Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - A Consulting Call With My Mentor - Part 2 of 2

Episode Date: May 1, 2019

On part 2 of this special episode series, Russell continues to give his mentor Mark Joyner some powerful advice. Here are some things that Russell tells Mark, that could be helpful to anyone running a business. Why you have to find a category you can be king of in order to become a billion dollar business. How the Expert Secrets book can help you become a charismatic leader, find a future based cause, and a new opportunity to sell. And how to create a front end funnel to bring people into your software. So listen to Russell offer sound advice to his own mentor, Mark Joyner, about how he can improve his business. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/202-a-consulting-call-with-my-mentor-part-2-of-2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Metro links and cross links are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Hey, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the first half of my consultation, or whatever you want to call it, with my original mentor, Mark Joyner. I had a good time kind of going through some of my quick critiques and feedback, as well as telling a story. And now

the second episode, I'm going to go deeper into, um, I believe five or six different, um, things I would really be looking at. Um, if I was Mark in my business right now, and I wanted to share this with you guys once again, because there are so many lessons that apply to all of you. In fact, um, you know, a lot of stuff I'm talking about with Mark in this, in this interview, be the same things that if you were to hire me or to sit with me at dinner or lunch or something and say, you know, critique my business, like the things I'm going to share are pretty much the same things I'd probably share with most of you guys as well. So, um, I hope you take the rest of this podcast, just look back and look at this as if it's your own personal interview, your own personal consult.

And, uh, don't look at it as like, Oh yeah, Mark should do that. Mark should do that. Look at it as like, Oh, I, I should do that. I could do that. And hopefully it gives you a ton of ideas for your business as well. So that said, I'm going to keep the theme song. When we come back, we'll finish up the exciting consultation with Mark Joyner. So the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, who are 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. Now I've got basically six things I want to go deeper into. And this is stuff that's a lot more than just like tweak the software, make it easier, take away upsells, put yourself out there, be more vulnerable. Those are, I think, messages. But this is like if we were to sit down and build Simpleology from the ground up today, knowing that your goal – someone asked you what your goal was and you said your goal was to build a billion-dollar company. So it's like, okay, if you're going to build a billion-dollar so it's like okay if you're gonna build a billion dollar company from this or maybe it's 100 million or whatever it doesn't really matter but just knowing that that's the goal

that it's going to shift from a lifestyle business which i think it i'm assuming it has been up to this point to like i want to i want to build this thing and make it um significant then there's some core fundamental things i found on my my journey okay and as you know i mean i'm sure you've watched my journey over the last decade and a half. Like I've been scattered brain like crazy. In fact, that was my biggest problem. I was doing this and this and then I was all over the place. Um, but in that journey of trying a billion things, I learned some, some powerful things that became the foundation for ClickFunnels. And somebody didn't, somebody did strategically and somebody, I looked backwards in time. I was like, Oh my gosh, that's why that thing worked. And so I'm going to go through some

of those things and hope they help. All right. Number one, um, for simple ology, if you really want this to become a billion dollar play, like a big play, it can't just be another productivity tool. Um, you have to create a new category for this thing. If you're going to be successful. Um, the book that I would highly recommend reading, that's the best on the market about this concept is called Play Bigger. And it's all about how to create your own category, right? And so what's interesting, the book talks about how when a company becomes a category king, right? They become the best.

The category king will suck up like 90% of the business in the category. And then the last 10% that's still there is fought over by everybody else. The other, you know, all the other companies fight over the last 10%, right? And then again last 10% that's still there is fought over by everybody else. The other, you know, all the other companies fight over the last 10%. All right. And then again, it's almost impossible to be thrown in category King. So each thing about each company, right? Like who, who owns, uh, you know, music, you know, who owns, um, think about anything, any category, think about like, it's there, right? There's Amazon books, boom, there's, uh, Apple with,

um, with, uh, with iPods and music and things like that, right? There's Amazon books, boom, there's, uh, Apple with, um, with, uh, with iPods and music and things like that, right? There's all these different things. Um, but there's only, there's always one category king. And, um, and so what a lot of people do is they come to a bit into an industry and they're like, okay, who's, who's the players out there? Who am I competing against? Like I saw this recently with, um, we have a mutual, uh, acquaintance who just launched a new company. And, new company and I respect this person a ton, but essentially all his messaging is like, we're like Shopify, but we're better. And I'm like, ah, you literally, by doing that, you are the ones fighting, you become one of the

people fighting over the last 10% because the category king of e-commerce stuff has been claimed. Somebody owns that and you can't get it. It almost impossible to be thrown shopify right so it's like you have to you have to like look at that and sidestep and design your own category so that play bigger books all about category design it's interesting like i again this is one of the things i didn't know doing it but looking back i was like oh my gosh that's why we were successful right like when we launched click funnels um there were a lot of things out there. What was ClickFunnels at the very beginning? It was a page editor. But the difference, there was a page editor category king.

At the time, it was lead pages. Lead pages was the thing. If we would have came and said, hey, we're the best landing page software in the world, we'd be competing against category king. They had millions of dollars in funding. It would have been really, really difficult. But instead, we came and said, we do do landing pages, but we're a funnel builder like that's what we are and there was nobody else that was a funnel builder at the time right okay same thing like infusionsoft if i would have came out said we

are the best marketing automation platform on planet earth i would have been going against like infusionsoft it was a category king and so like for me to go into that market try to compete it's literally almost impossible to throw in a category king unless they do a lot of stupid things um but it would have been a hard uphill battle we probably wouldn't have ever won. So instead, we designed our own category, which was like, we're going to be the category king of sales funnels. And because there's no one else in there, we automatically, by default, we're the category king.

We have that now. And now we have this strategic advantage over everybody else. It wasn't us building a better mousetrap. It was us building a different thing, right? It was becoming our own category. And then we were able to grow like crazy. And what's cool is like the tangential categories will bleed into you. Like we sucked up all these pages of business. We sucked up all of Infusionsoft businesses. And we now have those things. And yes, ClickFunnels does do end page. Yes, ClickFunnels does do marketing automation, but we don't sell those

things, right? We sell that we are a funnel builder. That's what we are. We are the category king of funnel builders. And since we launched ClickFunnels, there's been dozens and dozens and dozens of people have come. But right now, they're all fighting over the last 10%, right? And I don't know if you see it, but I see it every single day because I get notified by every single person who's,

you know, the next ClickFunnels killer, it's coming out. It's like, good luck, you can have the scraps. There's 10% of people there who are not going to stick with us, but the rest of the market we own. Unless I do something stupid or the software crashes, like we're going to, we'll maintain, you know, being the category Kings, it'd be almost impossible to dethrone us just because it is right. So that's number one is for you. Now I say like, like what is simple ology at its core? And I look at it and it's like, okay, it's, it's project management software, kind of.

Is it personal development? Like, what exactly is there? What is it the category king of? And I don't really know. When I look at it, I'm not really sure. It's like the headlines of daily ritual that turns your go switch to on, so you have more time to switch off. So it's kind of like project management.

It's getting things done. It's task management. But I don't really know what it is, right? And the problem is that there So it's kind of like project management. It's getting things done. It's task management. But I don't really know what it is, right? And the problem is that there are some really, like project management software, there's some amazing ones out there, category kings, right? They have, you know, some have millions of dollars of funding,

like a Trello, or there's people like Basecamp that have, you know, they have made that their thing, and like they've built it so deep and so wide. It's like, how do you come in and dethrone something like that? Like it's not going to be easy okay i mean near impossible though so it's like if you're a task manager software or project management software like oh that's going to be so so difficult so hard right so it's like it's not saying take those things out of the app

it's saying like what's what's the unique thing that you have that nobody else has right what's your funnel building thing that's that's like an evolution of what any of the other things, right? Um, so I think my first thing is just really spending time figuring that out. Like what, what are you going to become the category king in? Cause we can identify that and then you can start designing that category. Then it can be yours. Now you can own it. I can go after it. Um, and you'll suck people in from all these other tools, like, like the side tangential competitors. But that's just like a nice benefit. That's not the goal.

The goal is like I'm going to become the category king of this. And I don't know what that is exactly. Partially because I know a lot of features of Simpleology. But I don't know like the core message, the core belief, the core thing that you're obsessed with, right? Like I spent the last decade of my life being obsessed with sales funnels. I've literally bought every single person's product that's ever sold anything on the internet. It looks every funnel because I'm obsessed with like, I can't click on an ad and not buy everything just to see what happens on the backside. Right. Like there's nobody on planet earth more obsessed with funnels than me. Like it's impossible. And so for me, like that's why this became,

why it was such an easy thing for us. That's where we drifted there because I didn't care about landing page. I didn't care about marketing automation. I care about what happened on page one, what happened on page two, what happened on page three. And so like, that's what I was obsessed with because that's what we became the category king with. And so for you, it's like, I know, I know you've got the software that does these things. Um, but I think that it's bigger than that. I know it's bigger than that because I know you, you know, the book simpleology goes deeper than that. There's more cool stuff than that. Like that alone, I'd go back and reread your own book. Like I recently did that on my own, which is really weird and awkward.

But going back to that and like the roots, because you wrote that back in the beginning when you were like in the most passionate time, right? I know you wrote three or four books around that time. And you told me back after, I can't remember if it was after The Irresistible Offer or the, I can't remember the name of the second one, the second drink of water one. Anyway, I can't remember which, but I remember you telling me like all these books are leading up to this one, which is called Simpleology that you were so excited about. I go back to read that and be like, okay, what is like when I read this book, like what am I the category king of? Like

what is the thing? It's not just to do list. It's not making things simpler. It's something bigger than that, but you got to figure out what that is. Like, what is that, that thing, right? Okay. So that's number one, um, is, is becoming a category king. And that's, that's the core, like strategic shift that then there's a million tactics behind that, that'll make this easier, but that's the core thing. All right. Number two, um, after the book play bigger, then you should read my book, expert secrets. I'm assuming you haven't read it, but that's the core thing. All right. Number two, um, after the book play bigger, then you should read my book, expert secrets. I'm assuming you haven't read it, but maybe you have, but if you haven't, I'm gonna give you a quick, um, just because there's, um, it's, it's really, really important. I think you would love it because the whole book is based and framed around like, how do you build a mass movement of people? Right. When we're building click funnels,

um, I remember, uh, about the time I went to a network marketing convention for a network marketing company that is a software platform that sends out cards in the mail. Right. And I remember going there, there's like 5,000 people and, and everyone's going crazy. People on stage crying and I'm sitting next to David Fry and Dave leading over and he goes, do you see what's happening here? I'm like, no, I'm so confused. He's like, he's like, they're a software company. I'm like, I know. Why are people crying about sending out a card? Like, I don't get this. He said, because they're not selling software. He said, they've created a movement. That's why people are here. And that was like the light bulb in my head. Like, oh my gosh, if ClickFunnels is software, we're going

to lose this game, right? ClickFunnels has to be big and it has to be more than that. How do we create a movement? And I went to this whole like two year long geek out session, like how do you create a cult? Which was really fun. I know you've read probably most of the books I read around that topic. But from that, as I did my geek out session, I was like, oh my gosh you've read probably most of the books I read, um, around that topic. But from that, as, as I did my geek out session, I was like, Oh my gosh, there's the pattern of what creates, um, a mass movement, what creates a cult, right? What creates these things that happen positive and negative, like from the negative side of like deep, dark, evil cults, the positive side of things that I believe like Christianity and things like that, like

the, the, the pattern that creates all those things are the same. And so the opening acts were secrets. I draw this little triangle. So there's three pieces that every mass movement has. And so I'm gonna kind of go through those three because those three tie, um, tie back to you. So number one is every one of these mass movements has a charismatic leader. Um, and so for click funnels, like I deem myself that person, like I'm the person who's obsessed with this. I need to be out there. I gotta be living it every single day. I remember when you were in Boise and I was in click funnels, I was building funnels, I was geeking out. I, I sensed, I don't know if you said it verbally or not, but I sensed that you were, um, surprised

that I was in ClickFunnels all day building stuff in ClickFunnels. I was obsessed with it. Like I, I'm not only, I don't, I didn't just make the Kool-Aid, I'm drinking it too. Right. And the same thing's gotta be true for you, man. Like you have to live the message, whatever the simple ology message is, like you have to be the greatest student of it, right? Like people ask me all the time, like Russell, how come you're still launching funnels like every month? I'm like, because I have to be the funnel guy. I got to be one doing this or else no one else is going to do it, right?

The reason why lead pages stopped having success is because Clay Collins stopped building lead pages. He stopped building pages and generating leads. That's it. Why did Clay Mass stop having success is because clay collins stopped building lead pages he stopped building pages and generating leads that's it why did uh clay mass stop having success with infusion soft he quit building marketing campaigns okay why am i winning click funnels because every single day we're launching a new funnel every single day i'm in it i'm building i'm doing it i'm showing people i have videos of me building funnels talking about strategy i'm doing it i'm living it i've never once seen you log into simpleology and do something. So I don't believe that you actually use it in your life. Okay. If, if I did, then I'd be like, oh my gosh, I want a Mark Scott. And I do, I have so much respect for you. I see you. I'm like,

like some of the things you, like when you were in Boise and we were doing the ring stuff and you were eating just one salad a day. Like I literally to this day, since you left, I eat one salad a day almost perfectly. because you did that you talk like just like i connect you like i want to be mark other people will do that as well but you've got to be doing it like whatever you're preaching and teaching and showing in simple ology you have to be doing it right people see me build funnels like multiple times a week that's why i buy click funnels it's the first thing the first part of every mass movement is they have a charismatic leader who is drink who who is the hyper fan.

They've drunk the Kool-Aid the most. They are the cheerleader. I always tell people I'm the dancing monkey on stage. And every single day I am preaching about the thing that I believe in. And that message doesn't end. I think the biggest problem I had the first decade and a half of my business was that I was jumping from thing to thing to thing to thing to thing. And when I set down my roots and said, I am the funnel dude. And all I'm going to talk about for the next 20 years of my life is building roots and said, I am the funnel dude. And all I'm gonna talk about

for next, you know, 20 years of my life is building funnels. That's when the people came. That's when the masses came. That's when it went from just being a one-off, you know, another product launch. I made a quick million bucks to this is something that that's important and that matters. Um, uh, and so that's the first, the first thing I've ever asked him is there's charismatic leader. Um, and again, we could geek out and go so deep on that and how it works, but the biggest thing is just people need to see you drinking the Kool-Aid. Um, and then they will follow you. They will plug in and they will, they will start following you. All right. Number two, the second tier in my little triangle thing is that, um, people move towards a future based cause, right? And so, um, in the expert

secrets book, I show a whole bunch of political elections and it's fascinating almost with a hundred percent accuracy, whichever political candidate talks about, about, um, improvement, like we're going to improve things. Um, they lose to the person that talks about the future based cause. Um, uh, it's, it's, uh, it's fascinating. Like, um, Obama talked about change, right? And, uh, I can't remember in the book, I have like, I have like, here's what so-and-so running against Obama. He said this, which is like, we're gonna improve upon this thing. And Obama's like, we're gonna change, right? Trump is like, we're gonna make America great again.

Like every person that wins is like, we're gonna change what's happening. Like people want change. They want to shift. They need to believe like the future of where they're going is the big thing, right? That's the big shift. And so for me, it's like when someone comes in and click funnels, like, yeah, it's software, but if I want

them to, to, to set down roots here and to be here, I have to give them things to shoot for. Right. And so one of the biggest things we did, um, initially was the two comic club award. Like what's the ultimate result someone gets from building a funnel is they make a million dollars inside of funnels. So we have to reward that and put it up on stage, make a pedestal for people to move towards it. Right. Um, it's a future based cause. It we have to reward that and put it up on stage, make a pedestal for people to move towards it, right? It's a future-based cause. It's like, this is where we're going. You know, the slogan, the motto that we have in ClickFunnels

is that we're one funnel away. And I get teased and ridiculed by the big-time marketers because of that. They always tease me, like, oh, Russell, you're one funnel away. I'm like, dude, that mantra, that calling card, makes me more money per day than you guys make in any of your product launches. People need to have that.

They need to have this thing. So they're moving towards one funnel way. I can do it. I can do it. And then the big goal they want is to make a million dollars inside of a funnel. And so we create an award, as you know, the Two Comma Club Award. And people, they aspire to see that. They want to move towards that.

And they visualize it. People literally had Dana Derricks took a magic marker and drew a picture of the two comic books on his sheetrock wall so he could see it every day until he actually won an award and he covered that thing up. And people have this future-based cause they're moving towards, right? And when they have that, then they start moving towards it. So my question is, someone comes in with simple logic. What's the result I'm trying to get?

Because if I can't define it, if they can't see it, they're not going to, right? Like for me to get more time, that's good. But what does that mean to get more things done? That's good. But like, what's the future based cause? It's got to be something that like, they're shifting away to, right? It can't be like, I'm trying to make, I'm going to get this thing better. I'm talking about that more in the next one here. But the future based causes is the key. Like for me, I'd be like, if I was joined simple ology, you know, the, the big, the big, the big thing, like what's the camp, what's the, sorry, I'm kind of struggling to get this out. Cause I want to make sure I'm saying it right. Like pretend like you as the leader of the simple

ology world, you're running for president. Right. And, and you're standing up on stage and you're saying, we're going to make America great again. Like that's what we need, a political slogan. Right. So it's like, Hey, we joined simpleology, blah. When you come to Fun Hockey Live, you're just one funnel away. We're gonna show you exactly that funnel is right. Like it's, it's me showing them that like, this is the future. We're gonna help you get there. And then, and then Adam, we have some kind of something, some carrot to get them to that thing, right? Like what's the award, what's the prize, what's the, what's the thing? People sign up for insanity, like a workout to go kill themselves and they do it because

they want a t-shirt at the end, right? Like that's the, like that's the goal they're moving towards. So for me, it's like when I joined Simpleology, like what's the, what's the political campaign that you're giving me? Like what's going to happen in my life? How am I shifting? And then what's the, like, what's the, what's the, the thing that I'm chasing at the end? What's up everybody?

This is Russell Brunson. I've got something really cool for you today from my friend Taylor Wells. And Taylor spoke at our last Funnel Hacking Live because I wanted him to share a really cool concept about what he calls the revolving pricing method. And today he decided to sponsor the podcast to give you guys more access to this super cool strategy that you are going to love. It's something we've been implementing into our high-end coaching program as well, and it is amazing. But to kind of give you some context about this offer he's making for you guys, as you may or may not know, a few years ago, JPMorgan Chase did a study, and guess what they found?

They found that the average small business only has about 28 days of operating expenses in reserve. That's right, less than a month of cash on hands. Now, if you're like me, the idea of your business being one bad month away from disaster is enough to make your stomach drop, am I right? Especially with how the economy's been lately. It's not the time to be gambling with your finances. So Taylor put together this book called The Revolving Pricing Method, and it's awesome. It helps you turn every client you close into a long-term profit machine. We're not talking about one-time paydays. We're talking about creating sustainable and real predictable income for the long haul. Now,

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Again, that's wealthyconsultant.com slash secrets. Do not miss out. Hey, this is Russell Brunson, and I want to jump in really quick to share with you a new assessment I found out that is insanely cool. You guys know I'm obsessed with personality profiles and assessments, but this one is different because not only does it help you understand yourself,

but more importantly, especially for us who are entrepreneurs, it helps us understand our employees, our teams, and get people sitting on the right seats in the bus so they can get more stuff done. I just had a chance to interview Patrick Lanchoni talking specifically about this new assessment they created called Working Genius. And the Working Genius is awesome. Like this test, I had actually blocked out an hour to take it because I was so excited for the new assessment.

And it only took me like 10 minutes or less to get it done. Yet, even though it takes only 10 minutes, like you can actually apply this immediately. I took it for myself. I had my team take it. And what's cool about it is from there, we figured out exactly what people's working geniuses are. And that's important because if you're building a team or a company, you got to figure out, make sure that you have, first off, the right people, but make sure the right people are

sitting in the right seats on the bus. And this is what this assessment will teach you how to do. Now, normally this assessment, you can go to WorkingGenius.com, and there's two Gs in the middle, WorkingGenius.com. But I got you a 20% discount on the assessment, which is only $25. So don't stress. It's not an expensive test at all. But you get a 20% discount off when you put in the keyword secrets at checkout. So go to WorkingGenius.com.

Again, two Gs, WorkingGenius. Two Gs. So go to workinggenius.com. Again, two Gs, working genius, two Gs in the middle, workinggenius.com. And then use promo code secrets, S-E-C-R-E-T-S at checkout, get 25% off. But then go take the test. Again, it takes you 10 minutes, but even in a 10 minute session, you will get something that is so insanely valuable

to help you understand yourself, to make sure you're working in a spot that's gonna give you the most joy, number one. But then number two, it's gonna make sure that you are, with your your teams getting them in the right seats as well. So anyway, I love this assessment. Go check it out at workinggenius.com and enter the promo code secrets for 20% discount. Take this test for yourself and for your team. And I promise you it'll change the working dynamics amongst everybody and help your company to grow. All right. So number one was leader. Number two is future-based cause. And the third part of this little triangle

is you've got to create a new opportunity. And this really does tie back to the whole category thing in the very first part I talked about. But it's interesting, like, and again, if you read Expert Secrets, I go deep into this, but like every offer, they're one of two things, right?

One is like an improvement offer where you help somebody be better, stronger, faster, smarter, where there's new opportunity. And people don't like to buy improvement. They think they do, but they don't. Um, only like 5% of the people in the world want improvement. Okay. It's people like me who are geeking out, who, when you speak super high level, I'm like, Oh, plug me into that. I need more of that. But the rest of the masses, the 95% plus of the world, like they're not into improvement. That's why improvement offers never convert well. Um, what does convert well are new opportunities,

right? And so I always look at like, what's the end result that my customer's trying to get, right? If they're coming to simple ology, they're trying to get some result. So it's more time, it's more energy. It's, it's whatever, again, whatever you define that big thing as, um, we talked about earlier, but then it's like, um, I look at like, okay, what are the other vehicles they're using to try to get that? So if I was in the weight loss market, I'm like, okay, they're using a ketogenic diet to get that there. They're using, um, Atkins or using paleo or the car, what's the carnivore where the carnivore, they're all these different vehicles to try to get that result. Right? So my job when I make a new offer saying is basically

like, you've like, this is the goal you want. You've tried all these different opportunities. You've tried all these things. And I'm not here to tell you I'm going to make a better work plan or faster or whatever. It intends an ER in the verb. It's an improvement offer. It's like I'm shifting everything. You need this other thing. It's called the funnel.

You need this other thing. It's called blah, right? What's the new opportunity you're promoting, you're giving them, right? It's all about creating new opportunities. And so I could go on that. I could do a two-day event just on new opportunities. It's so important. But that's the big concept is simpleology needs to be new opportunity, right? Like what are they currently doing to try to get this result? And what's the new opportunity you're plugging them into? Because if you have a better task management software, you're, you're an improvement offer. If you have a better, um, way to, to get things done, a better way to manage your projects, you're a new opportunity, right? You're not a category king.

Um, you, you, anyway, so that's the big thing is like, how do I transition everything I'm doing from, from, um, from improvement to opportunity, shifting to opportunity. All right. So that's the first force. So number one was becoming category king. Number two was the charismatic leader. Number three was the future-based cause. Number four was the opportunity. All right, number five thing we'll talk about is how to sell.

So one thing I'm gonna teach you about, hopefully that's okay, is on your thank you page, you said nearly one million users and growing, most of all through word of mouth. Which means you're bragging that you're not spending money on ads, which makes me want to cry because if you're going to get to a billion dollars, you got to start spending a lot of money on ads. So, so I don't want to use that as like a war trophy that it's all word of mouth marketing anymore.

I want to use, I want to use the, you know, the trophy of like, we're spending a million dollars a month in advertising. That's a better trophy because that means you are everywhere and people can't get away from you. Um, which is where we're at right now, right? It's like, that's a badge of honor that I want to put on myself because it means I'm everywhere, right? Which is the goal. Like I want to just infiltrate. If I want to change people's lives, I want to make sure that anywhere they look, I'm there reminding them consistently that I'm there, right? Okay. So I'm walking through like the funnel of how we started, how we had success with ClickFunnels. What we did initially was we pushed everyone to a free 14 day trial. And a couple of things happened. Number one is we could not buy traffic to

clickfunnels.com, right? Which is, I'm sure what happened here. I give a 30 day free trial. So you're spending money, you're in the whole 30 days and it's just, it's hard to get the money back. Right. And then we did an affiliate launch that and affiliates wouldn't promote because they're like, well, so how do I get paid? I'm like, you get paid. In 30 days, you get your commission. And they're like, that's too long away. Affiliates, attention spends short.

And then my ability to spend money on ads and wait that float, it was low. And so we kept trying. It didn't work, didn't work, didn't work. So then we shifted to a webinar model where we sold ClickFunnels. We made a $1,000 version of ClickFunnels. They got, at the time, it was 12 months of ClickFunnels for $1,000 plus a bunch of other cool things in the offer. We made a $1,000 version of ClickFunnels. They got, at the time, it was 12 months of ClickFunnels for 1,000 bucks plus a bunch of other cool things in the offer.

We launched it that way. What happened, we do a webinar, make a whole bunch of money, but then we were like in this launch game where it's like we made 100 grand this week and then nothing the next week. Then 100 grand next week and then nothing next week.

And I was like, I don't want ClickFunnels to be a launch business either because I'm gonna get tired eventually and I don't want the money to stop. And so we kept trying funnel after funnel after funnel. And then this was the secret sauce. This is what made ClickFunnels blow up, is that all the ads we drove were through a webinar. All the affiliates were through a webinar. Everything happened through a webinar, right? Webinar would happen. We'd sell the $1,000 version and we'd make a big pop of cash. And that big hunk of cash

up front would pay off the ad cost. It'd pay off the affiliate. It was awesome. But then what was interesting is that on the thank you page after the register for the webinar, I had a little video that said, hey, thank you so much for registering for the webinar. Before you show up, I'm going to be showing you how to use this new tool called ClickFunnels. Go get a free 14-day trial right now. Go play with it a little bit, then show up on the webinar, I'm going to show you how to use it.

That was it. And what started happening is that for every one person that paid for the $1,000 on the webinar, three would sign up and stick in the trial, right? So what did that mean? That meant that after the first 12 months, we had 2,500 people that paid the $1,000. We made $2.5 million from that, but we had 7,500 people who had joined the trial and stuck, and then the other 2,500. So we had 10,000 people into year one who are now paying $97 a month, a monthly, which was, what's that, a million dollars a month, right?

And that was the big secret because we were able to get the upfront cash to cover affiliates and cover ads, and then we got the long-term cash from all the residual continuity. And that blend is what made ClickFunnels blow up. Because now we can spend more money than anybody else in the world. And it was just like, when we figured that out, it was like on like Donkey Kong. I was literally doing three

plus live webinars a day, multiple times a week. And we were doing it with affiliates, doing Facebook ads, doing Google ads, doing YouTube ads, doing more affiliates, doing like everything we could to get the momentum. Because when an offer is hot, it's hot and you want to run with as fast as hard as you can. And, um, I do that every single day for a year, live webinars. And then at that point we started automating it more cause I got tired, but to this day I can still tell that webinar word for word. Um, okay. So that's kind of the funnel we use. So for you, I'd recommend same things after you really identify like what your core message is with symbology, uh, what you're gonna be a category King in, like,, really identifying you as the leader, what things you're going to

share, what are the pieces of your personality you want to bring out, then it's like, this is the funnel and the webinar I would use to sell to really start blowing it up. One thing I want to step back on to number two, we talked about the charismatic leader. I know Justin Brooke asked this in one of the followup comments was just kind of, um, he said something about, you know, who, or that was the first company. Who are you now, Mark? Are you a fitness guy? You're this, you're this, you're this. And you said something that was interesting. Like you didn't want to just pigeonhole me. Like I do a lot of things. Like it was interesting. Um, I look, when I started this business, it was very similar.

Um, I was, I had learned all the pieces like I learned copyright on their Facebook ads Google Ads SEO PPC that are like all these different things it's like I would I would pride myself on like everyone else has got a thing but I'm I'm able to do all things I can do all things better than them and I and and it was funny cuz I go to events people like what do you do I'm like oh I do this and this and this and like okay okay and like well that's Jeff Walker he does product launches boom they go to him give him money oh there's know, whoever he does SEO and they go give that person money. And then me, I'm like, but I do all the, I do that plus this plus. And like, nobody wants

to hire a generalist though. A generalist, they all want a specialist, right? So it's like, what do you specialize in? And literally for me, like, like going from like doing well to like exploding was when I said, like, I'm the dude who does funnels. And that's my thing. That's my magic. And then it was amazing because ClickFunnels blew up. And then my mastermind groups blew up. And then like everyone on planet earth wants me to speak to be like the funnel guy. And it's funny because it's like, like I still teach everything, right? I still teach you how to, but I, but I, I tagged the word funnel to everything, right? So it's like, okay, here's your funnel. I'm gonna show you how to fill your funnel. I'm going to show you so that I can go on traffic stuff. I'm going to show you

how we do our followup funnels, my email, my communication. I'm going to show you, it's like, I can start, like I pick the thing that's my thing where I can teach everything else that I do around it. I think for you, it's the same thing. Like you got to really figure out like, this is the thing that I'm, that I do, but then you can do all, you can still teach everything and be everything you want around it. You're just figuring that thing out. Right? For Anthony DiClemente, it was like when I first came to him before he launched his biohackers guide to health and energy, he was like biohacking everything. So I was like, well, what do you, we buy everything. Like you name it.

I can do it all. Make, what about this? Yes. What about this? Yes. And like, he literally knew everything, like smartest dude I've ever met. And then I'm like, okay, that's cool. But like, who are we going to sell?

He's like, everybody. I can sell anything. Like every person you bring to me, I can fix them. I'm like, okay, well, um, but who are we going to sell? He's like, everybody. I can sell anything. Every person you bring to me, I can fix them. I'm like, okay, well, let's pick a focus. I was like, what are the two things that people want the most? He's like, for me, it's focus and energy. I'm like, boom. Okay, write a book just on biohacking for energy and focus.

We can sell that to entrepreneurs. We can sell it to whatever. Then he wrote this book, and it'd be like 8,000 pages just on on energy for energy and focus right and it blew up and then now he gets clients to come in for energy and focus but he's able to work on all the stuff around that but he's known as like look if you need energy or focus like this is the dude he'll biohack you get your energy back get your focus back and that was the core message most people wanted but it brings them every client case you can dream of right so for you it's kind of same thing sorry i digressed should have shared that back in the leader part, but I just got excited. All right, number five was

how to sell. And then number six, okay, so I'll go through, we got type number one, becoming category king. Number two, charismatic leader. Number three, future-based cause. Number four, new opportunity. Number five, the funnel structure, how to sell software. And number six is front-end funnels. So as you probably know if you look deep into what we do, ClickFunnels is a software platform. We sell ClickFunnels all day long, and it's awesome. But most of the money we spend nowadays is either to the webinar I talked about earlier or to different front-ends.

So my expert secrets book, my dot-com secrets book, my 30 days book, my one-funnel-a-way challenge, most of the money we spend is on front end funnels because front end funnels are easier to make your money back quick, right? Like I want less upsells inside click funnels. I want more upsells in, you know, in front end funnels. So it's the book funnels, things like that. And I started thinking like, you have so many assets. In fact, I logged into Symbolology and I bought everything from like day one. So inside of my members area, um, see if I can find my login real quick again. Um, you have the whole section with, uh, with all of, um, pull it up, all the old stuff I bought, right? I still remember of everything

you ever sold, uh, legacy course where there it is. Um, My favorite thing still is Simpleology 101. Like I love that program. Like the law of straight lines, the law of clear vision, the law of focused attention. Like that right there is an amazing friend. You can sell for, it doesn't even matter. It's not about money, right? You can sell for seven bucks, for 37, for 47. Like that right there, that training, it's already done.

You did it like 10 years ago. It's amazing. It's in Adobe Flash. You have to update it because no one's got Flash anymore. But there's people you can pay like 50 bucks and they'll turn it from flash into an actual video. Right. But like simpleology one-on-one is a front end funnel, right? Your simpleology book, like, Oh my gosh, that book's amazing. By the way, like everybody should go and read it. And then you should go back and like make a free plus shipping on simpleology book and bring people through up,

sell down, sell process. Right. But like those front end funnels is what, what brings in customers for free. And then they get indoctrinated to you, to the attractive character, the future-based cause, the opportunity. And then from there, then they sign up in droves into your software, right? Right now, today, we get on average between 1,500 and 1,800 people a day that sign up for ClickFunnels. That means they go to ClickFunnels and they create step one of their account. From that, we get 800 and 1,000 people filling their credit card. So we get 800 to 1,000 people a day that sign up for ClickFunnels that aren't tracked back to an ad. These are people who bought one of my front-end funnels. The front-end funnel does all the stuff I talked about earlier. It

defines myself as a category king. It connects them to me as a charismatic leader. It shows them the future-based cause so they have a vision of where they're going, and it offers them a new opportunity, and funnels is the answer for me, for all my front ends, right? So every front I have brings them back in ClickFunnels, brings them back. So we spend insane amounts of money selling people these front ends,

and then people come in droves to the software because of that. And my books aren't like, we have friends who have written books that are just long-form sales letters for whatever they sell. My book's not that way. It's a book, like I barely,

like in the last page, I'm like, oh, by the way, if you want to use ClickFunnels, it's awesome. Click here. My book is not a sales book. It's just a book that indoctrinates them on what they need to believe. And then the answer is they have to have funnels. That's just how it works. And so they come that direction. I think you've got so many amazing front ends that are already done that are sitting here. All theseive courses you have that are um they're amazing the core courses the books you've written you've written some amazing books like the ears of spill offer still one of my favorite books um simple ology is amazing um mind control marketing like there's so many so much cool stuff um you can go through and start creating as front ends in fact my biggest problem right now is i have so

many russell brunson front ends out there that the marketplace is so saturated that here's 800 Russell ads every single day. It's like right now we're going to be in partnerships with other authors who've written books that I can tie back into ClickFunnels. They're building out their whole free plus shipping funnels just with the goal of getting a customer for free and then introducing them to ClickFunnels.

So number six is just taking all this amazing stuff you've created over the past and creating front-end funnels with a goal of acquiring customers and then pushing them into the software. So with Smartwater's pure crisp taste, there's nothing to overthink. So while you may be spiraling over double texting your crush, whether your skincare routine is working because you look the same or is doing nothing because you look the same and whatever the heck red light therapy is, it's definitely not bad. Don't overthink how you hydrate. Life's full of choices. Smart water is a simple one.

Mark, we're almost an hour long. I hope there was some value here. I hope you got some ideas. I know there's a lot. I'm going to kind of recap it really quick. So just kind of my initial quick comments were going back to Simpleology and trying to make it simple and have people opt in to the complexity of the software. With upsells, taking out the upsells when people log in, stripping out almost all, maybe one upsell when somebody creates their account, but using the upsells later on in the front end funnels.

And then really becoming more vulnerable. Like let the significance drop, let the vulnerability open up, and let people be connected to you. Because Mark, you are one of the most fascinating, amazing people I've ever met. And when you feel comfortable becoming vulnerable and opening that up to people, you're gonna get all the significance that you've ever craved or dreamed for. So I hope that, yeah, that's what I'm most nervous about sharing, but I hope, I think it's the most important.

Then after that, the big core shifts. Number one is really focusing on what do you wanna become the category king of? And this is not just software, but it's the software, it's the content, it's all the stuff in this business of simpleology. If you want to become a billion dollar brand, I believe you have to be your own category. And so I would read the book Play Bigger, which is all about category design. It's amazing. Number two, three, and four, you should read the book Expert Secrets. It goes in detail, but it's really about identifying yourself as a charismatic leader, finding your voice, figuring out exactly where in

the market you're going to be, where you're going to become the person. Number two is figuring out your future-based cause. Number three is how do you structure what you're doing as a new opportunity? All those things you get in the Expert Secrets book. Then number five here is structuring how you sell and how do you create an actual webinar, which by the way, the Expert Secrets book also teaches you how to structure the whole webinar. I'll go slide by slide through the whole webinar process.

So that would be the next piece is like, here's how to structure the webinar to sell this amazing new opportunity you've created for people. And then number six is after you've got the webinar up and running and sales are coming in, it's coming back to these amazing assets you've already created in the past and turning them into awesome front ends. The great formula. That was the other one I couldn't remember the name of. There you go.

Anyway, so I hope that helps. You know, if I was to start a business from scratch today, those six things are the first things I'd be mapping out. What are we the category king of? What's the attractive character? How do we identify it? What are their beliefs? What are we focusing on?

Like, what's the, who are we the thing of? You know, what's future-based cause? What's new opportunity? How are we going to sell this thing? And what front ends can we the thing of? You know, what's future-based cause? What's new opportunity? How are we gonna sell this thing? And what front ends can we also build to bring more blood and more traffic into our world? So all that helps, man. I appreciate you.

I'm grateful for you. I'm so grateful that 15 years ago, you were willing to be a marketer and to sell and to sell aggressively and to convince me to part with money I didn't have because you gave me hope of a future that I didn't even know was possible that now is here. And I'm so grateful for it

and grateful for you for making those sacrifices back before we had a million eBooks and training courses and things. Back before we had Facebook ads and simplicity of driving traffic, before Instagram, before all these amazing tools. And you went out there and you were a pioneer and you busted your butt and you cut your teeth

and you figured out stuff before any of us could. And, um, I'm always grateful for the pioneers that went before us, but I'm super grateful for you, especially because you're the one that had the impact on me and they got me the shifts I needed to,

to be able to be successful in this business. I hope that in some way this, um, gave back to you because you've given so much to me in my life. So I appreciate you, ma'am. Um, and hopefully everyone who's been listening in on this podcast, um, gained from it and, uh, that you guys will have

a chance to now, if you haven't heard of Mark before, um, get connected with him, go follow him on Facebook. He's an amazing human. And, um, like I said, the, the original, the OG internet marketer, um, back figuring this stuff out before any of us even knew it existed. So, um, and I hope you guys enjoy this episode. If so, please take a screenshot of it on your phone, post it on Instagram, and tag me and use hashtag marketingsecrets. And I don't know if Mark's even on Instagram. Let's get him on Instagram as well. If he's on Instagram, tag him there too.

If not, go tag him on Facebook and tell him you appreciate him for the legacy he left and for all of us to kind of follow. Thanks, everybody. I appreciate you all. And we'll talk to you all again on the next episode. Would you like to see behind the scenes of what we're actually doing each day to grow our company?

If so, then go subscribe to our free behind-the-scenes reality TV show at www.funnelhacker.tv.