Tom DuFore: 0:01

Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I'm your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky franchise team. And as we open today with the new year upon us, I thought it'd be a great way to start our podcast season of the year with some personal development and goal setting. And I'm sure you've heard of the book called Think and Grow Rich. It's been read by over a whopping 150 million people worldwide. But here's what's interesting the book says there's a secret for creating success. But the author only gives half the secret. And our guest today is John Mitchell, and he gives us the full secret and talks about a 12-minute technique on how to apply it. John teaches this technique and method at one of the top five business schools in the country. So let's go ahead and jump into my interview with John Mitchell. One of the drivers and really interest in wanting to have you on is to talk about the book and your research and all the work that you've done on the book, Think and Grow Rich. It is a classic out there. I'd imagine most people who probably listen in, read it or at least familiar with that. And so I'd love for you just to give us a little backstory here. How'd you end up pursuing this idea and going after this uh think and grow rich idea?

John Mitchell: 1:26

Well, I'd I'd love to. And I'll tell you something, Tom. I think your audience is going to find our conversation interesting. But I dare say that some of them are going to find it life-changing. And I became an entrepreneur when I was 30. In my 30s and 40s, I was like in seven different businesses. And I get to be 50 years old. And Tom, I'm just not as successful as I think I should be. And I got two goals in my life. One is to make enough money so I didn't have to work. And the second one was to find the woman in my dreams. Well, I'm falling short on both of them at 50. And when I hit 50 on the money, I'd always done pretty well. I'd always made 200, 300 grand a year, primarily from just outworking all my friends. But when I hit 50, I saw I had to start netting a million dollars a year to have the exceptional life I always dreamed of. And then on the girl at 50, I'd never been married. Anyway, at 50, I'm like, well, how am I going to change things? And I don't know, it's probably three months after I turned 50, a pearl of wisdom comes to me. Find the top book of the world on success and apply that book literally word for word to my life. And so I remember that coming to me, and I jump out of bed and I do the research, and I discover there's one book that's been read by literally 150 million people. And it's the top book of the world on success by a factor of 10. And of course, that book is Think and Grow Rich, which I bet you've read, right? Yes, I sure have. And so I'm like, this is setting up perfect. Who knew that there was one book that was above all the rest? So, Tom, I go out, buy the book, and read the book, and then I discover the problem. The book says there's a secret for success, but the author gives only gives us half of the secret. So I'm bummed out. I'd mope around for probably three weeks. And one day I just get up and go, John, come on, man up, figure out the damn secret. And I immerse myself in the book probably for two or three months and read it 20 times to figure out the secret. And ultimately I figure out the secret in a 12-minute-day technique to apply it. And I start applying it to a new business I was starting in the reverse mortgage field. And Tom, suddenly my income starts doubling and doubling and doubling to where approximately four years later, I'm blessed to be making 25 times the 200 to 300 grand a year I've been making the prior 20 years. And of course I felt tremendously blessed. But Tom, what was particularly interesting, I could see why it was happening. I was just playing the game of life at a higher level. I could do things I could never do before. And I just had a level of control over my life I'd never experienced before. And I became fascinated that you could take two key scientific principles and apply them to your life and so materially impact your success. And so about 12 years ago, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna I finally had enough money so I didn't have to work. And I thought I'm gonna share this with the world. And a month or two after I sell my company, I meet the former chancellor and president here at the University of Texas. And he says, Hey, you got to teach this at the University of Texas, and why don't we teach it together? And that led to, he introduces me to the athletic director here, and the athletic director says, Hey, I want to learn this 12-minute day technique. And so that led to becoming the mental coach for the 18 head coaches. And so today I teach my class the science of success, the science of leveraging yourself, which is really what I would call advanced leadership of self. And so, but I also teach my methodology to adults through my book, The Missing Secret.

Tom DuFore: 5:39

I'd love for you to talk through some highlights from the book just to get us started here on that.

John Mitchell: 5:45

Think about this, Tom, and I I throw this question out to your audience. How do you create success in life? Just how do you create success in life? And when I talk to people in person, they'll stumble around for an answer because nobody's usually ever asked them that question. Then the more pertinent question is I go, well, yeah, I'll recap what they said. I go, so how's that working for you? Well, not so well. Not so well for creating the exceptional life. And I believe that this is the case because nobody gave them the alternative. Nobody gave them a way, quote unquote, to do life. And and so they're just winging life. And that's what produces the average life. And here's something that I promise you will surprise you. You know, when you're winging life, your intelligence, intellect, and logic is not directing your actions because 95% of your daily thoughts and actions are unconscious. You know, they're they're in the moment and they're reactive. And since they're unconscious, your conscious mind, intelligence, intellect, and logic is not directing and controlling your daily actions. Yet those daily actions are the very thing that determines your success in life. And so I fix that with this 12-minute day morning routine.

Tom DuFore: 7:16

I mean, it's a natural lead-in for me to say, well, can we talk about the 12-minute daily routine? I'd be a pretty poor host if I didn't ask that as a follow-up.

John Mitchell: 7:25

Do you agree that most people are winging life? Yes. Yeah, right. Well, let me share with you the secret. And maybe the easiest way is just to tell you the story of how I discovered the secret. And so, when I, like I said, at 50, I'm not as successful as I think I should be. But Tom, there was a little bit more going on with me than just feeling the scarcity of time. My mom was dying of pancreatic cancer. And so every day after work, I'd go see her in the hospital and I'd hold her hand and love on her. And it was just everything I could do to keep from breaking down in front of her. And so every night I'd go in the cold dark hospital parking lot and cry my eyes out. And I mean, cry like I have never cried before, like for 45 minutes to an hour. And this is going on for like six to eight weeks. I mean, obviously, I'm I'm feeling the impending loss of my mom, but I never experienced crying for an hour a night straight. And and but that was what was going on. And I didn't, you know, what I came to realize, not maybe not at the time, but I felt like I was letting my mom down with my life because my mom and dad gave me every advantage. They sent me to Jesuit High School in Dallas and when they really didn't have the money. And they sent me down here to the University of Texas at Austin, and I didn't have to pay for a thing. And so as my mom was leaving this world, all I had to show for my life was the average life. And I hated the average life because I just knew I was capable of so much more. And ironically, though, I saw that that feeling of letting my mom down and that intense dislike for the average life was like rocket fuel and causing me to go deeper into thinking, grow rich, and figure out the secret in a way that nobody else ever had. And so I remember the night I I was blessed to figure out the secret. It was, I mean, I it feels like it was yesterday. And but this particular night it felt different because it was snowing. And so this night I go see my mom, love on her, cry my eyes out for an hour, and start driving home. And I see the big snowflakes hitting my windshield. And Tom, it really just felt different. Yeah, I didn't know what that meant, but it just felt different. And so I get home and I plop myself in my comfy chair, and I decide I'm gonna read some more of Think and Grow Rich. And so I start reading it. And that night, the first thing I read is that your daily actions determine your success in each area of your life. I'm like, okay, I'd never thought about it quite that simply, but sure, the cumulative effects of your daily actions are gonna determine your success in your career, in your health, in your marriage. Okay, I buy it. Then the second thing I read is that 95% of your daily thoughts and actions are unconscious. They're in the moment, they're reactionary. So, so 95% of your daily thoughts and actions are unconscious. Okay. Well, hmm, I'm thinking about that. And then I'm ready to go to bed. So I I wash my face and brush my teeth and put my little head on the pillow. And Tom, I cannot stop thinking about 95% of your daily actions are unconscious. And I start thinking about that and ruminating about that, and it's like a lightning bolt hits me. I'm like, whoa, wait a minute. If your daily actions determine your success, and 95% of them are unconscious, then I don't control the very thing that determines my success. And even worse, my intelligence and intellect is not directing those actions because if they're unconscious, my conscious mind houses my intelligence and intellect. And I'm like, well, what's driving my actions then? Well, if they're unconscious, it's my subconscious mind. And and it's wired for survival, and which causes us to be fear-based and reactive. And so what's directing my actions is innately being fear-based and reactive. And this was like truly a lightning bolt hitting me. And I remember sort of sitting up in bed and you know, looking out now at the backyard and seeing the snowflakes falling, and you know, just a surreal moment. And it starts to occur to me that oh, the reason I'm not more successful is not from lack of intelligence or lack of drive. And I dare say that every member of your audience has the same false belief that they control their their daily actions, when in fact they don't. And I'm like, well, clearly you have to gain control over those unconscious daily actions if you want to have a higher level of success. And now the full secret starts to come to me. And here's the full secret of thinking real rich. What you envision in detail with emotion on a daily basis is what shows up in your life. And Tom, what that means is, and let me say it again, what you envision in detail with emotion on a daily basis is what shows up in your life. And what that means is you create immense clarity about each area of your life. You know, exactly the person you want to be, exactly what you want to accomplish, and precisely how you're going to achieve your clearly defined goals. And so once you create that clarity, you put it on a template I created. In fact, the template helps you create the clarity. And then you start feeding that clarity to yourself every day, and it takes 12 minutes a day. And once you do that, there's three effects of it. The first effect is you have this immense sense of control over your life. Well, of course you would. You're feeding the succinct articulation of your desired life to yourself each day. Of course, you're going to feel control. Second thing you experience is confidence, which is directly related to that control. And you you also feel way less stressed because the mind thrives on order and you're creating immense order in the mind. And then the third thing that happens, now this doesn't happen immediately. Those two things will happen immediately. But the third thing, you'll start seeing the right actions happening automatically without thinking once you've rewired your autopilot.

Tom DuFore: 15:09

So that's how it works. It sounds awfully simple, which I like. However, sometimes it seems the most simple things are the most difficult things to actually do. I love the 12-minute routine. I don't know if you're able to talk through some of the points that go into that or into your worksheet and what's involved with that. And then I'd love for you to share how you started incorporating this into your day-to-day routine. Right, right.

John Mitchell: 15:37

Well, first of all, because I may forget to say this, obviously, for someone else to do this, they have to customize my template to their unique life. And I created an AI algorithm where all they got to do is answer approximately 50 questions, press a button, and 10 seconds later, the template is customized to their life. Pretty slick. And so, but let me give you an example. I mean, you know, we've been talking the 30,000-foot view of it. Let me give you a practical example of it. And this pertains in my my marriage, but I want to convey that the core concept around this is that 95% of your daily thoughts and actions are unconscious. And again, they're in the moment, they're reactionary. And the example is like with my my wife. So we get going each morning, off we go, she does her thing, I do my thing, and then we reconvene for dinner. Now keep in mind, in my 12-minute day technique, I'm affirming to myself regarding my marriage that I'm flexible, patient, and thoughtful. And I'm affirming what that means relative to our relationship. I'm also affirming that my wife is different than me. She does things slow and is people-oriented. She's sort of a perfectionist. I'm the opposite. I do things fast and I'm task-oriented. So I that's all the stuff I'm feeding myself every day. Well, now she's preparing dinner and she's about to get it on the table. And I'm thinking, I keep in mind, I'm just thinking this. This is not coming out of my mouth. I'm thinking this. I'm like, babe, let's get the food on the table. I'm hungry. Let's go. But I'm not saying that. And but what happens is at my the first hint of my impatience, a thought from my subconscious bubbles up to go, John, you know, here's an opportunity to be uh patient. Well, what happens? Well, I consciously take control of being patient, and I am patient. I don't say, let's go, I don't ruin the dinner from stressing her out. And you can imagine the impact, like in my live GPS template. I got 50 things in the various areas of my life. You can imagine when you can get yourself to do the right actions consistently and all your intentions consistently instead of sporadically, boy, you're just playing the game of life at a higher level. And that ends up being the difference between having the average life and the exceptional life. But see, that's the difference between winging life and having an actual 12-minute day way of doing life. And I was guilty of this. In my past life, if I was hungry, I would have expressed my frustration. And that's that's a problem. And I think foundationally, let me explain the science behind this because you this and this is again simple. So here's how the conscious mind and the subconscious mind work. The conscious mind is setting your intentions based on logic, subconscious mind is controlling your daily actions, or 95% of them, and it's only influenced by repetition. And so the example is this: let's say you want to lose weight. Well, conscious mind sets the intention to lose weight based on the logic of the health benefits. But the the reason people fail to lose weight is not obviously from lack of intention, but lack of influencing their subconscious mind relative to what they're eating and exercising. And so you can see when you're feeding the succinct articulation of your desired life to yourself every day, that's the repetition the subconscious mind needs to make the right actions happen automatically. From just like in my example, the unconscious thought pub bubbling up my conscious mind to that moment being patient instead. Instead of being reactionary, as would be how someone that that's just winging life is rolling.

Tom DuFore: 20:07

You're exercising your subconscious mind. That to me is what it sounds like. It's this daily exercise of going through this to help provide intention or intent to give direction to your subconscious mind. Where are you headed? What are the things we want to be regularly thinking about to train our subconscious mind to be going through that? So I think that's fantastic.

John Mitchell: 20:31

Right. Well, you know, I I told you before we we got on here, I wanted to make you have the same epiphany I had. Think about this. How many epiphanies in your life have you had that radically changed your life?

Tom DuFore: 20:44

Not many. It's been a few, you know, those big, big life-changing aha moments for sure. Yeah.

John Mitchell: 20:50

Well, you know, I've had four in my life, really. And and you know, the obviously the epiphany I had was that 95% of my daily actions are in the moment and and they're unconscious. And since you're unconscious, I don't control the very thing that's determined my success. And I also see that my intelligence and intellect is not driving my actions. And so that was that was really the epiphany. And so my question to you is do you believe that 95% of your daily thoughts and actions are unconscious?

Tom DuFore: 21:27

I would say absolutely. Even though I I think I have a plan and try to plan out my day and prioritize what I want to do, but most of the time I'm just doing, right? I'm just kind of going through the day, I'm executing and going through that.

John Mitchell: 21:43

And so the takeaway for you and the audience, hopefully, is to really embrace this epiphany that, oh, wow, 95% of my daily thoughts and actions really are unconscious. And because they're unconscious, my intelligence and intellect is not driving them. And by God, I got to fix this. And this guy, John Mitchell, has a 12-minute-a-day way to do it. And I would say one thing in terms of credibility to this, it was really tough to get my methodology approved at the University of Texas. It's I'm in the business school. And according to U.S. News and World Reports, our business school is one of the is considered one of the top five in the country, right up there with Harvard and Stanford. And so it was really hard. Took me two years to get it approved. So this isn't another get rich quick scheme. This is something that has been vetted at the highest level. And so I don't know. Hopefully that makes people feel a little better about the viability of this.

Tom DuFore: 22:54

How can people find out more about the 12-minute routine or habit or connect with you or gather that information to start implementing it if they're interested?

John Mitchell: 23:06

Right, right. And well, go to the missingsecret.org.org. And I have a nine-minute video that explains the full secret and how to apply it. And and one other thing I might mention is a few years ago I decided if I'm going to spend my life explaining this and teaching this, I want to go to the top expert in the world on success and show them what I created, him or her, and see what they thought. Is there something similar to it? Is there something, is there a flaw in it? And so I decide that Darren Hardy is that guy. So I write a big check. I fly out to La Jolla, California. I bring the ginger with me who I met from doing this methodology. She's my wife. And we uh we go out there and we spend three days with Darren, and the the moment comes, I show him my template, put it in his hands, I explain how it works. Tommy says to me, John, this is really good. But he says, people aren't going to spend 12 minutes a day on this. And I'm like, Darren, how the heck can that be? I mean, it it 25x my income. Time magazine did a store, 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 mean, what do you mean they're not going to take 12 minutes today to do this? He sort of smiles and kicks back and he goes, John, the dirty little secret in the success business is that more success is merely a preference, merely a preference for the vast majority of people. He says, this is only for the 2%. And Tom, the effect of that conversation was I'm like, oh, I've been looking at this thing from like everybody's a John Mitchell. How unenlightened is that? And then I was like, okay, we'll just go find more John Mitchells, people that are entrepreneurs who are making 200 grand a year, want to go to netting a million. So I go and I start doing that. And and I'm like, every time I teach my methodology, and you know, I'm I'm luring them in because I I gave them a money-back guarantee that if I couldn't double their income within a year, I would give them their money back. And I would typically charge them $20,000, teach it over eight weeks. And if you played out the math over three years, it'd be like a 35 to 40 to 10 on their money, and as a money-back guarantee. And so I did that for a year and a half, and it worked every time. I mean, it's pure science, it cannot not work. You got to do it, it won't work if you don't do it. But you know, it evolved, and I would document every time with video proving it worked, and but I saw how unleveraged that was, and that sort of led to doing my book. But but I think the the lesson is that if you're not in the 2%, this is not for you. And and when I say in the 2%, I'm talking about the 2% that want to play the game of life at their full potential.

Tom DuFore: 26:33

Thank you so much for that. And the place to connect here is the missingsecret.org. Is that right? Right, right. Perfect. Well, John, thank you so much. And this is a great time in the show. I like to make a transition. And we ask every guest the same four questions before they go. And the first question we ask is have you had a miss or two on your journey and something you learned from it?

John Mitchell: 26:57

Not to get into a long discussion, but back when I was about 40 years old, I had the chance to buy 12% of the Dallas Cowboys. And I got to know Jerry Jones. And because I owned this, this, I was blessed to own this really cool Italian restaurant in Dallas that was voted most romantic restaurant. And I came up with the idea that, as it turned out, Jerry bought 80% of the Cowboys, and there was ultimately 12% that was owned by the FDIC, believe it or not. And I had came up with the idea to put that 12% in a public shell company and it would be the first sports franchise to be owned in the public markets. Well, to make a long story short, ultimately the FDIC was really incompetent and they didn't have a partnership agreement that they were, you know, to sell the interest, and ultimately the deal falls apart. I got to know Jerry, and and you know, we got to it, but the deal ultimately falls apart. And to put it the numbers in perspective, my 2% today were the a little over $200 million. But because I was going to get 2% of the 12% for putting it together. And I had the money lined up. Well, the lesson, the lesson is I didn't need the partnership agreement to begin with, because it had already been vetted by the attorneys who who originally loaned the money on the on the interest at the bank. And and but the lesson is you don't know what you don't know, and there's you get smarter as you get older, because I realized I didn't need the partnership agreement probably eight or nine years after that happened. So that's the lesson. Let's look on the other side, a make or two, a highlight. I guess the highlight was taking my income to a little over 5 million a year after 20 years of 200,000 a year. And I don't know, I don't want this to sound like bragging because I feel so blessed, but I was pretty damn proud to be able to figure out how to do that.

Tom DuFore: 29:10

Well, the name of the show is multiply your success. And so we always ask have you used a multiplier to multiply yourself personally, professionally, or organizations you've run? Well, this one's easy, Tom.

John Mitchell: 29:23

I mean, it's the difference between working harder and working smarter. The the leverage, I'm leveraging myself through science. I mean, that's what this 12-minute-a day technique is. Rather than winging life, I'm feeding the succinct articulation of my desired life. And it's it's purely science-based, and it just gives you this immense control of yourself.

Tom DuFore: 29:46

And the final question we ask every guest, John, is what does success mean to you? Oh, it's simple.

John Mitchell: 29:52

Just playing the game of life at my full potential and maximizing myself and maximum impact, maximum enjoyment.

Tom DuFore: 30:03

As we bring this to a close, John, is there anything you were hoping to share or get across that you haven't had a chance to yet?

John Mitchell: 30:09

Well, you know, maybe two very quick things. You know, this 12-minute day technique gives a person, certainly gave me an edge in life. And my life experience has been if you don't have something that gives you an edge in life, you're going to get the average life. And and, you know, maybe the other thing I would leave your audience with is a quick story. I guess four or five years ago, I became a grandfather for the first time. And and I had coerced my my stepdaughter to name the baby after Ginger. So we go over the day after baby Genevieve was was born to Hannah's house. Keep in mind I've never had kids myself. So we're over there, and all of a sudden they hand the baby to me and they walk away. So I'm holding this precious little girl that's a day old, holding her to my chest. I feel the warmth of her body. And Tom, I start to cry. I mean, really, I you know, tears are flowing down my face, and I realize how precious life is. And I'm like, she's gonna live for a hundred years. The the quality of her life, her enjoyment of life, her her impact of her life is gonna be determined to be determined by the thoughts that are going on in her head most of the time. I'm like, by God, I'm gonna impact those thoughts. And but the lesson I think for the audience is your life is precious. Your life is precious. And when you put your head on the pillow tonight, just think about your life. If the next five years are like the last five years, are you gonna be happy with that? And if you're not, stop winging life. Just learned a way to take control of your life and create the life you desire. And it only takes 12 minutes a day.

Tom DuFore: 32:13

John, thank you so much for a fantastic interview. And let's go ahead and jump into today's three key takeaways. So, takeaway number one is when he talked about a question that he asks people. And the question he asked is, how do you create success in life? And he said, that's a question people are not often asked. And even for our podcast, we ask how you define success, but he's asking, how do you create success in life? Takeaway number two is when he talked about 95% of your daily thoughts and actions are unconscious. And I thought that was a great way to describe it. Your subconscious mind is working all the while and really driving a lot of your actions and behaviors. And recognizing that is very important. Takeaway number three is when he talked about and gave this very specific phrase, he said, what you envision in detail with emotion on a daily basis is what shows up in your life. And he said it twice. What you envision in detail with emotion on a daily basis is what shows up in your life. And now it's time for today's win-win. So today's win-win is really taking these ideas and this concept of envisioning in detail with emotion on a daily basis what shows up in your life. Take some time each day. And John has a 12-minute program that he talks about, but take some time to envision in emotion what you want for your life. And maybe even just thinking about what do you want for your life? Personally, professionally, spiritually, for your health. What do you want in these areas of your life? I think this is a great way to get the year started. And maybe you've already done some goal setting, and this kind can be something for you to help improve or maybe adjust some of that. And so that's our episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at BigSkyFranchise Team.com where you can schedule your free, no obligation consultation. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.