On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. The vast majority of all the things are going on in your daily life are unconscious. And, therefore, you've gotta be wired to take the right actions. And the only way you wire yourself properly is a is a morning routine that impacts your mindset by feeding the succinct articulation of your life and what you want to accomplish to yourself.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars. From business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be. We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the real of the real on what it takes to build a successful business today.
We dissect the good and bad decision they've made along the way to give a true and accurate picture of the journey of success and how you too can get the Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and keys like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, gathering the Kings podcast, I'm your host, and today I have John Mitchell on the King stage.
My brother John, how we doing this morning? Hey. Living the dream. Live in the dream. You know? It was a long time ago when I first heard that phrase. I was probably eighteen or nineteen went to a business conference, and I heard the phrase live in the dream. And, it's it's stuck ever since. So I'm I'm curious to hear what you think about that and some of your opinions on that, but what type of business do you have? Let's start there.
You know, I'm in the success in human achievement field and the bay basically a high performance coaching company. Love that. And you're you're intertwined with maybe we'll mention it here in a little bit, but I know you wanna have that Texas that Texas logo behind you, but Right. University, Texas. Either with the university and and you do some teaching stuff there.
But before we get into some of the detail of of all of that, you obviously gave us kind of a an umbrella of you know, human success and and all that fun stuff, and that's pretty a broad topic. For you, though, I'm gonna turn it I'm gonna turn that on you, and I'm gonna say, why are you doing this? Why are you even after all the success? Cause this isn't the only industry you've had success in. You obviously had a long track record of success in and then we'll get to all Chaz.
But at this stage in the game, my question is, how are you doing this? What's the bigger picture? We'll get you up in the morning to hold you. You know, thank you for in that question, Chaz. You know, I do it because I feel so profoundly blessed with how my life has turned out and and what I discovered in 50 Chaz was so transformative. And I just feel like the way that you honor having a blessed life is by helping other people. And, you know, yeah, I talked about living the dream.
I really feel like I'm living the dream. And and, you know, there were certainly hard times in the in the past, but to sort of weather the storm and and got smarter. And and again, just feel so blessed for what I have, and I just wanna help other people. Yeah. I love that, but we use a phrase inside of gathering the king's grateful, but not done. And Yeah. Everything that you just said just totally lines up with, man. I had this perspective of where I've come from. And I'm thankful for it.
But, man, we're not even close to being done. Love that. You know, it's fetty Chaz. I have a a statue in my den here. That Chaz, like, I don't know if you've said it. It's like it's got these 3 guys climbing. Have you ever seen k. No. Keep going. But it has, you know, 3 guys climbing. And and so one guy's sorta going sideways. One guy's sorta going sorta up and then the 3rd guy is going straight up, and I look at that every day.
And I'm like, you know, the the 2 guys who were going sort of sideways and semi up, for me in my thirties and forties. And then when I got the b in my fifties, it was straight up. And so you have a great visual every day to to look at and and to put my life in perspective. Yeah. Well, and I know that you've got a specific formula. You kinda mentioned it.
Something that you you learned in your fifties that has been able to allow you to go straight up, but you also had a bunch of history before that as well that that I wanna get into both of those. And so Okay. Do you think before we do that though, I wanna stick right here on this on this y question just for half second because I'm I'm sure you and I Chaz do a whole podcast on this. But Right.
Just for the listener's sake because someone, again, with your level of success, and I'm sure you'll share some numbers and stuff with us in a in a minute, but There's just a yes. Helping people, like, that that that's I know that's the real answer, but, like, how did you get to that place? Because that's a perspective of selflessness that maybe the listener hasn't achieved yet.
And so why is that important to you or before maybe it was about you know, what that sideways looked like was maybe more money driven or maybe it was things or maybe it was just not helping people. You know what I mean? Like, how did you get to the place where you gave that answer You know, that's that's interesting. I think, you know, and until you really sort of have financial security, and I shouldn't say everybody's this way.
This is how I was, and maybe this is selfish, but but I was like, you know, I gotta I gotta I gotta get where I wanna be where I have financial freedom, and it's hard for me to actually help other people as as a certainly as a way of life until I I could help myself. You know, I teach this concept of leadership of of Wolfe, and I'm like, you know, you can't lead others until you can lead yourself. Off, and that was sort of the same thing with, you know, helping others.
I couldn't really help them truly until I had sort of achieved financial freedom or or was well on the way to that. Yeah. And I agree with you. I think that, you know, you can help people before maybe you're in financial freedom, but not as a way of a lifestyle. And I love how you you gave that as a perspective there because it's true. You can't you can't think much beyond yourself. Let alone actually do beyond yourself until you have the freedom to be able to do that.
And so I think that that financial success that you're referring to actually give us gives us the mental space, the capacity to be able to say, okay. I can now I can help. 2 or 10 or or 20 or a whole community or a whole city. You know, Chaz, that's a great point. And I I remember the first time I crossed over to netting a $1,000,000 a year. I I remember I was so thankful that I ended up starting a foundation for single moms.
Now I wasn't, you know, I wasn't, at that point, financially independent, but I could tell I was gonna get there quick and and just that, you know, you're feeling us being so freaking grateful after, you know, 20 years of of hard work of not Really, 30 years of hard work, all coming to fruition. It was just, you know, starting a fan age from 1st single moms was my first step at helping the people. I love that.
I come from a single mom family and, been on the board of a single mom ministry, and that that's a a close place to my heart as well. So maybe we'll talk about that a little bit further, but but you're right. It can be both. But when you when you get to that place, I think this is the encouragement to the listener is that When you get to that place of, you know, building a certain foundation, it provides them the stability, not just for you, but for the others that are around you.
And now we're talking about King mindset. Right? It's Yeah. It's not it's not warrior. It's not you're in the battle trying to, you know, survive. You as the king now have the weight all these people or things around you. And and at that stage, it's not a burden. It's actually like, no. No. No. Give it to me. I'll take it. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Wolfe, let's get into your story a little bit.
You got, you got some history and some ups and downs, I'm sure, but give us just a little bit of John. Give us a, like, okay, a bit of the overview of of where you came from and and and how you got to where you are today. Okay. Well, she Chaz, I started out as a CPA and then became an entrepreneur at 30. I realized I didn't wanna be an accountant all my life. And but You know, when I turned 50, I just wasn't as successful as I thought I'd I should be.
And and, you know, I was saying in my thirties and forties, like, severate different businesses. And, you know, and, really, I had 2 goals in my life to make enough money so I didn't have to work and to find the Wolfe in my dreams and And so at 50 Chaz fallen falling short on both of them. Wow. And, you know, on the money, Chaz, I always made, I don't know, 200, 300,000 a year, but at 50.
And I know this sounds materialistic, but I realized I had to start netting over a $1,000,000 a year to really have that exceptional life that I always dreamed of. And and on the girl at 50, I'd never been married. Although, I must say I did a lot of interviewing. You know, of course, I called it interviewing. My friends called it baking, but I've I preferred to interview it. But, anyway, you know, at 50, I'm like, puzzled Chaz how am I gonna change things?
Yeah. And then a pearl of wisdom came to me, I don't know, maybe 3 months after I turned 50, and it was, you know, find the top book the world on success and apply that book literally word for word to my life. And so immediately, this idea comes to me. I jump out a bit and start doing the research. And to my surprise, There's one book that's been read by over a 100,000,000 people. And the next best selling book on success been read by less than 10,000,000 people.
And that book is think and grow rich. And, you know, exactly what I was looking for. And so Chaz like the next day, I'm like a heat seeking missile. I went to the bookstore and bought the book and read the book. And then I saw the problem. Book says there's a secret for success but the author only gives you half of the secret. Yeah. So on the reader to figure out the other half. That's right. Oh, great.
You know, Hi. I knew I needed the full secret, and so I'm disappointed, and I mope around for a couple of weeks. And then one day, Chaz, I just get up and I coach on, you know, man up, just fake her out the full secret and a practical way to apply it. And so over the next couple of months, I just immerse myself in the book, you know, night and day. And what emerged was I figured out the full secret in a 12 minute to date technique to apply it. And I started applying it to a new business.
I started in the reverse mortgage business. And quickly, my income starts doubling and doubling and doubling to the point where 4 years later, I was making, you know, 25 times the 200 to $300,000 a year. I'd make the prior 20 years, and course, I felt so blessed and and but Chaz what was cool is I could see why it was all happening. I was just playing the game of life at a higher level, and and I could feel it. And and I could do things I I couldn't do before.
And I just became fascinated by the fact that you could take 2 key scientific principles and apply them to a person's life. And so, materially, impact their income. And so that's that's my story, but but if I could, could I explain to you why the 12 minute they Thank you. Worked. Please. Yeah. Yeah. Give us give us the juice here. I think that so you've all got us on our on our hands and and the edge of the seats here. So so here's why it works. It's really three things.
First, it focuses you only on what moves the needle. All distractions go by the wayside. Then the second thing I saw was that it tripled my discipline. You know, then I could could do those key habits that maybe I couldn't do before. And then the third thing is I had a a level of control over my life beyond what I'd ever experienced before, and truly, it felt like I had a superpower because I have.
And because the right actions start happening automatically without thinking, because I had rewired my autopilot. And as to credibility, you know, when I when I You know, I I I this is about 9 years ago. I tell my story to the former chancellor and president at the University of Texas He says, hey. You gotta teach this at the University of Texas, and why don't we teach it together? And so That's what I do today. I teach it to high achievers.
Both both students and entrepreneurs, but with the entrepreneurs, I when I teach it to them, I give them a money back guarantee that if I can't double their income within a year, I give them their money back. And I just show show them how to play the game of life at a 100% of their potential rather than 10 to 20% as most people do. Yeah. Wolfe, that's an incredible opportunity.
I'm sure you've already captured the attention of some of the listeners, and and, they'll be looking to connect with you afterwards, but The as I told you before, you know, we hit the record button. It is the one book that I read every single year. And so I think that we'll have a lot to discuss here. But inside of the the businesses that you had before, you mentioned, you know, 3040. You were, you know, maybe upwards, but but sideways. Right? I I wanna know some of those decisions as Wolfe.
And then and then maybe we'll talk about what it looks like to go straight up. I'd like to maybe utilize that opportunity because because you're in a unique position, not only where you've done it, but then you also teach us how to do it as well. So we wanna take advantage of of, of your knowledge. And so Let's go let's go sideways or kinda upward sideways. Give me give me a good decision that you made in that frame of life. Chaz that you can look back on.
That's super practical that the listener can can draw something from. Well, you know, I I think the the good decision that I've made probably it 28 was deciding to be a an entrepreneur. And, you know, to to some degree, I think it was driven by I had bosses that I didn't like. I mean, I just, you know, I didn't think they were that sharp. Of course, what do I know it? At 27 or 28, but a little bit a little bit arrogance. I think we could all relate to it. Right.
Right. But but, you know, I mean, you know, if she likes somebody or not, And and I'm like, really, I'm gonna let other people control my destiny. I don't think so. Yeah. Wolfe, the we all have to have those moments. And for whatever reason, we begin, and so you you began your journey. What what about What about in in today's, like, upward trajectory? What's that good decision?
Obviously, you've kind of associated it to these Wolfe steps, but Give us something super practical that the listener can take away right now. Something easy that they can implement or a decision decision that you've made to let it's led to success. Okay. That's that's you know, I think the the decision, obviously, was having, you know, the presence of mind to go find the top book in the world on success and figure out the full secret and how to apply it.
But Right. But I'll give you something a little more practical. One of the things I I learned is how to set aside time, two times a week to deep think, to deep think, You know, this is a habit. The the, you know, great entrepreneurs of our time to Elon Musk, Bill Gates, And and I think Chaz is particularly interesting today because Chaz a society, we're a bunch of shallow thinkers. That's the effect of Yeah. Of the scroll through culture we live in Chaz people do not think deep.
And so I have sort of a free step process that I teach people how to deep think, and it takes, you know, about 30 minutes, two times a week. And it has been so transformative in my life that, you know, and and it's it's reaffirmed in my 12 minute a day technique, but Such a game changer. I I can remember one big idea that I was blessed to net some $6,000,000 from I just had a client of mine that this one idea of net is him an extra 2,000,000 a year. So, you know, it's just a powerful technique.
Yeah. Well, I love I love that you've aligned yourself with with that. There's obviously many things that can come out of think time. I do have a think time on my calendar, but I think that even the structure of how you go through that can sometimes be overwhelming, underwhelming. It kinda depends on on maybe the person's you know, experience leading up to that time and then then all the things that they have going on.
So, you know, what would you say for that person who's listening right now who maybe doesn't have a big business yet, and, you know, they are hearing you tell them that there's a specifically, they they don't know it yet. They're gonna have to reach out to you for Chaz. But to put thinking time on their calendar, and they're thinking, I don't even have time to eat lunch. How am I gonna put time on the calendar guns? I think I don't buy that for it. It's freaking second.
But, you know, I'd tell you, I you know, a few years ago, I got to know Tony Robbins, and I was telling him about this. And he says, If they don't have 12 minutes a day, they don't have a life. And I'm like, yeah. I buy that. Yeah. So there's just make time, right, because people do what they wanna do? Well, you know, people are doing so many things. It just are immaterial.
You know, I remember when I had a company of a 175 people, I'm looking around and, like, you know, Only about 5% of what we're doing really moves the needle. The other 95% really doesn't move the needle. Why don't I just focus on that? And that's true of the vast majority of people. Don't you think? Oh, I agree. Completely. How does one Chaz maybe doesn't I mean, they're they're in Chaz, I don't have a life stage, right, where they're chasing tail and, you know, sun up to sun down feeling.
How do they get to the perspective where they can identify that 5% so they can focus and dial down? Wolfe, you know, I think it starts by realizing that if you keep on doing what you're doing, you're gonna keep on getting what you're getting. And so if you're happy with that, more power to you, not happy with that, then you gotta start somewhere doing something different. And and this this thinking time idea to me is is this sort of the starting point of what I really really teach.
And and, you know, you'll see Wolfe you once you learn this technique for thinking it'll drive you to figure out what moves the the needle. You know, that's one of the key aspects of it is is you ask yourself question. Well, the first question I always encourage my clients to to ask is what moves the needle in my business or in my life. You know? And, you know, sometimes it's it's like in their life. It's like, you know, I'm single, I need to find a mate. Well, okay.
Chaz, yeah, that that would move the needle if you found a great mate. Right? And then if it's in your business, you, you know, you can dig into that. You'll see it if you look for it. Yeah. Yeah. We do find what we're looking for. And and you had even mentioned it earlier when you're talking about the thing grow rich, you know, the author doesn't just spell it out. Right.
He he leaves room for you to be able to, you know, connect the dots, which makes it even more powerful for you because now it's you that connected them. But that's how it works is that you have to lead yourself to a place where there isn't necessarily a a a 3 step formula, you can have a 3 step formula to get to that place. Right. But that place is up here. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
You know, you maybe maybe that now would be a good time maybe to share sort of how I discovered the secret and what the secret actually is. Sure. Yeah. Lay it on us. Well, and and he here's something I didn't share with you. And when I was telling you my story, at 50. You know, my mom was dying of pancreatic cancer at 50. And I was living in Dallas, at the time. And so as I'm, you know, feeling this scarcity of time and feeling this unhappiness with my my life, she's dying of pancreatic cancer.
And so every day, Jay, as I go see her after work, and I'd, you know, hold her hand and love on her and Then I'd walk out in that cold dark parking lot and just cry my eyes out, like, for 30 minutes every night. And You know, I didn't want her to see me crying because I knew she would know she was dying. I'm sure she knew it anyway, but And so this goes on every night. And, you know, I never had that type of, emotional upheaval on a on a daily basis.
And, obviously, it was happening because I was losing my mom, but but I knew there was something more to it than that. And, you know, as I started thinking about that, I realized that I I felt like I was letting my mom down with my lie because my mom and dad gave me everything. They they sent me to Joshua High School in Dallas, They sent me to the University of Texas, and I didn't have to work. And, you know, I'm like, all I've got to show for it is an average life.
And, Chaz, I hated the average life. Yeah. Because I I just knew I was capable of so much more. That's right. And and, you know, I see that that that feeling was like rocket fuel and causing me to go deeper into thinking grow rich than anybody else on the planet. And that's why I think I was blessed to figure out the full secret when other people couldn't. I just had this intense motivation. And like I said, I probably read the book 20 times, in, like, a 2 month period of time.
Yeah. And, you know, I remember the night that I really figured out the full secret, and it was It was snowing that night, which didn't happen very often in Dallas. And and so, you know, I'd gone to the hospital and I'd seen my mom, and I'm in the car crying, and now I'm starting to drive home. And I, you know, I see those big snowflakes hitting the car. And so Chaz as I get home, and I pick up thinking grow rich, and I I start reading it.
And it says that your success in life comes down to your daily action. The the cumulative effect of your daily actions determine your success in each area of your life. Yeah. Like, okay. Never really thought about it like that, but I'm by that. And then it said something that surprised me. It says that 90 5 percent of your daily actions are unconscious. I'm like, Okay. So I'm now I'm I'm sort of tired, and I'm ready to go to bed.
And so I brush my teeth and wash my face and get in bed, but I can't stop thinking about 95% of my daily actions are unconscious. And I'm like, Wolfe, wait a minute. You know, if my daily actions are what determining is determining my success and 95% of them are unconscious, that I don't control the very thing that determines my success. And I've been realized, why no, I control something I control my intentions.
I control I control my intentions, and I saw that to control my daily actions I had to rewire my autopilot, and that's why in my story, when I said, then the right actions happen automatically without thinking Yep. That was why why it was happening because I had rewired my autopilot. Yeah. And and so as as now that sort of came together, then if it just felt like almost magically, the full secret came to me.
And and here's the the part of the secret, Napoleon, he'll gives us, is that everything starts with a thought. When I read that, I'm like, well, yeah, but where do I go with that? And then I realized, here's the full secret. Of Think And Grow Rich. What you envision in detail with emotion on a daily basis is what shows up in your life. And let me say that again. What you envision in detail with emotion on a daily basis is what shows up in your life.
And what that really means is you take your life and you create immense clarity about it. You know, exactly the person you wanna be exactly what you want to accomplish and precisely how you're gonna achieve your clearly defined goals. And so you take all that clarity and I put it on a template so that it only took 12 minutes a day to read, and then you start feeding that clarity to yourself every day, and it takes 12 minutes a day.
And after 21 days, sort of the magic happens, the science kicks in and what you're feeding yourself truly does start showing up in your thoughts and actions automatically. And and once you do this, three things sort of happen, I found. First, you have an immense sense of control over your life. Because, of course, you would. If you're feeding his succinct articulation of your life to yourself every day, of of course, you would feel control.
Yep. And then the second thing you you feel is confidence because, you know, that's that sense of control. If you've, you know, if you if you're not confident because you don't feel in control. Right.
And so that's the power of creating this sense of control And then the then the third thing, you know, you're a just able to do things you couldn't do before, and that's that's why I said earlier that that, you know, you go from operating at at 10 to 20% of your potential to a 100% and and you can feel it. So that's how it works. Yeah. I mean, you you gave us a lot more and a lot more detail. Than that I anticipated.
So I hope the listener just takes my advice right now and hits the pause button. Hit the rewind button and that listens to John again because he's given you the exact script. Napoleon gave the exact script, but John's given you the the really understandable version. And so I just I can tell you from this side of the microphone that I've applied these same principles and have gotten the same results.
In fact, even in sales, for for many, many years, I would talk about these, you know, writing down the target and writing down certain things and saying them yourself just like he, like, like, he talks about in the book. And, what it does is it builds confidence. Confidence is the ultimate drug. And Right. And it and it and it puts you into taking action. And then that gets you a little bit of result. And a little bit of result, you go, pay. Oh, I feel control because I did this.
I took a little action, and I get a little result. Makes me wanna do a little bit more. And so I just love the upwards with the upward spiral that it creates, and it all starts from you, or in this case, your thought, as you said earlier. I love how to. You didn't say this, but, I just wanna give a, like, an attaboy to you, but it's really because the listener can do the exact same thing.
Your burning desire to change something is what led you to the book, what led you to, like, really dive in, like, not just read it once, skim over it, write a couple notes, and move on. Right. It was this imminent, like, this thing, and he talks about it in the book. And that that part is then what fuel is obviously the rest, and you can get clarity and you can put put together a plan and all the stuff that comes after Chaz. But if you if you aren't, attached to something.
If you don't really want it, then you're just gonna read the book, skim it, and move on and go back to how things were they, you know, like they were before. And so I love how you started this whole conversation off with. Well, first off, if you're happy doing the thing, Howard, do you? Yeah. Hi. Because if you're not happy, then that that's the Chaz the beginning thought of something different. Well, you know, Chaz, it's interesting. This this is for high achievers.
And and I'll tell you, I I know you I know you're a high achiever. I have no doubt about that, but you'll find this interesting So a few years ago, I thought, you know, I'm gonna go find the top expert in the world on success and see what they think about it, you know, whoever he or she might be. And so I decide that Darren Hardy is the top expert in the world on success. So I go and I write a big check spend 3 days with Darren, and then I show him what I created, and I took my template.
And I he looks at it. Wow. This is It's really good because John, people aren't gonna spend 12 minutes a day on this. And I'm like, Darren, how the heck can that be at 25 x my income. Time magazine did a cover story on the science behind it. We're applying the central concepts. The topic were on on success. He goes, Wolfe, John, you know, you're you're new to the success industry. He says the dirty little secret is that most people won't do anything to impact their success.
And he says, you only need to show this to people that are really driven. He says it's really only about 2% of people out there. And you know, when I heard that, I'm like, wow. You know, that doesn't seem right to me, but he knows more than I do. He's been in this business and boy, was he not correct? You know?
And and so that's why I'm like, I'm only working with people that are really driven and that are serious, you know, because my time's valuable as is theirs, but, you know, you gotta be driven, and and most people aren't. But if you are, I love teaching it to them. Exactly. It's funny too because it's you know, it's the person or the people of the mass that that need it the most, probably Yeah. Right. That never do anything with it, which makes it sad.
But it also allows for, you know, ultimate clarification, even in what you and I do. And, you know, I I'd Dealing with the right person, this is just marketing in general. You got the right avatar. It just everything becomes easier. But when we're talking about a concept like this, you're a 100% right. If somebody doesn't want it or want success or want to grow their mind, in that way or their the output of the input, you're just talking to a brick wall. Right. And it just doesn't work.
Wolfe, and, you know, there's another book that was read right after Chaz Napoleon Hill wrote right after Ingram Ridge was it's called Outwitting the Devil. And he talks about how you have the the the driven and the slackers. And 98% of people are slackers. I mean, this was sort of brutal to say that, but yeah. But and I've been thinking about this. I'm like, you know, humanity is geared to survival and and and to propagate the the species.
And if you have much more than 2% of people being really driven. It doesn't work. You know, god made it to work like it works. And and, you know, you and I think, well, god, you know, there should be more driven people. No. That's how we're we're geared.
And and, you know, that that brings up the other issue that most people don't realize is that that we are wired for survival, which which causes the vast majority of our of our philosophy fear based, and we're reactive rather than proactive on our important end up. And so when you combine that with the fact that 95% of your daily actions are unconscious, Those two things a lot of people don't fully know.
The effect of that is when you open your eyes each day, you're on autopilot Most a day, innately wired to be fear based and reactive, which is exactly the opposite of how you wanna be if you wanna be productive, creative, and happy. Yeah. Exactly. To to your point, it keeps you in that place of average. And you already mentioned that you hated the average life. I think that most high performers have that disdain of average. Yeah. Like so I think that that's where it starts.
The cool part is is that, John, there's nothing there's nothing that you and I are talking about that the the average guy right now listening can't implement to become not average anymore. Right. It's not like it's only for those 2% who are already there. Right. He can become or she can become the 2% right now. Right. That's the choice that we have. Right?
Exactly. Well, I and, you know, I think something that might help your your audience is is giving you a practical example of how this this works and why why I said it really feels like a superpower. And this happened a while back Christmas. One of my clients that lived in Portland decided to come to San Antonio, which is about an hour from Austin. It is around Christmas, and I decide I'd take my wife and we go out and have dinner with him and his girlfriend.
And so I tell Jen to meet me at Starbucks that like, 2 o'clock. It's on a Friday. I get there a little early. It's Christmas. I'm like, you know, I'm gonna have a brownie. So I have a brownie and I start eating that brownie. And in my 12 minute day technique, I affirmed myself that I I'm aware of everything I put in my mouth. Okay? Well, I'm eating that brownie. I'm aware of it. I'm aware it doesn't taste very good. And but I finish it, and the gens shows up.
We jump in my car, tried to San Antonio, and I tell her, you know, I just don't feel very good. I lost my appetite, and I just don't feel that good. And so, Chaz, when I get home that night, I change one word in my template. I call it the life GPS template. I changed it from I'm aware of everything I put my mouth to I evaluate everything I put my mouth. Wolfe, the next night, we go out and have Mexican food with her son, and I order tacos, tacos come. And they're not very good.
But this time, Chaz, I just slide those tacos away. I don't have another bite and it all happened automatically without thinking. And I remember laying in bed that night. I'm like, boy, if that's not super power. I don't know what is when you can make yourself take the right actions without even thinking. Right. Do you agree with that? Oh, I I couldn't agree more. I think that most the the 98% that we've been talking about look at the 2 and think it's a superpower.
And it is because it feels like that, but all it all it really is is the super practical thing that you did, not only in just the understanding of, like, oh, I ate something. It did, like, okay. To calculate calculate. I don't wanna do that again. Make small adjustment. And then adhere to small adjustment. And it it really is that simple. But, you know, here's here's the thing to think about, though. When I tell people, 95% of your daily actions are unconscious. Most of them do not believe it.
And and I didn't believe it either. I might add. Yeah. I mean, you can Google it, and it'll say in big dark letters, 95% are are unconscious. But what but I the easiest way for me to explain it, is if you really look at your life, you know, can you consciously make a take an action? Sure. Like, if I decide I wanna touch my forehead, I can consciously do Chaz. But the vast majority of all the things are going on in your daily life are unconscious.
And, therefore, you've gotta be wired to take the right actions And the only way you wire yourself properly is a is a morning routine that impacts your mindset by feeding the succinct articulation of your life and what you want to accomplish to yourself. That in a nutshell is Think And Grow Ridge. Yeah. I love what you said too because your wordage even changed, but even being aware. You can be aware. Like, I could be aware of an unconscious move.
But just because I'm aware of eating the brownie that I know I shouldn't be eating, doesn't stop me from the wrong action. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm wired in a certain way to oh, I want the brownie because I think it's gonna taste good or it's gonna give me some sort of a thing that I'm after that subconsciously I'm making the choice. You know, that's a very good point.
I never thought about it like that, but I I like that that you're you're sort of aware of it, but it still didn't stop you from doing that. Exactly. You can be aware or unaware. And I think that's where where you said most people are in disbelief Chaz 95% or it is unconscious is because they think, well, no. I I've been here all day. They think I'm asleep. Right. If I if it's if it's unconscious, it's like, no. No. No. You're you're awake, but you eat the same five meals. Right.
You go you go to the bathroom generally at the same routine every day. You Right. Yeah. I stand at my desk. I I I like to have my my mic right here in the corner because or whatever. Like, it's all we just do it. Over and over and over again. It doesn't mean that I'm not aware of it. I know I like my mic right there. Yeah. Right. Right. But if I need to change that for some reason, I need to be more than aware which is what you brought to us, which is it's not just awareness.
There's another level I have to know how to adjust it, which is the re autopilot piloting Chaz that you you're creating a a script for. So I I love where we're going. I do wanna get into a before we hit the the The speed round here, I wanna know of a bad decision that you've made. In your career somewhere, save us some time, John. What have you done? That we shouldn't do. Right. I I've made a few bad decisions.
You know, I think I think maybe poor decision was I was in my thirties, I I got out of the real estate business. I started out in in real estate development around a tax shelter idea. That's what sort of launch me into being an entrepreneur. And it it all happened right as the real estate market in in Texas is who Chaz about to crashes back in the eighties.
And in retrospect, I see that if I had just stuck with real estate and gained you know, ongoing experience in that and wisdom Chaz that would have been a great thing to do instead of going from one thing to another, to an neither, you know, Chaz some success in them. It it's it went as much success as I wanted. Yeah. It so good. It's something that I even relate to because as high performers, high achievers, as you mentioned earlier, but we're capable. And we talked about this on a show a lot.
Because you can be in a lot of areas all at once, and it feels like, you know, successful, right, but not at the potential that we both know that we have. And so Wolfe you say that, you know, whether it had been staying in real estate or just maybe the more idea of, like, mastering Like, what are dialing in on one thing? Is is that the principle that you're sharing with? Yes. I think so. But, you know, you gotta master something that's got long term legs. That's right.
You know, like like like in real estate. I'm a big believer in residential real estate in in really apartments because Everybody's gotta have a place to live. And especially with home prices going up, it makes apartments more attractive, but but, you know, you could gotten into the office buildings. Well, that's gonna be down the tubes, basically. So it's got and, you know, in this world, things are changing so quick. You know, maybe maybe it's marketing. Maybe there's always gonna be marketing.
There's a foundation for being an entrepreneur. Yeah. But Yeah. All all those things are great. I think that, you're 100% right Chaz that a focus, but you can't You can't spend your life in the wrong vehicle focused, you know, writing big results. And, you know, I tell you, Chaz, one of the things I get is is from people is, well, what's what's different than with this Chaz everything else in the success business. And and I see the difference really is that everything else is strategies.
And and oftentimes, very good strategy. She's a I might add. Yeah. But we got afraid. She's coming out our ears. What we've gotta have is a is a strategy that makes the right actions happen automatically without thinking. That's that's the game changer for with what at least how I see it Chaz what I do is different than everybody else in the success business. It's good. I love it.
Okay. And, you know, the the and I also see sometimes that people, well, their objection is, well, you know, this won't work on me. This is pure science. This is leveraging you through science. It it can't not work. You know? So Yeah. I love it when somebody says, well, it won't work on me. Wolfe, and I would venture to say that that they're right Chaz it'll work or that it won't work. Based on their decision. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Good point. You're right.
It won't work for you because you've already decided that it won't for you, which is funny because that's how life works in general. People people get what they find. You already told us that, you know, 15 minutes ago, but you found what you were looking for because you were looking for it. Right. It it it's not that difficult, but people get what they want.
And and, you know, I think one thing I've learned in in all my years on on the planet is you got to have something that gives you an edge, an an advantage. And I look at this. In fact, I'm teaching this I don't know if I mentioned this to you, but I'm the mental coach for the head coaches at the University of Texas and Okay. Which is a great gig.
And, you know, so I'm I'm teaching them a lot of this and and in particular, I teach not only the coaches, but the athletes because they're the they're the group of students at any college that are the highest achievers. And I teach them. My program is called the Edge. And with the idea, I wanna give you an edge in life. And because If I had learned at 21 when I learned at 50, oh, man. I don't know what would it it would have been good. Yeah. Exactly. Well, you're a 100% right.
And as entrepreneurs Chaz high achievers, we're always looking for an advantage. We're always looking for the edge. Right? And so that's a 100%. Right? And, that's it's exactly why someone's listening today. It's exactly why you and I are even on the pod because there's Right. An advantage that I can get from you and you, for me, just simply being here today, whether nobody was listening to it or not. Right.
Okay. In the speed round here, John, I wanna ask you some questions Chaz I ask every single guest. Okay. And and you can you've got obviously a range of business experience, you know, industries and such, but I wanna know if you can only track one thing in business and we can go super practical or conceptual. It doesn't matter to me. What would that one thing be? How many leads are coming in each week? Easy enough. And why and why is that your decision?
Because You know, the 2 biggest factors in any business is the entrepreneur themselves and marketing. And that's why, you know, in in when I work with entrepreneurs, I'm like, Let's get you up to playing the game at a 100% instead of 20%. So let's do that. And then as we get that in place, Let's focus on marketing and and let's understand, you know, how many leads are let's you can't manage what you don't measure.
And so let's start with how many leads you're getting and what what then what percentage of those leads are turning into sales and, you know, Management. Yep. I love it. K. You've already given us, obviously, the book on success. Any other resource that's been helpful to you or maybe even another book that you'd recommend for a listener trying to I tell you a great book is psychosyvernetics. Have you ever heard of psychosubbers? I have. Yes. Yeah. Tell tell us what you got from it, though.
Well, you know, when I was nineteen years old at the University of Texas, I, like and, like, I told him my story. I went to JesHwood High School, and and I was not a good student at Jeshwood. You know, I made Yeah. I'm 8 c's, but I was into, you know, playing football and playing tennis. So so but I go to University, Texas. I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna crush this. So, you know, I went to private school. Well, it it crushed me. I I make c's and d's my 1st semester. I'm like, Wolfe.
You know, something's wrong here. And so it's saying some somebody fortunately gave me the Kybernetics, which is an amazing book on Wolfe image. And I read that book and learned how to study. And it was so transformative. And and, you know, one of the things I see I don't know if you see this, but so many people have this negative inner voice in in them.
And and I just went to a retreat where there were 10 other guys just outside of Atlanta and and 8 of the 10 said they had a negative inner voice. And I'm like, why would you put up with Chaz? You gotta have an inner voice that says I can accomplish anything I set my mind to. Yeah. Let's fix Chaz. And And this book, psychosubernetes, does a great job of of writing yourself image. Yeah. It's a big deal.
You can even take it as far as, you know, pessimism versus optimism and how it's naturally ingrained or how we learn it. There's even a book called learned optimism that that breaks this down as well, but all of these very controllable things. That's that's what I love about all these resources that we've talked about here. Anybody listening today can grab those, study them, as you just said. And change the output that they're that they're getting.
That is what I love about it is because you have the control to do it. But you also have the control not to do it. Right. Right. Well, you know, you you hit on something that that is really interesting. I've thought about a lot. There's a there's a book, and I think it's related to Think and Grow Rich where thoughts or things.
And the idea is that there's this part in your your brain, you know, that that decides actions because, you know, you have a thought, then you take an action, and then something happens. And he talks about how, you know, you are innately wired to either be optimistic or pessimistic. And or and you're also innately wired to be lazy or not lazy. Well, the way that plays out though is there's a part in your brain that makes decisions on actions that you're gonna take.
And if you're not wired to be optimistic, then you know, it's always weighing. What is the benefit versus what is the effort to do it? Well, the benefit is to ever perceive to be great enough. Right. Just like if you're lazy, you know, the effort is never worth it. But it's a powerful concept. It is. And I We could probably have a whole podcast just on that, I think. Yeah. No kidding. But you're right.
There there's a little bit of and actually, actually, I think this makes a it makes your point of dialing it in every single day in in 12 minutes using your step because if whether you think like that naturally or not, you can you can position yourself to do it, and then it's just a matter of them filling it with the things that you want on the output. Whatever the input is is what the output's gonna be at a maximum level. And so now we're just talking about leverage.
And so if you if you have a inner voice that's negative or if you have a situation where someone else thinks optimistically and you think Well, that's not worth it, effort, and or result. Then you you recognize that, okay. Well, maybe I maybe I have a tendency towards this. Okay. Fine. Yeah. It's not like you're it's not like we write you off as, like, your scum of the earth, but there are very practical things that now you can go do.
Now you have this acknowledgement, around being able to modify and grow in that way. I mean, there's so many things about my personality that I'm tendency to do x, and I'm like, that's not helpful. I need to I need to grow in that area. Chaz is just awareness and growth.
And and so we just happen to be talking about in the mind, specifically, and I just I just continue to bring it back over and over again because you and I both know that anybody listening, no matter their background, single mom family, or not. It doesn't matter. They can rewrite the story starting right now. Right. Right. Well, you're you're so right. I mean, it's life is a state of mind. And, you know, the key I out with with my methodology was creating this template.
And it's been interesting because when I started working with the coaches at the University of Texas, I thought the my methodology to the athletic director. And and if you don't mind me bragging about the University of Texas, and we're the biggest Sports brand in college football. We take in more money than anybody else. Yep. There you go. And and there's Texas. Right. And and the athletic director's highest paid athletic director in the country. And so I taught him my methodology.
And as I got going with him, I was like, Chris, let's let's make Texas the goal standard for mental training and conditioning. And so in that effort, I started going and finding the top sports psychologists in the Wolfe, and I'd meet him, then I'd bring him to him And and from that process, I got some great pearls of wisdom that I put in my template.
This the course of temple is being been developed over 18 years, but it's, you know, back to your point, You may be inclined this way or that way, but, you know, the beauty is the subconscious mind doesn't Chaz have a Then reactive logic. You can you can if if you're not confident, but you tell yourself you're confident. Guess what? You become confident. I mean, it's amazing. It really is that simple.
I again, we're we're probably gonna have to just do another show because I think that you and I We could probably just get a get a an island and talk about the mind for a while, but it's really, really good stuff. So I just wanna encourage a listener that whether whether you're tracking with us or not Chaz the starting point for you can be right now. And and then the rest of the story is is written by you. So I just wanna encourage you.
Now I got one one major speed round question here for you before we end with my final question. Okay. And it's gonna be a pretty pretty great one for you because it's it I I personally started gathering the king's my or a mastermind because of thinking grow rich and how it talks about masterminds. And what I had found is that I couldn't find a real mastermind. What I found or marketing tactics that got me to spend money and get around people. And then there was no there was nothing.
There was nothing there. It was empty. And so I love that. You're so Alright. Just, and so I wanted to truly mastermind with high quality individuals. Go figure. Right. So my question is always the same, which is, what do you think about intentionally networking with other entrepreneurs, networking, and our Master Mining.
And so I'm gonna present that question to you, but, obviously, we have a unique perspective on Mastermind because it it comes from Thinking Gorrich, and he goes in-depth in the book on what that means for him. And even the mastermind that he had in his own mind by himself, with other people, Right. Which is just to kinda get out there a little bit if you don't fully understand what he's doing, but what are your thoughts on that? You know, I think you are so right.
I I was just in a mastermind not too long ago that I was invited in. I'm like, all this feels like is therapy. You know? You know, I'm not learning anything I mean, I thought I thought the purpose of it was great to help each other, but but I I just didn't see it. It happening. And just like you were saying, and I think I re I see how powerful it is to learn from other people.
You know, I I learned part of at 50 how to be a conduit of learning where I have the wisdom of experts coming into my head every week, and it's strategic relative to what I wanted to accomplish. Cause I see, you know, if you ask people today, do you grow? They'll go, yeah, I'm I'm listening to Joe Rogan. Well, that's not that's not growth. That's for entertainment. You know? And so I think to your point, I I'm a big believer in masterminds if it's done right.
I haven't personally seen it done right, but I'm I want you to take the ball on that one. Well, I you're right. It is funny how, you know, Chaz your your word therapy. I I think that there's there just to bring a little bit of clarification to this mastermind idea. What we talk about in the book This is strategic, like, your mind in my mind, whether we're talking or not, actually.
This is kinda where it gets a little odd, but, like, we could transmute energy and ideas back and forth by simply just running with each other. Right?
And there's connection between the two of us Chaz long as we are intentional, and I think good willed about it, that we start spending time together, getting to know each other, and whether I have said anything to you or not, or I'm just simply in the in the room, and I heard you say something, even to somebody else, if I'm looking for something, it goes back to the principal we talked about earlier. Right? I'm looking for something. If I'm looking for an answer, I'm going to get it.
And that could be simply just because I was in the same room as you. And maybe you were talking about something that was heartfelt to you or that was a struggle for you and maybe felt more therapeutic. So for me, the mindset of being able to get the strategic, like, getaway is you're gonna get whatever you're looking for. We've already talked about that here today on this very show. Right. Inside of, obviously, relationships, now we're over here, you have humans And humans need connection.
Humans need interaction. They need camaraderie. We wanna be around people who are like us, and so Then now you have another dynamic, I think, where which is okay. So who do you want to be around? Atomic Habit talks about this, where you are to join a group of people who have the habit that you desire also and now it becomes a group effort as opposed to an individual effort.
And then even more so, you stay in that group to solidify it, even you have gotten it all the way in, you still stay there, and then it ends up you end up, you know, helping other people, which was how we started this whole thing with with with what you do. So I think that if you think about it from 2 perspectives of, 1, there's, like, business strategy, knowledge, ideas, like, you know, stuff. And then there's the human element of, well, there's gonna be ups and downs.
There's gonna be a little bit of a roller coaster. There's gonna be things that we need to talk through as almost like a brotherhood or a a camaraderie, those two things together, if done well, I think Chaz be super impactful, and that's kinda where You know, I feel like some people just don't know how to facilitate. Some people just don't on the back end. They hear watch some videos and then, like, do better in your life and business.
And it's like, I think we gotta do this a little bit different and better. You know what I mean? Wolfe, well, but but Chaz, think about this. Let's let's say you and I did a mastermind and me. You know, what's gonna influence either one of us is not the other one telling us something. It would be influenced by questions, like I would I would say. So, Chaz, what moves the needle in your life? That's right.
And you have to think about it and I challenge it and or accept it and and because I see you you influence yourself or other people by the quality of your questions. Not just telling them more stuff. That's right. That's right. And even in a relationship. Right? And so it's not a matter of necessarily getting around people, which I I say it like this often. I think we're saying the same thing.
Let me know what you think about this this idea, but I don't necessarily need at this point practical things to grow my business. I'm not saying that I don't need it because I'm sure there's things that you have and he has and he has and she has Yeah. That I'm like, oh, Chaz I should do that and I go implement it. Cool. Like, I'm all I'm all good with that.
But, really, what I need is to be able to put a situation before you And whether we come up with the same actual result or the solution, I'm not I mean, yes. That's good. I wanna watch you think. I wanna watch you dissect the solution or how you've got to it. That part for me is why I try to get around people and even why I do the podcast because I've learned things on how you think today just going back and forth with you. Yeah. Right. Right. And it's sit situational.
To your point, if you ask questions and you put things before it and you and you You mess with it. I wanna I wanna see how you mess. Like, where does your brain go first? Does it go to who's involved or what their roles are, or Does it is it environmental? Like, what what do you what what are the factors that you're considering before making a decision? That those are the things that are impactful to me. Right. Yeah. I think so.
You know, I'll tell you one thing I if you got is one more minute here Chaz that's clicking in my head the last few months, is, you know, we are all just a function of our genetics. What has come into our consciousness to this point? And whether we have testosterone or estrogen flowing through our veins because it those are the three factors Chaz cause us to be what we are.
And I have this has been very helpful to me because at a subconscious level, we all don't like people that are don't think like we do. Right. And and I see now, hey. We're all because we're because of those 3 factors, of course, we don't think alike. Right. And the and the key to moving things forward is is that habit for 7 habits a highly affected people of seek to understand before trying to be understood.
And so that's that's been my lately, my big focus I'm teaching this to the head coaches at University of Texas, and I'm trying to apply it to my own life. Yeah. It's a big deal. You make a a extremely good point. They can grow it even goes through it as well. Basically, you have to put yourself in a position where there's more than just your way of thinking. Otherwise, there's never any agitation to the way that you think. There's no agitation. There's no challenge.
If there's no challenge, then you just keep doing what you've always done over and over and over again. Perfect. Yeah. Alright. Last question here for you, John. Are you ready? Okay. You could whisper in the younger John's ear. What would you say? It's all gonna work out. You know, I I say that. I tell I told I just told my class this. On Tuesday, last Tuesday. I said, you know, it's and it's amazing to me. They're all there are a lot of anxiety with college students.
And and, you know, you and I think, well, what do they have to be anxious about? You know, they're freaking in college. Yeah. But they're anxious. And and they're like, I don't know, you know, what's real world gonna be like. And and, like, you know, you gotta have a belief that life is gonna work out. Now you gotta do your best, whatever your best looks like today, but it will work out. It will work out.
Yeah. And even in we I just showed him Steve Jobs' commencement address to Stanford, which is a classic And he says, you know, you can't connect the dots looking forward only going back, but the main point of his address was the dots do connect. Your life will work out. Just, you know, outlast the temporary get through the challenges and always do your best because that's all you can control. I love the words of wisdom there.
John, I wanna give you a second here to give where entrepreneurs can find you. Obviously, you and I have had an incredible talk, but someone listening here today might need they might need help. They might they wanna I wanna pick your brain. They might need your services. How can they find you? How can they hire you? Who who do you work with? Get just give us a little bit of insight there on on how they can connect. Well, my website is think it be it dotcom.
My email address is john@thinkitb@.com, and I got something special for your audience that I just created. I thought, you know, I'm gonna create a great video that explains the full secret of thinking grow rich, and I'm gonna put it on on YouTube. And so I spent a lot of time on this. I just got it last week. And so if your audience will send me an email The it's only 9 minutes long too. I didn't wanna, you know, a 50 minute video. 9 minutes explaining basically what we've talked about here.
I love it. Love it. Well, you've been more than gracious, not only with your time here today, but even offering a simple solution like that. I know I'm gonna on it because I wanna watch it as Chaz, but I just so appreciate you being here and giving of yourself and giving of your wisdom and your experience. I hope that the listeners take you up on that offer. And and I just wish you a blessing. Your family and your teams and everybody associated to you. Everything you have your hand too.
Thank you for being here, John. Okay. Thanks for the opportunity. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself.
What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300. Other very successful 789 figure business owners is Chaz It's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings literally exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you. And you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com.
I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.