Noah St John Bestselling Author How To Eliminate Limiting Beliefs

Welcome to the Medical Sales Accelerator podcast. I'm your host, Zed Williamson. So I want you to think of those days. You get up, you focus, you grind, and there's days, weeks, sometimes even months where it just feels like you're not hitting the mark. Is it the outside or could it be your own head trash? And that's why we're speaking with our guest today, Dr. Noah St. John. He's an executive coach, keynote speaker, and bestselling author. Noah's mission is to raise humanity's consciousness one question at a time. Noah, thank you so much for joining us today.

Great to be here with you, Zed.

Absolutely. So let's just jump right into the idea of head trash. We, our audience, high performance, they can grind out more than almost anyone on the planet. Yep. So how can head trash get in their way?

I want everyone listening to this program to think about exactly what it is that you want over the next 12 months. All right. So, I know everyone listening to this program has heard a million gurus, a million motivational speakers, and every single person talks about goals, right? We've heard it a million times. You got to set your goals. You got to think positive. Focus on it, right? And I know everyone listening to this program is very focused on their goals. And that is correct. All right. So, that part is right. The problem is all those gurus missed one very, very important aspect of success. And that is what happens after you set the goal. Now, here's what happens for most people. All right. Now, remember, I've helped my coaching clients add over $3 billion collectively, meaning we've helped salespeople and health professionals and people, entrepreneurs from all walks of life to add multiple 6 figures, 7 figures, and yes, even 8 figures and more using my Power Habit System. All right. So, this isn't just mumbo jumbo. It's real stuff, real numbers. So, you think about what you want. That's your goal. Right? But then what happens for so many people is right after they set the goal, they say, "I probably can't do it." Right? So let's say your goal is to get from $100K a month to $1 million a month. Right? That's your goal. That's my that's my financial goal. Right? I'm at $100K a month. I want to get to $1 million a month. Okay, great. That's a great goal. I've helped tons of people do that. But what happens for so many people is they say, "Well, here's my goal, but I don't have the time." You know, I'm already working, you know, 50, 60, 70, 80 hours a week, Noah. I can't work any longer. I never see my family as it is. And so, I say, okay, well, what if we put these systems in place and that will enable you to actually work less while still making more? And you're like, oh yeah, but I don't believe that. Sure, maybe it worked for other people. Sure, it works for your other clients, but it won't work for me. Do you see what you just did? You literally just psyched yourself out. So, these are just very, very simple examples of what I call head trash. And that's what I've written 25 books on, which you can see some of them behind me, is how to literally identify and then take out the head trash that's keeping you stuck.

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. And, um, there's probably people in the audience who've, who've read the book Power Habits that you wrote, um, and people who haven't yet, they should. When we think about this, what always fascinates me is, you know, as humans, we have a pretty fancy brain. But it is not very good at thinking beyond right now's comfort. And I think setting goals actually creates right now comfort. The work to achieve those goals is not right now comfort. And so sometimes it's easier to leave it a little generic, not use system and process, because then I get to, I get to say it wasn't my fault that I didn't achieve this goal. And what's fun for me, sometimes I'll be speaking in a, in a group and I'll say, hey, raise your hand if you have a 5-year goal. And most of the audience is going to raise your— raise their hand, right? And now I say, keep your hand up if this was the same goal 3 or, you know, 5 years ago, right? And it's always the same. It's like, yeah, you can have the goal, but what are you doing, right? So that's, that's, that's really fascinating.

Yeah.

What are some of the most common Yeah, buts or questions that people say even when you're going through the system? Where are people mentally pushing back?

Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, when you go to my website, when you go to noahstjohn.com, you can actually take a quiz on this, right? So, it's a free quiz that you can actually take right now at noahstjohn.com. So, it really boils down to just a few things, whether people want to get from $100K to $1 million a month, $1 million to $10 million a month, whatever your number is. It really comes down to just a few things. Normally, the first one, of course, is time, right? Oh, Noah, I'm already so busy. I don't have the time. And so, again, my pushback to that is, great. I can come into your office right now. If I were to go into your office or your life, I can easily find 1 to 3 hours a day that you're wasting easily.

Guaranteed.

And, you know, one of the things that, you know, let's say I'm working with a CEO or a sales professional, I will go in and I'll find 1 to 3 hours per day That they are doing, as I call it, $10 an hour work when they need to be focused on $1,000 an hour work or $10,000 an hour work, right? You're— if you're the CEO, if you're the owner of the company, if you're a high-performance salesperson, you can't be doing $10 an hour work. But many people are doing that, not meaning to, but they haven't been taught the skill of delegation, you see. So that's one very, very simple, tangible example. Another one is, of course, money. Right? So, those are the 2 forces that are always— we're always pushing against, right? Is I don't have the time. I don't have the money, right? And so, those are things we're always fighting against. But so, again, I can show you where you are wasting money. You're not leveraging the money that you already have, right? So, time and money are clearly the 2 biggest ones. But it also— another one is I don't have the support system I need, right? I don't know who I can trust. Many, many people out there, and most of the people that I've coached over the last 30 years, they've tried everything, right? They've gone to all the seminars, they've heard all the gurus, and guess what? They all say the same thing. Well, think positive, set your goals, all the things we talked about. Okay, great, those are fine, but it's like, ah, no, I've heard this a million times. Yeah, you have, but what they're talking about is on the surface level, right? So it's exactly— imagine if you have a toothache and you go to the dentist And you're like, man, my tooth really hurts. He goes, oh yeah, you've got a cavity. Okay, next. And you're like, what do you mean next? I want you to fix it, right? Don't just tell me what it is. Fix the problem. He goes, okay, here, I'll write your prescription for some painkillers, then you won't feel the pain anymore. No, that's not it.

Yeah.

We have to fix it. See, the point is, that's what my Power Habit System does. We get to the root of the problem. And yeah, sometimes you need some root canal surgery, you know, to stretch the analogy. But the point is, we do what— actually, I do call it psychic surgery because we're getting in there and we're literally taking out the trash. That's in your head, which could have been there for years or even decades when you maybe, like me, you know, I grew up poor in a rich neighborhood. So, for years, I was fighting that dread that says I could never have money because, you know, growing up, we didn't have money. So, I figured, well, that's my ceiling. And then, years later, I was like, wait a minute, who put that there? Why is that there? Why do I have to believe that? Again, these are simple examples, but they're very powerful and they can really affect you in big ways.

Yeah, well, and what you're doing— this is what I like about the method you're discussing— is if we truly can get to the real root cause, that's where you have massive leverage. Leverage, right? And time isn't an issue. Time is only an issue if you need to do something ineffective more often, right?

That's right. The $10 an hour work I was talking about.

Yeah, yeah. If you have to just do more of that, then yes, you need more time.

That's right.

It's my older son when he was first driving at 17 years old. So he'd been driving for about a year and he had a 2013 Toyota Corolla, pre-owned, you know, 200,000 miles, but it was in good shape. And after a couple of months there, my car was in the shop to get some tires. So I used his car to go run an errand and I backed out of the driveway, started driving, and this car wanted to do a U-turn. It was pulling so hard to the left. Like, I had to physically— we— I am turning it to the right to be able to go straight. And it's funny because I think that happens to us too. And, you know, he faded into that the car is pulling to the left, and so the way he was fixing the symptom was turn to the right, right? And that's what you're talking about is, yes, you know, if you just, hey, work more, just turn to the right. Hey, you know, get up earlier, try harder, let's say just turn to the right, as opposed to how about we do a front-end alignment?

Exactly.

How about We look at, you know, is there a tire that's lower and, and address that root cause.

That's a great example. And I'll give you another one. I was speaking at a seminar in Los Angeles for 1,000 business owners, business professionals, sales professionals. These are, you know, 7 and 8 and even 9-figure business owners, entrepreneurs. And I was speaking about my Power Habit System. I spoke for about 30 minutes at this seminar. I was walking off the stage. I'd literally just finished my presentation. A man came up to me out of the audience. And he said, Noah, you are the coach I've been looking for. I want to hire you as my coach. Now, I didn't know this man from Adam. Ironically, his name was Adam. True story. You can go to my website and see his video and over 200 others. But anyway, so, he said— so, I said, well, what's going on? He said, well, listen, Noah, I own this company and we got to 7 figures in revenues really fast, but we have been stuck at the same level for the past 4 years.

4 years.

4 years, we've literally been plateaued. And he said, I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. I spent money on all these gurus, hired every marketing guru. He named all the big names. And he said, we can't break through that income ceiling. And he said, as soon as I heard you speak about inner game and outer game and head trash and power habits, everything you just said, he said, I knew you were the coach I've been looking for. So, I want to hire you. That's why I love working with high achievers, right? They make decisions quickly and firmly. They don't dilly-dally. They don't think about it. It's like, let's go. Let's move it. So, anyway, I coached him and his leadership team for 18 months. And in that 18 months, because of what I was able to coach him through with my Power Habit System, we were able to get his company that had been plateaued for the previous 4 years to over $20 million in sales in less than 18 months. That's a 600% increase in less than 18 months. Most CEOs would be thrilled with a 7% increase.

Right.

A 10% would be like incredible. 600%? Are you kidding me? So, that's the point. That's the power of this. And the point is, literally, what was holding him back was all up here in his head, right? The, as I call it, the head trash. And no one was talking to him about that. So, he was doing all the outer marketing stuff, which, you know, that got him to 7 figures. Great. But because no one had shown him how to take out the trash that was actually keeping him stuck, He wasn't able to scale. So, that's the power of this Power Habit system.

So, I'm curious, this might be a curveball for you. I want you to imagine the salesperson out there. They get it. They like the idea. They go, okay, well, I can always take training. I can always get better. But, what if they're viewing the limitation within the potential head trash of their customer? So, let's say their customers are orthopedic surgeons and The idea of getting that surgeon to switch from their current, um, right, device to a new device. If this person believes that it's head trash in their, uh, in their target, is there anything in your system that helps someone understand someone else's head trash or how they interact with that?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, if you look at— once you understand my Power Habit system, you'll realize that all humans are doing this anyway. So, what I did was I analyzed the top 1% highest performers that we all know and love, you know, the people that we look up to, the, you know, the Bill Gates, the Warren Buffetts, and people like that. Well, what I realized is they're doing these habits unconsciously that they don't even know they're doing. So, what everybody else is teaching is the conscious habits, right? Of like, for example, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Stephen Covey. He was my inspiration for getting in this business. So, I love that book and I love his training, but he's all talking about, and people like that are talking about conscious habits. So, make sure you do this, make sure you do that. And you're like, okay, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. Why am I still not scaling? Like Adam, as a great example. I'm like, I'm thinking, I'm doing everything. Why is this not— why are we stuck? And so, what I did was I come in and I show them the subconscious habits or unconscious habits, meaning what highly successful people are doing that they don't even know they're doing. Number one, and therefore they can never teach it to you. All right, so if you're that salesperson and you're trying to change someone else's behavior, one of the things you can do right now is look, understand why does any human change, right? There's only two reasons, and you've probably heard this before: they want to avoid pain and gain pleasure. Okay, however, what most people don't realize is that we humans will do more to avoid pain. than to gain pleasure.

Hmm.

Right? In other words, every human being— and this is going to sound really weird, but it's true— every human being is in pain right now. Now, the pain might be from, I don't have the money that I want. The pain might be, I don't have the time that I want. The pain might be, I'm not in the relationship I want to be. The pain might be, you know, my health is suffering, whatever it might be. So, every human is in some sort of pain. So, if you're talking to that orthopedic surgeon and you're trying to get him or her to change what they're doing, you're going to have to find where their pain is, right? And again, that sounds kind of weird, but there— that's sales, right? Or that's one function of sales. So you have to make your presentation about, okay, right now here's the cost that you're, you're paying because you're using this thingy, and when you use my thingy, you're going to feel a lot less pain. Now that's a very, very oversimplistic way of selling, but the truth is it does work.

Yeah. Oh, it's so true. And it's, you know, I always say we are not related to the ancient human that was relaxing and watching the sunset. We're related to the one that ran away from the tiger, right? So—

That's right.

It's—

that's right.

And that, that, that idea of, you know, hope for future— so much sales spends their time on trying to show someone hope for future.

That's right.

And it is such a waste. Yeah, it is not behavior-changing. If it was, no one would be overweight. No one would have diabetes.

Exactly. Exactly.

Know everything they'd want to know. You know, it's just, it's, it's so obvious, but we still ignore it.

We try to fight human nature, right? That's so true. We often try, and I say, don't fight it. It ain't going anywhere. It's been around for a few hundred thousand years. It ain't gonna change. So, what I like to help my clients understand is what I was just saying. But, When you're making a sales presentation or any kind of persuasion method, you want to focus essentially on 2/3 pain avoidance, 1/3 pleasure gaining, right? Because we, we're all in pain, whatever that might be, whatever that might look like for the particular person you're talking to. So, so I'm aware of my pain, says every human. So if you can help me alleviate some of my pain, I'll, I'll probably go with your thing.

Yeah. And also, I want to, you know, just double-check because This audience can be extraordinarily high performance.

Yes.

And, even the idea of saying the word head trash, someone might out there might assume that that only is relating to someone who is thinking actively negatively. And, that's not the case, right? Head trash is just anything that's in the way. And, to me, for instance, let's say someone is suffering from a curse of knowledge, they don't actually remember what it was like to not know. What they currently know, to me, that would be a form of head trash because it's just— it's in the way. It's taking up space.

Yes.

That's keeping them from their goals. Am I off base with saying head trash isn't only just negative thoughts?

Well, it is what I like to call limitations. All right. So I'll give you another perfect example from another one of my clients. So I was talking with one of my clients named Charles, and I asked him a very simple question I ask all of my clients. And whenever I'm speaking at an event, you know, as a keynote speaker or doing workshops or one-on-one or group coaching, I always ask one very powerful question, and that's this: if you don't take out your head trash, how much do you think that's going to cost you in the next 12 months? Now, Charles, this client, he had been, you know, watching my videos on YouTube. He'd, you know, read Power Habits, and he actually found me in a bookstore. And he said he walked by the book 3 times in Barnes Noble, and he said something in my book, Power Habits, just called out to him and he had to get it. And then, he You know, he contacted me on my website. And anyway, we had this great conversation. So, I asked him that question, how much do you think it's going to cost you? And he said, without batting an eye, $1 million. He said, Noah, if I don't take out my head trash, it's easily going to cost me $1 million. Now, keep in mind, he was already making 7 figures. All right? So, he's not like struggling somewhere, but he had hit that, as I like to call it, income ceiling. Right? So, your income ceiling may be at 6 figures, might be 7, might even be 8 figures, but it's still a ceiling nevertheless. And none of us wants to have a ceiling on our income, do we? Right? So, anyway, $1 million. So, I said, I tell you what, Charles, why don't you just give me 10% of that million and I'll find you $1 million in the next 12 months? In other words, if you give me $1 and I give you $10 back, is that a good deal? He goes, yeah, that's a good deal. So, he did that. He invested $100K for one-on-one coaching with me for the year. Now, that's 10% of $1 million, right? So, I coached him and his leadership team for a year. Similar to what I did with Adam. Well, as it turns out, I didn't find him $1 million in the next 12 months. Instead, I found him $1.8 million in just 10 months. So, he gave me $1 and I gave him $18 back. Is that a good deal? No, that's a great deal. And he actually emailed me and he said, hey, Noah, guess where I am? I'm on a 7-week vacation with my wife right now. And he said, this is a dream I've had for the last 20 years. He said, I always wanted to buy an RV, drive across the country, you know, just see the country with my wife, but I never had the time or the money. He said, now I bought a new RV, we're spending 7 weeks left, and I'm making more than ever before. So, he literally said, thank you, Noah, for changing my life. So, that's how powerful this is. So, to your point, no, it's not just for people who, you know, might be so-called struggling, but it is for people who want to break through their income ceiling.

Yeah. So, for someone out there and, and they're thinking like, okay, What do I do now? Is it like, do they, do they simply read the book first? You know, what, what, what's, what's a good step for someone to take?

Well, first, go to noahstjohn.com. We have tons of resources. Again, I've written 25 books, so I definitely do encourage you to start with the book Power Habits. Now, by the way, you can get the book anywhere books are sold, and it's also on Audible. So, for those of you who, you know, have a commute, you're in the car, You can always listen to me, you know, just get it on Audible or wherever you like to get your audiobooks. So, Power Habits would be the one to start with. Then, also on NoahStJohn.com, we have something called the Noah Bot. And what that means is my son and I, we actually took my 25 books and we put it into AI. And so, we have a specially designed artificial intelligence bot that we call the Noah Bot. So, that's right there at NoahStJohn.com. And what that literally means is you can have access to my 25 books and 30 years of helping people make $3 billion without the 6-figure price tag. So, it's pretty awesome.

Right.

You know, so, you can ask the Noah Bot anything you like. And it's really like having me, you know, in your ear or on your desktop or on your phone 24/7, anything you want to know. Now, how is that different from LLMs like ChatGPT or Perplexity or anything like that? I mean, those are great tools, use them all the time. But, of course, they haven't been trained in my system. So, you're going to get Basically very generic advice. And let's face it, sometimes wrong advice, you know, because all that ChatGPT and others do is they just go on the internet from everything. You've never seen anything wrong on the internet, right? It's all true. Not so much. So anyway, that's— those are a couple of great resources we have. And of course, go to my YouTube channel and subscribe to that. It's watchnoahtv.com. But yeah, we've got just tons of resources. And of course, if you want to bring me in to speak, we also, you know, I do keynote speaking and training and Seminars and things like that too.

Got it. So even if someone— if there's someone here who's maybe— maybe they're not on the sales force of their medical device company, but they are part of planning a national sales meeting, you would do a keynote speech for something like that?

Totally. Absolutely. And, uh, yeah, that's right there, noahstjohn.com. It's all, all right there.

That's good to know. Well, you know, this time of year, um, it's one of these strange parts of the year where You know, people are really thinking about quotas and they, they are, they are unfortunately deciding or not if they are going to hit it, start sandbagging. You know, they start thinking differently this time of year because of what's ahead of them. Is the gap too big? And so I think it would be great for that person to engage with your content and just see, you know, those limitations that they might be putting on themselves. Can we get rid of them? And maybe you could be crushing your quota.

I totally know that we can do that because we've done it, you know, so many times. And that's what's really nice is it's a system. And what we see out there in the guru space is it's really about their personality. So, that's really the difference between a personality-driven success and system-driven success. Personality means you have to have that personality. Well, what if I don't have that personality?

Right?

What if I'm, you know, most of them are extroverted. I'm an introvert. You know, it might not seem like it right now because I'm, being extroverted on this interview. But, you know, naturally, I'm just a very shy, quiet person. I'll stand in the corner, you know, and just kind of read a book or whatever.

Right.

But, you know, the point is that when you have a system, that means anybody can do it and it works for anyone. That's why when you go to NoahStJohn.com, you'll see over 250 different success stories from all different walks of life— celebrities, athletes, CEOs, salespeople, chiropractors, and so on. So, that's the beauty of having a system-driven success versus Personality-driven.

That's great. Well, Noah, I appreciate you taking the time and spending it with, uh, with our audience today. I'll put, um, I'll make sure there's a link to that website in the show notes and the other links you mentioned, YouTube, so that for easy access. And just really appreciate you taking the time and spending with us.

My pleasure.

Great. And listeners, also visit medicalsalesaccelerator.com. You can access previous episodes, you can get talk tracks for action to help you in conversations with your potential clients, And sign up for our newsletter to get updates about the podcast. Thanks a lot, and we'll see you next week.