
317 · John Assaraf - The One That Shows Up — The Identity You Practice
From Chat With Traders by Ian Cox and Tessa Dao
February 11, 2026 · 1h 1m · Episode 317
About this episode
Ian Cox interviews John Assaraf about the invisible forces that shape performance and the neuroscience behind habits and identity.
In this episode, Ian sits down with John Assaraf, entrepreneur, behavioral neuroscience educator, and founder of NeuroGym, for a conversation about the invisible forces that shape performance — long after planning, analysis, and good intentions are in place. John shares his personal journey from a turbulent upbringing to building multiple multimillion-dollar businesses, and the pivotal moment at age 19 that reframed how he thought about success, identity, and commitment. From there, the discussion moves into the neuroscience behind habits, automatic behavior, fear, and why people often snap back to familiar results — even when they know what to do. This is not a trading tactics episode. It’s a conversation about execution, follow-through, and the human side of performance — in trading, business, health, and life. About the guest: John Assaraf is a serial entrepreneur who has built multiple multimillion-dollar companies, including helping scale a real estate organization to over $4 billion in annual sales and co-founding a technology company that later went public on the NASDAQ. He is the founder and CEO of NeuroGym, where he focuses on applying neuroscience to performance…
People in this episode
Hosts: Ian Cox, Tessa Dao
Guest: John Assaraf
Topics covered
- performance
- neuroscience
- habits
- identity
- business
- success
Keywords
- performance
- neuroscience
- habits
- identity
- success
- business
- commitment
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: NeuroGym
Books & works: The Secret
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