Gyms, GTD & Mandarin Blueprint – An Interview w/ Nathan Holiday

Nathan Holiday is the founder and CEO of “Level Method,” a program for improving the retention rate for owners of functional fitness gyms (https://www.levelmethod.com). Perhaps surprisingly, many of the underlying principles of what makes Level Method work could be said about Mandarin Blueprint.

We had a fun discussion covering a range of topics including:
-How Nathan always had Chinese learning in the back of his mind, and what finally made him take the plunge.
-The mind-blowing experience of seeing a westerner speak Mandarin fluently
-Does it matter how quickly you learn?
-Despite China’s reputation turning somewhat negative in recent years, it’s still worth learning Chinese.
-Nathan’s awesome business and how it’s similar to Mandarin Blueprint
-How working on things that are too high above your level can lead to quitting, whether it’s fitness or Chinese learning
-How his first Chinese learning APP wasn’t sufficient, and that’s why he pursued MB
-“Getting Things Done” by David Allen and how’s it’s the best book ever
-Nathan’s thoughts on the Pronunciation Mastery course
-Why foundational knowledge breeds confidence
-“Person – Action – Object” as a way of encoding information, and how it blew Nathan’s mind that MB applies this to all characters.
-Why rote learning is the WORST
-How long it takes Nathan to learn a new character using MB
-Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
-How the value of MB lies in the structure, since it would take AGES for someone to create on their own.
-Reading Chinese sentences without Pinyin
-The basic problems that all Chinese learners face, and how academia has failed them
-Why Chinese grammar is simple
-Trusting the process, and how that helps you relax
-How the fact that MB Members are constantly leaving comments helps keep the MB course dynamic and constantly improving
-The MB podcast and how it fuels community engagement
-Shaving off years from your Chinese learning journey
…and more!

Thanks again to Nathan!