John’s Story – 12 Minutes A Day to Success (Encore)

We believe life is precious. This is it. We've got one shot at this. It's on us to live life to the fullest to maximize what we've been given and play the game of life at our full potential.

Are you living up to your potential? Are you frustrated that despite your best intentions, you just can't seem to make the changes needed to take things to the next level. So you can impact your career relationships and health.

If this is hitting home, you're in the right place. Our mission is to open the door to the exceptional life by showing you how to play the game of life at a higher level. So you're playing at your full potential, rather than at a fraction as most people do. We'll share the one thing that once we learned it, our lives were transformed. And once you learn it, watch what happens.

So welcome, we are thrilled that you're joining John and I today I John, Hey,

I am thrilled as well, this can be really fun.

Absolutely. And what we thought we'd do today is share John's story. So kind of the origin story of where I think it be it and this methodology and how it came to be. And so let's start at the beginning, John, and not the beginning, beginning. Like there's,

There's no sense about telling when I was a baby, here's G you know, there's no value there. Exactly.

Let's start where it makes sense to start. So off to you. So how did this, you know, where did that let's start with your entrepreneurial journey. And kind of like where you know, where you started as an entrepreneur and what led you to kind of where we are today and think of the so

I started out as a CPA. And by the time I got to be probably 28 I'm like, boy, I do not want to be an accountant all my life. You know, it was probably a good place to start. Like my dad told me, he says, you know, accounting is the Language of Business. And you know, what do you know when you're 20 years old? So I start off as a CPA,

But no one no offense to any CPAs? Out listening? Right?

Right. Right. Right, we don't want to offend you CPAs but, but I didn't want to be one. And so I launched into being an entrepreneur when I was 30. And throughout my 30s and 40s, I was in like, seven different businesses and and I was in Star dad and in real estate development around a tax idea that launched me as an entrepreneur, I owned a bank, there were 20 of us that own the bank. But two of us were the main guys, that was interesting. Got into, I owned a restaurant, which was voted most romantic restaurant in and Dallas, which was pretty cool. You know, especially being single, that certainly helped in the begging process. And then I got into like, even children's books, I was in the automotive industry, but all told, I think I was in seven businesses by the time I reached 50. And I just wasn't as successful as I thought I should be. And, and as I look back on, you know that my 30s and 40s I just saw this disconnect between my efforts and my, my results. And, you know, I worked harder than all my friends. And that made me sort of feel like I deserved more success, and I was getting, and all I had was the average life and and, and I gotta say, I hated the average life because I just knew I was I had so much more and I could achieve so much more. But why couldn't I get that traction? You know, why wouldn't I further along? And you know, I was single, I'd never been married at 50. And, you know, candidly I was I was lonely and not that I had a shortage of dates, but I just felt lonely. And and again, why was my life further along? And, and, you know, I would look back on being an entrepreneur and oftentimes I was really frustrated with employees because they didn't care about it as much as I did. Of course they did. I didn't know how to overcome that sort of conceptual issue. I wasn't as disciplined as I wanted to be. And so bottom line, I felt this disconnect between my efforts and my results and when I turned 50 I'm like, I gotta fix this. You know, the scarcity of time was coming in on me. And I just knew I had to fix it in and you know, my I had two goals in my life. One was to make enough money, so I didn't have to work. And the other was defined the woman my dreams, and so I'm falling short on both of them. And so, you know, on the money, I always did, okay, I was always making bad 200 $300,000 a year. But, you know, Kelly, when I turned 50, I just did the math. And I saw I had to start netting over a million dollars a year. And I know that sounds materialistic, but I saw that that's what it took, really to create freedom, you know, real freedom. Now, I didn't need the second home and Aspen, I didn't need the jet any of that stuff. But I needed freedom. And yes, I wanted a really nice house. But, you know, all I really wanted was freedom to do what I wanted to do each day and, and I wanted a nice lifestyle. And I had a really nice home. So that's that's sort of where I was, and but I'm like, why? How do I change this 20 year, history of low six figures a year. And so one night, and this probably three months after I turn 50, a pearl of wisdom comes to me, and it's, you know, find the top book in the world on success and apply that book, literally word for word, my life. And so I'm thinking, you know, pretty good idea, right? And so I immediately get up, I remember laying in bed and coming up with that idea. And immediately I go to my computer, and I start doing the research. And I discover something that totally surprised me that there's one book on success that has been read by 100 million people. And the next best selling book on success has been read by less than 10 million people. And that book is thinking grow rich. And so I'm like, well, here we go. This is exactly what I made this what I've been looking into, I can't believe there's one book that's, you know, above all the rest like this, this is perfect. And so the next day, I'm like a heat seeking missile to the bookstore and I get the book and I read the book. And then Kelly, I discover the problem. The book says there's a secret for success. But the author, the author, allegacy, half of the secret is on the reader to figure out the other half. Well, I'm bummed out, I'm mope around for probably two or three weeks. Then one day, I just wake up and I go John, just man up and figure out the full secret, just, you know, man up and do that. And, and so, over the next two months, I immerse myself in the bud. And over that two months, I come up with what the full secret was, and a 12 men and they technique to apply it. And so I started applying it to a new business, I started in the reverse mortgage business. And quickly my income starts doubling and doubling to where four years later, I was netting $5 million a year, which was 25 times what I never made in the prior 20 years. And, of course, I felt so blessed and, and Kelly, I get why I did this is what was really cool. I could see why it was happening. I had rewired my autopilot. And the effect of that was I was focused only on what moves the needle. I had tripled my discipline. And I had new ideas coming in my head consistently every week that just weren't coming in before. And the cool thing was, this was all happening automatic. And it was also cool that I was controlling my health and only impacting my marriage at the very same time that I was impacting my income. It was sort of the trifecta of your life, your income, health and marriage all being affected at the same time. And all of the right actions happening automatically. And it truly felt like a superpower. Right? I mean, I was, I could tell I was playing the game of life at a much higher level. And maybe the coolest thing of all was I had just as immense control over my life is we teach more of our methodology. You'll understand why that is but the essence of it is you're feeding immense clarity bachelor life to yourself, and it gives you this immense sense of control to a level I've never experienced before. So for to wrap this up, I just became fascinated by the fact that you could take two key scientific principles and apply them to your life, and so materially impact your success and achievement in life. And so, you know, as as I got enough money, so I didn't have to work, I want to share this with the world. And so I sold my company in probably a couple of months after I sold the company, I made the former Chancellor and President at the University of Texas, and I tell him my story, and he says, Hey, you got to teach this at the University of Texas? And why don't we teach it together? And so, and this is like, I guess, nine years ago, now. And so that started, think it'd be at the company around this, this idea, and then something life altering. And then, about four years ago, I met, you know, you know, that, that, that truly was life altering. And so, that is my story.

I, you know, I let you know, how much I, you know, adore you, I love your story, there's a couple of things that I want to point out and just dig a little bit deeper on, which is, you know, when you're talking about discipline, for example, tripling your discipline, you know, one of the things that I think is, what do you mean by that, when you say discipline, you know, what is discipline? And how does this impact that? Because I know, for me, you know, one of the issues is, with anything in life, not just being an entrepreneur, but it's doing things consistently, you know, to begin the right things consistently to begin to begin to get the outcome that you're looking for. So what is discipline in the first place?

Well, let me let me back up just a little bit. You know, the thing I realized was that, at the end of the day, your success comes down to the cumulative effect of your daily actions. Right? Yeah, I mean, I think everybody grasped that. And, and what was so powerful was that I learned, basically, from reading, thinking Grow Rich, that 95% of your daily actions are unconscious. And so that's why those those daily actions, having the discipline to do the right things on a consistent basis, that escaped me, because again, 95% of your daily actions are unconscious, therefore, I didn't consciously have control of doing the key things that would move my success up in my, my career. And, you know, I saw that, I guess, I learned that once I started netting seven figures a year, I've discovered there were seven key habits that had to happen consistently, to earn that type of money. And through this methodology, I can make those habits happen automatically without thinking, and that's why it truly felt like a super bandwidth.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think the discipline what I find fascinating about this, too, is really all that is, is just remembering what's important, and, and why, you know, and that's exactly what this methodology that 12 minutes, you know, a day does. And I love that aspect of it. And one other thing I wanted to point out, and I know we've talked about this offline, what's fascinating about the book Thinking grow rich, you know, in that it's the, you know, highest selling book on success by a factor of 10, you think that there would be more? Well, I've read it a few times, you know, and I mean, prior to connecting with you and learning this methodology, I was missing some pieces. I know, many of my colleagues, you know, had read it multiple times. So what I love about this, and your story is, you're like, I'm gonna get to the essence of this and understand what this full, you know, secret is, and then develop this application for it. And that's the difference maker, I always tell the wider there war millionaires, if so many people I've read this book, well, it was kidnapped, I think, and you've you figured out the solution.

Well, I knew a couple of things on that. First of all, the problem is that the author only gives you half of the secret. And and yes, 100 million people have read it. But 100 million people only know half of the secret. And and here's the other thing that's interesting, this little little backstory of, of when I turned 50 And let me be vulnerable for a moment. So when I was turning 50, in addition to feeling you know that that scarcity of time from that day A birthday, my mom was dying from pancreatic cancer. And I remember going to the hospital every day she she was in the hospital, probably eight weeks. And so every day after work, I'd go, and I'd see her and I'd spend a couple hours with her, and then I'd I'd leave, and I'd walk out of the hospital, and I would go out into that cold, dark parking lot. And I would get in, get in my car, and just cry my eyes out. I mean, every night, you know, this is going on, for, like I said, probably eight weeks, every night, crying my eyes out. And what was going on was a couple of things. First of all, I was feeling, you know, the loss, or of my mom that was clearly coming. And you know, it was particularly painful because my mom and dad gave me everything they possibly could, they sent me to Jesuit High School in Dallas when they really couldn't afford it. And, you know, it just made me realize that I wasn't making the most of my, my life, I had had all the advantages. But all I had was an average life. And I hated the average life because I just knew I was capable of so much more, but I just couldn't get that traction. And, and I just felt like I was letting her down. I wasn't doing anything to make the world a better place, again, just an average life. And so now I look back on it. And I realize that that pain that I felt from losing my mom coupled with letting her down was the fuel that caused me to go deeper into thinking grow rich than any other person on the planet. And, you know, I now I see that and appreciate it. Because you know, I read the book when I was 41. But it didn't change my life. But that's because I didn't have the rocket fuel to go deep enough to figure out the full secret. And, and one of the things that makes me proud today is that now you and I teach this at my mom's alma mater. So, you know, it's, it's pretty cool.

It's the best. I love that. You know, John, as we wrap up, share it, like what are your top kind of takeaways for you feel like, you know, anybody listening? You know, if you're to take away anything from your story, I'd love for you to walk away with these ideas?

Well, you know, I think there's really three takeaways. So the first one is, and this is the most significant thing I ever learned is that 95% of your daily actions are unconscious. And, you know, I see in teaching this that people will get that intellectually into you know, is it's not, it's not hard for people, people to get that. And, and, you know, we live in this world where, you know, you don't know what is a true fact or not. And so as you know, when we work with people, we make them literally Google that, and it'll say right there. And in big dark letters, 95% of your daily actions are unconscious. But it's one thing to get it intellectually, and it's another to really understand the implication to your life. And that's what sort of is the first takeaway is that, when you see that your success in life is the cumulative effect of your daily actions, and that 95% of them are unconscious, then it's easy to see that the only way you can have a higher level of success is to influence those unconscious daily actions. I mean, it's pure math. Yeah. And that requires rewiring the autopilot. And that's what our, this methodology is about. So that probably is the first lesson. And maybe the second one is that, you know, this is all about playing at your full potential. And, and I know when I was in my 30s, and 40s, I just intuitively felt like I was playing at about 20% of my potential. You know, I just felt that and so many of our clients express that, too, and I can so relate to it. And, and, you know, I think one of the things I found was interesting is, of course, at first, it was pretty much all about the money. You know, I wanted to get that money so I could have freedom. But as I as many became less of an issue what I saw All was the most cool thing about all this is playing the game of life at my full potential. And, and I saw that I really had an identity shift where, you know, I'm playing the game of life, feeling this disconnect in my 30s and 40s with between my efforts, my results, and then shifting to this new way of doing life where I'm playing at my full potential and where you can literally feel that difference of playing at 100% versus 20%. And, and the identity shift was that, hey, I control my auto pilot, rather than my auto pilot controlling me. Does that. Does that make sense? Oh, 100% resonates? Yep. Right. And maybe the the last takeaway is that, boy, life is precious. It is so precious. And I'll tell you a quick story. I just became a grandfather not too long ago. And over with ginger over at Hannah's house, the day after this baby boy was, was born. So they give me this little boy and I'm holding him in my hands and, and they walk away. And, and I'm just holding him and I will look Natty. And tears start coming down my my face. And I'm like, boy, life is precious boy, life is so precious. And he's going to live for 100 years, and the success of his life is going to come down to actually take control of his life, and making it what he what he wants out of it, and controlling his daily mindset. And, you know, I share that story. Because really, the lesson is that life is precious. And if your life isn't what you want it to be, you got to step up and change what you're doing. You know, because you can't keep on doing the same thing because you're gonna keep on getting the same results. And what I discovered is this is a whole new way of playing the game of life way different than the way everybody else is doing it. You know, I think if you feel that scarcity of time, especially, you know, just you got to make life what you want it because it is so precious.

I love that John and I think anybody who is listening is interested, we love to connect with and communicate with our tribe, so to speak. And so feel free to reach out if you've got questions. If you know you're interested in any of the resources that we have. Feel free to reach out to John right directly. John's email address is John@thinkitbeit.com And mine is Kelly@thinkitbeit.com. And we would be happy and thrilled to connect with you. Learn more about you and share anything that you'd be interested in knowing more about us. But until next time, we'll see you in the next episode.

Take care and live the extraordinary life thanks for listening today. If you've had your own aha moment from today's episode, send me or John an email. We'd love to share your epiphany with our audience. So email us at Kelly@thinkitbeit.com or John@thinkitbeit.com. In the meantime, live the exceptional life