Why Motivation is Important for Entrepreneurs? - Noah St John Ft. Eric Eden

Welcome to the show, Dr. Noah St. John.

Great to be here. Thank you.

You're a keynote speaker. You've written 25 books. You've been called the mental health coach to the stars and the father of affirmations. I could go on and on, but tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Yes. As you mentioned, I am a keynote speaker, author of 25 books, and I'm known for helping entrepreneurs and experts make more in just 12 weeks than they did in the previous 12 months while actually winning their lives back in the process. There's a lot of hustle bros out there and they're teaching how to make more money by just hustling your face off. Okay. That's one way to do it. But at the end of the day, that's really not very sustainable, nor is it very fun. I've noticed. And so you get to a certain point in life, you're like, you know what? I'd rather have a business that works for me. And not me working so hard for my business. So that's what I do that's different. I really help people, yes, make a lot more money. Uh, my clients have added over $3 billion using my methods over the last 30 years. But at the same time, just as importantly as making more money, I feel it's just as important, if not more important, to actually win your life back. So we're talking winning back 1 to 3 hours in your day and 4 to 8 weeks in your year. That makes a really big difference and it can really change your lifestyle. In a big way. So that's what I do.

That's awesome. And that's the reason I wanted to have you on the show is getting that sort of efficiency in your life can have a big impact in quality of life beyond making more money. Like you're, like you were saying. Yep. And I'd love for us to start out. We're ready to be inspired. Can you share a story or two about how you've done this with some of your clients?

Oh, absolutely.

And sort of what the impact has been for them, like how you've done it and Yeah, totally.

Absolutely. And so I have a lot of stories, obviously, and you can go to my website and see a lot of videos and case studies and testimonials. Because I feel it's more important for me to talk about my client success than my success. See, what you have in this guru space is you have a lot of gurus and their only success story is themselves. And I'm like, that's great. That's great that you've made all that money. Have you helped anyone else make any money? And usually the answer is no. Not so much. So I'd rather brag about my clients than myself for that very reason. That's how it's a system-driven success as opposed to a personality-driven success. So I can think of one right off the top of my head. I was talking with one of my clients and, and I asked him a question I ask all my clients, whether it's one-on-one or group coaching. And he had been reading my books. So he was familiar with my work. A lot of people read my books and then hire me to coach them. And he had been reading my books and he realized I really need to put this in place because if I don't have it, I'm really missing out. It's like trying to build a house without without having a tool belt, having the tools that you need. And so I asked him this question. I said, how much do you think it's costing you to not have these things in place, not have this formula, this frameworks in place, you know, right now for your business? And without batting an eye, he said, $1 million. He said, this is easily going to cost me $1 million, Noah, if I don't have this in place in the next 12 months. And remember, this adds up year over year. It's not just costing you $1 million one time. It's, you know, year over year. And so I said, listen, I hear that every day. People say to me, hey, Noah, you know, if I don't have this in place, it's really going to cost me a lot of money. So I said, why don't you do this? Why don't you just give me 10% of that million dollars and I'll find you a million dollars 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 actually did that. He decided to hire me right on the spot. That's why 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. They said, let's do it. And so anyway, he decided to do that. He invested $100K. That's 10% of a million. And I coached him one-on-one for a year and Walked him through my whole formula, my system. And 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 a dollar and I gave him $18 back. Is that a good deal? No, that's a great deal. And what's even better and more exciting is he sent me an email. He said, hey, Noah, guess where I am right now? I'm on a 7-week vacation with my wife. We just bought a new motorhome. This is something I've been dreaming about for years, he said. That I haven't been able to do it because I haven't had the money and I haven't had the time. So he said, we bought this new motorhome. We're traveling the country. This is a dream I've had for years. So not only am I making more money than I've ever made, I also have more time than I've ever had in my life. So he said, thank you for changing my life. So that's how powerful this really is when you put these things in place.

So you work with Fortune 500 CEOs to do this, top athletes. celebrities and ambitious people, like you were saying, who are really willing to go after it. I'm interested because I see a lot of people, like you mentioned, in the coaching space. And I think that it's interesting that even Fortune 500 CEOs need coaching, people arguably at the top of their career. Would you say that a lot of people or a majority of people can benefit from coaching? And why is that?

I do think that is true. I think that almost anybody can benefit from coaching. There are a couple of things that you do need to have in place in order to really benefit from coaching. One is the willingness to be coached. There's a lot of people that say, hey, listen, this is how we've done it for years and this is how we're always going to do it. I'm like, that's fine. If you're happy with the results you're getting, why change? Right? If you're happy getting what you're getting. Then just keep doing what you're doing. We all know the definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. So if that's you, if you're happy with the results, then hey, maybe you don't need a coach. For the people who are saying, Noah, why does it feel like I'm working harder than ever and just staying in place? Why does it feel like I'm driving down the road of life with one foot on the brake and one foot on the gas? Those are the type of people that really can benefit from coaching.

And curious, right?

I just use the word coachable. You have to be coachable. You have to be open. You have to be able to get out of your own way and see that there is a different way. There's another example I always like to give, which is to answer the question of why we need coaches. And I actually like to do this as a keynote speaker. I'll do this with my live or my virtual audiences and I'll say, okay, everybody just grab a piece of paper or a book. So this is one of my books, right? So I'm just going to hold it up for a second. So I said, all right, now take a piece of paper and hold it up to your face like this. Okay, now read that paper. And of course everybody starts laughing because, you know, when something's in front of your face like that, it's too close and you can't, you literally can't read it. So that's what a coach can help you to do is see what's right in front of your face and just give you a little perspective. And that really is one of the reasons why we're able to really get, I like to call it that hockey stick growth for our clients. You're going along like this and then like Charles, $2 million in 10 months. That's That's a nice hockey stick there.

And I assume that you have a system, which is great. So it's not just one feature or one sort of trick that people can, can do. It's a system and a process. Yeah. And when I was reviewing your books and the training course you have, there's a lot that goes into becoming an expert and being paid to be a top expert. But I'm curious, is there a theme? that you could share across all the thousands of people that you've coached and impacted that you would say is a takeaway that people can get before they even invest the time to do the whole system and the whole training course? What is a thematic thing that you're normally able to help people with in that system to achieve these kinds of results?

Yeah, that is one of the things I talk about in my books, like the 7 Figure Expert book. Which is what I call my 7 Figure Expert Formula. And it really comes down to these 5 phases of my 7 Figure Expert Formula. Now, just to give you some perspective, I had to spend over 20 years and over half a million dollars to figure out what I'm giving you in this book. And actually I'm giving the book away for free for listeners of this program. But I had to spend all this money and all this time because I had to go to gurus out there who can't teach their way out of a paperback. So I paid all this money and spent all this time. To get maybe one little nugget here and one little nugget there because they suck at teaching. I paid them all this money and there's no there. So that kind of sucks. So my job is to save people all the pain, torment, and agony that I had to go through to just to get these secrets. But really, yeah, it comes down to, I call them these 5 phases of my 7 Figure Expert Formula. And it really comes down to your, your 7-figure beliefs, habits, offers, funnels, and traffic. That's really what it boils down to. And so, like I said, that's what I give you in the book. But really, when you look at it and you can even boil it down even simpler, because one of the things that I talk about, I've been talking about for many years, is a Venn diagram. I'm a nerd, so I love Venn diagrams because they just, they really tell a story, don't they? And so it's really just 2 circles that meet in the middle. This circle is inner game and this circle is outer game. So your inner game is everything that happens between your ears that you can't see directly, but it affects everything that you do. And your outer game is what you can see directly that also affects everything you do. See, most people have spent lots of time and money and effort on the outer game, especially marketers and entrepreneurs. They've spent lots of time and money on outer game, but really no one's taken the time to show them how to master their inner game. And that's one of the reasons they're stuck. Actually, I'll give you another example of that. I was speaking at a seminar in Los Angeles for about 1,000 entrepreneurs. And these are, you know, 7 and 8 figure earners, high-powered people. And I spoke for about 30 minutes and I was walking off the stage and a man came up to me out of the audience 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. True story. And so I said, okay, what's going on? He goes, Noah, he said, everything you just said, he said, I knew that you were the coach I've been looking for. He said, my company, we have been stuck at the same level for the past 4 years. And he said, I've hired all these marketing gurus and everything else. I've thrown all this money at the problem and we just can't break through that income ceiling. And he said, as soon as I heard you speak, he said, I knew that you were the coach I've been looking for. So he literally hired me on the spot. That's like I said, that's why I love working with high achievers, right? They make decisions quickly and firmly. I coached him and his leadership team for 18 months. And in that 18 months, we got his company that had been stuck at $4 million for the previous 4 years to over $20 million in revenue, 600% increase. And you can watch his video and many others on my website too. So the point of that is, what does that mean for you? For everyone listening, it was really, he spent all this money on outer game. Again, it got him, hey, it got him to 7 figures. Nothing wrong with that. But he couldn't break through that income ceiling until I showed him how to actually master his inner game. Boom. And that's what caused the hockey stick growth. So that's another example of how powerful this is.

Yeah. So I love the inner game and the outer game. And a lot of people have called you the father of affirmations. You mentioned one of the 5 key things is belief. And I think this is fascinating because some of the best tech companies that I've worked at, the founders have said it's a core culture fundamental that you have belief. It's one of those things you either, if you say we're gonna do something or we're not gonna do something, whatever you say, you're right. And that belief that you can build a billion-dollar company is what really drives a lot of people forward. And you talk about head trash. So I'm just wondering how to clean out the head trash so that you can have a good inner game. So can you talk a little bit about affirmations, head trash, and how to clean out the head trash?

Yeah, Eric, I've written 25 books on this subject, so I think I could go on for a while. So I'll try to make this as succinct as possible. But basically, when you think about your goals, everyone listening to this program, Think about your goals. All right. Everybody talks about goals, right?

Yeah.

You got to set your goals. I've heard that a million times, but here's what nobody talks about. What happens after you set that goal? What happens after you set the goal? Hey, no, I want to make more money. I want to grow my business. I want to have a 7-figure, 8-figure business or whatever it is. Or even I want to lose weight. I want to find love. I want to find my soulmate, whatever it might be, any goal, not just money. And that's great that you have that. The problem is what happens after your goal. And that is for most people, They go, Noah, I really want this, but I don't think I can get it. I don't think I can do it. I don't have the money. I don't have the time. I can't afford it. I don't know where to start. I don't, you know, my spouse won't support me, or I have this, or I have that problem. And every, but that's what I'm calling. And I've, you know, again, written all these books on your head trash, right? Your head trash is the voice in your head that says, I can't do it because blank, right? And then you just fill in the blank. I can't do it because I don't have the money. I don't have the time. I can't afford it, whatever. Okay. And guess what? You're going to make yourself right. Exactly like you just said. So that is the reason why so many people, I argue most people, most, certainly most entrepreneurs are driving down the road of life with one foot on the brake. Right. And so like with Adam, with Charles, with, you know, really all of my clients, what I do is rather than focusing on your goals and everybody else is trying to push you harder towards your goals, you already have your foot on the gas. You don't need any more motivation. That is so not what you need. You already have that. What nobody's talking about and what I provide is showing you how to get your foot off the brake. And think about it. If you're driving down the road, you got one foot on the brake and one foot on the gas, and somebody tells you to step on the gas harder, what's going to happen? You're just going to ruin your car faster. So instead, we just get your foot off the brake. Boom. Hockey stick growth. So that is your head trash. And you also asked about my outformations method, and I'll just hold that up just so people know we're using a new word here. This is a word I invented many years ago, over 30, almost 30 years ago. Afformations, A-F-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N-S. This is my book of Afformations. You can go to afformations.com and learn more about it. So yes, I am the father of Afformations because I invented that many years ago. And an Afformation is different from an affirmation, right? So an affirmation is a statement of something you want to be true. That's what all the gurus have taught us for 1,000 years. I'm happy. I'm rich and successful. And your brain goes, no, you're not. Right? So many years ago, I invented the process of Afformations, which is asking empowering questions. Why am I so happy? Why am I so successful? Why am I always in the right place at the right time? And by virtue of the embedded presupposition fact of the brain, that basically means that when you ask a question, brain searches for the answer. No one had ever taught this before. And I've written a lot of books on this subject as well. We have the Book of Afformations from Hay House. We have my Millionaire Afformations book, the Millionaire Afformations journal, it's really helping you to reprogram your subconscious mind, thereby taking out your head trash and thereby installing those 7-figure beliefs that I just talked about. And that's how everything starts to fit together in the Noahverse.

So why does the power of affirmations work? It goes beyond the power of just positive thinking, like you're saying, right?

The way that we have been taught positive thinking is generally speaking with statements, right? I'm happy. I'm rich. I'm successful. And your brain goes, No, you're not. Right. Or yeah, I actually call it the yeah response because that's what your brain goes, yeah. In fact, a study was done. Did you know the study was done on this very topic? And it actually found that 3 out of 4 people who use the old method, 75% of people, the vast majority of humans, right? When they use the old affirmations method, actually end up more frustrated than before. So imagine if you had a cell phone that didn't work 3 out of the 4 times you went to use it, you'd probably get a new phone, wouldn't you? That's what I invented, a new phone for your brain. So that's what this is. It works 100% of the time. In fact, because you're already doing it. That's one of the things I teach about my Afformations method. You're already doing this. The problem is most people are doing it in a very negative way. Why am I so stupid? Why am I so fat? Why can't I lose weight? Why isn't my business growing? You're affirming. You're just doing it in the negative. When, when you study my work, when you read my books or get my Afformations Advantage, that's an online program we have. I teach you how to do it in the, to use empowering Rather than disempowering questions. And it's incredibly powerful. And in fact, it is life-changing.

Wow. So why don't you talk about how people listening can get the book and check out the course?

Yeah, absolutely. So for the book, the 7 Figure Expert book, if you want to focus on that, so it's very easy to remember, it's 7figureexpertbook.com. Easy to remember, 7figureexpertbook.com. The book is free. I've covered the cost of the book because you're watching this program. And we just ask you to cover the shipping. We ship anywhere on planet Earth. So 7figureexpertbook.com. My AforMations is aformations.com, A-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N-S, AforMations. And by the way, if you want to talk to me or one of my strategy coaches, you can just go to breakthroughwithnoah.com. Easy to remember. I'm known as the Breakthrough Coach. So just go to breakthroughwithnoah.com and you can actually book a time and speak to me or one of my coaches. And we'll show you how we can just implement this. It's a quick 15-minute call. And we'll show you how we can implement this in your business very easily at breakthroughwithnoah.com. And then of course, my main website is noahstjohn.com. I have a lot of websites. I promise I won't give them all to you, but anyway, you can have all those in the show notes, but just my name or just Google my name, Noah St. John.

I will link to all these in the show notes so people can get to these systems and the formulas that you were mentioning. I think there's a lot of really interesting things there, but in closing, before we close out, Is there some final advice or secret that you could give to founders and entrepreneurs who, who really want to do this before they, they jump in and, and do the real work that they need to do with your system and the whole process?

Absolutely. I'll give you 3 steps you can do right now in the next 60 seconds. Number 1, what are your goals? Write them down. I know you've probably already done that already. What are they? But be very specific. Don't just say, I want to make more money. Okay, here's $5. Go away. No, you got to be really specific how much How much do you want to be making? Number 2, understand and write down what are your beliefs about your ability to actually get those things? That's what I'm calling your head trash. Oh, I can't do it because I don't have the money. I don't have the time. I can't afford it. I don't know where to start. I don't know who to trust. Right? There's a lot of reasons why. That's your head trash. And then number 3, add up a total. What is that costing you to actually be holding yourself back right now? Like Charles, it was costing him $1 million. He knew that right off the bat. Boom. I made him $2 million. Of course, I can't promise those kinds of results, but we've done it. It does work when you put these things in place to get that hockey stick growth. Hey, I'm happy to help. And but yeah, anybody can do that literally in the next 5 minutes.

All right. Thank you very much, Noah, for being with us. Thank you for sharing your stories and the offer for your free book so people can drill deeper on this and learn how to be much more efficient, much more successful. Appreciate you making time to be on the show today. Thank you.

My pleasure.