John Mitchell 0:00
Well, he’s a he’s a he’s arguably the top expert in the world on success. And so I, I figure out a way to get to him and I spend three days with him in and I show him what I created. And I show him my template, my 12 minute a day technique. And he looks at and goes, John, this is good. And he looks at it closer and goes, hmm, this is really good. But he says, you know, people aren’t going to spend 12 minutes a day on this. And I’m like, Darrin, how the heck can that be? It caused my income to go up by 25 times. Time Magazine did a cover story on the science behind it. And we’re applying the central concept of the top book of the world on success I have, how are people not going to spend 12 friggin minutes a day on this. And he sort of laughs and he goes, John, you’re new to the success and human achievement field. He says, The dirty little secret is that most people won’t do anything to impact their success and achievement in life. And he says, you only need to go find driven people because you need to find people where more success higher level of success is an absolute necessity, not merely a preference because if it’s just a preference, they just won’t do it.
Announcer 1:23
Welcome to CRE PN Radio for influential commercial real estate professionals who work with investors, buyers and sellers of commercial real estate coast to coast whether you’re an investor, broker, lender, property manager, attorney or accountant we are here to learn from the experts.
J Darrin Gross 1:43
Welcome to Commercial Real Estate Pro Networks, CRE PN Radio. Thanks for joining us. My name is J. Darrin gross. This is a podcast focused on commercial real estate investment and risk management strategies. Weekly we have conversations with commercial real estate investors and professionals who provide their experience and insight to help you grow your real estate portfolio.
Today, my guest is John Michell. John is a serial entrepreneur, and has created the top application in the world for the top book in the world, on success, Think and Grow Rich. And in just a minute, we’re going to speak with John about how you can apply the science of success to leverage yourself.
But first, a quick reminder, if you like our show, CRE PN Radio, there are a couple things you can do to help us out. You can like, share and subscribe. And as always, we encourage you to leave a comment, we’d love to hear from our listeners. Also, if you’d like to see how handsome Our guests are, be sure to check out our YouTube channel. You can find us on YouTube at commercial real estate pro network. And while you’re there, please subscribe. With that, I want to welcome my guest, John, welcome to CRE PN Radio.
John Mitchell 3:01
Darrin Thank you glad to be here.
J Darrin Gross 3:04
I’m really looking forward to our conversation today. But before we get into it, if you could take just a minute and share with the listeners a little bit about your background.
John Mitchell 3:14
Well, basically when I turned 50, I just wasn’t as successful as I thought I should be. And I’d Yeah, I started out as a CPA, became a entrepreneur when I was 30 actually in the real estate development business. And then over the next 20 years was in like six or seven businesses. And but when I turned 50, I just wasn’t as successful as I thought I should be. And I had two goals my life. One was to make enough money, so I didn’t have to work so I can have freedom. And the other was to find the woman of my dreams. And so at 50 I was falling short on both, and on the money, you know, I always did okay, you know, I made a couple 100 grand a year. But never close to netting seven figures a year. And you know, when I turned 50 Darrin, I just did the math. I’m like I can’t have the exceptional life unless I net seven figures a year. As materialistic as that sounds. That was what I realized and and really is all about getting freedom.
And then on the girl at 50 I’d never been married. Although I gotta say I did a lot of interviewing. My friends may call it baking, but I like to call it interviewing. And, and but at 50 I’m like, why am I going to change this 20 year history of low six figures a year. And so I contemplate that and probably three months after I turned 50 a pearl of wisdoms comes to me one night, find the top book in the world on success and apply that book literally word for word to my life. So like pretty good idea. So I’m, I immediately go to my computer start doing the research. And I find out that there’s one book that’s been read by 100 million people. And the next best selling book on success has been read by less than 10 million people. And that book is Think and Grow Rich. I assume you probably read it, right?
J Darrin Gross 5:16
Yeah, in fact, it’s funny, knowning, we were going to talk and I pulled out my my weathered copy there and realized it is a really good book. And I need to get back into it there. So,
John Mitchell 5:27
Right, well, so So you know, I’m like, well, here we go, this is exactly what I’m looking for. And so I like a heat seeking missile, I go to the bookstore the next day and buy the book and immerse myself in the book. And Darrin then I see the problem. In the book, he says, there’s a right at the store, and he says, there’s a secret for success. But I’m only going to give you half of the secret, you know, he’s saying that it’s on the reader to figure out the other half. Well, I’m like, I’m disappointed. And I need the full secret. And, and I and I mope around for probably three weeks. And then one day, I just get up and go, come on, just man up and figure out the full secret. And so over the next two months, I go back and reread the book, just immerse myself in the book. And what emerges is I figure out the full secret and a 12 minute a day technique to apply it. And quickly, my income starts dabbling in a new business, I was starting in the reverse mortgage business. And to the point where like, four years later, I was netting $5 million a year, which was, you know, 25 times more than I’d ever made before. And, of course, Darrin, I felt so blessed and and what was really cool is, I could see why was happening, I was just playing the game of being an entrepreneur at a much higher level than I ever had before. I mean, it worked. Because I was focused only on what moves the needle, I tripled my discipline. So I could do the key habits I couldn’t do before. And I had just new ideas coming into my head consistently every week. And, you know, I just became fascinated by the fact that you could take two key scientific principles and apply them to your life, and so materially impact your success. And so, you know, to wrap this up, I decided I wanted to share this with World night. So I sold my company, and probably a couple months after I sold the company, I met the former Chancellor and President at the University of Texas. And he says, Hey, you got to teach this at University of Texas, and why don’t we teach it together. And so that’s what I do. That’s my sideline, you know, really, the joy of my life today is, is taking this 12 minute a technique in teaching it to driven entrepreneurs. And I do this with my great partner, Kelly Hatfield, and our sole goal is to take him to netting seven figures a year.
J Darrin Gross 8:11
No, I love it. I love it. I love the fact we’re talking about this here at the beginning of the year to.
John Mitchell 8:16
Right.
J Darrin Gross 8:16
It seems appropriate. You know, people are often setting goals or, you know, trying to do more than than they did last year. And, and, you know, a lot a lot of energy in the first week, and then, you know, a little less than the second week, and then about the fourth week, it’s back down to where it was at the end of last year. So I’m curious, and I this is this is really, I mean, you’ve got at least an audience of one that is really, you know, dialed into what you’re saying. And I’m curious, you said, you know, three things kind of focus, discipline and ideas. And I get the focus part, and I get the discipline part. And the ideas thing, to me almost sounds like more distractions that would keep me from, you know, yeah, doing that. So I’d love to hear more about, you know, how, how it is that you, you know, because obviously, you were successful before this, right, but but really dialing
John Mitchell 9:18
Relatively.
J Darrin Gross 9:19
Well. But I mean, you know, across the spectrum of, you know, income earners and and in the US, you go back 10 years and a couple $100,000 You’re not slumming.
John Mitchell 9:32
Right
J Darrin Gross 9:33
at that point,
John Mitchell 9:34
Right.
J Darrin Gross 9:34
But But clearly, you recognize there was more in the tank and you had more, you could do much more as opposed to just be content with with a couple $100,000. So, I would love to hear you kind of you know, dial in and share with listeners kind of more as how you know what, what was it that that you really, you know, that propelled you?
John Mitchell 10:00
Well, let me let me give you a little more, I guess, foundation to Think and Grow Rich, because that’ll that’ll explain it a little better, I think, you know, Think and Grow Rich talks about applying the science of the human mind to leverage yourself, which is, you know, on on servers, pretty interesting. And it’s, it’s based on one central idea that 95% of your daily actions are unconscious. And, you know, I know in this world, we live in Darrin, that we hear facts and figures, and you don’t know necessarily what to believe. But, you know, learning that 95% of my daily actions are unconscious was probably the most profound thing I ever learned. Because once I got that, I saw that I have a higher level of success than I was currently having. I had to influence those unconscious daily actions. I mean, it’s pure math, right? And and you do that by proactively influencing the subconscious mind. And that’s that as we get into this, you’ll see where those ideas were coming from. When you when you proactively influence the subconscious mind, ideas come into your head that that are coming in now. That does that make sense?
J Darrin Gross 11:21
No, totally, totally. So you read the book, you uncover the I mean, that that’s pretty powerful, right there that 95% of your, your day is spent unconscious. I mean, it’s
John Mitchell 11:37
Right.
J Darrin Gross 11:37
Pretty, pretty scary to think of it that it’s that high. I was hoping for under 90, but, you know, upon reflection 95 is probably right. All right.
John Mitchell 11:47
What but you, but you know what, I’m glad that you you caught that, like you did, because when I work with clients, I make them Google it. You know, it’s interesting, if you Google, what percentage of my daily actions are unconscious, in big dark letters, it’ll say 95%. And, and, you know, as somebody gets sad, then all the rest of my stuff. They’re like, Oh, wow, okay, here we go. But if they don’t get that, it’s all, you know, just clutter. And so I like that you’ve really got that?
J Darrin Gross 12:22
Well, in it, I think even in this age, with the internet, and all of the social media platforms, whether you are a observer or you’re creating content, I mean, there’s just, I mean, it’s just amazing, we’re able to get anything done. Sometimes when I realized that just all of the messaging that comes at us, you know, tenfold, all day, every day, and everybody’s got some sort of an agenda with that trying to distract you from from what you’re trying to get done. And so, you know, I’m, I get it.
John Mitchell 12:59
Well, and let me let me dig into that just a little deeper. And you’ll, you’ll appreciate how, how this really works, you know, we all have a fundamental problem we have to overcome. And that problem is that we’re fundamentally wired for survival, not for success, but we’re, we’re wired for survival. And again, 95% of your daily actions are unconscious. And so what that really means is, when you open your eyes each morning, you’re on autopilot most of the day, and you’re innately wired to be fear, based, reactive, and negative. Well, that’s exactly the opposite of how you need to be if you want to be productive, creative and happy. And so the only way to override that, that innate programming is to overlay a better programming, that’s, that’s programming you for, for success and efficiency and focus. And, and that’s what this 12 minute they technique does.
J Darrin Gross 14:05
So, you said the, you know, the fact we’re kind of wired for survival. I mean, I get that from, you know, just a prehistoric, kind of a, just a reference point of like, if you’re, you know, fearful you might be eaten or, or, you know, whatever, you’ve got to somehow you know, survive the day. How, how is it that I mean, is that is that basically that’s where the unconscious lies is just that, that that fear base to them, we’re just that’s where we’re stuck.
John Mitchell 14:41
Right. I mean, you sort of hit on it, Darrin, you know, innately, you’re going to be geared to being reactive and fear based, unless you do something that over override sad and that’s why when people are going about their day oftentimes hear, they’re basically feared based and they’re reactive, they’re not focused on what moves the needle there that you know, when they’re not operator writing from confidence. And that’s all because they’re innately wired for survival, which, which worked great, you know, millennias a go, but not so good in today’s world. And, and so that’s the power of, of what I’m going to share with your audience today.
J Darrin Gross 15:28
So with that, that fear base, though, if there are others out there that know that you’re geared for fear, and they amplify the fear, so that you hear reception, I mean, you’re receptive to the fear, is that kind of also, like, you know, force you’re fighting against or that’s against you, on a daily man, because I was just thinking about, you know, most of the most of the messaging is not happy joy and free, it’s about to scare the crap out of you kind of thing, or keep you in a, in a fear based place?
John Mitchell 16:02
You know, dare? That’s a good question. And really, it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, when you learn how to use this technique to focus, you become focused only on what moves the needle, and all these distractions, all these fear, things just fall by the wayside, you’re not, you’re not even entertaining them, they can’t even get in your your head. And, you know, let me explain a little of the basic science of this, which I think you’ll find interesting. You know, here’s how the human mind works. The conscious mind sets your intention, and is influenced by logic. But the subconscious mind controls your everyday actions. And it’s only influenced by repetition. And, and these is widened, sort of give you an example is, is the idea of losing weight. Let’s say you want to lose weight, well, the conscious mind sets the intention to lose weight. But the reality is people aren’t, aren’t losing weight, because of lack of intention is from lack of influencing their daily actions, which is their exercising and eating. And so once you sort of understand that, and again, the part of the brain that is that is controlling your daily actions is only influenced by repetition. He didn’t care about logic at all, in fact, that that part of your brain is a more primitive part of yourself, that that, that repetition, that’s why the repetition influences it. And so that’s why this 12 minute a technique, it gives that subconscious brain, the repetition, it needs to influence their daily actions. Does that make sense?
J Darrin Gross 17:51
Yeah, no, I get it, I get it. Because I just said, as you were saying, I’m kind of thinking about some of the things that, that I default to that are like, Why am I doing this? Right? You know, what,
John Mitchell 18:04
but go? Well, one thing I was gonna say, you know, this is only for driven people. If you’re not driving this in for you, and, and maybe the best way to explain that is, a few years ago, probably three or four years ago, I decided, if I’m going to share this with the world, I’m going to go find the top expert in the world on success. Darren Hardy. You know who Darren Hardy is?
J Darrin Gross 18:33
I’ve heard of him. I don’t know that I’m 100% familiar with his, is a
John Mitchell 18:38
Well, he’s a he’s a he’s arguably the top expert in the world on success. And so I, I figure out a way to get to him and I spend three days with him in and I show him what I created. And I show him my template, my 12 minute a day technique. And he looks at and goes, John, this is good. And he looks at it closer and goes, hmm, this is really good. But he says, you know, people aren’t going to spend 12 minutes a day on this. And I’m like, Darrin, how the heck can that be? It caused my income to go up by 25 times. Time Magazine did a cover story on the science behind it. And we’re applying the central concept of the top book of the world on success I have, how are people not going to spend 12 friggin minutes a day on this. And he sort of laughs and he goes, John, you’re new to the success and human achievement field. He says, The dirty little secret is that most people won’t do anything to impact their success and achievement in life. And he says, you only need to go find driven people because you need to find people where more success higher level of success is an absolute necessity, not merely a preference because if it’s just a preference, they just won’t do it. And boy, that was that was so helpful to me there to learn that.
J Darrin Gross 20:08
No, absolutely, as opposed to the masses that you would think would be your target audience or that anybody in the audience, but just to really focus and recognize who it is that that’s looking for that message.
John Mitchell 20:23
Right?
J Darrin Gross 20:23
Or looking for help.
John Mitchell 20:25
Right.
J Darrin Gross 20:26
And it is, it is interesting, because I think that while you know, the masses are suffering from somebody’s lack of, let’s say that they’re lacking in one something, you know, it’s more in the form of a pill, or if I can buy something that, you know, an app or, or a gizmo or whatever, from Amazon that I can, you know, run my life better, as opposed to the work. And in this case, you’re saying 12 minutes a day. I would love to hear if you can share, you know, something of what, what occurs in those 12 minutes,
John Mitchell 21:09
Okay, perfect. Well, here’s how it works. This, this really gets into the meat of this. So the, when you read, Think and Grow Rich, the half of the secret that he gives you is that everything starts with a thought. And so when I read that, I’m like, Okay, I buy that, but But where do I go with that. And from that, from, you know, really immersing myself in in the book, what I realized was the real, full secret of Think and Grow Rich, is what you envision in detail on a daily basis is what shows up in your life. Let me say that, again, what you envision in detail on a daily basis is why it shows up in your life.
Well, what that really means is, when you take your life and you step back, and you create immense clarity, you’re you’re defining, here’s exactly the person I want to be, here’s exactly what I want to accomplish. And here’s precisely how I’m going to achieve my clearly defined goals when you create all that clarity, which is the hard part. And then you feed that clarity to yourself 12 minutes a day, after about 21 days, the subconscious mind starts accepting the the programming, and it still starts showing up in your thoughts and actions automatically, without thinking that’s really the magic. Before 21 days, it rejects it, but it and more or less the 21 day point, it accepts it. And then it starts impacting your daily actions and those enhanced improved daily actions creates the life you dream of and you want I mean, it’s powerfully simple.
J Darrin Gross 22:58
Okay, couple things I get there. I mean, it’s like, you know, the, the messaging to yourself. And you know, it’s like, if you are playing golf, and you say don’t hit it in the water, don’t hit the water don’t in the water.
John Mitchell 23:10
Right, right,
J Darrin Gross 23:10
Basically said hit it in the water hitting the water hitting the water, and yeah, and boom, you’re in the water. Right. So I get that the the clarity piece, and also, I guess that it’s the right message. Right to it, as opposed to just a message. And I’m curious, the clarity piece to me seems to be the first most important thing, because if you don’t have that clarity, in your messaging yourself, something that’s not spot on, and then you’re wondering why you didn’t get there. Right. So how do you make certain because I mean, it seems to me with that, because I get the they also kind of the the repetition of the messaging in, you know, getting to your subconscious. And, and also, is this kind of like NLP or I mean, there’s
John Mitchell 24:08
Yes, there’s NLP involved in it. Yes, absolutely.
J Darrin Gross 24:12
That, that just the power of the subconscious and how you can rewire your brain essentially to, to, you know, not default to your your prior actions. But I mean, it sounds to me that the repetition, 21 days, I know it’s like exercise to if you feel do something for 21 days, you create a habit, right? So like, that all makes sense to me. So how do you work with people or, you know, clarity and goals and all that because I think also the other piece of this I was going to ask us is you mentioned two things when we first started, you wanted to be financially independent in our family, financially free And he also wanted to find, you know, the woman of your dreams, right? I think sometimes, and I know, in my own experience, when I really set a goal, it almost feels like that the two are mutually exclusive meaning, right, so focus on the one, I can’t, I don’t have time for the other. So I’d love to hear right a little bit on on those two things on the clarity and, and how you share that with the rest of your life.
John Mitchell 25:26
Right. Well basically, as as I have a template that basically breaks your life down into the five major categories, yourself, your health, your romantic relationship, your spirituality, and your career. And so, on the front of the template, you’re feeding sort of the ideal you in each of those areas of your life. And on the back, you’re, you’re you’re feeding the improvements in each area. And and you’re essentially living your life quarter by quarter. So each, each quarter, you’ll have a new goal for your career, a new goal for your romantic relationship, a new goal for your health, and, and you’re defining what that goal is the why behind the goal, and the three or four key behaviors associated with the goal, and the timeframe and measurement. And, and, and on the bottom of our templates, you you sort of measure your performance on that, but so you and so, you know, you’re you’re impacting all phases of your life, I mean, of course, this, this had such a dramatic impact on my income. That’s that’s what most people at least come to me for. But I see that the the biggest impact for me, I mean, the money was great, but but finding a great partner to share my life with and then being hopefully a great partner is way more important than the money and same with, you know, having the discipline for for my health and so that that sort of how it works.
J Darrin Gross 27:08
I like the fact that you’ve identified the five areas, because I know, in the past when I’ve had a goal, production goal or some sort of a financial goal, and I worked really hard to, you know, get to it. And at the end, I feel like Ah, now I can breathe, you know, and, and, and what happens is that I basically let go of what got me there and slide, you know, backslide not realizing I’ve got to continue, you know, or I didn’t learn what I should learn in that to make it right, simpler or to propel it. I just, I had a, you know, dollar amount. And I got there and I was done, like, you know, and exhausted. And I also tell me a little bit about the importance of the quarter the 90 day timeframe, because I think that’s something that that I’ve heard and I I haven’t necessarily in the times past that I’ve been really goal focused, I was kind of more like an annual number I might have, I might break it down into months. But I’m curious if you can share, you know, what, what’s the what’s the thinking? What’s the importance of the 90 day time frame?
John Mitchell 28:26
Well, I just think 90 days is is way more manageable? You know, I mean, if you focus on making every quarter great, your year is going to be great. Right? And I think that’s the the logic of it.
J Darrin Gross 28:41
I get it, I get it.
John Mitchell 28:43
And you know, one one thing that I might we might take this a little deeper because one of the things that that I have seen is it so often people ask me today they go so really, if all it took was 12 minutes a day and your income goes up by 25 times to mid seven figures a year. Well, let me explain this a little deeper and, and I’ll be vulnerable about sort of what I experienced. So when I was in my 30s and 40s I’m making, you know, low six figures a year. If you asked me to write myself as an entrepreneur, I probably would write it myself and eight, but when I got into my early 50s and was on the other side of betting seven figures a year. I’m like, Whoa, I wasn’t an eight I was a three or four but I didn’t know what I didn’t know and I it reminds me of that great Bill Parcells quote, you are what your record says you are. Well, my record was telling me I was a net six figures a year guy. And and I confused being competent as an entrepreneur with really working hard. You know, I worked harder to All my friends, and therefore I thought that I was an eight. But when I saw what really affected competence as an entrepreneur, I’m like, Whoa, I am a three or four. And, and, you know, as I started to dig into that, and I saw that competence as an entrepreneur comes down to your daily habits, and your your daily mindset. And I saw, I start looking at my life in my 30s and 40s. And I, I see that, that disconnect between working so hard and not getting the big results, and I had this innate feeling that I was playing it, maybe 20% of my potential, couldn’t put my finger on finger on why that was because I was working so hard, but I had that sense. And, and now in working with clients, so many of them say that and, and, you know, I had that feeling that why am I not further along with my life. And that’s sort of where finding a wife came in.
And one of the things I didn’t sort of share in my story before, was when I turned 50, my mom was dying of pancreatic cancer. And I was living in Dallas at the time, and I remember going to the hospital after work every day to see her, and then going into the parking lot and just crying my eyes out. Because I knew she didn’t have long for this world. And it made me really dig into my life. And, and I, I saw that my mom and dad gave me such an advantage in life. They sent me to like Jesuit High School in Dallas, and they, they did everything they could for me. But all I was doing with my life was was creating an average life. And I gotta tell you, I hated the average life because I, I knew I was so much I could do so much better. And you know that, that. That I think that that feeling I had about my life, which was accentuated by what, what I was seeing with my mom, and she was passing, that gave me the incentive to really dig in and figure out how to play the game of life at a higher level. And one of the things I’m sort of proud of that that happened is, once I crossed over to netting seven figures a year, like I said, I felt so blessed that I thought how can I pay this back and I, I created a foundation to help single moms, because, you know, I saw single moms have a unique place in this world. And, and, you know, I felt so blessed. That’s how initially I started giving back and today it’s it’s it’s with that but also with helping fellow entrepreneurs play this game of being an entrepreneur at a higher level.
J Darrin Gross 33:06
No, that’s great. I really appreciate you sharing that. You know, there is that realization as you age that there is an exit, right? That none of us really get to plan, but trying to really focus one’s life and make it meaningful, as opposed to just living in it. I’m sure your your thoughts are just, it is kind of a weird thing when you get to that point, as opposed to just going through the motions.
John Mitchell 33:36
Right. Well, and, you know, back to sort of what I was saying, though, about being competent as an entrepreneur, you know, I don’t think I think most people don’t really step back and evaluate it. And I saw like, as I work with clients, I call what I do mentoring plus methodology, because upping their game as an entrepreneur comes down to impacting their daily habits and impacting their mindset, and the the mentoring affects the habits, the methodology affects the the mindset and what I really mean by that give me an example of three habits that that I install on every client and there’s usually more than that, but the three that I always see is the first one is so many entrepreneurs are working in their business, that they’re not working on their business and one of the things I learned to do is how to just step back from my life and really think that just think and do it two times a week and this is not regular thinking is deep thinking and you know the top people in the world do this Elon Musk, Bill Gates and and so I started this channel practice.
And, and, you know, quick story of one of the things that came out of this. So I, as I mentioned, I was in the reverse mortgage business and, and so I start this practice of deep thinking twice a week. And it comes to me, I had to be in the title business because every reverse mortgage requires a title company. So I’m like, Yeah, that makes all the sense in the world. Well, that one idea ended up probably putting $6 million in my pocket from from having that, that, that habit of just thinking two times a week. And another another habit is, so often entrepreneurs think they’re growing, but they’re not really growing. And, and boy, I suffer from this, because in my 30s, and 40s, I’m like, you know, I’m too, I’m too busy to grow. I’m, well, big, big mistake. And, and in my 50s, early 50s, I figured out a system for personal growth. And so, in working with clients, I just give them this system where they’ve got the wisdom of experts coming into their head every week. And, and so often, my team, when I implemented this in my life, that go boy, it’s a new idea week where, where you get these ideas, and but a, they weren’t my ideas, they were really the the ideas of experts. But that was transformative from a habit standpoint. And then the third habit is always marketing, you know, the marketing. And the entrepreneur themselves are the two biggest factors in any business. And, and I see that so often. Entrepreneurs don’t properly measure their marketing, and therefore they can’t innovate. The marketing. And so that’s the those three habits, along with a few others are the mentoring habits that I I install and somebody and and that’s sort of how it works on the on the habits side. That makes sense?
J Darrin Gross 37:20
Oh, absolutely. No, I get it. And I appreciate sharing that the working, you know, just the the first one taking time to think. Right, you know, on on your business as opposed to in your business. Right. That right there, I think is one that, you know, just taking that just taking the time and, and knowing how to think I think exactly, you know, well,
John Mitchell 37:46
and I’m going to teach your here as we wrap this up in a minute, I’m going to teach you exactly how to do this, because because that’s sort of the entry point for for proactively influencing the subconscious mind. But But I’m glad you picked up on that.
J Darrin Gross 38:02
Yeah, because I think that’s that is the, you know, too, too often, it is so easy to be focused on the problem that’s immediate, that has a solution in an easiest solution, perhaps. But still, it’s it’s kind of the focus, as opposed to the more of the global kind of step guide. I get I get it, I get it again.
John Mitchell 38:23
Well, and here’s here’s the other side of that. So you know, we got to fix the habits. The other thing we have to fix is that daily mindset? Well, that’s really the two parts to that, first, you got to focus only on what moves the needle. I mean, you know, you can’t be distracted you got you got to first have the clarity of what moves the needle and then focus on it. And then the second thing is you have to operate from a position of confidence, which is not how most entrepreneurs operate there, again, sort of operating from the standpoint of fear and uncertainty. And the way we fix that is, is in what they’re feeding themselves 12 minutes a day, they’re going to feed themselves. Here’s what my business looks like, three years from now, here’s and this took me seven things. What the four or five milestones are to get there. There’s the sync business plan, their strategy for success, the two or three things that move the needle, the linchpin issue to go to the next level. And finally, an articulation of their simple mission statement and their top three values. Well, you can imagine if you’re feeding all that to yourself every day, what’s going to come forth is confidence. And you’re going to have this immense sense of control over your life. And that may be the most valuable thing is a sense of control that you have because that’s what we all ultimately won. But when you have control, you have confidence and you It’s 1000 times better way to operate than the way most most people operate today. Does that? Does that make sense?
J Darrin Gross 40:09
Oh, no, you got me. I mean, you know, confidence over fear Yeah. World of Difference.
John Mitchell 40:16
And, you know, I tell you, I have people that go, Well, this, this won’t work on me. I’m like, wait a minute, this is pure science that works on every one. But that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. And what I mean by that is, this is, this is hard, I’m not going to kid you, creating the clarity is hard. Of course, I’m helping along with my partner, Kelly, we help our clients do that. But it’s still hard. And, and as we sort of work with clients, our goal is to always double the income they’ve made the prior year. And if we don’t think we can do that, we won’t even take them as a client. And, and, and, you know, but we, in working with people, we’ve got to see that they really are driven, and then they, they really will put in the work to create the clarity, because the 12 minutes a day is the easy part. And, and, you know, we even give people a money back guarantee, which which makes makes us make sure we’re selecting the right people. But that’s really why it works, I believe.
J Darrin Gross 41:33
It’s great. And I appreciate you kind of diving, diving down into that a little bit. And, and, you know, sharing some of the, the fundamentals. Here, John, if we could, I’d like to shift gears here for a second. By day, I’m an insurance broker. And I work with my clients to assess risk, and determine what to do with their risk. And there’s three strategies we typically look at, we first look to see if there’s a way we can avoid the risk. When that’s not an option, we look to see if there’s a way we can minimize the risk. And when that’s not an option, then we look to see if we can transfer the risk. And that’s what an insurance policy is a risk transfer vehicle. And as such, I like to ask my guests, if they can look at their own situation, could be their clients, investors, tenant tenants, the news the world or you know, however, however, you would like to frame the question, and identify what you consider to be the biggest risk. And again, for clarification, while I am an insurance broker, I’m not necessarily looking for an insurance related answer. Right. So if you’re willing, I’d like to ask you, John Mitchell, what is the BIGGEST RISK?
John Mitchell 42:53
You know, I think the biggest risk is, is not taking control of your life and letting life go wherever is gonna go rather than you directing your life. And, and I see that when I turned 50. And of course, is that pressure and what was going on with my mom, I realized, man, I got to step up and make this thing when I’m want it to be, I can’t say yeah, I was too often in my 30s and 40s, I would push off well, you know, I’m, I’m gonna be really successful, just down the road a little bit. And, and when down the road, a little bit never came. I’m like, Whoa, I gotta I gotta step up here. And so I think that, that the risk is, is that you end up taking this precious life and not making the most out of it.
J Darrin Gross 43:47
Yeah, no, I like it. I take control.
John Mitchell 43:51
Right. You know, why don’t why don’t we share with with your your clients, what we were talking about with this, this idea of setting aside time to think because because that something really practical, I think that would be valuable that they could get from this. Is that you get with that? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, so again, here’s the idea, you’re going to set aside time to just think two times a week. And so the first thing is you decide when you’re going to do it, like I do it on on Wednesdays, Wednesday mornings and Sunday mornings, then you figure out where you’re going to do it. Okay, if your favorite place in your house or in nature, and then here’s how it actually works. And a sinking session will be about 30 minutes and you have your thinking tablet, which is basically a nice leather binder with blank sheets of paper in it. And, and there’s three parts to it once you once you start the thinking and again, the thing he says just take about 30 minutes. First part is just just taking whatever’s coming just from Whatever comes into your head in the first 10 minutes, just scribble out whatever that is. Then the second part, after you’ve sort of gotten all what’s, what’s easily coming out, figure out a question to ask yourself, because when you ask yourself a question, it changes the dynamics of what’s going on in your brain. And so you figure out the question, and you always started with, how might I this? Or how might I that, and my friend, Keith Cunningham taught me this. And, and, and it’s powerful that that you ask yourself that question, and watch what comes up. And then at the end of your thinking session, you draw a line, or the last thing you wrote, you write your two or three takeaways, and then your two or three action steps, and then you take those action steps, and put them on next week’s to do so you’re connecting your thinking to your, to your actions. And, and the reason this works is because when you get your week, going every, every week, you have a lot coming at you, you know, you’re talking to people, you’re learning things, but in the moment, you don’t necessarily understand the significance of it. But you gave your subconscious mind a couple of days to just process it and give it a venue for outputting. Some of this input, boy, it is such a game changer. And does that make sense?
J Darrin Gross 46:36
Oh, yeah, no, I get it. The thinking how can I love that? That question there, you know, to, to ask, How can I as opposed to just all the right, the problem is going to help them.
Unknown Speaker 46:49
And I’ll give you an example. In the real estate business, I have a client up in Portland. And he’s, he’s in the storage facility, business, sharp guy, and he’s, he’s making a couple million a year and he wants to go to 4 million and, and he’s sort of, you know, half my clients are already making a million a year and half of more. And, and so we sit down and I, I asked him, so why’d Why don’t you figure out what moves the needle do a thinking session on what moves the needle? Well, he comes back to him. And he says, Well, I think getting properties I’ve already acquired getting them finished and getting them fully leased is what moves the needle. And I’m like, yeah, I don’t I don’t think so. I’m like, let’s do a thinking session together. So we start that process, and I go wide will tell me what your what your unique talent is. He says, Well, you know, I can see opportunities other people can’t see and in storage facilities. And I’m like, Huh, okay, and so we we cogitate on that for a minute. And I go, you know, I think what moves the needle is, is getting more properties into your evaluation pipeline and focusing on on that, rather than getting the ones you’ve already bought, finished. And that one idea which was already in his head, has caused him to go to $4 million a year. Net. Now and and so that’s the power of this, this thinking, and, and you know, to help your audience, do this, I’ve got a, I got a gift I want to give you. And we can put it in the show notes. But that website is thinkitbeit.com. And I’m going to give you a five minute video that explains this in more detail as well as a guide for for the US. And and basically, if you’ll go to thinkitbeit.com-CR. That’ll welcome you from from this podcast. And I think you’ll see it it’s a it’s a game changer.
J Darrin Gross 49:08
Awesome. That’s great. I appreciate you sharing both the example there and then also the material on the website. That’s great.
John Mitchell 49:17
Right? You know, one, I got two quick stories once or I don’t know. Are we good on time? Yeah, hey, we’re fine. You know, I’ll tell you what the the first story and then the final story. When I was this talks about competence and this like we were telling, talking before we got on the air, you know, I love what you’re doing because you’re you’re you’re you’re increasing the competence of people from more wisdom. And I saw the power of this back back when I was in my 30s Live probably right when I was 40. I was like I said as in seven different businesses. And I, I, I own what was then the most romantic restaurant in Dallas, which I was fortunate to buy it. I didn’t create it. But somebody else got into trouble with the IRS, I bought it. And, and so, and this is like in 1990. And so Jerry Jones starts coming into the restaurant. And, and, you know, so I and I’m a lifelong Dallas Cowboy fan. And I remember going when I was, you know, just a kid, eight or nine to the first games in the early 60s. And so I get to knowing, and he’s coming in there fairly regularly. And, and so I’m trying to find my way the restaurant wasn’t really my full time gig, but it was the most fun thing I was doing. And, and so it hits me, I’m like, you know, I see an opportunity to buy 12% of the Cowboys. And the reason the opportunity exists is because Jerry Jones bought 80% of the Cowboys, they bought it from Bum Bright who owned First National Bank of Dallas, which ended up failing. And, and the other 20% of the Cowboys was owned by Bum’s friends who many had pledged their, their ownership at the bank. And to make a long story short 12% of the Cowboys ended up in the hands of the FDIC. So I’m like, Hmm, it might be a good idea to try and buy that 12% and go and put it into a shell public company, you know, you can buy shell public companies. And the idea was that nobody had ever put a sports franchise in a in a public company. And so I’m like, huh, this is interesting. So I go to the FDIC. And I said, Well, I want to buy the 12% of the Cowboys. And they go, you and everybody else. And of course, I didn’t have the money, I made the 12% which was going to cost $10 million. And I had a relationship with a big law firm out in LA Milbanks, Tweed, and I pitch their partners on on, you know, stroking the check out of their pension plan. And, and so they liked the idea and that the deal would be I’d get 2% And they’d get 10%. and off we go, and so
I start working with the FDIC. And and I say well, okay, and they may be put up a letter of credit. And I said, Well, we’ll give me the partnership agreement. Well, they don’t have the partnership agreement. And I’m like, Well, you’re not gonna be able to sell this if you don’t. And they but they’re they drag their feet. And finally, I’m like, Well, I’m going to call Jerry. So I call him and I go, Jerry, I’m going to buy that 12% The Cowboys that the FDIC owns, I’d like to swing by this afternoon, pick out that partnership agreement. And he goes, John, I’m not going to give it to you. And I said, Well, you know, they have to I see can make you give it to me. And he goes, Well, I’m betting they’re incompetent. And and as it turns out, I’m like, Well, I yeah, I, I probably play it the same way. And sort of the deal fell falls apart. And I’m like, well, that’s a bummer. But here’s what’s interesting. And I I realized this many years later, I never needed the partnership agreement. Because the interest in the Cowboys had already been vetted by the banks, attorneys when they created it when when they first loan on it. And, and this is a power of being a more sophisticated entrepreneur, you see what matters and what doesn’t, and it really doesn’t didn’t matter because I my pitch to the attorneys would be Hey, there’s any problems with it, your attorneys, you’ll sue him. So, but you know, that’s and that’s a long winded way of, of, you know, giving you a little kudos for what you’re doing because you’re making people you know, a little more sophisticated in in how they’re doing things
J Darrin Gross 54:43
That’s awesome. The, just to even have the thought of that and getting so close to two do any but then also recognizing the short sightedness in your your thinking I mean, because that’s you put the hurdle up there as opposed to the Remove the hurdle kind of thing. Right? And I know I get plenty of those stories where I’ve created the hurdle. I’m the hurdle, you know, as opposed to, to not so.
John Mitchell 55:12
Well, you know, my, my 2% would be worth around $300 million today. So that was a big face to got away.
J Darrin Gross 55:21
No, that’s, that’s awesome.
John Mitchell 55:23
You know, Can I can I share one final story? Oh, yeah. And you know, this, I think everybody’s gonna relate to this. So, you know, I got married, I found that woman of my dreams through this, this methodology is well and, and about three weeks ago. My stepdaughter has a baby, and we go over there, Ginger, and I do and we’re there like, the day after she has the baby. And we walk in there, and they hand me the baby. And, and, and for some reason, Hannah, you know, steps away, and so does Ginger. So I’m holding this precious, little baby boy, that’s a day old. And I’m looking at him. And I’m like, Wow, this, this baby, this person is going to live to be 100 years old. And good things are going to happen, and bad things are gonna happen. But what really is going to matter in this child’s life is them ultimately having the courage to take control of their life. And, and to affect how they look at the world. That’s what’s gonna, the, that’s what’s going to matter. And, and, you know, it just makes you appreciate how precious precious each of our lives is, and, and how important it is to have the courage if your life isn’t exactly what you want it step up. And, and, and change it. And, and I what gives me so much pleasure today is giving people a way, a tangible way that’s based on the topic and the world on success to change your life.
J Darrin Gross 57:09
I love it. So true to it’s it’s a horrible thing to waste a life. Right? Right. Make your change and step up and make it more. So. That’s great. Hey, John, to wrap up here, where can listeners go if they’d like to learn more connect with you.
John Mitchell 57:29
So just go to thinkitbeit.com And that’s our website. And and for the special gift, go to thinkitbeit.com/cr And I’m going to have a special welcome page for your guests.
J Darrin Gross 57:51
John, I can’t say thanks enough for taking the time to talk today. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Learned a lot, and I look forward to doing it again soon.
John Mitchell 58:00
Okay, thankyou for the great questions and the opportunity.
J Darrin Gross 58:03
All right, for our listeners. If you liked this episode, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe. Remember, the more you know, the more you grow. That’s all we’ve got this week. Until next time, thanks for listening to commercial real estate pro networks. CRE PN Radio.
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