Top Performers Struggle With This (Sales Edition)

Welcome back to the Exceptional Sales Leader Podcast and it is my absolute pleasure with a little bit of a hiatus being 2 years almost to the day coming in from, and I've got to be really specific here, it's actually Northeast Ohio because we don't want to mention the town or the city Cleveland because apparently it's not as exciting as perhaps other places in the US. But this man is the founder of St. John Executive Coaching. He's also the founder of ClickPulse AI. He's known worldwide as the Zero Friction Doctor and the father of Afformations, coming back for the second time on the podcast. It's an absolute pleasure to welcome Dr. Noah St. John. Welcome, my friend.

Great to be back, Darren.

And when we, when we first connected this morning, I'm thinking, hmm, I wonder if he knows that he was on this podcast a couple of years ago. And you said, yes, I was. I can remember exactly the date. He said it was the 20th of December. After you put that documentation into the ClickPulse AI engine, correct?

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. No, it's all good. It's all good. I know you do a heap of these and you're quite well known around the world. So I'm sure it's like a, you sometimes feel like a rock star where you're having all these interviews and people know you, but you don't necessarily know everybody. I just wanna ask you in relation to that, because I know you do a lot of work with celebrities, professional athletes and so forth. When people know you, how do you kind of deal with that when they come up to you and they say, oh, Noah, how you going? And you're thinking, do I know this person or not? How do you approach that?

Well, first of all, I approach it with a great deal of gratitude because this is my dream. You know, when I was a kid, and this is gonna sound really weird, but I dreamed of being an author. I dreamed of being a writer. And, you know, most kids dream about being an astronaut or a baseball player or a fireman, you know, but I wanted to be a writer. That's what I— that was my dream. One of my very first memories is of taking these blocks that we had. You're probably too young to do this, but in my day, we had these little blocks, A, B, C, and we would literally put them together. And I remember spelling like these just really long words because I was like, this is so cool, and I can make words like this. And I mean, I was, I don't know, 3, 4 years old.

Yeah.

So from a very young age, I just always loved words. I love language. And, you know, in high school and college, that's what I was studying. And now I've written 26 books and, you know, this is what I get to do for a living. So when people, yeah, when they, when do they do come up to me at seminars, live events, virtual events, whatever it is, I know what an honor it is and what a privilege it is to do the work that I get to do every day with great people like you, Darren. So And of course, everyone listening to this program has to be very smart because they're listening to this program. So it's a lot of fun and it's very rewarding.

I love that. I love that. And I love the fact you said you do it with gratitude, the fact that, you know, you get to do the thing that you love. And many people say, you know, go and do the thing that you love and get good at it and potentially the rest will take care of itself. I love your thoughts on that because there will be people out there that love to do a certain thing, but they're not necessarily good at it. Can we help them develop some competency towards where they can make that as a career? Or is there some other things we need to be considering?

Well, that idea that if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life is the biggest lie that I've ever heard out there. And there's a lot of lies out there. That's a big one. Yeah, because no, that's not true. I don't know whoever said that. I mean, that's such a lie. I work like crazy. I work a lot, you know. Um, but that is the thing. When you're doing this type of work, it doesn't feel like work. You know, when I'm on stage, I, I literally— I was on a podcast the other day and somebody asked me, you know, like, what is— on a scale of 1 to 10, what is your fear of public speaking? Now, as I'm sure most people listening to this program know, fear of public speaking is the number one fear of most adults, you know, around the world, not just in America or Australia, but all around the world. Fear of public speaking, right?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Well, you know, so I answered -11. You know, for me, it's a -11 because as soon as I'm speaking, as soon as I'm walking off that stage, I can't wait to get on the next stage.

Yeah.

You know, so that's because of, you know, who I am and what I do enjoy and what I love to do. I mean, now I have an advantage because I happen to have the experience of having been on stage since the age of 3. And the reason that happened is because my father actually ran a summer theater company in Kennebunkport, Maine, which is where I grew up. And so between the, the productions, in turn, in the breaks, my brother and I would get on stage and we would do Sesame Street. Uh, we would do skits from Sesame Street, Ernie and Bert. I was Ernie. See, I can still do it. Anyway, so, but, you know, I got the, the feeling, the experience from a very, very, very young age that being on stage equals love. Right? Because I got love, I got attention. You know, the adults, they would laugh, they would enjoy it. I'm like, wow, this is fun. You know, I get love, I get attention. What kid wouldn't want that?

You know?

So, anyway, so, for me, that is one thing that I love. Same with writing. So, but the fact is, to go to your question, you know, how do you make a living off of that? Because let's face it, there's plenty of people that are very talented and really good at what they do. And, you know, they're really not making the money they should be making. Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's where what one of the things that I do that I help my clients with, whether it's one-on-one or whether it's group coaching or whether I'm training teams, you know, at a company, a team, or an organization, yeah, is to put together what I call the inner game and the outer game. So, inner game, if you think about 2 circles that intersect, in my teachings, in my books, in my trainings, you'll notice that I use a lot of Venn diagrams. For people who read my books and get my you know, my training programs, I use tons of Venn diagrams. Why? Well, number one, because I'm a nerd and I, you know, nerds love Venn diagrams. And number two, they really tell a story, don't they? If you really look at a Venn diagram, that's what's so cool about them because they're like, you know, you put this together with this and you get that. Like, wow, that is so cool, you know? So, this is one of my favorite Venn diagrams. It's very simple. It's 2 circles that come together. One says inner game and one says outer game.

Yeah.

And inner game is everything that happens between your ears that you can't see directly. But it's affecting everything you do. And then, the outer game is everything you can see directly that's also affecting everything you do.

Yeah.

So, the point is, so, if you look at your inner game, part of that could be the talent, your natural God-given talent. But that's really not enough. It just isn't. So, when you mentioned I coach celebrities and athletes, so, many of these athletes or celebrities are very naturally talented, right?

Yes.

But guess what? You still have to work at it. Look at Tom Brady. Look at Michael Jordan. know, the GOATs of their respective professions, they worked harder than anyone else too. So, natural talent is not enough. You still have to put in the work.

And I love that. And you hear the common phrases all the time that a person who has talent will often be beaten by a person who has a little bit less talent, but they overwork and they outwork them. So, you've got to have, I guess, the attitude, the approach, the belief, the tenacity, the consistency and persistence to keep going.

That's right. So, the quote actually is, hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. I love that quote.

Yeah, I love that.

That's a great quote.

I love that.

Absolutely. So, it's really true because, you know, again, go back to Tom Brady, go back to Michael Jordan. You know, okay, God-given talent. Oh, sure. They're just talented. No, no, no, no, no. They outworked everybody on their respective teams. So, that's, of course, how they got there. And, you know, what can we learn? What can, you know, the average Joe and Jane, you know, who aren't the GOAT, we'll learn from that? Well, you know, We do have to put in the effort. It's, you know, I get people, it's so funny because going back to, if people listening to the program remember The Secret, right? Many years ago, The Secret came out, the DVD, and it basically said, hey, if you think about money, money just pours in from the sky. Really? What planet is that on? Because I'll move to that planet tomorrow. You know, on planet Earth, we have to do this annoying thing called take action.

Yes.

In order to get what we want. It's like saying, well, you know what? I'm going to dream about having 6-pack abs. I'm going to picture 6-pack abs. And meanwhile, I'm gonna sit on the couch and eat junk food and never exercise. All right, let's do it. You know, no, doesn't work that way. Sorry. You know, so on planet Earth, we have to take the action.

We do. We do. And I love that because then, then people look at that and it's a great marketing ploy. Of course, when you've got people out there and I don't say, I don't use the word gullible in a disrespectful way, but people who look at that and say, oh, I can have like, I can have, I can be like that person. I can be like that athlete. Look at them. They're successful. Without having any comprehension of the amount of work, the number of obstacles they've had to jump over, the amount of challenges they've had to face in order to get there. And I remember Jim Rohn used to always say, when it comes to goal setting and achieving your goal, it's not so much the achievement of the goal, but the person you become along the way that is worthy of the responsibility that comes with achieving the goal. That's the most important thing, which means you have to change internally. Are you now going to be the person— capable of handling the responsibility that comes with being like a great athlete, being a Tom Brady. And what a lot of people don't think and don't realize is the amount of work that is done when nobody's watching is often the difference that makes all the difference for them competing against all of their competitors.

Right. And to jump off your point there, Darren, one of the things that I help people with is to remove the friction that is between them and their goals. Okay. So you mentioned a moment ago that I am known as the Zero Friction Doctor.

Yeah.

And so, see, the problem with that is that no entrepreneur, no salesperson, no team wakes up in the morning and says, boy, I really need to remove the friction from my life right now. You know, nobody says that. But the truth is you should be saying that. And here's what I mean by that for everyone listening. All right. So, I want you to think about your goals, right? Just imagine or think about your goals. Now, you know, let's talk about monetary goals, right? Those are the easy ones, right? So, you're making $10,000 a month right now and you want to go to $100,000 a month or you're making $100,000, you want to get to a million or $1 million to $5 million or $5 to $10 million, whatever the number is. See, the numbers are irrelevant. It doesn't really matter. Okay. So, let's just take going from $100,000 a month to $1 million a month. You know, it's a very common goal in business.

Okay?

Yeah. That's your goal. Well, I want you, for everyone listening, I want you to think about your goal as a destination because that's actually what it is. That is, in fact, what a goal is. It's a destination. Okay? So, you are here and you want to be there, right? So, it's like driving your car. Right. So, when you're driving your car, what are you doing? You're going from point A to point B faster than you walking, right? That's what a car does. It gets you there faster. Now, in your car, there are 2 forces at work. There's the driving force of the foot on the gas and the restraining force of the foot on the brake.

Yeah.

All right. So, when you press the gas, of course, you go faster. When you press the brake, you slow down and you stop. Now, what causes that is friction. That's in fact what stops you is friction, right? And if you didn't have friction, you'd probably slam into a tree pretty quickly, right? So, we want to have brakes in our car. But here's where it's different. We don't want to have those brakes on in our lives, in our business, in our teams because there's so much hidden friction. I call it the invisible brake. It's the invisible brake that is holding so many people back from reaching their goal. So, imagine if you're driving in your car and you're going down the road to the grocery store. That's your destination. Well, why are you going to the grocery store? Well, you're going to the grocery store to pick up groceries, right? You know, I need milk, eggs, and butter, and whatever you need, right? So, think about this. No one would get in their car, drive to the grocery store, walk around for an hour, get back in their car, and drive home. I mean, that would be idiotic, right? That wouldn't make any sense. Why would you do that? You wouldn't. But there's lots of people that are doing that in their lives. They're like, I don't even know where I'm going and I don't know why I'm going there. Okay, no kidding. All right, so that's point number 1. But point number 2 is, if you think about you're driving in your car, right, and you have your foot on the gas because you're going towards your destination, but unbeknownst to you, you have developed the unconscious habit of driving with your other foot on the brake.

Oh, wow.

So, that's why I call it that hidden friction, the invisible brake. And that's why I'm known as the Zero Friction Doctor because when you really think about what I just said, and I hope everybody listens to this, every business problem you're facing right now is a friction problem.

Yeah.

That's why you need a zero friction solution. Okay? So, I know you don't wake up in the morning and say, boy, I've got a friction problem. But maybe after hearing what I just said, maybe you will.

Yeah. And working with so many celebrities, business people, athletes, and so forth, that perhaps they don't consciously become aware of that friction, but they know they're just, they're frustrated. They're not quite getting the results. They're doing the work. They're doing the repetitions.

That's the foot on the gas. Exactly. So everybody listening to this program, I know, is very driven toward your goals because you wouldn't be listening to this program if you weren't. Right? You're driven. You're like, well, gee, I want that. I want to be an exceptional sales leader. No kidding. Hence the name. Okay. So, why am I not there? Or how could I do even better? Because I'm driving, driving, driving with my foot on the gas. But unbeknownst to you, friends, for everyone listening, you have the other foot on the brake. Now, let me give you a perfect example of this.

Okay.

So, I was speaking at a seminar in Los Angeles for 1,000 business people. Entrepreneurs, founders, CEOs, CFOs, VPs of sales. You know, these are 7, 8, 9-figure companies, right? Very successful group of people, you would say, right? So, I was speaking for about 30 minutes, speaking on exactly what I'm talking about right now, right? So, I was walking off the stage. I just finished my presentation. A man came up to me out of the audience and he practically grabbed me by the lapels and he said, Noah, I want to hire you as my coach. You are the coach I've been looking for. Now, I didn't know this man from Adam. Ironically, his name was Adam.

Adam.

True story. You can go on my website. You can see for yourself. Watch his video and over 200 others. But anyway, so, he said, I said to him, I said, oh, okay. Well, what's going on? He said, well, Noah, you know, I own this company. I'm the CEO. And we grew to 7 figures really fast. But we have been Stuck, plateaued for the past 4 years. 4 years, he said, we've been stuck at the same level. Now, he said, I have hired so many people. I've thrown hundreds of thousands of dollars at this problem. I've hired every marketing guru. He named all the big-name gurus, right? And he said, we still can't break through that revenue ceiling. And he said, as soon as I heard you speak about head trash and foot on the brake and invisible brake and friction and everything you just said, he said, I knew you were the coach I've been looking for. So, he literally hired me on the spot. That's why I love it. I love working with high achievers, right? Because they make decisions quickly and firmly. They don't dilly-dally. They don't say, oh, I got to think about it. I got to talk to my wife. No, let's go. Let's do it.

Yeah.

So, he hired me on the spot and I coached him and his leadership team for 18 months. Now, do you know that in that 18 months, we were able to get his company that had been plateaued for the previous 4 years to over $20 million in revenue in less than 18 months? That's a 600% increase. 600% increase in less than 18 months. Now, get this. As I'm sure you know, most founders, team leaders, VPs would be thrilled with a 10% increase, a 15% increase. They'd be like, they'd be popping the champagne. Try a 600% increase without spending more money.

Yeah.

How is this possible? By doing what I just said. You're releasing the brake, the invisible brake that's holding you back right now. Boom. So, that's why what we do now And I've been doing this for a while now, is we now do what we call a revenue ceiling audit. It's a revenue ceiling because everybody listening to this program, sorry to say, you're hitting a revenue ceiling right now. And how do you know? Well, you've been working really hard. You've been doing all the things everybody says. And boom, you keep hitting that ceiling. So, when you go to my website, when you go to noahstjohn.com, you just click the button and it just says, revenue ceiling audit. And it's free. It's complimentary.

Yeah.

All right? So, you just fill out a form and we will literally determine precisely the invisible brake that's holding you back right now. That's undoubtedly happening without your awareness, without your conscious awareness. And then of course, we'll give you a 3-step process plan framework so that you can get your foot off the brake and boom, break through that revenue ceiling. So that's a powerful example of how literally this can be holding you back and you're not even aware of it.

Love that. Love that. So I'll certainly put that in the show notes. I was gonna ask you as you were talking there because, and you probably preempted it by just sharing your website there. I'm thinking for people who can't or don't for whatever reason want to hire a coach like you, are there some self-reflection or some curiosity-based questions that people can ask themselves, not so much to diagnose but to try and get a better understanding of perhaps what might be holding us back, what might be actually causing the friction in our business or even in our team?

Absolutely. So we have 3 levels of service that we provide At my company, successclinic.com. So, we have the done for you, the done with you, and the do-it-yourself.

Hmm.

All right? So, done for you is exactly what it sounds like. We just do it for you. And what that means in a corporate sense or a team sense is, you know, I'll come in and I will diagnose the problem and I'll lay it out for you and then, we just do it for you. So, that's the first process. The second process is done with you, which is similar to the first because, of course, you know, there's a lot of back and forth. There's a lot of interaction, and that's doing it with you. And then, of course, the do-it-yourself. So, we have tons on the website. We have books, we have coaching, we have courses, we have online courses. We also have licensing. So, what a lot of companies will do is they'll buy, let's say, you know, 100 or 1,000 licenses. And all of my online courses have been packaged up so that companies can actually license it and they can share it with their, you know, let's say you have 10 salespeople, 100 salespeople, 1,000 salespeople, right? And then, they're going through the process and everybody's on the same page singing from the same sheet of music. Because the truth is I have developed a framework. And a framework means you need new language. One of the reasons that people hold themselves back is they use very disempowering language.

Hmm.

The words that you're using. I talked earlier about the fact that I love words, right? Well, guess what? Your words are forming your life right now and you don't even know it, right? So, most people, let's just be honest, most people are using very victim-based language, to use a very simple example, very victim-based. I can't do that. Oh, I don't have the time. I don't have the money. I can't afford it. Oh, I tried everything already. Yeah, this won't work for me. Do you see what all that is? That's victim-based language. Another term that I use for that is called head trash. Yeah.

Your head trash.

I've basically written 26 books about this one topic, how to take out the trash that's in your head, thereby getting your foot off the brake, thereby releasing the friction, thereby getting you, boom, a hockey stick growth. See how this all comes together? Boom. It's almost like it makes sense. Oh wait, it does make sense.

It does. So then how do— because the other thing you're known about, and you've got the book over here, just on top of your head and over your left shoulder there as well, is known as the father of affirmations. Now, I remember seeing this book a number of years ago and I tend to think, did Bob Proctor talk about this?

What?

This book.

I sent it. Maybe. I don't know. I mean, everybody in this industry has, let's say, borrowed from me, shall we say. So yeah.

Yeah. And when I say, when I say spoke about it, I think, I think I remember seeing him promoting it or saying, hey, this is a great book, you need to—

Well, we shared the stage several times, you know, before he of course passed away several years ago. But, but yeah, I mean, probably.

Yeah.

So many people know. At the event I'm thinking of, he didn't, he didn't talk about it. But hey, maybe, maybe later, maybe he looked into me.

Because I've been following him for many years. And I actually think I've got your book there somewhere. But I don't know where it is. It's probably in my bookshelf, which is sitting behind that thing. Now, many people would have heard the term affirmations, right? Let's just talk about the concept behind affirmations because you are known as the father of affirmations and you've got a book around affirmations.

Several books around affirmations.

So what is the genesis of that? What's the background of that? And how does that fit in with removing this friction?

Absolutely. So just so you could see a little more clearly, this is the book, my book of affirmations. So again, for everyone listening, It's A-F-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N-S, Afformations. And you can go to afformations.com and learn more about my Afformations Advantage and Afformations Method. All right. So, as everybody who's ever read a self-help book knows, every self-help book on planet Earth that's ever been written says you got to use affirmations, right? The old way, the old way, which is spelled with an I, right? Affirmations, right? And what is an affirmation? So, this is something I love to do. as a keynote speaker, right? When I'm presenting to teams, companies, organizations, whether live or virtually all around the world, I love to play this game with my audience members, right? And I say, okay, everybody knows what an affirmation is, right? Everybody goes, yeah. And I say, okay, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to say an affirmation just like they taught us. Now, everybody say, I am rich. And they all stand up and they go, I am rich. And you know what happens next? Everyone starts laughing just like you just did. Exactly what happened. That's exactly what happens. You just proved my point, right? Everybody does that. They start laughing. And I, so I say, well, what are you laughing at? They go, well, I'm not rich.

Yeah.

And I go, but you just said you were. And they go, yeah, but I don't believe it. Now, isn't that true? Right? Isn't that true for everyone listening? Think about this. For everyone listening, isn't it true that the old way, the old affirmations way, you say these positive statements, you want to believe it, we just don't believe it.

Yeah.

Right now. So, what the gurus did, that what they all did in every book, they said, well, if you don't believe your affirmation, just repeat it 1,000 million billion kajillion times and then you'll believe it someday. Great. Thanks a lot. You know, it's— and by the way, did you know that scientific studies have actually proven this scientifically, that the old affirmation method, actually 3 out of 4 people who use the old method end up more frustrated than before? So imagine, just imagine, imagine you had a smartphone that didn't work 3 out of the 4 times you went to use it, right? You'd probably get a new phone, wouldn't you? Well, I invented a new phone for your brain. Right? And it's called my Afformations Method. So, the affirmation. So, I invented Afformations in April 1997 in the shower that changed everything. I talk about this in my books and my coaching is the shower that changed everything. Now, everybody listening, I'm sure you've had that happen, right? You're in the shower, you're in the bathtub, and you're like, oh, that's the idea, right? You just get that idea, right? I mean, this goes back to the ancient Greeks, right? Eureka, that eureka moment.

Yeah.

So, the point is, that's what the shower that changed everything for me and for millions of people all around the world. So, I was thinking about how come I— because keep in mind, prior to this, I had been reading self-help books my whole life because I grew up poor in a rich neighborhood and I hated being poor. I was like, I want to be rich, but I'm poor. How the heck do I get from here to there? And so, I went to the library and read every book in the self-help section to try to become successful. Well, guess what? They all said the same thing. Use affirmations, set your goals, think positive. Thanks a lot. You know, so I did all that. You know, I had all these statements, these affirmations. I'm happy, I'm rich, I'm successful. Meanwhile, the reality was, no, I'm not. I'm broke, unhappy, and miserable. Yeah, right. So what the heck is wrong here? What aren't they telling us? I kept asking myself this question over and over. And so one morning, it just hit me, and I said, wait a second, what is human thought? I realized that human thought is not statements. But, it's questions. It's the power of questions that actually is human thought. And, I said, well, then, if that's true, then why are we making statements we don't even believe? Why don't we just cut out the middleman? And, I said, well, let's see, what would that look like? Well, if you say the statement, I am rich, your brain goes, no, you're not.

No, you're not.

Or, it goes— I actually call it the yeah, right response because your brain goes, yeah, right.

Yeah, right.

We literally say it, right? So, I said, well, if that's the statement, then what would the question be? And then, I realized, I said, well, Why am I so rich? Why am I so rich? Now, when you ask that question, for everyone listening, just take a moment, pause, breathe, and say, why am I so rich? Now, what is instantly happening in your brain right now? Your brain is searching for the answer to the question.

Hmm.

And so, I just proved to you that all thought, all human thought, is the process of asking and searching for answers to questions. And you're saying, is it really? Oh, that's a question. Oh, but does it really work? That's a question. I could go on forever. Literally, every thought you're going to think is a question. And so, what I realized is that, do you know that most people are asking really lousy questions? Why am I so stupid? Why am I so fat? Why can't I lose weight? Why isn't my business growing? Why does nobody ever call me back? Why can't I get a client on the phone? Why is there more month left at the end of the money?

Hmm.

When you ask lousy questions, isn't that great? Right? When you ask lousy questions, what do you get?

Lousy answers.

Lousy answers. And that creates a lousy life. Exactly. So, I said, wait a second. I think I just invented something. And so, I had to give it a name. And the name I gave it was Afformations. There it is. Afformations. Again, A-F-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N-S. Go to afformations.com. And all you have to remember is Oh, affirmations. That's how you remember it. Oh, affirmations, right? And so, the point is I literally sat down. I wrote a book about it. That book was published by the Chicken Soup for the Soul publisher. And now, 26 books later, you know, we've helped over 3 million people all around the world to become, as we like to call it, affirmers, right? So, for all of you listening now, you're all affirmers now, right? And all you have to do is start affirming. But guess what? You're already doing this. This is what I love to share with my audiences is that number one, I want you to realize that every human on planet Earth is already using my Afformations method. Now, there's just 2 problems with that. Number one is, of course, most people don't know they're doing this. And number two, and even worse, is most people are asking really lousy questions. Why am I so dumb? Why can't I do anything right? Those examples I gave you earlier, those are what I call—

Yeah.

Disempowering affirmations, right? So do you see how this is all coming together almost as if I know what I'm talking about? Hmm, right? What do you think your foot on the brake is? What do you think is this friction? Why am I so dumb? Why does nothing ever work? Why can't I make more money?

Yeah.

Can you stay foot on the brake?

Yeah.

Oh my God! When you start using my affirmations method, boom! You get your foot off the brake. I I could give you a ton of stories, and I'll give you as many examples as you like. But this is incredibly powerful and it is in fact life-changing.

And when you, as you were talking there, I'm thinking this is science. Science has backed this up because they, I was reading recently that we have as human beings something like 70,000 thoughts per day of which around 70 to 80% of those are not positive. So we are almost hardwired to believe the negative. Hence, we tend to, when we can't see the things and this might come back to people thinking and maybe their conditioning in their life is saying, well, I can't believe it until I see it. But when I see it, then I'll believe it. But what we're saying is, no, no, you've got to believe it and then you'll see it. But you've got to use the right phraseology and ask the right kind of questions. Not, why am I not getting the results I want? Why can't I find that partner? Why can't I get that customer I've always been dreaming of? Why, why, why? In terms of almost like fixed growth victim mentality versus let's just take the foot off the brake and say, ask better quality questions. But it takes practice. It takes practice.

So, well, I mean, kids get this in minutes, you know. I mean, in fact, my wife and I are coming out with our very first children's book called I Ask Better Questions. And we're teaching 6, 7, 8, 9, 10-year-olds to do this. And kids get it so fast, you know, because we're helping kids to overcome test anxiety, to feel better about themselves, just have better self-esteem, to make friends new. more easily, to, you know, stop bullying, uh, you know, either deal with bullies or stop being a bully, you know. So, I mean, this affects literally every aspect of your life, whether you're a kid or whether you're an adult. I mean, so—

Yeah.

This is absolutely— again, I will reiterate what I just said. Every human being is already using my Afformations Method. They're just doing it in a very disempowering way. Most people are, and majority of the time. So, you do need to study this. It's not magic. It's science. Right. So, you know, you get— you can get the Book of Afformations. We have a Millionaire Afformations book. We have the Millionaire Afformations journal so you can journal it. We also have iAfform audio so you can actually reprogram your subconscious thought patterns while you're not even paying attention. Literally listen to it on audio. So, all of that is at noahstjohn.com. Right on the website, we have tons of resources for you to literally change your brain, change your habits, and change your life.

Nice. And I'm thinking Often people talk about the fact that the quality of their life is determined by the quality of the questions that we ask. So if you ask rubbish questions, you're going to get rubbish responses. So for people who are listening to this right now who perhaps have got some blockages, they can't quite identify it, what's the starting point? What would you say to somebody who perhaps has a history of maybe plateauing, not getting the results they want? They've got a level of frustration. If you're having a quick 1-minute conversation, they don't have access to their phone, they can't go to your website right now, but they will. What's a couple of questions for them to start thinking about, to start to train their mind? Because we often ask questions based on the people around us and what we've heard and what we've been conditioned. And so we are products of our environment. So how do we change that environment? And what are some questions we can start to ask that are different that will start to unlock some of these, some of these padlocks?

Absolutely. Well, that's why I share, you know, my story is that I grew up poor in a rich neighborhood. You know, I want people to realize that This none of this is natural for me. I wasn't born with any of this. This has all been a product of me reading four or five hundred self-help books and then realizing, wait a minute, they missed everything. So I had to write my own. So the point is, for everyone listening, I want you to go back to your goals, right? We always start there. We always start with what do you want? Because it would be idiotic for me or anyone else to come in and say, well, here's what you should want. And I get so annoyed when I see coaches. Or gurus doing that. Well, you know, you should want this and you should want that. Why? Who are you to say what I should want or shouldn't want? What the heck is that? No. You know, there's an old saying: To he who is good with a hammer, all the world is a nail. So you know, maybe that person succeeded, right? So so they you know that's how they see the world. Well, I did it, so you should do it too. Well, who are you? I don't you know. You know, like me, I wanted to be a writer. I didn't want to be a baseball player, an astronaut. You know why you should be an astronaut? I don't want to be, right? So anyway. The point is, go back to your goals. And you know, right there, we already lost a lot of people because a lot of people think they know what they want, but they don't really. You know, they're not clear on it. For example, you know, I get a lot of people, they come up to me and say, "Well, hey, Noah, you know, I really want, I really want more money. I want to make more money." I say, "Okay, here's five bucks. Go away." You know, no, you got to be a lot clearer than that. You see what I mean? So very, very important. Now, I know we've all heard this a million times. Oh, we got setting goals, setting goals. Ah. Yes, we've heard it a million times. But here's what you haven't heard. And this is ironically the most important part, which is it's not the goal, but it's what happens after you set the goal that's actually the most important. So, whether you want to go from $10,000 to $100,000, $100,000 to $1 million, $1 million to $5 million, $5 million to $10 million, whatever the number is, okay, that's actually immaterial. What matters is what happens next. Now, here's what I mean by that. So, let's just say you want to go from $1 million to $10 million, right? Or $100,000 to $1 million, whatever your number is. Okay. But here's what's going to happen. The very next thing that happens is you're going to list all the reasons why you can't do it.

Yeah.

So, you're going to say, well, you know, I want to go from $100,000 to $1 million, but I can't do it. I mean, I don't have the time. You know, I'm too busy. Oh, I can't afford that. You know, I don't have the money. I don't have the team in place. I don't know who to trust. Oh, I've tried everything before. You know, oh yeah, this is—

or they look back and say, I've never done this before.

So, right, exactly. Well, I've never done it, so how could I do it now? Yeah, right. It's like, well, that's kind of weird because it's like, like saying, well, let's see, you never walked when you were a kid, so that means you would never walk ever. You know, that doesn't make any sense. You know, and I'm— but I'm being really serious because think about this. There was a time in your life when you didn't know how to tie your shoes, right? Does that mean you never tie your shoes? Right. There's a time that you didn't know how to drive. Now, you know, does that mean you should never drive? So I'm saying these things on purpose to get people to realize, well, wait a minute, that's true. Yeah. You know, there was a lot of things that I didn't know how to do, and now I do them every day. So, that's called habits. That's called learning new habits. Oh, wow. Somebody should write a book called Power Habits. Oh, yeah, I did. There it is. Anyways. Okay. So, think about your goals. Yes, we're clear on that. But then, what I want you to list, you asked me what people can do. You can do this right now.

Yeah.

Everyone listening, whether you're driving in your car, whether you're listening at home, in your office, write down your goals. Yes. But more importantly, what is your next thought, right? Your next thought is why you can't do it. I can't do it because. Now, that is what I call your head trash. Again, I've written 26 books on this very topic, how to take out your head trash, get your foot off the brake. Okay? So, let me give you a perfect example of this. All right? So, I was talking with one of my clients named Charles. Now, Charles told me the story that he actually found my book, Power Habits, that one. He found Power Habits in Barnes Noble. The bookstore, right? And he told me that he walked by my book 3 times in the bookstore. And he said, something just called out to me about this book. Now, I don't know what it was, but something called out to me. And he said, I bought it. And I— and he said, I, I started reading it and I couldn't put it down. And he said, I, I, I only got halfway through it. I went to your website and I decided to contact you. So, and he, you know, he told me that he watched my videos on YouTube. You know, he's— he was studying me. I'm like, smart guy.

Yeah. Smart man.

So, we were talking. I said, okay, Charles, that's great. I love that you did that. So, let me ask you one question. Now, I ask this question of all my clients, all my students, whether it's one-on-one, group coaching, team training, whatever it is. What is— how much do you think your head trash is costing you right now? In other words, if we don't take out your head trash, how much do you think that's going to cost you in the next 12 months? Without batting an eye, he said, $1 million. Noah, it's easily going to cost me $1 million if I don't take out my head trash in the way that you teach it, you know, in your books and your videos. It's easily going to cost me $1 million. I said, well, Charles, first of all, I want you to know that's very common. I talk to people every day who tell me the same thing. Noah, if I don't take out this head trash, it's going to cost me $1 million, $2 million, $5 million or more. And that's just one year. Remember this, it accumulates over time if you don't fix it. If you don't take out the trash, it keeps getting worse. It doesn't get better.

Yeah.

It's like a toothache that you don't take care of. Oh, you think the tooth gets better? No, it gets worse, right? So, that's point 1. And then, point 2, I said, I'll tell you what. 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 said, let's do it. So, see, I love working with high achievers, right? They make decisions quickly in front of me. He didn't dilly-dally. He said, yeah, let's do it. So, he literally Invested $100K. That's 10% of $1 million, right? To get one-on-one coaching with me for a year. Now, 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.

Wow.

So, he gave me a dollar. I gave him $18 back. Is that a good deal? No, that's a great deal. And he actually sent me an email and he said, guess what, Noah? I'm on a 7-week vacation with my wife. He said, this is a dream I've had for the last 20 years, but I never had the time or the money before. He said, so now, with all this money, I bought a new RV. We took 7 weeks off. We were taking a 7-week vacation, driving all over the country. And he literally said, thank you, Noah, for changing my life. So, what is the moral of the story? What does this mean for everyone listening? I want you to think about right now, how much is your head trash costing you? Now, this may be the first time, probably is the first time you ever thought of this because nobody really talks about it in this way. Why do you think I've made my clients $3 billion over the last 30 years? Because if it was what you'd already been doing, you'd keep getting the same thing.

Yeah.

$3 billion. Hello. Because of this, your foot's on the brake right now. Your head trash is keeping you stuck and you don't even know it. And you're like, well, it's just the way it is. Really? Is it? Then, I guess I'll go back to being poor. You know? No. It doesn't. You don't have to accept if you were born in that situation or whatever situation you're in right now. You don't have to accept that, but you do have to do the things that cause the transformation to happen.

Yeah. And so after the, after how much is it costing you? Because you talked about get your goal. What do you want? What's your next thought, which is often the head trash right now? How do you now, is this where you start to use the affirmations where you start to ask more positive-based Possibility-framed questions.

Yes, it is. So, my Power Habit System, there are 11 total power habits, okay? And Afformations is one of the power habits. Now, let me explain what I mean by that. And this is why, you know, it's so powerful for Charles and many, many other people. So, what I realized many years ago after reading 300, 400 success books, right? They all say the same thing. Now, what they are talking about is conscious habits.

Okay.

So, I want, for everyone listening, I want you to think about the iceberg principle of human behavior. Now, you've probably heard this, but human behavior is like an iceberg, right? About 5% is visible above the surface, like the top part of the iceberg that you can see above the surface of the water. Well, the vast 95% is hidden. It's below the surface. And in the human being, that means below the surface of consciousness, in the subconscious or the unconscious, right? We just call it the subconscious.

Yeah.

Right? So, you got the 5% visible conscious mind, 95% invisible subconscious mind. Now, I want you to think about this for one second. This is what I say to my, you know, when I'm speaking, when I'm doing keynote speaking, teams, companies, organizations all around the world, and I show them this graphic, 5%, 95%. I just go, all right, now let's just be simple here. Let's not think too hard. Let's say you're going into battle and you got 5 guys fighting 95 guys. Who do you think's going to win that battle? Everybody goes, 95 guys, of course. But only every time.

So, only every time.

Only every time, right? So, if you're okay with staying stuck, then keep doing what you're doing, right? If you would like to not be stuck, then we might want to try something different. Hmm. Right? And they go, hmm. I go, yeah, exactly. Okay. So, the point is that all those other habit trainings, right? And everybody's heard of habit training and, you know, probably read lots of books about it. There's tons of books out there, Change Your Habits, this, like that, right? All perfectly fine. There's only one problem. They're all talking about the 5%, right? So, go back to Napoleon Hill, right? Think and Grow Rich, one of the classics of self-help, right?

Yeah.

One of the seminal books, right? What did he do? So, the story goes Carnegie said to Hill, Hey, go interview all these successful guys and see what they do. Okay. So, successful guy, what'd you do? Well, oh, okay. Oh, and what'd you do? Okay. And then, you know, he wrote Think and Grow Rich, which to me, that book didn't really say anything. It was like a bunch of stories. And I'm like, I read that. I'm like, I don't get it. You didn't say anything. What are we supposed to do here? You know, now, a lot of people love that book. So, when I say that, you know, some people get freaked out like, why? It's the greatest book ever written. Okay, I didn't get it. I'm like, you didn't really say anything, Nap. I mean, what what are we supposed to do now? Right. But nevertheless, even set that aside, all of that was conscious habits, right? Work hard, set your goals, think positive. You know, okay, that's all conscious habits. It's not that it's wrong; it's perfectly fine. But it's five percent. See, so what they left out was the ninety-five percent. So this is precisely why for everyone listening. If you've been reading all these books like I did and you're still hitting that income ceiling, that revenue ceiling that I talked about, this is precisely why. Because they're talking about, hey, step on the gas harder. Set your goals. Think positive. Work hard. Gas, gas, gas. Meanwhile, you have your other foot on the brake, which no one's mentioned to you. So, think about this. This is— I love to paint this picture. So, here you are. You're driving your car, right? You have one foot on the brake. Oh, shoot. Why am I not reaching my goals fast enough? Huh. So, what you do is guru number one comes up to you and says, hey, you know what the problem is? You need to put a new type of gas in your car, right? Put this really expensive high-octane gas in your car. Put the gas in and you're like, okay. Spend money on that and then you keep driving. You're like, I'm still getting the same result. Guru number two comes along and says, oh, you need new tires. Yeah, these tires aren't good enough. Get these really super expensive tires. It'll be better. Okay. Spend more money and get new tires. You're still doing the same habit, getting the same result. Guru number three comes along and says, you know what? You need a new car, right? You should get a really expensive Italian sports car like I've got. Look at that cool car I have, man. You know, and I'm so successful. Get a cool car like me. And you're like, oh my God. All right. Well, it worked for him.

So, all right.

I'll buy a new car. You see, spent tons of money, buy a new car. You get in the car, you're still doing the same thing, getting the same result. You just spent a lot more money on the wrong thing. So, here's what I do that's different. I come along and I go, excuse me, did you know you have your foot on the brake? You're like, uh, no, what? And I go, yeah, you know, if you take your foot off the brake, you'll actually reach your goals a lot faster and easier. You won't have to spend any more money. In fact, you'll get there faster with less money. You're like, really? I go, yeah, just take your foot off the brake. Just do these 11 power habits and you get— you reach your goals 10 times faster and easier. You go, where do I sign? Right? Do you see what I mean? So, that is literally what is happening in this guru space every single day. And this is why I'll never be out of a job.

Which is good. And I don't want this to come across as sounding easy, but when you talk about that, it actually makes perfect sense because when we look at the iceberg model, we use this a lot in selling as well, is you'll see the sales result, you'll see the behaviors, but that's the culmination of some of the actions, some of the thoughts, obviously a lot of the thoughts, a lot of the questions, a lot of the affirmations or not. that people have that manifest into the physical results that people see. And then as coaches, often they'll try to change maybe one behavior or 2 behaviors, which is on the conscious level without actually delving into, well, what are your thoughts right before you choose to make that phone call, right before you choose to jump on stage? What are you thinking? And if you can change that, then everything changes.

Correct. That's exactly right. And that's what I was saying a moment ago. I mean, it works for, you know, 6-year-old kids, 9-year-old kids, 10-year-olds. I mean, we have teachers who are using my Afformations Method, teaching it to their students. And literally, like, we had one, uh, one teacher here in Ohio, and he said he was working with these at-risk youth, and they were really just set aside, you know, left to basically—

Yeah.

Fend for themselves, for lack of a better word. And, and he taught them my methods, and, you know, then they, they started to believe in themselves, started to have self-esteem, self-confidence, and they went on to go to college. They went on to have good jobs. I mean, We have so many stories like this. And go to the website, you'll just see literally hundreds and hundreds of examples of this. And, you know, I mentioned this a few times, and the reason that I say this is, is very important is because, see, I teach frameworks, systems, fill in the blank, right? They— these are, these are systems or frameworks. And what— why is that important? Why does that even matter? Well, because there's 2 kinds of success that I've observed in this industry. There's personality-driven success and system-driven success. Now, personality-driven success is exactly what it sounds like. It's based on that guy's personality. You know, hey, look how successful I am. Look at my helicopter. Look at my yacht. Look at this. I'm so cool, aren't I? Yeah, you're great, man. Have you helped anyone else or is it all about you? You know? And so, you don't hear from those guys that they've helped anyone else. You know, it's like, look how rich and successful I am.

Okay.

Hey, we all want to be rich and successful. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is, have you helped anyone else? And if you haven't, you have what's called a personality-driven success. Okay, great for you. How about the rest of us? Right? So, this is literally, and this is, I've had clients say this to me, Noah, it's like you bridge the gap, right? You even the playing field. I'm like, exactly. That's what I was trying to do 30 years ago. That's what I set out to do was even the playing field to all those guys that are like, hey, aren't I great? Yeah, you're great. How about the rest of us clowns, right? What do we get? We get the scraps. No, right? So now, using my Power Habit System, boom. Now we do. We literally have a level playing field because guess what? They're doing things that they don't even know they're doing, number one, and therefore, they can never teach it to you.

That's it.

Never. You could follow them till the cows come home and you're like, I did everything they said. Why isn't this working? Because of what I just said, because of what I've been teaching for 30 years. That's why I keep saying go to the website, look at, watch the videos, look at the case studies. This isn't about me. Who cares about me? I'm just the guy teaching this stuff. If it doesn't work for everyone, then you don't have a framework. So, that is one of the things that makes me different from those guys, personality-driven versus system-driven. My argument is you should really use system-driven for that very reason.

Oh, because it's able to be leveraged, duplicated, it's more sustainable and You can actually create because it's not then relying on the guru to be the teacher because the framework is the teacher and you can follow it.

Precisely. Exactly. I mean, I literally, my very first book, I, because when I identified this problem because I called it success anorexia, that's really what I, that's the term that I came up with, you know, 30 years ago was, wow, I've been starving myself of success this whole time, right? And when I say success anorexia, 2 things happen. People go, huh? Or people go, oh my God! Yeah, that's totally me. Right? So for everyone listening, what just happened? Hmm, interesting. So if you went, oh my God, that's totally me, then you need to get this, right?

Yeah.

If you're like, huh, then maybe not for you. But anyways, the point is millions and millions of people are starving themselves to success. What's another way to say that? You have your foot on the brake. What's another way to say that? You have hidden friction. What's another way to say that? You have an invisible. You see how I say it lots of different ways?

Yeah.

Because I'm just trying to get into your brain somewhere. Ding ding ding ding.

Well, it's all the fact that we are controlled by our unconscious thoughts that we're not consciously aware of.

That's right.

But they form our habits, they then form our behaviors and therefore they perform our results. We look at the results and say, that's not what I want, but it's exactly what you deserve based on how you're thinking, how you're programming yourself. So change the programming, get your foot off the brake and everything changes as long as you do the work.

That's right. Well, it's not magic, it's science. You got to do the work. It's science. But this is the beautiful thing. It makes it so much easier. It's like you literally just fill in the blank. I gave it to you. You just fill in the blank, you know, right? Boom. But why do you think I get 600%, 800%, 1,500% increases for my clients? Because I couldn't do that on my own. You know, I don't have a magic wand, but I have something better. I have a framework. Oh my God, it worked. Done. Sorry, I get a little excited about this.

Well, it's— hey, I'm glad you came back on. It's been a couple of years. So, we didn't even— Let's not make it so long this time. Well, we didn't even get a chance to talk about ClickPulse. So, we'll have to come back and have another conversation about that, right?

So— Yes. AI. Everybody's talking about AI. So, yes. Look, briefly, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off there, Darin. I know we're running short on time. My entire job here is to help entrepreneurs, business owners, professionals win their lives back. When you go to my website, it says it right there. Scale without friction. Reclaim your life. Boom! That's what I do. I've been doing it for 30 years. So, one of the ways that we're doing that now is With AI, right? Because everybody's freaking out about AI and blah blah blah blah blah. So long story short, so many content creators, which is let's face it everybody right now, are wasting ten twenty hours a week trying to create content, and that's really not getting the results they want. So that's why my team and I we saw this problem, and we said we got to help our clients solve this. So that's why we created what's called Click Pulse, clickpulse.ai, right? Click Pulse AI. And what it does is it very simply gets you seen and referred and recommended by the LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Grok, literally with the click of a button. So I mean, it's taking what used to take 10, 20 hours now takes less than 10 minutes a week. So it's pretty amazing. So that's ClickPulse AI.

Love it. Love it. So I'll put that on the show notes. Now for people who have enjoyed this conversation, who want to know more, which should be every single person who's listening, where do they go? How's the best Where's the best place for them to connect with you, Dr. Noah?

noahstjohn.com. That's my name. So, N-O-A-H-S-T-J-O-H-N.com, noahstjohn.com. And by the way, if you want to book me to speak for your team, your organization, your company, just go to booknoah.com. Easy to remember. Who should we book? booknoah.com. Very easy to remember, right? So, you could just watch my sizzle reel. You can see what other meeting planners say about me, see some of the places that I've spoken. But yeah, booknoah.com, that's the, that's the place to go.

Brilliant, brilliant. Hey, um, greatly appreciate you coming back. It's been a, it's been a pleasure having you back on. Uh, love this. It's— I've got a lot out of this myself, and I'm sure people have listened to this have got a heap about it out of as well. If there was one thing to leave people with as we go into 2026, um, what would be one lasting piece of wisdom from The Friction Doctor.

I'll say it again. Every business problem you're facing right now is a friction problem. That's why you need a zero-friction solution. Yeah, that's what I provide. That's what I've been providing for 30 years, and I've got the receipts to prove it. So, if you're looking to get rid of that hidden friction, boom, let's do it. Talk to me. Let's, let's get that friction out of there so you can get to your goals 10 times faster and easier.

Love it. Dr. Noah St. John, thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast.

My pleasure.

All the best, mate.