Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - ClickFunnels Startup Story - Part 1 of 4 (Revisited!)

Episode Date: August 9, 2021

Enjoy part one of this classic episode series where Andrew Warner from Mixergy interviews Russell on the ClickFunnels startup story! Hit me up on IG! @russellbrunson Text Me! 208-231-3797 Join my newsletter at marketingsecrets.com ClubHouseWithRussell.com ---Transcript--- Good morning everybody, this is Russell Brunson. I want to welcome you back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. And you guys are in for a very special treat over the next four episodes. So let me give you some context on what’s going to happen, and why you should be so excited. Alright so, my favorite podcast, other than mine of course, that all of you guys should be subscribed to is called Mixergy. Andrew Warner is the guy who runs Mixergy podcast and I love that podcast because of Andrew. He is my favorite interviewer. If you look at how a lot of people do interview podcasts, they ask questions and I don’t know, I’ve suffered from this in the past as well. I’m not a good interviewer, at least not now. I’d like to learn how to do that skill, but I’m not a great interviewer. And most people who do podcasts with interviews aren’t like great interviewers, but Andrew is like the best interviewer I’ve ever seen. The way he asks questions, how deep he goes and the research he does before the interviews, and all sorts of stuff. Anyway, I love his style, love how he does it so what’s cool, I’ve actually been on the show twice in the past. And the first time, I don’t even, sorry, the second time, he totally caught me off guard. I remember he asked me some questions and I didn’t really know and I responded and he told me after, he told me live on the interview that he doesn’t edit his interviews. He was like, “Well, that was the worst answer you’ve ever given.” I was like, “Oh, thanks.” Anyway, it just totally caught me off guard, but it was cool the way that he just like kind of holds your feet to the fire. So a little while ago I thought, I want to tell the Clickfunnels startup story. But I didn’t want me to just to tell it, I wanted someone who would tell it from a different angle, who would ask the questions that I think people would want to know and do it in a really cool way. So I called Andrew and I’m like, “Hey, I’ve been wanting to do this thing, and I want to do an event around it. Would you be interested.” And he was like, luckily he said yes. So it’s funny, Andrew’s famous, I think I might have talked about this in the interview too, but he’s famous for these scotch nights he does, and as a Mormon I don’t drink so I can’t go to his scotch nights. So when we planned this interview, we planned it in Provo, Utah at this place called the Dry Bar Comedy Club. So a dry bar is a bar with no alcohol. So it was kind of a funny thing. We brought those two things, my world and his world together in this one spot to a dry bar, and told the Clickfunnels startup story. And it was cool, ahead of time he did so much research. He interviewed people who love me, people who hated me, he interviewed our old business partners who are no longer part of the business. He did everything and then he came and I told him, “Everything’s, you can ask me any question you want. Nothing, no holds barred, feel free to do whatever you want.” So we did the interview and it was about two hours long, and I loved it. I think it turned out amazing. And I hope you guys like it too. So I’ll tell you some of the details about the Clickfunnels startup story. How we built what we did, what happened, the ups, the downs, the negatives, the positives. He brings a couple of people up onstage to tell their parts of the story. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy it. So what we’re going to do, I’m going to have each episode over the next four episodes be about thirty minutes long so you can listen to them in pieces. I hope iyou enjoy them, I hope you love them. And if you do, please, please, please take a screen shot of your phone when you’re listening to it, and go post it on Instagram or Facebook and tag me. And then do hashtag marketing secrets and hopefully that will get more people to listen to the podcast. And then please, if you haven’t yet, go rate and review, which would be amazing. So with that said, I’m going to queue up the theme song and when we come back we will start immediately into part one of four of the Dry Bar Comedy Club Interview. Keith Yacky: Clickfunnels has changed a lot of our lives. We all have an origin story. Mine was something similar to, I set up my website on GoDaddy and things were going great. And then Dave Woodward was like, “Dude, you need Clickfunnels.” I’m like, “I don’t need a Clickfunnel. I don’t even know what a Clickfunnel is.” And he’s like, “No, seriously man. This is going to totally change your business.” I’m like, “Bro, I have GoDaddy. They have a commercial on the Super Bowl, Clickfunnels doesn’t. But when they do, I’ll do it.” Well, boy was I wrong. I changed over and it absolutely changed our business and changed our lives. So thank you for that, Dave. But here’s the thing, in every industry there’s somebody that comes along that really disrupts the industry, that really changes it, and that really does something amazing for that industry. And as we all, why we’re here, we know that person is Russell Brunson. And he has changed a lot of our lives. So before I bring him up here, they have asked me to ask you to make sure you don’t do any live recording of this next interview, because the gloves are coming off and they want to be able to present it to the world. You can do little Instagram clips if you’d like, like 15 second ones and tag them. My understanding is the best hashtag and the best clip, gets a date with Drew. I don’t know, that’s just what they told me. So blame them. But with that, again, no videoing, and let us just absolutely take the roof off this place as we bring up our beloved Russell Brunson. Give it up guys. Russell: Alright, well thanks for coming you guys. This is so cool. I’m excited to be here. So a couple of real quick things before we get started. For all of you guys who know, who came to be part of this, we had you all donate a little bit of money towards Operation Underground Railroad, and I’m really excited because Melanie told me right before I got here the total of how much money we raised from this little event for them. So I think the final number was a little over $13,000 was raised for Operation Underground Railroad. So thank you guys for your continued support with them. Just to put that in perspective, that’s enough money to save about 5 children from sex slavery. So it’s a big deal and a life changing thing, so it’s pretty special. So I’m grateful for you guys donating money to come here. And hopefully you’ve had a good time so far. Has it been fun? I really want to tuck my shirt in now, I’m feeling kind of awkward. No it’s been awesome. Okay so what we’re going to do now, I want to introduce the person who’s going to be doing the interview tonight. And it’s somebody I’m really excited to have here. In fact, I met him for the first time like an hour ago, in person. But I want to tell kind of the reason why I wanted him to do this, and why we’re all here. And I’m grateful he said yes, and was willing to come out here and kind of do this. So Andrew runs a podcast called Mixergy. How many of you guys in here are Mixergy listeners? Mixergy is my favorite podcast, I love it. He’s interviewed thousands of people about their startup stories and about how they started their businesses. And it’s really cool because he brings in entrepreneurs and he tells, gets them to tell their stories. But what’s unique about what Andrew does that’s fascinating, the way he interviews people is completely different, it’s unique. I listen to a lot of podcasts and I don’t like a lot of interview shows because a lot of them are just kind of high level. Everyone you listen to with Andrew, he gets really, really deep. The other fun thing is he doesn’t edit his interviews. So there was one interview, I’ll tease him about this right now. But I was listening to it on my headphones, and him and the guest got in kind of an argument and a fight and then it just ended and they aired it. I was like, “I can’t believe you aired that, it was amazing.” And then I was on his podcast a little while later, and he asked me some questions that I couldn’t quite understand perfectly, so I was trying to respond the best I could and kind of fumbled through it. And instead of letting me off the hook, his response was, “Man Russell, that was probably the worst answer I’ve ever heard you give in any interview ever.” And I was like, “Oh my gosh.” So I’m excited for tonight because I told it was like no holds barred and he could ask me anything he wants about the ups of Clickfunnels, the downs of Clickfunnels and anything else, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. So I’m excited to have him here. So with that said, let’s put our hands together for Mr. Andrew Warner. Andrew Warner: I think my mic is right over here. Thank you everyone, thanks Russell for having me here. Most people will contact me after I interview them and say, “Could you please not air the interview?” And you actually had me back here to do it in person. And you were so nice, you even got us this room here. Check this out, they set us up, they’re so nice at Clickfunnels. They said, “Andrew, you’re staying here, we’re going to put you and your family up the night before in a room.” My wife was so good, look that’s her journaling. My kids were playing around, sleeping in the same, sleeping together, enjoying themselves. And then I went to call somebody who was basically let go from Clickfunnels. And my wife goes, “Andrew, why do you have to do that? That’s not why they invited you here.” And I said, “I do know Russell. I know the team. They actually did invite me to really help get to the story of how Clickfunnels started, how it built up.” And the reason I was up calling people, understanding the story is because I want to make it meaningful for you. I’ve talked to a lot of you as you were coming in here, you want to know how they got here, what worked for Clickfunnels, what would work for us. So that’s my goal here, to spend the time understanding by interviewing you about how you did it. So I want to go way back to a guy a few of you might recognize, and I know you would, and ask you what drew you to this guy when you were younger? Russell: Don Lepre Clip: “One tiny classified ad in the newspaper that makes just 30-40 dollars profit in a week, it could make you a fortune, because the secret is learning how to take that one tiny classified that just made 30-40 dollars profit in a week, and to realize that you could now take that same exact ad and place it in up to 3,000 other newspapers around the country….” Russell: I’m having nostalgia right now. So this is the story of that, I was 12, 13 years old, something like that, and I was watching the news with my dad. And usually he’s like, “Go to bed Russell.” And he didn’t that night and then the news got over and I think he thought I was asleep and Mash came on. So Mash started playing and then it got over, and then this infomercial showed up. And I’m laying there on the couch watching Don Lepre talk about tiny classified ads, I was totally freaking out and I jumped up and begged my dad to buy it and he said no. And I was like, “Are you kidding? Did you not listen to what he said?” Did you guys just hear that? That was a good pitch huh? It’s really good. I love a good pitch. It is so good. So I went and asked my dad if I could earn the money. So I went and mowed lawns and earned the money and ordered the kit and I still have the original books to this day. Andrew: Were you disappointed? I bought it too. It was the dream of being able to do it. Russell: That’s why I like you so much, that’s amazing. Andrew: And it’s just, all he sent you was a bunch of paper guides with how to buy ads, right. Were you disappointed when you got that? Russell: No, I was excited. I think for me because the vision was cast, it was like, he said right there word for word, you make 40 dollars a newspaper, and if you’re disappointed, but he put that same ad in 3,000 newspapers, imagine that. So I had the vision of that, I think the only thing I was disappointed in, I didn’t have any money to actually buy an ad. And that was more like, I can’t actually do it now. Andrew: You are a champion wrestler and then you got here. Is your wife here? Russell: My beautiful wife right here, Collette. Andrew: Hey Collette. And your dad had a conversation with you about money, what did he say? Russell: So up to that point my dad had supported me, and I figured he would the rest of my life, I think. I don’t know. So I was 21 almost 22 at this time, I was wrestling so I couldn’t get a job because I was wrestling all the time. Then I met Collette, fell in love with her and then I called my parents and I was like, “Hey, I’m going to marry her. I’m going propose to her and everything.” Expecting them to be like, “Sweet, that’ll be awesome.” And my mom was all excited, I’m not going to lie. But then my dad was like, “Just so you know if you get married, you have to be a man now. You have to support yourself.” And I was like, “I don’t know how to do that, I’m wrestling.” And he’s like, “Well, I’m not going to keep paying for you to do it.” I’m like, “But I literally got the ring. I have, I can’t not propose now.” So that was kind of the thing. So it was interesting because about that time there was another infomercial, there’s the pattern, about I can’t remember exactly the name of the company, but they were doing an event at the local Holiday inn that was like, “Hey, you’re going to build websites and make money.” And it was like the night or two days after I told my dad this and he was like, “you’re in trouble.” And all the sudden I saw that, so I was like, there’s the answer. So I’m at the holiday in two days later, sitting in the room, hearing the pitch, signing up for stuff I shouldn’t have bought. There’s the pattern. Andrew: Did you feel like a loser getting married at 22 and still counting on your dad for money? Did you feel like you were marrying a loser? Russell: Actually, this is a sad story because she actually, my roommate at the time, she actually asked him, “Do you think he’s going to be able to support me in the future?” and he was like, “Yeah, I think so.” I’m like, I didn’t know this until later. I don’t think I felt like a loser, but I definitely was nervous, like oh my gosh. Because my whole identity at that point in my life was I was a wrestler and if that was to disappear…I couldn’t have that disappear. So I was like, I have to figure out something. There’s gotta be some way to do both. Andrew: To both what? To be a wrestler and make money from some infomercial? Russell: I didn’t know that was going to be the path, but yeah. Andrew: But you knew you were going to do something. What did you think that was going to be? Russell: I wasn’t sure. When I went to the event, they were selling these time share books and you could buy resale rights to them, so I was like, oh. And I remember back, because I remembered the Don Lepre stuff, so I was like, maybe I could buy classified ads and sell these things. And then I was at the event and they were talking about websites, and that was the first thing I’d heard about websites. And they’re talking about Google and the beginnings of this whole internet thing. So I was like, I can do that. It made all logical sense to me, I just didn’t know how to do it. I just knew that that was going to be the only path because if I had to get a job I wouldn’t be able to wrestle. So I was like, I have to figure out something that’s not going to be a 40 hour thing because I’m spending that time wrestling and going to school. So I had to figure out the best of how to do both. Andrew: And you obviously found it. My goal today is to go through this process of finding it. But let me skip ahead a little bit. What is this website? Russell: Oh man, alright. This is actually, the back story behind this is there was a guy named Vince James who wrote a book called the Twelve Month Millionaire. And if anybody’s got that book, it’s fat like a phone book. It’s a huge book. I read and I was like, this book’s amazing. And at the time I was an affiliate marketer, so I had a little bit, maybe a thousand people on my list. So I called up Vince and I was like, “Hey, can I interview you about the book and then I’ll use that as a tool to sell more copies of your book?” and he was like, “Sure.” So he jumped on the phone with me on a Saturday and he spent 3 hours letting me interview with any questions I had. And I got to the end of it and I still had a ton of questions and he’s like, “Well come back next week and do it again.” So I interviewed him for 6 hours about it. And then we used that to sell some copies of his book and then it just sat there, probably for 2 or 3 years as I was trying different ideas, different businesses and things like that. But every time I would talk to people I would tell them about this interview. I’m like, “I interviewed this guy who made a hundred million dollars through direct mail.” And everyone wanted to hear the interview, everybody asked me for it. So one day I was like, “Let’s just make that the product.” And we put it up here and this was the very first funnel we had that did over a million dollars, my first Two Comma Club funnel. Andrew: A million dollars. Do you remember what that felt like? Russell: It was amazing because it was funny back then. There were people, a few people who were making a lot of money online that I was watching and just idolizing everything they’d do. I was trying to model what they were doing. And I’d had little wins, you know $10,000 here, $15,000 here, but this was by far the first one that just hit. Everyone was so excited. Andrew: How’d you celebrate? Russell: I don’t even remember how we celebrated. Andrew: You married a winner after all. I mean really. Do you remember what you guys did to celebrate? No. Russell: I don’t even remember. (audience responding, inaudible) It was in my list. That’s a good question. Andrew: It’ll come up, that list is going to come up in a second too. You ended up creating Clickfunnels. How much revenue are you guys doing now, 2018? Russell: 2018 we’ll pass over a hundred million dollars, this year. Andrew:  A hundred million dollars, wowee. How far have you come? Russell: Like when did we start? Andrew: Today revenue, as of today, October 2018? Russell: Oh this year? Oh from the beginning of time until now? Andrew: No, no I mean I want to know, you’re going to do a hundred million dollars, are you at 10 and you’re hoping to get…. Russell: These guys know better than me, do you know exactly where we’re at right now? 83 million for the year. Andrew: 83! I love that Dave knows that right, so I want to know how you got to that. I went through your site, pages and pages that look like this. It’s like long form sales letters. I asked my assistant to take pictures, she said, “This is, I can’t do it, it’s too many.” Look at this guys. I asked him to help me figure out what he did. He created this list, this is not the full list, look at this. Every blue line is him finding an old archive of a page he created. It goes on and on like this. How long did it take you to put that together? Russell: It was probably 5 or 6 hours just to find all the pages. Andrew: 5 or 6 hours you spent to find these images to help me tell the story. Years and years of doing this, a lot of failure, what amazes me is you didn’t feel jaded and let down after Don Lepre sold you that stuff. You didn’t feel jaded and let down and say, ‘This whole make money thing is a failure.’ After, and we’re going to talk about some of your failures, you just kept going with that same smile, the same eagerness. Alright, let’s start with the very first business. What’s this one? This is called… Russell: Sublime Net. How many of you guys remember Sublime Net out there? Andrew: You guys remember this? Anyone remember it. You do? Russell: John does. So actually this is the first business for the first website I bought. I was so proud of it, and I spent, I don’t know, I wanted to sell software so I was like, ‘what could I name my company?” So I figured out Exciting Software. So I went to buy Exciteware.com, but it wasn’t for sale. So I bought Exciteware.net and Collette was working at the time and she came home and I was so excited, I’m like, “We got our first website. We’re going to be rich.”  And I told her the name, I was like, “It’s Exciteware.net.” and she looked at me with this look like, she’s like, “Are you selling underwear, what is the…lingerie?” I’m like, “No, it’s software.” And she’s like, “You can’t, I’m not going to tell my mom that you bought that. You gotta think of another name.” I’m like, “Crap.” So that was the next best name I came up with was Sublime Net. Like the band Sublime. That was it. Andrew: And I was going to ask you what it was, but it was lots of different things. Every screenshot on there is a whole other business under the same name. What are the businesses? Do you remember? Russell: There was website hosting, there was affiliates sites, there were, I can’t even remember now, trying to remember. Everything I could think of, resell rights…. Andrew: Lots of different things. How did you do, how well did you do? Russell: Never anything, very little. I remember the first thing I ever sold was an affiliate product, I made $20 on it through my Paypal account, because I remember that night, I do remember I celebrated. We went out to dinner and I had a Paypal credit card, and we bought dinner with $20 and then the guy refunded the next day. It was so sad. But I was proud that I had made money. Andrew: How did you support yourself while this was not working? Russell: I didn’t. My beautiful wife did, she had 2 jobs at the time to support me while I was wrestling and doing these things. She was the one who made it possible to gamble and risk and try crazy things. Andrew: Can I put you on the spot and ask you to just come over here and just tell me about this period and what you felt at the time? Is that, I know you don’t love being onstage, Russell is good with it, but I know you don’t love it. If you don’t mind, I’m just going to go with one more story and then I’ll come back to you. You cool with it? Good, she seems a little nervous. Actually, wait. Let’s see if we can get her right now. Oh you are, okay. Russell: Everyone, this is Collette, my beautiful wife. Andrew: Do you want to use his mic? Collette: Sure. Russell: She’s so mad at me right now. Collette: I wanted to come to this, who knew? Andrew: You are like his, he’s so proud that he had no venture funding. But you are like his first investor. Russell: That is true. Collette: Yes, I’ll be his first investor. Andrew: Can you hold the mic a little closer. How did you know he wasn’t a loser? No job, he’s wrestling, he’s buying infomercial stuff that doesn’t go anywhere. We know he did well, so we’re not insulting him now, but what did you see in him back then that let you say, ‘I’m going to work extra hard and pay for what he’s not doing?’ Collette: What did I see in him? It was actually his energy, his spirit, because I’m not going to lie, it was kind of not love at first site, we had, we were geeko’s, do you know what I mean? Shopped at the Goodwill, in baggy pants and tshirts, I don’t know. But it was the person who just was always positive and we had the same goals. Andrew: That’s the thing I noticed too, the positivity. When these businesses fail, we’re showing the few on the screen, it’s easy to look back and go, ‘ha ha, I did this and it was interesting.’ But at the time, what was the bounce back like when things didn’t work out? When the world basically said, you know what as sales people, when they don’t buy your stuff it’s like they don’t buy you. When the world basically said, ‘we don’t like you. We don’t like what you’ve created.’ What was the bounce back like? Hard? Collette: No, because I come from a hard working family. So I work hard. So you just work hard to make it work. Andrew: And he’s just an eternal optimistic, and you’re an eternal optimist too, like genuinely, really? Collette: Yeah, I guess. It works. Andrew: His dad said, ‘No more money. You had to cut up your credit cards too.’ Collette: Yeah. Andrew: What was, how did you cut up your credit cards. What was that day like? Collette: Hard. Yeah hard. Those that don’t know, I’m a little bit older than Russell. So I’ve always had this little bit of independency to go do and buy and do these things, and then all the sudden I’m like, step back sista! You gotta take care of this young man, so we can get to where we’re at. Anyway, but now… Andrew: Now things are good? Collette: Now things are amazing. Andrew: Alright, give her a big round of applause. Thanks for coming up here. These businesses did okay, and then you started something that I never heard about, but look at this. I’m going to zoom in on a section of the Google doc you sent me. This is the call center. The call center got to how many employees? 100? Russell: We had about 60 full time sales people, 20 full time coaches, and about 20 people doing the marketing and sales, so about 100 people in the whole company, yeah. Andrew: 100 people doing what kind of call center, what kind of work? Russell: So what we would do, we would sell free CDs and things like that online, free CDs, free books, free whatever, and then when someone would buy it we’d call them on the phone, and then we’d offer them high end coaching. Andrew: And this was you getting customers, how? Russell: Man, back then it was pre-facebook. So a lot of it was Google, it was email lists, it was anything we could figure out to drive traffic, all sorts of weird stuff. Andrew: And then people come in, get a free CD, sign up for coaching, and then you had to hire people and teach them how to coach? How did you do that. Russell: Yeah, that was the hard thing. When we first started doing it, I was just doing the coaching. People would come in and we had a little, Brent and some of you guys remember the little offices we had, and we’d bring people in and we were so proud of our little office. And they’d come in and we’d teach them for 2 or 3 days, teach an event for them, and then as it got bigger it was harder and harder for me to do that. So eventually, and a lot of people didn’t want to come to Boise. I love Boise, but it’s really hard to get to. So people would sign up for coaching, and then they’d never show up to Boise and then a year later they’d want their money back. So we’re like, we have to get something where they’re getting fulfilled whether they showed up to Boise or now. So we started doing phone coaching, and at first it was me, and then it was me and a couple other people, and then we started training more coaches, and that’s kind of how it started. It was one of those things though, at  first it was just like 5 or 6 of us in a room doing it, and it worked and so then the next logical thing is, we should go from 5 people to 10 to 20 and next thing you know, we wake up with 100 people. I’m like, what are we doing? We’re little kids, it scares me that I’m in charge of all these people’s livelihood, but that’s kind of where it was at and it got kind of scary for me. Andrew: Sometimes I wonder if I’m hiding behind interviewing because I’m afraid to stand up and say, ‘here’s what I want. Here’s what I think we need to do. Here’s how the world should be.’ So I’m amazed that even back then, after having a few businesses that didn’t really work out, you were comfortable enough to say, ‘Come to my office, I’m going to teach you. I’ve got it figured out.’ When you hadn’t.  How did you get yourself comfortable, and what made you feel comfortable about being able to say, ‘I could teach these people. Come to my office.’ Who call up, who then become my coaches, who then have to teach other people? Russell: I think for me it was like, when I first started learning the online stuff and entrepreneurship, I think most people feel this, it’s so exciting you want to tell everybody about it. So I’m telling my friends and my family and nobody cares at first. And you’re like, I have to share this gift I’ve figured out, it’s amazing. And nobody cares. And then the first time somebody cares, and you just dump on them, you want to show it to them. So I hadn’t made tons of money, but I had a lot of these little websites that had done, $30 grand, $50 grand, $100 grand. So for me it was like, if I can show these people, I know what that did for me, it gave me the spark to want to do the next one and the next one. So for me it was like I want to share this because I feel like I figured it out. So that was the thing coming in. We weren’t teaching people how to build a hundred million dollar company, but we’re like, “Hey, you can quit your job. You can make 2 or 3 thousand dollars a month, you can quit your job, and this is how I did it. This is the process.” So that’s what we were showing people. Just the foundation of how we did it, and we showed other people, because they cared and it was exciting to share it with other people. Andrew: Is Whitney here? There she is. I met her as she was coming in. I wanted to get to know why people were coming to watch this, what they wanted to hear from you. And Whitney was asking about the difficult period, the why. I’m wondering the same thing that she and I were talking about, which is why put yourself through this? You could have gotten a job, you could have done okay, why put yourself through the risk of hiring people, the eventual as we’ll see, closing of the company, what was your motivation? What was the goal? Why did you want to do it? Russell: I think it shifts throughout time. I think most entrepreneurs when they first get started, it’s because of money. They’re like, ‘I want to make money.’ And then you get that and then really quick, that doesn’t last very long. And then it’s like, then for me it was like, I want to share that with other people. And then when other people get it, there’s something about that aha moment where you’re like, oh my gosh they got it. They got what I was saying. And that for me was like the next level, the next high. It was just like, ah, I love that. And back then we had some success stories coming through, but now days, it’s like the bigger success stories come through and that’s what drives it on. That is the fascinating part. That’s why we keep, because most software company owners don’t keep creating books, and courses and inter….but when people have the aha, oh my gosh, that’s the best for me. Andrew: That’s the thing, you get the high of the thing that you wanted when you were growing up, that you wanted someone to show it to you, and if you could then genuinely give it them, not like Don Lepre. But Don Lepre plus actual results, that’s what fires you up. Russell: That does fire me up. That’s amazing. Andrew: What happened? Why did that close down? Russell: Oh man, a lot of things. A lot of bad mistakes, a lot of first time growing a company stuff that I didn’t, again, we just woke up one day it felt like, and we were in this huge office, huge overhead, and about that time, it was 99, 2000 something like that, and there was the merchant account that me and most of the people doing internet marketing at the time, we all used the same merchant account, and they got hit by Visa and Mastercard, so they freaked out and shut down. I think it ended up being 4 or 5 merchant accounts overnight, and we had 9 different merchant accounts with that company, and all of them got shut down instantly. I remember because everything was fine, we were going through the day and it was like 1:00 in the afternoon on a Friday. They came in like, “None of the, the cards won’t process.” And I’m like, couldn’t figure out why they weren’t processing. We tried to call the company and no one’s answering at the company. Finally we get someone on the phone and they’re like, “Yep, you got shut down along with all the other scammers.” And then she hung up on me. And I was like, I don’t know what to do right now. I’ve got 100+ people and payroll is not small, and we didn’t have a ton of cash in the bank, it was more of a cash flow business. And Collette actually just left town that night, and she was gone. I remember Avatar just came out, and everyone was going to the movie Avatar that night, and I remember sitting there during the longest movie of all time, and I don’t remember anything other than the sick feeling in my stomach. I was texting everyone I know, trying to see if anyone knew what to do. And everyone was like, “We got shut down too.” “We got shut down.” Everyone got shut down. And we couldn’t figure out anything. So we came back the next day and I called everyone up, and actually kind of a funny side story, I had just met Tony Robbins a little prior, earlier to this. So that night I was laying in bed, it was like 4 in the morning, and my phone rings and I look at it and it was Tony Robbins’ assistant. And I pick it up and he’s like, “Hey, is there any way you can be in Vegas in three hours? There’s a plane from Boise to Vegas and Tony wants you to speak at this event. It’s starting in three hours. You need to be on stage in three hours.” I’m sitting here like, my whole world just collapsed, I’m laying in bed sick to my stomach and I’m like, “I don’t think I can. I have to figure this thing out.” And then he tells Tony, and they call me back. “Tony says if your business is…if you can’t make it, don’t show up. You’re fine.” So I didn’t go and then the next morning I woke up and there was a message on my phone that I’d missed. I passed out and I woke up and it was a message from Tony. And he was like, “Hey man, I know that you care about your customers, you care about things. I don’t know the whole situation, but worst case scenario, if you need help let me know, and we can absorb you into Robbins research or whatever and you can be one of my companies, and that way if you want, we can protect you.” And I heard that and I was like, “Okay, that’s the worst case scenario, I get to work with Tony Robbins? That’s the worst case scenario.” So then I called up everyone on my team and I was like, “Okay guys, we gotta try to figure out how to save this.” And Brent and John and everyone, we came back to my house and I was like, “Okay, what ideas do we got?” And we just sat there for the next 5 or 6 hours trying to figure stuff out. And then we went to work, and I wish I could say that everything turned around, but it was the next probably 2 or 3 years of us firing 30 people, firing 20 people, closing things down, moving down offices. Just shrinking for a long, long time, until the peak of it, it was about a year after that moment, and we were in an event in Vegas trying to figure out how to save stuff, and I got an email from my dad who was helping with the books at the time, and he said, “Hey, I got really bad news for you. I looked through the books and it turns out your assistant who is supposed to be doing payroll taxes, hadn’t paid payroll in over a year. You owe the IRS $170,000 and if you don’t pay this, you’re probably going to go to jail.” And I was like, every penny I’d earned to that point was gone. Everything was done and we’d lost everything and I was just like, I don’t know how to fight this battle, but if I don’t fight it I go to jail apparently. And I remember that’s a really crappy feeling. Brent, some of you guys are reliving this with me right now, I know. I remember going back that night, laying in bed and I was just like, “I wish I had a boss that could fire me, because I don’t know what to do, how to do it.” And that was kind of, that was definitely the lowest spot for me. Andrew: And you stuck with him? Wow, yeah. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Metrolinx and Crosslinx 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. Good morning, everybody. This is Russell Brunson. I want to welcome you back to the Marketing Seekers podcast. And you guys are in for a very special treat over the next four episodes. Let me give you some context of what's going to happen and why you should be so excited.

All right. So my favorite podcast, other than mine, of course, that all of you guys should be subscribed to is called Mixergy and Andrew Warner is the guy who runs Mixergy podcast. And I love that podcast because of Andrew. Like he is my favorite interviewer. If you look at how a lot of people do interview podcasts, they ask questions and they're, I don't know. And I, I, I've suffered from this in the past as well. Like I'm not a good interviewer, at least not now. I'd like to learn how to do that skill, but I'm not a great interviewer. And most people who do podcasts with interviews aren't like great interviewers. But Andrew is

like, like the best interviewer I've ever seen. The way he asks questions, how deep he goes and like, and, and the research he does before the interviews and all sorts of stuff. And so, um, anyway, I just, I love his style, love how he does it. And so what's cool is I've actually been on the show twice in the past. And the first time, or no, sorry, the second time, he totally caught me off guard. Like he, remember, he asked me some questions I didn't really know and I responded. And he told me after, or told me like live on the interview, he doesn't edit his interviews. He was like, well, that was the worst answer you've ever given. And I was like, oh, thanks.

Anyway, it was, it was just totally caught me off guard, but it was cool the way that he was just like, kind of holds your feet to the fire. And so a little while ago I thought, you know, I wanted to, I wanted to tell the ClickFunnels startup story. And so, um, uh, but I didn't want to be just me just tell, I wanted someone who was like, who would, who would tell from a different angle and like ask the questions that, that I think people would want to know and, and,

and do it in a really cool way. And so I called Andrew, I was like, Hey, I'm wanting to do this thing and I want to do an event around it. Would you be interested? And he was like, he luckily said yes.

And so it's funny, Andrew's famous. I think I might talk about this in the interview too, but he's famous for these scotch nights he does. And as a Mormon, I don't drink, so I can't, you know,

I can't go to scotch nights. And so when we planned this interview, we planned it in Provo, Utah. It's a place called the Dry Bar Comedy Club. So a dry bar is a bar with no alcohol. And so it was kind of a funny thing where we brought those two things, my world and his world, together to this one spot, to a dry bar, and told the ClickFunnels startup story. And what's cool is ahead of time, he did so much research.

He interviewed people who loved me, people who hated me. He interviewed, um, you know, our old business partners who are no longer a part of the business. He did everything. And then he came in and I told him, I was like, everything's, you can ask me any question you want. Nothing off, nothing, no holds barred. Um, you know, feel free to do whatever you want. And so we did the interview and it was about two hours long and I loved it. I think it turned out amazing and I hope you guys like it too. So I'll tell you some of the, some of the details about the ClickFunnels startup story, like how we built, what we did, what happened, the ups, the downs, the negatives, the positives. He brings a couple of people on stage to tell their parts of the story. And anyway, I really hope you enjoy it.

So what we're gonna do is I'm going to have each episode over the next four episodes be about 30 minutes long so you can listen to them in pieces. And I hope you enjoy them. I hope you love them. If you do, please, please, please take a screenshot of your phone where you're listening to it and go post it on Instagram or Facebook and tag me. And then do hashtag marketing secrets. And hopefully I'll get more people to listen to the podcast.

And then please, if you haven't yet, go rate and review, which would be amazing. So with that said, I'm going to cue up the theme song and we'll come back. We'll start immediately into part one of four of the Dry Bar Comedy Club interview. 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 answer. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing Secrets. ClickFunnels has changed a lot of our lives. We all have an origin story. Mine was something similar to, I set up my website on GoDaddy and things were going great. And then Dave Woodward's like, dude, you need ClickFunnels. I'm like, I don't need a ClickFunnel. I don't even know what a ClickFunnel is. He's like, no, seriously, man, this is going to totally change your business. I'm like, bro, I have GoDaddy. They have a commercial on the Super Bowl. ClickFunnels doesn't. But when they do, I'll do it.

Well, boy, was I wrong. I changed over and it absolutely changed our business and changed our life. So thank you for that, Dave. But here's the thing. In every industry, there's somebody that comes along that really disrupts the industry, that really changes it, and that're here, we know that that person is Russell Brunson and he has changed a lot of our lives. So before I bring him up here, they have asked me to ask you to make sure that you don't do any live recording of this next interview because the gloves are coming off and they want to be able to present to the world. You can do little Instagram clips if you'd like,

like 15 second ones and tag them. My understanding is the best hashtag and the best clip gets a date with Drew. I don't know. That's just what they told me. So blame them. But with that, again, no videoing and let us just absolutely take the roof off this place as we bring up our beloved Russell Brunson. Give it up, guys. all right well thanks for coming you guys this is so cool and uh um excited to be here so a couple

real quick things before we get started um uh for all of you guys you know who came to be part of this um we had y'all donate a bit of money towards Operation Underground Railroad. And I'm really excited because Melanie told me right before I got here kind of the total of how much money we raised from this little event for them. So I think the final number was a little over $13,000 was raised for Operation Underground Railroad.

So thank you guys for your continued support with them. Just put that in perspective. That's enough money to save about five children from sex slavery. So it is a big deal, and it's a life-changing thing, and so it's pretty special. So grateful for you guys for donating money to come here, and hope you had a good time so far.

It's been fun. Okay? I really want to tuck my shirt in now. I'm feeling kind of awkward. No, it's been fun. Okay. I really want to tuck my shirt in now. I'm feeling kind of awkward. No, it's been awesome. Okay. So right now I want to introduce the person who's going to be doing the interview tonight. And it's someone I'm really excited to have here. In fact, I met him for the first time like an hour ago in person. But I want to tell kind of the reason why I wanted him to do this and why we're all here. And I'm grateful he said yes and was willing to come out here and kind of do this. So Andrew runs a podcast called Mixergy.

How many guys in here are Mixergy listeners? All right. Mixergy is my favorite podcast. I love it. He's interviewed thousands of people about their startup stories and about how they started their businesses. And it's really cool because he brings these entrepreneurs and he tells, gets them to tell their stories. But what's unique about what Andrew does, it's fascinating is the way he interviews people is completely different. It's unique. Um, I listened to a lot of podcasts and I don't like a lot of interview shows. A lot of them are just kind of high level. Um, everyone you listen to with Andrew, he gets really, really deep. Um, the other fun thing is he doesn't, um, edit his interviews. And so, uh, there's interview, I'll tease him about this right now,

but I was listening to it on my headphones and him and the guests got kind of an argument and a fight and then it just ended and then they aired it. And I was like, I can't believe you aired that. It was amazing. And then I was on his podcast a little while later and he asked me some questions I couldn't quite understand perfectly.

So I was trying to respond the best I could and then kind of like fumble through it. And instead of letting me off the hook, his response was, man, Russell, that was probably the worst answer I've ever heard you give in any interview ever. And I was like, oh my gosh. And so I'm excited for that because I told him there's like no holds barred. He can ask me anything he wants about the ups of ClickFunnels, the downs of ClickFunnels, and anything else. And it's going to be a lot of fun. So I'm excited to have him here. So with that said, let's put our hands together for Mr. Andrew Warner. Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me here. I think my mic is right over here. Thank you, everyone. Thanks, Russell, for having me here. Most people will contact me after I interview them and say, could you please not air the interview? And you actually had me back here to do it in person. And you were so nice.

You even got us this room here. Check this out. They set us up. They're so nice at ClickFunnels. They said, Andrew, you're staying here. We're going to put you and your family up the night before in a room. My wife was so good. Look, that's her journaling.

My kids were playing around, sleeping in the same, like sleeping together, enjoying themselves. And then I went to call somebody who was basically let go from ClickFunnels. And my wife goes, Andrew, why do you have to do that? That's not why they invited you here. And I said, I do know Russell. I know the team. They actually did invite me to really help get to the story of how ClickFunnels started, how it built up.

And the reason that I was up calling people, understanding the story, is because I want to make it meaningful for you. I've talked to a lot of you as you were coming in here. You want to know how they got here, what worked for ClickFunnels, what would work for us. And so that's my goal here, to spend the time understanding by interviewing you about how you did it. And so I want to go way back to a guy that a few of you might recognize, and I know you would and ask you what drew you to this guy when you were younger.

Don the pre. One tiny classified ad in the newspaper that makes just 30 to $40 profit in a week. It could make you a fortune because the secret is learning how to take that one tiny classified ad that just made 30 to $40 profit in a week. And to realize that you could now take that same exact ad and place it in up to 3,000 other newspapers around the country. I'm having nostalgia right now. Okay. So this is the story on that. So I was, I don't know, 12, 13 years old, something like that. And, um, I was watching the news with my dad and usually he's like, go to bed, Russell. And he didn't that night. And then the news got

over. I think he thought I was asleep and And then mash came on and so mash started playing and then it got over. Then this infomercial showed up and I'm laying there on the couch, like watching Don the pre talk about tiny classified ads. I was totally freaking out. And I, uh, jumped up and I begged my dad to buy it. And he said, no. And I was like, are you keep like, did you not listen to what he said? Do you guys just hear that? That's a good pitch, huh? It's really good. I love a good pitch. It is so good. Um so I went and asked my dad if I could earn the money. So I went and mowed lawns and then I earned the money to order the kit. And I still have the original books to this day. Oh, you're disappointed. I bought it too. It was the dream of being able to. That's why I like you so much. That's amazing.

And it was just, all he sent you was a bunch of paper like guides to how to buy ads right were you disappointed when you got that no um i was excited i think for me because um like the vision was cast it was like he just said right there it worked for he's like you made 40 a newspaper and if you're disappointed but you put that same ad in 3 000 newspapers imagine that and so i had the vision of that i think the only thing i was disappointed in is i didn't have any money to actually buy an ad and that that was more like, I don't, I can't actually do it now. You are a champion wrestler and then you got married. Is your wife here? My beautiful wife right here, Colette.

Hey, Colette. And your dad had a conversation with you about money. What did he say? So up to that point, my dad had supported me and I figured he would the rest of my life. I think, I don't know. So I was 21, almost 22 at this time. So I was wrestling. So I didn't have, I couldn't get a job. So I was wrestling all the time. And I met Colette, fell in love with her. And then I called my parents. I was like, Hey, I'm going to marry her. I'm going to propose to her and everything expecting them to be like, sweet. That'll be awesome. And my mom was all excited. I'm not going to lie. But then my dad was like, well, if just, you know, like if you get married, like, like you have to be a man now, like you have to support yourself. And I was like, but I, I don't know how to do that. I'm wrestling. And he's like, well, I'm not going to keep paying for you to do it. I'm like, but I'm

like literally got the ring. I have to like, I can't not propose now. And that was kind of the thing. And so it was interesting because about that time, there was another infomercial. There's the pattern about, I can't remember exactly the name of the company, but they were doing an event at the local holiday inn that was like, hey, you're going to build websites and make money. And I was like, it was like the night or day or two days after I told my dad this, and he was like,

you're in trouble. And as soon as I saw that, I was like, there's the answer. So I'm at Holiday Inn like two days later, sitting in the room, hearing the pitch, signing up for stuff I shouldn't have bought. There's the pattern. Did you feel like a loser getting married at 22 and still counting on your dad for money

did you feel like you were marrying a loser actually this is a sad story so because she actually so when my roommate at the time she actually asked me um she's like do you think he's gonna be able to support me in the future and uh he was like yeah i think so i'm like i didn't know this till later um i don't know i felt like a loser but i definitely was nervous like i'm like oh my gosh because like my whole identity to that point my life was i was a wrestler and like if that was to disappear like i couldn't have that disappear and so i was like i have to figure out something there's gotta be some way for me to do both um to do both what to be a wrestler and make money

from some infomercial well i know that was gonna be the path but yeah no but to be able to knew that you were gonna do something what do you think that was gonna be um i wasn't sure like um when i went to the event they were selling um these like timeshare books and you could buy resale rights to them and so i was like oh and i remember back because i remember the dawn of the priest stuff right i was like maybe i could buy classified ads and sell these things and then i was at the event and then they're talking about websites and i that was the first thing i heard about websites and they're talking about google and all the beginnings of this whole internet thing right and so i was like i could do that and it was making it made all logical sense to me um but i just didn't know how you know i didn't know how to do it i just

knew that like that was gonna be the only path because if I had to get a job, I wouldn't be able to wrestle. So I was like, I have to figure out something that's not, that's not going to be a 40 hour thing because I'm spending that time wrestling and going to school. So I had to figure out the best of how to do both. And you obviously found it. My goal today is to go through this, the process of finding it, but let me skip ahead a little bit.

What is this website? Oh man. All right. 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 here's where it gets even better. Taylor put together an awesome exclusive deal just for you guys, my marketing secrets listeners. And if you go over to wealthyconsultants.com

slash secrets, you can grab the revolving price method book and over $150 worth of bonuses and get this all. It's at 70% off. And I promise you guys as a customer of this, you are going to love it. So if you're serious about growing your business with real stability, this is the model you need to add into your funnels. So go over to wealthyconsultant.com slash secrets, grab your 70% off deal, and let's start turning your clients into long-term revenue. 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 you have, first off, the right people. But make sure the right people are sitting in the right seats on the bus. And 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 G's in the middle, workinggenius.com, and then use promo code secrets, S-E-C-R-E-T-S at checkout. You 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 going to be the most joy, number one. But then number two, it's going to make sure that you are with 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 will change the working dynamics amongst everybody and help your company to grow. This is actually, this is actually, so the backstory behind this is, um, there was a guy named Vince James who wrote a book called the 12 month millionaire. And if anyone's got that book, it's, it's fat, like a phone book. It's a huge book. And I read it and I was like, this book's amazing. And at the time I was an affiliate marketer, so I had a little bit, I like maybe a thousand people on my list. So I called Vince. I was like, Hey, can I interview about the book? And then I'll use that as a tool to sell more copies of your book. And he was like, sure. And so he jumped on the phone

with me and, um, on a Saturday and he spent three hours interviewing, uh, letting me interview any questions I had. And I got to the end of it and I still had like a ton of questions. He's like, we'll come back next. We can do it again. So I interviewed him for six hours about it. And then, uh, we used that to sell some copies of his book. And then it just sat there probably for two or three years as I was trying different ideas and for businesses and things like that. But every time I would talk to people, I tell them about this interview. I'm like, I'm going to interview this guy who made a hundred million dollars through direct mail. And, uh, and everyone's like, wanted to hear the interview. Every,

every asked me for it. So one day I was like, let's just make that, let's make that the product we put up here. And this was the very first, um, funnel we ever had that did over a million dollars. My first two comic club funnel, a a million dollars do you remember what that felt like it was amazing because uh um it was funny back then because there were people there were a few people who were like making a lot of money online that i was watching and just like idolizing everything they were doing i was trying to model what they were doing um and i'd had like little wins like you know ten thousand dollars here fifteen thousand dollars here but this was the first by far the first one that just like that just hit everyone was so excited to hear.

How did you celebrate? I don't even remember how we celebrated. Wow. You married a winner after all. Do you remember what you guys did to celebrate? No. I don't even remember. It was on my list.

That's a good question. Oh, that list is going to come up in a second. You ended up creating ClickFunnels. How much revenue are you guys doing now? 2018. 2018, we'll pass over $100 million this year. $100 million. Wow.

We. Yeah. How far have you come um like when do we start or today revenue uh as of today october 2018 oh this year yeah uh oh from the beginning of time till now no no i mean i want to know like you're gonna do 100 million dollars are you at 10 and you're hoping these guys know better me do you know exactly where we're at right now 83 million for the year i love. I love that Dave knows that. So I want to know how you got to that.

I went through your site. Pages and pages. It looked like this. It's like long form sales letters. I asked my assistant to take pictures. She said, I can't do it. It's too many. Look at this, guys. I asked him to help me figure out what he did. He created this list. This is not the full list. Look at this.

Every blue line is him finding an old archive of a page that he did. He created this list. This is not the full list. Look at this. Every blue line is him finding an old archive of a page that he created. It goes on and on like this. How long did it take you to put that together? It's probably five or six hours just to find all. Five or six hours you spent to find these images, to help me tell the story and years and years of doing this, a lot of failure. What amazes me is you didn't feel jaded and let down after Don LaPree sold you that stuff. You didn't feel jaded and let down and said this whole make money thing is a failure. And we're going to talk about some of your failures. You just kept going with that same smile, the same eagerness.

All right, let's start with the very first business. What's this one? This is called SublimeNet. How many of you guys remember SublimeNet out there? Anyway. You guys remember this? Anyone remember it? You do? John does. John. So actually this is, so this is the first business, but the first website I bought, I was so proud of it. And I spent like, I don't know, I wanted to create, I wanted to sell software. And so I was like, what kind of name my company? And so I figured out exciting software. So I went by exc I don't know, I wanted to sell software. And so I was like, what kind of name my company?

And so I figured out Exciting Software. So I went to Exciteware.com, but it wasn't for sale. And so I bought Exciteware.net. And Colette was working at the time. And she came home. And I was so excited. I'm like, we got our first website. We're going to be rich.

And I told her the name. I was like, it's Exciteware.net. And she looked at me with this look like, are you selling underwear? Or what is the lingerie? Iie i'm like i'm like you know it's it's software and then she's like you i'm not gonna tell my mom that you bought that like you gotta think of another name and i was like crap and so that was the next best name i came up with was sublime net i feel like the band sublime and i was gonna ask you what it was but it was lots of different things every screenshot on there is a whole other business under the same name what are the businesses do you remember um there was website

hosting there's affiliate sites there were i can't remember now trying to remember lots of different things how did you do how well did you sell rights oh never anything very little like maybe i remember the first thing i ever sold was a it was an affiliate product i sold uh i made 20 bucks on it through my paypal account because i remember that night, I do remember I celebrated. We went out to dinner and had a PayPal credit card. And then we bought dinner with 20 bucks. And then the guy refunded like the next day. So sad.

But I was proud that I had made money. How did you support yourself while this was not working? I didn't. So my beautiful wife did. She had two jobs at the time to support me while i was wrestling and doing these things and um she was the one that made it possible to be able to gamble and risk and try crazy things can i put you on the spot and ask you to just come come over here and just tell me about this period and what you felt at the time is that i know that you don't love being on stage russell is good with it but i know that you don't love it if you don't mind i'm just gonna go with one more story and then i'll come back to you

you cool with it good she's she seems a little nervous but actually wait let's see if we can get her right now oh you are okay, this is Colette, my beautiful wife. Do you want to use his mic? Sure. She's so mad at me right now. I wanted to come to this. Who knew? He's so proud that he had no venture funding, but you are like his first investor.

That's true. Yes. I'll be his first investor. Can you hold the mic a little closer? How did you know he wasn't a loser? No job. He's wrestling. He's buying infomercial stuff that doesn't go anywhere. We know he did well, so we're not

insulting him now, but what did you see in him back then that let you say, I'm going to work extra hard and pay for what he's not doing? What did I see in him? It was actually his energy, his spirit, and because I'm not going to lie, it was kind of not love at first sight. We had, we were geekos, you know what I mean?

Just shopped at the Goodwill and in baggy pants and t-shirts. And, you know, I don't know. But it was the person who, yeah, just was always positive. And we had the same goals. That's the thing I noticed too the positivity when when these businesses fail we're showing a few on the screen it's easy to look back and go haha I did this and it was interesting but at the time what was the bounce back like when things didn't work out when the world basically said you know what as salespeople when they don't buy you

when they don't buy your stuff it's like they don't buy you when the world basically said we don't like you we don't like what you've created what was the bounce back like hard um no because i come from hard working family and so i work hard and so you just work hard to make it work and he's just an eternal optimist and you're an eternal optimist too like genuinely really yeah okay i guess it works his dad said no more money you had to cut up your credit cards too yeah what was how did you cut up your credit cards what was that day like hard yeah hard because i those that you don't know that know that i'm a little bit older than russell and so i've always had this independency to go do and buy and do these things.

And then all of a sudden I'm like, oh, step back, sister. Gotta take care of this young man so we can get to where we're at. Anyway, but now, yeah. Now things are good. Now things are amazing. All right, give her a big round of applause.

Thanks for coming up here. These businesses did okay. And then you started something that I never heard about, but look at this. I'm going to zoom in on a section of your, of the Google doc you sent me. This is the call center. The call center got to how many employees? A hundred? Um, we had, we had about 60 full-time salespeople, 20 full-time coaches, about 20 people doing the marketing. So it's about a hundred people in the whole company. A hundred people doing what kind of call center? What kind of work? So what we would do is we would sell, um, we sell free CDs and things like that online, free CDs, free books, free, whatever. And then if someone would buy it, we'd call them on

the phone and then we'd offer them high-end coaching. Okay. And this was you getting customers how? Back then it was pre-Facebook. So a lot of it was Google. It was email lists. It was anything we could figure out to drive traffic, all sorts of weird stuff. And then people come in, get a free CD, sign up for coaching, and then you had to hire people and teach them how to coach? Yeah. That was hard. When we first started doing it, I was just doing the coaching. People come in and we had a hire people and teach them how to coach yeah that was hard things the first when we first started doing it um i was just doing the coachings people come in and we we had a little uh and brent's maybe i remember the little offices we had and we'd bring people in and you know we were so proud of our little office they come in and we teach them for you know two or three days teach an event for them um and then it got bigger it's harder and harder for me to do that and then um

so eventually and a lot of people don't want to come to boise like i love boise but it's really hard to get to so people would sign up for coaching and then they'd never show up to Boise. And then, you know, a year later they want their money back. Right. So we have to do something where they're getting, they're getting fulfilled, whether they showed up to Boise or not. So we started in the phone coaching and at first it was me and then it was me and a couple other people.

And then we started training more coaches and, um, and that's how it kind of started. And it was one of those things though, like at first it was just, it was just like five or six of us just in a room doing it and it worked and so then the next logic thing is like well we should go from five people to 10 to 20 and like next thing you know we wake up with 100 people we're like what are we doing like we're little kids like it scares me that i'm in charge of all these people's livelihood but that's what you know that's kind of where it was at and it got it's kind of scary for me with smart water's crisp taste, there's nothing to overthink. So while you may be spiraling over double texting your crush,

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Here's what I think we need to do. Here's how the world should be. And so I'm amazed that even back then, after having a few businesses that didn't really work out, you were comfortable enough to say, come to my office. I'm going to teach you. I've got it figured out when you hadn't. How did you get yourself comfortable and what made you feel comfortable about being able to say, I can teach these people who come to my office, who call up, who then become my coaches, who then have to teach other people? I think, you know, for me, it was like, when I first started learning the online stuff and entrepreneurship, like,

I think most people feel this, like, it's so exciting. You want to tell everybody about it, right? And so I'm telling my, my friends, my family, and nobody cares at first. And you're like, I need to, I have to share this gift. I figured out like, it's amazing. And nobody cares. And then like the first time somebody cares and you want, and then you just like dump on him, you want to show it to him. And so I had made tons of money, but I had a lot of these little websites that had done, you know, 30 grand, 50 grand, a hundred grand. And so, and so for me, it was like, if I can show these people, like, I know what that did for me. It gave me the spark to like, do you want to do the next one? The next one. And, and so for me, it was really just like, I want to share this because like, I feel like I

figured it out. And so that was the thing we were coming in and weren't teaching people how to build a hundred million dollar companies, but we're like, Hey, you can quit your job. Like you make two or $3,000 a month. You quit your job. And this is how I did it. This is the process. And so that's what we were showing people is just, you know, the foundation, how we did it. And just kind of reach, we showed other people because they cared and it was exciting to share with other people. Is Whitney here? There she is. Whitney, I met her as she was coming in. I wanted to get to know why people are coming to watch this, what they wanted to hear from you. And Whitney was asking about like the difficult periods, the why I'm wondering the same thing

that she and I were talking about, which is why put yourself through this? You could have gotten a job. You could have done okay. Why put yourself through the risk of hiring people? The eventual, as we see closing of the company? What was your motivation? What was the goal? Why did you want to do it? I think it shifts. I think it shifts throughout time, right?

Like, I think most entrepreneurs, when they first get started, it's because of money. Like, they, like, want to make money. And then you get that. And then really quick, that doesn't last very long. And then it's like, then for me it was like, I want to share other people. And then, and then when other people get it, like there's something about the aha moment where you're like, Oh my gosh, they got it. Like they got what I was saying.

And then like that, that for me was like the next level, like the next high that's just like, Oh, I love that. And then, um, and back then we had some success stories coming through, but nowadays it's like the bigger success stories come through. And that's what, I don't know, for me, that's what, what drives it on. Like that is the fascinating part it's why we keep because like most software company owners don't keep creating books and courses and like but like when people have the aha that's like oh my gosh that's the best for me that's the thing that you get the high of the thing that you wanted when you were growing up that you wanted somebody to show it to you and if you could then genuinely give it to them not not like Don LaPree, but Don LaPree plus actual results, that's what, that's

what fires you up. It does fire me up. That's amazing. What happened? Uh, why did that close down? Um, Oh man, a lot of, a lot of things, a lot of bad mistakes, a lot of first time growing company stuff that I didn't, again, we just woke up one day, it felt like, and we were in this huge office, huge overhead. And, um, and about that time it was like 90, 99, 2000, something like that. And, um, there was a, the, the merchant account that me and most of the people doing internet marketing at the time, we all used to say merchant account and they got hit by Visa and MasterCard. And so they freaked out and they shut down. I think that ended up being like four or 500 merchant accounts overnight. And we had nine different merchant accounts, that company,

all of them got shut down instantly. And, um, I remember cause everything was fine. We're going through the day and it was like one o'clock in the afternoon on a Friday, they came in like, Hey, none of the, none of the bill, the cards won't process. And, and I'm like, we couldn't figure out why they weren't processing. And then we tried to call, call the company and no one's answering the company. And finally get someone on the phone and they said, Oh yeah, you got shut down along with everybody along with all the other scammers. And she hung up on me. And I was like, I don't know what to do right now. Like I've got a hundred plus people and payroll is not small and we didn't have a ton of cash in

the bank. It was just like a, it was more of a cashflow business. And, um, and, uh, actually just left town that night and she was gone. And, um, and, uh, I remember avatar just came out. So everyone's going to movie Avatar tonight. And I remember sitting there during the longest movie of all time. And I don't remember anything other than, like, this sick feeling in my stomach. And I was, like, texting everyone I know, like, trying to see, like, if anyone knew what to do. And everyone I knew was, like, we got shut down, too. We got shut down. Everyone got shut down.

And, like, we couldn't figure out anything. And so the next, we came back. The next day I called everyone up. And actually kind of a, kind of a funny side story. Um, I just met Tony Robbins a little prior earlier to this. And, um, so that night I was laying in bed, it's like four in the morning and my phone rings and I'd look at it and it's Tony Robbins assistant. And I pick it up and he's like, Hey, is there any way you can be in Vegas in three hours? There's a plane from, from Boise to Vegas.

Tony wants you to speak at this event. It's starting in three hours. Like, you need to be on stage in three hours. I'm sitting here like, my whole world just collapsed. I'm laying in bed, sick to my stomach. And I was like, I don't think I can. Like, I have to figure this thing out. And then he tells Tony to come back. And Tony says, if your business isn't, you know, you can't make it, don't show up. You're fine.

And so I didn't go. And then next morning I woke up and there was a message on my phone I missed. I passed out and woke up. And it was a message from Tony. And he was like, Hey man, I know that you care about your customers. You care about things. And he's like, um, I don't know the whole situation, but worst case scenario, if you need help, let me know. And, uh, and we can absorb you into Robbins research or whatever. And you, and you can be one of my companies in that way. Um, if you want, we can protect you. And I heard that and I was like, okay, that's, that's like the worst case scenario is I get to work with Tony Robbins. Like that's the worst case scenario. So then I called up

everybody on my team and I was like, okay guys, we got to try to figure out how to save this. And Brent and John, everyone then came back to my house and I was like, okay, what ideas do we got? And we just sat there for the next five or six hours trying to figure stuff out. And then we went to work and, um, and I wish I could say like everything turned around, but it was next probably man, two or three years of us firing 30 people, firing 20 people, closing things down, moving down offices, like just shrinking, um, for a long, long time until the peak of it was, um, it was about a year after that moment. And we were, um, in Vegas, an event trying to figure out how to, how to save stuff. And I got an email from my dad who was helping with the books at the time. And he said, Hey, I got really bad news for you. I

looked through the books and it turns out, um, your assistant who was supposed to be doing payroll taxes, hadn't paid payroll in over a year. It was like, you owe the IRS over a hundred and it's like $70,000. And it's like, and if you don't pay this, like you're probably gonna go to jail. And I was like, every penny I'd earned at that point was gone. Everything was done. We lost everything. And I was just like, I don't know how to fight this battle. But if I don't fight it, like, I go to jail apparently. And I remember that's a really crappy feeling. And some of you guys are living this with me right now, I know.

I remember going back that night and laying in bed. And I was just like, I wish that I had a boss that could fire me. Cause I don't know what to do or how to do it. And that was kind of, that was the, definitely the lowest spot for me. And you stuck with him. Wow. Yeah. Hey everybody, this is Russell again. And really quick, I just opened up a texting community, which means you can text me your questions. And right now I'm spending anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes every single day answering questions through text message

to people who are on the podcast. And so I wanted you to stop everything you're doing, pull your phone out and actually text me a message, okay? And the phone number you need to text is 208-231-3797. Once again, it's 208-231-3797. When you text me, just say hello. And then what's gonna happen is I'll add you to my phone and then they'll send you back a message

where you can add me to your phone and then we can start having conversations. On top of that, through this texting community is where I'm going to be giving out free swag, giving away free copies of my book, let you know about book signings, about times I'm coming to your local area and a whole bunch more. I just want to make sure you are on this list. On top of that, every single day I'm sending out my favorite quotes, my favorite frameworks and things you can get for free only through my texting platform. So what you need to do right now is pull out your phone and text me at area code 208-231-3797.

One more time, that's 208-231-3797. I can't wait to hear from you right now.