Talking with a Genius & How It Relates to Business | EP 029

In this episode, Phil shares his experience of meeting and conversing with Walter O'Brien, one of the world's top IQ holders and the inspiration for the character in the TV show 'Scorpion'. Phil emphasizes the importance of asking high-level questions to extract valuable wisdom from individuals who are ahead in life or business. By analyzing the way Walter O'Brien thinks, Phil develops an understanding of algorithmic thinking, which he applies to his personal and professional life. Phil encourages listeners to avoid superficial questions and focus on understanding the thought processes of successful individuals to better solve problems and achieve their goals.

Welcome to The Phil Bohol Show, hosted by USMC veteran, mindset coach, sales expert, self-made entrepreneur, husband, and father, Phil Bohol. On this podcast, we don't just offer strategies — we offer a war cry, a call to arms, a challenge to rise, to break free from the shackles of mediocrity. You’ll learn the raw truth on how to break your limitations, scale your business to 7-figures, and level up every area of your life. Together, we won't just face challenges. We will crush them. Relentlessly.

 

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction to the Phil Bohol Show

(00:43) Meeting a Genius: Walter O'Brien

(02:14) Observations and Analysis

(05:45) The Importance of Asking High-Level Questions

(13:34) Understanding the Genius Algorithm

(18:07) Applying the Algorithm to Life and Business

(24:54) Conclusion and Final Thoughts

 

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Transcription:

[00:00:08] 

- - - - - 

[00:00:00] 

If you only had one chance to talk to a fucking genius, please don't waste your time and their time.

[00:00:10] 

What's going on, you guys? 

It's Phil Bohol, and welcome to the Phil Bohol Show, where we have 

[00:00:20] 

real talk about family, fitness, finance, and everything that would hold you back from leveling up in every area of your life. 

And more importantly, how I personally got through them. 

[00:00:30] 

Everybody else in this world wants to bullshit you.

I'm here to give you the truth.

[00:00:40] 

Alright, what's going on everybody? 

So, we're gonna be talking about my experience, having the opportunity to talk with an actual genius. 

[00:00:50] 

Um…

4th highest IQ recorded in the world - actual genius, which is awesome. 

Before we jump into that though, 

[00:01:00] 

Do me a favor, like it, heart it, that helps me help more people.

So let's dive into it. 

So, I had the opportunity to talk to an actual

[00:01:10] 

genius and I'm going to be sharing with you today my biggest takeaway is what I was thinking about, what I noticed when I was 

[00:01:20] 

surrounded by others, the quality of the questions being asked to an actual genius, and where my headspace kind of went to where I felt I could

[00:01:30] 

extract the most, not only for personal answers, but also for business.

And I want you guys to understand when you're talking to somebody 

[00:01:40] 

that's high level, it's very important that you take the time to think about and consider the questions that you're asking.

What I mean by that is 

[00:01:50] 

if there's somebody in your life, whether they're a genius or somebody that's just higher level than you, that you can extract wisdom from, 

[00:02:00] 

please do yourself a favor and do that person a favor, because I'm sure they talk to a lot of normal people, 

[00:02:10]

and what stimulates their mind is a higher level conversation.

So, here's what I noticed. 

I went to one of my Mentor's events. 

[00:02:20] 

And, um, he had a guest Walter O'Brien. 

Walter was actually the, 

[00:02:30] 

main character in this show, that apparently you can watch on Paramount, called Scorpion. 

It's an awesome show. 

I started watching it after meeting him, obviously, because I wanted to 

[00:02:40] 

get a better understanding of his mentality.

And, um, we had an opportunity to have a chat with him backstage. 

[00:02:50] 

And the first thing that I did, I didn't immediately approach him, I wanted to analyze a genius. 

What, what's the difference between a genius and some random dude that immigrated here from the 

[00:03:00] 

Philippines that apparently doesn't have that high of an IQ, according to a Google test.

Um, my wife's a lot smarter than me. 

Shout out to my wife. 

[00:03:10] 

And I wanted to analyze what makes this guy a genius. 

And before this, I already watched him on stage, how he spoke. 

[00:03:20] 

He'd already explained a little bit more about himself. 

But I wanted to see like the, the, the man behind the speaker on stage.

And so I just analyzed. 

[00:03:30] 

Okay, so he was like sitting like a table next to me or yeah, a table next to me. 

I was here and I was just analyzing and what I like to do whenever I'm like in a 

[00:03:40] 

public setting, I like to analyze, I like to understand my environment. 

I don't know if this was a Marine Corps and me kind of being hyper aware of my surroundings or if 

[00:03:50] 

I'm just that way, I'm just going to assume I'm a little bit of both. 

And so I'm noticing that he's looking away. 

He's looking like, 

[00:04:00] 

 

there's people asking him questions over here to his right. 

And, he would be looking away. 

And what that normally tells me is somebody is not interested.

[00:04:10] 

Somebody is disinterested, maybe disengaged. 

And I'm like, Hmm, I wonder what they're talking about to make this genius, not look at them in the eyes and be engaging.

[00:04:20] 

Is he bored? 

Is this just how he is? 

Is this what geniuses are like? 

I don't know. 

So I was watching, I was watching. 

[00:04:30] 

And I was talking to my team, and we were kind of debriefing on some of the things.

Damn, I wish I brought my, um, or maybe I did. 

Hold on.

[00:04:40]

Check this out. 

I took notes when the genius was talking, okay? 

Shit. 

Oh, it's over there. 

[00:04:50]

Hold on. 

Check this out. 

This, bam! 

This is what I gathered from a genius, okay? 

[00:05:00]

This is also what I gathered from a genius. 

And this is an algorithm. 

Now, this is my algorithm, and I'll explain what that means in a bit. 

[00:05:10] 

But I was showing my team what I was able to extract from watching a genius teach a room of business owners and entrepreneurs.

[00:05:20] 

And I was actually dissecting his mind. 

And I was asking my team, I said, so when you guys were listening to this genius talk, what did you get from it? 

[00:05:30] 

And I was expecting for them to have a very similar drawing as I did. 

And we found that we all took away so many different things, 

[00:05:40]

but only I was the one that took away a new algorithm, a new way of thinking.

And that's when I realized the question that I need to ask this guy, 

[00:05:50] 

when I walk up to him, has to be really, really, really good. 

If I was able to extract an algorithm on how to think about life, situations, scenarios, I need to 

[00:06:00] 

put a good amount of energy and effort into whatever question I'm going to ask this guy, because God knows when I'm ever going to be able to talk to the dude again, right?

[00:06:10] 

I kept looking back and I'm like, why do people, why does he seem like he's looking away? 

I'm like, why is he not engaged? 

And I'm like, damn, maybe, maybe he's having a bad day. 

Do geniuses have a bad day? 

[00:06:20]

Um, maybe it's not the right time. 

Maybe he's just getting bombarded with people asking him questions and shit, because he's a fucking genius.

Maybe, I don't know. 

Maybe, is this the right time? 

Should I do it? 

Fuck it. 

Let's do it. 

[00:06:30] 

And I was like, I'm gonna walk up. 

So I walk up, hands behind my back, sign of respect, right? 

And, um, just waiting my turn. 

It's like, okay, they're having a conversation. 

[00:06:40] 

Be respectful. 

And then I understood why he was looking at me.

And this is what I really want you guys to take away. 

If you don't even take away the shit that I took away and you take away this next bit that I'm about to say, please take it. 

[00:06:50]

It will help you a lot. 

Exponentially change your life. 

The questions that this dude was being asked was, Hey, did you, do you watch Netflix?

[00:07:10] 

Do you watch Netflix... 

What? 

You, if you only had one chance to talk to a fucking genius, that you're probably never going to talk to again, the one question you ask is if the dude watches a show on Netflix.

[00:07:30] 

Please guys, don't waste your time and their time. 

Don't waste people that have done something awesome in their life, and ask them if they watched a fucking Netflix show.

Please God, don't do that. 

[00:07:50]

Dumbest - literal dumbest thing, no wonder the guy was like looking away. 

It's like this dude. 

After I watched Scorpion, his show, I understood the 

[00:08:00] 

extent of the shit that he's done and solved and the problems he solved.

The dude has solved terrorism problems. 

Dude has hacked into 

[00:08:10] 

NASA when he was like 13 or 14 years old or some shit like that. 

Maybe 11, maybe 12, who knows. 

Um, the dude has, I think, 

[00:08:20] 

has accounted for for trillions of dollars worth of solutions. 

Do you really think that somebody at that caliber is stimulated by a discussion 

[00:08:30] 

about Netflix?

Hmm.

And I was like, ah, I understand. 

Because, me too. 

I'm not even a genius. 

And if somebody wants to 

[00:08:40] 

waste time talking about Netflix, I am not your guy. 

If you want to have a low level conversation, not your guy. 

And I'm not even a genius. 

I just respect my time enough to talk about higher level shit.

[00:08:50] 

Like, what are we doing here?

So then I decided to politely interrupt. 

Hey sir, got some questions for you. 

Um, would love to pick your brain. 

And me being like 

[00:09:00] 

a little kid, in a candy shop, with a genius, I like, Hey, here's my drawing. 

Here's my other drawing. 

[00:09:10] 

Can I ask you a question? 

Um, the way that your mind works with a 197 IQ, does your brain have an algorithm 

[00:09:20] 

and can you teach it to me in a way that a non-genius can understand the algorithm?

So why did I ask this question 

[00:09:30] 

you guys?

Why did I ask this question? 

Why did I ask this particular question? 

Does your brain have an algorithm? 

[00:09:40]

And can you explain how the algorithm works to somebody that's not a genius to understand it? 

[00:09:50]

Why did I ask that question? 

Think about it.

[00:10:00] 

I could ask a very singular type of Question. 

Hey, can you solve this singular problem for me?

[00:10:10] 

Question related to how he thinks and talks. 

Good, yeah, 100%. 

I don't know so much about the talking part, but the thinking part. 

[00:10:20] 

Absolutely. 

Absolutely. 

Something he can process. 

Absolutely. 

But I wanted to understand his process because there's, there's, there's something that people don't 

[00:10:30] 

understand about, I mean, not even just coaching, but extracting information from people.

The goal of extracting information, and this is related to 

[00:10:40] 

business. 

This is related to sales. 

This is how you guys asked me, well, Phil, how are you closing deals? 

How do you close? 

5,000, 20,000, 50,000, a 100,000 multiple six figure deals. 

How do you do all of that? 

How do 

[00:10:50] 

you run these businesses?

Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. 

People usually ask a tactical based question. 

And what that means is how do I do this thing? 

How do I solve this singular problem? 

[00:11:00] 

The reason why that's ineffective, and the reason why I did not ask that question in this scenario, and I never will when talking to a high level person is because if 

[00:11:10] 

you give me the answer to that one singular thing, I'm going to have other questions because I solved that problem, and now I need to solve another problem.

But now I don't have an 

[00:11:20] 

 

opportunity to talk to you. 

So instead, when I'm talking to somebody higher level, I don't ask how to do something, I ask them, how would 

[00:11:30] 

you think about something? 

The more I understand how you think and how you process information, And I can figure out your brain's algorithm,

[00:11:40] 

then if I think like you, then I will solve problems like you, maybe not as efficiently as you, but whether I have one singular problem or a multitude of problems 

[00:11:50] 

in front of me, I take all those problems through this algorithm, and I would probably come up with a similar solution to all of them versus just, Hey, how do you 

[00:12:00] 

solve this one thing?

Does that make sense to you guys? 

Got to think bigger. 

Instead of trying to get external surface level answers, go to the root. 

[00:12:10] 

Because if you understand the root, then you can understand how it grows. 

And so I asked your brain, does it, does it work 

[00:12:20] 

like an algorithm? 

What's the algorithm? 

Can you explain that to me?

Dumb it down is what I was saying. 

And he smiled. 

And he didn't smile the entire time 

[00:12:30] 

that I was waiting to talk to the guy. 

He looked away, disinterested. 

You can tell. 

And, um, it's interesting because even though he smiled, it was a 

[00:12:40] 

manufactured smile. 

So what he said during his presentation was that he doesn't actually feel human emotions the way that other people do.

And he has to logically 

[00:12:50] 

create a scenario in his mind where he can script out like an actor, when to show this emotion, because his IQ is so high, he can't be human with people. 

[00:13:00]

So it comes off very awkward. 

So the fact that he smiled in this moment means he's already calculated this response and this engagement and blah, blah, blah, which was crazy to me.

So he smiled 

[00:13:10] 

and he looked down at my drawing and he looked back at me.

And I said, does your mind kind of 

[00:13:20] 

work like this drawing. 

And I was like, can you explain that to me? 

And I was so interested, hands behind my back, sign of respect, leaning in. 

I'm very interested. 

Please tell me how your genius mind 

[00:13:30] 

works, because this is going to be game changing for everything.

Then he says, yes, my mind works in algorithms 

[00:13:40] 

and the way that my mind works as an algorithm is a lot of people, when they try to solve problems is they try to 

[00:13:50] 

solve the very next problem.

Which then leads them to have to solve the next problem and then leads them to have to solve the next problem. 

[00:14:00] 

And now it can be days, weeks, months, years later, until they go through that entire process.

He said a genius's mind doesn't work that way. 

[00:14:10] 

A genius's mind works where you basically can see every leaf on a tree. 

You can imagine tree stump. 

[00:14:20] 

Branches, leaves. 

Imagine being able to see the whole thing unfold in your mind. 

And I'm like, that makes sense.

[00:14:30] 

Because a genius is able to see all various scenarios, but their mind is like such a supercomputer that it can calculate what those scenarios could be.

[00:14:40] 

And he said something very interesting to me. 

He says, All of those available options, when we're making a decision, 

[00:14:50] 

a genius can see all of those decisions happen in front of them all at once. 

And they just choose the 

[00:15:00] 

one decision out of all those thousands of different scenarios on which one would be the best, which one would be the most productive.

[00:15:10] 

And in my hand, I'm thinking, okay, okay, trying to track what you're saying. 

So in my brain, so this is all happening in real time 

[00:15:20] 

to you super quick. 

Cause I'm trying to be respectful of his time while still really trying to understand it in a way that I can interpret it because I'm not a genius.

Okay. 

Um, I'm like, okay, 

[00:15:30] 

so trees, branches, leaves…

But you're able to see all of them, where most people can only see one. 

Interesting. 

[00:15:40] 

And this is what I do next, you guys.

So again, this is part two to the thing that if you, there's anything you can take from this is ask high level questions. 

But the part two to that is 

[00:15:50] download it, download it where it's, I have this new information from this person.

This is the current thought process that I have. 

[00:16:00] 

And then compare notes. 

What I did in that moment, was then I said, in my own brain, and I'm trying to process this as quick as possible… 

[00:16:10] 

How's that different than how I think? 

And the craziest part for me was realizing, I think in the same direction he does,

[00:16:20] 

but not at the capacity he's able to.

Because again, I'm not a genius.

But, what this showed me was 

[00:16:30] 

the infantry, as an infantry squad leader, has allowed me to at least crack a semi code to how geniuses think.

[00:16:40] 

Which is in sequences. 

So as you guys, if you guys have been following me for years, I talk about sequences, I talk about levers. 

I say it in a, in a way that 

[00:16:50] 

a genius wouldn't say because it's dumbed down at my level.

But then it showed me, I'm like, okay, so basically I'm on the right path,

[00:17:00] 

but I just need to stretch my brain, my neural pathways more in the exact directions they're already growing to.

[00:17:10] 

Which allowed me to build an algorithm based on what he was saying. 

And I was pretty damn on target before I ever fucking meeting the guy. 

[00:17:20] 

And this, what this did was it re-instilled the confidence I had in my processing system. 

How I think about things, how I solve problems, how I solve business problems, 

[00:17:30] 

sales problems, life problems.

And do you see now how that question, understanding how this man thinks 

[00:17:40] 

has now served me and will serve me for the rest of my life?

Versus what, Do you watch this Netflix show? 

Do you watch Netflix? 

[00:17:50] 

I mean, you know, right? 

So then I'm like, interesting, interesting…

And now that I understand, 

[00:18:00] 

not maybe at all, even close to the depth that his brain can go, I'm 

Especially if you watch Scorpion, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Um, what it did is it 

[00:18:10] 

gave me clarity because for me, I think I've been in the personal development space for so long that, and this might be true for you guys, especially once you guys start 

[00:18:20] 

investing into yourselves, you might feel a little crazy, right? 

Because like who you surround yourself with are people that are not as invested into personal development, personal growth, their business, all that stuff.

[00:18:30] 

They don't invest into coaching courses, blah, blah, blah, like we do.

And sometimes we can feel crazy. 

Because as entrepreneurs, as business owners, we have like thousands

[00:18:40] 

of ideas and sometimes we can think we're going psycho. 

But when you talk to somebody like this, who thinks basically the way that we do, but at 

[00:18:50] 

like scale, what it does is it normalizes this, this like feeling of, oh, am I, am I weird?

Am I different? 

Am I blah blah blah blah blah? 

[00:19:00] 

And man, like I can't tell you guys the sense of relief that I felt. 

Like my team can tell you too, I probably had a big ass smile on my face after we debriefed, um, after the fact

[00:19:10] 

I had a big ass smile on my face because then I was like, damn, I'm not doing anything wrong.

I'm actually going the exact direction I need to be going. 

[00:19:20] 

And because I figured out the algorithm in which to process information, I also learned the algorithm in which to understand and process business. 

[00:19:30] 

And so I've been leveraging this entire new way of looking at life, business, and decisions. 

[00:19:40] 

Now using an algorithm versus how I feel, using the best educated guess, I can go even deeper into this topic  

[00:19:50] 

because of the unlocks that happened during this conversation. 

And that was only half of the conversation, by the way, but I'm running up on time because I have to go. 

[00:20:00] 

But here's what I want you guys to leave this with okay, leave today with. 

[00:20:10]

It's very important that you understand that the success that you seek in life is not about how much you know, but more so how you think 

[00:20:20] 

about everything that you know a lot or a little.

If you can understand the sequences, the 

[00:20:30] 

algorithm behind a decision making process, in your personal life, in business, it's all the same. 

And you can find a 

[00:20:40] 

sequential system that you have personally created. 

Cause you all have it, just like I have my system, you have your system. 

If you can spend a day 

[00:20:50] 

literally figuring out your personal algorithm in which you make decisions on, all the 

[00:21:00] 

problems that you have.

Like for me, now all I have to do is plug in my problem in the center of this algorithm.

And then I start 

[00:21:10] 

mapping everything else out and then I solve the problem. 

And then I also solve the next problems and the next problems after that. 

Right? 

Remember, like I told you, like the tree with the branches and the leaves. 

[00:21:20] 

And it's a beautiful thing because then you realize that you already have all the answers that you seek.

You just have to spend time with yourself to figure it out. 

[00:21:30]

And it's not more external information, right? 

This is why, especially in our industry, guys, the information industry, people can go through course 

[00:21:40] 

after course, after course.

Get information, after information, after information, but they don't know how that information applies to them.

They don't know how to make it apply for them. 

They don't know how to utilize that 

[00:21:50] 

information based on their sequence, based on their algorithm. 

And that's why they're never able to yield results. 

And this one singular conversation was 

[00:22:00] 

validation for me, that the reason why I was able to go from where I was, especially if you guys have been with me since 2020, to go from where I was in 2020 to where I'm at today.

[00:22:10] 

It was all a sequence. 

It was all an algorithm. 

And that algorithm was not business

[00:22:20] 

knowledge, sales knowledge, and I've said it for years and I'll say it always. 

There are so many people that are so much smarter than me that have so much more information than me, 

[00:22:30] 

but they haven't learned how to utilize this information to get towards their end goal and state.

And that's why you guys have seen a year over year over year quantum leap into the next level. 

[00:22:40]

And so what I want you guys to leave this with, cause I only got a minute left, is when you guys have the opportunity to talk to people that are at a far different level than you are in life or 

[00:22:50] 

in business, don't waste time asking them about the singular problem.

Pick their brain and understand how they think. 

[00:23:00] 

The more you understand how they think about things, life, business, in general, their regular algorithm, the more you're going to be able to now 

[00:23:10] extract how to think about things from their perspective. 

Thus, having the ability to solve all problems, not just one, and that's how you maximize on the value 

[00:23:20] 

you're able to extract from somebody, okay? 

I geek out on this shit. 

I think that, um, it was probably, 

[00:23:30] 

I'll just say this year, cause I have to think and I don't have enough time to think right now.

Um, the most I don't 

[00:23:40] 

even know the word… substantial conversation? 

It was the most… it was the best fucking conversation. 

I'm not a genius, I'm not gonna try to talk like one.

[00:23:50] 

Best fucking conversation I've had, I haven't been lit up like that in so long. 

Because of like, how awesome it is to break down the signs of how somebody thinks.

[00:24:00] 

That thinks at that level. 

You know, I've met a lot of people and they built 10 million companies, 50 million, 100 million companies plus, and I love extracting the 

[00:24:10] 

room, but to do that with a genius, that was a blessing for me.

So, um, I may continue on part two to this, because again, that was only half the conversation and definitely not 

[00:24:20] 

my, all of my takeaways.

But I didn't realize I was going to talk so much about just one piece, but you can see what happens when they're able to extract so much in so little time. 

[00:24:30] 

And this entire conversation was probably 15, 20 minutes max.

But the extraction of the lessons and the teachings was so profound 

[00:24:40] 

that I still haven't stopped thinking about that conversation. 

And I literally, um, built out a whole business plan and business model leveraging the algorithm. 

[00:24:50]

And it was so much easier than it ever has been in the past. 

Okay guys, so I really do have to go, um, but I hope that you were able to get some type of value from that reflection. 

I may do a part two, there may be a part three, depends on how long I ramble for. 

Um, but if you ever have an opportunity to meet Walter O'Brien, or if you ever get 

[00:25:10] 

an opportunity to watch his show, Scorpion - 10 out of 10 would recommend.

20 out of 10 would recommend.

I mean, you'll even learn from the show based on how he thinks and solves problems.

[00:25:20] 

It's a beautiful thing to see. 

And,  it was, it was a great experience for me, to be able to meet the guy in person and to really pick his brain the right way. 

[00:25:30]

So with that being said, guys, much love as always. 

Peace.

That's the show. 

Don't just listen to everything I just 

[00:25:40] 

fucking said and do nothing with it. 

Take everything you learned, go out and execute. 

Send it.

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