How To Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind For Automatic And Lasting High Performance with Jim Fortin

How do you make business problems disappear? Wrap em in bacon for business owners, marketing execs, and anyone trying to grow your business. Pump your profits and make more while doing less. Welcome to Bacon Wrapped Business with Brad Costanzo. Sizzling hot business advice guaranteed to make you fat profits. Every week, our chefs will serve you proven recipes for ramping up your revenue. Now here's your host, Brad Costanzo.

All right, welcome back to Bacon Wrapped Business. And this is Brad Costanzo. Not sure if you were expecting somebody else to join you on a show that has my name, but I'm excited to have you guys here. I'm more excited to have my guest on the show today, Jim Fortin. I've known Jim for years. I'll tell you all about him and in just a moment. But before I jump into that, if this is your very, very first time listening to the show, maybe you scanned across the title of the episode and you're like, wow, that looks really cool. This is my platform for interviewing amazing people and getting to sit down with them. The people that I have authentic curiosity about and that I know will help me and my business, my clients and their business. And oftentimes I can help them in their business as well. And these are conversations that I would have even if I wasn't recording them. And I love to let you eavesdrop on these and be a fly on the wall. That being said, you have a chance to interact with me, potentially even my guest. At any point that you want to send an email to me, get ahold of me, maybe it's asking a question about something that's stumping you in business. Maybe it's an idea for a new topic that you want to see covered or you just don't know where to turn, you'd like a second opinion on, on something you're doing that isn't quite working out so well or a big idea that you want to see work out really well, send me an email to askbradaconrappedbusiness.com I absolutely love hearing from my audience. I also love hearing your reviews or reading your reviews on itunes. So if you haven't done that, please jump out there on itunes and leave a review. It just helps more people find the show. That being said, I want to jump into today's show with Jim Fortin. Now, I've known Jim, I want to say, at least 10 years now. We go back a very long way, and Jim is a certified master practitioner of a discipline that I'm also a certified master practitioner of called neuro. Linguistic programming or nlp. He's a master hypnotist and he is an expert at helping people perform way beyond the.

Belief about the expectations that they have for themselves. So if you're in sales or you're an entrepreneur, you're a business executive and you want to up level. Jim is, you know, America's mind authority. Right. He's on a very passionate mission to help sales professionals and entrepreneurs take their performance to a level by really understanding the way that the brain works, our minds work our subconscious and what holds us back and how to break through that. So he's been doing this for a very, very long time. He's spoken some of the top experts and professionals from Tony Robbins to Dr. Phil, George Foreman, Robert Kiyosaki and even the President of the United States. And he has, he operates at a very high level. So it is my distinct pleasure to bring you Jim Fortin to Bacon Wrap business. How are you buddy?

Hey buddy. I'm laughing. 10 years. It took me 10 years to get on this show. That's crazy.

I wanted to make sure, you know, we had some traction before I invited you on for sure.

You wanted to make sure I could deliver, right?

Absolutely. Well, I know you can deliver. I've been to your, you know, we've been friends for a time. I've been to actually live event. My wife and I went to one of your, what was it, what was it called?

That was years ago.

Zero effort selling.

Yeah.

So I want to preface this, you know to the people like I mentioned, nlp and that's just a very, that's just a microcosm of what you do. But neuro linguistic programming is something I've always been fascinated with is how the mind and the subconscious program us very, very much like computers to either operate effectively or not. And throughout as we, you know, as we're raised, as we go through life, we're constantly subject to a lot of programming from the world around us. And I mean you may have a, you may have not non supportive parents and if they're always telling you you suck at life, they're programming you. And it takes a lot to kind of rewire the programming to where we want to go. And I think so few people really realize how much that subconscious programming has to do with not only our success but our happiness and fulfill in this life. So that's why I'm excited to dive into this with you.

Well, let's dig in. And guys, Brad actually capped me at 30 minutes so what I'm going to tell you right now is pull out pencil and paper and buckle up because we're going to move really fast. So, Brad, let me take off and run with this for a second. You being an NLP master practitioner, you're familiar with the logical level. Basically, things in the world. Exactly. So what I want everyone to do right now, let's concretize this for them. I want everyone, unless you're driving or operating, as they say, heavy farm equipment, I don't know if you are, you're not. But if you can right now, pull out a piece of paper and draw a triangle. And what I want you to do is I want you to follow me as you're drawing a triangle. We're going to actually start like a ladder from the bottom up. Now, Brad, I'm going to actually eliminate the source part of this, but we're going to start at identity. So what I want you to do at the bottom of the triangle at the base, I want you to write the word identity.

Done.

Okay, next, write the word beliefs above that, like a ladder. Everyone write the word beliefs.

Above that. Write capabilities.

So you got identity at the bottom, beliefs above that, capabilities above that, behavior above that, and environment at the top of the triangle. Now, let's dig in here and use this. Brad, as you know, beginning of the year, everybody will all, not just beginning of the year, New Year's resolutions, but we all want to go to a higher level. We all want to create some kind of change in life as entrepreneurs or selling professionals. We want to actually make more money. We want to grow our business personally. We want to get in shape so we look good in a bathing suit. During the summer, women want to get in great shape for their wedding and everything else. We're always trying to go to a higher level. But, Brad and everyone listening, beginning of the year, what's the first thing people do in January? What do most people do?

Join a gym and create their resolutions that they're gonna lose weight, get rich, and find the love of their life.

Exactly. And 30 days later, where are most people?

They are doing exactly what they were doing on December 30th.

Exactly. So everyone look at this. If you look at the triangle you just drew is. It's like we work like an onion from the inside out. We work from identity on the inside to beliefs, to capabilities, to behavior, to environment. Now, as Brad knows, and he just stated here, what most people do is they go to the gym, they try to change their behavior. Right, Brad?

Absolutely.

They're trying to change something. They want to Get a different outcome in their life and their environment. So they're going to change their behavior, and the behavior might be lying on the couch, and they're going to say, you know what? I'm going to start working out, and I'm going to do something different to create the outcome that I want. But here's the challenge is that most everyone starts at the level of behavior when the results they've already created in life have come from the level of identity, which is deeper down the pyramid. And by the way, Brad, you're familiar with all this, so anything you want to add here? Let's dialogue about this.

Well, you know, it's funny. I always draw my pyramid the exact opposite. I draw the pyramid with the behaviors at the bottom and then the identity at the very top. Now, it's the exact same stuff, but it's just kind of the way I learned to draw it. But I love this. So keep going.

Well, so it's interesting you say that because I learned to draw it the way that I. I just gave you guys.

Mine's right.

Of course yours is right. Yours is always right. But what's interesting here is that you do it the way that you were taught. I do it the way that I was taught. And like everyone in life, which Brad alluded to earlier, we do what we're taught, and what we're taught we learn at the ages of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years old. We set the foundation for who we are at the identity level, and we live that for a lifetime, never knowing that we're living from something we learned many years ago. Right, right.

You know, and what I want you to keep going on this because, I mean, I could talk about logic levels for days whenever I have clients come in and work with me on my VIP days, I actually do talk about these, so I get a little bit meta with them. But so it's one of my favorite topics. I'm so glad you. I didn't even know that you were going to bring this up. So, you know, one of the things. One of the things I see it as. So remember, just, I'm just for visually for anybody who's not writing this down. Right. So it's.

Like, you know, behavior. I'll start at the other. Okay.

Whichever works for you.

Just because I'm doing it off the top of my head. Right. So it's, you know, it's behaviors and, you know, actions. The thing. Well, I'm sorry. Environment, behaviors, capabilities, beliefs and identity. Right. Those are the. Those are the ones. So I always looked at it like this too, where. So what's the easiest thing to change? Just like the easiest thing to change is your behavior. Like you can change that. It doesn't mean you'll get lasting results. The hardest thing to change is your identity. So as you go up or down the pyramid, however you're doing it on, one end is super easy to change. One is hard. But if you just change the behaviors, you're not. It's not actually effect. It's the easiest thing to, you know, to I guess, change in your day to day life. But it's the. It has the least effect on your overall life. It has the least cascading effect.

And I think change only temporary, like for a couple of days for most people, right?

So that's why I put them. Because I think of a cascading effect, right? So I put it at the bottom. That's why I put like environment. Like where you're at matters, but then what you do, where you're at is at the bottom. But I think of it as at the top where if you change your identity, the change cascades down and it changes everything. Because your eye, who you are or who you believe you are and who you identify as will obviously change your beliefs about yourself. And if you have great beliefs about yourself, that kind of just hits the next domino. Which means that of course I can go learn this new skill and be more capable. And then as you become more capable, you start doing more things, right? So your behavior changes. And then as your behavior changes, maybe you make more money, maybe you get out of an unsupportive environment, maybe you move to San Diego, maybe you go to someplace that you love and your environment changes. So that's kind of how I looked at it, is the behaviors at the bottom because it's the easiest to change, but it's cascades down. I don't know, there's my visual, but I love.

Let's help them with this. That's actually because we're giving them two different perspectives. It's the same thing, guys. We're talking about the same. What we call logical level. We just have them organized differently. But what I want you to get and Brad, what I really want them to get is this. The big takeaway here is this is when most people want to create change in life, any kind of change, they try to do something when what they are in life is actually a result of their identity. So because they try to do something and. And it's not consistent with their identity, they fail Let me give you guys a great example here. Brad, we know who's one of the most famous people in the world that's been overweight her entire life.

Oprah.

Yep. And she can afford any trainer, any nutritionist, anybody. She wants to help her get trim, fit, and healthy.

Yeah.

Okay, so she's. For years, you watch, like, on tv, you know, when she would do all these. What she's doing, she would do all these things to lose weight, yet she would always bounce back up to being overweight again. Why? Because at the unconscious level, she was an overweight woman. So no matter what she did, guys. And for any of you, as entrepreneurs, selling professionals, husbands, wives, whatever, we try to get changed by doing things. And that's not where the permanent change comes from. The permanent change comes from being things, which then will take us into the be, do, have, as opposed to the have, do, be, which Brad understands. Right? Be, do, have versus have to be.

So go ahead and explain that for the audience.

Yeah. Okay. Most people actually work from. I'm gonna slow down here, guys. So you get this. This is a big, big place where most people make a mistake is most people work from have to be. Now, what I mean by that, I work with a lot of selling professionals, and people will say things like have meaning had. If I had more money. Well, let's look at online entrepreneurs. If I had more money, then I could do something to grow my business, like actually get, you know, doing Facebook ads, and then I would be successful. So that's have to be. If I had, then I could do. And if I could do, then I could be. Well, if you don't have now and you're not being somebody different to have, you'll never have in the first place. This is why this is a broken model. The model you want to work from is B, do have. Who do I have to be to do the things that I need to do to have the things that I need to have? And let me add one more thing there, Brad. We see all this on Facebook all the time, these little quotes. And people will constantly post if I. Something along the lines of, if I want to create different things in life, I've got to do things differently. You've seen that all over, right? You got to do something to get different outcomes. What everyone misses is, who do you have to be to do what you need to do in the first place? And we'll dig in more. But that makes perfect sense to you. And you've heard that before, right, Brad?

Yeah. So let's get out of the realm there of theoretical. And let's give them an example. So let's say for. Okay, so let's say that.

Struggling entrepreneur, somebody who is, you know, got it. Maybe their business owner, maybe they're just trying to get started. Maybe they're even just trying to get into business. Maybe they've got a job and they've always dreamt of being an entrepreneur and everything else. So I'm trying to take total devil's advocate here, not to be contrary, but just to be like, example, like, okay, well, do it. Are you telling me to fake it till I make it? Are you telling me to just walk around and tell myself I'm an. I'm a successful entrepreneur? How is that going to get me to the.

To the. What is it Have. Do be like to the. Doing things right? Like, how tangibly can I use that without the quote? Fake it till you make it?

Okay, I want to go a different direction than that. And say this first is that most people that want to be entrepreneurs, they don't have the traits to be entrepreneurs. I didn't say skills. I said traits to be an entrepreneur. Now, let's say, for example, you go over and you look at the disc profile. You've heard of the. And that's a simple one. The disc. You're familiar with that, right, Brad? Yep. Okay. I had an entrepreneur call me one time a while back, and they knew me on Facebook, and their business was going nowhere. For two years, they've been making no money. And I said, okay, it's gonna be at least 500 bucks for us to have a call. They didn't have that. That. That night I was up late, and I'm like, you know, let me just see if I can help this guy. I had him go take a disc profile. He sent it to me. What a lot of people do is they say, hey, I'm an engineer. I'm a teacher. I'm a librarian. I want to be an entrepreneur now. Well, to be an entrepreneur, you need certain traits. So on the. On the disc profile, Brad, he came up when it comes to the. The C for compliance, which is fear. I've never seen a C as high as his. His C was a 99, which means he has nothing but one big bag of fear. Well, there's no way he's ever going to be successful as an entrepreneur because he doesn't have the traits.

Right.

These are traits we're talking about. We can all learn skills, but he doesn't have the traits.

So how do you get the traits. Can you develop the traits? If you don't have them, can you be. So he. You just pointed out the problem. Right. So what's the solution?

Well, partly. Okay, now this is, this could be a whole big conversation. I don't want to confuse anybody. There's a whole field called neuroplasticity. You've heard of that before, right? And essentially what you're asking is, can an extrovert become an introvert to some degree? As a metaphor. Right. Okay. Everything is susceptible to levels of degree of change. However, what I've never seen is because it's soft wired in the brain and partially hardwired. What I've never seen is anybody just go for like on the disc profile, which D is a driver? I'm a high D. I'm a 90 at a D. I'm a 90 D. I'm a 90. I, I'm like about a 30s, which means I'm a typical salesperson. I can sell millions of dollars in training, but I can't find the paperwork. And then I'm a very low cm, about a 30, which is normal for most selling professionals and entrepreneurs, meaning I'm not overly cautious. So I've never seen anybody go from, let's say for example, a low D to a high D. I've just, I just. If you have, tell me. But I've just never seen people change the internal traits that dramatically. Okay.

I have issues here about other things, but I've never seen people drastically change like lifelong traits like that.

Okay, okay, but, so what, but what's the solution? Because I still don't understand. You've, you've given the problem, which is, okay, you're not being the person you need to be. So let's just say Oprah. So if you were, if, if you were coaching Oprah or anybody else who's overweight and struggled and yo yo'd diet and tried to do all that, and you realize that they're not being the, I mean, their identity is that of an overweight or a fat person as opposed to a healthy person, a fit person in a body that has a little bit extra weight. But how do you, how do you change that?

Okay, so let's go here. You know, a lot of this stuff, having your NLP training is. Let me ask you this. How did we learn in the first place?

I just copied off the guy sitting next to me.

Okay, okay, how about this? When you learned to ride a bike.

How did you learn kicking and screaming, afraid that my dad was going to let go of the seat.

I actually did that also. I got a brand new bike when I was 6 years old. On my birthday, I ran it off in a ditch full of water.

But we know this, Brad, you know, and I think you might remember is that the unconscious mind in the right hand side of the brain does not know the difference between real and imagined. Do you remember that? Learning. Okay, here's the thing. When we're really young ages of, you know, like 1, 2 and 3 and 4 years old, we learn through repetition. We master life or not through repetition.

Yep.

We master anger or.

I can't get a word here. We master anger through repetition. Learning to get angry and then being angry. And then the brain releases all kind of chemicals, you know, oxytocin and endorphin and dopamine and all this kind of stuff. And we learned that actually anger feels good. And we go into anger. Everything we have learned, Brad, as you know, and everyone listening, everything you have learned, you've learned through repetition. When you were in first grade, you learned to read through repetition. So what we've got to do is. Because the unconscious mind does not know the difference between real and imagined, what we've got to do is use repetition, imagery, and feeling over and over and over again to reprogram that unconscious identity.

Okay, so can you explain more tactically how to do that?

Yeah, it's pretty simple. And people make it really hard. I can't tell you the amount of people. I've said, here's what you do. Three steps. And people are like, no, it can't be that easy. I mean, I need five more steps. And they will then five more steps to make it hard. Okay, so we live self, as you know, we live self fulfilling prophecies. So whatever you think about over and over and over is what you condition yourself with, Right?

Correct.

Okay. Most of us operate from. Again, this is another way we operate backwards. We operate from our environment to ourselves internally. So what we do is. First off, let me back up here. So whatever we have in the bank, let's say we don't have as entrepreneurs, we don't have the money we want in the bank. Well, we don't recognize that that's because of who we are, because of our identity. Because identity drives value and value drives wealth, and then wealth drives identity. Again, we don't recognize is that I'm the person, me as a human being that created a lack of money in the bank. Then what we do is we look at a lack of money in the bank, which is something outside of ourself and then we actually let that affect inside of us.

I'm worthless, I'm poor.

Exactly. I'm worthless, I'm poor, I'm broke. Not recognizing that we're now living by circumstance, not living by internally driving and managing our own thoughts. So then we keep our attention on I'm poor and I'm broken. Then because we believe that we go out and do the behavior and then we just repeat that. So to answer your question is we have to use repetition of imagery of language and emotions. Even though we don't have it in the outside world, we have to actually use that to create neural pathways in the brain to actually recreate the identity, a new identity.

I love that. And so I know affirmations are part of this visualization. This actually reminds me too. Did you ever read, I don't know if you know Kamal Ravikant, but have you ever heard of his book Love yourself like your life?

Yep.

Such a great book. And he talks about that. He talks about how he wanted to. He just kept on saying, I love myself, I love myself, I love myself. He goes, because I hated myself at the time. And he goes, I wanted to form that new rut, like those new pathways. I just wanted to dig and dig and dig until it became so natural and so automatic that I finally did. Right. So it kind of reminds me of that. And I think that's probably a lot of where you're going.

Right? That's where, that's where I'm going with that. And let me actually, this conversation. Conversation could go so many places. But let me, let me add, there is that people don't realize, based upon what you just said, is that most of us don't like our lives, but we're the one who created it. Repetition from the past. So for example, I grew up poor, okay. Working class. So what I learned many years ago is that money's hard to come by. Why? Because I heard my dad say, and this will resonate with 80% of people on this call listening, sorry. The podcast is we don't have money. Money doesn't grow on trees. Money isn't easy to come by. You've got to work really hard. You have to struggle for your money. So that was my identity for a lot of years. And I worked my ass off trying to make money because I would do things. And when I realized something, Brad, this is so simple. But so actually the double edged sword is that I realized that when I became rich in my mind and when I felt like I was rich Holy cow. Within 30 days, money started flowing into my life and I started charging amounts of money that I never thought I could charge when I became rich. First in my mind, guys, I know you've heard this, but most people actually, we'll go back to why they don't get it. It's. Most people have heard this, but they still can't live it. Yeah, let me go back one step further here, Brad. I know we're moving really fast.

That's good.

But one of the biggest mistakes and the. I think the personal development industry is broken. And let me tell you why. If we were to walk in the Barnes and Noble right now, how many books would there be on personal development?

Oh, probably a majority.

Outside of vampire fiction.

Probably, what, 2000 or something, right? I mean, there's a lot of books in there. And you've read the book Think and Grow Rich, right? We all have. If you could literally read the book and I'm going to tell you, I have to get this point across in a second, so I want to make sure we get there. If you could read the book think and grow Rich and Become Rich, how come everyone who reads Think and Grow Rich doesn't become rich? Right?

Well, exactly. Actually, I think the personal development industry is not broken. It works perfectly for the personal development industry.

Okay, good point.

For the people selling personal development, it works perfectly for them because it keeps people from actually changing and it gives them hopium.

All right, smarty, Nice change. Reframe. Sorry. Nice reframe. And actually, that was really good.

I was also looking for a way to use the word hopium.

So opium. It works for people that want to sell books and make a lot of money off selling books. Great, great refrain.

Money in the cure. Damn it.

Exactly. Let me add something here, guys. This is. This is really. I'm going to slow down here.

What most of us do is we go to seminars and we go to coaching. We buy books and we online webinars and everything. Here's where most people miss the boat, is that is all content, which I know you're familiar with, Brad. If that content cannot be integrated in our context, which is our unconscious identity, that's where we work from the context of our life. If we can't integrate the content into the context, the content is of no value. So what authors and speakers do is they say, take my book, go buy my brand new book and its content, and then it's going to just revolutionize your life. But if that book is not consistent with who I am at my identity, Level, then the book is of no value. And I keep reading books over and over and over again. And then on top of that I start creating beliefs that there must be something wrong with me, why can't I change? Maybe I don't deserve money, maybe God's punishing me or whatever it is. But the industry in and of itself is not designed to help people get core level and long lasting change.

Correct.

I don't know if you agree or don't agree 100,000%. Okay. Yeah. So what I'm telling you guys listening. Let me give you an example here. Okay. Please. And Brad and I are using this word a lot. We could actually co coach and co do this webinar. And we are. But I mean if we taught this as a program. Brad, I didn't buy cigarettes today. How come?

Because you're not a smoker.

That's true. I am not a smoker. So here, everyone write this down. I want you to get this.

And there's a big difference between saying you're not a smoker and you don't smoke.

Smoke free. Right, Exactly. Not using negatives, but we do know that I do not engage or I am only a person who breathes healthy and clean air when I'm not in Mexico City or a polluted city. So I get all that. But let me actually, so we don't confuse them, here is everyone write this down. I can only do what I am.

I can only do what I am. And what you are is your identity.

Let me take that one step further. People have said, Jim, if you know this identity stuff and it's all unconscious or subconscious, however, or non conscious, whichever word you choose, and it's unconscious, then how do I know what my identity is? That's easy. Look at your environment and then look at the logical level that Brad and I gave you when we started. Your environment is a reflection of your identity. So if you look at your bank account and you constantly have no money in the bank, what's happening is that in your mind you are a broke person. And then what you try to do is try to go do things. But guess what? You're not as effective in your doing because your identity says you're not effective in terms of making money. That's not something you deserve or not something you can do, that makes sense. Right, Brad? Yep. Yeah. So what we have to do again is go back to what I want you to get. Also a couple of really, really, really salient points here. Every one of you, you, me, Brad, all of us, we all function on autopilot. And there is some research done at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany in 2008. They asked people, I'll make this very quick to make a decision between A and B. And they gave them a little, you know, thing you press the button A and B. What they discovered is that even while we think we're making our decisions, they put them in an MRI machine, FMRI machine, watch blood flow in the brain. What they discovered is that our brain makes our decision for us. And even before we even come to the realization we're making a decision. Right.

I've heard about that. So I've heard about it as it kind of throws into the like, do we really have free will?

Right.

Is our brain, you know, if we're not conscious of the decision we're making before we're making it, do we really have free will? But that's another topic for another discussion.

Let me give you a one liner there is that they've discovered is that one second we can actually, the last second we actually can re. Reconsider. We can actually stop ourself in that moment and reevaluate. Is this the decision I want to make? We have that ability. So our brain makes our decisions for us. And at that nanosecond before we execute, we can't actually question the decision. So which means we do have free will based upon that argument. But we also, all of us, every one of you that got up this morning. Brad, you posted something on Facebook. I loved it and I laughed my butt off. This is two years ago or whatever. Remember when you posted about brushing your teeth with the opposite hand?

Yeah.

And you're like, why can I. Oh, something like, why can I do complex tasks but I can't change the hand I brush my teeth with. Yeah.

I can't remember exactly what it was, but that was something real simple.

Yeah. And you can't. I can't do it. I even thought about that prior to you posting. I can't. It's really, really hard to brush my teeth with my left hand. I'm right hand dominant. So here's the point, everyone.

And then I want to take this in the habits is here's the point is that you do the same thing day in, day out, same sequence every single morning that you get up and every single day all through your day and every week throughout your month and every month throughout your, you do the same thing over and over and over again. And it's all unconscious habit. So we operate on autopilot and if you don't have what you want in your life and your business. It's because your autopilot is misprogrammed.

Hmm, that's profound.

Hopefully.

No.

Hopefully.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Because yeah, we do. We, I mean, and autopilot is, it's the greatest thing that we've got because it saves us from having to make new decisions and everything else all the time. But it also, we have to recognize that when you are on autopilot and when you are in your rut and your routine, you know, that, that it's like, wait a minute, wait a minute, I'm not, this isn't me. This is just my routine. This is my autopilot. Like disengage autopilot, disengage, you know, and take back control.

We don't, most of us don't have awareness.

Right. You know, there's kind of coming back because as I said, I love the logical level things so much. Like as I've seen it and as I've kind of thought about this in my life and the way I've used it in order to.

As really a tangible tool. And so, you know, recognizing that identity is where I want to be. So let's just say I want to, I want to be a very successful, fulfilled and happy entrepreneur who, you know, is whatever, like, that's my identity. But if I don't feel like that at the moment, right? If I, if I don't have any of the physical representations, if I don't have, if I'm not in an environment doing things and if I don't have the beliefs in it, that's okay, right? Like, it's like, that's okay because as long as I know that it exists and I can start down at the environment levels because remember, that's the easiest to change. Now it may not have the most leveraged cascading effect, but it's the easiest to change. So it's like, alright, one step at a time. So for instance, I sold at the time, I guess I was successful, but I sold my last business when I was in Dallas like five years ago. And I didn't want to be in Dallas and I wanted to be around other people in my industry and I wanted to be in a much more.

You know, an environment that was better. First thing I did is I moved, right? So I just moved. And we can all change our environments. Maybe it's changing the type of people you hang out with on a regular basis that's changing your environment. Well now obviously you do that and then you just start doing things even if you. Even if you suck at them. Good example, Facebook ads. You know, a lot of people on my podcast do Facebook ads. Well, they may suck at it. And they're like, I'm not a Facebook ad guy. And you don't have to be. Just start doing it. Just start doing it a little bit, a little bit at a time. And like the principles of Kaizen, you know, small improvements, all of a sudden, you know, do that for a month, and in a month, you're going to have the capabilities that you didn't have, and those capabilities are going to build beliefs. And pretty soon, you know, you can become the entrepreneur, you can become the Facebook advertiser as an identity. But like you said, like, if you don't know what you're trying to become, you can't get there.

I have a formula for those guys I want to do to address two things here. I have a formula I've created that we'll wrap up this call within a bit that will actually put that together for them. And then I advocate what you do is little by little, when most people have big problems, they look for big solutions. The easiest way to actually fix a big problem is to start with little bitty steps, like you're talking about microhabits. So I've got a way to take everything you've just said, and I've used it in my own life, and if it works on me, it'll work with anybody. But I want to give you a formula in just a bit. But I want to go back to environment. I remember when you moved and I was at your party downtown, you know, a couple of days before you left. Yeah. All right. People don't understand the power of environment. We think we do, but we don't. There's been a lot of research done about children that were taken out of Romanian orphanages. You ever heard about any of that research, Brad?

Don't think I have.

Long and short about that is that in that environment, as young children in their formative years, they actually are never touched or never held, no emotional support and physical support. They grow up to be people that are basically just mechanical robots. They're not bad people, so to speak, in terms of moral standards or any of that. They just really can't connect with people because of the environment they grew up in. Now, two more experiments here very quickly. One with rats and one with Vietnam. Did you know that during the Vietnam War, the Pentagon was terrified because they had so many people hooked on heroin. They were afraid that all These soldiers would come back to the US and they would all be addicts. Did you know that? Okay. Yeah. They were terrified. And they never released to the public how many soldiers were addicted to heroin. And what they were shocked about is that when they came back, they just miraculously stopped the habit because they're in a different environment. Exactly.

Environment. And that's the thing I love. It's like the least. It's easy to go, oh, I just got to think about identity. But it's like, no, you actually have to think about all of them. There are levels and they're logically aligned.

Yeah, yeah. And they just, you know, working on rats, this was some university on the east coast. What they discovered is if they put a rat alone in a cage and they gave it water or cocaine water, the rat alone would drink the cocaine water until it died. But then they made little happy rat communities. Everything that a rat would like with all the trails and bells and whistles and everything else. And what happened is they put the cocaine water in there and the regular water. And when rats were in a healthy, just kind of an adjusted environment, whatever a healthy environment is for rats, when they were in a healthy environment, they stopped drinking the cocaine water even though it was available because their environment changed. Brad, I didn't know that would go there, but thank you for bringing that up. All of you guys have to get is, you know, I coach people that like, for example, if one of your drivers is to be competitive and you're in a non competitive environment, then that literally actually sucks the life out of you because you're not around people that actually, if you're competitive and people actually challenge you, if you're not in that kind of environment, you will never do as well because you're not stimulated at what drives you subconsciously.

Right. So and just revealing a personal thing like you bring this up. I've actually thought a lot about it. So for me, and I guarantee this is one of the things that's probably limiting me in some ways or in a lot of ways from growing. So because I'm very cognizant of this, I am an. I am an extreme extrovert. I do really well around people and I love it. Right. I get fully energized by it. I'm effective at it. I'm amazing at sales and, and creating relationships and do it. That is my jam right there. I spend 90% of my day in my home office behind my computer, talking to people either on email, Slack, Skype, etc. And I'm effective there. But I realize that that is not where I'm the best at. And yet it is so hard to pull yourself away. Right. This is the car that's moving. This is the vehicle I'm in. So it's hard to just go, oh, I'm gonna go, just get out more. I'm gonna go try to do something outside. Like, I never want to be an outside salesperson personally, but because I like building the business and doing all the things that have to happen indoors. But what you just said really resonated because I realized that my genius is out amongst the masses and I'm not doing it.

Then get into a high end collaborative workspace.

Right, right.

Where you've got people that are actually doing things that will inspire you. And at the very least, being around people.

True.

And then notice what else you said you said.

The only thing is I also know me. Add extrovert around people, talk to everybody. I won't get anything done.

Yeah, you talk to everybod. Also notice what you said that you said. It's really hard to get out of this. Which means where I want to go next is you're in the habit of doing what you're doing and the habit keeps you trapped in the habit.

Yep, exactly.

Let's go with habit for a second there, because this is one of the main things I wanted to get across to everybody in our time together is this is all unconscious as well, is that you've seen this, we've all seen this. People will say, I try to do everything and I why do I keep failing? I start working out, I fail. I try to build my business, I try to prospect, I try to set my funnels up, I try to shoot my videos, I try to, you know, lead, generate, and I fail. You've seen this before, right?

Mm.

Okay, Then what people say is, I've got to change my mindset. You hear that all the time on Facebook. You got to change your mindset, right? Mm. Okay. Changing your mindset doesn't work. You'll understand everything we're going to talk about here, Brain Brad. And hopefully the rest of you.

You can call me Brian.

Follow along. Were you gonna say I can call you Brain?

Yeah, because you said you'll understand brain.

I mean, Brad, maybe there's a 40 inch slip.

I like it.

Okay, let me slow down here for a second and just synopsize this for you is three parts of the brain. The reptilian part of the brain is the oldest part of the brain. The mammalian part of the brain is the middle part of the brain, the feeling part of the brain, the limbic system. And then we have the executive part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. Anytime we say, I need to change my mindset, Brad, which part of the brain are we using to make that statement?

Prefrontal cortex.

Prefrontal cortex, that's the thinking part of the brain trying to change the older part of the brain. See, habits come. All of your habits come from the oldest part of the brain, which is a reptilian part of the brain. Its job is survival. Its job is to take care of us. So then what we do is we say, okay, I don't like smoking. That's not good for me. So, but let's say you have a habit of smoking. Well, saying you don't like smoking comes from the prefrontal cortex, okay? But smoking comes from the reptilian part of the brain, the oldest part of the brain. Now, what you have happening here is you've got one part of the brain fighting the other part of the brain. One part of the brain analyzing, saying, you know what? I gotta quit smoking because my wife yells at me. And the reptilian part of the brain says, no, no, no, smoking is a habit. And here's something I haven't said yet. Smoking is a habit. And every habit you have, the reptilian brain says, I'm going to maintain for you because my job is your survival. And every habit you have, my job is to make you survive with whatever that habit is. So if you think that habit is bad, which is prefrontal cortex, it doesn't matter. You've created a habit, and I'm going to sustain that habit no matter what.

Yeah. It's not just you. It doesn't just want you to survive. It wants your habits to survive it. Once you're.

Everything else has survived, it maintains the habit. Even if we think it's a bad habit, it maintains the habit.

And beyond that, it's like, okay, so if I was a smoker, stopping smoking would obviously cause me massive discomfort. We all know that, right? Breaking, especially an addictive habit creates massive discomfort. So that amphibious brain wants to prevent massive discomfort, right?

So it is.

It's doing its job perfectly to protect you from discomfort because it doesn't know. It can't focus on the big goal that you want, which is healthy lungs. It's just like, screw that. I don't want you to go through withdrawal.

Well, the reason. Let me add here, everybody, the reason, for example, what we do is, let's say for example, you're a smoker. What happens is. So you smoke on autopilot. The reptilian brain just does it for you, whether it's smoking, eating cookies, procrastinating, whatever. Then what happens is the brain gives us urges. Now, the urges are coming from the reptilian brain, and the urge is an emotion or a feeling. And the urges, specifically, it's an emotion. And the urge says, hey, dude, go smoke that cigarette, because we need to perpetuate the habit. Then what happens is we get into urge, which is we can. We can feel that it's an emotion. Urge versus thinking. And when your brain gets into urge on one hand and thinking on the other, then it becomes what I call a habit battle. Smoke, don't smoke. Smoke, don't smoke. Smoke, don't smoke. And the urge to smoke will always win over prefrontal cortex thinking, do not smoke because it's bad for you.

Mm.

That makes sense. Right, Brad? So let me ask you this. What do you think? And this is gonna piss a lot of people off. And that's great because controversy is good in marketing. I've done a lot of research on this, and I can't find conclusive statistics, but for the most part, I'll give you what I found. What do you think the success rate at AA is? Alcoholics Anonymous.

Hmm.

You know, I don't know. I would. I would have to say because I haven't looked a lot into this. I would say it's high. I don't know a percentage, just because they've got a very systematic process and been around a long time, but that's a very uneducated guess. But I would say it's like, I don't know, like 70%.

Really?

Yeah.

I didn't expect that from you, because I didn't. Okay. Hey, guys. Everyone listening? I've known Brad for a lot of years. He's a really, really, really smart dude.

He's going to tell you this is the first time he's ever heard me say something that was incorrect. And I get that.

Well, not the first time, but he's actually incorrect. The success rate, based upon what I could find from the National Institute of Health, the Mayo Clinic, other research varies anywhere from 5% to 50% max, meaning 50% minimum of people who go to AA failure. And the reason why is this is because the reason why is that old aa, the old AA from years ago is based upon prefrontal cortex. Let's think, you know, so that what they do is they set you up in the Middle, let's say you're sitting there and a person and you're sitting there and then you're actually your left hand, you have, you shouldn't drink. Sobriety, 12 step program, you're an alcoholic, you're diseased, all these kind of things, that's what they teach you. And you'll never be free of alcohol and you're power powerless and all this kind of stuff. So that's left brain, prefrontal cortex, and on the right hand side, your reptilian brain doesn't care about any of that because it can't think. So now it's pitted the brain against itself. And this is why people fail, because they're trying to, they're trying to actually break a habit which is brain based, and they're trying to think their way through it with willpower. Willpower doesn't work and they fail consistently. That makes sense, right?

It does.

So this whole program that so many people need so much of is based upon a faulty way that the brain works and actually sets people up for failure. And I've heard as many as 95% of people, and then people, the 5% or whatever, they've gotten success with AA get super pissed off when you tell them the program doesn't work. Why? Because in their belief, it worked for them. But when you look at brain, the way the brain works, the program is not set up to actually help people achieve what they want through the way the brain processes information.

Yeah, go ahead. No, this is fantastic. And I couldn't agree more with you. And it is one of those things that, you know, on this podcast especially, you know, I talk a lot about strategic business or, you know, strategy and tactics in business and sizzling hot business advice guaranteed to make you fat. But it quite literally, it all starts with your what's between your ears, right? It all, all, all starts there. Every single thing else flows down from there. So if you're not where you want to be yet, or at all, and you're wondering how the hell you're ever going to get there, no amount of just stacking skills, buying courses, learning tricks and tactics are going to get you there. I actually posted on Facebook, I think it was yesterday, that you can't copy paste your way. You'll never copy or paste your way to success. I did that in response to a Facebook ad I saw saying just copy and paste my proven template.

I saw that, yeah.

And it just pissed me off. It was by a very well known marketer, but it's very successful too. I'm like you can't copy paste it. You've got to go deeper and you got to figure it out for yourself. But we, we've been talking about some amazing stuff for those who want to see how deep this rabbit hole of your brain goes. Where.

Hey, Brad, before you go there, let me give them a final takeaway that will answer your question you started earlier that I didn't answer all the way. This is, this is vital. We just got a couple of minutes left. Everyone write this down, okay? And you can listen to it later if you, you can go back, listen again. This is what I want you to write down. This is where you must work from. Because Brad asked earlier, how do we get people from if they're not there yet, to where they want to be? I'm going to give you the paradigm right now and write this down. Who would I be.

How would I feel, and what would I do if I already had blank? Who would I be? And I want you to find three ways of being Being responsible, being committed, being self integral, being a visionary. Those are all ways of being disciplined. Who would I be, how would I feel, and what would I. And what would I do if I already had blank? You create that roadmap. Now, you know you've got a roadmap you need to start working from. If you actually define these and you do not work from this roadmap, you will find yourself back in the ditch again.

Could not agree more, Jim. So where do people get more information on you? Where do they decide? Man, this guy seems to have the answer for me. Or he might. Let me explore what Jim has to offer.

Easy. I've got a training for these guys. If you want to and you want to learn more about your habits, go over to salespsychologyacademy.com salespsychologyacademy.Com brain and I've got a comprehensive training there that will walk you more and even further through how you're operating from habits, how they're unconscious, and what you can start doing to eliminate those habits. And then from there, if you find that you like what you know, you find there. I've got an entire training program on my site connected to that domain, cellpsychologyacademy.com I've got an entire program on how to actually reprogram your subconscious mind and how to break any habit without using willpower.

I love it. I encourage everybody to go check that out. As I said, I've been friends with Jim for like at least a decade and I would not have invited him on the show if I didn't think he would deliver some massive, massive and deep, profound insights to you guys. And I. Hopefully you've gotten those. I think this has been, there's been a really fun time because I don't get to talk about this kind of stuff as often. And Jim, we don't get to talk as or we just don't, we don't make the time to talk to each other as often. We'll have to change that here soon.

Yep.

To all my listeners, thank you very much for tuning in. The best thing in the world you could do is, well, two things. Share this on social media. Tag myself, tag Jim, let us know that you love it and send me an email to ask bradaconrapped business.com I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear books that have helped change your life in positive ways and I would love to hear other resources and topics that you want to hear covered on the show. Ask bradakenratbusiness.com until next time. Jim, thanks for joining me on the show, brother.

Thanks, buddy.