544:  Your Next Step Toward Financial Freedom with Dr. Noah St. John

[INTRODUCTION]

 

Hal Elrod: Hello, friends, welcome to the Achieve Your Goals podcast. This is your host, Hal Elrod. And today, I am talking with Dr. Noah St. John. Now, this is really a full circle moment for me because I discovered Noah’s work in 2008, 2009, roughly, when I was doing research for the Miracle Morning book, and I came across his concept that he’s famous for. He’s known as the Father of Afformations, not affirmations with an I, but Afformations with an O in place of that I. And it’s a different take on affirmations.

 

What was interesting is, he really opened my eyes to the flaws with the affirmations that I still talk about to this day, that if you affirm something that isn’t true for you, if you say, “I am wealthy” when you’re struggling financially, it feels inauthentic and it doesn’t work, right? It actually is counterproductive because you create an inner conflict. So, when his team reached out a few weeks ago and asked about being on the podcast, he has a new book that came out he wanted to share, which we talk a bit about today. But I was excited, I was like, “Oh my gosh, yes, I know Dr. Noah St. John from Afformations.”

 

So, we nerd it out on that a bit today. Now, if you’re not familiar with who Noah is, he is an international keynote speaker and known worldwide as the creator of the 12-Week Breakthrough. Now, he works with Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes, and eight-figure company CEOs and is famous for helping people make more money in just 12 weeks than they made in the last 12 months while winning their lives back. Now, he’s also the author of 25 books, including his newest book, The 7-Figure Expert: Your Ultimate Guide to a Life of More Impact, Influence and Financial Freedom. And you can actually get a free copy of that book right now at 7FigureExpertBook.com. That’s the number 7, 7FigureExpertBook.com.

 

And again, today, we’re going to talk about Afformations and the difference between those and affirmations. And again, he has a unique take. It’s different from what I teach. It was really cool to hear another perspective on how to make affirmations effective. We all start with the inner and the outer games of success, and why the inner is often more important because it precedes the outer and how effective you are in your life. Now, there’s a moment in the interview today in the conversation, where Noah seems to– he kind of dismisses all self-help gurus. It’s kind of this blanket dismissal, and I push back, I said, there are many in our industry, who are brilliant, have helped a lot of people, including me. And I said, assuredly, you’ve had some people in your life, Noah, some mentor, some gurus, if you will, that have impacted you.

 

And so, you’ll get to hear him talk about, he kind of softens a bit and he shares the one person in the self-help industry who made the biggest impact on him and why. And then finally, I ask Noah to share why he expanded his expertise beyond personal development, which is where he started to really now helping people, specifically in the area of money, and achieving financial freedom. Again, his new book, 7-Figure Expert, you can get for free. And this is really his focus now is he helps people and his claim to fame is like, I can literally help people and he has case studies, make more money in 12 weeks than they made in their last 12 months. And so, yeah, I think that he’s a person that brings a lot of depth in terms of his background. He’s been in this industry for 27, 29 years, I think, so great conversation, and I think you’ll learn a lot. And if you specifically want to learn how to make more income, his book, which you get free is a great deal.

 

So, before we dive into the conversation with Noah, I want to take just a couple of minutes to invite you to check out our two sponsors because they have helped my life in terms of my nutrition. First and foremost, CURED Nutrition makes some of the highest quality whole food supplements that are based on adaptogens, mushrooms, and cannabinoids. That’s kind of their unique three-part formula that virtually all of their supplements are made with. I start every day with their supplement Rise. It’s a nootropic that helps with your cognitive ability, your focus. I take that first thing in the morning, about five days a week. So, I start my day with CURED Nutrition for focus.

 

And then I end my day with CURED Nutrition for sleep. And I take their supplement Night Oil. And then they also have Night Caps which are just a capsule version of the nighttime oil. And I take that about 45 minutes before bed, seven nights a week, whether I’m traveling, I mean, it is a huge, crucial part of my nighttime routine. So, if you need help with your sleep, I encourage you to check out CuredNutrition.com/Hal, again, that’s CuredNutrition.com/Hal, and use the discount code H-A-L for 20% off your entire order.

 

And then last but not least, our long-time sponsor, Organifi. Most of us could use more energy in our day, but caffeine can only do so much. And at some point, we need to look at the root causes of our fatigue. And it turns out two main factors in low energy are chronic stress and lack of nutrition. Organifi creates a delicious superfood variety of blends that address both of these problems. They use, similar to CURED Nutrition, adaptogenic herbs and mushrooms to help balance cortisol levels associated with stress, and they make it easier to add more nutrients into your day. You simply mix a scoop into water or plant-based milk of your choice, and enjoy a natural boost of energy any time of day.

 

Again, I use their products from morning till night, from their Red Juice in the morning before my workout to their protein powder after my workout. I take their turmeric supplement before bed to reduce inflammation. So, again, this is really my one-two punch, CURED Nutrition and Organifi. Head over to Organifi.com/Hal. Again, that’s Organifi, Organifi.com/Hal and use the discount code Hal for 20% off your order of Organifi as a listener of the Achieve Your Goals podcast.

 

All right, without further ado, let’s talk to Dr. Noah St. John and let’s explore the difference between affirmations and Afformations, as well as talk about how to take your next step toward financial freedom. Here we go.

 

[INTERVIEW]

 

Hal Elrod: Dr. Noah St. John, it is a pleasure to be with you, my friend.

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Thank you, Hal. It’s great to be here with you.

 

Hal Elrod: So, this is our first time speaking, but I don’t know if you know this, I discovered you roughly 15 years ago when I was doing the research for my book The Miracle Morning. And affirmations are one of the main components of the book. And you’re known as the Father of Afformations with an O, right? Afformations. And so, yeah, I was fascinated by your work back then.

 

And so, when your team reached out my assistant, he said, “Hey, you’ve heard of Noah St. John Afformations. He wants to be on your podcast,” I was an immediate yes. I thought, oh my gosh, this is like a full circle moment where I get to ask you these questions. So, I want to nerd out on the difference between Afformations and affirmations in a second, but first, let’s start with who you are, right? So, anybody listening that doesn’t know who you are, isn’t familiar, what is your background? How did you get into the work that you do now? How did you become the Father of Afformations? Let’s start with your background.

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Absolutely. Well, it started very organically. I grew up poor in a rich neighborhood. And I know that’s a total cliche, but it’s totally true. I grew up in this little town called Kennebunkport, Maine, which is one of the wealthiest communities in New England. But my family was dirt poor. and I mean that literally, because we lived at the bottom of a dirt road in a drafty, unfinished house that my parents end up losing to foreclosure. And I was just 15 years old.

 

So, from a very young age, I was painfully exposed to the gap, the chasm between the haves and the have nots. The haves was everyone else in the community and the have nots was my family. Now, I know that everybody listening to this program has heard motivational speakers. They’ll get up on stage and they’ll say things like, “Well, we were poor, but we were happy. We didn’t know we were poor.” Well, I’ll tell you what. In my family, we freaking knew we were poor because my mother, bless her heart, reminded us every day that we were poor and miserable. So, no, it wasn’t happy. It sucked.

 

And so, from a very young age, I hated that life of poverty, fear, lack, not enoughness, that’s what I grew up with. But I saw that right down the street, there’s great wealth in abundance. So, I literally said, “How the heck do I get from here to there?” Now, of course, there was no internet back then, there was no coaching and all the things we have today. So, I did the only thing I could think of, which is I went to the library, and I just went and I read every book in the self-help section. I just went to the self-help section, read every book, the classics, Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Stephen Covey. I read every book and I really, really tried to make it work. I worked really hard, but as hard as I tried, as hard as I worked, I just couldn’t seem to get it together. I couldn’t seem to get it to work.

 

And so, at the age of 25, I was so frustrated. I was broke. My girlfriend had just left me. It was like a country song, but it was really true. But anyway, I was just at a very, very low point, and I decided to take my own life at age 25. I decided to commit suicide. Now, at the very last moment, my life was spared, but I didn’t know why. And I said, “I’ve got to figure out what am I doing on this planet? Why am I here? What is my purpose?” And I didn’t know how to answer those questions. And so, guess what I did? I went back to the library and this time, I read every book in the spiritual section, all the spiritual thinkers of our time. And I really immersed myself in those books and that literature.

 

And now, fast forward five years after that, in 1997, I had these epiphanies, and I realized exactly what was missing in all those books that I’d spent all those years reading, and no one was talking about it. And so, I realized, “Aha! This is in fact my message, my mission, my purpose.” And so, I wrote my first book, which was entitled Permission to Succeed, and that was subsequently published by the Chicken Soup for the Soul publisher. And now, all these years later, I’m actually the only author in history who’s had works published by Hay House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Mindvalley, Nightingale-Conant, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul publisher. No one else in history has ever done that. I’m the only one.

 

And so, now, we’ve helped our clients at over $3 billion in revenues. We’ve helped people add multiple six-figure, seven, and even eight figures, while actually working less. And so, 25 books later, here we are today. And it’s been an amazing journey.

 

Hal Elrod: Wow. Twenty-five books, only person published by all those different major publishing houses, it’s incredible. So, I know that part of when you discovered your work in the shower, that shower moment, which many of us, our greatest breakthroughs come in those moments of silence, either falling asleep at night or taking a shower, maybe on a walk. But Afformations were a big part of that. And I’ve heard you talk about this. And so, I know you and I are very aligned on the flaws with affirmations, that well-meaning self-help gurus have taught for decades, right?

 

If you want to be wealthy, just say, “I am wealthy.” But then there’s an internal conflict because the reality of, but wait, I’m not wealthy, I’m actually broke. So, how does me repeating some lie, how is that going to fix things? And it doesn’t. In fact, I’ve heard you say there’s research that says people that use affirmations feel worse off because they’ve got this internal conflict. So, you had this realization that there was a flaw with the way affirmations were taught, and you came up with, you literally created a new word called Afformations, and talk about that. What’s the difference? What are Afformations? And my audience, I mean, they hear me talk about affirmations all the time. So, this is great. And you have a unique take on, like, you and I see the problem the same, but our solutions are slightly different. So, I’d love to hear your Afformations formula.

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Right, absolutely. Well, you’re absolutely right. It was in fact the shower that changed everything. And we all have had those, those aha moments in the shower. But for me, it was exactly what you’re talking about. And how come I’m using these affirmations? What every book talks about, I’m doing exactly what they say and I’m not getting anywhere. I had Post-it notes all over my room. I’m happy, I’m rich, I’m successful. Meanwhile, the reality was, no, I’m not. I’m broke, unhappy, and miserable, right?

 

So, what are they missing? What aren’t they telling us? And so, I realized that the human mind automatically searches for answers to questions. It’s called the embedded presupposition fact of the brain. So, I said, “If that’s true, then why are we going around making statements we don’t believe? Why don’t we just cut off the middleman?” And I said, “What would that look like?” Well, let’s see. And remember, this was back in 1997, a long, long time ago, where I had these epiphanies. Anyway, so I said, “All right, well, let’s see.” The statement is, and by the way, as a keynote speaker, I know you’re a great keynote speaker, and I am an international keynote speaker as well. One thing I like to do with my audience members is say, “All right, now, everybody, we’re going to do an affirmation, just like the gurus say. Now, everybody say I am rich.” And everybody goes, “I am rich.” You know what happens next? Everyone starts laughing. And I go, “What are you laughing at?” Well, they say, “Well, I’m not rich.” And I say, “Well, you just said you were.” And they go, “Yeah, but I don’t believe it.” So, isn’t that the problem with the old method?

 

So, what I invented was instead of saying these statements that we don’t believe, I said, “Why don’t we just cut out the middleman and go right to the question?” I said, “Well, what would that look like?” Well, you say you got the statement, I am rich, and brain goes, pfft, yeah, right, right? I mean, it’s called the yeah, right response. I got the yeah, right response on my books, on my training because your brain goes, yeah, right. All right, so if that’s the statement, then what would the question be?

 

And then I said, “Why am I so rich? Why am I so rich?” Now, when you ask that question, your brain automatically starts to search for the answer. And so, I said, this was April 1997, I was standing in a show, I said, “Holy cow, I think I just invented something.” And so, I had to give it a name. And as you mentioned, and in my books, this is my Hay House book called The Book of Afformations. So, again, for the folks listening, it’s spelled A-F-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N-S. And by the way, it has a little circle R there, which means I trademarked that term. I actually own that phrase. You can go to Afformations.com and learn more about that.

 

But Afformations is the method that I invented over 27 years ago, when I realized that the human brain automatically searches for answers to questions. So, now, what’s so great about my Afformations method is that we’ve helped over 2 million people all around the world to lose weight, find love, make more money, get their dream job, get out of debt, save their marriages. We had a couple in Germany who read my book, and the husband wrote to me, and he said, “No, we had the divorce papers on the table ready to be signed.” You can’t get any closer to divorce than that. And he said, “We heard you and we got your book. We started using your Afformations.” They tore up their divorce papers, and now, they’re madly in love again. I mean, that’s just one of a thousand, thousand examples. But it’s incredibly powerful using my Afformations method. And that’s pretty much how it works.

 

Hal Elrod: That’s powerful. And 27 years later, I mean, one of your recent books was, I think, Millionaire Afformations, right?

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Correct. That’s right. Millionaire Afformations, yep.

 

Hal Elrod: That’s a direction I’d like to go. So, with Afformations, it’s right. You’re not making a statement you don’t believe is true. You’re asking a question that automatically makes your brain search for answers to find examples of it being true. How am I wealthy? I’m wealthy because I have a home to live in. I am wealthy because I have money in the bank. I’m wealthy because I have children who love me and a wife. And then all of a sudden, now you feel empowered.

 

Let me ask you this. So, before we go into the next, let me ask you this, what would be the next step? Okay? So, if I’m like, okay, I’m not where I want to be financially, or with my marriage or my health or whatever, so I’m going to ask these questions that put me in an empowered state versus one of lack and scarcity. All right, so I’m in an empowered state. Okay, now, how do I go from, all right, I realize I do have some aspects of wealth, but I want to specifically earn more income, for example? What’s the bridge?

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Well, this is where it comes back to what I call my 12-Week Breakthrough method. And so, I’m known for helping people make more in just 12 weeks than they did in the previous 12 months while actually winning their lives back. So, it’s the opposite of the hustle and grind, all the hustle bros we hear out there, work 17, 19 million hours a day and it’s like, oh, that’s not sustainable. So, I teach the opposite of that, which is how to actually work less and make more just when it comes to money, but also your health and your relationships and so forth.

 

But so, it really comes down to these two things I’ve been teaching for over 27 years. And again, one of the reasons I’ve helped people make so much money is the inner game and the outer game. All right, so when you look at, and by the way, I’m the nerdiest nerd in the self-help industry. They call me the Sheldon Cooper of self-help because I’m such a nerd. And as a nerd, I love Venn diagrams. It’s my favorite thing. If you read my books, if you take my online courses, I use tons of Venn diagrams because, hey, that’s how it works. And we nerds love Venn diagrams.

 

Anyway, so this is my favorite Venn diagram, which is it’s just two circles, right? So, if you think of two circles that meet in the middle, one circle is your inner game, the other is your outer game. Now, the inner game is everything that happens between your ears that you can’t see directly, but it’s affecting everything that you do. The outer game is everything you can see directly that’s also affecting everything that you do, right? And where those two things meet in the middle, inner game and outer game, that’s where you have the phenomenon called success.

 

And the point is that many people have spent years and years and years focusing on one or the other, but the problem is they haven’t been taught how to do both. So, let me give you a quick example. I was speaking at an entrepreneur event in Los Angeles, about a thousand entrepreneurs, high six, seven, and even eight-figure earners and I was teaching what I’m talking about right now. And man, I was walking off the stage, literally, just walking off the stage. A man came up to me out of the audience. He said, “Noah, you are the coach that I’ve been looking for. I want to hire you as my coach.”

 

Now, I didn’t know this man from Adam. Ironically, his name was Adam. True story. And so, I said, “Okay, well, what’s going on?” He said, “Noah, I own this company, and we’re doing seven figures. We’re doing great, but we’ve been stuck at the same level for the past four years.” He said, “We’ve been hitting this income ceiling and I can’t break through.” He said, “As soon as I heard you talk about everything you just said, your Afformations method and inner game and outer game and everything you said,” he said, “I knew you’re the coach I’ve been looking for.” That’s why I love working with high achievers because they make decisions quickly and firmly. They don’t dilly-dally, they don’t mess around.

 

Anyway, so he decided to hire me on the spot. Well, I coached him for 18 months. In that 18 months, we got his company from a seven-figure that he’d been stuck for four years to over 20 million in revenues in less than 18 months. Now, how did I do that? Well, we did it by exactly what I’m talking about. He had been spending all this time, money, and effort on the outer game stuff. Now you need that, right? You’ve got to do the outer game. Let’s say if you’re in business or if you have a job, I mean, it doesn’t matter. If you have a job, you’re expected to do what you’re expected to do. You can’t just sit there and play solitaire, probably. You know what I mean? So, you got to do the things. And as an entrepreneur, you know, you got to do all those things, the sales, marketing, offers, blah, blah, blah.

 

But that’s the problem. He had only been doing that thing. No one had taken the time to teach him how to actually master his inner game. And that was what caused the breakthrough. So, to your point and to your question, for people who want to make more money, for people who want to lose weight, for people who want to be happy in the relationships, you have to do both, right? You have to do the outer game stuff, which probably most people have heard about and are doing, but probably they might be missing this inner game component. And that’s really what’s going to cause that. We call it that hockey stick growth.

 

Hal Elrod: Can you give us some specific examples of– what are some examples of the outer game, whether it’s financially or in business or in relationships or health? What are some outer game tips or strategies people can immediately go, oh, okay, I can do that, I can do that better, etc.? And then if there’s any other examples beyond Afformations for the inner game as well.

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Well, everything starts with Afformations. With my Afformations, my inner game methodology is really entitled the Power Habits system, the Power Habits of Unconsciously Successful People. So, what I’ve been teaching for over 25 years now is what highly successful people do unconsciously that they don’t even know they’re doing, number one, and therefore, they can never teach it. So, that’s why Afformations are actually the foundational power habit. So, that’s your inner game. It’s very, very important.

 

When we look at your outer game, I mean, that’s all the things that most people kind of know and kind of have heard of. For example, in your, let’s take weight loss, well, what do you need to do to lose weight? Everybody knows, lose weight, I mean, you got to eat right and exercise. No duh, right? We’ve heard that 10 million, billion, gazillion times. So, why is there an obesity problem in the United States? Well, ironically, it really is mostly your inner game, right? And same thing with, let’s say, your business. If you’re an entrepreneur, well, of course you have to have, I talk about the three basic things that you need. It’s a triangle. You need to master your leads, master your conversions, and master your sales. It’s like a triangle – leads, conversion, sales. If you’re missing any one, it’s like a stool with three legs, it’s going to fall over, right? So, that’s the outer game in business.

 

What’s interesting is that, take Adam, my client, for example. He spent lots of time, money, and effort, right? All the gurus are saying all the same thing, right? On and on leads and this, and again, you have to do it. It’s not like I’m saying to you it’s not important. Of course, it’s important. But of that $3 billion I’ve helped my clients make over the last quarter century plus, 90% of that has come from inner game. It’s just wild. People absolutely don’t realize or they just forget or haven’t been told how important their inner game is. So, that’s why I’m going to go about, that’s why that’s my favorite Venn diagram, right? Inner game and outer game, if you don’t put those together, you will hit an income ceiling in your income, you’ll hit a relationship ceiling, shall we say?

 

I mean, just use me as an example, prior to me learning all this stuff, when I was reading all those books and I hadn’t broken through, I was attracting a lot of, let’s say, not-so-great relationships, right? I think a lot of people can relate to that. And now that I mastered this, I was able to attract my dream woman. And I’m being very serious about that. I literally wrote down a list of qualities that I want in my dream woman. And after I wrote it, this is true, I literally said, “Okay, no, that’s impossible.” You can’t find a woman like that. She’s beautiful. She’s gorgeous, got a great figure. She’s blond. She’s shorter than you. I’m an average-sized guy, want someone shorter than me. I don’t want a tall one because I got a big ego. I don’t want to look like this in the pictures. She’s got to be petite. She’s got to not drink. This was it. She said, I got to have no tattoos, not drink alcohol, not do drugs. And this was the key, she can’t drink coffee. And I said, “No, that’s impossible. There’s no one in America who could fit.” I moved here to Ohio. Three weeks later, I met that girl who checks every box. And we’ve been together for the last 17 years now. So, hey, if it worked for me, it could work for anybody.

 

Hal Elrod: You and Darren Hardy, I know, right? He famously wrote every quality he wanted in his wife, and then she showed up.

 

Dr. Noah St. John: But the point is, I didn’t believe it. I mean, I wrote it and I didn’t think it was going to happen. And then what do you know, it actually did happen.

 

Hal Elrod: I think that’s true for most of us. And you mentioned that the inner game is almost always what stands in our way, right? It is our fears. It is our insecurities. It is our limiting beliefs. And even our bad habits, which our habits are kind of on that bridge between the inner and the outer game because it’s what you’re actually doing, but it’s the inner game that determines whether or not you actually have the habits in place that are serving you or that are sabotaging you, and whether or not you can change those habits. Yeah, so important.

 

So, I want to make a little bit of a shift here. You made a shift. And in terms of you’re now known, you mentioned it a few minutes ago, helping people make, what is it, more money in 12 weeks than in 12 months, which is a pretty bold claim, but I know you’ve done it. But my question is, you made this shift into helping people with financial freedom, like helping people really grow their business, become entrepreneurs and, again, just achieve financial freedom. Again, you went from what are affirmations book initially to Millionaire Afformations. And then your newest book is the 7-Figure Expert: Your Ultimate Guide to a Life of More Impact, Influence and Financial Freedom.

 

So, my question is, what inspired you? Was it just your own success? And you’re like, all right, well, I figured out how to earn a lot of money, so I’m going to help other people do it. But what inspired you to really shift to helping people in the financial arena? And then, of course, what inspired you to write this new book about building a seven-figure expert business?

 

Dr. Noah St. John: It really came from pain and frustration, which is I think a lot of entrepreneurs can relate to that, but just people in general. The point is that I discovered Afformations in 1997. When I discovered Afformations, I was living in a 300-square-foot basement apartment. I had no money. I literally had $800 in my bank account. I had no business experience, no marketing, no sales. The only funnels we had back then was funnel cake. So, I mean, it was like trying to build a house with a rock and some sticks. It was like ancient times, right?

 

But I realized that, because I had this message, this epiphany, if you want, I said, I’ve got to get my message out, but how the heck do I do that, right? I didn’t know, I had no clue. So, I had to invest or I decided to invest my money. Of course, I had very little money back then, but I put up a makeshift website. I wrote my self-published book and then, as I mentioned, I was published by Chicken Soup and things like that, but I still really didn’t know how to make money online. And I realized I got a global audience that I’ve got to reach here. Well, how the heck do I do that, right?

 

And so, it was just, as money would come in to my business, I would invest it. I would hire coaches, I would pay the gurus. I’d buy these different online courses. And what I realized over time was that these gurus suck at teaching. They truly suck. They cannot teach their way out of a paper bag. And I ended up spending over half a million dollars only to find out that these gurus cannot teach their way out of a paper bag. And so, I said, “What the heck is going on here?”

 

So, I pay this guy $10,000. I pay another guy $15,000. I paid so much money, and there would be a little nugget here and a little nugget there, but mostly, it was just pure frustration. And I would just say, “What the heck do you want me to do?” And they would never answer the question. And I’m like, “Wow, these guys suck.” And by the way, I’ve talked to many, many people who’ve had the exact same experience as I am, maybe haven’t spent as much money as I have, but have exact same experience with the gurus, right?

 

So, I said, “Okay, so what do I know how to do?” Well, yes, I know how to help people with their inner game. Great. I’ve written a lot of books about that. But then I’m like, “Well, wait a minute. I also know how to make money online because I spent all this money and I made some money.” So, I’m like, “Okay, why don’t we teach people how to do that?” Because the guys who are doing it can’t teach. And so, I said, “Why don’t you come in, Noah?” Because what people have said about me from the beginning is, “You know, Noah, I love how you break things down step by step.” And I’m like, “Well, of course, I do,” because that’s how I wish somebody would have taught me. And they never did. I would just pay them money and say, “Well, you just show me what to do and I’ll do it.” And they said, “Well, go get clients.” “Yeah, no kidding, how do you do that?” “Well, get your stuff out there, put out great content.” I’m like, “Okay, I’m going to shoot you now because after, no, you’re not answering the question.” And I was just so frustrated.

 

So, that’s where these books now came from is just frankly, seeing a gap in the industry, which is these sucky gurus, these sucky teachers. And what’s fascinating about that is these guys are great at getting attention for themselves. They’re really, really good at that. And frankly, they’re very good at making money for themselves. In fact, if you look at their success stories, well, there’s only one, themselves, right? Like, hey, look at my yacht, look at my jet, look at my helicopter. That’s great for you, buddy. Have you helped anyone else make any money? And not so much.

 

And so, I, what makes me different here is I’d rather brag about my clients than me. Sure, I’ve done well. I live in a nice house. The mortgage was paid out 27 years early. That’s great. But who cares? The only thing that people really should care about is have you helped other people? Do you have a system that works? And so, that’s what I spent all my hard-earned money on, not all of it, but all that money, you know what I mean? I spent a ton of hard-earned money to get basically nothing from those guys. And I said, “All right, let’s just put it together. Here it is step by step.” And frankly, I think that’s what makes my programs, my coaching, my books different.

 

Hal Elrod: Got it. No, I want to push back a little bit, and you mentioned there, and I agree there are a lot of “gurus” out there that may not be effective at what they teach. There’ve got to be at least one or two. There’ve got to be a few. And I’m curious who, have there been experts in your world? I know for me, there have been some defining experts or mentors that did help me along my journey. And I was like, wow, they really poured into me or they really had a system. So, I’m just curious, who have you learned from?

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Well, the first person who was my true guru was Stephen Covey. Back in the day, Stephen Covey, of course, I’m sure we all know from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I mean, he was my inspiration for getting into this business. And what was amazing was, and this is a true story, many years ago, back in the early 90s, I was in my church bookstore and I was looking for my next thing. This was before I discovered Afformations and Power Habits and everything. This was the early 90s.

 

And I was standing in my church bookstore and just browsing, and I heard and saw something fall at my feet. Now, I looked around, I’m like, there was no one around. I’m like, did the wind just come in? I’m like, that was weird. So, I looked down, I picked it up. And it was the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People on audiotape, and I had never heard of that before. I’m like, oh, that sounds interesting. I mean, what a great title, right? Literally, that was the first time I ever heard of it. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Oh, first time I ever heard of it. And I was like, this must be a sign from God here because I’m like, there’s no one around. This fell at my feet. I’m like, wow, that’s– anyway, so I put it in my cassette tape. And yes, it was a cassette. And I just listened to it four times and I was just crying. I was just crying as I was listening to this program by Dr. Stephen Covey because it was so powerful and I’m like, oh my gosh, this is my whole life. I bet my whole life, I’ve been living the 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People. I’ve been doing everything that he said in the opposite. I’m like, oh my God, this explains my whole life.

 

And so, I said, oh my gosh, I just started– that was when I really started dreaming about becoming an author. And I said, can you just imagine? And then I started listening to– this will date me, but Nightingale-Conant audio programs, as some of the folks listening will be like…

 

Hal Elrod: You’ve already made enough references to date yourself. Keep going.

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Anyway, you get it. Anyway, so I would just listen to those programs and I would just dream. I would literally be in my car listening to these programs and I’d say, “Can you imagine if people were driving in their cars listening to my programs?” I mean, that was my dream back then. And what’s incredible is that the first thing that happened was I actually got to do two programs with Nightingale-Conant, one of which was just called the Power Habits System, was actually voted one of their top 10 all-time customer favorites, along with people like Joe Vitale, Bob Proctor, Earl Nightingale, I mean the giants of the industry and little old me. I’m like, wow. So, that was number one.

 

And then number two, I actually did get to interview Dr. Covey back in 1996. Anyway, really, right before I discovered Afformations, it was right before, but again, I knew I wanted to be an author. I knew I wanted to do what he did, and I asked him a question. I asked him several questions. He was exactly what you would want Stephen Covey to be. He was just so perfect. I got 20 uninterrupted minutes with Stephen Covey, which was like meeting the Pope, or it was just my dream come true.

 

And I asked him this question, Hal, and I never forgot this. This is something that has guided me ever since then. And I asked him, I said, “Dr. Covey,” because, again, I wanted to be him. I wanted to do what he was doing. I said, Dr. Covey, how do you handle it when people just worship you, when they just are falling all over themselves, which, of course, I was doing. And I said, “How do you handle that?” And he said something that I never forgot and that I always remember to this day, every day, no matter whether I’m speaking on a live event or virtual or keynote speech for 1,000, 10,000 people, whatever it is. And he said to me, “Noah, I always want people to leave my seminars more impressed with themselves than with me.” Wow. I mean, is that powerful?

 

Now, isn’t that amazing because isn’t that the opposite of what all these gurus are doing right now? Hey, look at me. Look how cool I am. And don’t you want to be like me? Well, what Dr. Covey was saying, and again, we don’t really see this much anymore, is you can do it. You have the power. You are the one. It’s not me. It’s the power is within you. And I never forgot that. And I always try to embody that. Of course, not as well as he did, but he was my real, real inspiration for doing this and getting into this business and to this day.

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah, that’s beautiful. Yeah, that’s a true teacher. Someone that is saying, hey, this is not about me. It’s about you and bringing out the best in other people.

 

Dr. Noah St. John: That’s right.

 

Hal Elrod: So, the new book, here’s what I wanted to ask about it is, I think you’ve shared kind of what makes it different from, like, your focus is, hey, if you want to make money online, here’s exactly how to do it. Here are the steps. But my question is around, who is the book for? Because I’d say roughly, half of my audience, give or take, identify as entrepreneurs. Half do not. And of the half that do not, a good amount and at least half of those aspire to, like, oh, I’d love to leave my job, start my own business, but I don’t know how to start. So, my question is, if someone doesn’t identify as an entrepreneur, does your new book, The 7-Figure Expert, is it for that person or is it for someone that’s already an established entrepreneur?

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Whether you have been in business for years and years or you’re just getting started or you’re just dreaming about being an entrepreneur, like me, back in those days, just driving in my Subaru station wagon, dreaming of being an author and a speaker one day, I mean, that’s who I created this book for. So, it is called the 7-Figure Expert. And by the way, your listeners can get that book for free. We can let them know about where they can get that for free. But the 7-Figure Expert, I realize that a lot of people, really, that is like the gold standard, that’s the dream for a lot of entrepreneurs is, hey, how can I get to that consistent 10k, 50k, 100k a month, that’s really– now, for many, many, let’s say you’re just starting out, right? Or let’s say you’re even just dreaming of it. To have an extra $1,000, $2,000, $5,000, $10,000 a month, I mean, that’s life-changing money.

 

I remember back then when I started making that kind of money, I mean, it was, it was absolutely life changing because, I mean, I used to work what I call survival jobs. I did all those survival jobs because, of course, well, first of all, there was no internet back then. So, we really didn’t have these choices that we have available to us now. And so, I had to do that, but I looked at the next 40 years of my life working at those types of, again, I call them survival jobs. And I just was like, “Is that it?” I felt like I was on this earth for something more. So, if you’re feeling that kind of a calling, perhaps, that’s who this book is for as well.

 

So, it really is, I’d lay out all of my books, really, for what I wish someone would have told me years and years and years ago. If someone would have helped me with this, I mean, I’d be a gazillionaire, Hal, by now. So, I mean, I’m doing well. But still, it would have been nice to have this kind of systematic approach rather than the scattershot approach, which, frankly, is what’s out there mostly.

 

Hal Elrod: I want to mention something. I am reading an advance copy of another entrepreneur’s book right now, and she’s worth tens of millions of dollars and she talks about and she has everything from laundromats to mobile home parks to real– she’s got it all, right? And she says, “Let me tell you my four favorite types of businesses. Number one, digital businesses, online businesses.” That’s her number one.

 

And again, she’s got millions of dollars in laundromats and such. And the reason I’m– this literally just came up for me as you’re talking, because if anybody wants to be an entrepreneur, the beauty of an online business is it’s arguably the easiest, fastest, and lowest risk, right? A lot of people think, well, I want to start a restaurant because I love to cook. In fact, on her list of the seven deadly businesses to avoid at all costs, number one, is restaurant. And so, it’s like if you do want to be an entrepreneur, and you mentioned you can get the book for free, right?

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Yeah.

 

Hal Elrod: Where can people get the 7-Figure Expert for free?

 

Dr. Noah St. John: So, it’s very simple. I’ll just hold it up here as you can see. It’s easy to remember. So, it’s 7FigureExpertBook.com. There you go. Easy to remember. 7FigureExpertBook.com. So, the book is free because you’re listening to this program. I cover the cost of book. We just ask you to cover the shipping. So, we ship anywhere in planet Earth, 7FigureExpertBook.com, plus a ton of other bonuses, but yeah, that’s it, 7FigureExpertBook.com.

 

Hal Elrod: I love that. And by the way, one thing I’d love to know, for anybody listening, I always opt in, meaning I’ll order a book or I will opt in my email address. And unlike most people are like, oh, I’m annoyed because this person is sending me emails or whatever, I study, I go, oh, Noah St. John is a brilliant online marketer. And by the way, I literally opted into your emails a couple weeks ago and I’m saving them all in a folder, like study how eloquently Noah nurtures a new subscriber, markets to– I mean, yeah, I wanted to mention that.

 

But again, if anybody’s listening and being an entrepreneur is something, if you already are an entrepreneur and you want to grow your business, this book is free, 7FigureExpertBook.com. But if you’re like, I want to be an entrepreneur, but I’m scared and I don’t know what to do, I would argue there’s no better foray into entrepreneurship than being an online marketer. Again, my friend who has businesses, physical and digital, digital is her favorite because there’s no inventory, there’s no overhead, you don’t get to lease a building, there’s no rent. You literally don’t have to hire any employees, right? It’s like the lowest risk, highest potential reward that there is. Before we go, last thing, Noah, where can people go to continue learning from you?

 

Dr. Noah St. John: Well, if you go to BreakthroughwithNoah.com, also easy to remember, because I’m known as the breakthrough coach, BreakthroughwithNoah.com, you can actually watch video training that I’ve done about what makes my philosophy different, what makes my training different. You can watch videos of some of my successful clients, like Thomesa who tripled her investment in two weeks, Steven who increased by 800% in 12 weeks, and on and on and on. And actually, you can watch that interview with Adam, who I talked about earlier, going from 4 million to 20 million. Anyway, BreakthroughwithNoah.com, and that’s where you can also book a breakthrough call with me or one of my coaches and we can just literally show you step by step how you can implement these and install these systems so that you can scale up to whatever you want, if it’s six figures, seven figures, and heck, even eight figures, which I’ve helped many people do as well. So, that’s at BreakthroughwithNoah.com.

 

Hal Elrod: Cool. So, 7FigureExpertBook.com to get the free book and Breakthrough with Noah if somebody wants to either learn more about you, learn from you, book a call, etc. So, cool, Noah. Well, again, man, you’ve been in this game of serving people online for decades now. And so, thanks for helping people. I know that right now. I mean, I’m learning from you just on your email list. And I ordered the book. But for me, just to learn from someone that, I know that you care and I know that you know what you’re doing. So, appreciate the time today, man. It’s good to finally, after 15 years, actually connected face to face.

 

Dr. Noah St. John: It’s awesome, Hal. And I love the work that you’re doing, too. So, it’s a mutual admiration society, my friend.

 

Hal Elrod: All right, brother, until next time. Take care.

 

Dr. Noah St. John: You, too.

[END]