#72 John Demartini | How to Defeat Self Doubt and Reach Your Financial Potential

Terry: Hey there, it’s Terry, and welcome to the first episode of our series on Hacking Money Habits. In this episode, you’re gonna hear from Dr. John Demartini. John is luminary when it comes to human behavior, and his work has had a dramatic impact on my life. When I was a young coach in sport, I realized very early on that specialized knowledge, well, it’s effectively useless and less, and until you can get people to.

And there are five stages of change, right? There’s pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. And what I saw is that most people get stuck in the gap between preparation and action. And a good chunk of the rest fall into this vicious cycle of contemplating change, preparing for it, acting on it, and then actually relapsing, going back to the start and going round and round, and.

And John’s work on teleology, or the study of values and meaning showed me how to help people cross that chasm and safely get to maintenance. And it all starts with decision. See, when you truly decide to do something, it’s not a matter of if you accomplish it, it’s just a matter of when and how you’ll make it happen.

And there are very few people in the world more skilled at catalyzing the degree of commitment that precedes that personal transformation than John de Martini. Over a career spanning more than 40 years, he’s helped hundreds of thousands of people all over the world dramatically change the trajectory of their lives.

And John’s no slouch when it comes to money either. He’s financially independent many times over, and he actually lives on a ship called the World with 22 billionaires. So I wanted to have him come on the show and share his. in this episode, expect to learn the role that your personal values play in dictating your destiny. The simple discipline that led John to financial freedom in less than 10 years.

The mindless decision that we all tend to be making that devalues us and virtually guarantees we’ll never reach our financial potential, but also what to do about it. And finally, the reframe that’s gonna help you transcend fear, uncertainty, and doubt when it comes to investing. This is a real full circle moment for me.

First encountering John and his work more than 10 years ago and in that time I’ve remodeled myself, I’ve reshaped my life, and this has gone a long way to materializing the vision that he helped me articulate.

And at the end of this episode, John shares a real insider’s insight into how billionaires think and make money very differently to the rest of us. Now, before you jump into this episode, I just wanna say thank you. See whenever you listen, talk about share, subscribe, rate, and especially review the podcast. You help us grow this.

And as that influence has grown, we’ve been able to bring you bigger and better guests, just like John, and many of which you’ll be exposed to as we go through this series. So thank you so much for your support and I hope this episode inspires you to commit to your own path of personal excellence. John, thank you so much for coming on the show, 

John: Thank you for having.

Terry: mate. I really appreciate the time you’ve taken and I mentioned to you just before we jumped on this episode that you’ve had a huge impact on my life, and I know a lot of very successful people that I look up to also reference back to you. It’s almost like if you keep pulling on the thread to all these people, it all sources lead to the same place.

It tends to quite often be you. So I really appreciate you coming on. I would love to know a little bit more about your backstory, so where you grew up and the environment that you as a young boy grew up. 

John: Well, I was born in Houston, Texas in 1950. and I had to formed arm and leg. It was all turned inward on my arm and leg. And so as a child I had to wear a brace on my arm and leg until I was four. Kinda like a forced gum kind of thing. I also had a speech impediment and it was starting to go to speech pathologist starting at age one half to try to use my muscles properly cuz it wasn’t working.

I wasn’t making proper noise and sounds. And then I found out I had learning problems with a. in first grade. My teacher said to my parents, said, I’m afraid your son’s not gonna be able to read, not gonna be able to write. He certainly can’t communicate. I don’t think he’s gonna go very far in life or mount too much, so you might as well put him into sports cuz when I got outta the bracelet, all I wanted to do was run.

I used to run everywhere, run down the hallway, run outside, just run. So my teacher said, put him into some sort of running thing. I ended up dropping outta school and uh, was a street kid. A young age to 18 and uh, first I hung out at the beaches cuz I picked up surfing. I hung out the beaches in Texas that wasn’t the best surf capital.

So I hitchhiked out to California, hitchhiked down to Mexico, and then panhandled enough money to go to Hawaii. And I lived on the north shore of Oahu surfing big waves. And I got pretty good at surfing. And, um, I nearly died at, right before my 18th birthday at 17. And I was led to this little class where this gentleman named Paul Bragg inspired.

one night in a talk. My perception of his talk made me believe that I could overcome my learning problems someday day, learn how to read and speak properly and be intelligent. I never thought I was gonna be intelligent, so I went on a journey starting at 1718 to, um, overcome my learning problems and learn how to read and learn how to spell and pronounce words and things.

I wanna very strong desire to wanna overcome that, and that led me that night with a vision to be a teacher. and now 50 years later, cause I’m 68 almost, here I am. And I went on a journey and had to go back and try to figure out how to go to school. And I failed at first and I had to overcome that. And, but once I learned, I started memorizing dictionaries and I grew thousands of words in my vocabulary and pronouncing ’em properly and spelling ’em properly.

And I started excelling. And then I became a. . Now I’ve read 30,600 books and now I’ve got a pretty good vocabulary and all the things that I was told I would never be able to do it turned out that’s what my specialty became. You’ll never mount anything. Well, I, I guess that void made me wanna become financially independent, cuz now I’m multiple times financially independent.

I’m here on, in Amsterdam on my ship, selling around the world today. So it goes to show that it doesn’t matter where you come from or what you’ve been through, what matters is, are you gonna do the things that get you where you want to. And that’s my life changed. When I decided to do the things that actually worked

Terry: Can I ask what it was about Paul Bragg that challenged a lot of your assumptions and broke down your own view of yourself in a very positive way? What was it about that man and that experience? 

John: well, he was so convincing and certain about what he was saying. He was in his eighties. He said that we have a body, we have a mind, and we have a soul. And the body must be directed by the mind, and mind must be guided by the soul, nor to maximize who we are. and the body. If it’s directed by the mind and it’s prioritized in its actions and it’s guided by something that inspires it, that’s intrinsically driven, then you’re kind of an unstoppable being.

And he said to set goals for yourself, your family, your community, your city, your state, your nation, your world and beyond to a hundred hundred 20 years. So I started writing down what I wanted to do. First thing I wrote down is that I wanted to overcome my learning problems and someday become intelligent and to learn how to pronounce words.

I used to have kids and teenagers read to me so I could understand things. It was, I, I’d go into a place and I’d have to read something and I’d say, Hey, could you read that to me? And they’d go Read for yourself, buddy. So it was a very 

interesting adventure, 

but luckily I was able to, with the help of my mom, when I eventually moved back to Texas, we practiced 30 words a day, and I grew my vocabulary.

I’d literally lived in dictionaries and encyclopedia. , I read eight complete sets of encyclopedias just to grow my vocabulary and to learn again to caught up with everybody else. And once I learned that I just never wanted to stop and age 18, I wanted to master my life. And to me, mastering life meant to create original ideas that serve human beings around the world with creative, new ideas that innovate and, uh, to create a global business.

I knew I wanted to create a global business when I was 17. I wanted to be financially independent, where my money was making me more money than me. and that, uh, I didn’t have to be concerned about that. And I also wanted to have a global 

family and 

I wanted to have a global impact and hang out with the most amazing movers in shakers, which I’ve probably interacted with around 3000 of those type of people.

And, um, I wanted to be vital and energized. Here I’m 68 and still keeping busy and, you know, have a credible schedule. And I wanted to be able to create some sort of an inspired movement in the world, not a religion. There’s plenty of those, but something that allowed people to be grateful for life and open their heart.

Doing what they love and loving life and appreciative and inspired. And so I mapped that out in a master plan because of what he said and I kept working on that plan. To this day, I still work on it and I metric all the steps that I’m making to make sure that I’m making progress. And 

slowly but surely, I 

start building momentum.

And those are all realities today. So that’s why it’s, it would be a hard time convincing. You can’t do something with your life if you set your mind.

Terry: As I said, you seem to be a common name. Amongst a lot of people in terms of that, so I’m sure that that impact, it’s definitely been felt. I actually jumped onto a Clubhouse club room and I think it was the middle of the pandemic and there was a lot of very well known speakers on the stage, and you came into the room in that clubhouse and they gave you the floor and you spoke for maybe two or three hours.

For me, it was like 4:00 AM in the morning. I dunno why I was on Clubhouse at that time. But all of those speakers you had taught and inspired. Supported and helped along the way. So I definitely think you’ve done that. Um, something I’d love to come back to, and I think it’s a part of where you got to with your work and, and your understanding of values and things like that.

You talked about values driven by voids and you talked about your teacher saying that you would never mount to anything, never do anything. Do you feel like that was, that experience being told, that being sort of labeled in that way, that gave you the drive to do what you’re still doing right now at this age?

John: I think that that was a factor I got on a surfboard when I was nine in Freeport, Texas, a big clunking, tall surfboard, and for some reason, the very first time I ever got up on a board, I got up and I rodee a wave. It was the most amazing thing. I didn’t know anything about it. I just stood up on it and wrote this wave.

So I think like I had this. Natural ability to balance. So surfing I had confidence in, but not academics, not learning. I had dyslexia if my hand was turned in. So I wrote backwards and I spelled backwards and I didn’t get any meanings because of that and it just wasn’t working. But surfing I was good at, so it wasn’t that I wasn’t competent at surfing or sports or running, it just was not academics.

So where, where I would. and surfing is where I excelled. I just kept navigating into the area that I could get some sort of acknowledgement and feeling like I’ve accomplished something and it wasn’t till 18 and that I figured now I now have a new strategy that might get me over the hump on the learning process, and I put in an enormous amount of effort to learn to get 30 new words a day.

With the help of my mom was a day 

project. I knew that if I could do that, if I could just do those little incremental changes. 

that it would lead to an outcome. 

I could see the outcome would 

be to my advantage if I could do that. So I just stayed with it. And, um, then the reward of actually knowing a word 

when 

somebody would speak in a class and knowing what that word meant and knowing how to spell it was invigorating.

So yes, I think that being told that was a factor, but I think that’s not the factor that keeps driving me today. The fulfillment I get outta 

making a difference in people’s lives. is more of a factor today than that event at at first grade. I think because I get now the fulfillment of watching lives change, I don’t think there’s anything more fulfilling than making a difference in people’s lives, so that makes me want to get up and do more.

It’s become its own self-perpetuating system in addition to that original 

void. I think it started with the void that it became then just self 

inspired and no matter what, you know, there’s always what’s outside of what you know that’s much bigger than what you. and so you’re yearning to want to go and play the mysteries of life, keep you going, and the ability to share that with people is so rewarding.

Terry: I agree, and um, I definitely think it’s something that I get the most out of as well, is seeing that change and, and just playing that role, that support role. At what point did you turn your focus in this learning journey, your learning about everything? And I know because I’ve actually studied a lot of your work around this space, you’ve done some brilliant work, particularly, um, your CD set, secrets of Wealth Building or something like that.

At what point did you turn your focus to wealth and. 

John: well, first of all, when I was 18, I. Was watching Kung Fu on television with David Keine and he was talking about this she Temple master and he said, MAA, and I just love that word. It sounded so cool. And I was doing yoga at the time and I thought, that’s cool. So I said to myself, I want to become a master.

And then I said, what exactly does that mean? And I said, well, I wanna master life. And then one of the areas of life was wealth. . So I consciously had an insight at about 18 that I wanted to be masterful in that area, but I really didn’t master that area or start to master that area to really 27 because up until then I was in school, and although I made money, I buy books.

I used to buy 40 to 70 books a week and I was buying, buying, buying, buying books and, and, but I wasn’t putting my money into assets that was actually giving me a passive income. At age 27, a man, salesperson, financial planner walked into my office. I was a doctor by then, and he asked me 10 questions that I didn’t know how to answer 

really.

And he said, these 10 questions will determine whether you’ll ever 

be financially independent or. and if you can’t answer ’em, the answer is no unless you can learn to answer them. And he really hooked me. And uh, he asked me, what are your total assets? And at that time I was so naive, I asked him, what do you mean by assets as a dodging mechanism?

Because I didn’t, you know, I kind of had a vague idea, but I wanted to make sure I was clearer cuz, but it really was, I was just stupid about that. Then I said, what is your liabilities? and my 

assets were nebulous. My liabilities were more clear than my assets at the time, and I was 

in debt cuz I just got student loans and all this other stuff.

And then he said, what is your net worth, which is assets, my liabilities. 

And then he asked, what is financial independence to you? How much passive income annually do you want that you’re 

gonna label financial independence? I went, I didn’t know. And that’s like getting in an Uber and saying, I don’t know where I am.

I don’t know where I’m going, but get me there. Same kind 

of thinking. So here I was saying in the back of my mind, I want to be financially independent, but I’m 

not even grounded yet until 27. So the first nine years I wasn’t grounded on that. I was just kind of an ideal, lived in prosperity thinking, hoping, you know, kind of thing.

Somehow the universal provide kind of. and I was always 

manifesting what I needed when I needed it. It was always, somehow, there 

was always at the last minute would come in and I would get by and do what I was needing to do. But that day he asked, 

John to Descript_01: well, 

John: how much is that? And I didn’t know at that time.

This is 1982, so I thought a six 

digit figure was if I could get 

that pass with you. That’s pretty good. I’d made a hundred thousand dollars a year teaching in. . So I figured if I can get a hundred thousand dollars a year passive income, that was sufficient. That’d be like 

600,000 maybe this 

year. So I said that and he said, great.

Now what 

is the average interest rate you can earn on all that money that you’re investing? What do you feel with your knowledge you can get as an average return on your investment? And I go, I had not bought stocks yet. I didn’t even know what Mark was offering. You know, I just knew what the amount in the money market account wasn’t, and the CDs are at the time.

That’s about 

all I knew. So I said 8% and 

we had high inflation period at that time, so that wasn’t even gonna 

beat inflation. But I said 8% and he says, what’s the inflation rate you’re gonna be up 

against? And it was high at the time, 

but I said three. and he go, okay, so that means you’re gonna get an average of 5% off your 

investments minus your inflation.

Now at 5%, if you divide that 

into a hundred percent, that means it’s 20 times. This a hundred thousand dollars you’re looking for. That means you need how much? $2 million 

today to give you financial independence. And I went, Hmm. Then he 

asked the question, you need $2 million. And he said, but now what’s the shortfall between your current net 

worth and two a.

I said, well, I’m in debt. And he said, well then how much extra? He said, I’m 

gonna need 2.1 million. 

Okay, I need that today. , not somewhere in the future with inflation, but I need that today. And so I thought, how am I gonna get 2.1 million today? And uh, he said, well, you’ve 

gotta come up with a solution or otherwise you have a fantasy.

And I didn’t wanna admit I was in a fantasy, but I 

was in a fantasy and I thought, okay, I get $1,050,000 today and $1,050,000 tomorrow. I got two days to get that. Do I have a strategy? 

Nope. I need $525,000. 

over the next four days. Do I have a strategy for that? Nope. I need 

$256,000 or whatever over the 

next 12 days or something.

You know what I mean? 

I just kept breaking it down at eight 

days or whatever. And no matter what I did, it was still 

overwhelming cuz at that time 

the only amount of savings I had was $200 a month. So I just thought, uh, this is never gonna happen. And I was really having a stomach knot. My eyes were red and my gut was in a knot.

And thinking, I said, is this a delusion? And I’m never gonna be financially independent. I don’t see it. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel. and then I thought, okay, now to stretch this thing out now, so I gave myself 15 

years, so in the 15 years from now, but with inflation, that means I 

gotta get 4 million.

Terry: Yes. 

John: So 4 

million in 15 years. I thought I’ll buy some time, but then I divided 15 

years up into 180 months and I took 180 months into $4 million and I went, oh crap, that’s $22,000 a month I need to average into wealth. and I’m saving 200, I need a hundred fold more than that. And man, my headache was 

pounding and I was thinking, 

this is a fantasy.

I’m never gonna get there. This is a fantasy. What am I doing? And he’s just 

sitting there, 

calm and kind of smirking in the back of his mind going, you know, if you’re gonna be financial pinch, you gotta have a strategy man. So what are you gonna do? And I couldn’t think of it. I got up and I went and relieved my bladder 

and I got some water and I walked 

around and I had a throbbing headache and I was sitting there going, you know what the.

and then all of a sudden an idea came to me and it was the most meaningful idea of my career. Financially. I thought I could start out at $200 a month, but I bet if I grow my business and I grow my knowledge and become more efficient, I can make it 300 and 500 and grow it and eventually get it over so I can start below that number.

And then eventually get it higher than that number if I crescendo it. At least that gave me the idea that maybe I could do that. So I told him that and he said, well, that sounds like a strategy that might work cuz you’re gonna, your knowledge is gonna grow, your skills are gonna grow, your business is gonna grow.

Let’s start on a journey. So I immediately did that $200 a month and for three months. In those 

days, if you did something for 90 days 

straight, you could make a habit of it. And then once you make a habit 

of it, you could be comfortable. It’s like when you buy a house, at first you’re overwhelmed and you think, can I afford this thing?

And then you, after a while, you settle down and you go, it looks like 

I’m gonna be able to afford it. and I decided that every three months when I was comfortable with whatever habit it was, I’m gonna make it a little bit uncomfortable cuz maximum growth and development occurs at the border of comfort and comfort.

So I decided to make it $300 a month, quarter, and then next quarter I made it $500 a month. And for 

some reason somebody took me to lunch and I didn’t have to pay for it. An extra patient 

came in. I found a more efficient way of doing something that would cost less, and I kept meeting that next one and I learned to delegate.

And to prioritize more, to get onto most important things that produced the most. And I 

got to seven 50 a month, and by the 

end of the year, I was a thousand dollars a month and a thousand dollars a month into savings. When you’ve never had a thousand dollars a month into savings 

before. Seemed like I was making progress.

So I now ran a projection. If I saved a thousand dollars a month for the rest, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 

40 years, where will I be? And I calculated that I would be 

a millionaire in 34 years. Now I needed 4 million in 15. , 

so that wasn’t gonna cut it. So I had no choice but to keep going up. So I’m now at a thousand.

I said from now on I’m gonna automate this. And I automated it in from my business account to a Schwab account, a discount broker’s account, and I put into a money market account and I said, I want this automated outta my account, and we’re gonna increase it 10% every quarter. 

and they said, well, we’ve never done that.

And I said, well, if I sign it, will you be able to do that instead of if you sign 

it and you authorize it and sign all these pieces of paper on those monthly, quarterly basis, and we got it. 

So I signed pile of papers for many years on a quarterly basis to increase it 10%. 

And then I 

figured my job is to go figure out how to serve people to generate it.

This is gonna 

take care of itself now, but I forgot one. . I needed to do the same thing with my taxes cuz my taxes were going up every time this is going up. So then I had a tax hit and I had to rob 

some of that and pay taxes. So I automated the taxes. Every time I increase one, I increase the other. And the man, when you start to manage money, 

more money comes to you.

It’s amazing how what happens. And I made it to 1,100, 

1,002 10, $1,344 1,005 60. I was 

at two. and now I ran another projection. I’m down now to 15 years. I’m now a millionaire. I’m closer. I’m getting closer. 

So if I kept going there, I can see that there’s light at you on the tunnel. So I did it again for the next two years.

And if you increase at 10% every year, 

it doubles every two years, the amount your savings. But during that 

time, one of my loans finished. So instead of going and buying something, 

I put that in there and I acceler. And then another loan came due during that time and completed, and I put that in there. And so now I’m sitting at $5,000 a month to $6,000 a month instead of 4,000 at the next two years.

And I’m running a projection and my first million is just a handful of years away. And I now start to see, you know what, in 35 years, I can definitely be at this place, but I’m halfway there now, so I didn’t stop. I just kept increasing at 10. And I kept prioritizing and 

delegating and prioritizing 

and delegating and making myself more efficient in business and 

doing radio and television and reaching more people and increasing the number of people coming 

in and getting more doctors.

And I kept growing my business and increasing my profit margin, and all of a sudden it was now double. It was 16,000. , it went to 32,000. When it was at 32,000. I ran a projection and I was already financial independent on the ninth year of me starting this. I was financially independent 

nine years, but I didn’t stop.

I’m in at 64,000. I went to 128,000 and I ran projections, and then I realized I could 10 times this financial independence. Now, at this rate, I could be 10. Financially independent times 10. And then I said, well, I’ve got that. And then I said, I could make it 50 times now my goal is a hundred times financial independence, 100 times more I would ever spend.

And then I realized that that’s, that’s doable. That’s totally doable. But my responsibility was to keep serving people and keep being more efficient. And I had an accountability, but I automated it like that. And so that guy coming into my. turned it from saving money for things to saving and investing money to buy assets.

So I was working because I loved to, not because I had to made a huge difference. My life changed at that time.

Terry: Yeah. What I find really interesting about that story is it’s like that law of induced demand. You are setting the target and then you are creating a vacuum and filling it with your resourcefulness, your ingenuity, your creativity, your. Ideas, your work ethic, all those things, , and it’s almost like you are trusting yourself to do it.

And then every time you achieve it, you kind of gather that evidence that you can increase it. And so it just fulfills itself over time.

John: There’s absolutely no risk in saving and investing money. I mean, there’s a risk of inflation eating a savings. 

There’s a risk if you put it 

into a foolish speculation, but not if you buy quality stocks. So from 1982 to 1986, they were really charging ridiculous fees. I mean 2% in 

management fees and trading fees, and just a 

ridiculous amounts there.

And I didn’t know any better, but I ended up moving my office to a highrise and there was a lady that had a brokerage company down below, and I became a friend with hers. And I started looking at what the man and money managers in America were doing. And then I went to buy index stocks and I decided I’m gonna buy index stocks and keep my costs.

And so all the brokers, you know, they hated that because they, they kept debunking that. But I’ve been doing that now for 35 years and that’s still been the best investment I’ve done. I buy high quality companies through the indices and, um, it’s been the best yield. I mean, I’ve been double digit yields for on average over these years because of it.

And I learned some things along the way to make sure I get double digit returns on average, even though there’s some down years, et cetera. But, and you’ll learn as you go. But I started reading about finance from that day. I met him and I had a dream to read at least a hundred books on every neurology, but when it 

came to finances, it seemed to be more intriguing than some 

others.

So I think I read about 1400 books on the topic to educate myself and watch God knows how many hours of videos and stuff that’s come. To try to make sure I’ve got it simple. And Munger said it really well on a little video. He said, it’s so simple, really, that people 

overlook the basics. What I do 

is so simple.

My daughter is following in the footsteps and she’s becoming financial independent. And people go, how is she doing that? And it took us 20 minutes. To set it up. , it’s so simple. But Munger said 

the brokerage 

business and Wall Street doesn’t want you to know it’s that simple. 

So they make it complex so they make you feel anxious, so you pass the money over to them so they can go and take your money basically.

And he said, it’s so simple, and why didn’t I do something really simple? And I said, 

it is simple. It doesn’t really take rocket science 

to become financially independent.

Terry: No. It’s just that compounding behavior we talk about. Doing the thing consistently. 

John: Compound interest is the age one of the world. And if you’ve ever seen a 

compound interest charge, it goes like a log rhythm. And so the first 10 

years he goes, eh, little bit. The second 10 years is starting to be like this. 

The third 10 years, it’s like this. The fourth 10 years is starting to be like that, but the fifth, 10 years, it’s vertical.

I’m gonna hit the 40 year mark now, and now the next decade. I’m amazed at what it’s.

Terry: Yeah, so tell me more about that. So what are some of the choices, some of the blessings, I guess, that wealth does afford you, that you. 

John: Well, I keep a pretty 

simple life, really. I live on my 

ship, you know, I live on the world and, um, I don’t know of a better address. It’s the best address on Earth as far as I’m concerned. There’s 22 billionaires that live on here. And there’s nobody here that has anything less than a hundred million dollars on here.

I’ve got a good education of financial people here that are world-class financial people, some of the wealthiest people in the world. And so we go to the most amazing places. I mean, I’ve been to probably a hundred ports in the last year around the world in the Pacific Islands to, you name it, I Mediterranean.

I’m now in Amsterdam. I was in Rotterdam yesterday and go all over the place with it. And um, we have Nobel Prize winners that come on here and educate. And we have, uh, anybody we want, if we want to talk somebody at the 

Ukraine War breaks. Now we call the secretary to 

defense from two nations and we say, okay, what’s going down?

And we just call ’em and hire ’em and we interview ’em. We’ve got great food, we’ve got 

great 

chefs. We great. 

I mean it. So I’m very grateful that I’m able to do that. But it’s not really all that expensive. 

I mean, it’s really not. And so I have a very simple life really. 

And I travel the world and I meet 

amazing people.

Go to amazing places. 

But I had that as a dream. I wanted to step foot on every country in the face of the earth. I’ve spoken 170 countries now, and so 

I wanted to go around the world and that 

was the dream. And I designed my life to accomplish that, and I designed my wealth to accomplish 

that. So I’m absolutely certain you can live by design.

It’s not rocket science, 

it’s just designing things that are congruent, that are true, that are really valuable to. and then methodically strategically staying with it and being incremental momentums to get the outcome, that saving and investing process, cuz I saved until I had a cash reserve. Then I started investing and buying quality companies and now the company’s helped me accomplish what I want.

They go to work and I get a little cut out of it and I get a little share out of it, and it’s not that difficult, but I don’t live beyond my means. You 

know, like 

Nicholas Cage went out and spent, you know, 250 million on ridiculous 

lifestyle and then you wonder why they go. . 

I’m a very conservative guy.

All the stocks that I bought, I’ve never spent any of ‘

em. I’m a net buyer. I just buy 

and buy and buy companies and buy and buy and buy. And then I make enough money 

in doing what I love doing to make more than enough for the year to to live on. And 

I just let it accumulate. And then I have philanthropic objectives with it, and I do things that inspire me.

So I’m a firm believer that it doesn’t have to be complex. It’s just 

a matter of are you willing to do it. So many people say they wanna be financially opinion. . I don’t find that many really, that do. 

Less than 1% really do. Most people want the lifestyle that rich and famous, and they wanna spend their money on 

consumables that depreciate in value instead of actually buying asset.

One of my great mentors, bill Woodson, if 

you’re bored, you’re probably on track. If you’re excited, you’re probably screwed up because if you got dopamine running, you’re probably fooled. You’re probably in a crypto craze or something. If you’re buying a quality company that serves people, that has fair exchange, that has quality governed manage.

That is consistently producing a result for the shareholders, and you’re participating in helping them and helping the customer and everybody’s winning out of it. It’s not all that exciting, but what it is, is it’s rewarding. It works. I really believe that money is a manifestation of a commitment to humanity to create sustainable, fair exchange for all parties.

That’s the bottom line. If you do that, you’re 

gonna be wealthy.

Terry: you mentioned the people that you live around on the world, the ship that you live on and how most of these people are at least a hundred million billionaires. Frame of reference is something that I’m really. interested in at the moment how you see something determines how you react to it, how you respond, and what you do with it.

And I’m just really interested in how the wealthiest people, you know, how they see, how they look at money. So you just kind of said there that it’s a manifestation of that fair exchange, that contribution. Is there anything that you see as like a common thread amongst that type that’s very different to everybody? 

John: I may not give names, but I’ll just give examples. There was a gentleman that I meet for breakfast with many times, a lovely gentleman. He’s 80 years. and he saw that the average person couldn’t afford an airplane ticket. This is back a number of decades ago. And so he asked, how can we figure out a way of getting people who to be able to travel on air, so cost effectively?

to do it. So he went and started researching how do we get the average person with an income of $40,000 a year? How do we get it where they can go and see their family twice a year or somewhere else? That kind of thing. And he calculated that and he said, okay, how do we build an air system that allows people to do that?

So he started with the end in mind of trying to take a person out there that would love to see and travel, but can. . He started there and then he found chartering systems and he found out what the price breaks were and how often they were being used and negotiated deals with things that were basically created a discount airline without all the frills.

and he ended up building this thing and turned it into a profit and created an airline out 

of this, basically because he started with 

carrying for the individual. So that was the common thread. They were looking at, how do I serve a. Large number of people have. It wasn’t 

how do I become wealthy?

How do I become financially independent? It’s how do I serve a group of people? 

Because I know if I can do that, and I find a way of making it cost effective and making a profit that I will deserve a profit.

Terry: So money for those guys is a byproduct of contribu. 

John: Yeah. Now there’s another girl. This is amazing story. 

So she 

was going to Harvard and she went to Oxford and went to 

Cornell. So she’s an academic lady, right? And she went to the professor and the professor at Harvard and said, how does a person grow 

a big company? And he said, well, you’ve gotta find a massive need that’s in society and you have to be able to provide that need more effectively and efficiently as somebody.

and she said, okay, she’s from 

South Africa. So she said, well, the biggest need here is 

energy, that we got a corrupt company that’s not giving out an energy and it’s, and it’s costly and it’s gouging people and it’s corrupt and it’s that. So let’s figure out how to create energy. So she did some research and she had engineering background and she decided to build a nuclear power plant.

Now nobody goes and builds a private nuclear power. . So she went back to the professor and said, I think 

we’re gonna build a nuclear power 

John to Descript_01: plant. 

John: She says, you can’t build a nuclear power plant. The governments build nuclear power plants. People don’t build nuclear power. She says, well, I’m gonna build one.

So she put together the due diligence and um, raised 1.5 billion initial fees and built a nuclear 

power plant. Before she did it though, her husband 

said, I’m not gonna be married to you if you’re signing a 1.5 billion debt.

Terry: Yep. 

John: So he divorced her in the process. That’s how committed she was. She said, I’m gonna, , 

this country needs energy.

And she successfully did that and then sold it to the government. Then she said, all 

right, now I’ve got some money, but I don’t want to be bored with money without meaning, cuz money without meaning leads to debauchery, but money with meaning leads to philanthropy. So she looked again and she did an aerial view of South Africa and she asked, what are the biggest needs now?

Well, one of the biggest needs was they’re 87% unemployment, some townships and extreme poverty and extreme health issues and aids. and she knew that if people didn’t have jobs, they had more of that. So what she did is she said, how do we create a job for 87% of the people in these locations? So she got an aerial view where this biggest poverty was, and she found out it was about three miles away from a rail that was going from Cape Town to Joburg.

Or another one going from Durban to Joe Berg. And then she decided what would it cost to build a rail into that area and what would happen if I built a train manufacturing company 

and an educational system to give people an education so they could 

work in the train manufacturing company and give job opportunities?

Would that reduce all these problems? So she came in with a problem to. A humanitarian problem and she’s got three huge train manufacturing places in those locations and built rails and added rails off. To these locations and built a vibrant little community and city and education system. Had a master plan, raised the funds for it, and now has builds 

all the trains.

She just signed a half a billion 

dollar deal the other day. So because 

these people are thinking outside the box of how do I 

serve? every greater numbers of people in the 

Book of Wealth by Hubert l 

Bancroft. That’s one of the first things he said, and he showed over the last 6,700 years what’s common to the wealthiest people in the world is that they felt by divine providence and human, 

so that they were here to serve 

vast numbers of people.

Every, greater numbers of people. I feel that way. And what I do, I mean, you know, I’ve, I’ve reached a lot of people, billions of people with my message. 

Because 

that’s a cornerstone of what I’m up to. I do it every day. I keep reaching more people. So if you don’t have a yearning to wanna serve people, then why would you expect to have 

wealth?

I mean, it just, it’s chronological. If you’re not meeting somebody’s needs, there’s no money. Money comes from fair exchange with some other human being. So how big is your cause to serve vast numbers of people? That’s your wealth potential, and there’s no limit on that. So she went ahead and did that and hired thousands of people.

and changed the educational system and changed the standard and made a viable communities out of these things and show what was possible. And then got honored from Y Oxford as the 

number one entrepreneur in the Southern hemisphere. And 

that’s because she 

started with a humanitarian cause that was inspiring to her.

That was extremely meaningful to her. And 

she didn’t do it with the 

sake of altruism. So I don’t wanna make people think, no, you gotta be altruistic. No, no. She 

knows that if she serves vast numbers of people more effective and efficient than anybody else, 

that she’s gonna deserve a big profit. She made a good.

Terry: Yeah, so it’s an external focus. And then I think part of this too is same with your story here is then, then you are matching an external need with your internal want and will to serve and do something for people with the gifts that you have. So what could you say around matching those two things up?

Right. Finding that need, but also figuring out, is this my highest and best contribution given what I’m here to do, what I have?

John: Yeah, that’s a very important component. 

So let me elaborate on that. Every human being has a set of priorities in life, 

set of values in life, and whatever’s highest on that set of priorities is what they spontaneously are inspired to do. And whatever’s low, they need external motivation to do so. You don’t ever wanna start with pursuing something that’s a cause to solve from something low on your guys.

You burn out, you won. If it’s something so deeply meaningful to you, so inspiring to you that you’re willing to embrace the pains and pleasures and the pursuit of it, that’s the starting point. So you need to find out what your highest value is, cuz that way you can’t wait to get up in the morning and deliver that service.

I can’t wait to get up in the morning and 

research and teach. I do it every day, 

50 years. So I don’t have any problem doing that. But if you ask me to cook, forget it. You want me to drive? No. I learn to delegate everything other than what I do, which is teach 

research and write. I don’t do anything. I got, you know, pilots, I got drivers, I’ve got captain, I’ve got cooks, I’ve got, I don’t do anything.

I’m even jokingly hire 

Hugh Jackman, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, to make love for my girlfriend. So they get high quality services, you know, and they always say that they love me even more by doing 

it. Actually, I wouldn’t do that with my girlfriend. She’s, I’d rather educate myself to reach up to the standard.

That was a joke.

Terry: Gotcha. Gotcha. 

John: So when you can’t wait to get up in the morning and be of service, people can’t wait to. , but it has to meet some real needs. So 

many entrepreneurs, 

they get this great grandiose idea that’s 

meaningful to them, but it’s not meaningful to anybody else 

that peters out because it is hell trying to market something that people don’t look for.

But if you find something that is, see, if you go in there narcissistically and thinking you know better than the customer, 

you’re gonna get humbled. If you go in there altruistically and sacrifice the customer, you’re not gonna have a profit and you’re eventually gonna get resent. But if you find a perfect balance, which is called equity theory, when you have 

equanimity and you’re not too proud or too humble, 

and you’re authentic and you’re inspired, and you meet something that meets a need, 

you’ve got your niche.

And finding that niche is more 

important than wandering around. Take the time 

to find that niche. You will automatically have a demand for your supply. There’s no demand. You’re not needing your need.

Terry: Yeah. So what are the biggest mistakes you see people making when they’re trying to find what it is they can contribute? I guess the biggest rabbit holes. Slow down that. Just move them away from what they’re here to do and how they can contribute. 

John: Sometimes they have a big picture of what they 

want to do and they don’t realize where their core competencies are, and they get bogged down doing the things that aren’t inspiring to them, and then they burn out and think. That’s the whole thing. Like I had a guy the other day on my Break to experience program, you know, it’s one of my signature programs I teach.

And uh, he said, well, business is my highest value. And I said, Nope. He said, what do you mean? Nope. And I said, Nope. Business is too broad. What actions in your business do you absolutely love doing in your business? Cuz it’s not everything in your business. He said, well, okay, well that’s true. I said, so let’s get more specific.

What is it you love doing? I have a business. I’m in the speaking business, right? Education, business. But I don’t do the administrative, I don’t do the financial, I don’t do the paperwork, I don’t do any of those things. I teach research and. . That’s my core competence. 

So I hire specialists to do everything else, or otherwise I’d be bogged down and I wouldn’t be inspired by what I do.

So you have to find out where your core competence is and stick to that, and you have to make sure that that core competence is packaged in a way that’s meeting 

people’s needs. If you don’t have a demand, you’re not meeting 

their needs. I mean, it’s that simple. . If you think you’re smarter than the market, well then you’re full.

You’re not. The market knows what it wants and, and it’s how do you present it? Sometimes it’s just tweaking how you present what you 

are doing to meet the market needs. 

So it’s sometimes an advertisement, sometimes a new, sometimes it’s actually getting feedback for what they’re actually needing and redesigning the package.

The great, uh, Henry 

Ford did something and one of the books, the Robber Baron, if you remember, He went out there and went on the streets and asked people, so if we, his transportation system and we had a car. Are you interested in the car? Nope. I’m interested in the horse and buggy. I know I can rely on my horse, but if you could get to that place and that place and not have to pick up poop and not to worry about the cleaning of the horse and uh, not having to feed the horse, and you could get from that point to that.

And you get there quicker, how much would you be willing to pay for that? And they 

said, a hundred dollars. If I could get from here to there for a hundred dollars, then I’d give up my horse kind 

of thing, cuz the horse was costing that amount. So he went back to his engineers after he found out asking all these people, he says, engineers, we have to figure out how to make this warehouse produce a car for $50.

Now if we can’t do that, we’re out of. Yeah. Now this is back in 1908, right? So that would be like $10,000 or something today, but he had to figure it out. So he went back there 

instead of thinking, well, those people are stupid and I’ve got a good car, and they, they’ve an idiot for not doing this and blaming the market.

He said, we have a responsibility to figure out how to produce a car 

if we want people to buy it. So how do we do it? 

So we got all the engineers and people together to figure out how to rearrange the position of everybody in the job, how to make it automated where it’s more quickly. How to simplify it, how to get equipment and materials in there that are less costy by buying ’em in bulk.

How do we own those companies and get shares to get reduction on it? And he sat down and engineered that, worked on that for a period of time until he found a way of getting it for 

50 bucks. Then he mass produced a car and cars became, took over the buggy. So that was the beginning because, but he had to go and meet the market need instead of blaming the market for their idiocy and self righteously, assuming he knew what the market.

Or he knew better than the market, he had to go find out how to meet the market needs. And that’s not easy sometimes because if there’s somebody out there that’s more efficient and effective, you, if you’re not more effective, efficient them, you can’t expect to get the market share. So this is the responsibility of an entrepreneur.

Terry: Yep. Can you tell me what is your deserve? 

John: Every time you live 

by your highest value, your self-worth 

goes up, and every time you do low priority things, your self-worth goes down. Anybody who’s been in business knows if they have an agenda for the day and they ask, what are the highest priority actions I can do today to help me fulfill my mission of this service to the world today?

And they narrow it down to these are the highest priority, most productive, most meaningful things they can do. The truly most productive and meaningful things they can do. And then they stick to that 

and stay on track on 

that and do that for the day, and then they knock ’em all out and 

then they add one more and knock another high priority out.

At the end of the day, they’re resilient and they’re adaptable, they’re inspired, they have self-worth. 

They come home. They’re not, uh, grouchy, they’re not gonna pick on people, they’re gonna be present. 

They’re stayed in their executive center. They didn’t go in their amygdala, they didn’t get into subjective bias and distortions of their reality.

They became really clear about what was 

really prior. And they serve people. And 

so anytime you fill your day with high priority 

actions that inspire you, that are meaningful, that are productive, 

your day doesn’t fill up with low priority distractions that don’t. and the low priority distractions that don’t are 

feedback mechanism to let you know you’re inauthentic and you’re not caring with equanimity with the people around you and equity, and people have to 

really wrap their head around this.

But every symptom in business and every symptom in your life is a feedback back to you, back to authenticity and back to priority. Every symptom that goes on in the business is trying to 

get you back to priority and into fair exchange with another human being where you can have fulfillment. Otherwise, there’s no fulfillment in.

Terry: So if I had five tasks on my list, I got through one of them. What does that tell?

John: I got the highest priority one done, and the other ones were unreasonable in timeframes. 

Then I learned to prioritize things according to chunk things down to smaller 

bites and stick to a reasonable expectation of my day. If it’s because I allowed distractions to run me or I went off on other things that weren’t really priority.

Then I have to be honest with myself. You have to be honest with yourself about how you’re functioning. You know, if a person makes a list of everything they do in a day, I did this when I was 

27, about the time that guy came 

in, I bought Alec McKenzie book that time trap, and I read a list of every single thing that I did in a day.

and I looked at what I was doing in a day over a period of about three month period, what was I doing? And man, when I made that list, I was majoring in minors and minoring in majors all over the place. And then I 

realized that, okay, I have no one to blame here. HTA has said, first you start blaming things external to you.

Then 

you blame yourself and then you realize there’s nothing to blame. It’s all feedback to try to help you master your life. So I 

sat and I looked at that, and then next to it I put a column next to it is how much does it produce per. How much does that action that I’m doing make per hour? Because that means that I’m 

serving some human being.

If I’m not making any money, I’m not at the sign. I’m not serving anybody. If I’m doing something that doesn’t make any money, I’m not making 

anything that people will pay for. So I’m 

not meeting a need. So my job is to find out what is the highest priority thing I can do 

in a day that serves the greatest number of people in a most efficient manner.

So 

I prioritize that according to product. 

and that was eye opening cuz then I realized, whoa, 

I’m spending 70% of my time doing stuff that’s not really producing and only 30% of my time really making something that’s making a difference. Then I put another column next to it and I wrote 

down how much meaning does it have on a one to 10 scale?

Cuz I wanna do the thing that is inspiring to me, that’s meaningful, that produces the most, I wanna find out where those match. Then I prioritized 

meaning one to 10 scale and meaning, and I overlapped him and I found out in my. Me getting in out and speaking was my most productive thing I could be doing, leveraging myself through speaking, and I learned that 27, 28 years old and, and that changed the course of my destiny.

The next column is what would it cost 

to hire somebody to delegate that? Because if I’m doing it, and I’m doing lower priority stuff 

cuz I got nobody to delegate to. I’m devaluing myself. Cuz anytime you do lower things on your priority list and lower value things in the world that produce moles, you 

devalue yourself.

Your self-worth is a reflection of how you’re living according to what’s meaningful and how well 

you’re producing with making a difference in people’s lives. And if you get 

those together and you keep doing it more efficiently, your self-worth is gonna go skyrocketing. I learned that. What’s interesting is the more certain and self-worth you have, the more humble you are.

because the more you’re 

forced to be caring about human beings on a larger scale, and then I put down how much time is spent, and then I prioritize 

that, and then I hired people 

John to Descript_01: and 

John: delegated all the lower party things, and I’ve just freed myself up to do what I do today. 

People say, well, you can go and live that life because you got wealth.

No, I got wealthy because I did that.

Terry: Yeah, that’s the hardest thing. And I, I actually am still struggling with this myself. We’ve obviously got the business, there’s things we need to be doing. There’s things we do delegate, and then there’s real resource constraints you’ve got to deal with. So how do you navigate the, the constraints you have in terms of the money?

You’ve got to be able to delegate the time and space you can do it versus just doing it. what you were saying. If it’s not my highest priority, I’m not doing. 

John: You mitigate the risk by using your. First of all, if you hire somebody that is less competent in you, that’s not inspired to do it, that doesn’t have the skills, you’ll be micromanaging and having to motivate them and push ’em uphill, and then that’s not delegation. That’s not true. Delegation, we have to talk about real delegation.

Real delegation is finding somebody that is absolutely inspired to do what you want to do. It’s highest on their values. that they’re the expert. They know more about it than you do, and you’re now freed. I haven’t dealt with administrative or financial matters since I was 28, and my business has been all that’s been delegated.

I, my 

investments are doing it. I take a look at my investments 

as they grow, but everything was automated and delegated, and all I did is researched, wrote. 

Traveled and teach. That’s it. That’s all my mind thinks about and focuses on. I don’t have any other other stuff 

to think about because I’ve delegated it.

And what’s interesting is if you 

delegate to somebody who’s not 

competent, you’re gonna be now doubling your job. Cuz now you gotta micromanage ’em, push them uphill. But if you get the right person in on the 

bus, as Colin says, and that’s a skill of how to screen people for that. And that means you need to find 

out what their values are and what they spontaneously love doing, 

and make sure that the job description is in line 

with.

because otherwise you as a manager and an owner is hiring somebody that’s not the person and that 

cost, it doesn’t cost a delegate if you’re free to go do something that produces more than that cost. When I delegate, I take a job off my plate so I can have more time to produce more with what I do. That makes more money than that.

And then I get ex surplus labor value under their work because they’re producing for me. 

And when you do that, your company grows and your wealth grows. And if you 

wait to do that because of some fear, then you need to ask what’s really the cost of that fear. I had this person recently and said, well, I don’t know if I can afford 

to hire somebody.

Right. and I said, so 

let’s just take 

a look at what you’re doing. We prioritize all their jobs and what they could do and if they were actually free up their energy and time what they could produce. And he goes, that was interesting cuz right now I know if I had an extra two hours a day, cuz that’s what all this other stuff’s taken up at least two to three hours, I could easily close more deals and easily pay for that.

So just being aware of that made him more confident. And then we said, okay, 

what’s the total cost? If you hired somebody and they worked for 30 days, what’s the total. 

He said 5,000. Okay, so 

$5,000. Now, if you have a job description that you know can make you more than 

$5,000 or 10,000 or 20,000, then make sure you 

put a job description that’s gonna produce more than that cost, and then you’re 

now free to go and make more money and make more money.

And so instead of just hiring somebody in 

randomly, we went and navigated through and looked at what was going to be 

done and what it was going to produce and how it was gonna save. And we made sure and all of a sudden his anxiety was gone 

and he hired a person and boom, he jumped up, immediately, jumped up in his business.

That next month, just boom. I said, do you think you can’t get $50,000 outta that 

guy in some sort of activity if you had him do something in your business? He says, I think I can. I said, 

where’s the risk? I.

Terry: And I’ve thought this myself, being honest with. .I wonder where the part of it is because we then have to take responsibility for that time that we free up . You know what I mean? We can fill our time with the low priority. 

John: but the thing is, is if you’re not inspired to do that, 

it’s not your core competence. That’s why finding the thing that you can’t wait to get up in the morning do because anytime you’re not doing what’s most productive and meaningful, , you devalue yourself. You lower your energy, you lower creativity.

You move your blood supply out of the cortex where creative genius is down in the amygdala, which is survival, and then you weigh yourself down and then the world around you reflects what’s going on inside you, and then you become externally driven and blame outside circumstances instead of. The 

accountabilities you 

have.

So if you don’t take the time to prioritize that, then you’re, and you’re hesitating. It means you’re not 

doing what you really love to do. You need to delegate the things that you’re 

not inspired so you can get on to do what is inspiring to you that really makes the difference. And 

that’s the niche. 

And 

many people don’t find that.

And as a result of it, they bang their head against the wall for years. They have to give themselves permission to do something that’s meaningful to them.

Terry: What do you say to somebody who is an employee is on a fixed income and who kind of looks around at their job and. A lot of this, I don’t get a lot of value out of . I’m not valuing myself here. A lot of this is not feeling like it’s me. How would you advise that person? 

John: They have two choices. Either go do what they love and get clear about what it is or love what they do by finding out whatever the job description they’re doing and whatever their highest values are. How specifically is doing this temporarily until you can determine what it is you’re going to do. How is doing it temporarily going to help you in the next thing you’re planning on doing.

It’s so important to be clear about what you want to do 

and then find out how 

this is temporarily helping you get there, cuz it’s ultimately on the way. See, nothing’s in the way to a master. , 

everything’s on the way because it’s not what happens to ’em, it’s their perception of what’s happening to ’em.

So if they take command of the perception, they can take a job that they hate and they can ask, how is this 

actually helping me get 

what I want? Well, it’s giving me the frustration enough to be determined, to be able to be 

an entrepreneur and to overcome my fears. And I mean, it’s given 

me some skills and it’s given me some context, and it’s given me a little bit of saving.

And it’s getting 

me one step closer to the entrepreneurial adventure. So if 

you find out how it’s there, you, you’ll appreciate that as a stepping stone instead of a stumbling block, that if you hate your 

job and you just are angry and dissociated from it, you’re not ever gonna build creativity and you’re gonna have a harder time going to the next level.

Terry: Yeah, it’s definitely good advice. A lot of us in that scenario where you have trade offs to make, and I think what you said there around either do what you love or love what you do. Find a way to love what you do and, and something I learned from you is like, don’t just say that. Actually go on right out what it is about

John: Yeah. How’s it serving? I’ve gone 

into companies and had people that were unfulfilled in their jobs, and I asked them, so gimme your job description and let’s find out what their values are. But they go on my website. Go to dr d martini.com and free value determination process. It’s gold.

Terry: Guys, highly recommend do this, do this. 

John: Yeah. Companies use that all the time to when they hire people because it helps ’em know what they’re really committed to. Nobody 

goes to work for the sake of a company 

they go to work for, fulfill their highest values, and if they can fulfill their highest values, they’re engaged. If not, they’re not engaged.

So you don’t wanna hire a non-engaged person or otherwise you’d guaranteed not to produce. So determine those values. So if you have somebody that’s not inspired by the job and you find out what their job description is and ask how specifically is doing this job? going to help you fulfill what’s highest on your value.

And the first they’re gonna say, I don’t know. I can’t see 

it. Well, then you’re not gonna be engaged. You’re gonna be frustrated, hate your 

job, and you’re gonna want to get days off and breaks and vacations and get escape it. So let’s 

find out. And I make them accountable to 

find the link between what they’re doing and what they value.

And it’s not that 

difficult. Really. At three and a half 

hours, I took 200 people that were in a job that they were not as inspired by and just kind of doing it in. And I spent three and a half hours with 200 people and it skyrocketed. Productivity skyrocketed, and one of those 

hours was a lunch hour.

There was only two and a half hours of business time to get a 

massively increased in productivity. Massive.

Terry: Yeah. You know that your work really has influenced part of what we do in our program. There’s a part where we kind of sit down, we break down that big vision, that big design. We actually call it life by design, as you said before, right? We create this big vision and then we link money to it. We say, what is the role money has to play in helping you fund this life?

And then we break it down into, Very discreet goals. And what we find is that exactly what you said before, John, is that people be really abstract around their goals. I wanna travel. I’d like to travel. And we say, how does that align with your values? Like, what is it that you care about? You know? And I remember one session in particular, I was working with the young fellow and he’s in the army and he said, I wanna be the best PT instructor in the army and I wanna be sought out in this space.

And I’m like, well link the travel to the value. How could you make those two things? Kind of work together and how could you get One from the other? And so what we sort of laid out was a plan where he is like, I’m gonna fund a trip around America where I’m gonna go to all the gyms and I’m gonna pay the best instructors, the best coaches, to sponge from them, to learn from them and get mentorship from them.

Take it back to what I’m doing so that I can be the best at what I do. And I’m like, how much more inspired are you now to take that trip than just travel? And I think it’s in your testament to what you’re saying. Yeah.

John: One of the most famous trainers in America did exactly. You’re describing him, Eric, to Trainor, that’s exactly what he did. He went around and, and hung out with Arnold Schwarzer and hung out with Jack Lane and hung out with all the big names in the fitness industry and health and bodybuilding industry and stuff.

And now he’s one of the leaders in the world over it. He’s got hundreds of celebrities that uses services and Hollywood uses him and he’s, he’s a icon today, but exactly what he did, he found that link between him and he went out and did that exactly.

Terry: Mm. If you was talking to somebody, as I think something we’re up against right now in the markets, if you are watching your investments, you’d kind of see we’re dealing with really interesting volatility, and I think we were gonna be dealing with it for a while. And so that plays, it wreaks havoc on our biology.

You know, it’s that fight or flight. It’s the greed, fear. Those kind of things are rolling around a lot in our minds. How do you combat this and how would you kind of advise us to look at it?

John: I don’t even pay attention. I don’t even waste my time thinking about that. What I do is, I think long term, and so the volatilities are insignificant. I always say when the market is up, you make money On the past, when the market is down, you make money on the future. So what difference does it make? I don’t let the external world interfere with my strategy.

Terry: That’s a really good reframe. 

John: So when a market goes above the meaning, I build up a cash reserve. When a market goes below the mean, I use that cash reserve to buy more. So either way, I win. It’s not the market that runs your destiny. It’s how you interpret and what you do in that market that determines it. And if you have a strategy that doesn’t matter what the market does, you have a strategy for it, you don’t care.

so it doesn’t distract you. You only get distracted if you’re thinking short-term and you’re trying to figure out on a day-to-day basis what to do when you think you have a crystal ball about the market. You’re day trading instead of long-term investing. I don’t do that. I long-term 

invest. 

Now I’m thinking 50 years on my project.

I don’t think in terms of, you know, today, tomorrow about how many I’m gonna make tomorrow. I don’t think like that cuz I don’t find that productive. I find that just distracting and anything that distracts you from your primary business of serving people is gonna undermine the very source of your.

Terry: Yeah. Yeah, I’m really glad you said that and I just, it’s very easy to get sucked into an hourly news cycle on social media at the moment cuz it’s just at you all the time. Headlines, headlines, headlines, headlines. 

John: I don’t watch social media. I only contribute to social media and I try to contribute something that stabilizes it, not, I don’t react to it. The truth has never been in the hands 

of the masses. It’s in the 

hearts of the masters. I’d rather be the master and share information to stabilize it than to react to the masses that are unstabilized.

Terry: Yeah, definitely. I would just love you to repeat what you said there around when the market’s up and when the market’s down. That statement there, if you could say that.

John: When the market is up, you’re overpriced stock. So now you’re making money on the past that you put in, but when it goes down, you’re now buying sheep stock 

and you’re now making money on the future. See if you have an 

expectation beyond the mean. You’re gonna end up frustrating yourself because you’re gonna be elated and then you’re gonna be depressed and you’re gonna be elated and depressed, and that’s unstable.

That’s an amygdala response, not an executive response. I’m an executor. I’m interested in actually getting into the executive function and staying in my fore brain, not my hi brain animals in their hi brain. They learn from trial and error. Executives live in the fore brain and they live by planning and thinking and thinking and strategizing and mitigating risks.

So I am thinking of only the expectation of what the mean. I’ve been doing it now for almost 40 years, and um, I’ve gotten just a little bit above the mean. I’m grateful my expectations are met. If you have 

unrealistic expectations, you’re gonna be 

depressed. . And if you do, then you’re gonna go ly going back and forth and think the market’s doing it.

The market is nothing more than human behavior in psychology. And if you can’t love people beyond their 

emotional 

swings, you’re not loving people. If 

you can’t love the market beyond its swings, as Buffett says, until you can manage 

your emotions, don’t expect to manage money. You want to build wealth.

Think 

long-term. Understand realistic expectations. 

Put money into place as our 

quality, serving investments that are real, not speculations. Because if, if you don’t save before you invest, before you speculate, you’re gonna be volatile. But if you save and then 

invest before you speculate, you’re gonna be stable.

Terry: Yeah, and if you’re listening to this, I would highly recommend John’s book, how to Make. Hell of a profit and still get to heaven. Because you talk a lot about earning the right to risk and sort of establishing foundations, moving up those levels of risk and doing it in a way that from a psychology point of view, you’re not overexposing yourself in any way.

I think it’s, it made a lot of great sense for me. Bonds are probably gonna be a bad investment for the next. 

John: at the time when the book was written, bonds still had a purpose and they will again, as the interest rates go up. But yeah, you’d go right into buying quality companies in the long run, buying quality companies. 

Anytime 

you put money into something that serves every greater numbers of people and you do it in a fair exchange, you’re gonna grow well.

Bottom line, keep that in mind. That’s the key.

Terry: John, you’ve been really gracious with your time. I really appreciate it, and I have remembered the CD set that I sort of got of yours, and I’ve been to a couple of your workshops and seminars. Would highly recommend if you are ever in Sydney, Melbourne, and John’s in town. Just make time to go to the breakthrough experience that will change your life.

John’s experience with Paul Bragg is literally what he does in that workshop. Absolutely changed my trajectory, my future. Going to that workshop, my wife often says to me, I wish we met when I was younger. And I said, no, you don’t. You are glad you met me after John, because I think I was a very different person after that.

But the CD set Secrets of Financial Success, I think it’s like 11 CDs. It’s very in depth and it goes through all the psychology of money. Talks about the principles of wealth creation. Invest in that CD set. There’s very little that I’ve found that goes to that level, that depth, and the breadth as well.

So John, is there anything else, anywhere else that people can find more about you in any events that are coming up? 

John: They can just go on my website, dr d martini.com, do the value determination. It’s free, it’s private, and browse. It’s an educational, there’s thousands of articles and magazines and podcasts, and you could continue to educate yourself, and I’m putting more on there than when you probably can keep up with.

Uh, so it’s an educational website and there’s live events going on and live webinars, and if what I’m getting is a value to you, then keep engaged in it and it’ll serve you. That’s our objective, but it’s educational. You can 

the rest of your life on there.

Terry: It’s changing a lot. I looked at it a month ago, I looked at it today. I was like, wow, you guys are doing a lot of work. So amazing job mate. Thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it and um, I hope to talk to you again.

John: I look forward to it. Thank you for this great interview and whoever’s out 

there give yourself permission to do something 

extraordinary on the planet, care about humanity, and you will be wealthy. I promise if you do.

Terry: Amazing. Thank you.