What separates the brain of a millionaire and one of someone whoās punching below their financial weight? Itās not the shape, the size or its weight. Itās the neural pathways formed as a result of habits and conditioning. The sad truth is that for most of us this conditioning is random, which is why sometimes it may seem like some people are born into greatness while others are destined to never live up to their potential. But it doesnāt have to be. You can rewire faulty programming using John Assarafās Innercise Algorithm.
Guest: John Assaraf is the founder of Brainathon and a two-time New York Times best-selling author. Through his brain and business coaching sessions, he has impacted the lives of over 100,000 individuals over the years and still continues to do so.
[00:50] The podcast delves into the scientific approach to the law of attraction and reveals the missing jigsaw piece to attaining the millionaire mindset and lifestyle.
How did John begin his journey?
[03:05] Where does lack of self-belief stem from?
- I was working in a factory, making a dollar 65 an hour, shipping boxes and opening up boxes, and freaking hating my life. And on the side, I was selling drugs and doing breaking and entries to make some extra money and was involved in a little gang of five guys that hung out together and drank a lot and did drugs and made a little extra money on the side, or I should say, a lot of extra money on the side doing illegal things. And the reason I did that was that I thought that was the way that I was going to be successful, because I didnāt have the belief in myself that I was smart enough to achieve success.
- That stemmed from failing English and Math in grade seven, falling two years behind, leaving high school in grade eleven, and being told for most of my high school life that if I didnāt graduate high school, if I didnāt go to college, I would amount to nothing. And so I did stuff on the side to amount to something.
- One of the guys that I was hanging around with died. Another guy went to jail, and that was kind of like the path I was on. And my brother said, āHey, why donāt you come to Toronto. I want to introduce you to this man, and maybe he could help you.ā
[05:11] Johnās first meeting with his mentor:
- This guy sat down and he asked me what I wanted to achieve in my life. And at the time, again, I was 19. I said, āWell, Iād like to move out of my parentās house, Iād like to buy a car, and Iād like to get a better job than Iāve got right now for a buck 65 an hour, doing what I hate.ā And he was like, āThatās all possible. What are some of your bigger goals?ā I said I donāt have any.
- Then he gave me this document, and he said, āAnswer these ten questions and then letās talk about it.ā
- The first question on this document was, āAt what age do you want to retire?ā Iām laughing, Iām 19, retired. What the f**k? Retire? I canāt afford to pay attention, let alone retire. So I said, āWhat am I supposed to put here? And he said, Just pick a number. ā I said, okay, Iām 19, 45, 26 years later.ā
[6:36] The question that changed John forever:
- And then the next question is, āWhat kind of car do you want? What kind of lifestyle do you want? Where do you want to travel? Who do you want to help?ā So I said, āTravel the world, First-class Mercedes Benz, four-bedroom house, retire my parents, have a million dollars of cash in the bank.ā
- He said, āIām going to ask you a question, and the answer to this question will determine whether you achieve every one of these things.ā
- He looked me square in the eyes and said, āAre you interested in achieving these things or are you committed to achieving them?ā
[7:44] Difference between being committed and being interested:
- If youāre interested, youāll allow your current circumstances and your beliefs, and your habits to control your thinking and your behaviors. Youāll allow your stories and your reasons and excuses about leaving high school at grade eleven, failing English and Math, and your father this and your mother that. You didnāt have enough of this and you were traumatized here. Youāll allow all that to control you. But if youāre committed, you will let that go right now. You will upgrade your identity to match the destiny that you want. You will upgrade your knowledge, youāll upgrade your skills, and youāll develop habits that are aligned with the goal that you wrote down on this piece of paper.
- A mentor is someone who will guide you. And that was the beginning of me being committed and learning the difference.
[09:10] John shares his first committed step towards success:
- I went to real estate school, and passed the test five weeks later. And then he Mr. Brown gave me a job working on commission only for his company, making 100 phone calls a day, learning the scripts of what to say, how to say it, what are the objections, how to handle the objections, how to ask qualifying questions, how to close sales.
- And over the next six months, I made $31,000 in the next six months, which was more than my father made in a whole year as a cab driver. And then by upgrading my knowledge and my skills, I made $150,000 in the next twelve months, five times more. I made $181,000 at 20 years old because one man, one question, and a bit of training that I committed to every day changed the trajectory of my life.
- And since then, I have been studying the human brain to understand what happened to me. And once I learned, I then built my Remax of Indiana company at 4.5 billion a year in sales, with 1200 salespeople teaching them the same stuff that I learned. And Iāve built a few other companies since then.
[10:44] How does a millionaireās brain work?
- Initially, I wasnāt making any money in real estate. I started working for him on commission only, but I knew that there was another gear that I could get into. I knew that there had to be more because other agents in my office were earning more. And Iām like, I want that.
- I got a taste of what success looks like, not because of anything that I was doing, but because I was observing other people who were making five times, six times, seven times the amount of money that I was at the time. And so I wanted to earn more because I started seeing other people in the same industry as me earning more.
- How do I keep moving up? How do I take my yearly income, and make it my monthly income? How do I take my monthly income? And make it my weekly income. How do I take my weekly income and make it my daily income? How do I take my daily income and make it my hourly income? These are all different layers of possibility for every one of us.
[13:55] What to do when your affirmations donāt work:
- Well, first it taught me the difference between wishful hopeful thinking and behaviors.
- It all starts with a vision and seeing yourself achieving that vision and the goal.
- Behavior creates results, and thereās the behavior we take and the behavior we donāt take.
- Do I have the right skills? Thatās part two. And then, āDo I have the right actions and habits?ā Thatās part three. Think of it as a combination and if you only have one number of a three-part combination, you might be super frustrated.
- The problem is the mindset thatās preventing me from making a commitment to learning the blueprint and then implementing it.
[17:56] How to overcome self-sabotage?
- Igor I would almost sabotage myself away from bigger outcomes. For example, I would have an opportunity to sign a really like whale client, you know what I mean? Like a client who was willing to pay me a lot of money. And I would either walk away from the deal because it was too much work, or I would low-ball the price because I was afraid they were going to say no. Or I would try to almost talk them out of making the deal. And I would only later realize that I was doing this unconsciously and sabotaging myself.
- We all developed these, what I call neural patterns right around ourselves, our skills, and our abilities. And then we behave in alignment and in concert, in harmony with the patterns that are conditioned like software in our brain. And so when we self-sabotage, we say, well, whatās causing my self-sabotage? Is it limiting beliefs that I have? Is it my self-image or self-worth thatās causing the self-sabotage? Is it fear thatās causing self-sabotage?
- The absence of skill creates doubt. When we have doubt, we have uncertainty. When we have uncertainty, we trigger fear again. But if youāre committed, then thereās a way. If youāre not, thereās always an obstacle.
[23:41] Why do we procrastinate?
- When I procrastinate, I have a set of behaviors that I tend to gravitate to. Itās not like I just sit there and stare at my screen or at a wall and be like, yes, thatās the person who freezes does that. Thatās one of the behaviors that is called freezing.
- I was procrastinating because that felt like a relief from having to make a discussion or build my business. Yeah. If you understand a little bit about the human brain. Again. You were getting a reward called dopamine by doing that. And you were getting another hit of dopamine by not doing the thing that maybe caused fear in you or the thing that maybe would cause you to think you might fail. Or the thing that caused you to feel that maybe youād be rejected or you wouldnāt achieve the results you want and youād be disappointed. So you were moving away from that and you got to hit dopamine there.
- We gravitate towards the conservation of energy because thatās the number one priority of the brain, so I have enough for safety and survival, and avoidance of pain.
[26:44] Why donāt affirmations work for the average brain?
- And affirmations donāt work for the average person, not because affirmations donāt work, but affirmations donāt work because most people donāt give enough time for the pattern to be created to become a dominant pattern.
- An affirmation is just a deliberate pattern that you choose.
[28:51] How to create permanent patterns toward success?
- All the new research shows it takes 66 days to 365 days to create a pattern that reinforces itself into a habit.
- Conscious practice creates patterns. The patterns that are reinforced become permanent patterns.
- And the permanent patterns move from conscious to unconscious processing. That is called automaticity. Most people never get to the point of automaticity with constructive, productive behaviors that are aligned with their goals. They become creatures of their parentsā habits, their teachersā habits, their siblingsā habits, and the dominant people in their lives up until about the age of twelve. And then they reinforce those patterns until they die.
[30:44] Donāt become a student unless youāre prepared to commit to 100 days:
- You can have some instant gratification, but it doesnāt last. So what do you do? Do you want results for this weekend or do you want results for a lifetime? Do you want to have awareness or do you want to have skill? Which do you want? And if you want to have awareness, go read a book. Read one of my books. If you want to have a skill, get my coaching. Because it takes a bit of time to learn a skill. Now, nobody is going to do that unless theyāre committed to the result that they want.
- I generate 500,000 prospects a year into my orbit. Online, I help millions, but I generate 500,000 leads for my online generated business a year. So there are plenty of people who say, āYes, we want to learn with you. Weāre committed to the outcomes we want.ā And those are the people that I want to work with because I can help them.
[32:20] John Assarafās Brainathon:
- Ten years ago, I invited some of my neuroscience and neuropsychologist friends and we did an all-day training for about six or 8 hours for free. And like 20 some odd thousand people showed up. So I did it again the next year and like 50,000 people showed up. I did the next year, the next year, and next year with new experts.
- And the whole idea for this yearās theme is really eliminating obstacles, and shattering limitations, so you become unstoppable. Thatās the promise of the theme. And weāre teaching how to change our brains so they change our income and change their life. And itās free, itās fun. Weāll be giving away thousands and thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. I think the grand prize this year for our 10th anniversary is $10,000.
- Itās all about mastering your brain and making your brain into a much better tool. Mastering the skill of using your brain and getting the most out of it.
- Learn more about Brainathon at www.brainthon.com..
[34:55] How to have a millionaireās brain?
- There is a specific mindset that you need to have. There are specific skill sets that you need or you need to have on your team, and then thereās a very set of specific behaviors for high performance.
- Many of us want to live as much of our potential as possible, and achieve as much of it as possible. We want to be high performers. We want to earn more, we want to have more, we want to give more. And hereās the good news. The blueprint is readily available.
- We got the fundamentals in place. Then we could build up from there. The challenge is a lot of people just donāt have the right fundamentals. They have the hope and prayer side of it, they have the visual side of it.
- If youāre committed, you donāt have to be the rocket scientist to figure out what the steps are, because the steps are already figured out. You just need to make the commitment to learn and apply.
- To learn more and get a chance to win $10,000 in cash prizes, visit www.brainthon.com..