How Do We Get CERTAINTY As Entrepreneurs?

In this episode, Russell and Alison answer the question "How do we get CERTAINTY as entrepreneurs?"

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---Transcript---

Russell Brunson:

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets podcast and we are getting to the end of the Q A's from the ECON versus experts smack down. They've been so much fun. I should do more Q A's. Do you guys enjoy these? If so, let me know and we can try to do more of these live. I was nervous about doing them and I had the time in my life doing them. So this next one is really good question. The question is how do we get certainty as entrepreneurs? Even us entrepreneurs or risk takers, right? By definition, we don't live in certainty. We are jumping off the cliff trying to go crazy and do these different things. But the certainty is also what gives you the ability to move forward and to be okay with the risking and trying. And so there's this yin yang between those two things, right?

Certainty and risk and entrepreneurship and how do they all work together? And so this was from a young entrepreneur who had just dropped out of college and was taking the risk, but then like craving certainty and was like, "what do we do and how does it work?" And so I hope that this question helps any of you guys who are in that situation where you know to be a successful entrepreneur, you got to be a risk taker, but you also need certainty in your life. In between those two things, how do they all work together? So hope that this question helps you guys. And with that said, we'll key the theme song. When we get back we'll find out how to get certainty as an entrepreneur.

Brent Coppieters:

All right. This is from Pietro. And his question, "Is it normal to feel like you are you having too many callings in life? Being called out to serve too many different dream customers?"

Alison Prince:

Oh my gosh. Are you guys watching his face?

Russell:

Yeah, what up dude!?

Brent:

There he is.

Russell: How are you doing?

Alison:

I've seen your comments come in like fire. So I'm so glad you got called to a hot seat. This is so fun.

Russell:

Can we turn his audio on? I want to hear him.

Alison:

I was so enthralled in watching him, I forgot what the question was.

Brent:

If he un-mute himself, we can do it.

Russell:

Yeah. Un-mute yourself we can hear you.

Pietro:

Oh My God. Guys. This is the second best day of my life.

Alison:

Wait, what's the first thing?

Pietro:

I’m so fired up!

Russell:

What was the best day of your life?

Pietro:

When I decided to drop out of uni. So university. And start my own business.

Russell:

Nice.

Pietro:

Six months ago. Not telling anyone to do that, but I'm proud of it. I'm just proud of it.

Russell:

That's awesome. So the question then is you feel like you're called to serve a whole bunch of people and you don't know which who to serve first. Is that the question?

Pietro:

Yeah, kind of. So the first part of the question is, how do we get certainty as entrepreneurs? I mean, we are risk takers and having certainty it's completely opposite. It's really hard. Especially for me dropping out, having everyone against me in this choice, but still being able to actually come up with something in a relatively short period of time. And yeah. I mean there's risk and there's certainty, but they don't go together.

Russell:

Yeah. So certainty doesn't come from, I'm going to be certain, Certainty comes from.... I'm a wrestler. So for me, certainty came from me stepping out on the mat, shaking the person's hand and going to war, over and over and over and over again. And guess what? First few times I got beat up, I got beat up. I got beat up. I got beat up and then I started getting better. I started getting better and then I won and then I went again. I want again. And then I lost again. And Certainty is crafted in the fire. Right? And so wanting to get certainty before you step into the fire is not going to happen. Cause you got to step out and be like that guy wants to kill me. I want to kill me. I step up to the mat and here we go. And you get the certainty by stepping into the fire, shaking hands, and going for it.

And so, that's what's hard just because it's... There's a book in our church it's called Faith Precedes the Miracle, right? You want the miracle, but you can't wait until I'm going to get the miracle eventually, I know faith precedes the miracle. You got to have faith to take that step before the miracle shows up, before the certainty shows up. And so you have to go in there and it's hard because it's like, what's going to happen? What if I fail? What if I, what? And you might fail you, are probably going to fail. Most people fail the first and second and third, the fourth fail. Mine did. Right? But it's like, okay. I believe in the process. I believe in the path. I believe in my calling, therefore I'm going to step out there and I'm going to get beat up. And then I'm going to step out there again and get beat up. Step out there again and get beat up. And keep doing it over and over and over again until you start winning.

And that's when certainty starts coming. That's when you start feeling comfortable and it keeps growing. Me seven years ago, I thought I had certainty, right? My very first Funnel Hacking Live I thought I had certainty, right? I look back now at that little kid who was like, what were you doing on stage teaching people about stuff? You were an idiot back then. Right? And so my certainty gets better and it gets better because I keep going into the fire and into the fire and it gets stronger and stronger and stronger. And so just knowing right now, six months ago, you probably have more certainty now than you did six months ago. Cause now you stepped out in there, right? Okay. In six months from now it's going to be better.

Pietro:

Yeah.

Russell:

It's going to be better. But it's just continuing to step into the fire. To go out there and go for the next match. The next opponent. The next person. And every time you do it, win, lose or draw. That's how you build and how you forge your certainty.

Pietro:

I bought "The Out within the Battle" book yesterday and I read it all. And I find myself going on the faith path. But having on my shoulder a shit ton load of fear and it's like, oh gosh! What am I going to do now?

Russell:

Yeah.

Pietro:

And What if I cannot pay the rent this month? And wow.

Russell:

Yeah. Okay. This is good. Yeah, because those are real fears. Yeah. I had a friend who was a chiropractor and he had spent his entire however many years going to chiropractic school. And then he opened a practice and he bought all the equipment and all this stuff. Right. And he started launching the practice and then nobody showed up. He kept trying and kept trying and trying. And over, I don't know, however many months. And then a year. It got worse and worse. The point where he was down to the bottom. And I still remember because it was 11 at night he called me, woke me up. He's like, "dude, I need some help." I'm like, wait. It's like my company's failing. I'm going to declare bankruptcy. And he's freaking out. He's say, come and help me. I need, I need one of your marketing secrets.

And I was like, oh, okay. So I get up, I get my clothes on. I drive to his practice, we sit down and he tells me like all this stuff. And again, he's waiting for me to be like, here's the nugget. Send this email to your list and you will magically be rich. And I told him, dude, I got nothing for you except for this. What is the worst case scenario? Worst case happens, what is it? And he's like, I don't know. I'm like, you have to face that fear in the face and you have to become okay with it. If you can't become come okay with the worst case scenario, you're going to have it. And you know, the monkey on your back is there, but you try not to face it, but you always have this fear of it being there.

And because of that, it's going to keep you from taking the steps you need to take. You got to be able to look at the worst case scenario and become completely okay with that. I said, so what's worst case scenario? He's like worst case scenario, I have to declare bankruptcy. I'm like, cool. And why would that be so bad? He's like, because then I lose my house. Okay. Then what would you move to? He's like another house. I'm like, okay. And then what would happen? "Well, my in-laws would think I was a failure to their daughter." I'm like, okay. Are you okay with that? "Well I guess that's okay." And then what else? So he lists out all the worst case scenario. So I'm like, okay. So if everything fails, that's what's going to happen. You're going to lose your house.

You're going to have to move out. Your in-laws might think that you're a failure for a little bit, but then you have a chance to rebuild. Can you be okay with those things? And it took us a while util, he was like, "Okay. I think I can do that." And I said, okay, now you have the ability to move forward. And that was it. I left. The next day he came out and he's said, "I was able to now start making good decisions and step forward because if I fail, I was okay with that." And that's the key. It's interesting. Have you seen... Sorry, Batman reference. Have you seen the third of the Batman series where he's fighting Bane? So remember he breaks his back, puts him in this pit and he's down in the pit and he is getting the hill up and no one's ever escaped this pit.

Right? It's like climb up this thing to get out of this pit. And it's almost impossible. And when they do is they tie rope around their waist and they go and they try to jump out of the cliff to get out. Right. And there're rumors that one person ever, ever escape from this pit. Right. And everyone talking about the rumors. And finally this old guy tells Batman's, the only person ever escaped from the pit was little kid. And they did it because they didn't put the rope around their waist. And so Batman and the guy said, the problem is that they have this rope around the waist and they're jumping, knowing , I've got this safety net, right. We talked about burning the bridges. I have rope, that's going to keep me here. And so they kept jumping, but because they have the rope, they know that they're going to okay.

And they don't go hard enough. And so Batman decides, okay, I got to do this. He cuts the rope off, climbs up freestyle and then leaps. And this time he is like my life depends on this. I have nothing holding me back. I've got nothing. Worst case scenario, I'm dead and I'm okay with that. Let's go for it. And he jumps, catches the thing. Gets it out escapes. Saves the world saves Gotham and he's Batman. So, but the moral of that is, if we have this rope that's holding us back we're not going to take the leap we need to do. So we've got to stop look back and say, I'm okay with that. Okay. I've had three or four times in my business career that have been ups and downs. And when the downs are happening is when I started freezing up. And it was me getting very clear with myself saying, okay, worse case scenario that happens.

Am I okay with that? Can I deal with that? If that happens, what's my life going to look like? When you look at it, it's actually not that bad. Yeah, it'll be annoying, embarrassing. But, it's really not that bad. I'm not dying. You're like okay, cool. I can deal with that. Okay. Now rope's gone. I can jump. And now you have a chance to do it. And maybe you do fail. Maybe you do go bankrupt. That's okay. It happens. That's the greatest thing about this country is the bankruptcy laws. The founding fathers, who I believe are inspired from God gave us these rules saying worst case scenario, you lose everything.

It's not like you get thrown in jail for the rest of your life. You have a chance to reset and start over. Right. Most entrepreneurs I know who have been successful, have gone bankrupt. At least once, most of them multiple times. It's not the end of the world. So become okay with the worst case scenario and then go out there and live your calling, live your mission, jump without a rope and have some success. So, that would be my recommendation. I don't know if you want to add anything to that but.

Pietro:

That was awesome.

Alison:

Yeah. That was really, really good. One thing that I've seen entrepreneurs do and I do it all the time is, I think I need to be here, when I actually just need to take that first step. So you were talking about, you have a lot of different things that you want to do and you don't know what you want to do. So you're trying to figure out how to put them all into one thing and it's overwhelming. Right? I believe that God only gives me a half step. I don't even get a full step. I get a half step. He's just saying, will she take it? Will she take it? When I started e-commerce if I would've seen this big vision of me standing on stage with Russell Brunson,

Russell:

I don't want to do that

Alison:

I wouldn't have not started.

Russell:

I'm out. I'm out.

Alison:

Yeah. My brain could not handle that. So I wasn't given this big, huge dream. Mine was just a half step and a half step. And that helped me to create the clarity of where I needed to go. And as I look back over it, I'm so glad it was just given to me step by step. Half, step by half step. Because if I would've gone out sprinting and I'm sprinting in the wrong direction, that's a heck of a lot more of a boat change or a run change right, than if I just step into it a little bit at a time. And actually a lot of times I know entrepreneurs, they're just given a little bit, a little bit of faith. Are you going to take that faith? Are you going to take that faith? And then our mind just becomes more clear. Did you think that you'd ever be standing in front of 6,000 people on a stage?

Russell:

My goal wat to make a 1000 bucks a month. That was my entire goal getting started. If I made 1000 bucks a month, I can keep resting and then my wife can keep working. That was it. That was the grand vision. When I got started.

Alison:

Mine was $200 a day.

Russell:

Nice.

Alison:

I think a little bit more than yours. That was my vision.

Russell:

She's more aspirational than me, but yeah.

Russell:

Yeah.

Alison:

Does that help?

Pietro:

Yeah, guys, yeah. It's so much value here. I don't even know what to do with it right now. So I probably am going to watch this over and over and over and over again. And yeah, I love you guys. Thank you so much.

Alison:

I don't think you're going to be able to sleep tonight.

Pietro:

No, I didn't yesterday and for sure, I'm not going to tonight as well. So,

Russell:

So cool. This is the most, I don't know. It's funny. I remember going to conferences back in the day and I was in these rooms, that are stuffy rooms. And I'm the little kid in the back freaking out, "This is amazing!". Why are people not more excited? And so I remember I started doing this stuff I want to make business exciting, because it is. This is the coolest stuff in the world and a chance for me to talk about and play with it. But when all is said and done, I had this conversation last week with my team, we're sitting there, we're stressed about something and everything and I kind of stopped everyone for a minute. I said, you guys don't understand. This is just a game. We put on like this is life for death.

Da,da,do... No, this is just a game. We're going to die eventually and right now we have this window of 10, 20, 30, 40 years, who knows how long? We're occupying brains and trying to make ourselves productive and help people along the way. This is just a game. None of it actually matters. So when you look at it from that point, this is the game I'm playing. I'm going to figure it out. It starts becoming more fun and more free as opposed to, "Oh, I got to figure this out!". And people get so rigid and stiff. And then they're too scared to do anything. No, look at it differently. And it becomes fun and it becomes exciting. And now it's not I tried something and I failed. It's I tried something and I learned.

Alison:

Yeah.

Russell:

Right. I remember I had this call with Tom Bilyeu. Tom is one of the most brilliant people I've ever met. We were talking about identities. And he said, that all of us have an identity and a lot of times we have to shift our identity, right? When you guys come into our world, we try to shift our identity to become a funnel hacker and entrepreneur. He said, sometimes we create identities for ourself that are very, very limiting right? Where you might have an identity, "I'm a world class wrestler." "I'm the best entrepreneur in the world." This is the identity that I have. But then what happens is you create that identity and you hit it and something fails. All of a sudden, you think, oh my gosh, I'm a failure because I didn't live up to my identity.

And Tom, so smart. He said of all the identities you can have. There's one identity that trumps all the others. And he said, this is my identity. Because I take on the identity of the learner. He's said as the learner, you can't mess up. Because if I fail, I learned. If I succeed, I learned. No matter what happens as a learner. I have this ability to keep moving forward in life, through all the ups and the downs, because my identity is, I'm a learner. So I'm looking for the learner. I'm looking for the learning and failing, looking for success, looking for everything. And that way, I never feel like a failure because I'm always learning. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's such a cool, mind hack of like, how do I shift my identity to I'm a learner. And you guys are obviously learners, you're here.

But this is the path and the process. That's the key, the identity that trumps all others is the learner. So anyway, I thought it was a cool nugget from Tom that I keep thinking about it my head over and over and over again, because I get in the thinking sometimes where I'm this and this and then something happens and when you think that you're whatever and you fail. For me a long time I thought, "I'm going to be an Olympic wrestler." That was my goal and when I didn't hit it, I thought, oh my gosh, I failed. I'm a failure. And all of a sudden the darkness that comes with that is unbearable. Right? Because, I spent my whole life on this mission and I failed. And it's just coming back to shifting to, I'm going to be the learner and man that opens up everything. And anyways, it's pretty powerful.

Alison:

And don't you think if you just sat with that thought on your own, it would've destroyed you. But because of the community that you have around you, what you've built around you they're like dude, Russell, no! Look at all this stuff, right?

Russell:

Yeah.

Alison:

We are meant to be in a community. We are meant to support each other. The lone world is, I don't want to be alone. There's a reason why we love talking to each other where we connect with certain people. It's because we lift each other up in the darkest moments and then we get to celebrate the heck out of each other at our highest moments. And Russ and I were talking about this, we talk about this all the time, but when we hit these amazing successes, I'll say Russel, blah blah blah! And he says that's so cool. But if I go tell some of my friends who don't understand the business world, they don't understand what we've gone through. And it's not so much a celebration. I love when I get to celebrate with Russell. I love to hear when our students succeed. That's so fun. We just forget to celebrate along the way. And that's something that we really... Come on, share your celebrations.

Russell:

Yeah, that was one of the weirdest things that I found when I got into this business, starting success. I thought that as I had more success, everyone was going to celebrate that in personal life and it's the opposite.

Alison:

Yep.

Russell:

I'd have success and I'd go tell my friends and my family who around me. And they would say, ah. Cause for them, you're growing, you're changing, you're evolving. And they say, ah! Stay back here. They don't do it consciously. I don't think they do it viciously. But man, they say things. They throw things out where it feels uncomfortable for them to see you grow. And that's why I think one of the big reasons why I would say entrepreneurship is the loneliest job in the world. Cause most of us , unless you're in a family of entrepreneur is different.

But if you're not, usually it's probably just you. For me, it was just me. My wife wasn't an entrepreneur. People around me weren't. It was me on my wife and I's first little apartment on a computer by myself. I had this vision, I had this dream and it wasn't until I got into a community of other people, oh my gosh, first off, I'm not weird. Like there's other people like me. But second off, when I had successes, none of them, there wasn't ever that weirdness, it was always, oh my gosh, that's so cool. Cause it was inspiring, they wanted to keep moving up with it. And I think that's one of the biggest things. Just understanding that getting around the right people, it shifts your mindset, shifts your beliefs, gets you the permission to celebrate.

We're now having these successes, isn't a bad thing. It's not weird. Instead, it's yes, this is good. These are good positive things. And so my goal is to get you guys to plug into this campfire as much as you can, right. Stay around where it's warm. Everyone's in here. This is a community that's amazing. And so we've tried to build that again. The Funnel Hacker community is amazing. It's a huge community. But, there're different levels of it, right? There's all these funnel hackers in the world. Then every year, there's about 6,000 that come to Funnel Hacking Live. That circles smaller and it's an amazing community. And inside of that, there's about 600 that join 2CCX. And that circle's smaller and we're tighter with them. Inside that there's about 100 inner circle. And from that, there's 15 inside of Category Kings.

And so as you get closer and closer, the groups are smaller. They're more intimate. People that are more crazy. We call this program, the one percent crazy.

Alison:

Yeah.

Russell:

Because they're little crazy. You're going after things that don't make any sense to the rest of the world. Right. But you believe in them. We believe in them and that's the power. So, getting in those communities, you have a chance to be around the people at each step, right? You ever have conversations with people who are at the same level as you? Again, every level of the conversations are different, right? 2CCX are certain conversations. When you graduate from that you get to Comma Club level. Where now moving into inner circle, which there're different conversations we're having because we're different problems, different things. Every opportunity you have creates new problems. And so right now you guys are in a spot where this is the program you need. This is the thing that's going to get you to that next step, to the next tier. It's going to give you the people, the coaches, the mentor, the direction to get you to the next step of the process. I'm excited for you guys.