"Unlocking Your Inner Clarity: The Secret to Authentic Success for Entrepreneurs with Jamie Smart"

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Hello and welcome to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur with me, your host, Jim James. Today we're meeting Jamie Smart. Now, this is his book, Clarity. It's actually the 10th anniversary, second edition. Jamie Smart is a bestselling Sunday Times author, and he's got a new book out called Clarity. And we're going to talk about why having a big hairy-ass goal, taking massive action, and self-belief aren't necessarily the secrets for success and getting noticed. Jamie, welcome to the show.

Oh, great to be here with you, Jim. I've really been looking forward to it.

Well, me too, because I've got the book and I've taken my Clarity Quotient. It's number 84. We can go to that later. You get to explain that. But Tell us, Jamie, as an author and working with organizations like NATO, with entrepreneurs and so on, why is clarity important? How does it help entrepreneurs to get noticed?

Well, if you want to get noticed, this is going to sound counterintuitive, but the most important person you need to notice is yourself. And most people I find, because we're living in this incredibly overcommunicated world, they're looking outside themselves for what to do and that sort of thing. And while there's great stuff in the world that we can learn from, The fact is that you have a unique essence. There's something unique that you're here to bring to the world, your own authenticity. And when people are kind of faced with this deluge of information and people trying to sell them stuff and all that sort of thing, what they're going to tune into is authenticity. And there's something that each one of us bring and we can imbue our personal brands with it, our communication with it, our business brands with it that will allow people to tune in because the fact is, I think it was Simon Sinek said, the goal isn't to do business with everyone. It's to do business with people who resonate with you, whose values align with you, whose beliefs align with you. So the first step for any entrepreneur who wants to get noticed is you want to notice what is it in you that's seeking expression in the world and what's your way of doing it? What makes sense to you? Because Most people are trying to be like everyone else, but that's not going to make you stand out.

Well, and isn't that an essential challenge though as an entrepreneur? On the one hand, we want to define our own sense of direction and add value. On the other hand, we need some validation from the market that other people are doing it before, you know, before, and that means that it's going to be okay what we're doing now. How do you help entrepreneurs Jamie Smart, with clarity so that not only can they find what they believe in, but also have the confidence in what they believe in?

My fundamental assertion, Jim, is that everyone has within them an innate sense of confidence, clarity, creativity, well-being, purpose, and direction. So it's there in everyone. So for instance, when an entrepreneur hires me to work one-on-one with them, we'll spend literally a few days together helping them kind of just settle down and find out what's that thing within them, that sense of direction and that sort of thing? So that's what I'd say to anyone listening to this, that you have that within you already. And if you stop and think about it for a moment, every business is effectively a relationship business. So yeah, of course we want validation for our ideas. That makes total sense. It's funny, a lot of times I work with people starting small solopreneur businesses and They say, oh, I want to be more visible. And I'm like, well, who do you want to be visible to? But more importantly, who do you want to make themselves visible to you? I'll give you an example, Jim. I was on Skybreaking News live, going out live to 5.5 million people, being interviewed for like 12 or 13 minutes. So I'm massively visible, but none of those people I was visible to were visible to me. So I couldn't do business with them, right?

Yeah.

The same month, I got invited to do a talk to a group of 40 entrepreneurs. And I could see all of them. And at the end of the session, I said, here's what I'm up to. If you want to come and talk to me, come and say hi. And 8 of them ended up signing up as clients. So, like, there are advantages to going out live to 5.5 million people, but I actually got more business from the talk to 40 people. So it's, who do you want to make themselves visible to you and for what purpose? And I'd say the purpose is so that you can build relationship with them. Like, Jim, you know, you and I, we have a relationship now. So I assume we're going to be in each other's lives for the duration. I treat everyone like that.

I love that. And this idea that also that you want to connect with that audience that you can do business with rather than just even have fame, Jamie, although you plainly have both. You know, thanks for going from one end of the spectrum working on, you know, Big Sky and coming on onto my podcast. You know, I appreciate that as well. You mentioned before that, you know, having a BHAG, you know, the Jim Collins, the taking massive action, which is the Tony Robbins, and then the, the sort of idea of complete self-belief, which is the Dean Graziosi, right? This is quite a sort of an overwhelming diet that's being put out, isn't it? What's your solution to those people, including me, that are kind of overwhelmed by the volume of these people who seem to be, if you like, the new messiah?

Well, it's so interesting, Jim. I first kind of clocked onto it 'cause I'd been fed that diet of BHAGs and unwavering self-belief and that sort of thing. But I noticed, and I built successful businesses, my levels of self-belief varied wildly. And I spoke to other entrepreneurs and theirs did too, yet they were still doing cool stuff. And then I came across a book called Strategic Intuition, written by a guy called William Duggan, who's got the chair for business, I think, at Columbia Business School. And what Duggan did was he investigated people who were amazing at strategy. So everyone from the Netflix guys to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and Napoleon. And he found that they had a very different model to creating success. It was the 3 steps again, but 3 very different steps. Number one, Prepare for opportunity. So, these guys would all prepare for opportunity following their curiosities, following what inspired them specifically, what they wanted to learn about. So, number one, prepare for opportunity. Number 2, notice it when it shows up. See, most people are so busy looking around trying to figure out what to do and taking everything, they don't notice the opportunities that are staring them right in the face. So, and then step 3 is act on it when it shows up. So again, because these people had been preparing for opportunity, as soon as it showed up, boom, they were on it. And so that's what I work with entrepreneurs on is to kind of clear the noise, clear the pressure, clear the deck so that you can prepare for opportunity in the way that makes sense to you and notice it when it shows up and then have the courage to act on it, have the faith in what you know to be true to take action on it and kind of go all Funnily enough, Jim, this happened to me. I got my business. This is about 14 years ago now. I got my business so it was kind of running on autopilot, 4-Hour Workweek style. I was having my first mini retirement, 3 months of skiing at Whistler. And kind of 6 or 8 weeks in, I was miserable. And it didn't make sense to me because according to the rules of my industry, I should be delighted, right? So, I went back to the drawing board.

Yeah.

And I started exploring this, what I consider to be the best-kept secret in psychology. And I started having insights into it. And the first insight I had was, oh, everything you've been looking for outside of you is already there within you.

I am reading the book and it's fabulous. And I'll put a link in the show notes to it, but just maybe revisit that a little bit more detail, can you, Jamie?

Yeah. So I had the idea that Once I achieved a certain amount of turnover, once I had my business running on autopilot, and I speak to entrepreneurs all the time who are like, yeah, once I sell the business, once I exit, then I'm going to be happy, fulfilled, feel successful, all that sort of stuff. So, I'd been running that program but it doesn't work. It's not true. So, that's what sent me back to the drawing board. And what I realized, when I say everything I'd been looking at for outside of me, I don't mean like cool shoes, wristwatches, and cars. I mean the feelings, successfulness, fulfillment, well-being. being, purpose, meaning, and kind of comfort in your own skin, they're never found on the outside. They only ever come from within. Now, we all know this kind of instinctively, right? Like, if you think of a little kid who has a teddy bear, the child believes that their feelings of comfort and security come from the teddy bear. But they don't. The teddy bear is full of stuffing. Those all come from within, all those feelings of— peace and wellbeing and that sort of thing. But as adults, we have all kinds of adult teddy bears. And it genuinely seems to us like our feelings of comfort, security, wellbeing are coming from our business or our turnover or our pension pot or our partner or whatever it might be. But it's a trick of the mind. It does not work like that. It comes from within 100% of the time, no exceptions.

So Jamie Smart, in your book Clarity, which has just come out as a capstone publication, you talk about sort of the distractions. How do you help entrepreneurs to move away from those distractions and get clarity? So we understand the concept that it's within, but how are you helping people to do that? Is it a function of meditation? Is it a function of switching things off? What would you say is your solution, your path to that clarity?

Yeah, it's a great question. Well, so most people have a lot on their minds these days more than ever, especially because of all the information coming in and that sort of thing. So Jim, we teach a simple understanding that takes things off your mind automatically. So you have the freedom, the confidence, and the wellbeing to do whatever makes sense and to enjoy your life. So my assertion is, and this is what you're finding out in the book, there's something you can learn, there's something you can understand that as you understand it, it'll take stuff off your mind automatically. So you don't have to do anything. Now you may, so it's funny actually, Jim, I've asked literally thousands of people this question ranging from prison inmates to people at the NATO Defense College to entrepreneurs, business leaders, when do you get your best ideas? And the answers are always the same. At the gym, in the shower, out for a walk, just when I'm dropping off to sleep, just when I'm waking up in the morning. So it's when we're not thinking about it, when we've got a relatively open and clear mind. And funnily enough, this is what Duggan found in his book Strategic Intuition was that when people had insights, it's when they weren't thinking about their strategy. They weren't trying to figure it out. It was when they were giving their mind the opportunity to do what it's actually designed to do. I've got a simple metaphor for it if you'd like it.

Yes, please. Yes. Because it's what you're to some degree suggesting is that if we just relax and take a breath and sort of trust in ourselves and our minds, if we're focused in the right direction, then some of the answers will appear. So love to hear your metaphor.

Well, I'm saying yes, that's true, and everyone will find that in their own experience. And I'm saying there's something you can learn that makes that more and more reliable, predictable, and inevitable.

Great. And Jamie, that's what we need, because otherwise you feel as though you're sort of wandering around hoping That you might have inspiration, right?

And you need something you can rely on. So that's my assertion is that there's something that's just as reliable as your wound healing capacity. You know, if you get a scratch on your hand, you don't worry about, oh, is it going to get better? You can rely on your body's immune system to heal it. Well, the immune system also has a psychological expression. So the metaphor is a snow globe, like a snow globe. If you shake it up, it gets all cloudy and there's nothing you can do. And trying to shake it more will just make it more cloudy, trying to add things and fix it and that sort of thing. But if you let the snow settle, clarity emerges because clarity is the water's natural state. Well, clarity is your mind's natural state. And the reason that people's minds get so shook up, get so distracted, get so overwhelmed is because we're believing something that's not true. We're believing that our experience, our moment-to-moment experience is coming from somewhere other than within. And it seems like that. It seems like our feelings of stress or tension or pressure are coming from the deadlines or the speech I've got to give or from what that guy did or from that contract or whatever. But the truth of the matter, the fact of the matter is that it's always an internally generated experience. And as you wake up to the truth of that for yourself, life just becomes a lot less threatening. Right. And so you'll have noticed this, that there are certain situations you might go into and you're feeling really freaked out, but the person next to you is cool as a cucumber. It's because they're not finding the situation threatening. That my assertion is that all that noise is created by a mistaken belief about how our experience is created.

Well, this is really powerful stuff. When you look at business leaders and entrepreneurs, great entrepreneurs, Jamie, can you give us some examples of entrepreneurs that, if you like, display this sort of self-confidence and clarity? Because the popular fiction is, you know, massive action, strive, you know, do networking, read a book a week, right? This kind of like sort of hyperdrive of connectivity and interactivity. But you're suggesting something quite different for success. So can you give us some examples? Of people that have done that.

One of my favorite examples is Steve Jobs, who, as I understand it, he worked hard and everything. But there's a great story. He was being interviewed after he came back to Apple and created this incredible success with the Mac. He was being interviewed by a reporter and the reporter said, you know, the Mac's been incredibly successful, amazing. What are you going to do next? And Jobs said, well, I don't know. And the reporter was flabbergasted. He was like, well, you know, What are you going to do about that? And Jobs said, well, I'm going to wait until I know and then I'm going to do it. And so, it was another 6 months and there was no sign of anything new coming out or anything like that. And he was just reflecting, finding the way forward. When he then moved, it was iPod, iTunes, and literally transformed the music industry and made Apple the biggest company in the world, the most profitable company in the world. So, That I think is a great example, that thing of waiting till he knows rather than feeling urgently driven to do the next thing.

And I think you also mentioned something very interesting earlier on. Well, you mentioned lots of things very interesting earlier on, Jamie Smart, but also about opportunity and seeing what's happening around you. Do you want to just also talk about that? Because sometimes people are pushing businesses into markets where the market's not ready, for example. Do you want to just share with us a little bit about that?

Yeah, well, so it seems to me, Jim, so the 3 steps were prepare for opportunity, notice it when it shows up, and then act on it. Well, my assertion is that how you prepare for opportunity is by following your own intuition and wisdom, your own enthusiasms. So your own enthusiasms will be a guide to the things. And often it won't even be apparent why you're enthusiastic about that thing or what it is. you trust that, the more you follow it, it falls into place later on. It makes sense later on. So a willingness to trust that enthusiasm, to trust that there's something within you that's guiding you. There's another Jobs quote. He said, above all, have the courage to trust your heart and intuition. Somehow they already know what you're to become. So it's about opening to that. And it all sounds a little bit esoteric, but actually, My assertion is that there's a source of guidance and wisdom and intelligence within you that can position you beautifully for what you're here to do.

I love that idea. And it's really very Zen as well, isn't it? Also, Jamie, how does that matter coming all the way back to my original question about getting noticed? Because the anxiety would be as an entrepreneur that you need to look corporate, you need to have a big brand, that you need to compete with the bigger companies that are already incumbents. From a getting noticed perspective, if I can kind of take something so existential back to something so practical, how does that help an entrepreneur to get noticed? Because they may say, well, that's all great, but you know what, I need a website, I need to go to the trade shows. Can you just maybe draw some connection between that concept and how it impacts the well-being of a business?

Yeah, well, I'll give you a couple of examples. It's funny, actually, I was having an intake conversation with the head of a very large household name brand. So the European division of a large household name brand. And so in a sales conversation with them to do training for their entire organization, I had my first conversation, it hadn't gone that great. And I was talking to one of my mentors. And as he listened to me, he said, oh, you've been trying to compete with McKinsey and Bain and all those guys. He said, those guys have multimillion-dollar marketing and sales budget. If you try and compete using their tactics, they'll win. You need to take what only you have to that conversation. So, the second conversation with the guy, I just spoke right to the issue knowing what I know to be true and saying the things that none of those other companies were saying. And it was a game changer. So, That's one of the ways it connects up. I've sort of forgotten the question. Was it how can it help people get noticed? Yeah.

So how does it— if you like, how do you create a scalable business when you're trusting your intuition? Because otherwise you just sort of feel like you're just doing your own business for a few people that are convinced by your own personality, if you like. So on the grounds that most entrepreneurs are building a business at some stage to sell that business, As opposed to, you know, be locked into that business?

Yeah, well, as the way that I've always done it is through relationship. And so it's the internet allows unprecedented opportunities to build multiple relationships at scale, like you're doing with this podcast. You've got people all over the world listening to this podcast, like I do with my books and my podcasts, my audiobooks and newsletters. These are ways to build those relationships with the people who resonate with you, who tune into you and that sort of thing. And the beautiful thing about it, Jim, is—

That's it.

Like, I have people who have been in relationship with me. So they've been consuming my stuff for 6 or 7 years. And then suddenly the first thing I know of them is they've signed up for a £10,000 program with me or a £50,000 program with me. And so I meet them and they're like, oh yeah, I know your whole story. I've been on this journey with you for 6 or 7 years. So it's really interesting. There are these sort of asynchronous relationships building where your audience know a lot about you, but you don't know much about them until they're ready to take the next step. So I think the internet leveled the playing field and, you know, smaller brands can have just as much lift, do just as much heavy lifting and have just as much reach as large brands. Through those relationships.

And Jamie Smart, thank you for sharing, you know, and having a relationship with me today and my fellow unnoticed entrepreneurs, because we've had an asynchronous relationship until we've met, right? So I've read your books, followed you on Twitter. So this is a great example. If people would like to find out more about you, Jamie Smart, where can they do that?

My website's jamiesmart.com. My books are on Amazon or in your local bookshop. I've got podcasts, the Get Clarity Podcast and the Thriving Coaches Podcast. And oh, I'm on all the usual social media places, jamiesmartcom on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.

So if you're smart, you can find Jamie Smart anywhere that you like to find him. And I can really recommend the book. It's fantastic. And take the test at the end. And Jamie does a wonderful job of putting QR codes, which I'm a real fan of, so that throughout the book you can scan the code and find the content. So Jamie, thank you so much for joining me today on the Unnoticed Entrepreneur Show. Been wonderfully insightful.

Thank you, Jim. It's been a huge pleasure.

So I'm sure that everyone will be as inspired and really sort of as motivated as I've been by reading this essentially positive message that if we look for what's inside, we can use it as a really positive guide to us all. So do share this message by sharing the show if you can with fellow unnoticed entrepreneurs. If you've liked the show, please review it. It really helps. And check out Jamie's book. And also my book is now available. on Amazon and all the best players at The Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Until we meet again, I just encourage you to keep on communicating. The Unnoticed Entrepreneur podcast is sponsored by a company called Prowly. Prowly is an all-in-one software for leveraging your public relations activities. You can boost the media relations game for your business, find media contacts, send out press releases, and get more coverage While saving time and money on everyday tasks. Check it out, prowly.com.