitive advantage of “feeling the feels”

(50:20) Advice for people overwhelmed by stimuli

(52:36) The NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) practice for emotional release

(55:38) Daily practices for emotional well-being

(58:23) Thoughts on meditation

(01:01:26) The Body Keeps the Score

(01:01:58) Contrarian corner

(01:04:43) Lightning round

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Jonny’s If [This] Then [Breathe] Recipes:

• If [overwhelmed], then [hum]

• If [anxious], then [breath of calm]

• If [lethargic], then [espresso breath]

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Referenced:

• The Operating Manual for Your Nervous System: https://every.to/p/the-operating-manual-for-your-nervous-system

• Afferent vs. Efferent Neurons:

• How shifting your focus from the mind to the body can help ease nervousness

• The power of breath in changing states

• The importance of “interoception”

• Specific breathing exercises to both calm and excite your nervous system

• The A.P.E. (awareness, posture, and emotion) framework for recognizing body signals

• The “feather, brick, dump truck” phenomenon

• The concept of emotional debt and how to release it

• The competitive advantage of feeling emotions

—

Brought to you by:

• Teal—Your personal career growth platform

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security.

• Miro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life

—

Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/managing-nerves-anxiety-and-burnout

—

Where to find Jonny Miller:

• X: https://twitter.com/jonnym1ller

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnym1ller/

• Website: https://www.jonnymiller.co/

• Podcast: podcast.curioushumans.com

• Email: [email protected]

• Course: https://nsmastery.com/lenny

—

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

—

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Jonny’s background

(07:19) The bottom-up approach to nervousness and anxiety

(09:42) The power of breath in changing states

(11:47) The concept of state over story

(13:56) Personal experiences with nervousness

(15:01) Breathing exercises to calm you down

(20:40) The “espresso” breath exercise to give you energy

(25:44) Interoception and the A.P.E. framework

(34:47) The “feather, brick, dump truck” phenomenon

(37:40) Recognizing emotional debt and avoiding burnout

(40:47) Using somatic-oriented therapy for healing

(45:26) Telltale signs of emotional debt

(48:13) The competitive advantage of “feeling the feels”

(50:20) Advice for people overwhelmed by stimuli

(52:36) The NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) practice for emotional release

(55:38) Daily practices for emotional well-being

(58:23) Thoughts on meditation

(01:01:26) The Body Keeps the Score

(01:01:58) Contrarian corner

(01:04:43) Lightning round

—

Jonny’s If [This] Then [Breathe] Recipes:

• If [overwhelmed], then [hum]

• If [anxious], then [breath of calm]

• If [lethargic], then [espresso breath]

—

Referenced:

• The Operating Manual for Your Nervous System: https://every.to/p/the-operating-manual-for-your-nervous-system

• Afferent vs. Efferent Neurons:

Previous Episode

Geoffrey Moore on finding your beachhead, crossing the chasm, and dominating a market

Geoffrey Moore is an author, speaker, and advisor, widely known for his seminal book Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers, which many consider the most important book ever written on go-to-market strategy. Moore’s work is focused on the market dynamics surrounding disruptive innovations, and how one overcomes the challenge of transitioning from serving early adopters to the mainstream. In this episode, we discuss:

• What “crossing the chasm” means

• What steps to take before you try crossing the chasm

• The importance of winning a marquee customer

• The role of executive sponsors in the sales process

• The differences between visionaries and pragmatists, and how to build for each

• Geoffrey’s four go-to-market playbooks based on stage: Early Market, Bowling Alley, Tornado, and Main Street

• The problem with discounting before crossing the chasm

• “Deadly sins” to avoid when crossing the chasm

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Brought to you by:

• CommandBar—AI-powered user assistance for modern products and impatient users

• WorkOS—An API platform for quickly adding enterprise features

• Arcade Software—Create effortlessly beautiful demos in minutes

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/geoffrey-moore-on-finding-your-beachhead

—

Where to find Geoffrey Moore:

• X: https://twitter.com/geoffreyamoore

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreyamoore/

• LinkedIn posts: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreyamoore/recent-activity/articles/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Geoffrey’s background

(04:03) What people often get wrong about Crossing the Chasm

(05:58) Finding your beachhead segment

(09:29) The four inflection points of the technology adoption lifestyle

(15:45) Geoffrey’s bonfire and bowling alley analogies

(18:36) Steps to take before trying to cross the chasm

(22:19) Signs you’re ready to cross the chasm

(25:19) Advice for startups on where to start

(27:31) Thoughts on venture capital

(27:53) A general timeline for crossing the chasm

(30:52) What exactly is the “chasm”?

(32:35) The difference between visionaries and pragmatists

(36:05) Finding the compelling reason to buy

(43:45) The Early Market playbook

(45:46) The Bowling Alley playbook

(48:39) Different sales approaches for early market and bowling alley

(51:26) Changing the value state of the company

(53:28) The Tornado playbook

(57:35) Why combining playbooks doesn’t work

(59:10) Using generative AI in different market phases

(01:03:02) The risks of discounting

(01:04:21) Other “deadly sins” of crossing the chasm

(01:09:09) Positioning in crossing the chasm

(01:10:36) Product-led growth and crossing the chasm

(01:13:54) The challenges of software and entrepreneurship

(01:16:35) How Geoffrey’s thinking has evolved

(01:19:30) The importance of entrepreneurship and impact

(01:20:42) His book The Infinite Staircase

(01:23:58) Connect with Geoffrey Moore

—

Referenced:

• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers: https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-Mainstream/dp/0062292986

• Oracle: https://www.oracle.com/

• Documentum: https://www.opentext.com/p...

Next Episode

Lessons from Atlassian: Launching new products, getting buy-in, and staying ahead of the competition | Megan Cook (head of product, Jira)

Megan Cook is the head of product for Atlassian’s Jira software, which is used by 75% of Fortune 500 companies, has over 125,000 customers globally, over 15 different products, and is by far the most popular project management tool in the world. Megan has been at Atlassian for just under 11 years, and before this role, she was an analyst, a developer, and an Agile coach. In our conversation, we discuss:

• How to get buy-in for your ideas

• The value of starting small

• How, and why, creating space for play is so essential

• How Jira stays ahead of endless competition

• Atlassian’s approach to launching new product lines

• Tactical tips for making remote work, work

• A personal failure and the lessons learned from it

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Brought to you by:

• Teal—Your personal career growth platform

• Sprig—Build a product people love

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security.