April 14, 2026 – Land Geek Mark Podolsky and Zero-Friction Doctor Noah St. John

0:04 Intro 1 : Broadcasting from am and FM stations around the country. Welcome to the Small Business Administration award winning school for startups radio where we talk all things small business and entrepreneurship. Now here is your host, the guy that believes anyone can be a successful entrepreneur, because entrepreneurship is not about creativity, risk or passion.

0:24 Jim Beach : Jim Beach, hello everyone. Welcome to another exciting edition of School for startups radio. We got a fantastic show for you today, two repeat guests, two fantastic guests, and two quick 10s. Wow. What a show we have put together for you, and it is still free, double free. We have first up today, Mark podlowski, he is a land entrepreneur. His model is so cool. I am blown away by it. It is one of the ones that I am going to put some money in. I think his model is fantastic, and I just love it. After that, Noah St John is with us. He has been with us six times, I believe. And so we have to do something to win back the green jacket that I keep promising people who are on the show five times and have not been able to deliver yet. But Noah is unbelievable. He is come up with so many ways to live our life better. He’s been on the show talking about his affirmations and how that has helped so many people. We’ve talked about his AI leadership the last time that he was on the show. So we’ve talked about a lot of things. This time. We’re going to go back in his history and talk to him about when he was a baby and find out why he was so different. Maybe he got dropped in the head or something and their nursery. But anyway, he has been with us a lot, so that means he must be a great guest. We always have fun. So it’s a great show, and appreciate you being with us. We’re gonna get started in just a second. You

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2:46 Jim Beach : We are back and again. Thank you so very much for being with us. Very excited to welcome back to the show. He was on the show in 2018 Mark podlowski. He is also known as the land geek, but I’ve seen him and stuff. He doesn’t look like a geek to me. He looks like just a normal guy. He has been buying and selling raw land dirt since 2001 he’s completed over 5500 land deals. And his company, Frontier equity properties as an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau. He is author of the book dirt rich, The Ultimate Guide to helping you build a passive income model in raw land investing. His passion for investing in land and creating wealth has helped other people develop their inner geek entrepreneurship life as well. He has a podcast of his own, and he loves being a teacher and a coach and a mentor toward all of us. Mark, welcome back. How you doing?

3:45 Mark Podolsky : Jim? So happy to be back. Olis is still normal. Restoration is fine. Thanks again for

3:50 Jim Beach : Having me. Oh, well, it is our pleasure. All right, so eight years ago, anything changed.

4:02 Unknown Speaker : Nothing has changed. It’s kind of

4:03 Jim Beach : Crazy about the Indian who are the reporter? I don’t know if this is politically incorrect or not. I don’t really care. The guy has sent to interview an Indian chief, and 20 years later he comes back and is asked to do the exact same interview as a follow up. And he goes back to the Indian and something you know, like, What’d you have for breakfast? And the Indian remembers 20 years ago that he had scrambled eggs or something, you know, joke. So I hope you can defend everything you said eight years ago.

4:37 Mark Podolsky : I absolutely can. You know, it’s interesting, because the technology has changed so much, it’s it’s incredible, and it’s an incredible time to be an entrepreneur, but the model hasn’t changed that much. Actually, we still buy assets, 2535 cents on the dollar. We’re still. Sending out mail the way that we sent it out eight years ago. We’re still marketing properties. You know, the same way, the fundamental way of you know, when you do marketing, a good headline, having strong urgency, scarcity, a clear call to action, like these, fundamentals haven’t changed in eight years. What’s changed is that we can do it so much faster and efficiently cheaper now, with the technology, it’s incredible.

5:27 Jim Beach : All right, let’s go backwards and tell everybody what you’re doing exactly, please, that they did, yeah, eight years ago scrolled on them. So what? Yeah. What do you do?

5:40 Mark Podolsky : Okay, so Jim, let’s just use you as a case study. So where do you live?

5:46 Jim Beach : I’m in Atlanta, Georgia.

5:48 Mark Podolsky : Okay, so you’re in Atlanta. Let’s assume that you own five acres near me in Arizona, and you owe, let’s say, $200 in back taxes. So you’re advertising two important things to me. Number one, you have no emotional attachments on raw land. You’re in Georgia, the properties in Arizona. And number two, you’re financially distressed in some weird way, because we don’t pay for things like our property taxes.

6:12 Jim Beach : No one knows about Mark. Don’t tell anyone.

6:15 Mark Podolsky : Well, I’m not going to tell anybody, but, yeah, it’s just between you and I. But like, you’re just but it’s a weird thing, right? So you know, you’re not paying your taxes, and so the county treasurer keeps sending you notice, saying, Jim, you don’t pay your taxes, you’re gonna lose that property to a tax deed or a tax lien investor. So all I’m going to do is look at the comparable sales to last 12 to 18 months on your five acre parcel, and let’s just use easy math, and let’s say that the lowest comparable sale is $10,000 I’m just going to divide by four, and that’s gonna give me what Warren Buffett would call a 300% margin of safety. So I’ll send you an offer for $2,500 now, Jim, you accept it. Why? Because for you, $2,500 is better than nothing. Now, in reality, three to 5% of people are going to accept my quote, unquote, top dollar offer, but now that you’ve accepted it, I have to go through due diligence or in depth research. Number one, I got to confirm you still own the property. Number two, I got to confirm that the legal description is correct. Number three, I’ve got to make sure that there’s no you know, the back taxes aren’t too high. It’s still only $200 number fourth, make sure there’s no rates in the chain of title. And so I go through this whole process. I outsource it for $11 to my team in Jamaica. They’re connected to an American Title Company, and we’ll assume everything checks out. Now, if I was investing, say, more than $5,000 I would just go traditional through a title company, but this is $2,500 I’ll take a little bit of risk. No problem. I send you a check for $23 I send the Treasury a check for $200 I own it free and clear. Now, Jim, I’m gonna sell. It’s three days my last one, I could cash flow like a rental home. So I have a built in best buyer. I don’t remember if you remember who that buyer is, but do you remember?

8:05 Jim Beach : Ooh, I hate it when he tricked me like this and turned the tables on me. It’s the secret men and black guys with the sunglasses.

8:16 Mark Podolsky : Yes and no, if the secret men and black guys in the sunglasses, we are neighbors, then, yes, they would be your built in best buyer. So we’re going to send out neighbor letters say, Hey, here’s your opportunity to protect your privacy, protect your views. Know your neighbor. So oftentimes, the neighbors will buy. Now if they don’t buy, we’ll go to our buyers list. We don’t have a buyer’s list, we’ll go to a little website you may have heard of. It’s called meta or Facebook, buy, sell groups the marketplace, there’s only, like, you know, 3 billion people on there. And then we’ll go to the lands, land.com land moto.com land farm.com land flip. Calm, land century.com These are platforms where people buy and sell all land, but the secret gym is in the pricing. So all I’m going to ask for is a $2,500 down payment. So I’m going to get my money out on the down, but I could go six months out, and then I’m making a car payment, let’s say 249 a month at 9% interest for the next, say 84 months. So I got this one time sale. I get my money out on the down. Now I’m getting 249 a month and 9% interest the next 84 months, no renters, no rehabs, no renovations, no rodents. And because I’m not dealing with a tenant, I’m exempt from, God, Frank rust, all this onerous real estate legislation. So it’s a simple game, and I create enough land notes where my passive income exceeds by six expenses, then I’m working because I want to, not because I have to

9:48 Jim Beach : Very, very impressive. How did you come up with all of this or discover this mark?

9:54 Mark Podolsky : So if we rewind the tape to 2000 I was a miserable Michael. Managed 45 minute commute to working back investment banker specializing in mergers and acquisitions with private equity groups. And Jim, it got so bad for me, you know, I wouldn’t get the hell is

10:11 Jim Beach : That what you were saying? Yeah,

10:13 Mark Podolsky : Yeah, it was bad. So I wouldn’t get, like, the Sunday blues anticipating Monday coming around. I did the Friday blues, anticipating the weekend going by really fast and having to work on Monday. So my firm hires this guy that he’s telling me as a side hustle. He’s buying up all man, pennies on the dollar at tax, seed options. He’s flipping them online. He’s making 300% return on his money. And Jim, I’m looking at companies all day long, and a great company, great has 15% EBITDA margins of free cash flow. Average companies, 10% I’m looking at companies all day long, less than 10% so I don’t believe them. So I got three grand saved up for car repairs. I go to New Mexico with them. I do exactly what he tells me to do. I buy 10 half acre parcels, an average price of $300 each. I flip them online. They all sell for an average price of $12 each. And we’re dollars each. It worked. So I took all that money and went to another auction where I live in Arizona, again, there’s no one in the room. It’s 2000 I’m buying lots of acres for nothing. I sell all that land, I made over $90,000 cash. So I go to my my pregnant wife. I said, Honey, I’m gonna quit my job and become a full time land investor. And she said, Absolutely not. I said, okay, okay. So it took 18 months to land investing income to exceed the investment banking income, and then I quit. I’ve done over 6500 deals and counting, and the model still works.

11:36 Jim Beach : I don’t understand why the model works. Why are those people? You said, 90,000 got in on that one early deal. Why are they investing in this land?

11:45 Mark Podolsky : There is a lust for land in this country. And so when you make it irresistible and people don’t have to pay cash, then they just love buying inexpensive, raw land. And so oftentimes, the reasons are that good investment. It’s people that don’t like people. It’s people that want to have somewhere to homestead. It’s people that want to use it recreationally, or I call it man jewelry. Oftentimes it’s like, you know, I own 40 Acres. I just like the way it feels. And so with the popularity of shows like Yellowstone, the lesser land has just continued in this country,

12:29 Jim Beach : Really, because there’s so much land that they can’t sell. You know, that’s just all that’s expensive land, right? So mostly your land does not have a view of the Rockies or the beach or the lake. Is that true?

12:46 Mark Podolsky : Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. Certainly not the Rockies. It’s going to be more inexpensive rural land. They an hour to three hours from the nearest city. But even then, you know, think about 20 years ago, or 30 years ago in your own town, that rural land that seemed like nothing got developed. So at some point in time, especially with Starlink data centers, we have a housing crisis in this country. People are going to continue to go out in rural areas. And if you survey people in the city, they dream of having a place out in the country.

13:27 Jim Beach : Yes, and I have 20 acres in Paulding County directly behind a quick trip that I haven’t been able to sell in 20 years. Mark, you know?

13:36 Unknown Speaker : Well, you gotta make it you gotta make it irresistible.

13:39 Jim Beach : Well, we think dollars an acre, you know? So that’s part of the problem, another part of the problem. And here’s a land lesson I learned that I’ll pass on never do a land deal with a real estate agent, because then they think they get the listing forever and that you can’t get rid of them and get the listing out of their damn hands, and, yeah, do a good job, like this guy in Paulding County, you know, you’re stuck with a sub par marketing team on a piece of land you want to flip.

14:13 Mark Podolsky : So, right, right? And the problem with that is that your negative cash flow because you got to pay the property taxes every year, and that’s what we call the traditional land model. It looks like a hockey stick. It’s flat, flat, flat, your negative cash flow, and then it hockey sticks up when you sell to developer. Yes, it is

14:40 Jim Beach : Better, Mark. Thank you. So what’s the largest piece that you’ve ever done? Is it always tiny, tiny amounts?

14:50 Mark Podolsky : No, I bought, you know, I’ve got a development in Tennessee. Now. We bought 1600 acres. I used to buy 640 acre sections. And. Subdivide them. So I’ve done a lot of minor subdivisions where, you know, we, we plan out the subdivision, but we don’t go in and put in infrastructure, which costs millions of dollars like a major subdivision developer. So I’ve done a lot of minor subdivision deals. I love those deals. It’s forced appreciation, you know, it’s, it’s a fantastic way to force appreciation on a larger parcel.

15:26 Jim Beach : All right, I guess so. Do you put in sewers and that that level are you actually? No, no, no.

15:36 Unknown Speaker : I mean, sometimes we might

15:38 Jim Beach : Use a property, yeah, absolutely.

15:41 Mark Podolsky : There’s physical access, there’s legal access, and I have to

15:47 Jim Beach : Pack animals, pack fuels to get there. Is that still considered accessible? I mean, typically

15:53 Mark Podolsky : Not Pack Mules. Usually it’d be a four wheel, four

15:56 Jim Beach : Wheel drive automobile. Sounds like fun as hell if you take the auto, yeah. Or what about an air like a big fan boat? You know, some of the land boat accessible,

16:07 Mark Podolsky : I would say that. You know, we’re looking for accessibility, and if a fan boat will get you there, that’s good, for sure.

16:14 Jim Beach : I interrupted you very rudely, Mark. You were telling us the biggest piece, I just love you so much. Your model is so jealous. What would you say, biggest piece?

16:26 Mark Podolsky : Oh, yeah, probably the biggest piece. I mean, I’ve probably bought, you know, maybe 5000 acres in this one area of Nevada, and in some divided that but no, the most recent deal was 1600 acres in Tennessee, outside of Nashville.

16:48 Jim Beach : Nashville’s a great place. Yeah. Do you ever add any amenities, or try to put a famous statue in the middle or anything?

16:58 Mark Podolsky : I mean, you know, because you have such big reach, we’re working with your team to get a Jim beach statue,

17:05 Jim Beach : I deal, yeah, but they want to put a, like, a, you know, a big cell phone thing, kind of like, right up my butt,

17:17 Unknown Speaker : Yeah, Yeah. The negotiations have been pretty rough. It’s, yeah,

17:23 Jim Beach : My guys up, yeah, it’s

17:24 Mark Podolsky : Not, it’s not going that well. But, you know, sometimes we’ll, we’ll bleed Roads, we’ll put in Roads, we’ll fix the roads. Sometimes we’ll put in power, but not often, not often.

17:40 Jim Beach : And you actually, at this point, do the deals yourself, or do you have a team? And also, do you take in our money and do this in a participatory way?

17:52 Mark Podolsky : Yeah, so I help everybody along the economic spectrum. So if you have no money and time, tons of time, I teach you how to do this for free. You know, we have a YouTube channel, the land geek and the art of passive income podcast, and so we’ll teach you how to do this, and then you can finally figure it out. If you get a good w2 job that you want to either replace or you want to supplement, we’ll do it with you in a program we call flight school. And if you’re an accredited investor, you’re rich, but you’re not wealthy, then we’ll do it for you. And you know, that’s a one to one conversation that I need to have with an accredited investor to help them, and we’ll run their land business for them. And so I’m the CEO of my land business. I’m not in the day to day, and that’s how we teach people as well. We don’t want you to build another job for yourself. So there’s something that I call solo economic dependency, which means if you’re personally not working, you’re not making any money. So if you have a w2 if you’re a solopreneur, we can’t even pick on, you know, rich people, doctors, lawyers. Let’s think about dentists, and the dentist’s hands are in the patient’s mouth. They’re not generating any revenue. And so the way out of that, and to have that escape and that true freedom, is to create this machine that’s going to create passive income for you, whether you’re working or not, and that that requires software and team, and now with software, 90% of this business is automated.

19:22 Jim Beach : Yes, have you found any AI uses for it yet?

19:26 Mark Podolsky : Oh my gosh. We use AI every single day. It is, it is unbelievable, what we can do now in creating, from, from research, well, yeah, from the marketing, the sales, the listings, the due diligence, everything AI touches, all of it now, it’s, it’s insane. Do you do

19:51 Jim Beach : Due diligence on the land and assure that that really is dirt?

19:56 Mark Podolsky : Yeah. I mean, you know, we, we. Have our something? Yeah, absolutely. When we go through the chain of title, we’re connected to an American Title Company. We look at pictures. We don’t personally go out ourselves and inspect the property, but if it’s a big enough deal in an area that we haven’t been we’ll hire somebody for 50 bucks to go out there and stomp on the property, fill out our property report, take pictures, shoot video, let us know. What are the roads like? How far from near services, those types of things, right?

20:29 Jim Beach : You could get a team of people all over the country doing that kind of legwork

20:32 Mark Podolsky : For you. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So you know, between software and inexpensive virtual assistants, 90% of this business is automated for you.

20:44 Jim Beach : I love that. What haven’t we talked about? Mark, I’m ready to sign up.

20:50 Mark Podolsky : Well, What haven’t we talked about? I mean, if you want to, you know, go through the attend game. We can do that. Okay, let’s

21:00 Jim Beach : Do that. Yeah, that’s a good idea. I didn’t know you were willing able to play that game.

21:05 Mark Podolsky : I can play. I’m not afraid. I mean, I’m a little afraid, but you’ll, you’ll help me if I get stuck. Yes, I will.

21:11 Jim Beach : I’m here. I am your safety net.

21:12 Unknown Speaker : Don’t worry. Okay, thank you.

21:15 Jim Beach : Remember what I mean, very, very beginning, about not crying. Yes, all right, so just to certify I have to go through this, you do want to play our game, the quick 10, sure. Are you currently sober? Yes, okay, you don’t have to be. We just want to know you, can you want to pause and not be sober? Or do you want to stay sober?

21:37 Mark Podolsky : You know, it’s fun. I quit drinking years ago. Okay? So, yeah, thank you.

21:43 Jim Beach : Do you want to accept the standard wager? Yes, let’s do it. You go. I love it. Number one, your favorite creativity hack?

21:53 Mark Podolsky : My favorite creativity hack is going in to Claude code. I use a CLI, and I started creating a plan and and I asked it to be my creativity partner and ask any questions. And then unlocks

22:16 Jim Beach : Number two favorite bootstrapping trick,

22:19 Mark Podolsky : A quick Facebook test. So I’ll just ask a bunch of people, what do you think of x, y and z, and if I get a response, I know I’m on to something. If I don’t, I don’t

22:33 Jim Beach : Number three, name your top passions,

22:38 Mark Podolsky : My family, my friends, I love to read. I love to write, and I actually meditate.

22:48 Jim Beach : Number four, the first three steps in starting a business are

22:53 Mark Podolsky : First steps are, do I have a market so testing? Does anybody even want to say this thing. So validate a market is the first step. After you validate the market, then you start to pre sell that XYZ widget. And then number three, you start building team around that.

23:17 Jim Beach : Number five, the best way to get your first real customer

23:20 Mark Podolsky : Is go on Facebook, put out a link and and have somebody put real money down on that thing.

23:31 Jim Beach : Number six, your dreamiest technology is

23:38 Mark Podolsky : My dreamiest technology? Yeah, I think we’re getting there with all of that, AI, but, you know, I think it’d be cool as a flying car. So a fly, you know what? Wait, no, a jet pack. I want to fly on a jet pack

23:55 Jim Beach : That does look good. Number seven, best entrepreneurial advice,

24:01 Mark Podolsky : If you’ll do what other people won’t do for the next three to five years, not the three five months. Three to five years, you’ll be able to do the rest of your life what other people can’t do.

24:13 Jim Beach : Number eight, worst entrepreneurial mistake, my

24:17 Mark Podolsky : Worst entrepreneurial mistake, is not hiring a mentor.

24:22 Jim Beach : Arrogance, number nine favorite entrepreneur, and why

24:29 Mark Podolsky : I would say Elon Musk is my favorite, simply because of his his vision. I’ve never seen anybody think and execute the way that guy does. It’s insane.

24:43 Jim Beach : Number 10 favorite superhero. I mean,

24:50 Mark Podolsky : You know, Superman feels like an easy one. It’s like kind of a cheat code, like she could do everything. But when I, when I really think about. Out. You know, can, can, can Keanna reads, Neo be my favorite superhero?

25:09 Jim Beach : Sure. Yeah,

25:11 Unknown Speaker : I’ll say, I say Neo,

25:14 Jim Beach : Fantastic, great answers while we calculate your score mark and find out the winner of the wager. How do we get in touch with you, find out more, get a copy of your book. Listen to the podcast all that, please.

25:27 Mark Podolsky : Yeah, so you can go to the land geek calm. The land geek, calm, there’ll be a link to the book. You can get it for free, just pay shipping and go from there.

25:39 Jim Beach : Fantastic. I love those free shipping deals. Oh, Mark, I just got your score. Apparently, we had Sam Altman as one of our judges today, the CEO of open AI, and he really disliked your Claude answer there, so we dinged you a couple of points. So you got a 94 which is an excellent score, but you have to have a 95 to win, so I’m afraid. And you owe us a Tesla. We always play for a Tesla, which is apropos, since Elon is your favorite, any color, any model, just a Tesla. Send it our way please. Thank you.

26:16 Mark Podolsky : Yeah. I’ll have my Claude assistant go ahead and handle that, that those details for me on an automated basis. Yeah, you can fill out forms

26:27 Jim Beach : Now for something like that.

26:28 Unknown Speaker : Yeah, yeah, no worries, Mark,

26:30 Jim Beach : Thank you so much time for sharing your amazing model. We are all very appreciative, and you’ve got a great basket of services. Thank you so much for being with us. Make it less than eight years next

26:44 Unknown Speaker : Time you come back, Please, thank you,

26:47 Jim Beach : And we will be right back. You.

27:00 Intro 2 : You. Well, that’s a, that’s a, that’s a wonderful question, actually. Oh my gosh, I love the opportunity to do this. Thank you, Jim,

27:12 Intro 2 : Wow, that’s, that’s, that’s a great one. You know, that is a phenomenal question. That’s a great question. And, and I don’t have a great answer, that’s a great question. Oh, that is such a loaded question, and that’s actually a really good question.

27:25 Jim Beach : School for startups radio, we are back and again. Thank you so very much for being with us. We’re very excited to welcome Noah St John back to the show. I am pretty sure that this is his sixth appearance with us, and I think that last time, we promised that after five appearances, we would be giving out Green Jackets, which is apropos, since last weekend was the masters. I hope your favorite player won. I was pretty happy with the results, but we don’t have a green jacket yet. I think we’re gonna have to create a whole rule and a protocol for all of this. Noah has not yet played our game the quick 10, and I think that that should be a requirement for the jacket. But anyway, no, well, welcome back to the show. How are you doing today?

28:07 Noah St. John : It is great to be back here. I’m wonderful. How are you

28:11 Jim Beach : I am very well. We have talked about all sorts of things in the past, affirmations and a little bit of AI, a little bit of zero friction. What we’ve never talked about, Noah, is, when did you realize you were a savant? Obviously, we’re not like the other kids in school.

28:33 Noah St. John : Okay, since you asked, I’m gonna go ahead and answer that I started reading before I was two years old, and I don’t go around telling people that, but since you asked, and you can confirm that with my mother, my mom was a teacher, and I just love reading, and I was reading, you’re not gonna believe this, but it’s true. It was the encyclopedia, you know, before I was two years old, so I just was, I was reading, and I and my favorite book Growing up was the dictionary. I have a special dictionary right here. I know

29:07 Jim Beach : Your parents give you any picture books with like, trucks and stuff in it?

29:10 Noah St. John : Well, it’s funny. You say that because my my dictionary here the special dictionary, which in it has the Apollo moon landings, and, of course, now, over 50 years later, we have the Artemis moon missions, which I’m so excited about. So I’ve been a NASA nerd my entire life, and you’re right, just a total dork,

29:30 Jim Beach : All right, but so you always knew that you were different from other kids, like in the second grade. Did you have a story where you know, you suck out like a sore thumb.

29:43 Noah St. John : Yeah. I mean, I my, one of my earliest memories. People ask me a lot, you know what? Like, What’s your earliest memory? My earliest memory is being in kindergarten and playing with these blocks of letters. And, you know, when we were kids, that’s what we had. We had, you know. Blocks of letters, A, B, C, D, you know, learn your alphabet, and I would just make these big words. I love just creating these, these nonsensical words. And of course, now I’m known for creating actual words like affirmations and power habits and things like that. So I mean, I’ve been doing that my whole life. And you know, I skipped eighth grade because my teachers literally sat me in the office and said, We don’t have anything else to teach you. You want to go to high school? I said, Yeah, sure. Why not? So I skipped eighth grade. And, you know, it’s I just, I was a nerd long before it was cool to be a nerd, you know, I didn’t, I couldn’t get a date in high school to save my life. I mean, I was, you know, I had coke bottle glasses, a face full of acne, and I didn’t have shoulder length hair. I had shoulder width hair. So, you know, I was a total chick magnet, obviously. But no, I couldn’t get a date to save my life. But, I mean, I would, I just, I love learning. I love, you know, understanding the universe. And I always dreamed of being a writer. Now, I’ve written 27 books help my clients. You know, add $3 billion not 3 million, 3 billion. And you know, this is, this is what I do. And I’m, I feel very privileged and humbled to be able to do it.

31:14 Jim Beach : And when did you realize that your career path was going to be different that you weren’t going to be a radio technologist or a, you know, X ray technologist, or something, you know.

31:30 Noah St. John : Well, it’s funny. You say that because watching all the Artemis missions, everything, I’m going, damn I wish I worked at NASA. I really, really missed my calling there. I so would have loved to work at NASA, but I did not study engineering, which I should have done. But instead, I made a very strange career choice upon graduating high school, and I became a professional ballet dancer. Yes, a professional ballet dancer. So I’m the only person in this industry who used to make a living lifting ballerinas and so I just, I wanted to express myself creatively, my creativity, and that was the way that I thought I could do it. And, you know, at that time, I was 18, and then at 22 I had a career ending injury. So it’s a very short career. My My body was not built for the rigors of professional ballet dancing. It’s very, very painful. And so, you know, I did that, but then I had to retire at 22 and then I, you know, I need to find something to do, to work, to eat, you know, pay my rent, everything. So I did go to work in corporate America for several years, and every day, I felt like there were someone’s hands around my throat. I just felt that it was choking the life out of me. And I’m certainly not putting down, you know, people who work at jobs, because million people do that, but I just for me, it just felt like death. It just felt like this is not what I’m here to do. And so, in fact, that’s why I don’t know if I told this story on the show before, but you know, at the age of 25 I did decide to commit suicide because I looked at the next 40 years of my life. Well, not so far, I know, right? So you know, at the last moment, my life was fair, but I was looking at the last or the next 40 years of my life going, if this is my life, I don’t want to be here. You know, if I go work at this job that I hate and I’m like this life, and I couldn’t, I just couldn’t see it. So when that, you know, when I decided to do it, and then I didn’t do it, you know, at the last moment, I said, I’ve got to find what am I here to do? What is my purpose here on the earth? Because I’ve just been wandering around and not knowing what to do. And you know, then at age well, at age 30, I discovered a formations. I discovered success. Anorexia wrote my first book, and I’ve been doing that ever since, for the last 29 years now. Are you okay? Then we’re getting a lot of weird noises. There. Are you? Okay?

34:04 Jim Beach : Yeah, I don’t I don’t know if I hear did anything? Was I dying?

34:08 Noah St. John : Okay? It just sounds a lot of static on your end. Okay, I’m sorry. No, no, that’s right. Just wanted to make sure you’re right.

34:16 Jim Beach : I still in awe that you do. We’re hanging out with ballet dancers, didn’t you the ability to date one of them? Don’t all ballet because you’re straight, right? Noah, are you?

34:30 Noah St. John : Yes? Thank you, Fred, yes, straight, yes, ask my wife, and she will confirm this.

34:35 Jim Beach : Yes, definitely. So yeah, weren’t you like the only straight male ballet dancer there?

34:42 Noah St. John : Well, funny. You asked that. It’s funny. You asked that you’re asking a lot of great questions today. This is really great. This is fun. So when I the reason that I got into dance in the first place, and people asked me this too. So why did, where did this come from? What the heck you know? This. Only had a lot of feel. Well, what happened is that when I was very little, my I was born with double jointed hips, so I couldn’t actually walk, and so I had to wear these braces on my legs, like Forrest Gump, so I mean, just to get my legs straight, because I just I could not walk. So my pediatrician when I was young, suggested to my parents that I take dance classes to strengthen my legs. And it just so happened that in the town that I grew up, there was a husband and wife team who had just opened a dance studio, and there they were former Broadway dancers, very successful Broadway dancers. And in fact, Balanchine, the wife, danced with George Balanchine in New York City Ballet anyway. So I started tap dancing when I was seven years old, just to strengthen my legs. Now my dance teacher, who was the man, he was the husband. You know, he was wonderful man, wonderful teacher, just a great role model, great mentor. And he kept saying to me, when I was growing up, you know, taking those classes, he said, No, you need to take ballet lessons, because ballet is the foundation of all dance. And so I said, you’re not getting me in tights. That’s not going to happen, you know, I’m not getting entice. And finally, at the age of 15, I relented. Walked into my very first ballet class. It was me and 30 girls, and I said, Why didn’t you tell me this? This is what we call a target rich environment. And so I was very excited about that. That made me very happy. So that was really why I decided to do that. Because I can do the math, I’m like this. This is awesome. This is really, really good. The only problem was I had no game at all. I had no game whatsoever. And I was just very shy because of what I talked about earlier with coke bottle glasses and all that. So I was very shy. And it just, you know? So there you go. That was it.

37:06 Jim Beach : Are you an introvert?

37:07 Noah St. John : Noah, well, you know, I, I am what’s called an ambivert. I have now learned this in my old age. So as when I was younger, I was very shocked that you made up. That’s No, no, no, no, I can’t, I can’t take credit for that. That’s, that’s somebody else. But anyway, when I was younger, I was very shy, you know, painfully shy, because, you know, I looked funny and I was weird and, you know, whatever, I just felt like an outsider my whole life. And so I was very shy, very quiet. And so becoming a professional dancer, you know, enabled me to express my creativity in that way. And so as I grew up and grew older, I realized that it’s the extroverts that are very good at getting attention. No kidding, right? That’s right in the name. And so I realized that I have to find the parts of my personality that can be extroverted, even though, naturally, I am an introvert. So that’s why I like when I’m on stage or when I’m doing interviews like this, I seem and am very extroverted. So that’s what ambivert means, it means you can go, you know, you can switch. You can do whatever is necessary. Just in my life, in my personal life, my personality is very introverted. I’m not the guy at the party who’s going to have a lampshade on his head and, oh, hey, look at me. I’m the one standing in the corner, you know, I’ll talk to one person for an hour and a half to learn more about them. And, you know, that’s more of my personality. So that’s what it means to me to be an ambivert.

38:47 Jim Beach : And how do you have the ability to be extroverted in a group like that, and to not be nervous about the presentation? You know, I think the number one fear in America is speaking in public. How an extrovert do that. I mean, an introvert, right?

39:05 Noah St. John : Well, here’s another part of the story, guys, you’re really getting into it today, which is amazing. So the reason that I grew up in the little town that I did, Kennebunkport Maine, one of the wealthiest communities in New England, even though my family was dirt poor, was because my father was the manager of a theater company up there. That’s we moved up there when I was very little, when I was about two years old, and so when I was about three years old, I my brother and I would go on stage and perform Ernie and Bert routines from Sesame Street from memory. So we would get up on stage during the breaks, and of course, we would perform for the adults, for the theater, you know, the theater troupe there. Well, so what did, what happened? I got from a very young age that being on stage, being in front of people, means love, means Attention, all those good things that we all want. And. So I’m like, wow, this is great, you know. So I caught that bug very early, the performance bug, you know, which you hear a lot of performers talk about this. And by the way, I actually wrote a book called The Power habits of unstoppable self confidence, and I did a lot of research on this. And many, many of the you know famous performers we all know about, from Elvis Presley to Tom Hanks to Harrison Ford. Grew up very shy and quiet like I did, and they, you know, went on stage and realized, wow, this is fun. I can get attention in this way by being somebody else. And so that’s what I did. So now, you know, I don’t have the fear of public speaking. I have the when the heck is my next public speaking event coming? Phenomenon, you know, I’m like, I can’t wait to get back on stage. That makes me very happy. Like, for example, I just did my first TEDx talk just a few months ago. It’s on the TEDx website. You can search my name. Just search Noah st John, and the title is done with head trash. It’s on the official TEDx website. And you know, being on the TEDx stage was so fun because, of course, I’ve had so many people over the years say, No, you need to be on TEDx. I’m like, Yes, I know that. So I applied to a lot of them. And you know what I kept hearing, Oh, it’s too self help. And I was like, Have you ever seen a TED talk? What? What do you mean? They’re all self help. What do you think we’re doing here? I couldn’t believe it. So anyway, I finally got my TEDx talk, and but it was a lot of, it was really a heck of a lot of fun, just to, you know, be on stage in front of an actual group instead of on a zoom, which, of course, we do, you know, 90%

41:44 Unknown Speaker : Virtual nowadays, even your

41:47 Jim Beach : Big presentations are 90% virtual.

41:50 Noah St. John : Yeah, yeah, nowadays. But you know, that’s what I mean. You know, being in front of an actual audience, you know, there’s still nothing like it that can never be replicated in a virtual environment. So that’s why it’s so much it’s so much more fun.

42:04 Jim Beach : And where did your content come from? How did you come up with your first idea for content or a book, I believe it was affirmations. Where did that come from?

42:17 Noah St. John : Well, so when I after, I decided to commit suicide and then not do that, at the very last moment, I realized that I needed to find the answer to that question, what is my purpose here on the earth? What am I doing here? What am I going to do with the rest of my life? And I know it’s not going to be working at some job. I said, there’s something else, and I don’t know what it is. I got to find it. So I went to the library, and I literally read over 200 books on self help, personal growth, spirituality. I just read every book in the Self Help section and the spiritual section. So I literally read over 200 books. And so I just consumed all that information, but there was something missing, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. And then one day in April 1997 I was in the shower thinking about this, and I realized, wait a minute, the human mind operates using questions, not statements. So why are we going around making statements we don’t believe that’s otherwise known as affirmations. And I said, Well, why don’t we just cut out the middle man and just go right to the question? And then I said, I I think I just invented something, and so I had to give it a name. I named it half formations. You know, we’ve talked about that on the show. So that was my first epiphany. And I realized I knew that it was something brand new in the annals of self help, because, I mean, I read hundreds of books and no one had ever talked about this before. I’m like, Oh my gosh, this is really cool. And then in October of 1997 I was at a seminar on eating disorders when I realized I don’t have an eating disorder. I have something that no one’s ever talked about before, that I had to give a name to also, and I called it success. Anorexia, the starvation of success. Just like millions of people are unknowingly, unconsciously starving themselves of food, I realized that millions of people are also starving themselves of success. So I had that’s when everything clicked. That’s when the book title came to me just literally in an epiphany, and it was permission to succeed. Permission to succeed, because I realized, having read all those books, that every single book starts on page one with how to succeed. Well, no duh, right? Everybody wants success. But what I realized is they all made a single assumption that proved to be false, and that single assumption is what is costing people, in many cases, their lives, you know, but certainly costing people millions and millions of dollars, which is that you have permission to succeed in the first place. So see, it’s that assumption that proved to be false that I became the first person to. Prove why we actually need permission to succeed, and then, of course, create the system to do that. So it’s not just a phrase, Hey, give yourself permission to succeed. No, there’s actually, you know, a system, a framework, which now, as a result of helping my clients do this and install this, has helped my clients at over $3 billion hundreds of 1000s, millions and 10s of millions of dollars at a time. So that’s that’s really how it all started it again. It was all very organic in the sense of, I need to find the answer to this. And that frustration that I felt, I realized millions of people are also feeling. Because, as Emerson said, what is most personal is most universal. It’s very personal to me, and there, therefore I knew it had to be personal to millions of other people too.

45:46 Jim Beach : You are the zero friction doctor. Which school did you get accredited from?

45:55 Noah St. John : Well, I do have a PhD in pastoral counseling psychology. That is true, but the zero friction doctor is a not a, you know, a known the plume or a moniker that, yes, I gave myself because I realized that every problem that you’re facing in your business, that’s for those of you listening, who have a business, or if you have a job, if you’re an employee. Every problem you’re facing in your personal life, your business life as an employee, as an employer, it comes from friction. It’s a friction problem. There’s friction there, but the problem with that is it’s hidden. It’s hidden friction. People don’t wake up in the morning and say, Boy, I really need to remove the friction today. But the truth is, you should be saying that because every business problem you’re facing right now is a friction problem. That’s why you need a zero friction solution. I realize that when you remove the friction, whether it’s in your relationships, your health, your business, your finances, when you remove the friction, then you can scale much more quickly than ever before. Because if you think about it, it’s like driving a car trying to reach your goals. Is like driving a car. In your car, there’s two forces at work, the driving force of the foot on the gas, restraining force of the foot on the brake. So what every guru out there was saying is, step on the gas, harder, set your goals. Do the hustle? Do the grind? Work harder, work longer. Okay, the point is, we’ve heard that a million times. So why isn’t everyone successful? Why are some people, even if they are successful, in a sense, they’re still feeling that drag. They’re feeling that, why aren’t I further along? And the reason is because of the hidden break. So that’s why I realized that every solution is a zero friction solution. You need a zero friction solution to get your foot off the brake. That’s why, when you go to my website, Noah st, john.com you can actually get an invisible brake score. It’s right there. There’s a button there. It says, Get your invisible brake score because it’s hidden. That’s the problem. People are so focused on the gas that they don’t even realize that they’re also driving with one foot on the brake. So the first thing we have to do is identify where is the hidden friction, where’s that invisible brake, and then, of course, I help you to remove it.

48:15 Jim Beach : I just got the USAA driving app that monitors my drivings for lower insurance, and it’s taken all the fun out of driving.

48:22 Noah St. John : I know, right? I know we have the same thing we I totally agree with you. I was like, do I have to do this? It’s like, well, if you want the discount, yeah. But yeah, it definitely says, you know, are you talking on your phone in the car? Are you using the brake too hard? It’s like, yeah, it is. It’s kind of kind of like, big brother, isn’t it? Is, and

48:40 Jim Beach : I just hate the thing. I’m willing to ruin my life as well. I know, right?

48:49 Noah St. John : I know so true, so true. Are you

48:52 Jim Beach : Willing to play our little game the quick Ted

48:55 Unknown Speaker : Always am? You know me,

48:56 Jim Beach : Of course. All right. Do you want to accept the standard wager? Yeah, number one, your favorite creativity hack.

49:12 Noah St. John : Oh, geez, Boy, you really got me on that one. Um, just clear your mind and be grateful. Talk and focus on what you’re grateful for, and then the ideas will flow much more easily.

49:24 Jim Beach : Number two, your favorite bootstrapping trick,

49:31 Noah St. John : I would have to say, you know, using an AI like Claude or Gemini right now, those are really, really good. I don’t use chat GPT anymore. It became very dumb. So I’m really a big fan of Claude and Jennifer number three.

49:48 Jim Beach : Name your top passions. Oh, geez, food.

49:56 Noah St. John : NASA, I’m gonna drive to the list. I. It’s my wife being of value to people and having an impact.

50:07 Jim Beach : Number four, the first three steps in starting a business

50:10 Noah St. John : Are, number one, identify your ideal customer. Number two, create something that they are already asking for and number three, find the best way to contact your ideal buyer without spending money.

50:31 Jim Beach : Number five, the best way to get your first real customer is, I think I just answered that. But number seven, I mean technology

50:42 Noah St. John : Dreamiest technology. Ooh, you know, if I could get Claude co work to actually work, it would be dreamy if I can’t get that stupid thing to work yet. So that would be dreamy if it would actually do something. So I guess I don’t have one yet. Number seven,

50:59 Jim Beach : Best entrepreneurial advice. Oh dear, add

51:04 Noah St. John : Real value and give yourself permission to succeed.

51:12 Jim Beach : Number eight, worst entrepreneurial mistake,

51:16 Noah St. John : Keep hustling, keep grinding, keep going in the wrong direction and and don’t, don’t get advice from people who’ve already made all the mistakes.

51:29 Jim Beach : Number nine favorite entrepreneur and why?

51:33 Noah St. John : Well, he’s not really known as an entrepreneur, per se, but my, the My inspiration for getting into this business was Dr Steven Covey, the author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. So we don’t, I mean, he was an entrepreneur, but we mostly see him as a guru, as an author, a teacher, which he was, but he was really my inspiration for getting into this business. And I got the opportunity to speak with him. And what a wonderful man he was. It was so sad to lose him.

51:59 Jim Beach : Yes, yes, his son was on the show about a month ago. Oh, yeah, that’s interesting, because he’s the number two and our number or frequency guest, you know, he’s been on the show almost as much as you have been.

52:14 Noah St. John : Oh well, he’s Steven M Mark cover you talking about, right? Yes, he gave me a wonderful testimonial, too. So I have from the dad and the Son, which is kind of really cool.

52:25 Jim Beach : It is very cool. While we find out the winner of the wager and calculate your score, how do we find out more about you? Take the friction test. Get a copy of the book all that, please.

52:37 Noah St. John : Noah st john.com that’s my name. Noah st john.com and yes, get your free invisible break score. If you want to also get your free invisible break audit, I will actually audit your your business, and that takes just 15 minutes. I’ve got this down to a science that’s at Noah st john.com/consulting very easy to remember, Noah st john.com/consulting and by the way, if you want to book me to speak, whether live or virtually, just go to book noah.com Easy to remember book noah.com Fantastic.

53:06 Jim Beach : No. Thank you so much for being with us. I’m just kind of paused. Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I just got your score. You got a 94 Noah, I don’t know who. Oh, you only got a 94 you have to have a 95 to win. So wager Olis a Tesla. We always play for a Tesla. Why wouldn’t you? I owe you a jacket, and you owe me a Tesla. Push it for a while and see how. Yeah, I think that sounds fair. Sure we’ll just push your show. We’ll figure out more about this. I love you, man. Noah, thanks for being on the show. We appreciate it. We will talk to you again in six months. All right,

53:47 Unknown Speaker : Sounds great pleasure later.

53:48 Jim Beach : Bye, we are out of time for today, but back tomorrow. Be safe, take care and go make a million dollars. Bye, now you.