In this episode, John and Kelly talk about the concept of becoming more enlightened intellectually. John explains that when he looks back on his life, he sees that enlightenment came from learning things from other people. As an example, one of the first things he learned about life was from his dad. His dad was very hard-working. So John embraced the idea of being hard-working. Then when John was 19, he read the book psycho Cybernetics. Had a big impact on his self-image. Then when John was 27, he discovered his unique talent. He could take the complex and make it simple. He learned this from one of his CPA clients. Then John goes on to tell a story about when he was 41. Met with a gentleman by the name of Jeffrey Gittomer. Jeffrey taught John the power of learning from other people. And turning his car into a mobile university. Then at 50, John’s life was transformed by reading the book think and grow Rich. And appreciating that 95% of a person’s daily actions are unconscious. Understanding that one thing transformed his life. Then Kelly went through her life thinking about incidences where her life was changed from learning from other people. The take away from all this is that your level of enlightenment has progressed from learning from other people. But to really do that effectively, you can’t just have the intention to do that. Rather, you have to create an actual SYSTEM. And when you create such a system, then you articulate that system in your 12 minute a day visualization. 

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.

And as always, I'm John Michell.

The one and only.

So, Kelly, here's our topic today. Why are you more enlightened today? than you've been in the past? What so what? What's your take on that?

Okay, so at first, so why am I more enlightened today? Ryan? I have been in the past.

I think there's one reason but but I'm going to lead you down this a little bit.

Do you want me to just like first answer first thought and yeah,

just what what comes to your head,

I think a couple of different things. For me, the first thing that came to mind is just the wisdom that comes with aging. And with having an open mind. Like I have a growth mindset. But the other thing too is the amount of information that you have access to, to like anything you want to learn, find out about research is at our fingertips. versus you know, when I started my career, 20 years ago, anything I wanted to learn, you know, you went to the, you know, the library and looked it up on microfiche or read a, you know, read a book or you know, whatever about it, it wasn't just a quick google and information at your fingertips. So at first 30,000 feet, that's my answer. Final answer.

You want to call a friend, I can let you do that.

Let me call you let me let's hear your insight on this.

Well, you know, here's my, my take on it, I find that I'm more advanced and enlightened today because of the wisdom of other people. And and I'll give you an example, I've really been thinking about this. So the first sort of enlightenment in my life, I think I got with from my dad, who was really hard working, you know, seeing him work hard and seeing, you know, when you work hard, you know, you can put food on the table, that sort of visual was the first learning from someone else. And then when I was 19 years old, I read the book PSYCHO CYBERNETICS by Maxwell Maltz. And this is all about self image, what a great thing to read at 19 years old, to impact my self image. And, you know, it taught me how not to worry, which was, you know, huge. So, Maxwell Maltz had a huge impact at 19. Then at 27, I saw that, that my I discovered my special talent was I could take the complex and make it simple. And I discovered that because a couple of my clients when I was a practicing CPA, called me up and said, how well I had to explain something complicated in the tax code relative to their situation. Well, they had the perspective that they shared with me that that's my special talent. I didn't have the perspective to see it. So I had to learn that from them. And then when I was about 41, I met Jeffrey Gitomer. Do you know who Jeffrey is,

if you don't? The name sounds a little familiar, but I don't I'm not familiar enough. Yeah.

Well, he is brilliant. And I met him at 41. And I get into Jeffrey a little more but in a minute, but he was the one that said to me, you need to turn your your car into a mobile University and he really taught me the power of learning from other people. And so you know, very, very important lesson at 41. Again, from the outside and then, as you know, when I turned 50 I read thinking grow Rich, I learned how the human mind works, I learned the concept of working smarter, not harder. I learned the concept of stepping back and, and thinking, and, obviously, you know, my life was transformed by, by that. And then I saw, as I created a system for personal growth that was reinforced in my daily visualization, you know, then my life skyrocketed because I had the wisdom of experts coming in my head all the time. And, and even lately, in the last, I don't know, two months, like I learned from Impact Theory, you know, just fundamentally why people are different than than I am, we're all a function of our genetics and what's come into our consciousness. And, and because everybody is different in those two areas as why they see the world differently than like I do. And also recently, I've been awakened to the amazing things that are going on in healthcare and medicine from AI, the Tony Robbins, new book. So the long winded explanation of all that was that I see that, at least in my case, I think this is true, virtually in every case, we're becoming more enlightened, because we're bringing the wisdom of other people into our head. So what's your, what's your feeling about that? So you buy that?

Oh, 100%, I basically nailed it at the beginning.

That you mention it. Now that you mention it? Yeah, we could have saved the audience a lot of time and just cut out all that stuff. I was saying no,

no, basically, I mean, it's this, it's the availability of being able to learn from, you know, it's so much more accessible than it was, you know, even, you know, 2030 years ago, you know, we're talking about with the advent of, you know, YouTube, and the, you know, the different social media channels, and people can create content that are brilliant, that give people access to this information to for free. You know, and so, no, I couldn't agree with you more mentors, having that growth mindset and bringing in new ideas, you know, new ways to think about things that's been 100%. What has made me more enlightened to on this path that I'm on?

Right, right. You know, and I'm sure if we look back in your life, sort of like I, you know, I could, I had the advantage of really thinking about it before we went on, but, but you know, you can look back that there's probably 10 instances where you learn something, and Whoa, it completely changed you, don't you think? Oh, 100%?

Yeah, absolutely. There are those different kinds of inflection points in your life where, you know, you learn something about yourself. And we talked about this a lot, too. But I think enlightenment comes from failure. I think enlightenment comes from having a plan, and things maybe not necessarily the going the way that you'd planned. The enlightenment comes from disappointment, and how you rise above that, and what you learn as a result of going through that experience and carry with you into the next. So again, it's all part of this wonderful. The key, the key thing here that is all in common with all of this is having a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset. So being open to learning and thinking about things from a different perspective, rather than it's my way or the highway, or this is the way I've always done it. And this is the way I'll always do it. You know, it's like, well, good luck, because you'll be exactly where you are right now.

Might be your problem right there. Well, you know, I tell you, it's let me let me tell you about Jeffrey Gitomer, who, like I mentioned is a is amazing. So this happened to me when I was 41 years old. I here and Jeffrey is it was at the time and still is sort of the master at sales. If you google him, okay, comes up as the sales King. Okay. And so, when I was 41, many, many years ago, like I was somehow get turned on to Jeffrey, and listen to him and, and he was a national figure, and just brilliant. And so I'm thinking, you know, I want to spend an hour with his guy, because Because largely he I felt like he was like the about one of the smartest people and I'd I'd come across. So I contacted him somehow. And he says, Well, you know, I'm going to be in Dallas in a month. Why don't we get together and I'll have lunch with you and you You write me a check for $500. And, and let's, you know, spend an hour with you. So we do that, and it's great. And he tells me, he says, John, you know, you need to, you need to make your car, a mobile University. And he shows me, you know, the power of learning from other people. And, and I'm like, wow, that's, that makes a lot of sense. Well, after the meeting, I try and do that. And keep in mind, this is in the 1990s, nothing really happens, except it's, it's made a big impact on me. And then fast forward to me about nine years later, turning 50 And I'm thinking, why am I not more successful? And I'm like, you know, maybe it's what Jeffrey was saying, you know, I had the attitude that I'm too busy for personal growth. And that's, that's your problem right there. That's a big part of your problem. And he made me think about the fact that we just don't magically come up with more enlightenment, it always has to come from other people. And I'm amazed at how little I have actually come up with on my own, to advance my own enlightenment. It's all come from learning from other people. And, and ironically, this is the beauty of how the world works. So I do a podcast interview about a week or so ago. And out of the blue right at the start. The guy goes, Do you know, get Jeffrey Gitomer? I'm like, I darn sure do. And I tell him the story. And he says, Well, you know, I'm really good friends with and so I'm like, I've got to talk to Jeffrey, I got just tell him, thank you for the profound impact that had on my, my life. And so I, I contact him. And then last week, Jeffrey and I do a zoom, and we hit it off. We're totally in the same headspace. He's doing amazing things. Now he's got an amazing idea around creating and expanding his library and, and giving it to, to the world. And so I am going to fly to North Carolina next Monday to hang out with him for a day or so. And, you know, I can't wait to do it. Because I don't know what the hell's gonna happen. But I know it's gonna be fun. Because he is, like I said, probably one of the smartest people I've ever met. I was telling ginger, you know, the smartest people I've ever met my life I think so far is Tony Robbins, Darren Hardy, and Jeffrey Gitomer, those are my my top three and Jeffrey tells me that he's he has coached Darren Hardy, and I know you know, Darren, as well. But who would be the top three people that you ever met in terms of being a smart?

Gosh, there have been so many people, and I mean, they may not be recognizable people, and I'm gonna say

count me.

I was gonna say, Hey, Wait, where am I on this friggin list of years?

For right now, but you know, you can move up, you can, you know?

No, but I am gonna say something really quick, I want to call something out because there's a couple of different things. And I want to give a similar example. So you obviously are one of the people in my life that has caused me to be so much more enlightened, amazing influence, maybe one of the key people and at the top of the list, and I want to point something out here because I think it's really important in the story you just told and the quick one I'm about to tell how important it is that you seize the opportunity. So you and I met when you were a guest on my podcast, and I saw something in what you that was different, you know, we connected right away, you invited me to Austin and I went I took the opportunity to come down meet with you in person learn more about it. And so I think it's it's not only is it having these people in your life that you connect with, but it is doing the the that isn't something I had done before where I met somebody and flew to a different part of the country to meet you having not, you know, met in person before anything. And I think it's important to seize those opportunities for mentorship. For those in for those relationships that can be pivotal relationships in your life, to tune into that instinctually, like, I knew that conversation was a meaningful one. And that I must, there was no other choice for me, but to take you up on that opportunity to get to sit down and visit with you in person. And, and so listen to that instinct, and, and follow up on that, like you're doing again, with Jeffrey, you know who's made this big impact in your life, and you're gonna go and you've done that in so many other instances with other brilliant people, you know, in different spaces. And I think that's one of the lessons too, is to seize the opportunity to, you know, when somebody opens the door and invites you or for you to ask, if there's a tool to take the to have the courage to say, Hey, I'd love to, you know, whatever the case may be, and I think that's part of the lesson and your story as well and in mind, because it changed it, it changed the trajectory of my life forever. And by that one, you know, interaction, right? It's being open to it, too. You know what I mean?

Right? Well, and, you know, I think that's a big thing I've learned about growing, I mean, Jeffrey, sort of really made me understand this, this core idea that, basically, we're not smart enough to advance ourselves, you know, it has to come from bringing in the wisdom of other people, that's just how it, how it works, but I the the, the Tweak to what he taught me, was, I see that you gotta have a system, if you don't have a system is not going to work. It's like when, when he told me turn your car into a mobile University, right idea, I had all the intention in the world of doing it. But because 95% of your daily actions are unconscious, you know, unless I was influencing my subconscious mind to do that. I couldn't do it. And, and I found that through having a system, you know, like, you know, and I, every one of our clients, we teach him to have a system, the latest iteration of this is, like, I was telling you, I'm coaching the star basketball player at Texas. And, and I was telling him that, that what you'll see when you graduate is most people don't read another book after they graduate. So you know, when you're in, in college, you're growing, and you're learning stuff. But when you graduate, I think there's a statistic is, like, 42% of people, once they graduate from college, never read another book the rest of their life, which is stunning, but it's true. But I see that, like, I was saying, Okay, we're going to create a system for you, you know, I said, Pick three different podcast sources. And he's, and let's pick a couple of them, that podcasts that NBA players would, would be listening to, you know, we want the growth to be consistent. And we want to be strategic relative to what he wants to accomplish. And so I want to influence his growth right now, because he's plan season is about to start, let's pick two podcasts at NBA players listing to to up their game, let's figure out what those two are. And maybe let's, he's going into real estate, let's lay in commercial real estate, let's pick a commercial real estate podcast and Celeste have three different podcasts, you pick two every week or two episodes every week that you're gonna listen to, I'm going to affirm this in his visualization so that they see this system of personal growth into his, his subconscious mind. And I know, without a doubt, it's going to blow him away this new higher level of learning and growing from having a system and so I'm, I'm excited to do it. But the point of sharing all that is you got to have a system if you if you don't have a system, then growing is just an intention. And that's not going to work. Right?

Yep. 100% So as an example, right now, one of my focuses is on understanding how AI, you know, chat GPT all of those, how we can utilize those to grow our business or to say to become more efficient, those kinds of things, right. And so I've got a class, a little class that I'm taking on that that's online to learn the different aspects of the business that that can impact and how to utilize it, just again, to get educated enough about it so that I can, you know, delegate, I can bring on, you know, right partners to support in different areas, but I need a general knowledge around it. And so that's been my focus for the month of October. Probably november two, because there's a, there's a lot of different stuff out there and really kind of understanding it. And then so that's really my focus on what I'm because I can utilize it for every business that you know. And so I'm like, alright, well, let me wrap my head around how this goes into the, you know, how I can utilize this in business. And so that's my focus. And then I'll sit down, and I'll evaluate when I'm, you know, like, I'll probably do it for first quarter, you're like, what's the thing that I want to focus on in q1? You know, and maybe it's my health, you know, so I want to take in as much as possible, you know, about improving my health and optimizing my health or, but that there's a strategic plan, you know, and I like the laser focused approach versus the shotgun approach, like, I like to dig in and go deep on a subject for a period of time, and then switch to the next thing that's going to either optimize my life or businesses. And so you know, I will, you know, so then all you have to do is a couple of searches on AI, training, and now it's all coming into your feeds, you know, so it's filling up your ability to it's super easy now to get strategic about it. Now, you're just blocking the time and figuring out how you're going to fit it into your already busy day, which is often when you're doing something else, that kind of thing.

Are you are you using YouTube, when you say into your feed is that? Yeah,

I'm a big YouTube, I like the I like YouTube. So I follow several people, a Tony Robbins, obviously one of them and many other like thought leaders, and, you know, I'm following them just so I can see their latest episodes and whether it's something I'm interested in or that's aligned with, you know, what I'm focused on for the month.

Right, right. Well, that's That's powerful. And I assume that in your visualization, you you articulate what your growth focus is like for the current quarter, right. Yeah,

absolutely. And then I'm then it's all coming into my consciousness that incautious consciousness. Now, we talk about the reticular activating system. Yeah, now, it's all popping up. And I'm seeing all of these opportunities now, even as I'm learning to utilize it, and just say, Well, wait a minute, I just learned why don't we do it? Why don't we try using this, instead of outsourcing this to the marketing group, and see whether we can utilize this instead? And oh, bingo, I just saved 1000 bucks, you know, for not outsourcing it. So yeah, you

know, it's, it's, it's interesting, you have a system on a system, you know, you have a system and in using your 12 minute a day visualization, that is creating a system for personal growth, that you articulate what it is. And so it now it's just who you are truly, who you are. And then on top of that system, you have the YouTube algorithm now Systemising your growth. And so I see that anything in life that happens has to have a system. That's what that's what think it be it is that it's a system, you know, you got to have a personal growth system, you got to have a system for, for your health, you know, everything comes down to a system. And I

think too, and one last thing regarding this growth idea is having a system for how you process the information you're taking in. So you're learning all of this, and you're listening. But that's what that you know, and I know, we've had past episodes on this, but that's what that dedicated thinking time for deep thinking is also about, it's about processing ideas that are coming in from some of the input that you're getting from, you know, that's a lot of my thinking time is like, oh, there was that? I loved what that, you know, podcaster said, or that guest said about this, I wonder how that would integrate in? Or would that make a difference in you know, whatever the case may be ABC, and it's like, alright, well, that's the perfect jumping off point for thinking about this. But I think that's the often the stuff that's missed to in growth, is it's one thing to just take all of this in, it's another to process it and then figure out what your action plan is going to be. Because otherwise it goes back to what you were talking about with intention, you can have the best intention in the world. But then if you don't do anything with what you're learning, or have a plan of action, and how you're going to make that happen, then, you know, that growth only takes you so far, it's still really useful, but it only takes you so far. Right?

Well, you know, I think one of the reasons we do this podcast is because, you know, we have people to do our methodology and we want to give them all the nuances to it as well as Yes, make them make them think and one of the things I have come to appreciate is the interaction between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. You know, the setting aside time two times to think is pure, conscious mind. It's, it's it's stepping back from your life and observing what you're learning, getting your head thinking about it. But it's pure unconscious mind and and oftentimes I see from those thinking sessions I will go into my visualization and change something because now I have thought it through a little different and see it a little deeper and and then when I changed my visualization now we're shifting over to the subconscious mind because once I start feeding that my subconscious mind now I'm just going to show up on my, my anxious but I see this enter this constant interplay between conscious mind and conscious mind. And I think that's the beauty of thinking it is is is that a whole mind combination, so 100% Okay, well, this has been fun. 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