Why Inner Excellence Creates Outer Success  ## Metadata - Author: [[The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast]] - Full Title: Why Inner Excellence Creates Outer Success - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/03599ef9-8e9a-4887-b12f-4252b4da1109 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **AJ Brown Reading Sparked Viral Demand** - AJ Brown was shown reading Inner Excellence during an NFL wild card game and called it his pre-game centering routine. - Jim Murphy learned about the moment publicly and it triggered massive interest in the book. Transcript: Jim Murphy Yeah, John, I'm very grateful to tell it. So on January 12th, A.J. Brown was a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles. It's a wild card game, Packers versus the Eagles. Sunday night football, the only NFL game on. And in the middle of the game, he's reading the football, reading inter-excellence on the sidelines during the football game. And so the TV station zooms in on us like, what is AJ Brown doing? And then, oh my gosh, he's reading a book and Kevin Brown and Tom Burkhart made a big deal about it. Afterwards, they asked him, what were you doing? Were you bored? Were you, he said, no, it's a book that I read before, bring to every game, read it before the game to get centered and read it after every drive to get re-centered. My teammates call it the recipe. And so that was the first time I actually heard about him doing this. I saw a picture of him on social media like a month earlier, but I had no context. I didn't know anything about it. And so I found out with the rest of the world that he was doing this at that time. And just an amazing thing for him to do, to be true to himself, find something that helps him be better at what he does and to be more fearless and show all of us that we all have time to read. ([Time 0:02:29](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d3863209-e369-4659-936b-563d338c029d)) - **Viral Moments Can Reframe A Career** - A viral public moment can change the life of a book overnight despite prior slow sales. - Murphy's Inner Excellence went from a few copies a day to selling tens of thousands daily and translated globally. Transcript: Jim Murphy Yeah, my world changed a lot. The message that selfless is fearless has spread around the world now. Love, wisdom, and courage. So the book had sold maybe seven or eight or 9,000 copies in nine years. I mean, sorry, 16 years. Initially was published in 2009 by McGraw-Hill. And then I put out a revised edition, self-published in 2020. And then, so that's the book A.J. Brown has been reading. And since then, it's sold, I don't know, close to half a million copies, I would say. John Jantsch I'm curious, how did you print the books without that sort of immediate demand? Yeah, so it's amazing how the world is now with Amazon. Jim Murphy Yeah. And they print on demand. John Jantsch Yeah. And so if... They were able to print on that kind of demand? Jim Murphy Well, apparently they did run out at some point. So they've got print centers all over the world. And so there was a time when the demand was so high. It sold tens of thousands of copies every day for the first few weeks that they did run out at one point. ([Time 0:03:45](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e85fd005-4e20-4ddc-ae1e-7c1205359be8)) - **From Minor Leaguer To Solitude Researcher** - Murphy shared his arc from minor league player to coach after vision issues forced retirement. - He retreated to solitude and spent five years researching peace and performance, which birthed Inner Excellence. Transcript: Jim Murphy Oh, yeah, absolutely. My whole life, since I was a little kid, I obsessed about being a superstar. I was going to play in the NFL like A.J. Brown, or I was going to be in the NBA or Major League Baseball. And so when I got drafted by the Cubs, it was a dream come true. But I had a vision problem that was with me for my entire professional career, played five years in the minors, then eventually had to retire because of it. And my identity was completely wrapped up in my role as a pro athlete. And when I lost it, I felt like I lost everything. And so I asked to coach a high school baseball team in inner city Seattle, and I had no interest in coaching. I took the job, I was driving a truck for FedEx, and we went unde and I realized, wow, I love coaching. Who knew? And then, so I went on this journey to become a pro baseball coach. I went to grad school, got a job with the Texas Rangers two weeks after graduation. So now I felt like I was somebody again. And then I quit six months into the first season. And so devastated again, my identity, you know, I was somebody and I lost it. And then I was somebody again, I lost it. And so I kind of got tired of this merry-go of feeling like I was someone and no one. And I ended up leaving for the desert to go live a life of solitude to figure out what to do with my life. And that's where Interactionals was born. I spent five years full-time writing and researching how to have peace and confidence under the most pressure. ([Time 0:05:15](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e5c5001d-18b0-49d8-b74b-8ad25d150565)) - **Shift Success To Identity And Feelings** - Redefine success around who you want to become and how you want to feel rather than external results. - Pursue fullness of life and personal development instead of fixating on narrow tangible goals. Transcript: John Jantsch Or one of the core principles really is kind of this idea of letting go of the need to control the outcome, which is, you know, being very attached to the outcome. Do you have a client story, executive athlete, I suppose you don't want to name names, but where, you know, you help somebody kind of overcome that control of the outcome? Jim Murphy Yeah, I'll tell you when I was at the Ryder Cup years ago, it's one of the biggest events in golf, pro golf. You have the Team USA versus Team Europe. And one of the players, top 10 in the world, said, Jim, I'm too attached to the results of my performance. You know, I get two tents. What can I do? And I said, well, imagine there's a little kid who loves lollipops and he's got a lollipop and you want to take it from him, but you don't want to struggle. Is there any way you could get him to give you the lollipop by volunteering it to give it to you? And he said, you know, I don't know. And I said, well, what if you had a bigger lollipop and asked him to trade? And he said, oh, he'd probably trade. What kid wouldn't trade a small lollipop for a bigger one? I said, that's what you need. Your lollipop is too small. Your lollipop is, I just want to get birdies and I want to win the tournament and I want to be successful. I want to get some tangible results. That's way too small. First of all, you don't even know if that's good for you to get birdies and good results and have more success. Is that going to be good for you in the long run and your family? You don't know. What you need is to pursue fullness of life and develop yourself in that way, which we know is good for you, where you feel fully alive and make that your pursuit. ([Time 0:06:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ece972a8-8a30-4fff-91db-611ab828d728)) - **Ask Why Until You Reach Purpose** - Clarify why you want specific results by asking repeated "why" until you hit meaningful values and purpose. - Then pursue those deeper experiences directly and let other results follow. Transcript: Jim Murphy You. Right. And then break it down into smaller components. Specifically, how do I want to feel in my life? How do I want to live? Who do I want to become? Who am I meant to become? And what is my purpose? What do I value most? If you're not clear on those things, then the default is, oh, I just need more success. I need more base hits. And, but that's too far out of your control. It's just, now you're just happy if you get hit, sad if you don't, and stressed when you need it. And you're never going to be your best when you're stressed. We need to have freedom to fail to be your best. We need, there needs to be an element of joy and excitement to be your best. And in order to have that joy and excitement, we need to focus on the reason why you want the base hit. Why do you want the base hit? Well, so I can have a good batting average. Why do I want that? So I can become an all-star. Why do you want that? So I can make more money. Why do you want that? Well, I want a great life, really. I want a more comfortable life. Well, what is it that you really want? Is it just a $10 million house on the water? Is that what you want? Or is it what you think that will give you, which is great experiences and deep enriching relationships where you're learning and growing and making a difference, where you feel fully Alive? Well, is that what you, okay, that's what you want? Well, I'm going to show you how to go for that directly and let everything else be added to you. ([Time 0:09:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d347d2da-b669-4636-b59f-86721389030c)) - **Daily Goal: Learn And Grow** - Make "learn and grow every day" the primary daily goal to fuel creativity and clear thinking. - Add four daily practices: give your best, be present and grateful, and control routines over outcomes. Transcript: Jim Murphy Yeah, well, with Interacellancers, the number one goal every day is to learn and grow. If you want to be great at business, we need to be creative. We can't be attached to the results and circumstances. We need to think clearly. We have to have a clear mind and unburdened heart if you want to be great at anything, business included. We can't be caught up in the past and future. And so learn and grow every day is the number one goal. And then within that, we have four daily goals. Give the best of what you have. Some days it's not going to be good. Be present. Be grateful. Focus on your routines and only what you can control. ([Time 0:12:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f70e53c7-7037-4d8f-90b7-70f773c071f7)) - **Inner Life Matters More When Stakes Are High** - High achievers often resist spiritual practices, but inner processes matter most when stakes are high. - The best process combines heart, mind, and body engagement unattached to outcomes. Transcript: John Jantsch Do you ever, especially with business leaders, do you ever get any skepticism pushback of that? Hey, I just feel like, give me the tools. Give me the, you know, I don't need that stuff. Yeah. Pro athletes, business leaders. Yeah, definitely. If you're a high achiever, then you don't want the woo. Jim Murphy You want tangible results. You don't want to mess around. You don't want to waste your time. And I get it. The question is, if something is really important to you, if this is the biggest year of your career, maybe you're a free agent or maybe you have a massive deal you're working on or just Trying to get a job and you need the money, the more important it is to you, then the more important the process of how you live and what you do every day, then it's more important. So the question is, what's the best process for you to be your best every day? And that's what interactions is I present to you. ([Time 0:13:35](https://share.snipd.com/snip/43090bdb-929d-40cd-bca6-a7eea9ccee21)) - **Practice Accurate Humility** - Embrace humility as an accurate view of self, neither overinflated nor underinflated. - Focus on inner development first and let external success be added to you without attachment. Transcript: Jim Murphy Yeah, I define humility as an accurate view of self, not overinflated and not underinflated. And so pro athletes and most people, they come to me because they're underperforming. And essentially they come to me wanting, they're obsessing about things that they want and can't control. And then they just try harder. And then the trying harder causes them to be more tense, more anxious and worse performance. And so then they just, that causes more stress. And then they feel like they need to become more needy. And so it's just this endless loop. And so essentially they're coming to me for low level needs and desires, become world number one, be their best in the industry. That's a low level need. Well, one, I call it low level because you don't even know if it's good for you, let alone going to make you happy. Say you got a million followers or $10 million or a $10 million house in the water. Is that going to make you happy? You might think so and hopefully, but it may not. And so, but that's what people come to me because I've helped people achieve extraordinary success. Generally, most people their first year together, they have the best year of their careers. ([Time 0:14:43](https://share.snipd.com/snip/72f3a87b-97c1-44d1-9c4a-dae25aef768b)) - **Speak Truth To Expand Possibility** - Start mindset work by speaking truthful accounts of your past to free future possibilities. - Confront edge feelings instead of resisting discomfort to expand your subconscious limits. Transcript: Jim Murphy How they speak. The first thing we do is we make sure that we're speaking the truth. Interexcellence has nine disciplines. And one of the disciplines is to speak the truth about the past to create possibilities in the future. So people come to me and they want to perform better. So they often will talk to me about how they're struggling with something. But the thing is, your subconscious is what's running your life and creating these beliefs that are limitations on what's possible. It's really hard to outperform your beliefs, the subconscious comfort level with what you feel is possible in your life. Possibilities and feel it as if it's real. ([Time 0:17:27](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3092d4a3-8add-4cc3-ba4e-878834d39514)) - **Take Credit Less To Stay Fearless** - Murphy credits external forces for his recent reach and maintains humility by seeing himself as a messenger. - Recognizing limited personal contribution frees you from fear of mistakes and keeps you fearless. Transcript: Jim Murphy It's changed a lot. My life has changed a lot. I think of what if I would have died January 11th or before. The majority of the things in the book that I wrote 16 years ago are the same. And it was selling one to two copies a day before January 12th. And then, you know, now it's like I said, it's going to be in 26 or 27 languages and it's sold half a million copies or whatever. What's changed is definitely more confidence in the message. Like in the past, I believed in the message for sure, but there's always a wonder, like, why don't more people, why isn't the book more popular? I didn't understand it. And so now it's just kind of, that's really cool. But I don't think of myself as the originator of this or even author. I'm just a lowly messenger. And so because it's so extraordinary, everything that's happened, I mean, there's no way that I could say, oh, I did this. And so the moment we start to think that I'm doing it and that I'm somebody because I'm doing these great things. Then we start to get afraid of, well, what if I make mistakes? But when you can take yourself completely out of the picture, there's no concern for self, then you can be fearless. And God's given me this gift that I realized, you know, at the very most, I've added maybe one or 2% to anything good that's happened in the last six months. And since I know that, there's no like, oh, I'm somebody now. I know I'm nobody. ([Time 0:18:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e83bd7c8-bcee-4413-8f88-462a50d7bc67))