Elevating Your Success: The Inner Game Approach By Dr. Noah St. John Feat Nathan Gwilliam

On the marketing stuff, all the sales, you know, that's what he'd hired all those gurus for. But boom, boom, boom, boom, he kept hitting the ceiling. Why? Because no one had helped him in here. No one had helped him with, you know, the things that, that I teach, the things that we're talking about.

In today's episode, we'll discuss 3 levels of service Noah offers to his clients, the inner game of success, and 5 habits that will help us with that inner success game. What is the best strategy or secret of monetization you could share with our audience?

Yes, absolutely. This is something that I wish someone would've taught me 10, 20 years ago because it took forever. I mean, I paid all these, you know, gurus, oh, over half a million dollars only to find out they cannot teach their way out of a paper bag. And they're still out there teaching nothing, you know? And as I like to say, there's no there there. You know, it's like, it's look at all the hype and, you know, look at my Lambo. And it's like—

You have so many good one-liners here.

You don't even drop them.

There's no there there. That's so good.

Yeah. Well, thank you. And I mean, believe me, I was paid for that one-liner. I paid them all this money to find out there's no there there. Anyway. And so in terms of monetization, to your question, you know, it took so long to figure out because, you know, I buy their course and they, you know, spend— I've given them all this money hoping they would give me something, right? Duh. That's kind of what you want, right? And they would give you maybe a little kernel of something, but the rest is just nothing. And so anyway, what I finally, finally learned after all these years is that what I really enjoy now, you know, with my clients is to what I call one offer with 3 levels of service. All right? So one offer meaning that we're able to now offer 3 levels of service, which is done for you, done with you, and do it yourself.

Oh, interesting.

Now, it sounds so simple and it is simple. It's like, why didn't you tell me 20 years ago? You know, I, Ah, so frustrating. But anyway, so I'm hoping this will help somebody watching and listening to this program to, you know, cut through the heartache and awfulness that I had to go through. But basically, it's very simple, which is, you know, the first level, which is done for you, right? So in other words, let's say you're an agency, uh, you know, whether you're doing funnels or ads, you know, Facebook ads, YouTube ads, whatever it might be, right? And you offer that done-for-you service because there are— there's a certain segment of your market That, well, okay, let me put it this way. There's always the eternal battle between time and money, right? That's the eternal battle. In other words, you're always trading one for the other, right? There's no other way to go. You're either saying, okay, I'm going to take my time to do this, you as the entrepreneur, right?

Yep.

I'm going to do it myself, right? But what does that cost you? Your time. All right? So you say, okay, well, I'm going to put that money in my pocket. But well, you're trading your time for money. So you're, it's a tough call, right? But then of course you have money, right? So you say, okay, well, I'll invest that money and then I'll get my time back. See? So that's the eternal struggle. And, you know, like I said, it's not cookie cutter, one size fits all. We have to make those decisions really every day as entrepreneurs, don't we? So the done-for-you is for people who say, hey Noah, I just want you to do it for me. Here's the money. Just do it for me. In other words, you know, I have the money, but I'm I value my time, right? I place a premium on my time, which all of us should as entrepreneurs, right? And that's one of the big mistakes I see many, many entrepreneurs making is they don't value their time enough, right? And they are doing everything themselves, even the things that they shouldn't be doing. And that is absolutely going to put a ceiling on you, on your income, on your influence, on your impact. Okay? So that's the done-for-you level. The second is the done-with-you level. Now think about this, everybody. If information was, or if information alone wasn't enough to cause transformation, everybody who has an internet connection would be a millionaire, right? Because think about that. If you go to YouTube right now and you type in how to be a millionaire or how to make money online or how to make money in real estate or how to make money in whatever you're doing, right? There's 10 trillion quadrillion, right, videos on that, right?

Yeah.

How to make money online, how to make money as an internet marketer, online marketer, whatever, right? So, well then, why isn't everyone a millionaire? Well, the answer is because information alone is not enough to cause transformation, right? And so, that's why a lot of people really like the done-with-you level, right? Because they want that help, that accountability, that coaching, that support, you know, that you can really only get from that interaction with the thought leader, the expert, you know.

So, the done-with-you model is the coaching model. The done-for-you model is the agency or consulting model.

Exactly. That's exactly right. Yes. And then of course, you have the do-it-yourself, which is basically an online course. And one of them, another mistake that I made is really staying too long in the do-it-yourself because I'm a very motivated person. I guess there's no other way to say it. I'm a very driven person. And, you know, if you say, hey, Noah, if you do this, you know, you'll get this result and I want that result. I'll go, okay, great. What do I do? All right. And I do it. What I realized is that I'm weird. You know, it's like Most people are going to give a lot of excuses. Well, I've written all these books on how to not give excuses, so I'd be a hypocrite if I was giving excuses, wouldn't I? So I'd be like, no, I'll do it, right? But then I realized I'm weird. You know, most people are going to give excuses. Hence, you know, I'll never be out of favor. And I'll— what I mean, I'll always be needed, you know, by humanity because, hello, humanity is about giving excuses. My point of what I'm trying to get at is that do-it-yourself is exactly that. It's a self-paced course. The problem with do-it-yourself, however, is in many cases you're competing with YouTube, you know, you're competing with free. There's even plenty of, you know, online universities, you know, big-name universities that are giving away free, you know, MBAs basically at this point. And so it's tricky. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying you got to realize that You know, you're— that's who you're competing with. You're competing with YouTube, you're competing with free. So, you know, you've got to make sure that you set yourself apart. But that's why I really like the done-with-you level. I mean, that's my personal favorite because I love coaching, I love helping people, I love seeing those light bulb moments and go, wow, you know, just something you just said, Noah, just, you know, totally turned the corner for me. So that, that's what I personally enjoy.

I love it. That is, that is a great monetization secret and strategy. I'm definitely going to apply that in my business.

Like I said, I wish someone had told me 10 years ago. Yeah.

I like how your mind works. And I like the simplicity of that. Like, so many people, they build out their business and there's, you know, 20 different elements to it. And—

That's what I did. Yeah. And it was awful.

There is a power in simplicity.

All right.

What do you feel is the biggest tectonic shift that is transforming the business landscape today?

Well, you know, when you ask that question, I really— the word that came to mind was automation. You know, and this is something that I talk about extensively with my 6, my 7, my 8-figure clients. And that is about automation and delegation. As I just stated, the eternal struggle, the eternal battle is between time and money. You know, your time and your money, right? So you're always trading one for the other. There's really no way to get around that, right, as an entrepreneur. Now, I mean, let's face it. Most of us, if not almost all of us, were raised in, you know, I want to say poverty consciousness. But, you know, it was just survival consciousness really, which is, you know, go to school, get good grades, go to college, get a job, work for 40 years. And then once you retire, when you're too old to enjoy it, then you can have fun. And you're like, that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I mean, right? When you say it like that, you're like, that is idiotic. Who came up with this stuff?

That's right.

But in all fairness, that was the industrial age, right? The pre-internet age, which, my God, You know, it's only 20 years old, 25 years old. I mean, the internet's been around pretty much as long as I have, about 25 years or so, right? And so, I mean, I was, as I mentioned, successclinic.com just happened to be, I happened to create one of the very first business and personal growth websites on the internet without even really knowing what I was doing. I just, you know, I was in the right place at the right time, I guess. But I also took the right actions. Anyway, the point is that that industrial model, you know, the pre-internet model is still what we have. Now, The great news for everybody watching this program, and, you know, people who, you know, young people, millennials, and, you know, Gen Z or whatever gen we're on right now, uh, you know, the young people today, they don't have that. They don't have to overcome that because of this wonderful tool called the internet, you know, that really makes— I think, well, the, the internet is, there's no question, is the greatest communication tool ever invented by humans. There's— I mean, that's— inarguable because all of us, any of us, every single one of us can become our own media company. And that's like, you know, Nathan, with you, you know, you have this media that you are now putting out to the earth. And, you know, I have media that I've been putting out in the forms of books and videos and programs and coaching and so forth. And so that's what we all can do now, which we couldn't do even 20 years ago, right? I mean, an incredibly short time ago, This just wasn't available. So now we have it. So now what are you going to do? Okay, well, so now we still have this eternal struggle of time versus money. All right, so now as the entrepreneur, as the CEO of your business, you have to make those tough decisions. All right, so when it comes to delegation and automation, those are the two things, two of the things that I see holding a lot of people back. In other words, you know, when people want to go from 6 figures to 7 figures and 7 figures to 8 figures, Those are 2 of the big things that can hold you back. In other words, you're saying to yourself, for example, you know, like I'll give you a quick example. I had one client, well, I was speaking at a seminar in Los Angeles and it was about 1,000 entrepreneurs, business owners, you know, 6, 7, and 8-figure earners, very successful people. And I was teaching about power habits and head trash and everything that we've been talking about. And I was walking off the stage after my presentation, a man came up to me And he said, Noah, I want to hire you as my coach. You are the coach that I have been looking for. And I said, okay. And now I didn't know this man from Adam. Ironically, his name was Adam. And so I said, okay. I said, well, what's going on, Adam? And he said, Noah, I'm totally stuck. I'm only making $4 million a year. Hmm. I said, okay, well, that's funny, isn't it? I mean, and I literally said to him, well, that doesn't sound like much of a problem because a lot of people like to be stuck at $4 million a year, right? That doesn't sound too Right? He goes, no, Noah, I'm the CEO of this company. And we grew to $4 million in revenues really fast. But we have been plateaued at $4 million for the past 4 years. 4 years they've been stuck at $4 million. And he said, I've hired everybody. He said, I've hired, you know, all the big name gurus, all the names we know, you know, all the big guys, right? The hustlers and the grinders. And he hired, he said, I spent all this money and we're still stuck. And he said, as soon as I heard you speak, as soon as I heard you talk about head trash and foot on the brake and affirmations, everything you just said, I knew you were the coach. There's something inside said, you're the coach that I've been looking for. So he literally hired me on the spot, which was amazing. So I worked with him for about 18 months to 2 years. In that timeframe, Nathan, his company went from being stuck at $4 million for the previous 4 years to over $20 million in sales per year. $4 million to $20 million. Okay?

Wow.

This is one of the things that we worked on. And what's ironic is We really didn't work a lot on the marketing stuff, all the sales. You know, that's what he'd hired all those gurus for. But boom, boom, boom, boom, he kept hitting the ceiling. Why? Because no one had helped him in here. No one had helped him with, you know, the things that I teach, the things that we're talking about, the things that I coach people on, the inner— I call it the inner game, the inner game of success. Everybody's working on the outer game. But it's only when you learn how to master the inner game and the outer game, when you put them together, That's when you have that exponential growth. So really, you talk about the tectonic shifts, and really, that's really what I've been teaching for these past 2 decades is the tectonic shifts that come from the inside as well as looking to the outside.

All right, let's talk about your book Power Habits. So we already talked about the first habit, the affirmations, and I loved it. Let's go to the second one, loving mirrors. You want to talk about what loving mirrors are and how we can leverage them in our lives?

Yes, absolutely. So going back to the pot of gold. All right? So we all have our pot of gold, whether you want to get from 6 figures to 7, from 7 to 8, or whatever it might be, or just having more time, you know, more energy, better relationships, more money, whatever your pot of gold is, right? Okay. So think about the question that I posed earlier. Why don't you have it right now? Right? Why aren't you there? And so the reason for that is basically there are 4 distinct gaps Okay? I call them the gaps or, you know, one of the things that I, or one of the reasons that I help people make so much money and get these great results is because I fill in the gaps. All right? So there, but there are 4 basic gaps that you can have. The first is a knowledge gap. That means I don't know what to do. The second is a skills gap. That means I don't know how to do it. The third is a support gap. That means I don't have the right people in my life to get me or help me get there. I don't have people in my corner, right? Believing in me. And then the 4th gap is a belief gap. And that basically means, yeah, I don't think I can do it. Now, if you think about a knowledge gap, a skills gap, a support gap, and a belief gap, believe it or not, the most damaging one, the one that's going to hold people back the most is a belief gap. Why? Because if you're saying, well, yeah, I want that, Noah.

Yeah.

Like I want to write books like you do or like you help your clients do. These are some of my clients' books that I've helped them get published. You know, when they just had a dream of publishing a book, they'd never done it before. I helped them do that.

Wow.

You know, or help them get their online course or help them reach 6 or 7 or 8 figures when they'd never done it before, didn't even think they could do it. And that's the whole point. They don't think they can do it, right? And so that's what holds so many people back is that, well, yeah, I want that, but yeah, I don't think I can do it, right? And so what are they trying to do? Well, they go to YouTube and they say, okay, and you listen to the gurus and they say, well, the secret to success is believe in yourself. Okay. How do I do that? And see, they never tell you. That's why, you know, again, there's no there there, right? They just say, believe in yourself. And literally, when I, you know, when I was going through all that, you know, stuff that I told you about earlier, you know, suicide and trying to find my purpose and everything, I was reading all those books. I was listening to all these, all the gurus, all the seminars, and they all said the same thing. The secret to success is believe in yourself. And I'm sitting there going, but I don't believe in myself. What am I supposed to do? You know, I'm sitting in the back row going, excuse me, I don't believe in myself. What do I do? Right? You know, it's like basically they say, okay, well, you're out of luck. Get out. You know, it's like, wait, wait, what? You know? So where do I start? And so what I realized when I had these epiphanies back in '97, I realized, wait a minute, that's totally wrong. It's not, the secret to success is not believing in yourself. The secret to success is having someone believe in you first. Because you actually can't believe in yourself first. It's exactly like saying to a person, all right, tell me what color your eyes are, but you can't look in a mirror. And you're like, wait, hold on, wait, what? You know, you can't do it. It's not— it is literally physically not possible. So, you know, I have the advantage of having— well, the privilege really of having interviewed over 200 of these, you know, highly successful people, millionaires, multimillionaires, even a few billionaires.

Wow.

And in every single case, without any exception, they all had someone believe in them first. So that's what a loving mirror is. A loving mirror— and this is one of the things I've been teaching for over 2 decades— is a loving mirror is someone who believes in you either before you believe in yourself or more than you believe in yourself. Okay, and because of the mirror principle, just like your own eyes, you cannot see your own eye color. without looking in a reflective substance like a mirror. It is not physically possible. It is also not physically possible for you to actually believe in yourself. So all those guys, gurus—

Interesting.

Who are teaching that, they're lying. They're not lying on purpose. All right? So I don't— I'm not saying they're mean guys or lying on purpose, but here's the irony. They always had a loving mirror. So they are saying, well, just believe in yourself. Well, that's great. You had someone do it for you. Meanwhile, the rest of us, the 98% of humanity sitting around going, but I don't believe in myself. What am I supposed to do? So I am the guy. Remember, I'm Sheldon Cooper, right? The Sheldon Cooper sells out. The nerdiest nerd said, hello, here's what they didn't tell you because they already had it. And so what I did is I literally created a bridge for the rest of us. And so whether you need someone to believe in you to get to that 6-figure level, whether you need someone to believe in you to get from 6 to 7 or 7 to 8 figures or whatever it might be in your life. It could even be losing weight or finding love. I mean, I'll give you another great example from one of our clients named Sheila. And she was making $5,000 a month when she first hired me. $5,000 a month. She'd been there for several years. You know, and $5,000 a month in her business was good, right? Not bad. But she wanted more. And she tried everything else, gone to all the gurus, the same old story, nothing, you know, stuck, stuck, stuck. And I, you know, worked with her. I coached her. I helped her through this. We did this whole process. She went from making $5,000 a month to over $75,000 per month in less than a year. From $5,000 to $75,000. Now, I'm not that great at math, but that's a 15 times increase in less than a year. 1,500%. So, you know, there's some people who talk about 10x. How about 15x?

Yeah.

That's just one example.

So, an interesting thing that comes to mind about that, as entrepreneurs, we usually change the world through our superpower. We each often have some kind of gift or talent that's divinely given to us. And it's usually through that, that we make our world-changing contribution. And a lot of times entrepreneurs have a hard time identifying what that superpower is, surprisingly difficult. And I think it comes back to this, the same concept that you're teaching. Just like we can't see the, our, the own color of our eyes or the color of our own eyes without looking in a mirror. And so we've, we've got to reach out to these other people and they've got to support us in, in this. I think the same principle applies to identifying our superpower. The best way to identify our superpowers is reach out to the people that know us well and ask them to describe us. And usually when we ask people to describe us, the result is always different than what we would have expected. And it's that reflection back that helps us have that insight we just can't see in ourselves.

That's right. And that is one of the exercises that's in my book, Power Habits, also that we do with our Clients. But let me give you an example. This, what I'm saying right now, is actually everywhere in literature, in the arts, in movies. I'll give you a classic example that I bet everybody watching this program has seen or is familiar with, uh, and that is Star Wars, right? If you go to— if you watch the Star Wars movies, right, particularly The Empire Strikes Back. Now, Empire, that's my personal favorite movie, uh, of the, of the series because, well, it's the only really good one. But anyway, uh, so, uh, in Empire, you remember when Luke goes to the Dagobah system, right? And he meets Yoda, right? So who's Yoda? Yoda is, of course, the Jedi Master. And remember that scene where, you know, Luke tries to take his ship that had sunk in the swamp and he tries to move it with the Force? He can't do it. So Yoda goes, and he, you know, moves it, right, with the Force. So Luke comes up to Yoda and he says this famous line. He says, I don't believe it. And then Yoda says, that is why you fail. Now, here's the interesting thing about that. What he really was saying was, and this isn't the line, but this is what he's really saying, I don't think I can do that. That's what he's really saying. It's not, I don't believe it. It's, I don't think I can do that. You just did it, this little green guy, but I'm this human and I don't think I can do it. Right? And of course, Yoda says, that's why you fail. But that's really it. And so, that is so amazing. So, we all need a Yoda. We need a Yoda.

Yeah.

And this is what I always say to my clients. Look, you're Luke. Right? You're the star of the movie, but But I'm Yoda because I've been doing this for 800 or so years. And so, you know, I've seen it all, I've heard every excuse, and I've done it all. But see, I can see in you the power of the Force that probably you can't see for yourself. So, remember, the power was always in Luke, but he couldn't have gotten it out by himself. And so, that is what I'm saying. The loving mirror principle is really very universal.

Yeah, I love it. Okay, let's go to habit number 3, systems of support. In your first book, you— is it the same concept you refer to as upgrade your people system and systems of support?

Yes. Well, there are 5 systems that we need: the people, activities, environment, introspection. Oh, gotcha.

Okay. So upgrade your people system is habit number 3.

That's right, exactly. And so that's what I was just talking about, about the support that we all need.

I went through the Secret Code first and I—

Right, right, exactly. So Power Habits is the new version of Secret Code. Secret Code was my Well, my agent called it my— what did he call it? Anyway, he called it my grand thingy. I can't think of it right now. Anyway, but he called it my big pooba something. Anyway, so, but yeah, so now Power Habits is the new version of it, the updated version. But yeah, so upgrading your people system, again, basically finding a Yoda. You need to find a Yoda. This is really what it comes down to.

Okay. Habit number 4, activate your activities.

Right. So going back to what I was saying about time versus money, you need to understand what are you doing that you shouldn't be doing as the CEO, as the owner, as the entrepreneur. There's a lot of things probably you shouldn't be doing that you're doing, and that's costing you, even though, oh well, but no, I don't have the money. Well, guess what? If you don't start to delegate, if you don't start to automate, you're never going to have the money. You're never going to break through that ceiling. So you've got to be very, very clear on what activities you should be doing and what you shouldn't be doing, what you need to automate and delegate.

That's right. In that chapter, you talk a lot about the most valuable resource is time, and we have to be willing to say no to a lot of things so that we have time to do the things that really matter.

Precisely. Exactly.

Okay. Habit number 5, enhance your environment.

Yeah. I mean, your environment is very important. I mean, this is one of the things that, you know, people talk about, you know, like feng shui and your physical space, but also the space inside of you. So, there's— we live in 2 environments, the inner environment, which is you know, our mental and our emotional state, and then our physical environment. So it's really important that you have to clean the clutter both from in here and out there. So that's enhancing your environment system or upgrading your environment system. It doesn't mean you have to buy a new house. It just means, you know, take where you are and make it as best as you can.

Habit number 6 is install your introspection systems.

Introspection system is about looking within and making sure, as Stephen Covey famously said that your ladder of success is leaning against the right wall. And Stephen Covey was my first mentor here, and I got to interview him before he passed away a few years ago. And he was a great, I mean, a huge influence on me. And so, that's something that I believe in very much. And so, you must take time, make the time to introspect, to make sure that you're actually going after the things that you really want, not what you think you should want.

Okay. Habit number 7, you talk about embrace your simplified system. And this is the one that probably resonated with me the most. And probably because it's the one I have the hardest time with. And in that section, you have a quote from Will Durant, we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.

That's right. And that quote is often attributed to Aristotle, but I did a little digging and anyway, who cares? As Abraham Lincoln once said, don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Thank you so much, Noah, for sharing your stories and insights with us today.