Ray Higdon Interviews Noah St John

Hey, hey, hey, what is going on? I am super excited. I am so excited and so fired up. I have one of my good friends and what we call a super author, Noah St. John. Noah, how are you today, sir?

I'm great, Ray. Great to have— great to be back with you. And how are you doing?

I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Now, for those that don't know, Noah is— I mean, I don't know how many books you have, but you'll have like so many, and you've published with so many different houses. Um, and you can share that. Uh, I, I actually came into contact with Noah, uh, probably 10 years ago, actually. Someone attended— actually, I'll just say my buddy Samange actually attended one of our events, brought me up Noah's book, read the book. It was fantastic. I did a blog about it. Noah called me the next day, and since then we've been besties. We have a little necklace with best and he has the friends. And, um, and no, but he is, he's really awesome and he's really an expert at helping people get out of their own way, navigate and get rid of the head trash, and really move forward in a successful manner. And he has a brand-new book called Power Habits. And so, Noah, there it is. Boom. So I'm just curious what— Noah, tell us, go ahead and tell us a little bit about, you know, your journey and how we got here. And then tell us why that book. You've done a lot of books. Why is that book like you're really excited about it?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, so thanks so much again, Ray, for having me on the program today, and welcome everybody. So great to see all the nice comments coming in. So just a very, very brief story about me and how I got to do all this. I grew up poor in a rich neighborhood, which is a total cliché, but I grew up— it's totally true. I grew up in a little town called Kennebunkport, Maine, which just happens to be one of the wealthiest communities in New England. But my family was dirt poor. I mean that literally because we lived at the bottom of a dirt road in a drafty unfinished house that my parents ended up losing to foreclosure. From a very young age, I was painfully exposed to the gap, the chasm between the haves and the have-nots. The haves was everyone else in the community. The have-nots was my family. I hated that life of poverty, and fear, and lack, and not enoughness. I didn't have anybody to talk to. Certainly, no one in my family could help me, so I just did the only thing I knew how to do, which is go to the library. I just started reading books, reading self-help books, Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Stephen Covey, Wayne Dyer, all the classics. I really tried to make them work.

Someone was doing something else. So kudos to you, because I don't think most kids' natural reaction is, there's nothing to do, why not go to the library?

Exactly right.

Well, you know, may have taken a different path.

True, very true. There's not much to do in Kennebunkport, Maine, let's put it that way. A lot of, a lot of this going on, you know, and I just, I never got into that, thank goodness.

Yeah, you're free.

But, uh, yeah, I went to the library. So, you know, Ray, of course, you know me for a decade, as you said. So, you know, and the folks who don't know me, but I'm the nerdiest nerd in the industry. What I mean by that is I— that's, that's my natural thing, is just go study, research, and figure out the problem and how to fix it. And, um, so, you know, I really read all these books and I really tried to get it to work, but I couldn't, couldn't get it to work. I was very frustrated. Um, at the age of 25, I was, you know, alone and I couldn't get a date to save my life. I was broke. I was miserable doing all these survival jobs. So, um, I decided to commit suicide. I decided to take my own life at age 25.

Wow.

And, um, at the very last moment, my life was spared. I, I do share that story, you know, the full story in the book. But anyway, long story short, um, I decided to devote the rest of my life to serving God and serving humanity as best I could while I was still here on the earth. But I still didn't know why I was here on the earth. So I went on another long journey, a spiritual journey, and more of like an inner journey. And so I started, you know, reading about spiritual thinkers of our time— Ernest Holmes, Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, people like that. And Then in 1997, I had 2 epiphanies that changed my life. And, you know, I actually published my first book, which was entitled Permission to Succeed, from the Chicken Soup for the Soul people. I actually trademarked that phrase. I actually own that phrase, permission to succeed, because prior to my work, no one was really looking at this, this whole topic of giving yourself permission to succeed. It was all about how to succeed.

Right.

And what I was the first author to really talk about all those years ago was that we don't need any more how-tos. What 99% of people out there need is literally how to allow yourself to succeed, what I call giving yourself permission to succeed. And so then that became the book that you were just mentioning, Ray, this book, Secret Code of Success. That was published by HarperCollins.

Great.

Thank you very much, Collins Business. And then we had the book of Afformations from Hay House. And now we have Power Habits.

Yeah.

That's not all of them, but that's the highlights. Anyway, really, it's just been a— I guess what I want folks to know, everybody listening and watching the program, is that what we've been able to do over the last 2 decades is really help network marketers, entrepreneurs, small business owners, CEOs, professional athletes, celebrities, working moms, teenagers, really work with people from all walks of life, help people make more money, spend more time with their family, and have what we call the freedom lifestyle, so that you have the time, the energy, the relationships, and the money that you really, really want. So, it's really been, it all happened kind of by accident, but, you know, it's really been an amazing journey.

That's awesome. I mean, you've impacted a lot of people. There's a lot of, I don't know if you can see the comments, right? I mean, people are really excited.

I can see it, yeah.

Just really, really cool. Okay, so, We have this thing, I don't know if you're aware of it, but we have this thing called Stars. Are you aware of this?

Yes, yes, yes.

So we're one of 15 brands on Facebook that have the Facebook Stars program. So we like to give out prizes and stuff, and I probably should have like asked you this beforehand, but I see there's some people dropping stars and we gotta show 'em some love here.

Yes.

Would you like to give away some books? Are you open to that, or?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we can totally do that. What we're doing here, for everybody who's watching on this program right now, we do have a special website. It's powerhabitsbook.com. Very easy to remember, just powerhabitsbook.com. So when you buy the book, just go to powerhabitsbook.com, go to Amazon, purchase the book, and then come back to that site, go back to powerhabitsbook.com, put in your order info, and we actually have a $299 gift package And so what I'm going to do for everybody who buys the book right now watching this program, number one, we have a very special deal. We have a 99-cent Kindle version, so that's available today, 99 cents for Kindle, which is awesome. Of course, we do also have the hardcover for, you know, old school like me, which I, I like to get books. But, you know, I know a lot of folks like to watch, and it's also on Audible, by the way, so you can listen. Um, and actually, like, some people like to read and listen, which is great.

Sure.

Uh, but so we have the 99-cent Kindle today, and then also when you get the book today, I'm going to give you 2 tickets to my upcoming live event, which is called Freedom Lifestyle Experience. So, we're going to really plus this. We're going to give you the star treatment. That's what we're going to call it because you are a star. Of course, Ray, you're a star, and Jessica. So, that's the star treatment.

I got the link right, right? powerhabitsbook.com.

It's perfect. Absolutely right. Power Habits book. So, again, 99-cent Kindle, and then the 2 tickets to the event. All you have to do is after you purchase at the Power Habits book, just put in your order info. We'll take great care of you.

Yeah, awesome. Um, okay, so we'll figure it out. I'll either buy some books from you or we'll figure it out. But, um, I want to— I'm going to do out— I want to— I got to write this down now that I'm using my phone here. Okay, so I'm just going to—

it's on Audible.

Yes, on Audible. Yep. And go ahead, you got a question for Noah, feel free to ask. I'm just looking at my comments. I'm not like reading a book over here. Why is he reading a book? Okay, so—

He's checking his phone, I knew it.

I see this person dropping a lot of comments here. I don't know if I'm gonna say your name correctly, but Danielle Ouleye, Danielle Ouleye, you're just sending crazy amount of stars. We really appreciate you. We'll send you— I'll get you one of Noah's books or We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. You will receive one of the books. I'll just buy some from you, Noah.

OK. And then the book—

oh, so Elizabeth just tuned in and she's like, well, what's the book for? Like, what exactly? Who should have this book? What's the book for?

Absolutely. So the full title is Power Habits, and then the subtitle is The New Science for Making Success Automatic. Okay, so what that means is what I've been teaching for the last 20 years is what I call the power habits of unconsciously successful people. Now, I know that's kind of a mouthful, so let me break that down for you, for everybody watching. All right, so whenever we humans want to master a new habit, we go through 4 stages of competency. 4 stages. The first stage is unconscious incompetence. That means you don't know you don't know. The second stage is conscious incompetence. That means you know you don't know. The 3rd stage is conscious competence, which means you know you know. And then the 4th stage is unconscious competence, which means you do without thinking. So the example I always like to give at my, you know, whether I'm doing keynote speeches or live events or, you know, working with my clients, what I like to say is it's like driving a car, right? So everybody watching this program probably knows how to drive a car, but we all went through those 4 stages to learn how to drive a car. The 1st stage is unconscious incompetence. That means you didn't know you didn't know how to drive a car, right? Nobody comes out of the womb and goes, hey, where's my car? That's not possible, right? So, that's— you don't know, you don't know. The second stage is conscious incompetence. You get to about age 8, 9, 10, 11, somewhere in there, and you go, man, I want to get away from my parents, and all I got is a bicycle. I want to get in my car so I can get away from my parents, but darn it, I don't know how to drive a car.

Yeah, I hear you.

So, I'm consciously incompetent, right? At least that's what I went through. Anyway, so that's conscious incompetence. Now, you get to conscious competence where you go to driver's ed, you learn how to drive a car, and you get a license that says, yes, I'm consciously competent to drive a car. It doesn't say that, but that's what it means. And so then the 4th stage, the final stage, is, of course, unconscious competence, which means you do without thinking, right? You're driving a car, probably everybody watching this knows how to drive, and you're literally not thinking about it. It is an unconscious task. So think about the dozens and dozens of things. You just drive. Right, right, exactly. The dozens of things we do every day without, literally without conscious thought, you know, tying your shoes, getting dressed, brushing your teeth, talking, reading, and so forth, right? So the point is, what I've realized over, you know, many, many, over really 4 decades of studying human behavior and success, Is those of success, what I call the 2 percenters, the people at the very, very top of whatever industry you're in, or even of your company. Think about your company, right? Right. For those of you working in network marketing, or even if you're an entrepreneur, whatever it might be, think of your industry, your, your company. The top 2% tend to have 98% of the wealth or the influence. I call those people the naturals of success. And here's the funny thing about the naturals. They're unconsciously competent at allowing themselves to succeed. Now, what I mean by that is it's not that they're not working hard. It's not that they're not focused. They're doing all those things, but they're doing— they're unconsciously allowing themselves to succeed. That goes back to my whole point of giving yourself permission to succeed. So, the point is, going back to this whole—

I like your new definition.

Right, exactly, exactly. And so, the point is—

The old definition was like, at least how I understood it, was someone just They just got the skills and like they didn't work hard to acquire those skills. So I'm like, wait a minute, man, like I sucked at everything I've ever tried. But that's a good distinction of that allowing, you know, success, allowing things to come to you, which I've definitely witnessed what you're talking about.

Exactly. And so what happens— so I'm going to give you an example of that I know everyone watching this will be familiar with, which is Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, right? Probably everybody watching this program has read or heard that book Think and Grow Rich, right? A very classic book, right? And so the point is, what Napoleon Hill did almost a century ago was he interviewed all the, you know, most successful people of the time. He said, well, how did you become successful? Well, I did this, this, this, this, and this. Okay, so if you do this, this, this, this, then you should become successful, right? And so that's what it says. And so, but here's the point though, you know, how come if that's true, then how come I and millions of people read that book and we really tried it and we didn't become successful? See, what the argument that I always have is that if how-tos were enough, we'd all be rich, happy, and thin, right? Everybody knows the how-tos of success. Everybody knows the how-tos of losing weight or whatever it might be. But here's the key. So many people, millions of us, are holding ourselves back from the level of success we're perfectly capable of because of what I call head trash, right? That head trash, that voice in your head that says, I can't do it because. So, the point of the Power Habit system, and I know this is a very long explanation, But, you know, I describe it very, very, very much in depth in the book. You will totally get this. And this is why, quite frankly, one of the reasons why we've helped our clients over the last 2 decades to add 6 figures, 7 figures, even 8 figures to their business, because it's not about more how-tos, it's about how to allow yourself to succeed. Literally what the highly successful people or the naturals are doing unconsciously that they're not even aware that they're doing it. So in fact, here it is right here. I'll show you right here. This is the Power Habit System right there. It's on page 100. Look at that right there, page 100. This is the system right here that I have been teaching my clients for the past 2 decades, and that is what can make breakthroughs for you too.

Very nice, very nice. Okay, uh, we're gonna send out 2 more books. Uh, Sonya Steel Sides, Sonya Steel Sides, and Julie Dilts Both of you have been like hammering the stars. That's awesome. I just want to send you some cool stuff. Cool stuff. No, that's that's just so you know it's just so powerful what what you're talking about. Can you tell me if if you don't mind? Like can we can we dive into a little bit of like what what keeps keeps someone subconsciously? What's maybe an example or something that is keeping someone from let's say getting in their perfect shape, right? Losing weight, getting in the perfect shape, they're sabotaging. Like, how does that work? What have you found? Absolutely.

So, this goes back to the concept that I teach at my live events, at my keynote speeches, and with my clients called head trash. This whole concept of head trash, which by the way, of course, is another book that I wrote right here called Get Rid of Your Head Trash About Money. We have that book too. But anyway, don't wanna confuse you with all these books. But anyway, so head trash is the voice in your head That says, I can't do it because... and then you just fill in the blank, right? Well, Noah, this all sounds great, and I want to be successful. I want to lose weight. I want to be happy. I want to make more money, whatever your pot of gold is, or whatever your goal is. I want to do all that, but I can't do it because... Whatever, right? I don't have the time. I don't have the money. I can't afford it. I'm divorced. I didn't go to the right college. I don't live in the right city. I don't have the right connections. I it's too late for me. I made too many mistakes. I'm I'm married. I've got kids. I don't have kids. I'm a Martian. I mean, whatever it is, right? We all have these excuses, don't we? And see, but here's the key that I want everybody watching this to realize: is that you always make yourself right. See, whatever you say after the word because is what you are going to defend to the death. Noah, I can't do it because, and there it is.

You win the argument.

Exactly, you win, right? And you are gonna defend that to the death, even if you don't want it, meaning you don't wanna have that limitation, you're still gonna defend. No, you don't understand, I don't have the time, right? This is what the classic, classic head trash that we say, I call it one of the top 5 head trashes is, I don't have the time. And I go, isn't that interesting? Because Ray Higdon and all of the successful people that you know and Mark Cuban and Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, they all have the same 24 hours in a day. This is amazing. Right, exactly. Well, you know, I know that's the crowd you're running with now, so I mean, that's pretty exciting.

All right.

So the point is, you have the same 24 hours. And Ray, I mean, there's a great quote that I know you've heard and that I love to share with our clients as well, which is that you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. And that's the whole point. You know, we all have big goals, we all have big dreams. You know, here we are, we're coming up on the new decade, right? Not just a new year, it's a new decade, right? And so now we all got big dreams, big goals, But if you don't have the systems in place, then you're not going to be able to reach those goals. It's just going to really be very, very hard, or you just frankly won't be able to. So, really, when you look at the systems that we need to put in our business, that's the other thing that we really look at here in the book and in our trainings, which is inner game. Where are we? Inner game and outer game. The inner game and outer game systems that you have to have in place in order to reach your goals so that you can have more time, more energy, better relationships, and more money.

Right, awesome. Very, very cool. Um, yeah, it, um, lots of comments.

I like what Nicholas said there. My neighbor's dog walkers, mailman, brother tried that. That was beautiful.

I love it for sure.

Can I answer Tony Ann's, uh, question?

Please go ahead, go ahead.

Yeah, so Tony Ann is asking, if I can only get one of the books, uh, which should I get? Definitely get this one right here that we're talking about, powerhabitsbook.com. This is my newest book, my latest book. I'm very proud of it. Plus, it's got my picture on the COVID You got to have that. I mean, that's— then it's just boom, right there on your shelf. Who could ask for anything more? I mean, really? No. So, Power Habits book. But thank you for that question, Tonya, and definitely powerhabitsbook.com, especially with all the bonuses that we're giving you today.

Yeah, yeah. And Judith commented that this was kind of like very similar, was kind of my lesson in And Rank Makers today. You know, George Zalecki said, the thinker thinks, the prover proves. And I think that's very right. It's exactly what you're saying, actually.

Yes.

So, so, all right, can I— I'm happy to send the books. Can I, can I twist your arm for something? Can we go? Go, go. Would you be game? We do these every once in a while, but would you be game to do like a 10-minute coaching call for this top star sender? You game to do that?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And you know what, actually, I would, would even love to do— I'll even plus that, Ray. And what I will do is for your top star, whatever you're saying there, person. I will also do a training, a Zoom training for your team. So, I do this for people, you know, leaders all around the country, around the world. And so, you can actually— I will do a Zoom training for your team on power habits. Okay? So, this is really, really powerful.

Wow.

And, you know, by the way, I'll just, you know, my name is Noah St. John. You can go to noahstjohn.com and, you know, learn more about me and what I do, and you can, of course, contact me there. But, you know, we do these Zoom trainings for leaders who really want to get their people unstuck, who want to get their people to that next level, you know, to use Ray's language, to rank advance, right?

Yeah.

And so to, you know, hit that next rank. And so, you know, that's one of the reasons that I'm very, very humbled and honored to be friends with this amazing man, Ray Higdon. And you are all very, very smart to be part of his universe because this man not only is a a brilliant guy. He is a great teacher, a great trainer, and he is one of the most humble and real people that you will meet in this business. And I mean, I've known— I've studied with everybody. I know everybody in this business having been doing it a long time. And Ray, I mean, I can count on one hand, you know, the number of people at your level.

Thank you.

And so I just want to really thank you for all your support over the years. It's meant the world to me. And means the world to me. And, you know, both my wife and I, Babette, who just said hi to you earlier before we got on, you know, we're just huge fans of the Higdons. And I want to say to everybody watching this, you're very, very smart to be, uh, learning from this man because he— I guess I'm going to point that way. Yeah, well, there he is. There he is.

Thank you, thank you so much. I mean, that's really kind of you. I really appreciate that. Um, you know, you've been rock solid and I don't want to brag, but we actually now have a Babette that works for us. So, you know, we got our own Babette over here as well.

Oh, okay. See, everybody wants a piece of my Babette. I get that everywhere. Can we have her? I'm like, no, no. So I know what you did. You cloned her.

That's smart. It must be a key to his success, Babette. And so that is amazing. So I just want to reedify, just so now I see people competing and stuff. So you can't see it on here, Noach, because BeLive hasn't integrated with it 'cause there's only 15 brands in the world that have it, but you can see it on the mobile. And so now people are like battling. So Noah, for the top, so we gave away 3 books so far, Danielle Ouellette, I don't know if I'm saying that right, sorry, Sonia Steelsides, and Julie Dilts. And then for the top star sender, which we will, there's no way for me to see right now, we'll have to do it afterwards, you are gonna get a 10-minute coaching call with Noah St. John, that's amazing.

Wow.

and he's gonna do a Zoom training for your team. And so that's incredible, that's amazing. And if you don't know, I see a couple people that haven't seen us, maybe haven't seen one of our lives in the last week or so, to figure, if you did wanna know, I posted in the comments about the stars, higdongroup.com/stars, but it's basically a way that Facebook is testing, like in the gamer community, to just allow us to give prizes and do cool stuff for people that are on our stuff.

Nice.

But anyway, powerhabitsbook.com, There's like $1.2 million in bonuses, and Noah comes to your house. It's incredible.

I'll vacuum, I'll clean.

He takes care of himself. It's awesome. I'll walk the dogs. Yep. He makes omelets. I mean, it's amazing. It's amazing what you get when you buy that book.

Pretty amazing.

But powerhabitsbook.com. I highly recommend Noah's training. We've had him speak at many of our events. He spoke at, I think, our very first Network marketing event. Yeah, it was you and Jerry Clark, Diane Hoffman, Falcone, and Todd. Yeah, and so we've known, we've known Noah for a really long time, and he, uh, does amazing, amazing work. And so, uh, grab the book. If you're able to send a bunch of stars, go for it, because the top one we'll, we'll announce, uh, probably later today. Uh, so you do have, you do have time, but the top Star Center is going to get a 10-minute call with Noah St. John. That's crazy. And he's gonna do a Zoom training for your team, which is just incredible. And so really appreciate you. Thank you so much, Noah. Thank you everyone for tuning in. Again, powerhabitsbook.com, and appreciate you. Thank you, Noah, for all that you do, and thanks for donating that as well.

My pleasure. All right, thanks everybody, and thank you, Ray, again, and we'll see you soon, everybody.

All right, bye guys, see ya.