ASK BETTER QUESTIONS: The Power of Afformations with Dr. Noah and Babette St. John

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down how to ask better questions, the power of affirmations. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Dr. Noah and Babette St. John into EO Fire Studios. Dr. Noah, creator of Afformations and known as the Zero Friction Doctor, is a globally recognized mindset expert published by major publishers. Babette, client success director at successclinic.com, empowers children, parents, and teachers worldwide to build lasting confidence and resilience.

0:38John Lee Dumas:And today we talk about why now, why kids, choosing the challenges, when to start, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Noah and our sponsors. Fire Nation, stop putting off launching your website or business. Hostinger makes it incredibly simple and affordable to get online with everything you need to succeed all in one place. Visit hostinger.com slash onfire. Use code onfire for 20 % off. Your next chapter starts today. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support.

1:21John Lee Dumas:Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. highlevelfire.com. Noah, it's so great to have you back for the eighth time on Entrepreneurs on Fire. It's gonna be a great episode today as we really focus on asking better questions, the power of affirmations. And I want to start, Noah, by talking about why now, why kids? Because you've written 25 books on success and peak performance for adults, which is crazy. But what made now the right time to write a children's book? Well, my beautiful wife, Bebette, who is my co-author, has been bugging me, John, for years, years to get to write a children's book.

2:09Now, she is a fantastic mother and a grandmother. So she has been saying, Noah, you've got to write a children's book. and we need to do it together. And so I was like, but honey, I'm writing these books for adults. You know, when adults pay the bills, I gave her all these excuses. And finally, I ran out of excuses. I've written all these books for adults. I said, you know what, honey, my desk is clear, let's do it. So honestly, I am so proud of this children's book called I Ask Better Questions. And I love the illustrations. And Babette gets all the credit for this. It was her idea for the story and how we were going to tell the story.

2:44So I'm just so proud of this little book.

2:47John Lee Dumas:I love it. And Babette, I've already talked about you in the introduction. So Fire Nation is well aware of who you are and all the awesomeness you've done throughout your career. But I want to kind of dive deeper about why you decided this was a mission you needed to co-author together. Well, John, the reason being is because we have beautiful, for years, I know it's been doing this for 30 years, but we have beautiful testimonials that we get received from teachers, from parents, from... Anyway, I just said, Noah, let's go. We have to get this done. This is the time. Kids are having challenges.

3:26Parents are having challenges, especially with the cell phone deal and not communicating at the dinner table or breakfast table. So this brings parent and children together and also teachers to understand and to get these issues. In the classroom. Right, in the classroom.

3:45John Lee Dumas:I absolutely love this because Fire Nation, if you are really taking a step back and saying like, what's the next step for me? I mean, 25 books on success and peak performers for adults. Let's go to kids. I love, Babette, how you were the inspiration for this. And I want to keep going forward by having you talk about choosing the challenges, because in the book, you actually feature five children who are facing five very real struggles. So how do you decide which challenges to include? Well, John, because millions of kids go through these types of issues every day. For example, the fear of leaving home, that that's the little girl's bad bed and that's me, how I was growing up.

4:28The feeling of being invisible, test anxiety, making new friends. These are fears that millions of kids can relate to. That's why we decided to help kids overcome these challenges using Noah's affirmations method. It's a proven system.

4:42John Lee Dumas:I love that. And I mean, I can tell you just seeing the way that children react to books too. Like I'm so glad, Noah, that you finally allowed your wife to convince you on this because I actually just had such a cool experience. Honestly, it was just last night. for I want to say like three months now my son who's two years old his favorite book is called a corduroy he just loves that book it's just something that's always resonated with him so we've read it every night for three months of course and I went on Amazon like a week ago because I'm just like I need to make this happen I bought the corduroy doll and then last night I came in I had it set up in his nursery for after he got out of his bath he walked into the room and it was like he couldn't understand what was happening.

5:25John Lee Dumas:Like something had just come to life for him. And like he saw Corduroy, he's like, it's Corduroy, he's here. It was like such a magical moment. And that's what books can be. So I'm so, you know, to kids specifically. I mean, the right book can be magical to adults, but to kids it can be next level, can be transformative. So let's talk about when to start. Because, no, parents often wonder like how early is too early? I mean, again, my son's two years old. He's memorized like 17 books already. So how young is too young to teach a child to question negative thoughts? And what does this look like in real life, not in theory?

6:00I have had, as Babette talked about earlier, we have had so many parents, teachers, tell us about sharing my affirmations method with their kids over the last three decades. In fact, I remember one specifically. We have also, I created programs called I-Aform audios where you can just listen to empowering affirmations set to music. Well, a mom in Canada actually sent me a video of her playing my I-A-Form audios to her newborn. Oh, wow. Still in the crib. And I'm like, that kid is going to be like unstoppable because I mean, talk about the right programming from day zero. So the truth is, there's no such thing as too young.

6:41That's what I love about my affirmations method, because guess what? Your kid's already asking questions. And for every parent listening, you know, what does a kid do, especially when they're two, three, four years old? Daddy, why does this? Mommy, why is that? Why is that? You know, they're asking a million questions. They're trying to figure out the world. Well, so you teach them how to use empowering questions, my affirmations method. Well, then you're empowering them at the very, very beginning. So the truth is, there's no such thing as too young.

7:09John Lee Dumas:But I want to talk about affirmations at home as we continue to kind of talk this through. So as a parent, Babette, and a grandparent, what have you personally seen affirmations do for kids in your own life? Kids don't have years of negative programming to overcome. When you teach a child how to use Noah's affirmations method, they get instantly, they get it and they run with it. And I've seen kids go from, I can't do this to believing that they can. Also, instantly using the affirmations, it gives them a sense of accomplishment and empowerment and empowerment. We're really empowering them to find the power within themselves.

7:50That's why I love that word empower. That's what it means. It means to access the power that's already in you. And that's really why this is so powerful.

8:00John Lee Dumas:I mean, it's so clear to me when you're talking that, you know, adults, you know, we just build up all these like blocks in life. We build up all these barriers, these obstacles, really these self-imposed challenges where kids don't have those. I mean, I look at my son again, he's two years old. He's walking around. He's just accepting of everything, which is, again, why you need to be a parent and you need to be there because you got to make sure that they're in the right situations and consuming the right content, et cetera. But I mean, they're so accepting that when you put the right stuff in front of them, it just, it's boom, it just clicks.

8:31John Lee Dumas:So Noah, how is teaching this to children different from teaching it to adults above and beyond what we were just talking about with the blocks. Well, of course, as you just said, John, and I've been teaching this for many years, is that as adults, we do develop years and years of, as I call it, head trash. The voice in your head that says, I can't do it because. I can't do it because I'm too old. I can't do it because I don't have the time, because I'm too busy, because I don't have the money, because I can't afford it. See, so adults have all of this head trash. Well, kids just don't. I mean, kids don't, they're not worried about like, how am I going to pay the mortgage this week, you know, this month.

9:07they're not worried about these things but they do have other worries they do have other fears you know like that was just talking about feeling invisible test anxiety how to make new friends leaving home and things like that so that it's really we're all dealing with human beliefs human behavior but the fact is that because they're kids they don't have these adult types of issues fears challenges problems that we do and so as adults for the teachers and for the parents listening to this, you do need to realize that, you know, you're not, and this is the thing, we don't talk down to kids. We don't say, you know, we don't treat them like they're not smart.

9:44They're very smart. Kids today are very smart. I know you know that, John, you know, with your kids and everybody listening. So that's, in fact, one of the reasons why when you go to the website for the book, Iaskbetterquestions.com, we've given, we've created this whole curriculum for parents to work with kids that help their kids at the breakfast table or dinner and for parents uh and excuse me for teachers in the school room right in your classroom the one thing that every teacher's asked me about over the years is can you give me a lesson plan for this i need a lesson plan right so parents parents love that and teachers love lesson plans so we've given that all to you on the website and it's all available for free and so that's really a big part of the difference of how we're empowering not just the kids but also the parents and the teachers right amazing

10:29John Lee Dumas:I mean, Fire Nation, we're going to talk about what kids are struggling with right now, a tool that parents can use literally tonight and oh so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, I know you've been sitting on an amazing idea. Well, it's time to move from one day I'll launch this project to taking action. Seriously, the barrier is way lower than you think. And that's where Hostinger comes in. Hostinger is your all-in-one home base to get online, domain, website, hosting, business email, even email marketing all in one place. No tech headaches, no juggling five different tools at the same time.

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11:47John Lee Dumas:That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed all under one roof. No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business. And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD.

12:20John Lee Dumas:access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. All right, we're back. And Babette, let's start with you when we talk with what kids are struggling with right now. I mean, Noah speaks at schools and events. Babette, I'm sure that you've given some presentations before as well. So like what What are teachers and parents telling the both of you that are the biggest emotional challenges that kids are facing today? One of them is test anxiety.

12:59We're getting to the end of the school year, right? And the kids have to pass for next year. So it's test anxiety. It's feeling invisible. A lot of kids are, you know, some kids are set back and they don't, they feel like they, maybe they're outside playing at the playground and they say, hey, can I play? And like this is in our book that they're feeling left out. They're feeling very left out. So this gives them the tools to say, why am I seen? Why do I make good friends? you know, and then they it gives them the confidence to be able to address these issues that they're having.

13:41John Lee Dumas:Noah, what do you want to add to that? That's why we love doing speaking engagements, you know, at schools, at different events, because we are seeing the teachers and the parents saying that the biggest challenge that kids are having right now, in fact, we just were talking to a teacher this week that said that they've never seen in 20 years of teaching the type of mental health challenges that kids are facing today. There's no question that, for For example, social media plays an enormous part in this. Every parent listening knows that social media is a big problem, right? And as I always tell the parents in the audience, remember that your kid is the product here.

14:16Your kid's the product, right? When we talk about social media companies, these big, you know, kajillion, billion-dollar companies, they're free. But what does that mean? It means we are the product. You, your kid, you're the product. And so you have to be very aware that there are so many pressures facing kids today that they just didn't have 20 years ago. They just didn't exist. So the point is, of course, I'm not going to say to anybody listening, you know, don't let your kid use a phone or don't let them have a smartphone. That's that's insane. You know, that's not going to work. It's you can't put the genie back in the bottle.

14:48But we do we do need to empower. There's that word again. We need to empower the kids so that they realize, well, wait a minute. I am the human being here. I have the power. It's not these big companies. It's not social media. And we've got to give them these types of tools. And that's really one of the big things we're seeing right now today.

15:06John Lee Dumas:Noah, how does your book directly address these children? That's what I love about this little book, because we have five kids in the book and each one has a different issue. For example, like we talked about, you know, Noah has trouble making friends. Well, that was me, little Noah. You know, I was very shy, very quiet. I was the nerd before it was cool to be a nerd. So, you know, I really didn't have any friends. I didn't know how to make friends. Babette was scared of leaving home. Cody had test anxiety. Mia is actually a bully. When we start the book, Mia is bullying other kids. So we hear a lot about bullying from the other side, like how to deal with when you are being bullied.

15:46But in our book, we decided to really confront it in a different way, which is what if you are the bully? What if you're bullying other kids? And the reason is, of course, because you are also having trouble making friends and you don't feel like you're enough. And so you and so with Mia, she actually turns her whole life around and starts learning how nice it is to be nice. And no one had ever taught her that before. And then the final story is Aaliyah, who feels invisible and we show her how to access her talents. So you see, these are literally universal issues that I mean, quite frankly, not just kids, but let's face it, millions of adults face to.

16:21In fact, one of the things we got on Amazon, one of the reviews was from a 60-year-old woman, and she said, I don't even have kids or grandkids. I'm 60 years old, and I love this book. This book applied to me, and I was like, that is so cool. Even if you don't have kids or grandkids, it still applies. So it really is talking about human behavior and human challenges and how to overcome them.

16:44John Lee Dumas:But, Ben, I'm going to kind of put you on the spot here. I'm sure you love the entire book. I mean, there's obviously just greatness throughout. What's one special part of the book? Just for a certain reason to you, like what is a part in the book that just seems to really extra resonate with Babette? The character of Babette, that is definitely me. I used to carry my little teddy bear at school and I was new in the class and I came from Pennsylvania to Ohio and I was very afraid because I had my mom, my sister, my brother, and now I'm in with all these kids. So the book is about a little girl named Babette and how she is scared to, you know, meet new kids and leave home.

17:36Because she's very comfortable, like COVID. You know, when COVID happened and the kids had to go, they were having school at home and then they had to go back, right? So here's one of the affirmations that she uses is, why do I feel safe and happy when I'm at school? So she's seen that the kids are her friends and the teacher does care. And then in the book, we have each character tell the next character, and then they have this community. So it builds a community. It builds friendship. it builds strength for these five kids. And that's what. But then they start teaching the whole school and the entire school changes.

18:24That's one of the things about the story that it's not just these kids, but it's the whole school. And even the teachers start to realize and see that, wow, this really has changed our whole atmosphere here. And it's really powerful.

18:36John Lee Dumas:Noah, let's talk about a tool that parents can use tonight. Right. Because I like having Fire Nation, our listeners, be able to put things into action. So if a parent's listening, let's say they have an eight-year-old who says, nobody likes me, or I'm bad at math. Like, what's one affirmation-based question that they can teach their child to ask instead? All right. Absolutely. So one of the things that I've been teaching for many years about affirmations is we all have, as I said earlier, head trash. But what head trash really shows up as are these disempowering beliefs. For example, nobody likes me.

19:13That's a belief, right? That, hey, let's face it, millions of kids are walking around with right now. So if you find, as a parent, I'm talking to the parent now, if you hear your kids saying that or maybe feel like that's what they're going through, you literally just say, so, son, daughter, you know, are you feeling like maybe you're kind of getting left out or people don't like you? and if that is the case what you want to start doing is a forming why do people love being around me why am i getting better at math every day and the the and then see using the tools that we give you we you can actually have a discussion around that at the dinner table when you're going off to maybe they have a test this morning right or they've got a test that's cool and they're nervous why am i getting better at math every day why do i relax and breathe and access the knowledge it's already inside of me.

20:07That's one of the things we talk about with test anxiety as an example. You know, they just get so nervous and you don't have to be nervous. But the point is that breathing exercises are good, but they're really just like a bandaid. So what we're doing is we're accessing, showing them how to access their inner power by asking better questions. So you're not telling them what to think. You're showing them how to access their brain to find the answer for themselves.

20:32John Lee Dumas:But let's talk about the bigger vision. I mean, this is book one of the chosen series for kids. What's coming next? What's coming next is the books for the middle school kids. You know, Noah has books for high school and college. So, and we have the book for the grade school, now we're going to have a book for using the affirmations method for the middle school kids. Noah, what's your long-term vision for bringing affirmations to the next generation? It really is about empowering the kids, the parents, and the teachers. So, you know, we really have a mission to empower a million students, parents, and teachers over the next five years with my affirmations method using the curriculum and the tools that I mentioned earlier, the resources that we give you on the website.

21:25So that's, you know, that's why we're doing these engagements. We're speaking at people, you know, at different schools and events and school districts. But that really is the vision because let's face it, as I talked about earlier, the kids are facing so many stressors that we just didn't have 20 years ago. And now guess what? We have AI, which is a whole new set of stresses that people are facing. And so we've got to empower them. We've got to give them this message. What's so wonderful about it is it's inside of you. It's already inside of you, but you haven't been taught the key to unlock it.

22:01So this is the key to unlock the power that already lies inside of you. I'd like to say something, John. There's a lot of parents and children when they come home, they are all distracted by their cell phones, right? Right. There's 10 year, 10 years old, 10 year old kids that are doing tick tock and all this stuff. So or parents that are not paying attention to their kids, they're on the cell phone constantly watching videos and this and that. Right. So what this does know, Noah's method in this book does, it gives the parent and the children, the child to communicate and it helps them to understand because the kids can ask the parents.

22:46You know, the affirmations to, hey, mom and dad, what is your affirmation that you had today? Because these challenges do come up. And that's why there's so many adults, so many parents that are having issues themselves is because they weren't they didn't have these tools to help them when they were little. So it's helping the next generation to be stronger and grow together.