FOOD, MOOD AND MONEY!

 

“FOOD, MOOD AND MONEY”

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, April 21, 2026

“The amount of MONEY you make is determined by the Mood you are in which is determined by the FOOD you eat and, WHEN you eat it!”

Helmut Julinot 

Fortune befell me when I had the opportunity to meet Helmut Julinot who authored the book, Food Mood Money: How to use the amazing connections between Diet, Boldness, and Wealth. Julinot is from western Europe. Not only did he author the book, but he also spoke at a local business club meeting and his presentations were eye-opening! The premise of his book and presentations is amazingly simple. Your potential earning capability is determined by the mood you are in, and your mood is not only determined by WHAT you eat but at WHAT TIME of the day you eat what you eat. 

During his presentations, he compared the human body to that of a gasoline engine like the one you would find in cars. Gasoline engines require fuel (gas) to run. The human body also requires fuel (food) to operate properly. He would explain that in Western Europe, the largest meal of the day is breakfast, whereas in the West, such as the United States, the largest meal is typically the dinner or supper meal. He would then make the analogy of someone embarking on a long road trip in their car. Would they drive until they required more gasoline late in their trip or would they fill up the gas tank BEFORE they began their trip? The answer should be obvious; you would fill up first and then start your trip. The same principle, according to Julinot, applies to the human body. People should “tank up” before they start their day, give their body the protein that it requires to properly function and then top it off later in the day before they reach their ultimate destination.

In his words, “westerners,” that would be you and me, have it backwards. If we eat breakfast at all, it is usually something light and then we eat a large meal in the evening. The evening meal is usually full of carbohydrates. It does not take a rocket scientist to know that if you ate a large late meal, you are going to go to bed while your body is trying to digest what you recently had eaten. That is why so many people have digestion issues, heartburn, and other such irregularities at night. 

Without being a scientist, it is impossible for me to know if he is right or wrong, but he makes a great deal of sense, at least to me. Our bodies ARE like machines and like a machine, it DOES require fuel to operate. If you eat a light breakfast or do not eat breakfast at all, you are like a gasoline engine running on fumes. 

It gets worse the older you become; I know this because… I was frustrated when we ate out in the evening. Most restaurants serve HUGE portions of food. They serve an amount that no one should ever eat unless they know they are going to go without food for days on end. It is not unusual that at least one-third of each plate goes home in a box; it is simply not practicable to eat the portion of food that they routinely serve. 

Sizable portions, unto themselves, are not the issue. The issue is that as we grow older, most of us, certainly not you, tend to become less active and this is where our health issues are only beginning. Maintaining a person’s ideal weight is no secret. Unless you have some underlying medical condition that prevents you from losing weight, the formula is simple. Food contains calories. You exercise or just move about to burn off the intake of calories. If you stop moving with purpose, the weight begins to build around parts of your body, usually beginning in the gut area. This is especially the reality of growing old because as most people grow older, they become less active and the weight begins to add up and add on. 

If you want to lose weight you must eat not only less but eat smartly. By “smartly” I mean you eat more real food and less processed food. You watch the number of calories you take in and avoid foods with high calory counts. In addition to eating smart, you must move your body to burn off the calories you ingest. Maintaining your desired weight becomes a mathematical formula. If you take in one hundred calories, you want to burn off one hundred calories! Your weight remains constant. You take in one hundred calories, but you only burn off ten calories, the weight begins to build. You do the math! 

Julinot describes the process in detail in his book. If you not only eat healthy food AND you eat the food at the right times of the day, but you also become more satisfied than if you were to eat a large meal at lunch and then expect to be at your best when you return to work. Or you eat a large dinner and then shortly thereafter turn in for the night, and your digestive process tries to work properly while you are attempting to get a good night’s sleep. That scenario does not work all that well. Can you see the advantage of filling up your gas tank with good healthy food in the morning, and then working it off throughout the day? You follow that routine later in the day when you eat a light dinner and turn in for the night. 

If you grew up as I did, you would have grown up with a mother who would say, “clean your plate, there are starving children in China.”  Cleaning your plate may be “good manners” in some circles but cleaning your plate when your stomach is full, is not healthy. Your body knows when you have eaten enough food, listen to what it is telling you. When you overeat, you do not feel well. When you do not feel well, you do not perform at your best. If you do not perform at your best, you typically do not earn as much money as you could. Can you see what Julinot has been trying to tell us? It is all about FOOD, MOOD, AND MONEY! I feel the title could have been reversed, MONEY, MOOD, AND FOOD! Or in movie language, “follow the money!”  

It is all about setting proper and realistic goals. What will your life look like when it is finished? Have you ever thought about your life in those terms? If you lived a long and healthy life, surely you must have a mental picture of what you will be doing, where you will be living, what kind of home you will have, etc. What will your life look like when your life is finished? Begin with the end in mind. If you have a mental picture of your life 40, 50, or 70 years from now, what does it look like? If you know what you want, you can reverse engineer that ideal life until you reach who and where you are TODAY! If you do, you can determine exactly what your next step (goal) should be that if done, will lead you to the life you envisioned for yourself and your family. You must have a vision and then identify the steppingstones (goals) that you MUST take one at a time, to reach your destination. 

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”  

Lewis Caroll. 

As Julinot points out, setting goals is a particularly promising idea but creating healthy eating habits would be crucial to achieving what you want to achieve, your life’s goals! The moment your health begins to fail, the more difficult it becomes to burn off the intake of the calories. More weight means more serious health issues and the worse you will begin to “feel.” That means you earn less money because you can no longer perform at the prominent level you have become accustomed to. Who knew your eventual success or failure was all connected to not only WHAT you eat but also WHEN you eat it? Who knew your success was connected to food whatsoever?

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOR SURE!

 

You Want A Career in Sales

 

SO, YOU WANT A CAREER IN SALES
By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, April 19, 2026

WHERE’RE YA GOING? 

High in the Sierra Mountains lives an old man
Who, from their hermitage, looks down in pity
Upon other people of higher mental aspiration.
One day he rescued a little group of Swiss mountaineers
Lost deep in the mountains’ fastnesses.
When told where they were, they exclaimed in disbelief,
“But how did we get here?”
To which the old hermit replied,
“If that question ain’t got no answer attached to it,
I ain’t got none that fits.
If you is goin’ anywhere in particular
Up here, yu’d better figger fust how to get thar.
Cuz by jest goin’ afore ya know where yere agoin’
Ya can get to a powerful lotta places ya might not wanta be.”

-Author unknown 

For the record, I retired after a thirty-three-year real estate career in 2012. I was licensed as a Salesman in 1980 and a Broker in 1982. I provide this to give the reader the confidence that what I write about, I have personally experienced. Salesman, Manager, Broker, “Broke(r) Owner” and a sales course writer and trainer. 

“Success Leaves Clues!”
Anthony Robbins 

“Lead with revenues, not with expenses!”
Gary Keller 

You are either learning based or you are ignorant based, choose wisely!”
Gary Keller 

“People will do business with people they know, like and trust!”
Jeffrey Gitomer 

“People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy!”
Jeffrey Gitomer 

“You become what you think about most!”
Earle Nightengale

 

Why would I begin this Nugget with the above quotes? I am glad you asked. The quotes contain the wisdom needed to be a success at anything you do – ANYTHING!

 There is no doubt that a great deal has changed since I first became a licensed REALTOR® in 1980. 

“The more things change, the more they remain the same!”
Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr 

Success DOES leave clues! Someone, someplace, has already done what you want to do. It does not matter the career decision you make; chances are good that you will NOT be the first one to attempt doing it. It would be safe to assume that since you are reading this, you have made the decision to build a career in sales/business. There is no doubt that a career in sales will provide for a tremendous number of opportunities to personally grow, chances to become highly successful in both the number of sales that you close and the amount of money you could earn. For me, the MOST important aspect of real estate sales provided me with a career that was always changing. I was able to meet new people, develop relationships both with customers and with other real estate agents. Every day there were new challenges, new opportunities to show off my ability to sell real estate, to market homes and commercial buildings, to find solutions for my customers, to build my brand and my real estate business. If I kept doing the things that I KNEW would work to create business, my days would remain active and alive and they were never boring! 

Assuming you want to be successful in sales or business, the biggest secret is to find out WHO has already done what you want, then learn from those people that have done it! Where do you find such people? Physically, they are all around you. Befriend successful people in your area and develop relationships where you can exchange ideas, discover what is working and what is not working or the why behind each situation. Attend conferences and seminars on all things relating to sales and business. 

I set a personal goal of reading three books a month and did it every month of my thirty plus years in the real estate business. I read non-fiction books on sales, on developing personal relationships, on real estate contract law, on negotiation techniques, you name a subject and I am confident that I have read a book on the subject. In this regard, Gary Keller was right when he encouraged people to become knowledge base. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that a great many real estate agents complete the basic training required to become licensed and then take only the courses required by a state real estate commission to keep the license active. Such courses are great and cover specific information usually surrounding the real estate laws of the state in which you are licensed. Such courses rarely cover contract negotiations, relationship building, building a successful team, tax advantages specifically designed for independent contractors, the list is endless. Gary Keller was right about another critical aspect of building a successful business and that is AVOID GOING INTO DEBT! Lead with revenues, not with expenses. Charge ONLY those items that you must charge and if you do charge an item, make every effort to pay off the amount at the end of each month. 

Every person you meet “could” become a source of business for you; EVERYONE! Most people eventually have a need for an expert, and you want YOUR NAME to be the FIRST name that people think of when that situation arises. Think about your own personal life. If you are like most people, you know the name of a primary care physician, a dentist, a plumber or electrician or a lawncare service. By contrast, people do not usually have a relationship with a real estate agent, a family attorney, a family accountant, etc. unless you have trained them to have one! Your job, should you decide to begin it, is to train the maximum number of people as possible so that when “they think (insert your business), they think (enter your name)!”  That simple message will take more than one exposure. You must repeat the message until it becomes a memory in the minds of people and subject to instant recall so that when they think of your type of business, they automatically think of you! 

Jeffrey Gitomer has authored books on sales, and I have read them all! Gitomer is spot on target when he writes that people do NOT like to be sold, but they love to buy. Does that apply to you? If it does, why is it so difficult for businesspeople to understand that the more you try to SELL, the fewer sales you are likely to make. The more you develop relationships with probable buyers and sellers, the more they will buy and sell using your services. More importantly, assuming you were not a jerk during this period of relationship development AND you concluded a successful sale with the customer, THEY WILL REFER THEIR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO YOU! They become your personal “wealth builder” therefore, treat them accordingly! Based on what Gitomer has said, people may buy or sell real estate using you as their real estate agent but if you did not take the time to build a relationship with the customer so that they know you, like you and most importantly TRUST YOU, it is doubtful that they will EVER refer their friends and family to you for future business.  

As stated above, I have written and taught courses on every subject someone in sales would ever want or have a need to know. I could, therefore, go on. Suffice it to say, the material I have learned, I learned by making sales or by reading; mostly reading. The following is a list of what I would consider MUST-READ books that anyone in business can learn from. Set aside at least three hours per week to read. DO NOT JUST SIT AND READ. If you own the book, read it with a highlighter and markup the book to make it easier to find important reference material. The books are NOT in any order, except for the first two, which I consider essential if your goal is to become successful in the field of sales. Do not let the title, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent deter you if you are not in real estate sales. The book is about building a business, not selling real estate. 

Keep in mind that if you do not know WHERE you are going or WHERE you want to go, or HOW you are going to get where you want to go, you could end up in a lot of places you would rather not be! Discover what other successful people do, do what they do PLUS a little bit more and above all else, READ! You can read for a CHANGE; or you can READ for a change! Think about that for a second! Set a goal to read for one hour OR MORE PER DAY. That is SEVEN hours per week. THAT IS 364 HOURS PER YEAR! What can you learn to do if you read for 364 a year? You would become an expert and more successful than you ever thought possible! 

The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller
Endless Referrals by Bob Burg
The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer
The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude by Jeffrey Gitomer
The Little Teal Book of Trust by Jeffrey Gitomer
The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer
The Little Black Book of Connections by Jeffrey Gitomer
Where Are You Going? By Lou Vickery AND Jim Brown (me) 

You WILL become what you think about most. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. As an example, golfers often say to themselves “do not hit the ball into the water” when it would be in their best interest to say, “hit the ball onto the green!”  Golfers should focus on the “green” not the “water!”  When you focus on what you want or where you want to go, the universe works overtime to make it happen. Therefore, Earle Nightengale is right, “You become what you think about most.”  Assuming that is true, why would you not think about what you want in life as aided by what you READ?