In this episode, John and Kelly discuss the concept of the 2% versus the 98%. In John’s opinion, 98% of people are sheep. They follow the crowd. And that’s what creates the average life. Which isn’t pretty today in the United States. John gives the example of think it be it being only for the 2%. Because only 2% of people consider more success a necessity rather than merely a preference. Most people want to be more successful but it’s merely a preference. They won’t do the things required to actually be more successful. It also comes down to embracing playing the game life at your full potential. Something only 2% of people aspire to do. Kelly explains that so much of it comes down to your identity. Who you see yourself being. Appreciating that success is something you attract by the attributes you create in yourself. And John points out that that is the essence of the think it be it methodology. By getting clarity on the attributes that you want and feeding those attributes to yourself each day, that’s who you actually become. Think it be it gives you the ability to create the life you want. 

About the Hosts:

John Mitchell

John’s story is pretty amazing. After spending 20 years as an entrepreneur, John was 50 years old but wasn’t as successful as he thought he should be. To rectify that, he decided to find the “top book in the world” on SUCCESS and apply that book literally Word for Word to his life. That Book is Think & Grow Rich. The book says there’s a SECRET for success, but the author only gives you half the secret. John figured out the full secret and a 12 minute a day technique to apply it.

When John applied his 12 minute a day technique to his life, he saw his yearly income go to over $5 million a year, after 20 years of $200k - 300k per year. The 25 times increase happened because John LEVERAGED himself by applying science to his life.

His daily technique works because it focuses you ONLY on what moves the needle, triples your discipline, and consistently generates new business ideas every week. This happens because of 3 key aspects of the leveraging process.

John’s technique was profiled on the cover of Time Magazine. He teaches it at the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business, which is one the TOP 5 business schools in the country. He is also the “mental coach” for the head athletic coaches at the University of Texas as well.

Reach out to John at john@thinkitbeit.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-mitchell-76483654/

Kelly Hatfield

Kelly Hatfield is an entrepreneur at heart. She believes wholeheartedly in the power of the ripple effect and has built several successful companies aimed at helping others make a greater impact in their businesses and lives.

She has been in the recruiting, HR, and leadership development space for over 25 years and loves serving others. Kelly, along with her amazing business partners and teams, has built four successful businesses aimed at matching exceptional talent with top organizations and developing their leadership. Her work coaching and consulting with companies to develop their leadership teams, design recruiting and retention strategies, AND her work as host of Absolute Advantage podcast (where she talks with successful entrepreneurs, executives, and thought leaders across a variety of industries), give her a unique perspective covering the hiring experience and leadership from all angles.

As a Partner in her most recent venture, Think It Be It, Kelly has made the natural transition into the success and human achievement field, helping entrepreneurs break through to the next level in their businesses. Further expanding the impact she’s making in this world. Truly living into the power of the ripple effect.

Reach out to Kelly at kelly@thinkitbeit.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-hatfield-2a2610a/

Learn more about Think It Be It at https://thinkitbeit.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/think-it-be-it-llc

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thinkitbeitcompany

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We believe life is precious. This is it. We've got one shot at this. It's on us to live life to the fullest to maximize what we've been given and play the game of life at our full potential.

Are you living up to your potential? Are you frustrated that despite your best intentions, you just can't seem to make the changes needed to take things to the next level. So you can impact your career relationships and health.

If this is hitting home, you're in the right place. Our mission is to open the door to the exceptional life by showing you how to play the game of life at a higher level. So you're playing at your full potential, rather than at a fraction as most people do. We'll share the one thing that once we learned it, our lives were transformed. And once you learn it, watch what happens. Welcome to Think It Be It the podcast. I'm Kelly Hatfield.

Hey, it I'm John Michell. So Kelly, I've got a good topic for us today. Here it is, are you in the 2%. And what I mean by that is, I think the world breaks down between the 2% and the 98%. And the people that are in the 98%, in my opinion, are sheep, they just follow the crowd. And I gave you an example of this. Maybe a couple of examples. The first one, the obvious one is what you and I have discovered is that thing could be it is only for the 2%, the 98% are really interested in, in Thank you be it because surprisingly, most of them are well for the 98%. More success is merely a preference, therefore, they're not going to spend something that takes 12 minutes a day, to do depth, their success, they're not going to go through the the effort to create clarity. And so it certainly has been our experience that that thing could be it is only for the 2% Would you agree with that?

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, when we we should we go to, you know, using that as an example? I mean, absolutely, we found that, you know, there are a small percentage 2%, if you want to put an exact number on it that, you know, are invested in themselves or invested in their growth are committed to doing the things that it takes to grow and to achieve the things that they want to achieve. You know, again, we talk about it's one thing to to say, yeah, it would be great if I had more success, you know? Yes. Right. That'd be great. You know, that's, again, that puts it in that preference bucket is a good thing to say I'm committed to having this particular level of success, whatever that looks like for you. I'm interested in kind of a question. So when you define 2%, what, what, what is that? 2%? How are you defining that? Like, what does that to what what does that person or what does that profile look like? Of a two percenter?

Right? Very good question. I think from the standpoint of success, I think it comes down to more success, necessity, or a preference for 98% of people. It's a, a preference. So in that sense, it is and, and, you know, I saw this play out when I would go to entrepreneur, organization, they call it an EO forums where I'd go and I talked to, you know, 10 or 15 entrepreneurs for an hour. And I'd, you know, tell them my story, you know, 50 not being as successful as I thought I should be and figuring out the full secret to the top of the world on success in it. 25x my income, what I've made the prior 20 years, and, you know, I would get and I'm thinking they're all going to be interested in this. And and, you know, surprisingly, they weren't most of them. Were not they were okay with right where they were. And they were okay with their lousy marriage and they're, you know, not making a lot of money and maybe not being overly healthy. And I'm like, what, you know, wow, this is amazing to me. And of course, I saw how unenlightened I was back then, to not see that, you know, I was looking at the world from my, my point of view, not from their point of view, you know, they have, they've had different lives. I have experiences, they have different genetics than I do. But to your point, I think that he comes down to from a success point that is more success and necessity or are merely a preference.

Yeah, and I think too, we've talked a little bit about this, but success is something, you know, means something different for everybody. You know, I think you just gave three buckets of your life that are areas that you know, to be focusing on, you mentioned initially, you know, your relationship, your significant other relationship and the quality of that, and the connectedness and, and then money. You know, and I think that there, and your health, obviously, that's a huge one, you know, but I think there's the other areas too, like impact, you know, like, what is the thing that you're doing through this world to like, Yeah, I think a lot of the two percenters that I've met with have a bigger vision, or they want to make a some level of impact beyond their own businesses, or, or whatever the case may be. They they're, what's the word that I'm looking for legacy isn't necessarily the right word, but but again, impact impact impact, you know, and so I think we're, what I one of the things that I've noticed in that 2% is, they're the folks that even though they're succeeding, and they've had success in life, they will lay awake in bed at night, too, and be like, how else? How else can I serve? I know I have more gas in the tank, where else can I make additional impact? How can I so it's never, you know, necessarily, you know, I think money oftentimes comes as a result of these things, we're talking when you're focused on your health, when you're focused on healthy relationships, when you're focused on you the impact that you're making plans. When you're doing that, you know, the money comes and but that isn't necessarily when we're talking about success. It's just one of the things one of the pieces of the puzzle, because you can, you can have a lot of money and be deemed a success in the eyes of many people riding a giant, eight hole and, you know, you know, 300 pounds, you know,

That's not a good look. Not only are you obese, you're an EO, you know. So, way to go,

You know, if you get worried, you know what I'm saying? So I think, you know, what are those? You know, you've got to determine for yourself what those what success looks like for you. Right?

Where you, you know, I tell you, I had seven, I said, because I haven't seen yet a little while over the holidays, I is pretty cool. I happen to be, I don't know where it was three weeks ago. So I go to the men's basketball practice. And Texas has a really good team, and one of their star players is doing think it'd be it. And so I go, and I'm like, I want to watch the practice and see, you know, what goes on. And I know the coach, and he's relatively new, but I just want to see what I thought. So I go, and almost as soon as I get there, the players go off the court to go study film for about 20 minutes. We're in the big Coliseum here in Texas, that they just built this, you know, $350 million facility. And so I know they're going to come back in about 20 minutes. So I go and I start shooting three pointers. And I was embarrassingly bad at it. But zom she, this girl, that is one of the managers of the basketball team, you know, there's probably seven or eight managers. She comes over, and she starts catching the ball and throwing it back to me is I'm shooting. And you know, she probably felt sorry for me because it's looking at this poor slob. They can't even hit the friggin rim. Anyway, she says, Well, who are you? So I explained you on the mental coach for the 18 head coaches and I work with, you know, our star player, Brock. And so we strike up a little discussion, and we just instantly hit it off. I mean, and she tells me, she says as we started talking, she says she No. And she's she's a sophomore at the University of Texas. And cute is about just adorable. And she tells me that she is different than her friends because her friends want to go out and drink and get sloshed every night. And that's not what she's about and make sort of a long story short, she wants to learn things. Good, be it, and now wants to go into this. She She's majoring in sports management. And I have now encouraged her to embrace teaching mindset, because I think that's the right future. She's already into yoga says Yosef, she's already sort of got that mind body connection. And so she, she comes to me, I don't know, couple weeks ago and says, I want to be your assistant. And I'm like, Y'all love that, you know, sort of that attitude. So now I'm starting to teach her think it Viet. I was telling her I said, you know, you need to embrace being part of the 2%. And, of course, when I was in school, a college, I didn't understand you 2% 98%. I mean, you know, I, nobody ever talked to me about that. And, but I could look at her, she may not be able to look at herself. I mean, maybe she can, but I could look at her and I go, I see things that separate her from other people. First of all, you know, she had the courage to calm. And if she was adventurous enough to calm and find out who this guy was, it was missing all of these three pointers. You know, she also was picking up on think it'd be it and was really bright and asking great questions. And it all resonated and, and then when I told my basketball player about her, he goes, Oh, yeah, she, her name is Maya. And he says, My en, is the best manager we've ever had. And I've been here six years, he's a six year senior. But uh, you know, I can see that she's in that 2%. But I was, I was encouraged him or her to embrace being at the end of 2%. And I was explaining that, you know, if you do what everybody else does, you're gonna get the average life, and the average life is not very good. And so if you don't want the average life, then you sort of have to embrace almost doing the opposite of what most people are doing. Would you agree with that? Yeah,

I would agree. 100%. And I think to one of the things that's standing out to me right now, John, as you're, as you're, you know, sharing this story, is this idea of identity, you know, so identifying as someone who fill in the blank, you know, write, you know, performs at the highest level, who always takes the initiative, because it sounds like that's exactly what she did. Somebody who, you know, what I mean, is courageous, and takes that daily action towards their goals, like, so I so again, making that two percenter, and we can have a conversation around, you know, maybe to some, they're feeling like, well, that feels like elitist in some way to separate yourself from, you know, so let's talk a little bit more about that. But this really is about identity, and how you identify because that's one of the ways you can shift and make the greatest change in life is by creating the identity of someone who now, you know, feel like success is an absolute must and not merely a preference, you know

You know, that's a, that is a great point. Yeah, I just saw an Instagram from Jim Rome. And he talks about how success is something you attract by the characteristics you, you embrace. And, you know, with Biden, it is, is so cool to take this young life, and she gets it she she understands that, that success she has in life is going to be determined by the thoughts that go on in her head. And that's also going to determine her enjoyment of life, but at her tender young age to, to be thinking about all this and to see this, and it's so cool to explain to her that with that, I'm gonna give you a methodology where you can create the life you want. And you know, all these characteristics that we talked about that you you want, you just define what they are. And I'll show you through our methodology, how you can see that into your subconscious mind. So that that's who you become, yeah, that she's on the front end of that. So she probably didn't fully understand that, you know, she's seen the template, but it's so bad. And that's to me, and I know, you feel the same way that's the joy of thing could be it is to be able to actually create the life you want. I mean, it's so incredibly powerful.

It really is, you know, and I think I want to go back to because I know, we briefly touched on it before we started recording about this idea that some people may perceive this as an elitist kind of mindset or, you know, because at the very opening of our, our conversation here, you may And that 98% being you know, you're kind of really cheap. Yeah, well, they're they're following. So what are your thoughts on those that may be pushing back on this idea of well, no, you know, that's not how I, I'm not going to put myself into that bucket or that or that feels like I'm, again, an elitist kind of attitude. But what are your what's your argument to that person? Who might be thinking that as we're talking about 98% 2%, what's your thoughts?

Well, you know, I think I can respect that, that point of view, and if they don't feel comfortable with that, then don't embrace it. But you know, I see it in like, I, this is interesting, I went to my chiropractor the other day, and I was telling him about, you know, doing this program where I'm quarterbacking my own health, and I'm, you know, doing this problem that early detects any sort of cancer or heart disease. And he says, You know, I think only about 1% of people actually are proactive on their health and actually do embrace, quarterbacking, their health, they either don't take care of their health, or they blindly go with whatever the doctor says. And you know, as I think I probably told you, last year, you My attitude is, hey, I'm quarterbacking it, I've got, you know, a number of doctors, but I'm making the decisions. I'm weighing it all. I don't look for them to make the decisions. I just looked for them to give me the data. And smart I can figure it out with their health. And I thought, wow, that is amazing that, you know, only 1% of people this from a sophisticated health care provider. Only 1% are proactive on quarterbacking their own health, just like only 2% of people are suitable for think it be it and it makes me realize how maybe you give? Yeah, I'd say this screwed up our society is that so low numbers of people really are got their act together.

You know, and I see your perspective. And I also see it, I always go back to what you've taught me and what the additional research that I've done, you know, shows, which is there's a reason why people are showing up that way, in life, that zone of familiarity, the way their subconscious has been programmed, you know, throughout their life to depending on what point they're out in their life, you know, so it's, your brain is designed to keep you in the familiar. Yeah, you know, and so that's its job, it's to keep you safe, it resists change, because that's a lot of work for it, it likes being on autopilot, you know, and so I never fault or think lazy or anything along those lines. And there are some people that are, you know, just like every fat person, but I also chalk it up to not being educated about how the human brain works, how the mind works, how we process, you know, or, you know, how we create thoughts, emotions, like, all of those things were out once I understood the science, like I've talked about, it was a total game changer. For me. It was like, oh, okay, well, I see now why it's been so hard to create a habit in this particular area of my life, it's because, you know, A, B, and C. Okay, well, I can fix that by doing this, then, you know, so I think that is part of it is that it's just now starting to get on the forefront, you know, like, barely have this education for people about how your mind works, how the brain works, how to override that old, you know, the, you know, and get your auto pilot to work for you versus against you, you know, so I think that, you know, there's that faction of people, that low percentage of people that just kind of get it like it, maybe that's just the way part of you know, their story, and everything has led them to be eaten out there. They're either overcome something or there is just the way they're built right now. And then there's the group I think, which is a large percentage of people that you know, again, just don't know how to fix it. Well,

And you know, I'm I love that you brought that up, Kelly, because, you know, I see that once I learned how the human mind works. It 25 eggs, my income, it had completely changed your life. It completely changed. Tony Robbins life yeah. Our Tom Bill, you on the host of Impact Theory said that learning how the human mind works changed his life. And and you know, it's, I'm always amazed at The amount of clutter that is in the world, you know, the best example is, is how, you know, thinking Grow Rich has been read by 100 million people. And the next best selling book on success has been read by less than 10 million people. So it's the top book in the world on success by a factor of 10. But only one in seven people has ever heard of it. You know, mind blowing to me. But and, and so when you hear that, that, you know, learning how the mind works may be the key to unlocking a whole, totally different life for you. You know, I think it goes in one ear out the other for 98% of the people, the 2%. Go, whoa, what, you know what, you know, they're like, whoa, this could be something significant. So I love that you brought that up? Because it illustrates your point.

Yeah. And I think the other thing to think about too, and I wonder how much of this plays in I know, we need to be wrapping up. But I do. I'm just curious about this. Wonder too, like, one of the things that I noticed about the 2%, and I think I mentioned this earlier is they're always in that constant low growth, learning mode, where they're, they're naturally people who want to learn are curious, or seekers or that kind of thing. I think there's a large percentage of the population that once they're done with school, whether that's, you know, high school, college, whatever the case may be, they're done learning. Oh, no, they, you know, they, they, you know, they've associated growing learning, with the educational system, the standard educational system, so I can't help but wonder if there's a direct correlation between, you know, kind of where we're at in terms of the 2% versus the 98%, in relation to people's, how they're framing and how they're thinking about growth, right education? Because,

Absolutely,

Yeah, there's gotta be a because I found you, because I'm a seeker, you know, I found this method because I am committed to growth. You know, I've always been somebody who reads who is, you know, who's searching and who wants to learn, like the latest thing that I can apply and optimize and that kind of thing. So that's just something that's ingrained in me. And I think that's what you know, again, is how I found this method and an uplevel things to the next step. But when you stop being strategic, and we talk about this all the time, and you stop bringing new things into your life that are valuable, you stopped seeking and learning from outside perspectives. So that that is when I think the atrophy starts of your brain. And that's when the treadmill of life starts, that's when Groundhog's Day starts, you know what I mean?

Well, and, you know, I've realized, and I think we've talked about this for that, that you can only progress from the wisdom of other people coming into your head, because if you're not getting that, then then you're just replicating who you are over and over again. But any, any progress, any major leap in your life always has to come from somebody else, like I taught, you think it'd be it, and I had to learn it from reading the book Thinking grow rich and figuring out the secret, but, and I remember other things that my life were big changes because my aunt has slapped me upside the head and, and made me realize, you know, something? Yeah. And so I think you're right. And, and I think, you know, as we wrap this up, I think it's powerful to, to embrace being part of the 2%. And, and the beauty with our method is that if you first of all, if you embrace it, and define the characteristics you want, then using our 12 min a day methodology, you can create that person, just that repetition every day of, of the person you want to be what you want to accomplish and how you accomplish it. You become that person. It's it couldn't be any simpler. So let's let our audience audience chew on that for

Perfect.

Okay, until next time, we'll see you.

Thanks for listening today. If you've had your own aha moment from today's episode, send me or John an email. We'd love to share your epiphany with our audience. So email us at kelly@thinkitbeit.com or john@thinkitbeit.com. In the meantime, live the exceptional life