I hit 700k Subscribers on YouTube!!
To celebrate, I asked for questions from YouTube, Twitter, Locals and Instagram, so here's another 90 minutes of me trying to answer as many as possible. As always there's some great questions in here about whetherNaval Ravikant is coming on the podcast, how to overcome negative self talk and whether I'll be doing a live tour soon.
Expect to learn how I deal with nerves before big podcasts, my very simple memorisation tactic for the books I read, whether I class myself as anti-woke, if I think young men should leave the dating market all together right now, why I stopped working as a model, what t-shirts I always wear, whether I'm worried about EMFs from AirPods, my favourite chest day routine and much more...
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Extra Stuff:
Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/
To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom
#mindset #positivity #chestday
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00:00 Intro
01:10 Caring About What Others Think
02:07 Getting Nervous Before Podcasts
03:05 Concern About Burnout
05:25 Chris’s Book List
07:50 Why the Goggins Episode Had Ads
09:59 Modern Wisdom Merchandise
10:56 Cosmic Skeptic’s Meat Confession
13:07 1 Million Subscriber Episode
13:44 Improving the Podcast
14:50 Naval or Curtis Yarvin on the Podcast
15:42 How to Ask Great Questions
18:18 Is Chris Anti-Woke?
20:02 Opinion on UK Tap Water
21:43 Why Chris Quit Modelling
22:47 Meditation for Beginners
23:58 Opinion on Decoding The Gurus
26:14 Staying Impartial as an Interviewer
28:11 Outsourcing Your Self-Worth
30:23 Modern Wisdom Live Shows
31:58 Will Chris Play Cricket Again?
32:11 The Podcast Intro Song
33:16 Important Changes in the World
34:01 Guesting on the Joe Rogan Podcast
34:40 Is Dating Worth the Sacrifices?
36:39 Tips to Increase Vocabulary
38:09 Chris Needs More Subscribers
38:17 Book-Writing in the Time of AI
39:58 Keep Going
40:08 Thank You Chris
40:17 How Chris’s Parents Feel About His Success
41:02 Does Chris Miss the UK?
42:25 Chris’s Haircut
42:49 Diary of a CEO
43:09 Does Chris Keep All the Books He Reads?
43:44 Ray Dalio on the Podcast
44:05 Avoiding Negative Self-Talk
46:03 What Would Chris Do Differently?
46:38 Baccarat Rouge 540
47:43 What Brand are Chris’s T-Shirts?48:25 Why Chris was Bullied at School
50:01 Recording with Cameron Hanes
50:55 Is the Mating Crisis That Bad?
52:59 Meeting People Who Have Been Impacted by the Podcast
54:47 Peter Attia on the Podcast
55:20 Does Chris Only Wear Vans?
56:32 Concern About EMFs
57:29 Do Men Care About Female Pubes?
58:26 Where Did 600K Subscribers Go?
58:39 Chest Day at the Gym
1:00:15 Life Advice
1:02:18 Will the Podcast Always Be Fulfilling?
1:04:55 Update on Stell Cem Treatment
1:06:29 Chris’s Process for Scheduling Episodes
1:08:17 Insights from Quitting Caffeine
1:10:26 How to ‘Do The Thing’
1:13:57 How Chris Remembers Quotes
1:14:50 Should You Quit Soda or Booze?
1:15:15 Advice for Aspiring Podcasters
1:17:11 Over-Correcting Your Self-Improvement
1:19:58 Important Lessons from the Last Year
1:20:46 What Chris Looks for in a Podcast Guest
1:22:45 Gratitude Practices
1:24:07 Relationship Advice to 20-Year-Old
1:26:46 Conclusion
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Chris Williamson Reflects On Growth, Self-Talk, Burnout And Future Plans
A.In this 700k-subscriber Q&A, Chris Williamson answers wide-ranging audience questions about his personal habits, mindset, and the evolution of Modern Wisdom. He discusses dealing with negative self-talk, performance anxiety, and burnout, and explains how relentless reps and honoring small commitments changed his identity. Chris also talks about monetization and mid-roll ads, future live tours, dream guests like Naval and Ray Dalio, and his concerns about cultural trends like the mating crisis and hormonal birth control. Throughout, he emphasizes curiosity, rigorous self-reflection, and building proof to outgrow insecurity and fear.
🧠 IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideas
1
Use low-stakes beginnings to overcome fear of judgment.
When you start any creative or public endeavor, almost no one is watching, which means your early mistakes are largely invisible; by the time you have an audience that could judge you, you’ve built enough reps that you no longer suck.
2
Transform nerves into excitement by building an “undeniable stack of proof.”
Chris’s anxiety before big-name guests diminished as he accumulated hundreds of episodes plus a pre-game routine (diet, exercise, breathwork, prep, music); repeated successful performances give you evidence that you can do the thing and reframe fear as excitement.
3
Outwork negative self-talk with consistent performance and kept promises.
Instead of trying to fix inner dialogue directly, he focused on executing—making small commitments, keeping them, and stacking wins until his identity had to update to match reality, which weakened the credibility of the vicious inner critic.
4
Don’t live only in “the gap” between you and your ideal.
Self-improvement always posits an ideal you’ll fall short of; if you only compare yourself to that ideal, you’ll feel perpetually inadequate. Balancing that with looking at “the gain”—how far you’ve come—prevents burnout and overcorrection.
5
If you care about a craft, review your own “game tape.”
Chris improved as an interviewer by re-listening to his episodes, noting what worked and what didn’t, and refining his language and timing—mirroring how comedians and athletes study their performances to get better.
💬 WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotes
Spending time doing self-improvement immediately posits an ideal. As soon as you posit an ideal, you then begin to compare yourself to that ideal and the gap is pretty painful.
— Chris Williamson
Living in the gap is not helping you.
— Chris Williamson
If you have an undeniable stack of proof that you can do the thing that you're supposedly trying to do, you should turn that nervous energy into a good amount of excitement.
— Chris Williamson
You are free to never listen to the show again if you have a problem with me doing two mid-roll ads that last exactly 60 seconds out of a two-hour podcast that cost tens of thousands of dollars and took six months to plan.
— Chris Williamson
I can't really hide from my negative emotions. They don't so much creep up on me in the middle of the night as they burst the door open and smash me in the face with a hammer.
— Chris Williamson
Overcoming self-doubt, negative self-talk, and performance anxietyWork ethic, burnout, and building tolerance for discomfortReading, recall, and learning techniques for deep understandingPodcast growth, monetization, ads, and guest selection strategyLive events, touring plans, and future direction of Modern WisdomCultural and societal concerns: mating crisis, birth rates, hormonal birth control, ‘woke’ politicsLifestyle practices: meditation, caffeine-free living, water quality, fitness, and daily routines
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