Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - 5 Years Ago Russell Sucked At Writing Books

Episode Date: October 28, 2019

Two big "ah-ha's" in this episode that will help you to continue to move forward. On this episode Russell talks about rewriting the Dotcom Secrets book before it is released in a box set with the other two books, and struggling to find the motivation to do it. He shares an exchange with Stephen Larsen over Voxer that helped him get back to writing. Here are some fun things in this episode. Find out why Russell's editing of Dotcom Secrets turned into a full rewrite. See why Stephen thinks Gary V. will win if Russell doesn't continue to write. And see that everyone in the business struggles at times, even after 15 years. So listen here and see that if you're struggling to stay motivated with whatever you're working on, you are not alone. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/253-5-years-ago-russell-sucked-at-writing-books Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. I'm so excited to have you here today. I want to let you guys in behind the scenes of some Voxer chats so you see what's actually happening in the real world. Because sometimes you see the outside facade of me smiling, like, look, I wrote this book. But I want you guys to feel the pain with me. So I'm going to share with you some of those stories and more here as soon as we get back from the intro song. So the big question is this, how are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, we're spending money from our own pockets. How do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world

and yet still remain profitable? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing Secrets. All right, so here's the backstory. I decided to write my third book, Traffic Secrets. I got excited. I just started. I started writing it. And then it turned out to be pretty good, I think. We'll find out. Hopefully you guys like it soon. And then I got a publisher for it.

And the publisher I decided to go with is Hay House because, number one, they're amazing. Number two, Reed, who's the owner of Hay House, is the man. And number three, they understand our world and let us do our kind of marketing with books. So I was like, yes, of course I'm going with them. So then I was like, well, wait a minute. If, if you guys are going to publish this new book, I would love if you guys publish the other two. We do them all hardbound and make a box set. It'll be amazing. So I pitched read on that. He said, yes. I was so excited. I went back, I bought the rights back from the first two books from the old publisher. And then I was like, here are the books. And then I was

like, wait a minute, do I have some time really quick if I want to add something, like if I want to just update some of the chapters really quick? And they're like, sure, go for it, Russell. That'd be awesome. So get the Traffic Secrets book done. It's 90,000, no, 90, 97,000 words. Just put that in perspective. The original dot-com secrets book was 58,000. So it's almost twice as big as the first book, right? And I sent it to him and then I was like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to dive into these other books and I'm gonna start editing. And I, I found out something I strange, I did not think was going to happen. I started editing the.com seekers book and I found out that the Russell Brunson from five years ago sucked at writing. Like he did. He like,

why did you guys like that book? It doesn't make any sense to me. I'm reading this. I'm like, this is, uh, and so, um, and so I've been rewriting it and it was supposed to be like a two week project. And right now I'm like literally up insanely early going to bed, insanely late canceling everything else other than my kids wrestling to get this book done. And, um, I, I've been spending a week on it i'm i just got done chapter two and um i've added 11 000 words in the first two chapters which is kind of ridiculous oh but it's a lot better it's way better i think i hope um and then like everything's kind of like in this weird order that doesn't make any sense to me now so i'm rearranging the whole book and

rewriting things like it's becoming its own book project in and of itself. It'll probably end up being as big, if not bigger, than the Traffic Secrets book at the rate I'm going right now, which is crazy. So I'm telling you this for a couple reasons. Number one, because I want you to understand that the Russell from five years ago sucked at writing books. But guess what? I still wrote the book. So if you guys are like, oh, I suck at writing. I'm going to wait until some future date when I'm really good. Then the book will never, so maybe it's like, oh, I suck at writing. I'm gonna wait till some future date

when I'm really good. Then the book will never happen. Your legacy will never begin. The pathway that you have to pave to greatness to become who you need to become will never begin because you have to write the crappy book first. So I did.

I wrote this book that, again, at the time, I thought it was amazing. Everyone thought it was amazing, but it sucks looking at it now. I'm like, this book's horrible. And I'm grateful for this window I had a chance to rewrite it so that when you guys get

the new version, you'd be like, oh my gosh, Russell, this makes so much more sense. This is so clear. The stories are captivating. So that's my goal with it. But that was the first aha I want you guys to get is that. Number two, I know sometimes it seems like everything is sunshine and roses. And when I click record on Instagram, I'm always like, ah, happy. When I record a podcast, I'm usually like, yay, I'll chipper. But sometimes it's really, really hard. And so just a few minutes ago, I was, my motivation was weaning. I didn't go to bed last night till almost three, woke up early this morning, came in and did not want to do what I needed to do. And so I Voxed Steven Larson a message. And I wasn't going to send it to you guys because it's

kind of like weird, but I want you guys to hear the raw like what I'm actually going through so that hopefully some of you guys are like, oh, my gosh, this work is hard sometimes. Oh, my gosh, Russell isn't Superman. He's tired and unmotivated and doesn't want to do this stuff either. And so I'm going to let you guys listen to that. So I'm going to play the Vox that I sent to Steven Larson, begging him for some motivation so I could keep writing this book. And then I'm going to let you listen to the two Voxes I sent to Steven Larson, begging him for some motivation so I could keep writing this book. And then I'm gonna let you listen to the two Voxes he sent back. They gave me the motivation, got me excited, and then made me feel like I needed to do this podcast for you guys really quick to share because that was really fun. So with that said, you're going to hear a private Voxer I was not planning on showing for me to Steven, and then messages from Steven back to me.

What's up, dude? Are you on an airplane right now? You flying to prove it? So right now I'm supposed to be writing. I'm trying to not write. So I'm boxing you. Hey, what's up, man? So it's Wednesday, baby. Woo!

You can yell at me and send me some like, the dot-com secrets book changed my life, Russell. If you don't do this, you're screwing people out of their happiness and future. That would help me a lot because right now I just want to screw everyone out of their happiness and future because this sucks. This would help me a lot, because right now, I just want to screw everyone out of their happiness in the future, because this sucks. This is, like, literally like a whole new book. Like, I'm reading this old one, and I'm like, how did anybody ever like this book? It's horrible.

It's like, I sucked at writing, there's no good stories, I, like, touch upon things briefly and I walk away, but then I'm like, what if that was the brilliance of it? Maybe now I'm going so deep into people, like, okay, Russell, I get the gist, quit telling me stories. Oh, Stephen, I don't know, too. I like stories, but now we're

I just finished chapter two and we're 11,000 new words written in this book. Yeah. So at this pace, this book will be well over 100,000 words before I get to section two. There you go. All right.

I'll get his listening. Give me something. Hand me something. I need some motivation to go write, Steven. Please help me for the love. Make me go write something. All right. I'm going back in. Actually, I'm going to wait until he responds. So hopefully he responds sooner or later because I'm not writing a word until you say something amazing. Write the book. It changed my life. The book, man. If you don't write that book, the internet dies. If you don't write that book, Gary wins, Russell. Gary wins without that book. Don't let him win. P.S. You've added 11,000 words and you're on chapter two. Oh my gosh. I don't even know. It's been so long since I've read that book. I have a hard time remembering what it is like, but it changed my life. That

book truly did change my life. And yes, I just do want to remind you in a very calm tone, Gary V wins if you don't write the book. All right, welcome back. So right now some of you guys are like, oh my gosh, Russell's losing his mind. He is a train wreck. now some of you guys are like oh my gosh russell's losing his mind he is a train wreck and some of you guys are like oh my gosh russell's just like me so hopefully this um helps any of you guys who are in that situation where it's like it's hard sometimes it's hard to create it's hard to think it's hard to sit down the blank pad of paper and write it's hard to sit down and create a course it's hard to go create an event or an outline or a product or risk your money ordering crap from china you have no idea people are going to buy. I get it. It's hard and it's scary,

but that's the game we're in and it's fun. I think the biggest thing is just trying to keep your energy levels high, trying to get motivation from anywhere you can, even just getting people to yell at you through Voxer, whatever it takes. But hopefully this helps you understand that the creation process, it's lonely, it's tiring, it's all those things. But the end goal is in a couple months from now, I'm going to have this box set of books I'm proud of. And that's why. It's the vision of that that drives me forward. And hopefully it's the same thing for you. The vision of the creations, the things you're making are what make it worthwhile. So the two lessons from this podcast episode. number one is that Russell five years ago sucked at writing, but he still wrote the same as free. It's true for you right now. You're probably

going to suck at whatever you're creating, but if you don't start, it'll never, it'll never start you on this path. So that's number one. Number two, understanding that even people that have been doing this for 15 years, people who you think may be flawless or whatever, still struggle, but we still do it. So I hope that helps somebody out there. With that said, I appreciate you guys all for listening. Thanks for being a subscriber. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a screenshot on your phone. I'm guessing you're listening on your phone. Go to Instagram or Facebook or your social network of choice and tag me so I can see the post. And then I use hashtag marketing secrets. And then I check them out all the time.

In fact, I'll tell you guys, you've probably seen I comment on your screenshots. I like them. I share them. It makes me happy. So thanks again for listening, you guys. Appreciate you all. And I'll talk to you soon. Bye, everybody.

Want more marketing secrets? If so, then go get your copies of my two best-selling books. Book number one is called Expert Secrets, and you can get a free copy at expertsecrets.com. And book number two is called Dot Com Secrets, and you can get your free copy at dotcomsecrets.com. Inside these two books, you'll find my top 35 secrets that we've used to become the fastest-growing, non-VC-backed, SaaS startup company in the world.