Ep473: JB The Wizard – Embrace the Magic of Getting Into Alignment

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning in our community we know that to win in investing you must take risks but to win big you've got to reduce it. Join our community to claim your podcast listener discount on my valuation masterclass Boot Camp, where students learn how to value companies like a pro and advance their career. Go to my worst investment ever.com to join our community for free. Fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests. None other than his wizardry himself, JB the wizard, JB, are you ready to rock?

JB The Wizard 00:47
I'm ready to rock.

Andrew Stotz 00:50
I want to introduce you to the audience. So hold on, ladies and gentlemen, you may wonder where JB the wizard comes from? Well, JB the wizard received his name from his clients when seemingly hard to explain breakthroughs were happening in business when he was simply focusing on the individual. He has a degree in pre medical exercise physiology. He acted in Hollywood films, television, and theater is an award winning director and now advises CEOs, celebrities, and top salespeople on exactly what to focus on to ensure that every other personal and business dream comes true. JB take a minute in Philly further tidbits about your life.

JB The Wizard 01:36
Thank you so much for sharing that that's exactly right. Alignment is the focus. That's what I help people with. You know, what I noticed is that my best clients they're all doing financially, well, they're all doing financially better than everybody else. I work with fighter pilots, celebrities, top salespeople selling over $100 million, but they still feel something is missing, something is nagging, they can't put their finger on it, they know that they're not reaching their full potential, even though everybody else looks at them and kind of thinks they are. So there's a feeling of feeling alone, but they don't feel happy. And it's like, they know that if they can just get things in alignment, they could find that happiness button, they can reach their full potential and actually live the life they know that they were designed to live.

Andrew Stotz 02:21
It's really amazing. Because we just look at people at the top, at the top of celebrities, we look at people, business people, we just look at so many people and we think wow, they got it all, when in fact, many of them are broken inside. In fact, some of the work that they're doing is compensating for some of the struggles and pain that they're going through. I think Robin Williams, Robin Williams is a great example where you I remember someone said to me many years ago, never compare your insides to other people's outsides.

JB The Wizard 02:56
That's cool. Yeah, that's cool.

Andrew Stotz 02:58
I feel like you know, everybody's trying to keep it together. But in reality, well, that's what this shows about, right? We fall apart, we talk about our investment ever. And then we build back up from that. Now, let me just ask you a question then about the work that you do with them. So kind of what's your secret sauce? What is it about what you do with them that can help them to make that breakthrough? Because I want for the listeners out there. Maybe JB the wizard could help you?

JB The Wizard 03:26
Yeah, so they've all gone to therapy for a long time. They typically are on some kind of Adderall because of a DD or ADHD. And it just doesn't work. You know, they tried meditation. They know about manifestation. They're experts in personal development. But it's not the person development isn't answering their personal questions. The manifesting is like it's oversimplified kind of working kind of not they know there's more to it, that therapy is like, that's not working. They've been doing that for decades. Um, it's not that it's bad. It's just not solving the problem is like taking an Advil when you have a headache when you're actually the headache has been caused by something else. So it's like getting to the core problem. So my secret sauce is that I say this all the time that you already have all the answers. What I do is I ask very good questions. That's, that's really all. And so my father always says, If you can convince somebody into something, someone else can convince them out of it. Right? So when we're talking, I don't tell the person what to do. I don't tell the person the answer, because somebody else can come along, and they can listen to some some other guru. And they'll convince them out of it. So all I do is I help them to see the truth. And we get I get them to a space during a phone call, where they can have access to the answers they already have, where there is no way for however many decades they have ever been able to access the answers that already are in their head. If they would have they would have taken action on them. So even when the answers are in front of their face, they're not able to see it. So during A session on just listen, I would say 80% is just me listening, and then maybe three questions. It's almost like the guy that comes in and pins on the right thing and gets the machine to work. That's really typically what happens. And then once you ping on that thing, it's just like, oh, and something opens up. And then the next step is take action on what opens up.

Andrew Stotz 05:20
Hmm, that's interesting. And I like the idea of, it's kind of it's inside of you, you just need help in identifying it. I know and you talk about, you know, drugs and other things like that. I know that when I was younger, I look for outside things to bring me gratification, or whatever. And, you know, I got, I got hooked on drugs. And I went into rehab at a very young age. And I got sober at the age of 17. And I've been sober ever since. But the lesson, the lesson that I learned at that time, and took me a while I went to three different rehabs. But that alcohol and drugs were not my problem. My problem was, my, what was going on inside of me, my feelings, and my inability to cope with those feelings. And so the only solution to that is ultimately to look inside and to explore. And so it's really cool to hear about how you help people do that exploration? The answer is not coming from some, you know, amazing book, or whatever, it's coming from talking about what's inside coming to terms with it. And then learning how to cope with some of it that doesn't go away. You know, sometimes our character defects never go away. And also, how do we change ourselves? So exciting?

JB The Wizard 06:47
Yeah, taking action is just key. And I find, you know, knowledge is power is a trash code that I very much dislike. And so if it were power, I mean, everybody would be God, you know, because knowledge is just cheap nowadays, right? So it's so cheap. So it's an even, like I said, even the personal development space, you know, a lot of my clients, they've gone to Tony Robbins, they've been with Gary Vee, they've gone to these people. And like, I believe that all of those guys, because I'm connected with some of them, they are super well meaning and they are saying the truth. But if it doesn't connect with the person so that they can take action, it's completely useless. So all I do is connect the dots. I just listen, when I listen for overlaps when I noticed their overlaps, that helps me to hone in on what that person's alignment is. Once I noticed their alignment, because hey, wait a second is this is this it? And they're like, oh, my gosh, and they realize who they are, you know, is, um, that's where we had he say, take action on, because finding their identity is key. You know, and it's like, a lot of times people have been told they're, they're not good here, or this is bad. And it's like, there isn't a bad. No, it's not that you're not good. This is the spot that is good. Let's focus on that. And take action right now. Yeah.

Andrew Stotz 08:08
My counselor in rehab. When I was 17, he said to me, because I was just sitting around like a lazy guy, you know, sitting on the sofa, and he will always come up to me says they used to call me Andy at that time, he says any, you can't think your way into better action, you need to act your way into better thinking. Now, what are you gonna do? I was like, oh. And Mike muntoni was his name. He was my counselor. He later became the head of the treatment center. And he still is today. And he was episode eight of this podcast. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. We're now on episode 440. But Mike was episode eight. And he talks about stop investing in relationships just for convenience. But he talked about relationships as his worst investment ever. Well, and now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be. Tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it, then tell us your story.

JB The Wizard 09:11
Sure. You know, when it comes to the worst investment I was I was actually talking about this today. And there was my wife and there are um, the way I'd say it is, there are a lot of topics that I know, I study a lot of things I learned very well, I know several languages, and I love learning. And so whether it's the tax code, or whether it's, you know, this kind of investment or you know, what's happening in these different areas, that that takes in a cost time. And one of the major things I say is time is very expensive and money is very cheap. So, um, along the way, you know, my degree is in excess physiology, and I've been an entrepreneur My entire life. So they've always been my own businesses. And oh my gosh, I have I, my, my family, I've got six children now have my sixth one, she's just seven months old. She's so awesome fun, but um, they're all great and fun, but we all have a good time with her. But the, um, in that journey of being an entrepreneur or living, your alignment, right, of having control of yourself, and what it is that you're doing, there is typically focus on money. And I and I say money's great, I'm not, I'm not the even though I look kind of hippie ish, I'm not the side that says no, money is not important. I say, No, make tons of money. And also, you need to be very happy. I like to get people both of them. You know, typically, there's like, either or, and I'm not into that I'm very much into both. So along the way, though, I did a very good job at staying positive. And I'm generally let's say, a happy guy, my sister says, I started my self development since I was 11. My wife says, since I was six, so that's my areas, when it comes to alignment. It's decades of work, right? But still, there was always this, how can I get more clients? How can I, you know, make more money? You know, what kind of marketing do I need to do? Who do I need to study and I spent so many years, like 14 plus years studying everything. So I mean, I know about all kinds of online marketing, squeeze pages, landing pages, where price, you know, all of that stuff. And technically, those could be perceived this skills. And maybe they are, but one of the things I was talking about today, to my wife, as I said to her, you know, all of the time, because while you're learning that you're pretty anxious could be the word, right, because you're wanting to make more money, some other kind of way. And even though my clients make great money in a different way, they know they could be making more. So they're still looking for other ways to make more money, whether typically, they're wanting to leave the job they're at and start something on their own. Right, that's the typical thing, because they want to be in control. And their boss, and everybody above them are basically idiots in their eyes. And they're like, you know, that they can do better. Um, but that being said, I was talking about yesterday, and I said, you know, the, the amount of money that my clients pay me in the area, they pay for me pay for what they're actually paying for, is not my facebook marketing skills. It's not my squeeze page. It's not any of that. It's literally happiness. It's literally mental freedom. Literally, that is why they're coming. They're not saying JB we're kind of investing got people for that they've got a coach for this, they've got that. This is why the people will call me from the private island, they have this chef, and they're saying, JB, something is slightly off. I don't know what to do. And I feel like you know, that they're feeling not good, they're not happy. So when I was thinking about that today, I was like, you know, it's, it's, if I would just continue to focus fully, fully on this, this awareness that I have the development that I have the alignment that I know, and what I study and pay attention to, when it comes to human behavior, which I love. And then I'm this happiness, just focusing on that, which is like that is and something came to me a few weeks ago at this point, maybe two weeks ago, and I said, what you're focusing sounds a little bit, whatever, but I was just coming downstairs at night and ideas come to me, then maybe it's when I write stories and things like that. And I said, what you're focusing on is coming, what you focus on is coming. And that's something that you could say to anybody else, listening to this to what you focus on is coming, and happiness popped in my head. And now technically, I am more happy than most just like my clients, they make more money than most, you know. So that's why people come to me, but I hit this very, a higher level than I had even attend before. And it just there were even more things that started just cracking open in an amazing way. Whoa. And the thought I had is just continually focusing on that alone will generate and is generating more income, then all of these other opportunities and other things to focus on. And the interesting thing that happened along the way Is after many decades, I mean, just a long time. You know, and that is why I focus on alignment for people. Because if I were to think this happened the other day where some I think something burned me and I started laughing, my son, one of my sons said, You laugh when it hurts really bad, you know. And right now just laughter is because of a ton of pain. It's just, it's so much pain to think about the hours and the nights and everything that I tried thinking it would work, to generate more money, more clients, more security, more happiness, even more, any of those things that were out of alignment. And that's why that's why I painfully talk about alignment. And I say, guys, for real, did that is for real, all that matters. It's literally it because there's so many ideas that I've tried paying again. There's so and I mean, when I talk about so I mean, I would, you know, make phone calls for hours every single day, I would, you know, spend hours building out websites, and writing this copy because I studied copy and copywriting and strategy, everything. Um, and I like it, but it's I would, it's, that's not my alignment. I'm not a copywriter, I can write copy, but I'm not a copywriter. People aren't paying me for that, you know. And so that amount of time, you're tweaking things, and it's not working, and you're tweaking again. Now, the good news is I don't ever give up, which is why I am where I am now. So that's the good news. And a lot of times when I, you know, when I look at something that I've accomplished, or something else opens up, the first usually the first or second feeling I get is one where I'm just like, oh my god, I have I have to think about how I can teach that to my clients or teach that to somebody else. Because it's so impossible what I just did, and painful and and but if you don't do that you can't get to where you want to go. So I call it the bravery muscle in my book. So I have a very very strong bravery muscle and I noticed that my clients as well. But um, I just think about all the all the time and the hope thinking this will be it, this is gonna work. And then you have these lows every time I load any, any at a certain level successful person you speak with that I'm around, man we I've got we've got evicted. No, definitely no, no, no. When I say no money, I mean no money not like, you know, like, it's funny now you know where things are, but like back then, no money, man, for real, no money. Like I remember, we had to look through couch cushions for quarters, in order to pay tolls to get to something that would be a client. And then once I found the quarter or 50 cents, and it was in a head gas, which is crazy, um, didn't get the gig. Because as an actor to write so there's, that was a whole that was a whole thing. So just you can just, you don't have to imagine, I'll tell you this pain. So you keep on doing these things thinking where because it makes sense. That's the thing that sucks that I tell people. Any and everything makes money, everything. I mean, I help people be happy. I mean, that's pretty esoteric. That's not I'm not like, you know, carving, you know, my pipe or something like that. Right? You know, and skateboarding makes money and like everything making this jar makes tons of money. And so it's like, you don't need that's not the way to make the money. Because it's so it's everything can do it. The only way to make the money, the only way to truly be secure. The only way to feel like you're living a life where you feel happy or fulfilled and want to wake up is when you're in alignment with yourself with what you were this is all part of my wizard wear clothing line, my children made all these jewelry. So all of these have like, you know, happy and my wife made this she made. She made all of this. And then like I'm so the only way is the alignment. From that space, you're going to be in a heightened state and Harvard University talks about when we're in a heightened state you have access to 10% more of your intelligence. So you can see how scientifically remember my degrees premedex That's physiology. You can see how scientifically ends up bringing you to the place where you can access your own answers. But you can't do that when you're out of alignment. Right. So I only got to realizing be alignment thing. After decades, I mean, just because I was doing better than most I was more popular than most I was on television, I was doing all these things better than most, which is like, all my clients too, but it wasn't my full potential. Right? So, and when it's when it's not your full potential, it hurts in a way that I would say almost no one understands, which is why I like to work with those people, these top people, the celebrity CEOs, because I believe that they're alone, and no one gets it. And no one's helping them. I don't think anybody they don't, they don't understand the pain. Because the reason it's so lonely is they're expected to be okay. So who are you going to talk to? They're not, it's not okay. And then what happens within themselves is they don't understand why it doesn't feel good, why it doesn't feel okay. That's painful. And then you get to the spot where you have this numbness, where it's like, what's my next goal? Why would I even have a next goal? What's the point? Because I already hit that goal. And that didn't feel and it gets confusing. Yep. And then you feel lost, and then you feel alone. And then it's just as bad thing. You know, so.

Andrew Stotz 21:09
So how, how would you describe the lessons that you've learned from all of this? I mean, you've described a lot of stuff. But how would you summarize that?

JB The Wizard 21:18
Yeah, I would summarize it did the, for me, for sure. For sure. The only thing that matters is alignment. And what that looks like is that, obviously this where we get to this level, what you wear, how you speak, who you work with, I don't just work with anybody. Right? Time is expensive, and money is cheap. So I don't care how much money somebody offers me, they're not a fit and not a fit, because time is expensive, right? It's way more expensive than money. So, um, I would say Yeah, the thing to think about to focus on that nagging feeling when you're feeling like something is missing, it's its alignment. And what is alignment means It means tapping into your purpose, for why you are here in the first place, because you are here for a reason. And you already know it. Because my clients know they're there. They have these gigantic visions in their mind, because that's what's supposed to be happening. Those visions, though, come from nowhere, but they don't know the steps to take to get there. So what happened with what happens is a little bit like the point of your podcast, you said it earlier, when he said, you know, we all basically make mistakes, but you want to make less of those mistakes. What ends up happening, Steve Jobs talked about this, but you end up having to say no, to a lot of things. Obviously, it can be friends, family, what you're doing, though, where you're, you know, investing your time or money, where you're going, what you're focusing on, and the challenging thing is, even once you figure it out, let's say the business you're working on, there's still 100 different things within that, that might be in your alignment, that you've got to say no to 90% of those things in order to keep things moving forward.

Andrew Stotz 22:59
Just say no. Yeah, remember that Nancy Reagan said, so maybe I'll summarize what I took away from what you're describing. I mean, first thing is, I think that for the listeners out there, I think we all feel that struggle of marketing is much harder. And selling is just much harder than what it appears. For me at the so I can relate with that. Trying a lot of different things. I also want to talk about one of my mentors, a guy named Dr. Deming, and he was kind of the father of the quality movement. And he said something that's really, really sounds strange. These days, he said, basically, don't focus on your car, your competitors focus on your customer. And that goes against what a lot of people are doing these days because they're benchmarking dude, does our product have this and that compared to our competitor, do we do this and that, and they literally in the corporate world are now rewarding people from being able to say I do, you know, we do this, we do that compared to our competitor. And his point was, you know, by focusing exclusively on your customer, you know, you discover their needs and their wants, and then you are able to serve those. And a great example of that is really Amazon. I mean, they really did not build their business around, hey, we want to check the boxes, that we're doing the same thing that borders is doing a little bit better, or something like that, you know, so I think that that that my takeaway, there is just the idea that part of alignment when it comes to and I'd say part of attracting customers, rather than trying to do marketing, you know, is making sure that you're understanding the needs of your clients and you're providing the services and the support for those needs. And once you do that, I don't think there's any more better there's no better marketing than that. I mean, I have a in my valuation masterclass boot camp, one of the many different courses that I teach, we just finished the last the late just six weeks a group of about 20 students. And last night, last night, I was in my bed on Facebook and up pop the Facebook Live of one of my students. And what it was was six of my students did a Facebook Live, talking about what they gained from the experience. And they talked for an hour about what they gain, and how they gained much more than just finance and valuation. Because I do one on ones with each of my students. And they said, You know, I was able to set my career path, and I really was able to, you know, do all that. And I was just like, literally, almost in tears last night, you know this into it. But it made me realize I didn't ask them to do that they voluntarily did that they went out. And this morning, I woke up, I have a new customer. Oh, wow. Wow. Just it just shows you serve your client to the extreme. Give them everything you possibly can, you know, and, and build on that as your ultimate marketing machine. And, and I just I've never had someone come on the show and say, Look, I tried all these different marketing things. I tried to do it all right. But in the end, you know, a lot of people will say, I finally figured it out. And I got my AV testing. Right. But you know, the idea in some ways, it's like, that's not that's not the only journey to customer success. So anything you'd add to that?

JB The Wizard 26:30
Yeah, I mean, I just saw tonight, there was a, there was a testimonial. So I was on another podcast, that's pretty big. And then this guy, one of my clients, he went on there, and he just today, this is I don't know, a year or two ago, he said, working with visitors was a number one investment of mine. Speaking of SRA investment my entire life, I'll do it again in a heartbeat. And, you know, it's not cheap at all, to work with me. And for him to say that it took a lot, you know, to, but he did, and this is years after, you know, and then I had another and I didn't obviously ask him to say I didn't ask him to say it publicly, anything like that. And it was just, it's just like, whoa, and you know, when I go in to work with a client, you know, it's on the phone. You know, what I eat? What I drink, what I think what I look at is all very calculated. My children know, the whole thing. And I prepare for the person emotionally and, you know, energetically and all that stuff, you know, hours before you typically a day before. And then when I'm there, are you kidding me? That's the only place I am maybe that's the only place I am there, right? And that's, and the thing is when it's your alignment, it doesn't take discipline. That's another thing I don't I I've been a martial artist since I was six, I grew up military. My father was 21 years in service and everything. So it's like I come according to the eyes of most from a highly disciplined family. And but discipline is a very inefficient form of energy, you can use it as salt, but it is not the main meal. And so when you have your alignment, there are these behaviors that come naturally, these are B these behaviors are so fun for me to be present during call to client. That's me, right? So you really want to build that company that business, your endeavors, your life, everything around who you really are, you understand, like I'm saying, so many times people are building things that are not who they are. That's literally not possible. Without something cracking. You the money could work, but your emotions will crack, this will work but your family will break Baba is something's gonna break. The only way to do it in a powerful, sincerely stable way, is when you build it off of you once you understand who you are, and it's in alignment.

Andrew Stotz 28:57
So let's think about that young man or woman listening right now. And they're struggling. They're reading books about marketing sales are trying to get out there with their product or service and all that they're very much struggling with them. And I want you to think about that person because that's part of what you described where you were at, based on what you learned from this story and what you continue to learn what one action would you recommend that person take to avoid suffering the same fate?

JB The Wizard 29:29
Right, you already know the answer from talking to the young person, you already same thing I say to all my children. My clients are 50 Plus I say the same thing to them say that say to my children who range from seven months old to 13 You already have the answer. You know who you are. That is what you want to take action on in towards. That's that's really it now, there are some tips and tricks to get there. One very helpful thing is for example, probably that right there, that's my skateboard. Yeah, that's my skateboard there and skateboarding for me is, that's my thing that connected me when, you know, when I was a kid, and everybody's got their thing I've candle making educational making too. But there's something that you do. Okay, there's something that you enjoy. There's something some people call them hobbies. I don't like that, because there's different connotations that come up with that. But that helps you to get in what some might call your zone if you like. And that can help you to remember, part of who you are, help you to. A lot of people emphasize meditation, um, this 90%, people don't have no idea how to do it anyways. So that skateboarding for me is that some of my clients, it's archery, some of my clients, it's fishing, some of them, it's literally watching an episode of, I don't know, some sort of TV episode or something like that. It does something in the mind. That's what we need. And there are studies yet again, I'm going to look at the medical stuff, where this form of meditation, the typical one that's taught helps with linear solutions. So for example, two plus two equals four, right, but they do not help with nonlinear, all life problems are not linear, which means that's not going to help you to solve a problem, you got to go to this one to get into the zone. So for a young person, you know who you are, you know, you care about, you know, what you're great at, your biggest challenge is going to be saying no to anything else. That's not that, which means living your life, or your parents, living your life for your girlfriend, living your life for your spouse, living your life for your children. Don't do that, because something will break in a couple of decades, and you're gonna have to come to me, I'm trying to save you time right now.

Andrew Stotz 31:44
Exactly. Well do that. Great. It's a great reminder, you know, what is? Right? That's not the that's not really aligned. You know, that's not the thing. And I think I, you know, it makes me think about that. So, last question, what is your number one goal for the next 12? Months?

JB The Wizard 32:00
Sure, sure. Um, number one goal, there's like, there's two, I'll say like this, there is, over the past year, I really limited how many people I was working with. So my goal this year, is to work with I believe it's eight people per month, I usually limit it to two, maybe three, if you like, especially a one on one basis. My goal is eight per month, because I've seen that the level of people I'm working with, there's a trickle effect. And it's so powerful. And they go on to these other podcasts, and they talk about what just the same thing that happened with you where they got and they did alive, right? So if I could for 4x that four times, which I will for I will hit this goal. Because I've decided to, um, that that's the goal right there because that's gonna really quadruple Yeah, our impact and our reach, which is gigantic.

Andrew Stotz 33:01
Awesome. Well, listeners there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. My number one goal for the next 12 months is to help you my listeners, reduce risk and increase return in your life. To achieve this I've created our community at my worst investment ever.com And when you join you get that special discount to my valuation masterclass boot camp. As we conclude, JB I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

JB The Wizard 33:45
You already have the answers.

Andrew Stotz 33:50
Perfect, and that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our wealth in our health fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast hose Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.