[EP 44] Rewiring Your Brain for Success with John Assaraf

Foreign. And welcome to the Jack Canfield Podcast. Today, I'm really excited to have my great friend John Asaraf joining me. Many of you might recognize John from his interviews on shows like Larry King Live, Anderson COOPER, the Ellen DeGeneres show, or from his impactful role alongside me in the film the Secret. And he has built five multimillion dollar companies, written 14 books, including two New York Times bestsellers, and has appeared in 16 movies, including the blockbuster hit the Secret and Quest for Success with Richard Branson and the Dalai Lama. And what truly stands out about John, though, for me is his deep passion for understanding the human brain and how it influences our success and happiness. And over the years, John has built several highly successful companies that have shared his insights through his 14 books with, as I mentioned, to Making It Through New York Times with Shoulders. He's also exploring new ways to help people reach their fullest potential, which we're going to talk about today. Which brings us to something I find particularly exciting about his work right now, which is called the Inner Size app. We're going to talk about that what Inner Size is, what the app's about, and how this new tool can help you. We'll also talk about how his training company, MyNeuro Gym.com, where he combines his latest brain science with practical strategies to help people break through their barriers, can help you create the ultimate life you want. So welcome to the podcast.

John, hello my dear friend. It's so great to see you and be with you and your wonderful audience.

I love having you here. It's a pleasure. So always catching up with you is fun and I'm really looking forward to diving into exploring with our listeners and viewers how they can apply some of your breakthrough strategies to their lives. And I should say to you guys watching and listening that John is like an inveterate learner. He's probably knows more than most PhD professors teaching at universities about the topics we're going to be talking about. It reads racially, hires great consultants to come in, teach him. So you're learning from someone who I think is like on the cutting edge of all this work. So, as you know, like you, John, I've always been fascinated with how our thoughts and our mindset influence our reality. You know, I teach this formula, e r equals o, event response equals outcome. Our thoughts are a response to the events. So we don't want the events to control us, but how we respond to them. I'm curious for you what it was that started you off on your journey into Exploring the potential of the human brain and the human mind.

Great question. So like you, I've been on a, on this long journey. I think for me it's been 44 years and I know many, many more for you, you know, in this. Trying to understand myself, trying to understand the nature of reality. Like what, what am I? Who am I understanding thoughts and emotions and results and success or failure. And my journey started as a troubled teen who was getting in trouble with the law, doing drugs, breaking and entering into businesses and homes, and lying and stealing and cheating and doing all the wrong things, trying to feel valued in some way, trying to make some money so I didn't feel inadequate. And that's how my story started. And what's really, really fascinating is my brother who was concerned for my well being because I was 19 at the time. He knew that I was either going to go to jail or die doing what I was doing because we were getting to a lot of trouble. And I was in and out of detention centers and police departments on more than one occasion. And he met this man who he was teaching tennis to. And this guy was a real estate developer, he had real estate offices, he was into personal development. And he was apparently a philanthropist and just a wonderful human being at the time. And he asked this man if he would possibly consider hiring me, you know, to work for his real estate company. And at the time I was working for a company called Philips Electronics in their shipping department, making $1.65 an hour, taking the bus and subway to work every day, and bus and subway home every day, living in my parents apartment. And I was sick and tired of the shipping department. I was getting into trouble. I knew that, you know, any wrong move that I would make might land me in jail. And so I agreed to take the train to Montreal. From Montreal to Toronto where this man was. My brother was to meet him for lunch. And at lunch he asked me, you know, what I wanted to achieve and you know, basically said I want to, I want a car, I want to move out of my parents house, I want to make more than $1.65 an hour. And he said that's all great. He says, but you know, are there any bigger goals and dreams that you have? And I said no, no, I mean that's it. And he took his briefcase, we had briefcases back then. He opened up his briefcase, he took out this document and he put it in front of me. And the title of it was the 1980 goal setting guide. And I've never seen a goal setting Guide. I've seen recipes, you know, when my mother would bake, but I would never see a recipe, you know, goal setting guide. And he said, would you do me a favor and, and just answer some of these questions? I said, sure, Mr. Brown. And the first question, Jack, was at what age do you want to retire? Now I'm 19. My father's a cab driver, my mother works as a seamstress. Like nobody in my family, immediate or extended, retired. So I asked him, what should I write down here? He says, well, just pick a number. And I said like when do people retire? And he said, well, now that you're 19. He says, you know, 20, 30 years from now would be good. I said, is 45 okay? And he goes, sure. So he says, write it down. So I wrote down 45 and they said, how much net worth do you want to have upon retirement? And I said, well, what am I supposed to put over here? He said, well, pick a number. But you're going to have to make millions in order, you know, to retire at 45 and live to your 70 or 80. And so I said, is 3 million okay? And he goes, yeah, put it there. So I wrote down retired, age 45, $3 million net worth. What kind of home do you want? Four bedroom house, two car garage. Do you want to travel all over the world? Who do you want to help? My mother and father. I want to retire them. What kind of clothes do you want? Italian. What kind of car do you want? Mercedes Benz. I just filled out all of these things and it was just the making up stuff. And he, he looked at me after he read what I wrote and he said, well, everything that you've written down here is achievable. He said, I'm going to ask you one question and the answer to this question is going to determine whether you achieve it and have all of these things, this extraordinary life or not. And Jack, you can appreciate this. In the back of my mind I just was thinking to myself, yeah, right, one question. And so he leans in and he goes, son, are you interested in achieving these things and having this extraordinary life or are you committed to, to achieving it and having this? And in my brain I was going, interested, committed, committed, interested. And I felt dumb again. And I, and I leaned in, I said, excuse me, sir, what's the difference? This was part of the game changing moment for me. He says, people who are interested allow their current circumstances and their past results or present results to control their thinking. They come up with stories and reasons and excuses why they can't but people who are committed upgrade their identity to match the destiny that they want in their lives. They upgrade their beliefs about themselves and what's possible. They upgrade their knowledge and their skills, and they become the person capable of achieving every one of their goals and dreams. And he said, and since I've achieved everything you want to, I know it's possible. So your only question, young man, is, are you interested or are you committed? I still don't know to this day, Jack, why? I blurted out, well, in that case, sir, I'm committed. And he reaches out his hand across the table with a big smile and says, wonderful. In that case, I will be your mentor. And I go, wow. I looked at my brother who was sitting next to me, and then I looked at Mr. Brown. I said, thank you. What's a mentor? And he explained to me. Three weeks later, Jack, I moved from Montreal to Toronto. I borrowed $500 from my mother, sister and brother. My father didn't have money. He was an alcoholic gambler. And I registered for the real estate course that I didn't want to get into because I had failed English, failed math. Left high school at grade 11. I thought I was dumb. And he said, I will help you, you know, study for the course and pass. June 20, 1980, I went to the class. May 5, 1980. June 20, 1980, I got my real estate certificate. And the reason I know these dates so well, Jack, it was the first test I had passed in years without cheating.

Wow.

So in that moment, my life changed. And then every day when I came into the office, I had to invest one hour a day to upgrade my identity. I had to invest, you know, in that hour time to upgrade my beliefs. I had to review the goals that I had written down on those sheets of paper. And then he had me putting my left and right hand across them as I was reading them. He had me recorded onto a cassette tape. 40. I mean, literally 40 years ago, right? Longer than 40 years ago. And so every day I would come into the office and I would upgrade my mindset by looking at my goals, by using affirmations, by using my hands to send electrical signal to my brain, to. By visualizing. But he also taught me this other really important skill, and that was when I would read the affirmations or see myself making ten grand a month, which is what I wanted back then, their voice in my head would go, bullshit, you're not smart enough. Like, you're reading, you're not earning $10,000 a month. Like is written over. You're not driving that Mercedes Benz. You're not, you're not, you're not. And I would hear this counter voice in my head to what I was saying and he taught me, says that's your old self. Just wanting to hold on to the identity and the beliefs and the old results that you've achieved. He says with time it's like painting a wall that you don't like the color or you want to change the color of the wall. You just paint one layer, then another layer, then another layer. And then you forget that the paint color that you had before was ever even there. So every day for one hour I would upgrade my knowledge and skills like that or my identity and beliefs like that with a few of the many techniques you teach. And then he would upgrade my skills to match what I needed to do every day to earn the $10,000 a month. And in the first six months as a clumsy beginner, I made $62,000 gross. He took 50% of that. I made $31,000. And he kept me doing this every single day. And he taught me that one hour a day of practice is nine 40 hour weeks in a year. He says you're going to get outstanding if you do this every day. Every day for an hour. The next 12 months I made 360 thousand dollars gross. I kept half of that 155 grand. He kept 155 grand. And my parents thought that because I was making so much money and I bought my first house and I had my first Cadillac, they thought that I was doing more illegal stuff just in Toronto. And that was the beginning of what put me on this path to go how did I change? What was, what was the, the neuromechanics of the change? I was fascinated with understanding a little bit more of that. And that was 44 years ago.

I love that story. What was his name again?

Alan Brown.

So you had Alan Brown, I had W. Clement Stone.

That's right.

And it became one of my men. And what's fascinating, you talk about the hour a day, nine and a half, 40 hour work weeks because he said to me in my first interview with him, how many hours a day do you watch television? And I said I don't know. He said that's not an answer. Think so. I said okay. I said I, well maybe three. I watch it in the morning when I'm eating breakfast, like Today show. I come home, turn on the news and maybe I'll watch an hour long show. He said okay, what if you were to Cut out one hour a day of TV and study and learn and develop yourself and visualize and do affirmation, all that stuff. And he said, that'll be nine and a half, 40 hour work weeks. That'll be like you took two and a half months off and all you did was work on yourself. So I think it's fascinating they both had reason for, you know. That's fascinating, John. I love it.

Yeah. Success, you know, and you know this. Listen, you've been a mentor of mine as well as a dear friend for many years. And success does leave clues. And failure leaves clues. Success leaves clues and those who seek to learn. You want to hear a really fun little story? Several weekends ago, I was here in my home studio and I was doing a three hour meditation with candles and sounds that I like. And in the maybe 30, 40 minutes of my meditation, I had this like, deep insight of the mentors that, you know, I stand on their shoulders and I swear to God, your name is up on my wall right there. The first name is Alan Brown. Greg Gilmore, Rocky Madsen, Sylvia Babineau, Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield. You're up on my wall.

Wow.

It's on my board. Like, literally it's up there on that board right there.

How cool is that?

Isn't that great? And now here we are, right? And we've known each other for, you know, many, many, many years. But you've been, you've been a major, major influence in the lives of millions of people, including mine. So thank you.

Oh, thank you for knowing that and thank you for, you know, I feel as honored by you actually taking what you learned from me and those other people and applying it. Because I think that as a teacher, nothing is more fulfilling when someone actually does what you teach them and then they get results that blow you away. And, you know, and I always want my students to do better than me. In fact, I just was saying on an earlier podcast that I was on a call with some people in India this morning, actually around 7:00 my a.m. because of 7:00pm over there. And this guy said that he was making fifteen hundred dollars a month and now they're making 1.25 million a month. And he said it's all because of the success principles. And I started to read that and put into action what you thought. And I also watched the Secret and started using Law of Attraction and he has, John, I think 20,000 people paying him $5,000 to be in his platinum mastermind group, do the Math. I went, holy shit. You know, that's bigger than what I'm doing. But I got excited because he's carrying on, you know, the, the, the whatever you want to call it, the legacy. So good for you. So let's, let's go a little further than that. You worked for him for a while and then you got involved with ReMax and tell us that story a little bit, how that moved into you having your own regional office and how it built into a billion dollar a year thing going on.

So after I worked for Allen for a while, I made a little bit of money and I invested in real estate. And then I decided I wanted to go and see the world. And so I traveled around the world from September 1982 to November 1983. I had saved up $73,000 and I used that money to just travel the world and, and, and, and experience the world and, and I saw love and, and beauty and culture and people that were so good. I didn't have one negative experience which was vastly different than my childhood when I grew up in this environment of lie, steal, cheat, people doing things to each other in the neighborhood that we lived in. And so that was like a total shift of, of humanity and people. And then when I came back, I went to work in another real estate office because REMAX had just really started in Canada. And I worked in an office for these two guys, Walter Schneider and Frank Poer. And they were the guys who brought REMAX to Canada. And I worked in their offices and became friends with Walter. And over the next couple of years I sold real estate, did extremely well. But he and I became friends and he became my next mentor. And I wanted to buy a real estate office and we tried to buy a few offices and they were asking for too much money. And then this opportunity came, came around. I was in Toronto, Canada, and the franchising rights for ReMax for the state of Indiana became available. And I used to go down to his office almost every day just to say hi to him. And one day I go down, he says, hey Johnny. He says, how'd you like to become my partner and build REMAX of Indiana Just became available. We can buy it together. I said, yep, let's do it. I mean, one second, one second. Answer. Partners with Walter Schneider. Are you kidding me? So I, I had, I had to come up with $75,000. I had half of the money. I borrowed half from one of my friends who's an attorney and we bought REMAX of Indiana. I moved to ReMax, out to Indiana at the end of 1986 November of 86 and I started ReMax of Indiana. And over 10 years I opened up 85 offices, recruited 1200 agents, and at our peak we were doing four and a half billion a year in sales. So I took what I learned from Alan Brown around the mindset and some of the skills. I took some of what Walter Schneider was phenomenal at franchising and Frank, which was very, very tactical, execution based, but still required the marketing and the sales that I had learned beginnings of as an agent. And then Walter started to teach me, you know, about franchising and systems and processes and, and leverage. And we were partners for 20 years before we sold the region. And after year 10, I hired somebody to run that company for all of us. And I went off and did another deal and I got my third mentor and his name was Len McCurdy. And Len McCurdy had just sold his company to IBM for a lot of money. And he was spectacular at scaling companies and raising enormous amounts of money. And so again, the mindset plus the skill set plus learning the right actions at different levels of the game. We started a company called Bamboo.com which did virtual tours for real estate, offices, hotels inside of cars where you move your mouse left or right, up or down, you can see inside. We were the first company in the world to offer it. And we raised $28 million, recruited 1,000 employees in less than a year and took the company public on NASDAQ in nine months, which was the Internet heyday. So I was there to see it explode and crash. And I got out just before the final crash. So mentors, coaching, following, you know, systems and processes that are proven to work over and over and over again.

So I want to go back a bit. I remember, tell me if I'm right or wrong, but I remember when you first went to Indiana, it wasn't an instant success. I seem to remember, like nobody wanted to play. And you're working like, I don't know, 18 hours a day. So all these numbers are great and you develop this more billion dollar thing. But give, I want you to share maybe a little bit of that in the valley part of it where you were starting out to give people the sense that it takes courage, perseverance, consistence and resin, you know, the resilience to take a no and keep moving.

Sure. So when I moved to Indiana, and I didn't know this when I said yes, REMAX had tried to succeed in Indiana two times before I got there. And Indiana is a very, very small state and there were real Estate companies there that have been there for 50 years, 80 years, 100 years. Tucker, Graves and Carpenter, Better Homes and Gardens, they were like the three big behemoths over there. And it's a very, very Midwestern culture. And, and you do business with the people you've done business with for years. And so here I am, you know, 26 years young, and I'm calling brokers, hey, this John Asraf and I'm, I'm, I'm the CEO of ReMax of Indiana. And they go, remax already failed here. Goodbye, click, goodbye. Click, goodbye, click. Hey, I just want to come. No, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. So the first two years, like the first year, I end up selling like eight franchises in a whole year to nobody of any importance in the state. Second year, another seven or eight franchises. And we had like 70 agents after year one. We had maybe like 140 after year two. But it was a huge climb. And then I got my first break and a guy by the name of Norm was the president of the Indiana association of Realtors, and he was extremely well respected and he had a business partner, Bill, and they were tired of the deal that they had at one of the major companies in Indianapolis and they said, yep, we're going to buy a couple franchises. And then they did. And then another, a guy by name of Sandy, I believe Sandy Tucker, he was like the number one manager for the, the second best company in Indiana. And he came on board. And then I started getting some really good people in year like 3, 4 and 5. And then all of a sudden we went from like 140 to 250 to 400 to 700 to 900 to 1200. And we became the number one real estate company in the state in five years. And so a lot of no's, a lot of failure in effort, not failure in, you know, things didn't work. It just, I wasn't getting the results. But I was, you know, planting seeds, planting seeds, planting seeds, planting seeds, planting seeds. And the, the, the best part of it for me was I had learned cold calling when I was 19. So I learned how to, you know, have a list of, let's say 100 people with a script. And I was taught that if somebody says no to you or hangs up or swears at you, it has nothing to do with you. So you're not a failure. Maybe it's not the right opportunity for them. Maybe you caught them, you know, on the toilet. Maybe they're having dinner. Maybe they're just not Interested in, they're a jerk, it doesn't matter, but it's not about you. So I learned that the other thing that happened is when I used to sell real estate, I could call, let's say, somebody's home on Monday and say, we have somebody who's looking to buy a home in your neighborhood. I said, nah, we don't want anything to do. And they click. And three days later they'd call back and go, you know what? My husband and I just decided we're getting a divorce. Will you come over, give us an appraisal of our house? So I learned that in the moment, it's a no. But it might not be in an hour, in a day, in three days, five days, so don't take it personally. And so I was taught to keep planting the right seeds and to just water them and till the soil and nurture them. And upgrading your skills is a huge, huge part of the game. And you have to determine what level of the game do you want to play.

So, yeah, you might have answered this in what you just said, but, like, what was the mindset you had? Here's all these, click, click, click, click, click, click happening, and nobody's responding. Initially, what, what were you believing, saying to yourself, thinking, doing that kept you going when, when it was like not happening at first?

Well, initially, oh, another hang up. You know, initially it's like, what? You know, is this going to get easier? I. I just knew that it was a numbers game. Like the. One of the things that, again, going back to Alan Brown, when I first started, you know, no experience, I had a sheet, you know, just a piece of paper, and it had 100 boxes on it. And box number one said $15. Box two said 30. Box three was 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135, 151 again. So all the way down to 1500. And Alan said to me, here's the job. You visualize the 1500, but the path to get to the 1500 is you speak to 100 people, of which 99 or 98 will say, no, no, no, no, no. So the visual was almost like reverse psychology, right? It was almost like every time somebody said no, I made 15. It was just in the universal bank. And every time I got through 10 or 50 or 100, I was closer to the yes. So the whole frame was just a mental construct, construct of a game that requires a certain amount of effort, a whole bunch of no's to get to a yes. Now the next hundred, the first one might be a yes. So you start to see that it's not always 99 nos and 100. Sometimes the first, second and third one are yes. But the more you're playing the game to win, it's no different than any sporting event. It's just no different.

Yeah, I think it was. I'm thinking Brian Tracy talks about the law of probabilities. The more people you ask, the more likely you'll get a yes. So it's a numbers game. And I know when we. When I started self. Go ahead.

Well, I think the more people you ask, that's kind of like part one of the equation. But part two of the equation is there is a skill level.

Oh yeah.

That you can master. So let's say an unskilled person asks 50 people and gets one yes. A skilled person may ask 22 and get one yes.

Yeah, I would definitely agree with.

So skill really, really matters.

Yeah. And you know, and I just go back to Brian from a. He said the best education anybody can ever get in life is big. Becoming a salesperson for a while. He said to his kids, I don't want you to go to summer camp, not going to go to college. Then in the summer you're going to go out and sell door to door. You're going to get a lot of no's. You're going to learn very quickly. I need to know more than I know I'm going to get better at this and that. I totally agree with that. That's really cool. When we started self esteem seminars, I had offices in five cities. One of them was St. Louis. And we had teams that would come in at night graduates. And they would call people to see if they would be interested. We over a period of time realized about one out of every nine people would say yes. And I remember one night, this guy was actually two over two nights called 81 people got no's. And then the next nine people all said yes.

Just there you go.

Dated the averages, you know. So you never know where it's going to come from.

Well, funny because when we used to make our hundred calls, there was another guy in my office. His name was Dave, I don't remember his last name, but he had a Harris tweed jacket he wore every day with a different shirt and usually the same pair of pants. And every day after we made 100 calls, he would always do 10 more no matter what. So we would watch him. And at the time he was making literally 3, $400,000 a year just making 10 extra calls a day. Now, we would work seven days a week back then and, but if you compound one extra yes each time he's on the calls or one extra yes a week, the law of compounding effect was magical for him. So we, we all just got into like, we're making 110 and let's just see who's going to leave here first.

Yeah, well, the book, the compound effect, the slight edge, you know, it really talks about that if you get in the batting cage and you take another 20 swings over everyone else, you're going to get better quicker than they do because over time, that's the 2,000 more swings of the ball. So. Absolutely. So let's, let's, let's look at some positive, not positive, practical things. So someone's watching this and they're going like, okay, I like this guy. He's obviously successful. I want to learn from him. And you are this neurogem genius. You teach inner size. Talk about that. What some of those techniques are, the, the, the whole philosophy underneath it.

Sure. So I, I always like to start off with, if we're going to get into the neuroscience side is, is to help everybody understand that functionally, right, we all have a brain, right? Functionally, it's like functionally, every gas car works the same. Functionally, every electric car works the same. And functionally, every brain works the same. Now, of course there's anomalies, right? You're going to find six, you know, six wheeled cars, but functionally it works the same. So my fear center functionally works the same as your fear center. My motivational center or circuits functionally work like yours. Do you know, my stress circuit functionally works the same as yours does. But what differs is what triggers those circuits. So that's kind of like part one and part two of it is to have an understanding that. And I always like to ask this question, so I'll just ask with you. There's been about 108 or so billion humans that have walked on planet Earth since the beginning. About 108 billion. And I asked, has any one of them ever been born with a limiting belief or an empowering belief?

Probably not.

No. Were any of them born with a self image or identity?

No.

No. Were any of them born with any fear?

No.

No. So no beliefs, no self image, no fear. And yet when we take a look at what holds humans back. Oh, by the way, and they weren't, we weren't born with any knowledge or skills, right? Genetic predispositions, yes, but no knowledge, no skills, no Beliefs, no self image, no fears. And yet those are the things that hold most people back. So the question is, how did I and everybody else develop my beliefs? The ones that empower me and maybe build me up, that are constructive, or the ones that disempower me and tear me down? And the answer, as you and I already know, is well, our parents, our teachers, schools, books, comic books, television, radio, experiences, brothers, sisters, the environment that we grew up in created these neural patterns, right? And we were born with about 100 billion brain cells. Those brain cells fire together, right? They activate when we hear, see, smell, taste, touch, experience. And those brain cells that fire together release obviously electrical activity and neurochemicals, you know, pleasurable neurochemicals like dopamine, serotonin or oxytocin, when it's like those feel good moments, but then they release cortisol, epinephrine or norepinephrine, adrenaline, cortisone, you know, for the fight, flight or freeze response. That's automatic. And so when we are motivated, then usually there's some neurochemical reaction going on that we take action. And fear can motivate us, but it can also shut us down, right? A goal that we want to achieve can, can cause us to take action, but it can also cause us to freeze because we're petrified of being embarrassed, ashamed, ridiculed, judged, rejected, unloved. And so when we're dealing with, you know, success, when we're dealing with the human brain, we have all become conditioned to have a certain set of beliefs that are nothing more than neural patterns in the brain that have been reinforced. But the beliefs are the lens by which our brain sees the world. But also it is the lens by which we see ourselves, our identity, the culmination of our beliefs, our self confidence, our self esteem, our self worth, and what we believe we deserve in life cause us to take action or not take action based on our self image, right? So somebody who sees herself or himself achieving success and expects it and believes it, they will take action to match that self image and belief. But if somebody doesn't have the self image or the beliefs to achieve the vision or goals he has, he will not take action consistently. Because there's something that I started teaching. You're going to love this, Jack. There's something that I started to. I love music like you do. And when a symphony or your favorite band is in harmony, in concert, in coherence, there's what we call is sympathetic resonance. So sympathetic resonance is when frequencies unite and amplify each Other. And there's also something that I started to teach recently called destructive interference, right? So if you think about, let's say we have a vision and goals and our brain can see that we want this, we want to achieve this, help this person do this, live here, experience this, and we have goals to achieve that. That's kind of like the, the first part of the process is active. But what if I have a limiting belief? I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, I am not worthy. Now the vision, the goals are clear. But if I have destructive interference with a limiting belief or low self image or a fear that wants to hold me back now, I am not in concert, I am not in harmony. And so in one sense, if we think about thoughts, right, 80% of people's thoughts are negative now. 80%, based on some new research in the University of Toronto. And we have about 6200 thoughts a day according to the new research. And if 80% of those thoughts, these thought frequencies are Automatically negative, that's 5,000 thoughts a day that are destructively interfering with the vision and goals you have. Now what if I have disempowering or limiting beliefs, destructive beliefs even, that is going to cause this interference pattern, destructive interference pattern. So I've got this fight going on within me, right? Right. And so what I learned many, many years ago at the beginning of Alan Brown, right, of the visualization, the affirmations, the mindfulness, the meditation, learning the skills, learning the knowledge, upgrading the identity was to create this resonance field that starts from within me, right? So I don't look out there for the evidence. I look for the evidence in here. And so my daily practice like yours begins with getting in tune, right? In resonance with what's already here now. And now if I invest a few moments on gratitude, positive neurochemicals, I invest a few moments, right, on, on, on priming my brain. This, this hundred billion dollar organism, it's not an organ to me, it's an organism that's growing, reinforcing, pruning, creating new patterns. I am investing every day for many, many years now, like you have, deliberately and consciously evolving myself and doing everything I can to get into the resonance with my vision, my goals, my thoughts, my cellular structure called a body, the energy in motion backed by, and this is so critical because I can have destructive interference because I don't have the skills or the habits required for the goal that I want to achieve. And today, like the, the amount of hours and, and years we've invested on coming up with, well, what should I do? I don't even need to know that anymore. I just need to go to chat GPT or Claude or Grok or any of those and go, hey, here's my vision, here's my goals, here's the problems I'm having, here's the beliefs I'm, you know, that are holding me back. Here's the fears that I have or help me discover those. And that helped me create a plan to get into residence. And literally 90 seconds, I have my plan. So I want to go back to what really holds you back in addition to either limiting beliefs, fears, lack of knowledge and skills and an identity. Is one thing bigger than all of that, your commitment level. Because a committed person will learn how to get into resonance and release, let go of, move out of the way and get themselves into alignment on the mental, the emotional, the spiritual, and yes, doing the right things in the right order at the right time matter.

I agree with that. I totally agree with that.

Yeah.

So, okay, it's interesting. I interviewed Michael Beckwith not too long ago, you know him, and he said I don't talk about the law of attraction anymore. I talk about the law of resonance and the same thing you're talking about here. So, okay, so there's, there's, that's, there's a lot, lot.

I have something up on my, on my screen here to share with you. It's a law of attraction is like your energetic state is your beacon, the law of energy. Right. And at the quantum level, every particle is a wave and exhibits wave like properties. Then we have the law of vibration. Right. And then we have the law of resonance. And so when we combine, you know, those four, now we're in alignment.

Right, Right. So, okay, so we don't have a lot of time left, but I want to get, I want to get to Inner Size and your new app and everything. And so the Inner Size book that you wrote and what you teach in many of your courses through the neurogen, so forth, teach people how to do this stuff. Yeah, and so talk about, just give it, give people a little bit of an overview of the more practical side of what those exercises are and then what the app does now and how it benefits us to have that.

So the book is to help you. The Inner Size book is to help you really understand how powerful your brain really is and how to unlock its fullest potential in layman's terms. But for 40 years I've been using visualization, affirmation, mindfulness meditation for first person, third person in health and wealth, a relationship and career, business, sales, leadership. And so during COVID I said, well, I got plenty of time on my hands. Why don't I create the inner sizes for every category that people could want? And so I developed over 650 inner sizes that people just put on their headphones and I guide them through a variety of what we call our inner size stacks. So for example, let's visualize your success for three minutes. Let's create affirmations that you repeat and embody for three minutes. And let's do, let's say three minutes of mindfulness, including choosing your intention and your next action step that you're going to take to achieve this goal. So we have 20 some odd thousand people around the world that have invested in the app that are, it's like $12 a month or $100 for the year or $199 lifetime. And these inner sizes are there to strengthen your mind, your self image, your self worth, to help you manage your emotions better, have more self control, be more aware so that you move away the obstacles and train your brain to achieve the goals you want with your beliefs and self image, emotional regulation and your behaviors. So instead of telling people, here's what you should do, I created all of them for them. And we're going to be adding in the next, in the next 12 months, probably another 5,000 inner sizes in there in every possible category. And we're also creating our AI platform that people will be able to create their own inner sizes on the AI platform. And there's also an AI coach trained with a thousand hours of my work that they can ask it any question and I will answer it right from the app.

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm in awe. But I'm also, that's so cool. I'm just sitting here going, that is way cool. Because what, what's happened is now that we have the ability of AI to accelerate everything, the knowledge that you have now to make it specific, it says general and it's, it's phenomenal. I, I, I, I did not know about this until I decided to interview you for this podcast. So I am going to, by the.

Way, you're in the app.

Well, I'm glad to hear that. But the point is I'm going to get it and use it because I'll.

Get it for you.

This is done for you. You know what I mean? All you have to do is chill out and participate at some level. It's not that complicated. I Think that's what's wonderful. It's, it's. I don't know what to call it. It's like it's doordash for the mind, you know.

Well, you know what's interesting is over the years, like you, I've taught a lot of people. I've said, hey, here's my like routine of here's how I visualize, here are the different techniques and I would meet, meet people over the years. Here's how I write the affirmations, here's how I set my goals, here's how I do all this stuff. And everybody would be like, wow, that's great. You know, I'm going to do it. And they didn't do it right. So I just figured let me just help them and let me give them this mindset coach and mental fitness app in the palm of their hand so they don't have any excuses. All I need to do is put on your headphones and listen to the track or two or three or the course that you want, you know, that will retrain your brain to achieve that health. We have a program in there, for example, called Winning the game of Weight Loss. We used to charge like $300 for it. I used it to release 43 pounds of fat. I was 243, 33% body fat, borderline diabetic. I used it to lose weight and keep it off. I used it to stop eating refined sugar. I used it to stop drinking alcohol 15 years ago. I've used all of these methodologies to basically refire and rewire my own brain to line up with the goals that I have. And if it's true, that mindset is what separates the rest from the best. And we can strengthen our mindset like we strengthen our muscles in a gym or by going for a walk or yoga or Pilates. Why not strengthen your key neuro muscles, but why not strengthen your self image and your self worth and your self confidence if you could. And if all it takes is listening to something using evidence based, scientifically proven techniques like I don't understand why anybody wouldn't do it. And we have tens of thousands of success stories of people that are like, oh my God, my life has changed, my relationship has changed, my health has changed, my financial situation, my business has changed because they work on the mindset with all the other stuff.

Right? I, I'm. But anyway, yay.

Thank you Jack.

That's why that's wonderful.

Thank you my friend.

So thank you for the pandemic. You know, they always Say that every negative event contains within it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. You go, you know someone. I have a cartoon that someone gave me, says during the pandemic, you either became a chunk, a drunk, a hunk, or a monk. So, you know, good. You sit in front of the zoom camera all day, you become a junk. You work out because you have more time. You meditate more or whatever. But that's incredible what you've done. I really am impressed by it, and thank you. I've always known you had incredible stuff. I want you to share a story with me because it impacted me. I remember talking to you a couple years ago about losing weight and. And I have, by the way, £31.

I know. You look great. I was gonna tell you that when we first got on.

Thank you. And so. But you shared something I thought was really valuable because you were. We were talking about, you know, passing up dessert and not eating sugar and all that. And you were mentioning that you were gonna go to Las Vegas. Oh, yes. And you said it wasn't just about, I'm not gonna eat that stuff. I had to visualize walking by the dessert table on the buffet that literally, that created the ability to do that. You became the person who doesn't do that. You know, well, tell that story. That was really.

Here's the story. One of my very best friends, I've known him for 55 years, Robert took me to Vegas for my birthday. And so he lives in Toronto, I live in San Diego. And when I eat dessert, just so we're clear, I have an addictive personality. I know that when I drank alcohol, I wouldn't. Like, one was too many, but eight weren't enough. When I had a cookie, I wouldn't eat one cookie. I'd have seven or eight. But I had a piece of pie. I need half a pie. So once that trigger happened in my brain or happens in my brain, it's like, we're off to the races. It was like that when I did drugs in my teens. It wasn't there, wasn't enough. So once that trigger goes on, it's like. Like a mad rush of dopamine. And then it's. It's go, Part one, part two. So Robert's taking me to. To Las Vegas, and I hadn't had sugar in, like, 30 days. And we were staying at the Wynn Hotel. And when I. When I went to the website to look at the Wynn Hotel, look at their buffet, they had, like, a wall of desserts. And I was like, oh, my God. That, that's, that is going to be so freaking hard. And so I actually would go onto the Wynn Hotel to the buffet here on my computer and I would visualize myself walking by that dessert and dessert tables, like 10, 20 tables and just going, no, I am somebody who does not eat sugar anymore. And so it's easy for me to look at desserts and smell them, want them and not have them, because I'm not a sugar eater anymore. So I started to visualize and affirm and practice in advance the scenario. And by the time I got there, I was like, no big deal. But I did that probably 30, 40 times over a 10 day period of time. So I trained my brain to activate the stimuli and to override my natural propensity in the past to like want to eat all of it. So I, it's like I did the equivalent of Pavlov's dog in reverse, the Pavlov's dog test in reverse. So I like rang the bell, wanted he have the food, salivate, and I just, just rang a different bell. I said, when this trigger goes off, I'm just going to shut it down. And that's just not my identity anymore. So I practiced it. And practice is what creates and reinforces new patterns. So practice makes permanent. Right. And visualization is a mental and emotional simulation. So when I'm visualizing, right, I'm activating that occipital lobe, which is connected to the emotional cortex of the brain. So I'm firing those neurons as if it's real and there's a whole bunch of circuits that turn on or off together. So I visualized, simulated the scenario and then I just lived out the scenario that I already did in my mind. That's why, you know, basketball players, you know, visualize free throws and golfers visualize, you know, getting the ball in the hole, and tennis players visualize a winning shot, and skiers, you know, visualize winning the race, and Olympic athletes visualize getting their gold medal. I visualize what I want, but I also visualize exactly what I do not want with success in controlling that impulse. And in my case, this addictive side to my personality.

You know what's fascinating to me, and I don't remember where I heard this first, but this idea of it's about you were changing your identity to. So I'm not someone who does that, right? They were talking about, you know, I don't have to go into a 711 and convince myself not to steal anything because I'm a person who doesn't steal Things, you know, that's just, that's. That's who I am. I don't, I don't do those kind of corrupt behaviors. And so that's not an issue for me, but it would be an issue, like with dessert, like you were saying, you know, so then you have to, like, create a new identity. And I noticed, for me, because I haven't drunk alcohol since the pandemic started, and I have not eat. I mean, a little bit of sugar, not much. But the reality is that I don't. I'm not the person who eats two pieces I take with ice cream at someone's birthday party, you know, that's not what I do. And so that literally, that identity shift, in addition to how you got there. And I love that, seeing yourself avoiding the temptations, you know?

Well, and here's, here's a huge distinction. The new identity does not require any willpower. See, the old identity does, right? The new identity does not require willpower. It's effortless versus effort more.

Right?

So. And this is why I go to the hierarchy of how my brain works, right? Because. Because we will create a resonant match with our identity and beliefs always. And even in research, you know, I remember there's a research study many, many years ago in Toronto. They want to get homeless people off the street. And they built this spectacular new, you know, like, condominium building, but it wasn't condominium. It was just housing. And they moved a bunch of these homeless people into this building. They ruined the building and moved back out because their identity had to create a resonant match for not being worthy or not loving or not liking that location, that, that, that environment. So they ruined the environment to match their identity. And then they moved back up where they felt more comfortable.

And I think they have. I have talked to homeless people on the be on the street, and they've told me, I feel more comfortable out here. Yeah, this is what I'm used to. This is me, you know, the same thing.

This is me. Yeah. And, and that's why people, for example, that may. May, you know, win a lottery, get rid of the lottery money within two, three years. And they say it's the worst experience of their life. It has nothing to do with the money. It's their identity couldn't handle this new thing in their life. And so they want to get rid of it so that they feel whole. And. And our brain wants to make 100% certain that our external environment matches the internal environment. So we're looking for a resonant match with the map that we have. And one of the best visuals I ever had of that is imagine you're moving, you're sitting in a movie theater, right? And there's a scene you don't like in the movie theater. Have you ever considered, you know, going up to the screen and scratching the screen or have you ever considered like wiping a mustache, you know, off of a mirror so that it goes off of your face? That's what most people are doing. If you want to change what's being projected onto the screen, you've got to change what's being projected from the real, whatever the DVD is or CD or, or, or film. And so, and again this is thanks, thanks to you Jack, thanks to Bob Proctor, thanks to Alan Brown, thanks to my mentors that taught me, you know, this inner game stuff 44 years ago. And I have been a voracious student of understanding the neuromechanics of, of the circuits, the networks, what turns one on or off and how, how that works so that I can develop for myself first better methods and tools to use my brain better. And then I've learned and then I've shared with my students and my children and, and, and clients all over the world so that it could be easier for them. So my mentors made it easier for me. I want to take what I have taught from, been been taught from all of them and make it easier for others. And, and this next generation of what's coming up right now like will be mind boggling with what's happening with AI right now. And our, and our new AI powered and human powered platform will be out later this year and it is revolutionary.

That's exciting. That's exciting. Well, I am glad you exist.

You exist too, my friend.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's cool because it's kind of reminds me of that baseball bat thing, you know, where you go like this, you teach me something, I teach you something, whatever. And we just keep climbing up and getting to where we want to go. So I think really I kind of want to bring this to a close because I think everything I would ask you is handled in their app.

You know, everything's in the app and they go to entersize.com or the app Store, they could pick it up. I think there's a one week free trial. Once you, if you pick a subscription that you want, you get a free week in there and it's life changing. And there's, I think right now there's you know, 1100 five star reviews in the app. Store right now with real comments from real, real people. And you'll see, you'll see there's life changing.

Well, we'll put, I know you have three different websites. We'll put them in the show. Notes, Minduro, gym and inner size and johnassaref.com so people can reach you, find out more about. I literally, I'm going to get off there and get on my phone and get the app, which I, I love. I'm.

So if you, if you wait five minutes after we talk, I will send you a code for you.

I will take it, I will take it, but I would have been very willing to spend the money to get it. But thank you. I appreciate the gift you have given.

Me so much, my friend. Thank you. At least I can, I can repay in a very, very small way.

I appreciate it. Any other thing you wish I'd asked you or anything else you want to communicate before we bring this to a close?

No, I think we covered a lot of stuff. I think, I think the, the only, the only thing that, that I would like to, to, to say is this is everybody feels like, you know, I'm different, I'm unique. You don't understand my trauma, my fear, my limiting belief, my story. And I want to remind you that before any of that, you didn't have a story, you didn't have trauma, you didn't have any of that stuff. And. But if you buy into your story, you will reinforce the story just based on how the brain reinforces any pattern and consistency compounds. So a story that is disabling you, disempowering you, breaking you down, tearing you down will get stronger left unchecked because consistency of anything compounds in the brain. And our brain wants to conserve energy. So it reinforces the patterns to make it easy. And we call that automaticity. It automates anything that we do consistently. So challenge yourself to release your story just long enough. Challenge yourself to write a new story and do a little experiment for yourself. Write a new story of your health, wealth relations, career, business. Write the story as if you were writing a Hollywood script and then like a Hollywood actor would practice that script to become the role. Give yourself five minutes a day for 30 days to embody that role and just see what happens. Just an experiment and see and feel the changes and dare to challenge your assumptions and your beliefs and your old negative voice and the old empowering ways. Okay. Or disempowering ways that want to hold you hostage and keep you comfortable in your habitual, familiar zone because everything you Want is outside of your familiar zone.

I like that, too. A lot of people talk about comfort zone. I think zone of familiarity probably is more accurate. Yeah, very cool.

Just familiar. We repeat what's familiar and we feel safe and secure with, you know, there. And we can feel safe and secure in a new story. We just have to practice that new story long enough for it to become more real than the old story.

I think it might have been you. I was watching some. Something you were doing, and if it wasn't you, but I remember someone saying, imagine you're eating lunch, and over here is Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Is that you? That had this visualization? And basically they come over and tell you, we got this movie script. We're going to pay you $8 million, and all you have to do is memorize it. You got a year to do it. You got a voice coach, anything you want. And would you take the role? And everyone goes, of course I would. Right. What would you do? You'd rehearse, you'd practice. You'd practice being the new you. And then you can do the thing where you step into the body and be that. That was profound. I still teach that, John, So thank you.

You're welcome. Yeah, I mean, if you. Hollywood actors, right, they just assume new roles and they could access that role at any time. And athletes create alter egos. Michael. Michael Jackson created an alter ego. Right? It's a new role. It's a character trait that he reinforced on command. Right. Barbra Streisand, petrified of getting up on stage to sing, but she created a new role. Many Hollywood celebs create these new roles so that that part of themselves that wants to come out has an easier time. And we can all become another version of ourselves. It's more empowering. And so I. I just challenge you to, like, try this. You got nothing to lose, everything to gain.

Ten minutes a day. We can do that.

You got it.

All right. Well, thanks, John, for joining me today and for sharing your knowledge, your wisdom, and thank you for your app in advance. I will thank you for that.

Thank you.

You're welcome. And thanks to all of you who've joined us today. If you found this conversation valuable, I can't imagine you wouldn't. I found it valuable. Please let your friends and family know about the Jack Canfield podcast and especially this particular episode with John. And make sure to tune in next week, where I'll once again be talking with a transformational leader about how you can live a happier, healthier, more conscious, more successful and truly fulfilled life. Till then, make sure to visit John's websites, download his app. It's incredible. I just, I know it. I'm going to be doing it. So you'll find in the show notes how to do that. If you hadn't done right down already, check out the inner size app and start putting into practice some of the things that John talked about today. And use this very simple, powerful technology to assist you. It's that easy. Take care, everybody.