I help talented coaches attract premium clients at premium prices, so they can quickly and reliably build a 6-figure business doing what they love. Visit https://www.WilliamWinterton.com to see my exact process!
Today I had the AMAZING honor and privilege of talking with Steve Larsen.
For two years, Steve was the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels for Russell Brunson, and put over 500 sales funnels under his belt (but honestly, lost track a while ago).
Eventually, he left ClickFunnels as an employee to get his own 2 Comma Club Award and his business crossed $1 million 13 months later.
His podcast, Sales Funnel Radio, was created to share best practices, teach the finer points of marketing and “funnelology”.
In today’s conversation, Steve shares a little of his backstory and how he eventually (by default) became the lead coach/trainer at a multi-million dollar company.
He then goes into detail about how to create an offer that is PROVEN to attract clients. It’s a strategy that he has used with hundreds of clients, time and time again and he lays it out so cleanly, the AH-HA moments start exploding one after another after another!
If you want to learn more about Stephen (including why he’s wearing that tee-shirt) check out this link:
https://www.stevejlarsen.com
Connect with WilliamFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/william.winterton.7LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-winterton/TRANSCRIPT:
William Winterton Alright, I'm here on Coaching Success Radio. And I'm super stoked, because today I've got Steve Larson on, and I get a big show at the beginning here to kind of explain who he is. I would love to hear from you, man, who is Stephen Larsen,
Stephen Larsen Someone who is still developing himself. (laughs)
No… it's been fun. I first started out I was kind of an entrepreneur by not by choice, you know what I mean? I don't think many people, many kids grew up thinking like, you know, when I grow up, I'm going to be an entrepreneur, like it's just not a normal thing. But turns out, it's incredibly fun. And something that I was kind of thrown into when I found out I couldn't feed my lady, right, I can feed my new brain and stuff kind of hit the fan. And it was really rough for a long time. And I went through I recounted recently. It was my first 17 tries, didn't really work very well. And I went from everything from like, selling stocks and options, the real estate and diamonds and ebooks and daughter of sales. And I mean, I did a lot of stuff. And then I found out this thing called funnels, right, this funnel world was amazing. And it was about try number 17. And it was another 16 or 17 they weren't all failures, but it was like none of them were like the screaming successes, you know, it wasn't for another 16 or 17 to one was like, Whoa, holy cow, you know. So anyway, I've left my job as a ClickFunnels funnel builder and been doing on my own. And it's been awesome.
William Winterton I think people anybody who's not aware, Sales Funnel Radio is a phenomenal resource. And it's just, you're basically telling your life through this podcast, right?
Stephen LarsenYeah.
William WintertonDocumenting your journey. So what I'd love to get into- because of a lot of our audience, we're talking to coaches, people who are just starting out in the coaching world, or people who are coaches and trying to figure out how this game works and how to actually make money in this. You'd kind of became a coach and that really wasn't your intention… I don't think in the beginning, but you somehow got handed this thing I think by Russell, probably, like, I need you to coach, all these people. And you had no idea the magnitude that's going to get to. Talk us through that story a little bit.
Stephen Larsen But yeah, totally. So it actually was I've only been working for Russell for about almost two years. And it was probably six months in, we were at his old office, and we're sitting there and, you know, we sat literally back to back almost can see his face in the reflection of my monitors, you know, which freaked me out for a while I was like, Dude, don't say anything stupid.
This is amazing, you know. And after a little while, though, he was on with his inner circle, he gets off, and he muted and he turned his camera off that is kind of like, here's a full day coaching and relax for a second I go, dude,, you're saying the same thing, basically, to every single person.
And he was like, I was like, kind of funny to get is kind of funny. And he's like everything from a supplement to a makeup business to it's like crazy. E-com to info business to retail to it was like, I was like you're saying the same thing?
And I was like, What if we created something between you and then so that you can take them from, you know, here and up instead of all the way from the ground all the way up. So what I did is I started going through like 12 years of his content and took me six months to organize it. And I said from this minute and second to this minute. Second, you're talking about this.
But really, you should know these things before you know that and it was like this huge trail and it took a long time. And anyway, I begged to be we put into this members area, we made an event around it. And I begged to be the guy to go on stage and Russell couldn't. And they're like, oh, okay, we'll see. I don't know, but like, I wanted it real bad. And I begged and I, you know, played the game how I needed to and made sure I like getting my myself in there. And I had to be the guy to teach when Russell can get on stage. And that's when Steve was born. Right? That's when Steve Larson was born, I started finding my voice.
And we all thought that I was going to be teaching and like, we thought I'd be teaching marketing. I was not planning on being a coach, I had no interest in being a coach. Nothing against it. It's just I was like, I'm really into funnels, you know, and I go and I'm standing on the stage and I start realizing that I'm teaching these models that work. But once they understand it, the real work begins because now they're going to start working to execute the model. That's where they need the coaching. And we all thought I'd be doing this like marketing stuff. And it wasn't I ended up helping them get through their own garbage.
So they can even execute the model in the first place. And then, later on, it was the One Funnel Away challenge and Russell's like, dude, your DNA is built for this, you yell at people without them knowing you're yelling at them. And I was like, well, then one foot away started. And that's kind of how it happened. And that's the biggest thing I've realized as coaches. It's, it's, I mean, yes, we teach him like these cash models, but that's not why they fail. doesn't work for me. Yeah, but that's not why it's not gonna work for you. It's not gonna work for you. Because, you know, like, you haven't worked through enough of your garbage, Steven, execute that model. That's kind of what happened.
William Winterton Yeah, so no, like, it's totally a very unconventional approach. Because a lot of people that I'm talking with I work with, they go through and have a ton of training, they learn to become a life coach or health coach or fitness coach, and they go through the halls coaching training. At the end of the day, your main goal is to get somebody from here to here, and you're just you've got a kind of a very unconventional approach to that in terms of like, Look, you know, I'm not taking it I've actually enjoyed listening to kind of you don't you don't take anybody's crap, like, yell at people very nicely, but like, I'm not dealing with it. So it's, it's a thing where you're now it kind of leads me to like the authority of offer creation.
That's kind of where you've landed, man, you got to be the coach. Right? You still coaching though, but your main, kind of where you're, your sleepless landings at offer creation? talk about that a little bit? I know, that's kind of where your passion is. So
Stephen Larsen Yeah, you know, everything, everything. can't sell anything without an offer. Right? So how do you craft that without, so it can be attractive and something that people get psyched about when they see it. And there's a lot that goes into that is, the better people can understand. This is true for coaches as well, you know, the better you can understand behavioral psychology, like why we make the decisions we do, the better coach you'll be. And the better marketer you actually end up being that actually, coaches and marketers are very similar with skill sets, in my opinion. So what's interesting is, like, as I go to these offer creation methods.
I mean, they've worked for hundreds and thousands of people and so many people made a million dollars off the moon so so like, Man, I'm not gonna lie. Like the reason, I started yelling was out of pure frustration after a while. It wasn't like a stick. It was, and I'm getting a little impatient with this person who keeps asking, but will it work it for me and I have responded for 15 minutes, say, Yes, just do it. But I'm in a unique scenario, what? You found a way to negate 100,000-year-old brain like you have one to it works also.
And so I started coming up with these rules for coaching. Right, like, I will put in as much as you put in, I will, and a lot of it came from Sean Stephenson actually. I was listening to him at the first phone hacking lab I went to and he was teaching the Coast Guard mantra. And he's like, you're right. And I know you I'm sure you've heard it right there. They go out and helicopter and there's a ship sinking and as more bodies in the water than his room and helicopter gut-wrenching decisions, who do you save, and he's like, you save those as swimming towards you. Right. And for a long time, I felt responsible for every single person that was coming in. And when I heard that, I was like, oh, man, I gotta stop.
And so putting the ball back in their court. Look, here's your host. I'm teaching you how to make the money that way. But be prepared, because you're gonna have a lot of obstacles, you know, was a Robert Kiyosaki. And he's like, the moment you start down any journey, you're going to have these character flaws explode in your face, and you got to address them before we can move on. So it's funny because I love teaching the offer creation. But when I do, I mean only keeps in a few of the models right now. But it's just because I teach him and then I observe the behavior of the individual. And you go back and like Oh, man. Anyway, I love offer creation. It's amazing. It's the core and the heart of why we market but I've really, can you
William Winterton Would you mind? I'm going to jump in here real quick. Can you Would you mind kind of walking us through offer creation of a very amazing term… it's very broad, somebody who doesn't understand it fully. We talked about having to build your offer, we talked about having to have your ideal client stuff, can you give us kind of a little snippet of a, you know, like Steve Larsen genius in that.
Stephen Larsen Hopefully his genius Oh, man.
Let me get some paper here.
So we have to understand is like, so many times people… I feel like the way people made offers even five years ago was they would just start bundling stuff. And they'd be like, well, let's put this product in this product and this product and this product… and a lot of people would start assembling these offers, were the products inside the offer was just tons of stuff, right? It just stuff stuff, stuff, stuff. And a lot of it wasn't even related.
So what I do, that's made it so unique is it's a combination of so marketing is just changing people's beliefs. So that they go buy something, right? That they're already in motion to buy. That's all marketing is. It's not logos and slogans, it's not cute little as nothing that business cards, I hate business cards.
It's just, it's just changing beliefs with the intent of a sale. So what's interesting about my offer creation method is that it kind of incorporates that, and addresses the product of the same time. Anyway, so what I do, first of all, is I imagine my, my customer, and I'm like, let's think about this customer here, this customer, they're already momentum towards something, and they're already feeling pain. A lot of old-school copywriting courses would teach things like, you need to go and talk about the issues that your customer has, that they don't know they have so that you can then bring your solution. And there's some truth to that. But they already have problems though.
And I want to sell somebody who is consciously aware of the problem that they have so that I don't have to create it, it actually kills half of the work that was taught like in the previous 10 years around copywriting, it shortcuts it like crazy, you don't need to do that. Just go and figure out. So my dream customer is somebody who is already a few things, they're already in pain, and they're conscious of that pain. They're already spending money that has been one of the most powerful criteria is ever, they're already aware of other solutions that are out there.
And they've actually tried them. So huge. They already are consciously seeking another option. Right. And these are like, this is like a lot of things that I go and I think through before I even think about an offer, like sales message, offer funnel that comes like step 99. To be honest, what I do first is get ridiculous clarity on the who. And once I know the who this parts really fun and it's really at the foundation of how I create the offer. Every single customer that's out there has all these best problems, right? Or things they need solving. All I'm going to do is I'm going to start listing out problems.
Now it's a gift. You know, like when you go to like, I say get Click Funnels. Okay, how many things did you have to solve in order to actually use Click Funnels?
Right, like, I gotta learn how to write copy, right? I had to do that, you know, I remember the froze like, man, I can make a sales video, what kind of camera you know, or I gotta do this so that all these problems start popping up in order for you to actually have success. Right? And every single solution that you sell, somebody actually causes more problems. And that's, it's crazy to realize that and it's actually a gift to entrepreneurs.
So all I do is I think through all these problems that this customer currently has and what they're wanting, and then I rank the problems is actually I do it. I called this called the core problem planner. That's what I call me. And, and I'm like, Oh, you know what, because not all problems pay me the same, I could solve the problem how to put groceries into a bag at the end of the checkout line. But that's not a very valuable problem to solve.
Right?
Right, I'm going to solve a problem that's a combination of super valuable for them, but also expensive and valuable for me so that I can get paid a lot. So engineering, this offer to create a lot of cash before, like before even think about the offer is I want to know at the heart of what I'm solving it's reason click falls can charge what they do. They solve an issue that is highly valuable. That and legitimately for both sides. And so at the beginning, before even think about a solution, I just want to know what problem I'm going to dedicate my entire business to solve. That is how I figured out the foundation of my offer.
Now all I do is think about my one solutions, one solution that I call the core solution, one core solution. And this is this part super fun and easy as well. So I think about one core solution. And then I start thinking about like, well, what are the follow-up problems that that solution creates, such as Click Funnels crap, now I needed to figure out what a sales letter is. Right? Then all I do is I think through little tiny mini solutions for all the following problems I can think of. And that becomes my offer, that becomes the stack slide as we call it. And that's it. And now it's coming and problem derives rather than what should I go create, which is what college taught me. So backward. I'm not the one buying it. Who cares? Right?
William Winterton Yeah, you're not your ideal client at all?
Stephen Larsen No, yeah. So that's how we bed. So very fast.
William Winterton That's how we got. And that's great. And I think that's the thing we get so wrapped up in and I talked to coaches all day long. And they're their biggest thought, at least a lot of them are, I've got to get more training, I've got to learn how to do this better. I've got to become a better coach, I've got to do all this stuff. And it's like they learned they learned they learned that perpetually schooling and learning. And it's awesome because they're continually you know that they're feeding that right? When it comes out to, you know, creating something, the number of times I see people who are like, Hey, I'm a life coach and a health coach.
And that's what they say you're like, Yeah, but what do you Who do you serve? What's your Fix? Right? Yeah. So so what you just laid out and how people are realizing this, this is what you're laying out is is so key to actually making your coaching business work. Yeah, get offered place, you're just another face in the crowd Really?
Stephen Larsen So true. Before even thinking about what you do, I was thinking about who you want to serve. In fact, that's where I got stuck for years as I was like, what products I sell, what should I sell? What should I sell? And it was like something I kind of whipped myself with for years. It wasn't until I switched it that actually started making money. I mean, it was that stark of a switch.
And instead of saying, What do I sell, it's, who do I sell? And when I got clear on that, what to sell was actually chosen by the who knows, like, Oh, that's way easier. I don't have to be this prolific, creative genius, and make something that no one has ever seen, like college and mainstream entrepreneurship teaches. That's false. And others like us, we just have to the game ever.
William Winterton Nice. Hey, Steve, I would keep you on here for another hour too, because I just feel like I just suck value out of you all day long. I have to respect your time. I know you got like a minute left probably the most. Is there anything that I have not asked you that would just be for a coach who is maybe not brand new, but maybe has been stuck? Maybe they've been going for a couple of years? And they're just stuck? Is there something you would just throw at them for? Can you also lose a little bit?
Stephen Larsen Yeah, hundred percent what I realized my role is and kind of for some of it offends some people, man, I'm not trying to offend anybody. I just this is what I learned was that you know, I was in high school, I was 35% body fat. I had a double chin working on a triple, right. I was a big boy. I was getting picked on. I got straight D's I pretty much I got mercy graduated from high school, I went to college I got kicked out because I got pretty much straight F's. And I to wait for years to go back to reapply. I was told that I probably have ADHD, which that's not confirmed that I don't really care anymore. But whatever.
Like I had a near clinical fear of speaking to adults, especially I would see an adult down the hall and I would walk the other way physically freaked me out. I had some real issues. And I would call myself like the least likely success story. So what the thing I had to realize is that funny enough when that counselor that was going to he's like you probably have ADHD, it became another whip. Oh, man, you're I don't qualify anymore. Like, I can't be I already knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
I can't be an entrepreneur anymore because of Look at all this evidence. Look, I got kicked out. Look I got right. And it wasn't until I realized that. That man, those are gifts. Like every single thing in my life that has been bad. I've had to face and until I actually consciously faced it, it became a strength. And now Funny enough, one of the things I'm known for, and I'm like,
What?
So what's funny, this is what I realized my role as a coach is it's just this and I know why people ask what they do now, right? They my role of a coach is to teach these cash models, right? This is what they want. This is what they want what they need, is this, right? And they're going to go through some serious crap along the way. And they need to realize that the obstacle is the way Ryan Holliday quote and actually keep a coin on my desk that says the obstacles away as a reminder, I ended up learning how to learn four years later went back to college almost got straight A's the whole time, right little coin obstacles the way. And on the back says the impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way and I freakin' love this right.
And I went I lost tons of weight and started competing in sprint triathlons and placing in them. I learned how to speak you wouldn't know that I was afraid of speaking now. Right? It was by me. Like they want whatever you're coaching them for. But what they need is to realize that all this crap in their life, all these reasons why they feel like they're unqualified, or the very reason they'll be followed in the future. But most of them don't get it. And so what happens is, while I'm in the middle of my coaching, and I'm teaching this, but I'm starting to observe this, they start doing some of these things. Oh, Stephen.
I just don't have the time right now. You know, I just wish that I or Stephen, you know, I so wish right now, like, I can't do this because of this, right? And they want me to say yes. And the moment I say yes, I release them, I release them. And it's why I started yelling. Because they would look at me. And they'd be like, well, Stephen, what this. So this only works for those will be like three weeks into the one phone away challenge. So you're saying this, this only works than for the scenarios, right? What is wrong with you, right? I've gone over this time and time again, talk asked me to let you go cuz I'm not going to, which means you are going to let you go.
So you face you in the mirror next time. And that's what's so funny. And people would like to poop their pants half of them will leave. But we're left with these people who are ready to actually face the crap in their life obstacles the way and realize that, and the funnel we launched last week, I'm still using the same principles that I learned six years ago, has nothing to do with the model anymore. It has everything to do with how far I'm willing to grow and face my obstacles and find the next one to find the next one and read it develop me keep the goal what it is and break me on the goal. Don't change the goal, break me on it and keep building me on it. And I keep killing all these nasty character flaws that I didn't know I had. And that's what people run into. And so when you're coaching somebody, whatever it is, that's what I'm watching for, as I'm watching for this logical release that they want me to give so I can justify them bowing out and I'm like not going to do it. Not going to do it. I'm going to make you feel the heat. Right. And anyway, but that's what I remember the obstacles away.
William Winterton That's awesome, man. Awesome. See you guys been a pleasure. Thanks so much for jumping on. And hey, I'd love to have you back at some point. Whenever your schedule freezes up for the next you know, 35 days.
Stephen Larsen You're the man Dude, this has been awesome. Love to be on the show.
William Winterton Thanks so much.
