[00:00:00] Welcome back to the Energize With Bram podcast, made for entrepreneurs looking to create a difference in life and society, put a dent in the universe, have some big, hairy, audacious goals, and go out and make them happen. Today we are really in for a treat.
Why? Because I've invited somebody who I deeply respect and somebody who hasn't got really the slightest of bios at all. Just to give you a quick idea, you might remember this man from the movie The Secret, which many of us have seen, and also he's been shoulders to shoulder with many of the legends in society.
He's lived in the same building as Bruce Willis, Michael Jackson, and Donald Trump. Currently lives on a ship where people like Gina Reinhardt also live. Written over 40 self-development books and manuscripts. Read nearly 31,000 books. You can definitely see that this person likes personal development. Inspired over 2 [00:01:00] billion people through a variety of media and has visited and spoken in 161 countries to date.
Welcome to the show, Dr. John Demartini.
Thank you for having me, Bram.
It's wonderful to see you again and, I'm really thrilled for you to take time outta your very busy schedule. You just said that you have been flying around again and spoken till very late yesterday night. Tell us a little bit more, more what you're doing exactly right now in Australia?
I've been doing a series of my personal development programs, the Breakthrough Experience. Mm. I did one in Sydney. I'm get getting ready to do one in Brisbane, and then I have one in. Perth I've also been doing some evening events keynotes at conferences and some media.
I did a program called, Mastering Your Perceptions, Mastering Your Life last night. And then I did a program on the Mindset of the Financial Free today. And I have other programs and I just found out I'm gonna be interviewed [00:02:00] by, very interesting magazine here. Looks like it's gonna probably late tonight.
So I'm just, doing media speaking researching and writing.
You have such a great way of living life, which goes back to the values determination. Could you briefly walk us through that and then I wanna bring it back to you as well. So what is the values determination process?
Well, when I was 23 years old in 1978. I asked myself a question, why do some people walk their talk? And some people limp their life. Why do some people do what they say and others don't? And why are some people intrinsically driven and inspired? And why do other people need motivation and are despired?
That led me to the study of Axiology, which is a study of value and worth, and what drives human beings, what makes them valuable and worth something in the world.
Mm-hmm.
That led me to the studies of Hartman and many [00:03:00] others in that field, but I was not satisfied on what was being displayed in their literature.
As David Hu, the Scottish philosopher, said: there's a difference between what ought to be our values and what they actually are. If you try to fit in you're going to find out what it ought to be to fit in, to be a good little, human being. Then what it actually is, innately, intrinsically, I was more interested in that.
So the value determination process that were on the market were mainly about how to get people to fit into society and to be a good little sheep instead of being shepherds. And so I want to know what exactly is an intrinsic value? What is it that drives human beings spontaneously without having to be motivated or controlled?
I created my own value determination process that I've been using now since 19 78, 79. Wow. And there's 13 [00:04:00] questions involved in it and it's basically parameters or distinctions or determinants about what your life demonstrates you value, not what you hope it would be, not what you wish it would be, not what you think it ought to be, but what it actually is.
Proof because if I ask, I was speaking at a conference in Johannesburg, there's about 5,000 people, and I asked how many wanna be financially independent? Every hand went up. I mean, a sea of hands went up. Some people, two hands.
And I said, now, how many of you are financially independent? All but seven hands left. Out of 5,000. Now this is an entrepreneur, so you would expect a lot higher than that.
I define financial independence as you're making a passive income, exceeding active income, and you're working because you love to, not because you have to.
ain't it interesting that all of you say that you want financial independence, but your life doesn't demonstrate it? [00:05:00] So I'm not interested in what you say. I'm interested in what your daily consistent repetitive actions demonstrate.
I'm not interested in the ought. I'm interested in what is the set of values, and so I put the criteria together that were objective to discern what exactly is priority. For instance, if you give a baby in a crib, something, a toy Or some object. If it is engaging and interesting, it will explore it.
It'll hold it, put it in its mouth. taste it. look at it and play with it. But if you put something in that it has no value on, it will kick fight push it away, and cry until you take it. we are the same way, even though we're little kids at heart, we're as an adult.
We still have the a determining factor on what we want in our space.
Hmm.
So if I gave you, something that had zero value to you and I handed it to you, probably the second I walked away, you'd find a trash can and toss it. [00:06:00] You don't want it around you.
If you have somebody you think might benefit by it, give it to them.
If you don't see any use for it you'll toss it. You don't want it around you, you'll have it taken away to the dump. But if somebody gives you something extremely valuable you'll keep it in your space. Your intimate space. In the study of proximic, you keep things that are valuable, proximal to you, close to you, and things that are not valuable distal to you, away from you.
Yep. So your space is an indicator of what you value. For instance. If I gave a woman a beautiful diamond ring, particularly a nice sized one, the probability of her losing that is very low. She'll keep that thing as close as possible. She takes it off. She'll be right there the next morning, putting it back on, and she'll make sure that she's seen with it and it'll be valuable to her.
But if you give somebody a dish rag, for instance, if I gave my girlfriend a dish rag, she'd toss it and go, what the heck? [00:07:00] This has no value to her 'cause she's not cleaning. we get people to do it, but the point is things that are really valuable.
You keep close things that are not valuable, you discard. If somebody gave you something that has zero value, it's gone. It's in the trash. Somebody gives you something extremely valuable, you won't let it outta your space and time, you'll keep it there.
And if we can bring it back to you, you obviously have walked the talk. You have determined what your values are and your life demonstrates proof of that. I really love how you've boiled that down to four things. It's unorthodox. Not many people live that way. Could you kindly walk us through what you've distilled, it to for you and how that has created a different life for you?
Well, I determine it by a number of variables, not just my own value determination, but also asking another question. I'll hit 'em both. I did my 13 step value determination process and found out that my highest value was teaching.
Mm.
I do a lot of that. I spend most [00:08:00] of my day doing one-on-one, one-on groups, keynotes, media, television, movies, any form of expression where I get to teach So I spend most of my day teaching. The second is researching and writing. I usually research and write at the same time. Researching and writing is the second most significant value in my life. The third is travel. I travel extensively.
Mm-hmm.
Because I'm flying or sailing everywhere. I live on a ship, so I'm constantly moving. travel is valuable to me. Most people wouldn't want to travel as much as I do, but I love traveling the world. I'm literally going city to city every few days, if not every day, sometimes I've been in three countries in one day. So I travel a lot. So my life demonstrates teaching, researching, and writing, traveling. The fourth most valuable for me is my, I wanted to be financially independent. So [00:09:00] wealth accumulation had been, a very high value in my life. I was a street kid, and lived panhandling on the streets, which is bumming on the streets when I was a teenager.
So I made a commitment to master that area and not be a slave to money, but have it work for me. I learned how to do that and I've worked hard to do that. So those are the four. Then comes relationships. Sometimes people put relationships at the top.
It's number five on mine. So with my girlfriend, she knows, that that's just the way it is. it's not number one. Now everybody's got a different set of values.
Some people have family at the very top, and they're not right or wrong. They're not good or bad.
They're just somebody with a different set of values. I'm not right or wrong good or bad. I'm just an individual with a set of values. My values will lead me to my outcome and their values will lead to their destiny. The hierarchy of your values dictates how you perceive, decide, and act your character and behavior.
Your [00:10:00] outcome in life is based on it. I Did a presentation 41 years ago For Mary Kay Cosmetics Corporation. After speaking to about 4,500 women, I met with Mary Kay Ash, the founder and asked her, what advice would you give a guy who's around 30 years old at the time?
She said, every day write down the highest priority actions you can do each day. They can help you fulfill the most inspiring dreams you have and objectives. So I wrote down on an index card the seven highest priority actions that I was to do each day and tried to get to the highest priority actions I could think of.
And then I looked at what they were repetitively. You know, over a couple years I accumulated all those index cards and then I found out, which showed up most frequent, second, most frequent, third, most frequent, fourth most frequent. And it came out the same as my value determination: teach, research, write, and travel and then, have time for family and, loved ones.
Mm-hmm.
You know, my life demonstrates that [00:11:00] I'm, I teach 300 plus days a year, or I'm doing 300 speeches a year at least, I'm doing podcasts, probably two to 300 of those every year. I'm doing movies production Consults keynotes and media. so if you look, I'm teaching and I'm researching and writing every day.
So my life demonstrate as I'm traveling.
It's brilliant. And for full, disclosure. Your traveling is not in a camper van traveling through Australia or US or anywhere. It's really nice and luxury. You don't drive, you don't clean, you don't shop around. You have other people do it for you.
So you do it in style. Correct?
I haven't driven a car, in about 35 years. I haven't, cooked since I was 24, so that's a long time. almost 50 years. I delegate everything. If you're not dedicated to what is highest in priority and delegating what's lowest, you're going to be trapped.
Anytime you [00:12:00] do the highest priority action, you raise your self-worth and lighten your feelings about life. You'd be more grateful in life. And anytime you're doing low priority things requiring motivation, extrinsically, you're weighing yourself down, gravitationally and aging.
So I just delegate everything and joke. I said, listen, you know, I'm not the greatest love maker, so if I delegate that to George Clooney, would you still love me? And, she said, I would love you even more. So that's how I keep my girlfriend. I just delegate lovemaking to George.
That's a wonderful one. I appreciate that. I like the girlfriend.
I'm teasing if she would, she'd probably, give me a good slap across the face if I really meant that.
Hey, the idea of delegation is an interesting one. Every entrepreneur, every business leader, every person who takes charge of their lives and empowers them.
Could you give us some specific ideas in terms of how you would suggest and recommend people to delegate?
I'll share a step by step [00:13:00] formula that I picked up when I was 27. That might be helpful.
Mm-hmm.
I went out and bought, I realized that I was burdening myself and doing way too much in my business.
Back in the days when you were a chiropractor, right?
When I was practicing, I bought a book called The Time Trap by a McKinzie, and after reading that I summarized it in my own format, and made a list of everything I did in a day. Not in any one day, but any possible day over a three month period, anything that I might do. Sometimes I do things monthly, sometimes every couple weeks, sometimes once a week, et cetera.
Mm-hmm.
So I took a three month period and wrote down everything that I might do in those three months, on a daily basis or nearly daily basis. I wrote it as concise as I could, so I could make it into one column of six columns on a piece of paper.
Column one was my daily actions, and I made a list of everything I was doing so I could look [00:14:00] honestly at how I was spending my time. It's easy to lie to ourselves as well as others about what we're doing. But when we actually look honestly at what it is, it's not always exactly what we imagined.
True.
I basically wrote down everything we did, and when I did, I was already looking at that and reflecting Realizing, man, I'm doing a whole lot of low priority stuff here, and I really have nobody to look at except myself if I'm not really inspired and productive.
After I've made this comprehensive list on the second column to the right of it, I wrote down how much does it produce per hour? How much does it make? Because that means that I'm doing something that's serving another individual and meeting their values having some sort of sustainable fair exchange they feel is valuable enough to pay for.
So how much of this is actually getting paid and what's the fee per hour it's generating? So as a doctor, I was doing radiological exams and I'd get paid, for 10 minutes, [00:15:00] maybe 200 bucks. And I was doing narratives and I would be spend two hours and I'd make 400 bucks. And I would extrapolate it down to how much is it as per hour.
I would do a urinalysis that would be 10 bucks, that'd take me two to three minutes so I could make, $3,300 an hour if I was to do it full-time. Yep. I extrapolate everything I did and a whole lot of stuff I was doing had zero income. More than 30 percent was zero. When I got through with that list, I rewrote it in a vertical way with the one that produced the most to the least.
Yep. The ones that were really producing the most, and I was surprised. I went to 10 years of college to become a doc. Then I realized that sitting in a cubicle, being a doc was not the most productive thing I could be doing. Going out and presenting to other individuals and engaging [00:16:00] people into healthcare and getting patients, was more productive. Speaking to docs and showing them how to build practices was more productive per hour than me actually being clinically in the room.
I could generate maybe 1500 to $1,800 an hour doing clinical back in 1982, but I could generate 18 to $20,000 in an hour doing a presentation because I could generate clients and then I could delegate things. So I was really kinda like going, well, I went all the schooling, but the thing I was trained to do is not the most productive thing I can do with my time, which was a bit of a jolt.
'cause I was like, what's my identity here?
Wake up call.
Yeah. So after I made that priority list, I put the next column in. how much meaning on a one to 10 scale. 10 being a hundred percent meaning it's like I'm in, I'm engaged, I'm inspired. I can't wait to do this. I just love this.
And one is like, I feel it's duty. I have to do it. It's not inspiring. Weighed [00:17:00] down. One's radiating, one's gravitating.
Hmm.
And then I redid that list based on the tens down to the ones It just so happened that some of the tens overlapped. That was very blessed because the things that I love doing happened to be the things that also produce the most.
Like the teaching.
So I thought, okay, the most meaningful thing I can do is also the most productive thing I can do. When I got through those first three columns, I already had an idea where I was headed and what I needed to be delegating. The next column, fourth column was how much would it cost me to delegate that to somebody?
To delegate it to somebody that's more competent than me, and that has a very high value. My highest value is not doing administration, bank reconciliations or collecting payment None of that's my highest value. So for me to be doing that, I'm devaluing and demeaning myself.
What I did is I went, what does it cost to hire [00:18:00] somebody that would be inspired to do that, that's more competent, capable than me? So I don't have to ever think about it. They take care of it, I don't do it. And not just their salaries, but everything.
Three and a half to four times the salary was an average actual cost. Because they have to have a space to be there. They've gotta have training, they've got parking and I mean all this other stuff, these costs, depreciation, schedules, et cetera. So I basically went and looked at what's the real cost.
Then I put those by priority according to spread per hour the most versus what it cost, and looked at where the biggest spreads was. So if I was to delegate, I would make the most surplus labor value outta that and get the most profits outta their actions. So I didn't prioritize the fourth column.
The fifth column was how much time I actually spend on that per day so I could put a clear job description together based on time and priority. And the last column is the final prioritization, factoring all the variables. So then I made this complete summarize list of what I was gonna be [00:19:00] delegating, and then I divided that list into groups of 10 lines, and I made job descriptions out of them.
They were not formal, job descriptions necessarily, but they were the job description that I needed delegated, and I started at the bottom and worked my way up where I would duplicate myself at the top. So the last thing is the duplication of self. I started hiring people and it took me three people to get the first person to delegate, and that was so liberating because I got a whole lot of stuff off my plate.
Somebody was loving to do it and they did a better job than I did. And then after a while they trained and were more proficient at it, and I delegated the second one and the third one, I went from one staff member and myself in a little thousand square foot office when I opened up my office to a 5,000 square foot office, five doctors, 12 staff members, 18 months later and 18 months later, I was generating 10 times the amount of net income.
My business went up and my opportunities went up, and I was [00:20:00] out doing television. I had my own television show and I was doing radio, and I was doing newspaper articles and I was doing presentations, and I was training doctors and then only specializing in the very top patients that had the biggest influence.
They were the ones I took on and then delegated everything else to everybody else. I have never gone back. I stopped doing any of the other stuff. You know, 1982, that was the last time I did any of that. I haven't done banking or written a check since 1982.
Talking about delegation, you have delegated a whole lot, all of the stuff that is low priority on your personal engagement list. You can pay somebody else who's more competent, who's more excited by and likes it
If they're not engaged, they're not hired. If they're engaged, they're hired.
What that does is you surround yourself with people that are capable of doing what they love doing. So you're free to do what you love doing. I teach research, write, and travel, and that's my, my most inspiring thing is learning. [00:21:00] It is like Warren Buffet. Warren Buffet sits and reads most of the day and looks at, financials making decisions for what he loves doing, which is investing.
Well, I do the same thing. It's, it just, mines happened to be teaching, so it's very similar to that.
Brilliant. I love it. And I like that six, column process that you walked us through. So thanks for sharing. Because we already touched a few times on financials, I think this is a good segue into the seven primary areas of life that people can empower themselves and their loved ones in.
You mentioned mentally, vocationally, financially, familiarly, socially, physically, and spiritually. If we get started, first of all, with that financially, how would you suggest or recommend people to look at it? If there's one thing they could do to empower themselves financially, what sort of tip would you give them?
Well, your hierarchy of values dictate your financial destiny. So tell me what your hierarchy of values is, and [00:22:00] I'll tell you how your money's gonna be spent.
If you have a higher value on lifestyle and buying consumables that depreciate value. Financial independence isn't gonna happen. You have to have a value on buying assets that appreciate in value, so they passively work for you, or you're gonna be working for it as a slave, you won't be it's master.
Mm-hmm.
So first I determine what is the hierarchy of values and where, financial wellbeing and wealth building is. I'd have to say that it's not in everybody's awareness and not even on their list. if it's not in the top four, financial independence isn't going to occur.
I've interviewed thousands of people. If it's not in the top four, you're not gonna be financially independent unless it shifts, shifts into that. So first, identify where is it, and then realize that if you don't automate electronically, automate your savings until you have a adequate cushion and reserve.
Then your automated [00:23:00] investments where it's buying assets, quality assets, that could be an s and p 500 equivalent, or your ASX here in Australia, 200 or 300 or something. But buying quality companies that serve ever greater numbers of people and participating in sharing in the equities of that. Or if you like the property ladder, you can do the property ladder, but if you're not buying assets that are giving you passive income, financial independent is never gonna occur.
So there, there, you have to have a value on that in order to make yourself do that because you won't do it otherwise. You'll keep going I just can't seem to get ahead. you have more month at the end of your money than money at the end of your month.
Yeah.
So the hierarchy of your values is the most important thing on that topic.
If you wanna be more financially viable, there has to be an appreciation on it. If you don't have a value wealth building, you're not gonna study it, you're not gonna learn it, you're not gonna apply actions on it 'cause you're only gonna be disciplined, reliable, and focused on the thing you value most.
Hmm.
So first [00:24:00] identify where, go on my website is free, drdemartini.com. And go and do the value determination process and look at where if it even shows up on the list. A lot of people don't even show up on that list. They just live day to day and survive. If you're not going to stack up advantages and benefits of building wealth sufficiently enough where the benefits outweigh the benefits of the immediate gratification, the consumables, then you're gonna be a consumer, not a producer.
You're gonna end up being a slave, not a master of money. First identify where it is on the values. Then stack up the advantages of becoming financially independent by doing the proven action steps that have stood the test of time and wealth building. There are action steps that people can do.
That's being of service to people and generating an income, becoming more effective and efficient at generating it where there's more profits. Taking a portion of profits and having some of it saved for a cushion to reserve and [00:25:00] stabilize the business. Then investing in ever greater degrees of leverage and investing by buying quality companies or shares or REITs or some sort of investment in properties.
Mm-hmm.
And accumulating that and value accumulating it. It's compounding and working for you and compound interest works to continue to build philanthropically so you get financially independent and drive yourself. Otherwise, you'll plateau and start accumulating clutter in a house.
Great one, well spoken. You have one masterpiece that I think is a good one to mention here. The book called How to Make One Hell of a Profit and Still Get To Heaven. It's still in my top three I've ever read and I've read many, not as many as you, but still many.
In it you are very good at highlighting and bringing to our front of mind that sometimes people have negative connotations about money. They have a certain view on it, and it's very labeled. How does that potentially take away from financial independence?
Well, anybody that you look up to and [00:26:00] admire, it's normal, as Freud described, the superego to inject those values into your life.
And they become the author of your life instead of you. Anytime you subordinate yourself to people who you admire, but who don't have wealth management skills, you'll probably inject their belief systems and their values about how it should be done.
If you surround yourself with people that have a highly charged view about money, either because of religious dogma or capitalistic distortions, they will say money's the root of all evil, you can't get through an eye of a needle if you're wealthy. These kind of crazy things.
Hmm.
But that's not really the truth. The very religious institutions that help create those ideas, are worth trillions. That's the irony of it. If the idea that you're corrupt if you're wealthy, that's not always the case. I've met very wealthy, philanthropic, inspiring, loving individuals. I've also met people that are impoverished, that are [00:27:00] corrupt, that wanna steal.
Money is neutral.
Money is neutral. It's not how much you have that determines your behavior if you have a hierarchy of values on it and it's a really high value you'll manage it wisely.
Where the other one you won't, you'll probably gamble and try to get rich quick and lose your money. These ideas that somehow money is evil, my perception of it is if you are narcissistically proud and looking down on somebody and projecting your values onto them and expecting 'em to live in your values. Pride before the fall, you'll be humbled. It won't get you anywhere in business. If you don't listen to the customer, you're outta business.
But at the same time, if you sacrifice completely for the customer and value 'em so much that you minimize yourself and there's no profits, and give away your business, well, you're out of business.
So anytime you would exaggerate or minimize yourself instead of be yourself, you create narcissistic or altruistic oscillations and you don't manage money wisely, but if you realize that the customer and you are equals you maximize wealth [00:28:00] production.
You create a sustainable fair exchange that both parties want to continue to do business with. When you're narcissistic, they don't wanna do business. When you're altruistic, you run out of drive. When you're in fair exchange, you both want to continue business. Nature forces us to have sustainable fair exchange and reciprocity in trade.
That is a mastery of finances and our spiritual quest to be ourselves.
I'm interested now in a very, potentially sensitive, topic but I think it's important that we call it out, especially for a group of entrepreneurs out there. Many of them had a goal. It either worked or it didn't work.
If it didn't work, they might've lost their business, might've lost their house, or just a lot of money along the way. What's the spiritual lesson from your point of view in bankruptcy?
That you did not care enough about humanity to find out what humanity's needs are to make sure there was a demand for your supply.
Wow, that's an interesting way of looking at things,
Yeah. Because, you [00:29:00] somehow presumed that you knew better than the market what it needed, and you didn't do your due diligence because you didn't have enough value on wealth building and business building to look at probabilities to make sure that you worked in a way that was gonna be profitable.
And so there's nothing shameful about it. It's not about good and bad, it's not a moral issue. It's just a feedback lesson to let you know that if you're gonna do another business, do due diligence and start simple and get a demand.
I'm an educator and I teach 80 different courses. And lots of talks, I mean, thousands of talks over the years. If I happen to hit the one that the market's interested in, there's a demand. People fill it up. If I don't, there's no demand. So that non demand is a feedback to me to adapt, be resilient. Make sure you actually meet and find out what the customer's needing and provide a product service ready that meets the need.
If you do the [00:30:00] demands backup. So the rigidity of thinking, you know better than the customer will usually undermine businesses. And also going in there without the capital, you know, it doesn't take a lot of capital to start a business. Some start on shoestrings and garages as Microsoft did.
Yep.
But it's a matter of continually meeting the needs and refining and adapting to those needs, which are changing.
I remember a conversation I had with a successful entrepreneur in the property space, who, grew his team to a reasonable size business.
Was doing about probably 70, $80 million a year. Very successful. But he went bankrupt twice. And I remember him saying to me that the first time when he did, he said it was very humbling. And he kept insisting on the word humbling. And I, I saw through it that he must have come from a self-righteous perspective.
You just nailed it. He was above equilibrium. You attract criticism and challenge anytime you're not meeting people's needs and above [00:31:00] them. This includes social idealisms, religious idealisms. Anybody that thinks they're the chosen people and they know better than the rest.
Eventually get humbled and attacked. It's part of life.
It's very fair that way. Very democratic. I like that.
Now that we've touched a little bit on the financial side of things, let's talk health. How could people empower themselves health wise? we are seeing such a huge rise in all sorts of Western type sickness, cancer being one, heart and vascular issues, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, all of this typical stuff.
How could people empower themselves? Some quick tips there.
Believe it or not, in every one of the seven areas of life that you mentioned. Living by priority is going to enhance and empower all of them. If you're not living by priority, which brings a blood glucose, oxygen into the forebrain, where you're more reasonable, rational, and more moderated, more governed, more self-actualized, [00:32:00] you're going to bring your blood glucose into your amygdala.
The amygdala is a survival region, nuclei in the brain. It's a subcortical area of the brain that assigns valency to stimuli and makes us, seek or avoid, and we get distracted and seek prey and avoid predator or seek pleasure to avoid pain.
Anytime you're striving for a one-sided world and trying to get rid of the other side, you have futility.
Anytime you're not doing the highest priority things, you're going to affect your physiology. Your autonomic nervous system has a parasympathetic and a sympathetic side. The parasympathetics for rest and digest for the prey. And the sympathetic is fight or flight. Anytime we're in our amygdala, living by lower values and in survival mode we're going to create pro-inflammatory cytokines or anti-inflammatory cytokines, both of which creates illness. We're also gonna be epigenetically altering the expression of the genes and the histones and protein manufacturing transcriptions and every illness can be traced back [00:33:00] to some of these imbalances.
So every time you're living by priority, your wellness quotient goes up, your resilience and adaptability goes up. There's a thing called a heart rate variability that you can use to measure the normal heart rhythms And what's interesting is you get a Brady Cardio under the parasympathetic and you get tachycardia under the sympathetic.
But if you get a normal balance where your brain is balanced by living by priority, you bring both of those into balance, and that's where you maximally are resilient, adaptable, and fit. See, if you get prey without predator, you get gluttonous and fat, and you lose fitness. If you get the sympathetic challenge without support and you get the predator, you end up emaciated and starved, and you lose fitness, but you get 'em both in perfect balance and see your mind from a balanced objective view, you maximize your wellness quotient.
So prioritization and moderation, which it brings, stabilizes you. If you, if you start your day and lay out a series of action steps, you're gonna knock out the day, [00:34:00] the highest party action, and you knock 'em out one by one and keep ahead of it.
Before watching emails or Facebook or anything.
You're just focused on the highest priority things. At the end of the day you're on top of the world and you come home. No matter what happens, you can handle it, you manage it, you're governed. If you don't go by priority and you're putting out fires all day long and never getting to what was most important, you come home, you're gonna be emotional wreck, your cytokines is gonna be up.
Anytime somebody's doing what they really love to do, their cytokines are moderated. Anytime they're not doing something they love to do and doing lower party things, they got inflammatory responses going on. It's been demonstrated. So your physiology is creating symptoms to guide you to authenticity, to sustainable fair exchange, and to priority.
So illness once again is feedback. Just like bankruptcy would be for financial.
All feedback,
We are not in fair exchange, sustainable fair exchange. We're not being authentic. We're puffing ourselves up and expecting others to live in our values or beating ourselves up and expecting ourselves to live in [00:35:00] other people's values. Instead of being ourself, living in our own values and honoring other people to do the same.
I love this. This is really different, proven, backed by science, and I'm curious now because of the way you look after yourself. I mean, you're at the humble age of 71, still alive and cracking, and I can see you going for very long.
I've even seen you do a karate kick that very few 20 year olds would do.
I did that this morning. They asked me to do it. I got a picture of it. I gotta show you this, from this morning. Let's see if I can find it. that was on stage today.
Oh yeah.
Very good. Not many, people, at age 71 would do that. So, question I have for you is, how often do you personally use medical practitioners and in what capacity? Knowing how well you look after [00:36:00] yourself?
I go to the dentist and have my teeth cleaned quarterly.
Mm-hmm.
I'm pretty preventive. I'm not a guy that jumps over to a medical doctor. I don't even have my own general practitioner. I'm a chiropractor, so I've lived moderately and, and used sort of the natural approach.
But, I'm sure that if I was in need of it, I would have no problem going to somebody with specialist, but that's just not been my thing. I learned about prioritization, but prioritization is not about prioritization only a business. Prioritization is what you read. Prioritization is what you, what you focus on.
Prioritization is what you eat. Prioritization is who you associate with. Prioritization is how you fill your space and time and energy and what you spend your money on. So if you prioritize things, you are going to have a higher wellness quotient than if you just let the outer influences and impulses and instincts of other people, sway you to do something that's not really inspiring to you.
You'd be surprised. [00:37:00] Many people buy things they think they need according to somebody else, and it's not even something they're inspired to do. I don't go into a store and get impulse buying. I go in with a clear intention, If it's there, I buy it. If it's not there I go. usually I'll have my assistant call and make sure it's there so I don't waste my time or I get them to do it.
Brilliant. I'm curious to hear your view on this. My father-in-law, he's a very heavy smoker and has been since probably age 18. He grew up in Slovakia, communist, regime, with the Russians, occupying. He's always working. He enjoys being out and being of value to other people, building and renovating He's also in his seventies and the man is never sick despite him not eating well. Always smoking. And it's funny, he always has this funny way of saying, whatever bugs I would have in my system, I smoke 'em out with my cigarettes.
I wonder what is your perspective on people talking to themselves in a certain way and then their [00:38:00] physiology actually reflecting it?
Well, there's no doubt there's many variables involved in wellness.
What you eat is a factor. What you think is a factor, what you breathe is a factor. What you drink is a factor. What you do as a career is a factor. Who you associate has been factors. I can show you literature in every one of those.
Hmm.
So someone like your father-in-law, may have a great spirit may do what he's loving and counterbalance the side effects of what smoke does on the lungs.
I don't know how much he smokes or how much he inhales or whether he is just puffing. I met a lady that was 108 and a chain smoker, but the rest of her areas of her life were pretty amazing, pretty, pretty sensible. So I think we've got a little latitude on some of those.
Warren Buffett is 90 something and, and Charlie Munger late at 99. And, Warren, you know, eats Dairy Queen and Cokes burgers and McDonald's Those are [00:39:00] not classically the things you would think are most healthy. But he has a rhythm, a consistency, a pattern, a routine. He's reduced his stress levels. He keeps to priority, does what he loves. And he's inspired to helping people. So there's a weight of different variables that affect health that people can put into the mix. And then of course, there's also a gene pool. If you have parents that live longer, you might have an advantage, maybe not, but could.
And so that's a factor.
All right, we're gonna be closing up here, but I think it's important that people have a bit of an idea, like how they can work with you and benefit from the work that you have been doing for now over 40 years. The Breakthrough Experience and the DEMARTINI Method, please, give us a quick idea what that consists of and how it might benefit.
Well, the breakthrough experience, I've been doing for over 36 years. the methodology, which they call the Demartini method, they just made a movie about it recently. That has been going on [00:40:00] about 40 to 41 years, and I really started developing it before it was clinical, starting at age 18.
So I've been working 52 years plus on the methodology that I incorporate into the program, the Breakthrough Experience, and I've taught the program 1,237 times. I'm about to do it again in Brisbane and then in Perth. The benefit of that program, it, it, it's more than eyeopening.
Hmm.
It's more than eyeopening.
Hmm.
It's an inspiration 'cause we spend 25 hours together, sometimes 26. We do whatever we can to help people break through whatever's in their way of where they want to go. If they're not clear, we help 'em get clearer. Once they're clear, we help 'em design and strategize how to do it psychologically, physically, how to get past the obstacles so they see life on the way, not in the way. So they find the hidden order in their apparent chaos and become more inspired by their life instead of weighed down.
[00:41:00] Because as long as we're victims of history, we're not gonna be masters of destiny. As long as we're seeing things as trauma, instead of opportunity, we're gonna hold ourselves back. As long as we're going to run our story instead of making history, we're gonna, we're gonna not live our life to the fullest.
So the breakthrough experience is my way of doing what a gentleman did for me when I was very young, who inspired me to do what I'm doing, to my, my way of, to trying to assist other people. I had a lady that wrote a letter after the Breakthrough Experience. I don't know if it's appropriate to read it, but I read it in the seminar this morning.
I dunno if that would be, would it be appropriate? Definitely. I'll see if I can find it real quick here. Gimme one second.
I personally have attended the breakthrough experience I loved it. I've also brought several of my clients along as they were inspired to come with me, so highly recommend it.
This is, a letter that I got a few days ago. Hi John. I just wanted to take a moment to share a few [00:42:00] meaningful updates with you. So much has shifted since the breakthrough experience and I genuinely feel you've been such an important part of that transformation.
Just yesterday, I received what feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity. I've been invited to sing backup vocals for Alan Parsons. Yes. From the Alan Parsons project. Now he was, he'd been around since the seventies and eighties. He was involved in the, you know, Abby Road for The Beatles, and he's just been a, he's a legend.
A true musical genius from the seventies and eighties. She says It's an incredible honor, and I'm beyond excited. I'll be performing with him in the US from July 12th to the 18th, and if you ever happen to be around, it would be a joy to share that moment. I can provide tickets for you and Donna. Something quite profound has happened. I've written seven new songs since the Breakthrough Experience. Wow. I hadn't been able to write music. I've been able to sing, but I've never been able to write my own music since the [00:43:00] teenage years in my early twenties when she had a real, calamity and judgment from somebody by her skills. At that, she shut it down and now suddenly the words and melodies are flowing Again. These songs are deeply aligned with who I am and the life I wanna live. It feels like a true awakening. I'm even working on a video for one of them.
It's nearly finished, and if things keep going this way, I may have a complete album by the end of the year. I can't believe it. After that I'll be heading out on tour again this time with Brink Floyd, and, life feels like it's moving with a new energy. So she's playing with some big players, this lady, and perhaps the most unexpected miracle of all.
I went to visit my mom for Mother's Day. For years, I never thought I'd speak to her again. But something inside me shifted. I've completely transcended my judgments on her. [00:44:00]
Mm-hmm.
And truly and honestly don't know how I managed that well. Actually, I do know. It's thanks to you, the wisdom, your presence and the program.
The experience helped me unlock something so deep I can now move forward with lightness, clarity and strength. I've been weighed down on dealing with my mom all these years. Just want to say thank you. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for creating something so powerful and transformative. Thank you for being such an important part of my journey.
I'm continuing to grow in bloom and I know I'll likely take another class with you near future. For now, I'm just sending you the biggest heartfelt love and a warm hello to Donna. Thank you again for being my spiritual mom. This is my girlfriend that travels with me and helps me in the programs during The Breakthrough Experience.
I hope you're both enjoying this fully and beautifully. I'm sending you both lots of love and deep gratitude with all my heart, Liza.
That is beautiful. Very touching to be of service to people [00:45:00] like that and have that sort of impact.
Well, there's nothing more, you know, I ask people, go to a moment where and when you perceive yourself having the greatest fulfillment in your life.
Hmm.
And 99% of 'em, if not a hundred percent will say when I'm doing something that I can't wait to do, that I love doing that makes a difference in people's lives and it made a change and they said, thank you. What else is there? We're to be a contribution to humanity. If you ask people, regardless of where they are in life or any country, how many of you wanna make a difference?
Every hand goes up. How many wanna be loved for who they are? Every hand goes up. Those are very key elements in prioritization for people. That's why finding out what's highest on your value and structuring your life by delegation and doing the thing that serves ever greater numbers of people in a way that makes a difference in their lives is gonna be fulfillment.
And your health quotient, your wellness quotient will [00:46:00] go up if you do.
John, it's been an absolute pleasure as always. Thank you so much for sharing your love and wisdom. Any final words in closing for, entrepreneurs who might go through a bit of a rough time?
There is no trauma, just events that we've chosen to see the downsides to without seeing the upsides. I'm not saying that being a positive thinker is what I'm talking about, If we're fantasizing and living in an ecstatic collusion and gullible, we need a healthy skepticism.
But when we're having challenges, it's making sure that we redirect ourselves into higher priorities. Where there's more sustainable, fair exchange and making sure that we don't exaggerate ourselves or minimize ourselves to others. Communicate what we would love in terms of what they would love. Every symptom in business is guiding you to authenticity and sustainable fair exchange and back into the highest priorities that your heart can guide you to.
Love that. Thank you so [00:47:00] much everyone. Hope you got a lot of value from this episode and we look forward to welcome again next time.
For now, all the best, and talk to you soon.
