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Step 1 starts with the bat-signal calling everybody to the bat-cave… On today’s episode Russell talks about how he is using Trello and a bat signal to make all of his amazing ideas come to fruition. Here are some of the awesome things you will hear in this episode. -Find out how Russell is using a bat signal to get his ideas out to his team. -See how Trello is going to help keep Russell’s ideas organized so that every member does their part. -And find out how you can make a similar system work for your own team. So listen here to be let in on this awesome new system for getting Russell’s ideas out of his head and turned into funnels. ---Transcript--- What’s up everybody? This is Russell Brunson and welcome to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Alright everybody, I’m heading into the office today for a fun filled day. It’s going to be short because it’s almost Christmastime and we thought it would be fun to do something out of the ordinary. Everyone’s working their butt off and at the end of the day we’re going to leave early to go and see the Star Wars movie, which I’m freaking out about because I haven’t seen it yet. I want to see it so bad. Everyone’s got the positive and the negative reviews and all that stuff, and I don’t care what they say, there’s no way I’m not going to like it. I’m so excited. So I’m pumped about that. Also, we have an acupuncturist who’s coming into the office to poke people all day. So I’ll be going through a session today, which I’m excited for. I don’t know how acupuncture works, but I had a miraculous healing from it one time, so I’m a big believer. And I’m not even hurt, I just feel like I want more people poking needles into my body apparently. So that’s exciting. But what I want to share with you is the most exciting thing of all. So excited. It’s funny that we’ve grown as big a company as we have, with the fact that I’m not the best systems person in the world. I’m a big believer in it, just not ever been good at it. And Mr. James P. Freill, who is amazing. In the inner circle and been my friend for probably 3 years or so now. He came in originally and set up our Trello system, and it worked really good for a week, and me as a bad manager of it, it kind of fell apart. I hired him again later, he came back and set it up again, it worked for a while and then fell apart. And then the third time I did it, so three times he’s helped me set this process up and the third time it lasted longer and then eventually kind of fell apart as well. So eventually I was just like, you know what, how about we just hire you to actually come and run this thing for us. So we hired him for the next six months and he literally moved to Boise, like a block from the office, which has been really fun. And now he’s living next to me as we’re doing everything and systemizing everything. And what we’ve been focusing on is something I think everybody should do. Because as you know, you’ve listened to my opinion on this before, your business is not the thing that you do or sell, the business is the marketing of the thing you sell. So I think every company, the real company is your own marketing and advertizing agency. That is the company. And then what you sell is incidental, it doesn’t really matter. I can plug in chiropractic, I can plug in dentistry, I can plug in supplements, it doesn’t matter. Your business is the marketing. So I was like, we need to build a marketing agency where we are our only clients. So we build this marketing agency out and there’s a funnel building team in the agency and there’s the traffic team, and it’s been really fun because he’s going through all the stuff we’ve been doing for the last decade that we redo every single time and he’s been trello-izing it and systemizing it and all sorts of stuff. But the biggest thing we realized, when I have an idea, it’s like the idea, I have that moment where it’s like the flood of inspiration. And for me, I don’t know if it’s this way for everybody, I’m assuming that, I wasn’t this way when I began, but the longer I’ve done it and the more I’ve immersed myself in it, when I have the idea, I see the whole thing in my head. I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s not a vision, I don’t know, maybe it’s a vision. But it’s like, as soon as the idea comes, all these connections, all the things, everything I’ve learned and done and seen over the last 15 years in this business, it’s like as soon as the idea hits, I see perfect clarity what it looks like. I know, I see it really fast. Then I freak out and try to explain it to everybody really fast, which is why I talk so fast, because I’m trying to get it out of my head before I forget it. I’m trying to explain the whole thing. And usually, whoever is closest to me, I grab and I explain it. So usually it’s Dave’s there, Melanie’s there, sometimes Dave’s there, Steven’s there, whoever. I just grab people and I’m like, “AHHH” and I freak out and tell them the whole thing. And everyone’s excited and we go and run and do our things. But then we try to relay that to the next part of the team and then next part of the team. And eventually it’s like, playing telephone booth and everyone forgets and then, even Dave and Steven who were there initially, they’re like, “Remember on the white board we doodled this thing.” And they’re like, “What’s that square again for? I have no idea what’s actually happening. I remember you had a squiggly line here that was really important, but it just looks like a squiggly line now and I’m not sure exactly was it is.” And we always try to…we lose all this stuff. So we’re like, man, how do we capture that moment of inception when the first big idea hits? How do we capture that so we don’t lose it? So in our trello process system now, it’s so cool. We’ve done it twice to test it out. But we literally…the way it works is like step one we have the aha moment, this is the idea. And the second we have that, I log into voxer and there’s a group with the entire agency in the voxer group and I literally send them the a gif of the bat signal. So boom, they get that which means, “oh my gosh, Russell had an idea. Get to the bat room.” So then we set up the Zoom room, which is a Zoom room, we call it like the bat line or the bat cave or something like that. So as soon as I set out the bat signal then every…then I’ll send out the direct link to the bat cave, then everybody who is able to jumps on. And then right there I open the Zoom Room on my computer, from a white board I’m like, “Oh my gosh guys..” and I explain the whole thing as it happens and it records the whole thing. So the whole thing’s being recorded and I go through the whole thing and anyone who’s able to come, comes. And obviously not everybody can come every single time. But whoever’s there comes, we explain the whole thing, we get excited, and I map out the vision on the white board, I explain things and then when I’m done I break down, “okay here’s the whole vision. I need so and so to do this part, so and so to do this,” and I explain all the different pieces. And then when it’s done, I stop the recording, upload it dropbox, post it in trello, here’s the vision and then here’s the, I take a picture of the whiteboard, here’s the whiteboard of the vision, here’s the video of the vision. And then I vox that out to everybody who may have missed the call. Here it is. And then that happens and the person on our team who does the project management stuff, which right now is James and John, but eventually we’re going to be bringing in somebody full time to do this part, then goes and watches it second by second and basically builds out all the trello cards based on the vision. And then everyone’s got their stuff, trello cards, deadlines, everything. And it just all magically happens and it is the coolest thing in the world. So we did it twice, two days ago and then yesterday. We’ve done two bat meetings. These aren’t like new aha moments, but it’s like new funnels we’re relaunching, so everyone’s got a little piece of this puzzle that I have in my head and we’re all working towards it, except for now everyone knows the whole vision. And it’s insane, just the clarity, for me and I think everyone on the team has now, it’s just like, “Oh, that’s what Russell’s talking about.” Or people are like, I’m watching the office when I walk around, they’re rewatching the video like, “Oh, that’s what he’s talking about.” Or like, “In minute six of the video you said this, what did you mean again?” And then I can, it’s just really cool. It’s simplifying our process, I’m not repeating and re-teaching and re-explaining and re-showing things a million times. Oh, and the other cool thing is after we got the whole thing done, then Jake on my team, he’s taking my whiteboard doodle and then he actually is going into Photoshop or illustrator or whatever he uses, and if you got the Funnel Hacker Cookbook, you know the little images of the pages and funnels, he’s actually building out a map for the funnel I sketched out in that , so we have a pdf of the actual map of what I doodled out, but it’s very specific. Like, “Here’s page one, page two, page three. Here’s the email sequence. Each sequence is here and goes to here.” We have an actual map we’re building off of as well, as opposed to some doodles I gave out. Anyway, it’s just getting really, really cool so I’m excited. We’re systemizing the crap out of everything, we’re speeding up our processes, we’re making it so we remove me from a lot of the things I’ve been doing, just because they’re stuck in my head, and getting out into a spot where other people can help facilitate it. And it feels good, it feels freeing, it feels exciting. So there’s an idea for those of you guys who are trying to figure this process out and trying to get the vision from your mind out to your team. Do a batman meeting like we’re doing. Send out a bat signal, bring them all to the bat cave, record your ideas, and then you’ve got it archived as everyone starts building and driving traffic and all those other pieces that come with it. That’s it, I’m excited. Anyway, I heading in right now, I’m going to get some acupuncture, work on some funnels, I’m probably doing the batman meeting, we have four projects we’re trying to do by the end of the year. So I’m doing four bat meetings to catch everybody up, then we’ll have all our marching orders before the end of the year, then I’m heading to go see the new Star Wars. So excited. Alright guys, that’s all I got. Appreciate you all, have an amazing day and we’ll talk to you guys soon, bye.

Batman's Approach To Project Management

Late night coaching session with my son Dallin… On today’s episode Russell teaches his son Dallin, and the listeners all about the concept of supply and demand. Here are some of the cool things you will hear in this episode:  Why Russell decided to teach Dallin about supply and demand after he saw a pair of Airpods on Amazon for $850. Why supply and demand of Tickle Me Elmo dolls several years ago caused some parents to take back their own kids Christmas gifts.- And how you can use supply and demand to boost sales for info products or supplements or anything else.  So listen here to find out how to use supply and demand to make more sales and more money. ---Transcript--- Hey everyone, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome to the Marketing Secrets podcast. This is a special audio episode just for my audio friends. This will not be on video. I’m in the car right now driving to the grocery store with my son, Dallin. Dallin, how are you doing tonight? Dallin: Tired. Russell: He’s a little tired, it’s late. We forgot we have to have treats. He’s always tired though. He’s a growing boy. He asked me a question. I said, “Dallin, we’re going to answer this on the podcast.” So let’s queue in some music and we’ll come back and we’re going to share with you guys something very important for you to understand about supply and demand and Christmastime. Alright everybody, welcome back. So Dallin came in the car and we were talking about headphone buds. Do you want to tell them what you told me, Dallin, when we were getting in the car about how much cheap headphones are versus these ones? Dallin: So I was looking up how much the ear buds cost for apple, because I was looking at the iPhone 10. Russell: He’s talking about the airpods that are super cool. Dallin: And I looked up on Amazon, usually Amazon’s amazing, and it says it’s $850! Russell: $850 for the Amazon headphones. He said, you can buy regular headphones for $5. And I pulled out those headphones out of my pocket, because I actually love those a lot. If you don’t have them you should get them. I said, actually these sell for $100… Dallin: Not from Amazon though. Russell: Not from Amazon, and I’ll tell you why. I just explained this to Dallin. So I wanted to explain it to all of you guys, who I’m sure understand this but this sets up a teaching lesson I want to have here in a second. So if you look at the pods, if you look at them they’re $150 on Apple’s site. But the problem is it takes two or three months to ship to you. So if you buy them and plan ahead it’s $150, but if you didn’t and it’s Christmastime and you’re like, “Ah, my wife, my girlfriend, my significant other, my kid, they need airpods, they’ve been asking all Christmas.” You try to buy it and you go to Apple and they’re like, “We’re not going to deliver til May.” And you’re like, “What, Christmas is in December.” And they’re freaking out. So they have to go look for other places, so they go on Amazon and they find people that had the foresight to know that people were gonna not have foresight. So they take their Apple Airpods that they bought for $150 and jack up the price for $800 on Amazon. And the people who are slow have to pay the difference. So I was about to tell Dallin about Tickle Me Elmo, and then I said, “Wait a minute, we should share this story on the podcast.” So Dallin, here is the lesson of the story I want to tell you. And everyone can listen in on this. So when I was a kid, it was right when Elmo came out. Sesame Street didn’t used to have Elmo. When Elmo came out, everyone, I remember being a kid and being like, “Elmo is the coolest.” He was just so much cooler than all the other muppets and we all loved him. And then one year for Christmas they came out with this, they called it Tickle Me Elmo. You guys have Elmo dolls now, but this was like the original Elmo one, where it’s a doll and you tickle it and it’ll giggle. And that was ground breaking 30 years ago. Dallin: He’s scary. Russell: He’s a little scary. So anyway, everyone wanted Tickle Me Elmo so the company that makes him, it’s the law of supply and demand. They made so many Tickle Me Elmo’s, and that was it, that was all they made. I don’t know the whole story behind it. But basically there was a lot more people that wanted them. Everyone’s kid wanted them, it was all over the news. So Tickle Me Elmo started going, you’d normally buy them for like $20 and they got to $50 and $80 and people were auctioning them for tens of thousands of dollars for Tickle Me Elmo. And then other people heard about Tickle Me Elmo, and when they started talking about how there are none left. And then one of them sold on auction for $10,000. And people were freaking out, and people who already had them were like, “Well I can sell this and make some money.” So they would take the gifts away from their kids to make money by selling them to other people and it was just crazy. Dallin: That would be sad. Russell: Pandemonium. So the lesson that I want to teach you Dallin, and everyone who’s listening today, is the power of scarcity, supply and demand. So when you have a ton of stuff, like if there were a billion Tickle Me Elmo dolls, nobody cares and they’re not going to freak out and try to buy them. So the price goes lower. But when they’re high demand form and the supply is smaller, like the airpods, there’s a high demand for them, everyone wants them. But there’s only a few left, the people who sell them can charge way more for them because they need them. So a lot of times in our businesses, depending on what we’re selling, a lot of times there’s not typically that built in supply and demand curve because we’re selling info products or supplements, or things that are kind of easy. But you can always do things in your marketing to create the illusion of supply and demand. A good example is Bill Phillips, Muscle Media. When I was a kid it was the biggest supplement company in the world. In fact, some of my buddies now used to work for them, which is kind of fun. Anyway, Bill Phillips had Myloplex shakes and his whole EAS supplement line. He had unlimited stuff, he could sell as much as he wanted. But they needed to create urgency and scarcity to get people to buy it more, increase the price, all that kind of stuff. So there’s a marketing campaign that I believe Joe Polish was a part of or in charge of, Idon’t know. But I heard him tell the story one time, so somehow I know it’s credited back to him. But what he did is they had two big shipments of supplements coming to their warehouse, two big semi trucks full. So they took a picture of it and they’re like, “We should do a marketing campaign around this.” So they sent a sales letter back to the entire Muscle Media Magazine list that basically said, “Hey, we over ordered. We’ve got two big semi trucks of supplements in the front. We need your help. Buy the excess stuff, that way we can get back to normal life.” So they sent the letter out and they sold a ton of supplents. And then they’re like, “Well now we sold a bunch, so let’s decrease the supply, therefore increasing the demand.” So they took the exact same sales letter, and they took the picture of the two trucks and crossed out one of the trucks and said, “One down, one to go.” And then changed the letter to “one left, one left, one left.” Then they sent the same letter out to the same customer base. All it did was decreased the supply, therefore increasing the demand and they sold more from the second letter than they did from the first. So that is what I wanted to share with you guys. Dallin already jumped out of the car, so maybe this is a lesson for you guys. Dallin, maybe when you are 25 working in a marketing company someday, you’re going to come back and listen to this podcast episode and hear the moral of the story, but until then we should go shopping for your treats. Alright, that’s all I got guys. Anything to tell everyone who’s listening Dal? Dallin: No. Russell: Alright, you heard it here first. Alright guys, appreciate you and we’ll talk to you all again on the next episode of Marketing Secrets podcast. Bye everybody.

How 'Tickle Me Elmo' Manipulated Supply To Increase Demand (And How You Can Too!)

A few cool stories that will hopefully re-align what you define as what you actually earn. On today’s episode Russell talks about doing what you said you were going to do instead of trying to lie, cheat, and trick your way into money. Here are some of the other insightful things Russell talks about in this episode:  Why Russell gave back 8 figures to Pruvit, even though he had signed a contract to have equity in the company. And why it’s important to only take the things you have actually earned.  So listen here to find out why integrity is more important than money. ---Transcript--- What’s up everybody? This is Russell Brunson and welcome to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Tonight we’re going to be hanging out and talking a little bit about the fact that nobody owes you anything and you should just be grateful for the opportunity. Alright, I’m going to share with you guys some stuff tonight that I don’t normally share. Probably, I haven’t decided if I want to share normally or not. Anyway, I’m going to go into that here in a minute. But I wanted to share one idea that’s completely not related to marketing, maybe it is. Who knows? Right now I am eating this, I don’t know if you can see this. If you guys are sitting here, I’m in my kitchen. This is my dinner. I share this because right now I’m on this, “How to get ripped before Funnel Hacking Live” diet with Bart Miller. It’s been funny, he’s got me working out, doing all sorts of stuff, but also had me eating a very specific way. And I knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to stick with it. In fact, the first day Dave and I, Dave’s doing it with me, we both went over to the grocery store and bought stuff and it was like $50 for that one day just to eat stuff. We just bought packs of chicken breasts and broccoli and it was horrible. And the second day, I brought turkey from Thanksgiving, you know a little bit ago. And then Dave ran out of time to buy food, so he literally had his son go and buy him packs of deli meat. So he sits there all day eating packs of deli meat. And by day two we were like, we will never actually do this, because this is too hard to actually live this way. Which I’m sure is why a lot of people don’t lose weight and probably other things in your life you don’t do because it’s too hard to consistently do it. So we went online and found someone here in Boise who cooks meals. So we gave her all the macros, micros, all that kind of stuff of what it needs to be and then everyday she literally makes us three meals, drops them off in the morning all perfectly cooked, fine tuned, healthy with exactly the carbs, macros, micros, fats, proteins, everything that is perfect to actually what it’s supposed to be. So that’s what I’m eating now. This is my third meal today and it’s nice not to think and just grab it and eat. So I recommend it for any of you guys. And it’s not that expensive. We’re paying $300 a week for this, which if I was to go out one meal a week, that’s way more than three hundred bucks. This is three meals a day and plus it keeps me, all I’m allowed per mouth is what she puts into the boxes, that’s it. So just a thought. Find someone to cook your meals for you and do other things that are keeping you from getting the goals you want. Alright, I digress. What I wanted to share with you guys today, or tonight, is pretty important I think. So it, I was going to share one thing, but there’s stories I can’t tell. So there’s been, honestly three or four situations in the last two weeks that have been insane. It’s been probably some of the hardest two weeks of my life, when it relates to the negative sides of business. So for me, it’s been funny because I’ve been trying to block it and defend it because I need to keep moving forward and the negativity of stuff can keep me or you or anybody from moving forward. So I don’t want to share those specific stories, but the way that people dealt with them was really, I don’t think right. So I’m going to leave it at that. I’m not going to go deeper into it. But what I do want to share, I want to share something that actually…I want to share this not to brag, that’s not the point, but to show I practice what I preach. I don’t just talk about this stuff, but I actually believe it, because I think that’s important. So that’s the only reason I’m sharing this story and hopefully it will help some of you guys to think about how you deal with stuff in the future. Hopefully it will help at least somebody out there. Some of you guys know that a couple of years ago there was a company that got launched called Pruvit. And I was part of the original team that helped launch that and I was the dude who wrote the script for the animated video. I had my animators animate the whole thing and that became the campfire video for that company and in exchange for me doing that initial stuff we negotiated some equity in the company. The equity right now, looking at where the company’s blown up in the last three or four years, is worth insane amounts of money. Well over 8 figures, probably closer to…..well, it’s insanely a lot. I negotiated that ahead of time, and then I was going to do a bunch of other things for the company, and just for some reason some of the things didn’t work because it was hard within the company. Network marketing companies software makes it hard to do some of the funnels and things I was planning on helping with. So that was kind of hard and then Clickfunnels was taking off at the same time, so I was focusing there. When all was said and done at the end of the day, I didn’t do what I thought I was going. But what I did have was this really cool fancy thing called a contract that I had signed that said I owned x% of the company. The situation with the multiple people this week, it was not this same situation, it was something kind of like that. Where people didn’t pull their load and then they’re demanding this justice. It was unjust because they didn’t do anything. It makes me so angry and frustrated. So I was thinking about that with myself and I was like, I’m in the same situation here. Based on what I negotiated three years ago, I own x% of this company. And while that’s awesome and it’s worth insane amounts of money, if I’m completely honest with myself, it is not fair. Not to me, it’s not fair to them. And if I was in their situation, I know in my mind that I would be annoyed by me all the time. The very thought of me, “Russell got this thing, and he did this little thing upfront and then we haven’t heard from him in the last three years, doing his own thing, running his own direction.” And instead of being like, “Hahahaha, I got the contract, you owe me.” I actually actively reached out to them and said, “Hey, I don’t feel like I deserve this.” And Brian who is the owner of the company of course is like, “No, no you totally deserve it.” And I’m like, “I don’t and I’m okay with that. I thought I was going to be doing this, this and this for this movement and I didn’t. I wasn’t able to. Some things were because of technical things didn’t connect on the funnel side, some of it was because I didn’t have time. And I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. It’s not fair to you and I want someday when you sell this thing for you to be mad at me or angry at me when you have to give me this huge check because I didn’t deserve it, and I didn’t earn it and I don’t want it.” He’s like, “Well this is kind of weird. What do you want?” and I was like, “For what I did, I think this is what would make sense.” And it’s literally like me giving back 8 figures worth of cash and just being like, “Here you go.” And taking something way less. Because that’s what I actually earned, and that’s what I deserve. I think he was kind of confused, then he said okay and now we’re making the transition, the shift away and I’m signing away my equity in exchange for something way less, because that’s what I actually earned, and what I actually deserve. So that’s what I want you guys to start thinking about and doing. In a situation with a business partner or a friend or an employer, whatever it is, get what you actually deserve. Don’t get more. There’s this weird thing inside where people think they deserve everything. It’s ridiculous, it’s insane. I wouldn’t have believed some of these things if they didn’t happen to me over the last two weeks. But it’s insane what people feel like they deserve, even though they don’t deserve. Because of something, they feel like they….it’s so infuriating to me. I remember I had a chance to hear this guy speak a little while ago name Nido Qubein, if you guys never heard of him, he is probably the best speaker I ever heard. I heard him probably seven or eight, longer, probably ten years ago now, at a Dan Kennedy event. And I think he’s like the CEO or something of Wonder Bread and a bunch of other things. He’s an entrepreneur and he actually came over to the country with like $20 in his pocket and built this huge empire. He’s an awesome dude. In this speech, I’m totally going to slaughter because it’s a decade ago that I heard it, I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember the feeling I got and the message. But he talked about how he basically got a job as the, I don’t know what they call them in college, he was in charge of this college. The college had been struggling and he came in to turn it around. And he came in the first week, he worked really hard for the first week and then when he came in they handed him a paycheck. He said, “What’s this for?” and they said, “This is your paycheck.” And he said, “Well, I haven’t done anything yet.” And they’re like, “Well, you get paid every two weeks, that’s how it works.” So they gave him the check and he sat at his desk and said, “I did not earn that.” And he kept working and working. Two weeks later they came in to give him the next paycheck and he’s like, “What is this for?” and they’re like, “That’s your paycheck.” And he’s like, “I didn’t earn that.” He put it down. He kept trying to, his job, his role was to transform the university and he couldn’t do it, he kept trying and it took him a while because it’s a big thing to do. And eventually, I can’t remember, a year or two years later, whatever it was, he transformed this university and had this big impact. At the time I guess somebody came in his office and he had this stack, five or six inches tall of these envelopes and somebody said, “What’s that big stack?” He said, “Those are the paychecks they keep giving me, but I haven’t earned them yet so I’m not going to…they’re not mine.” I remember hearing that and just being like, that’s the right attitude. I don’t know, as opposed to the other situations, where you try to slip your way in and if you don’t get what you want you try to sue somebody. Or you try to get a contract signed, you try to sneak in, or you stop doing what you committed to do. Or whatever that thing is. It’s insane to me. And like I said, it’s happened four times in the last six weeks. Dang. That people have done that. Where they feel like they deserve something, so they’re threatening to sue. Or they feel like they deserve something because they have a contract, they didn’t actually do what they committed to do, all these things. It’s just so frustrating to me. That’s not how I want to be remembered. I want to be remembered as a person who actually got what I earned, and I showed up and did what I said I was going to do and if I didn’t do what I said I was going to do, I didn’t take what I contractually signed to because the contract said, because I know inside my heart that I broke the contract. I didn’t do what I said I was going to do. I’m not someone who wants to come in and try to get what’s not mine through threats. It’s just ridiculous. I want to be the kind of person who someday I can tell my kids, I can tell my grandkids, hopefully someday a thousand years from now, someone’s going to watch this podcast. Someone in my posterity and be like, “Wow, great, great, great, great grandpa Brunson was a man of integrity. He actually did what he said he was going to do. When he didn’t earn something, he didn’t contractually trick somebody. ‘well, they got a contract so it kind of sucks.” No, I freaking gave it back to them because I didn’t earn it. And I took what I did earn. I hope that rings true to some of you guys. If it does it will be worth the rant for tonight. So I hope it does. And if you haven’t heard Nido Qubein speak, I’m going to try to find…I bought a bunch of his stuff back in the day, I wonder if I could find that presentation where he talked about that. Because it was so impactful for me just to hear that and realize that’s how we should be working. Just because the rest of the world shows up to work, falls asleep and gets a check every two weeks. Us, the people who are producers, who are moving forward, that’s not how we should look at things. We shouldn’t be okay with that when our team is doing that. We shouldn’t be okay when people around us are doing that. We need to earn what we earn and go out there and do the thing. That’s the goal. And if you do work your butt off and you do, do the thing, you do earn the money. Be proud of it. Don’t hide and be embarrassed, you actually worked your butt off and you deserve it. But don’t do it the other way around. Where you trick, cheat, scam, lie, whatever it takes to get what you think is yours because it’s not yours. You don’t actually deserve it. You should just be grateful for the opportunity. So that’s where I’m leaving this one. I’m grateful for the opportunity Pruvit gave me, excited……it’s funny, I should be so sick to my stomach about this, but I have no issues. I’m so excited to be giving back this equity in exchange for something that’s really cool, that’s a good fit. It’s good and I feel good about it, and I’m going to sleep really, really good tonight because of that. That’s what really matters. So hopefully that helps somebody. Hopefully my great, great, great grandkids are watching this and they straighten up when you hear it, because it’s important. That’s what I got. Thanks guys for listening, appreciate you all. Have an amazing day, bye.

RANT: Take What You Earned, Nothing More

Some awesome advice from Bart Miller as we were doing our late night walk. On this episode Russell talks with Bart Miller from his inner circle about immersing himself in the things he does instead of dabbling. Here are some of the cool things to listen for in today’s episode:  Find out how Bart made a commitment to get in shape and ended up winning awards for body building in under a year. Hear why both Bart and Russell have been able to really commit to things instead of dabbling. And find out how you could possibly see Russell standing on stage at Funnel Hacking Live in a Speedo!  So listen here to see why it’s so important to be an extremist when you set a goal to do something. ---Transcript--- Hey everybody, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome to Marketing Secrets podcast. I’m walking right now with Bart Miller. How you doing, man? Bart: I’m good, how are you guys? Russell: Doing awesome. We’re going to show you guys some cool stuff here after the intro. Alright, so we’re out here, it’s freezing cold out here. Bart: It is cold. Russell: Bart’s been in the inner circle now for a year and a half and I want to talk to you about him because he’s taught me some cool stuff, and I think it will help you guys as well. It makes it harder to walk and talk. It’s going to throw the whole thing…. Bart: Another level here going on, I love it. Russell: So I’m going to embarrass Bart, because he doesn’t even know what I’m going to ask, I just turned the camera on. First off, for background for those who don’t know, he runs a couple of businesses. What are the core things you usually run? Bart: So we have an Amazon business, we have a makeup school and Russell tries to keep me as focused as possible on those two things. So we’ll just say those. Russell: As he does everything else. The other ones he refuses to tell me about because I will tease him forever. So this is what I want to talk about. We hung out, when was it we went to Dallas? Bart: That’s been a year ago. Russell: So a year ago we went down there because we working on the beauty school and we filmed an episode of Funnel Hacker TV, which actually is the next episode, I don’t know if you knew that. Bart: I didn’t know that. Cool. Russell: The end of the last one said, “Up next week,” and it had that thing with Collette. Bart: How did I miss that, I watched it. Russell: It was after the credits. Anyway, next episode is going to be showing that whole story. It shows me wearing skinny jeans and bunch of other things. Bart: Which was amazing, by the way. Russell: Oh skinny jeans. Anyway, so what I think was interesting and why I love Bart so much, why I just wrote him a big huge check to come kick my butt is because after that, you’ve always been into fashion but that wasn’t your thing. We talked about it, “Okay, Bart you should be doing fashion for people.” And then he got intense and obsessed in it and just was awesome. And he basically at the last Funnel Hacking Live, dressed me, dressed half the inner circle and a bunch of other people. Then fast forward 7 or 8 months, since Funnel Hacking Live, when was it you decided you were going to get ripped and shredded and everything? Bart: So my son was leaving on an LDS mission, and I’ve been racing bikes for the last 7 years and I just always wanted fitness, because a lot of people think it’s easy to be fit all the time. And I’m here to tell you, and don’t tell my family this, but my mom’s obese, my sister’s obese, my dad’s obese, I know it runs in my family. I’m probably taking way too long here, but what I’m saying is, my son, I wanted to spend time with him before he was leaving and getting out of the house. That was a year ago, so I decided I was going to start lifting, and then Russell’s going to tell you I’m afraid, that I’m an extremist. Russell: Which is actually the moral of the story, this is a good thing, not a bad thing. Bart: So I get super extreme into things. And that’s why I hired Russell really, for inner circle to be honest with you. We’ll get into that, but anyway, I couldn’t take it anymore and I went after the best coach in the world in my space, which is physique and body building and I hired him. So I fly to California every month for a full week and I lift with him, then I fly home, implement it all and then I fly back and do more. I did my first show in California with him, did my second show in Boise. At the first show I won an overall, and 40+ category and took second in the 35+ category. So I was super, super stoked, blessed, but put all the hard work into motion, made it happen. Russell: Awesome. Okay the battery is about to die, I’m going to grab my phone and finish this because I still haven’t got to the point of what I want to share with you guys. Alright we’ll be right back. Alright the battery died, but now we got it back. So you missed our walk, it was really fun. Bart: It was amazing. Russell: Went four miles, it was awesome. So I don’t remember exactly where we left off, but it was somewhere between why I respect Bart and why you guys should listen to what he’s going to say right now. So my question, not my question, but my observation, I would love to get your thoughts on it, is just….the battery is going to die again now. We may go back to the phone in a second here. But it’s basically, when you go into something, you don’t dabble. Some people in life, they dabble, “I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this, or do this.” You’re like, “I’m going to get fit. I can’t remember if you talked about this or not, but you went and hired a weight lifting coach who lives in a different state, you fly out there one week a month, work out with him, come back, and then you sign up for body building competitions, all sorts of stuff. It wasn’t just like, “Oh I’m going to get in shape.” And then you do it for two or three days and then you quit like most people do, including this guy right here sometimes. You went insanely all in. I just think that that is cool and people should learn from that. Bart: Thanks, so one thing I’ll just tell you. The camera’s on and I’m a talker, Russell knows it. Russell: That one died as well. We’re back again, we’re on the new phone now. Bart: So you guys get the honor and the privilege to see Tony at his event coming up, which is why we’re getting fit. But on that note, I learned this from Tony Robins, he said, “If the pain doesn’t outweigh the pleasure, you’ll never be successful.” At the time I was like, are you kidding me? And I really didn’t understand it. And then he made it really clear. He said, “If you want to quit smoking, or you want anything in life, that if you’ll make something so painful, that you have to get there. Like you have to accomplish it.” For example, if I wrote a check for a half a million dollars, let’s say I was super wealthy like Russell. I wrote a check for an enormous amount of money to a charity that I absolutely detested, and if I failed at that, then XYZ could cash that check. That pain would outweigh me ever getting there. So the pain of me getting on stage and not looking my very best was enough to, I would give up anything. I never cheated on my diet or anything one time because I knew that if I failed, I couldn’t live with myself. Russell: You’d be embarrassed in a Speedo on stage. Bart: Totally. Well, not in a Speedo. Russell: And actually, by the way, when I started this process, he was like, “What is the thing that’s going to cause you the most pain?” I was like, “Honestly if I ever had to get on stage in a Speedo with a black tan, that would be the worst.” So if I don’t hit my goals, you guys will see me on stage. Bart: You’ll see Russell doing an event. And that’s the thing, if I could you any advice, it’s the same advice Tony did. So when I commit to something, I always tie it to “what’s the consequence”. And I shouldn’t be teaching this to Russell because now he’s going to do this crap to me. This is a horrible podcast. Don’t listen to this again. Anyway, the moral of the story is, you’ve got to put something there that helps you not just get there, but you’re going to make it because if you don’t this consequence is extreme for you. If you say you’re going to have a funnel every week and you don’t accomplish that, you need to have something so serious that there’s just no way you’re going to fail doing that. And that’s what I’ve learned in my life to push me to that next level, and that’s why I did it. Russell: That’s awesome. So I’ve seen Bart do it twice in two different things right now, and it’s super inspiring. In fact, it was like a year ago, when you came and worked out at my place the first time with Anthony here. You were just kind of doing some stuff. Then here today he was kind of taking the show, “Hey Russell, do this, do this.” I was like, dang. This is a different Bart in less than a year, which is insanely cool. But it’s because you go all in and you don’t dabble. It’s awesome. Bart: It’s like you said, immerge in yourself. It’s the same thing you teach, you don’t have to be only a few steps ahead of everybody else to be successful, but if you total immerse, it’s the same thing that Tony Robins preaches, and you’re the best at it. Russell commits to things he should never commit to. I mean it serious. Have you seen his life? Russell: My wife’s like, “Why are you doing this?” Bart: Yeah, but it’s the same thing I’m doing. He puts himself through so much pain that if he doesn’t get it done, he knows he’ll never accomplish it if he doesn’t do it. Just like taking this challenge right now. He does not have time to get ripped for Funnel Hacking Live, let’s be clear. But we’re out here at 10 o’clock at night. How many other people are sitting doing something else? And while we’re doing it, we’re creating a podcast. He utilizes time like crazy, it’s insane. But he does the exact same thing that he’s complimenting me for, but it’s the same model he runs every single day of his life. So learn from that and you’ll be super successful. Russell: There you go guys, you heard it here first. So thanks Bart for hanging out man, and for the walk and the workout, and for, I got a sweat belt on, this is sucking all the fat out of me. Dude, I’m going to be so ripped, it’s going to be amazing. And if not, you’ll see me in a Speedo, which would be the worst thing ever. Let’s all pray that I stick to my goals. Bart: Hey everybody, send him really clean food, nothing for the holidays, be nice. Russell: No junk food. This guy’s going to be gone my FHL. Anyway, if you don’t have your tickets yet, go to funnelhackinglive.com. Bart, you’re going to be there, hanging out for the party. Bart: Hanging out for sure. Russell: So when you’re there, grab him and pay him to help get you dressed nice and get you fit, it’ll be awesome. Anyway guys, appreciate you all. Thank you man, for hanging out. See you guys later. Bart: Bye

How To Dominate At Everything You Do

Be a fly on the wall during the ClickFunnels partner meeting and hear the #1 thing each of us learned on our journey so far. On this episode we get to hear from the entire Clickfunnels partnership team. They all share the big takeaways they have received as they have watched the company soar to over a hundred million dollars a year in revenue. Here are some of the cool things you will hear.  How Russell learned that having a great partnership and team was better than being on his own. Why Todd thinks it’s important to have someone who is obsessed with the product you’re selling. Why Dave thinks the Dream 100 is so important. How John prioritizes and delegates to make sure everything is done by the appropriate people. Why Brent thinks it’s important to stay small and nimble as long as possible and why you shouldn’t sweat the small stuff. And why Ryan believes that constraints are not a limiting factor, but what helps you focus and succeed.  So listen here to find out what the Clickfunnels partnership team members have learned that have lead the company to surpass their goal of a hundred million dollars in revenue a year. ---Transcript--- What’s up everybody, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Today is a special episode, we’re here above the ice right here, there’s hockey happening down there. But we’re in our partner planning meeting, here are all the cofounding partners of Clickfunnels, hanging out and plotting world domination. The theme of today’s event and the theme of this podcast is this: It comes from social network, millions of dollars isn’t cool. You know what is cool? A billion dollars. Alright everybody, so welcome back. We’re excited to have you guys here. We’ve been here locked up in this awesome office for the last day and a half planning world domination and how to make Clickfunnels better for you as a user, how to get more of you as users, so we can serve more people, more audiences and more entrepreneurs. It’s been really, really fun. We’ve been going around plotting and scheming and planning and creating and doing and a whole bunch of really fun stuff. So I thought we’d take a quick ten minute break here and I thought it’d be fun because we actually had a call yesterday with, I guess they’re not really competitors, a cool company that we like what they do. We’re potentially interesting in maybe buying them or whatever. It’s funny because they’ve been watching what we’re doing, obviously and he’s like, “You guys are what, 10 million dollars a year in revenue?” and we’re like, “No.” So in case you guys are wondering, we passed $10 million in revenue year one. We’re year three. So I thought it would be kind of fun to maybe look at this, a little bit ago, like 2 months ago we passed a hundred million in revenue. So we went from zero to a hundred million dollars in about 3 years. And I wanted to say what was the biggest aha that each of us individually got, that we’ve learned in that process. So you guys get ideas from everybody inside the team here. So just a really quick intro with everybody, then I’ll share my aha and then move on. So I’m Russell, I’m the nerd who is the dancing monkey who’s talking about Clickfunnels all day long. That’s what I do here. This is Todd Dickerson, he is the genius that built all of the original Clickfunnels and look at that beard, so manly. Over here, this is Dave, he’s all the business development stuff, he’s got the retro Clickfunnels shirt on. Then over here is John, he does all of our ads, and if you see us every day on every platform it’s because of that guy, so blame him. Over here we have Brent Coppieters, he does all our operations stuff and he’s going to be transitioning to a bunch of our new, something we can’t talk about live or publically yet. It’s going to be cool. And this is Ryan, what’s up Ryan. Ryan is the genius who is always coding. So I thought it would be fun to give you different people’s perspective, because obviously we’re all in different parts of the company, lifting different parts, doing different things, so I thought it’d be interesting to hear everybody’s ideas. So I’ll start with mine. So I think the biggest takeaway, I shared this last night with these guys, is as I was growing my business initially, the first 8 or 9 years I was very, I don’t know what the right word is, scarcity mindset or whatever. Where it’s like, I am Russell. I am the leader. I own the company, and all these things. And I think I had one or two deals with partners that went sour because I was like, I will never have a partner, I will only be me. It’s funny, with that mindset and that attitude, we were able to get to this level and we kind of camped out there. And I’m lucky for me, Todd came in. Trojan horsed his way in, where he basically worked for free for an entire year, which was awesome. And then we worked together for a couple of years. I don’t even know how many years it was ahead of time, a couple of years before that, and then we had the idea for Clickfunnels. We were sitting in an office in Boise, we bought the domain, we were going to call it something different and then we finally found Clickfunnels, we bought the domain, then for a whole week we were mapping out on the whiteboard everything. At the end of the week, and this is to kind of take you back, this is on the backend, we had 100 employees, the whole thing collapsed, we had to fire 80 people. I had to go from a 20 thousand square foot building to a 2 thousand and we could barely afford the rent. It was the most humbling, painful time of my life. I think that the Lord or whoever, whatever you want to call it, humbled me to a spot where I was willing to say yes to this. And I am so eternally grateful that I did. But at the end of that week Todd was like, “Okay, I’m going to go back to Atlanta. I’m going to build this thing, the Clickfunnels thing. But I don’t want to do it as an employee, I want to do it as a partner.” And the Russell two or three years earlier than that would have been like, “Um nope. This is the Russell show.” And I would have done something stupid like that. But luckily I was at a point where I was sufficiently humble. I was like, you know what I’m going to do that. And I’m so grateful that I did because then Todd built Clickfunnels. Holy crap, seriously. It’s insane. And then after that, that’s when we brought in these other guys as partners as well. They’re all rockstar people. It wasn’t just like, “I’m going to give you a base salary.” Or whatever. It was like, “Okay, come in and become a partner in this thing.” For me it’s like, as you find the right people and incentivize them….If I were to ever build a company again, I would never build a company where Russell’s the thing. We went and watched Justice League last night, so maybe this is because it’s in my head. Justice League, Avengers, Batman, whatever. I would literally, if I ever build a company again, the initial thought will be, I’m going to build my Avengers team, my Justice League. I’m Batman, there’s Iron Man, everyone’s got their spot. Ryan’s Wonder Woman, I just want to look like Aqua Man, that dude is ripped. But if I ever start a company again, the first thought will not be, what product should I sell? It will be what team should we assemble? And then I would carve out where everyone’s roles were going to be. I’m not going to be CEO next time, so any of you guys can pick that, I’m done after this. But we each pick our different roles and then from there, collectively, be like, “What should we create? What should we build? Who should we serve?” And then we’d go from that. So my biggest takeaway from going from zero to a hundred million dollars is definitely give up control, build your Avenger team ahead of time, because Russell Brunson could have never gotten here. It took these guys and the team we built to create that. Anyway, there’s my number one. So I’m handing it off to Todd now to share the biggest thing he’s learned from going from zero to a hundred million dollars. Todd: What’s funny is that I was actually thinking about saying very similar things. One of the biggest things is the team. Seeing how to build a team around you and actually do things as a team as opposed to by yourself independently. That’s how I’ve always done things in the past, on my own more or less, same type of scenario. But I think something else that stands out to me is having someone who is obsessive about the product itself. We always talk about how marketing is the big thing, and it is. But if you’re focused on the marketing, you still need someone on your team that is obsessed with the actual product. Making sure you’re delivering the best possible thing to people. So when you sell it to them, they actually like it and they come back and want more. So that’s my other big epiphany I think that I’ve had over the past… Russell: Especially in our world. Our world, everybody’s obsessed with marketing, rightfully so. A lot of times if you’re in the marketing and product, if you do them both, it’s really, really hard. I tried to build software companies in the past where I was like the marketing guy, plus trying to convince the developers how to do it. Whereas with this, you were able to run with the product and I could just sell. Todd: Absolutely. That’s why I think that’s worked as a great partnership. Russell focuses on the marketing and I focus on the product. And I think having that really makes a difference. Pass it on to Dave here. Dave: Hey there. So we talk about this all the time and I cannot express the importance of it, and that’s the Dream 100. So I took a look back on everything that’s happened as far as first of all having an amazing product and then amazing leaders, and then Todd and Russell, the two of them are amazing together. I think the part for me, is I look at everything we’ve built over the last three years now, is the importance of the Dream 100. Originally Dream 100, as far as affiliates, and even most recently when we did the book launch, what I really learned a lot from that was the importance of understanding it’s a Dream 100 per platform as well. So as far as your influencers, where are they at? Are they on YouTube, are they on Facebook, are they on Twitter, or are they in Instagram? Wherever they might be. And then as recently, as far as, a new Dream 100, as far as hiring partners that you really want to end up working with long term. So for me, I think the most important thing is when you start looking at building something, is really identifying your Dream 100 and then being very, very consistent in continuing to mail out every single month to them. Establishes and builds that relationship with them, they get used to seeing you. It’s been fascinating as we’ve gone out and traveled and go to these different places and people remember the boxes and things that have been sent. And they’re like, “Oh, how do I get on that list?” And if they’re asking to be on the list, I don’t need them on the list, I don’t need them basically. But the reality basically says that it actually works. So I would say, in building a hundred million dollar company, and any size company I would definitely say Dream 100 is one of the most important things. John, up to you. John: Alright, so a really interesting journey we’ve been on. It’s been so much fun. One of the things that I’ve learned which is just huge, is prioritizing your time and your tasks. I mean, especially when we’re all internet entrepreneurs, we’re on the computer, it’s so easy. The computer is a gateway to anything. So a huge thing for me is to, before even opening the computer, physically write down or use your phone or use something else that’s not your computer, to structure out. We all do this, Russell does this, I do this. We structure out what we’re going to do.What are the next things I need to do? Because if you can get that basically spiritually created, if you can get that thought through before you actually begin, then it changes everything. Then you’re actually getting through stuff instead of just fumbling along. It’s so easy because we’re all bombarded with a million different things, we could be paying attention to a million different things. Only some of which are really going to move the needle. And the other thing is, especially as you grow your team, as you get more people working with you, it’s about….So I build out that list and then the next thing I ask myself as I go through that list is, “Okay, who can do this? Who can I get to do this? Who can I get to do this?” And that specific question, as I go through the list, as who can I get to do this, that allows me to go through and delegate as much as possible to team members, so then I become more of a leader. Because it’s so easy to just be like, I could just do it all. Yeah, you can probably. But maybe you shouldn’t be doing it all. You know, that’s something to think through. So build out that list, really think through it before you start to take action in the day, prioritize it and then go through and glean through the list and be like, “Who can get to do these things.” Assuming you’ll be doing none of them. Of course there will be a handful that you end up doing, but that way it’s just a mindset that will help you get things delegated properly. Here you go Brent. Brent: Awesome. Hey everybody, it’s good to connect with you. I just want to express how much we appreciate you. Everybody who follows us, who’s obviously dedicated listeners of Russell’s program. It’s funny, more and more as we travel with Russell, even locally here in the Boise area, he’s getting like, people recognize him all over the place. They see the jeep, or they see him in the hallway of the hotel and they’re like, “Hey, I’m your neighbor.” Just these random……Albertsons…..it’s just funny. Anyway, a couple of things. I’ve had the privilege of working with Russell for over 11 years and the one thing I think that you just cannot replace, or that’s absolutely needed is hard work. You have to be dedicated in getting this business and be willing to sacrifice what you need to sacrifice to get going. Another thing that I think we’ve learned through this journey is stay nimble and small as much as you can. Don’t go out and try to lease some big office space until you’ve got sales coming in, consistent sales, your business is in good shape that way. Another thing that we’ve kind of followed here in our company is we’ve been slow to hire and quick to fire. Building a team, and Russell’s done a tremendous job of this, obviously we’ve got great partners here. And then that has extended to our team members. Again, we love all our team members. We are essentially a great family of likeminded individuals who are focused on a goal. And the leadership in this company has helped us all work to achieve that goal. So that’s been awesome as well. So stay small as long as you can, be nimble, be humble, but you gotta work hard. Once you do those things, don’t sweat over the small things. We’ve had different variations of an employee handbook, and I’m just finally getting it out here in the next few weeks. And we’ve been in business three years. So don’t stress about the mistakes. We were somewhere, we were at an event in Denver a few weeks ago, it was related to customer support, and that’s very normal. For small startups, that’s very normal. Those things just come, but don’t worry about those little details. They work themselves out. But work hard and you’ll achieve that success. So I will hand this over to my buddy, Ryan. Ryan: So I love talking about this topic, and I think it’s best summarized as, “Worse is better.” You can do a lot more than you think. Gary V told us that when we met with him on the social media side. We’re like, “We already do everything, we already do a ton, we’re on everything.” He’s like, “You can do more.” And I think this is true on everything we do in engineering, everything we do when it comes to product. You’ve heard it in every single answer from everybody to some degree. But I think the killer, underlining subtext to all that, is that constraints are not a limiting factor. They force you to focus, the focus forces you to prioritize, that forces you to do the one thing everyday that’s most valuable so that you can compete with somebody who’s got 40 million dollars in funding and you’ve got three guys in an office trying to figure it out because it makes you laser focus on the thing you have to do every single day. That’s what enables you to compete at a higher level, that’s what enables, and I believe the most important thing we’ve done in our culture is force everybody, from hiring decisions, to business processes, don’t worry about the handbook, don’t over complicate this, simplify this. Because those constraints are what make us as powerful as we are and what enable to be a hundred million dollar company with a hundred people. To grow to a billion dollars with fewer resources and a fraction of the budget and everything else. Everyone else who’s competing with us, they have no idea how we do it. They’re all like, “Wait, how many engineers do you have? How do you do this? How big are you?” it blows their mind and I think that’s the thing they miss. Those constraints are what enable us to do it. Our weaknesses are our strengths and people see them backwards. And we see it the opposite. That’s why everyone’s so blown away and why nobody gets it. I think that’s our secret sauce in many ways. So I love that. That’s our thing. That’s what I learned, that blew my mind. Russell: That’s awesome. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Its fun hanging out and we just want to thank you guys so much for allowing us to serve you and serve your audience. We love what we do. We’re obsessed, we’re passionate, we’ve been up for the last two days going crazy trying to figure out ways to do it better. You know, for us, a lot of people say, “You guys made it to a hundred million. That’s crazy.” That’s step number one for us. We’re just getting started, wait until you see what’s going to be coming out over the next twelve months and beyond. We love you guys, we appreciate you, we’re so grateful for the ability and the right and the gift we have to be able serve you guys in what you guys do. So thanks again so much for everything and we’ll talk to you guys soon, bye everybody.

Bonus Episode - Why Entrepreneurs Suck At Vacations

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