Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Curation Secrets

Episode Date: December 8, 2021

In the latest episode of the Marketing Secrets podcast, Russell Brunson delves into the concept of curation and its growing importance for influencers and entrepreneurs. He begins by discussing his own struggle with remembering the word "curate" and how he's been contemplating this topic for several months.  Russell explains that the future of business, particularly for influencers and experts, lies in mastering the art of curation. He describes his journey over the past 20 years, noting that his primary role has been to curate ideas. By reading countless books, attending courses, and experimenting with various concepts, Russell has been able to sift through vast amounts of information and distill it into practical frameworks that he shares with his audience through his books like Dotcom Secrets, Expert Secrets, and Traffic Secrets. Russell emphasizes that his books are not just collections of his original thoughts but rather curated insights from a wide array of sources that he has tested and refined. This process of curation involves sifting through information, retaining the most valuable elements, and presenting them in a way that is accessible and actionable for his audience. He shares an anecdote about a conversation with a fellow church member who inquired about his framework development process. Russell likens it to sifting sand, where the non-essential elements fall away, leaving behind the core principles that form the foundation of his frameworks. This method, he suggests, is applicable to everyone in their respective fields. To illustrate the power of curation, Russell recounts a story about Dan Usher, a member of his team. Dan is a fan of the band Rufus and trusts their curated recommendations for art and decor. When Dan moved to a new house, he relied on the band's curation to furnish his home, demonstrating how trust in a curator can extend beyond their primary expertise. Russell notes that as influencers, people come to them for their core expertise but often end up seeking advice on various aspects of life, from family and health to personal routines. This broader interest underscores the potential for influencers to curate content across multiple domains. One of Russell's major current projects is building a 20,000 square foot library next to the ClickFunnels HQ. This library will house an extensive collection of books and materials that he has curated, particularly in the fields of personal development and business. He has invested significantly in acquiring rare and valuable works by influential figures like Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie. The library will serve as a resource for deep learning and will include both physical copies and curated frameworks derived from these materials. Russell explains his vision of creating a comprehensive resource where visitors can explore various sections dedicated to his passions, such as religion, personal development, business, and advertising. Each section will feature rare first editions and curated materials, allowing visitors to dive deep into the subjects that Russell has meticulously curated. He emphasizes the importance of simplifying complex ideas through curation, making them more accessible and actionable for the audience. This approach not only enhances the value provided to the audience but also establishes the curator as a trusted source across multiple areas of interest. In conclusion, Russell encourages listeners to embrace their roles as curators. By curating and simplifying information, they can provide immense value to their audiences, who trust them not only for their primary expertise but for broader life guidance as well. This, he believes, is the future for influencers, experts, and entrepreneurs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up everybody? Good morning. This is Russell Brunson and I want to welcome you back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. Today we're going to talk about curation secrets. 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.

All right, I start my kids off at school and I've been thinking about this for the last couple of months. I keep thinking about this for the last couple months. I keep thinking about doing a podcast about it and then I struggle. I can never remember the word curate. I always forget that word. So I'm like, Oh, what's that word? What's the, what's the word? It starts with a C. Anyway, but I remember this morning. So you're getting a podcast. I hope you're okay with that. Um, so I want to talk about curation, like that word curate. Um I think that the future, people always ask me, what's the future? What's going to be the big thing in 2021? What's the big thing?

And what's the future? And it's interesting because I honestly believe that the future for all people like us, for businesses, for brands, for influencers, for whatever you want to call yourself, um, is really understanding and mastering curation. Um, and, uh, from a lot of different angles and directions, like I come back and I look at like, like what I've done over the last 20 years of my business. Right. Um, people always ask me like, what are you, are you an author or an entrepreneur or a speaker or whatever? And I'm like, when I'll send that, if I really look at it, if I'm completely honest with myself, like I'm a curator, like that's what I do.

I curate ideas, right? I go and I find the best ideas in the world and I curate them together and then I give them to my audience. Like you think about dot com secrets, experts, secrets, traffic secrets. What are those books? Those books are me spending 20 years of my life curating ideas, right? I go on, I've read hundreds and hundreds, maybe even thousands at this point of books and courses and podcasts and audios. And I go and I

take these principles, these, these things and I test them and I try them and I try to figure out what's going to work. And from all of the stuff, all the learning, the ideas, the everything, I take all these things and I curate them into a way that I can then get to my audience. Right? And so for me, the curation initially all happened through my book. So here's dot com secrets. It's my curation of everything I've learned and experimented and tested on sales funnels. Um, and it's interesting though, cause you notice like for the most part, there are definitely things in the, in all my books that are, that are my thoughts.

But for the most part, it's like I took a framework of other people's thoughts, ideas that I tested, tried all sorts of stuff. And from the curation, you know, from the testing framework of other people's thoughts, ideas, and I tested, tried all sorts of stuff. And from the curation, you know, from the testing of those things out came out, pop my frameworks. Um, in fact, I was talking to this guy that goes to church with me yesterday about this. And he asked me like, how do you develop your frameworks? And at first I didn't know how to answer. And I was like, well, it's kind of, it's kind of like I try to take the best from everybody. Right. And it's kind of like grabbing sand and I throw in this big sifter, right. And I'm sifting it out and and I throw in this big sifter, right?

And I'm sifting it out and I'm taking everybody's principles. I'm sifting it and all the sand's falling out. And what's left behind is like the truth, the principles, the core philosophies or ideas that are actual truth. And from there is where I build out these frameworks. And I think for all of us, it's kind of similar, right? Like we're going out there, we're studying, we're learning, we're testing, we're trying, we're figuring things out, whatever business, whatever market, whatever thing you're doing.

And then from that, your frameworks kind of appear, right? They, they arise from the top after you're sifting and sorting through, through all of the, all the things that are being put out there. Um, and you're taking it back to your audience and you're sharing like, here's, here's the things that are working. Here's what I figured out. And so you're curating ideas. Um, and so it's interesting because I, I started thinking about that and, uh, I was actually talking to Dan Usher on my team and Dan, um, sorry, I'm turning left here. Make sure I don't get by a car live on my podcast. All right, we're good. Anyway. so Dan, I was talking about that. I was like, I had this big realization that my role, like I'm a curator.

I curate ideas, right? And then Dan kind of helped take it to the next level. He talked about his favorite artist is Rufus, right? And so Rufus is, I think that's not the full name of the band. I'm probably messing it up. But anyway, for those who know this artist, like that's a band or an artist, whatever, right? And Dan loves this person, follows them, listens to all his things.

He's one of his thousand true fans, right? Buys all the CDs, merch, everything. Um, but what's interesting, he says that the Rufus, this, this band, they go and they curate things. So it's like, these are, this is our favorite art. This is our favorite things. This is our favorite. And so Dan just recently moved from Canada to Boise, bought his very first house or he's renting

his first house that, you know, and when he's like, I have this house that I got to buy furniture, I got to buy paintings or pictures and all this stuff. He didn't go and try to figure out like, well, what's my taste? What's my style? He said, okay, I trust Rufus. Rufus is my favorite band, but I also trust their style. I trust their design. And he went and he found stuff that these guys had already curated. Like here's the best pictures. Here's the best furniture. Here's all these things. And he just bought what these guys recommended. They curated, he trusted this, this person, this band, this, this person that he trusted as a curator, right? Cause he's got the best music. It's got the best taste, got the best everything.

And he just took that and went and pimped out his entire apartment with Rufus stuff, right? Um, not it was the Rufus's things, but things that they had said are, these are our favorite items, right? And basically that person curated things together. And I started thinking about this, like at our world, um, like when you start your own company, you start your own brand, right? Like people come in for a thing. People come in my world cause they, because they want to build funnels, but then they get to know me. They build a personality, they build a connection with me as a person. They start seeing all these other things that I do. Right. And it's interesting cause the questions I get most of the time nowadays, even in like my inner circle, people paying 50 grand a year to be in the center circle. And I open up for Q and A's

and my questions you have, the questions are rarely ever about marketing. They're about all these other areas of my life, right? They're like, how do you, how do you do these things with your family? How are you able to keep balance with your family and your business and your religion? All these kinds of things. I have a lot of people asking about my religion. Like how do you, like, I want to understand your faith more. I have a lot of people ask me about my supplements, right? Like, how are you still in good shape? How, like what supplements you take? How do you eat? Like what's your eating protocol protocols, right? Uh, what's your eating protocols, right?

What's your morning routine? Like, people start asking me all these other things. Like, they came to me for funnel building, right? But then they trust my opinion, and now they're asking my, like, what I think about all these other things. And so, obviously, I haven't, at this point, done that, but if I were to go curate a book on my supplement routines, or curate a product on my eating, or my religion, or my personal development beliefs, or all these different things, because they came in and they're connected with me. Just like Dan is connected to these artists cause he loves their music, but because he trusts them, likes, knows and trusts

them. He's looking at the curation of all the things that they, that they offer. They talk about and he's diving into all those things. And I really think that's the future for, for all of us who are artists, who are influencers, who are, you know, creators, experts, whatever you want to call yourself is people are going to come in for your core expertise, but then they're, they're leaning on you to curate, um, concepts and principles and ideas in all aspects of their life. And so this kind of leads me to, um, honestly, like what I feel like is my, the next phase of my own personal mission. Um, I haven't talked a ton about this publicly yet because it's still happening. Um, I haven't talked a ton about this publicly yet because it's still

happening. Um, a couple of places I've talked about, so you may or may not have heard of this, but, um, one of the big projects I'm doing right now is I'm actually building next door to the ClickFunnels HQ office, um, a library, a 20,000 square foot library. And people are like, why are you building a library? That makes no sense. This is like, you're going to give people library cards. Like, no, no, no, no. Um, and building this library curated with the books and the things that mean the most to me. And I've had this weird, like this weird feeling where I keep getting drawn to these people who have, who have died, who have written amazing books, um, in the personal development and the advertising space. And so, um, in fact, recently I went out and I spent multiple seven figures, um, acquiring, uh, Napoleon Hill,

a huge Napoleon Hill estate with, um, a whole bunch of first edition copies of a whole bunch of stuff he's done. Um, over 250 pages of stuff that he, from his typewriter, he hand typed and then like wrote his notes on the never got published. A bunch of books that he wrote that never got published. Like all these, these things I bought and I've, I've collected them now and old magazines and old, all these things from Napoleon Hill, but also Dale Carnegie and also, uh, Orson, uh, Orson Sweet, who's the guy who started success magazine as well as his mentor and other, and like, I've been going down this rabbit hole, uh, literally, um, traveling the world, acquiring these old things. Um, I've spent insane amounts of money in the last 45 days on eBay, acquiring all these books and things, and I'm getting all of the best,

the best, all of these, um, the best personal development books, the old advertisers, the old business people, like, um, and I'm, I'm collecting all their stuff so I can start going through them and studying them and then curating them and putting them back together into something that I can then give back to my audience saying like, okay, I was able to go deep for the last two years on all of these, the personal development from the early 1800s until now

and go through all the thoughts, all the philosophies, all the things and from these things I've tested in my own life and my lives of people that I've had a chance to work close with. These are the things that rose to the top, right? I know I'm going through the process of taking all of the sand, right? Like literally, I would say conservatively, I've bought a thousand books in the last,

man, the last 60 days from people who have passed on in the personal development space. And I'm taking this, this is the sand, right? And I'm going to be going through all of this material and sifting it out and sorting it and, and letting the sand kind of fall out and seeing like, what are the nuggets that are left behind? The things that are universal principles that are, that are true today, tomorrow and forever that can then take and turn into frameworks that can then give back to you guys. So my job is, you know, um, in fact, I heard, I heard, um, Rich Sheffrin say this one time. He said that my, my job, my role is to think for a lot of other people. I feel like I'm the same way. Like you could have gone and read the, you know, the 300, 400 different marketing

books, you know, gone through 10, 15 years of testing and trial, uh, sign up for the masterminds, the courses, the, I listen to all the podcasts, all the things I did over the last 20 years. You can go do that and go figure it out. Or you can trust me if you trust me, trust me to curate together and say, boom, here's dot com secrets. Here's expert secrets. Here's traffic secrets. Here's the core things you need to go.

No, right? And for me, it's the same kind of thing. You can go and spend multiple seven figures on eBay, buying every old book on these topics and go through them and study them and test them and try them. Or you can come back to me as a curator and say, look, I trust you, Russell. And I can say, cool, here's of all the stuff I went through after sifting and sorting, these are the things that rose to the top. Here's the frameworks I developed. Let me give these back to you now. Um, you know, right now I'm doing the same with Dan Kennedy's company. I bought Dan Kennedy's company. I got 40 years of

intellectual property. I literally have hard drives with insane amounts of stuff on it. I'm going through there right now and I'm sifting and I'm sorting and I'm curating and bringing the best stuff out so I can come back to you guys and like, boom, here's the, here's the stuff. And for me so far has been so exciting. I'm having the time of my life doing it. But that's my role is I'm a curator and eventually I'll curate stuff on my health beliefs. I'll curate stuff on my religious beliefs. I'll curate things, you know, all these things so that when you come into me and you connect with me as an influencer or an expert or whatever you want to call me, um, that you'll come for, for one thing. But then if, you know, if you like the way that I live my

life, if you like the things I'm doing, you're probably gonna look for other things like, well, what else does he have? What else does he recommend? What are the things that have given him the biggest impact? I want those things as well. I'm sharing that because that's what I'm realizing in my life is that that's my role. I'm a curator. I wanted also for you guys to realize that you're probably a curator as well. You probably never looked at it that way, but you're curating ideas, concepts, principles, and you're sharing them with your audience. The better you become at this, the more talented you are at taking these ideas and simplifying them for your audience.

I think about this, like I read all these books, so all kinds of masterminds. And from there, I wrote the dotcom secrets book, which simplified all these principles, right? And then from there, we created software that simplified it even a step further. Like our role is to take these principles and simplify them and simplify them and simplify them. And whoever can make them the most simple will be the person in the market who makes the most money. So your job is to curate ideas, simplify them. If you can turn them into software, because that's one of the best ways to make money off anything. But it's that curation process and then giving them back and like, boom, here's the most simple version of all this stuff. I did all the work for you. I've curated it. I've simplified it.

And I'm giving it back to you in a format that you can actually take and apply. And you're going to get, you know, a thousand years worth of, worth of thought and effort and work. And you can get it all in this, in this book or this course or this software, whatever it is that, however you curate your stuff and bring it back to the market. So I hope that that helps you as kind of look at, um, your business and what you do and your role a little bit differently. I don't know for me, it has. It's got me really excited. I'm like, okay, this is my role. I'm a curator. I'm getting paid to think for a lot of people.

Therefore, I need to, for the time and the energy, the effort to go and find these things to put them together. And someday, just so you guys know, this library and building is going to be amazing because you'll walk in and the library is sectioned off based on the things I'm passionate about, right? So there's definitely going to be a religion section. And then in there, under glass, like, youed, bolted glass, fireproof glass, there'll be, um, all the first editions of some of the most amazing religious books I've had a chance to purchase in the last

year or so. And then you go to the personal development section. They'll be like, here's all of the personal development books I've acquired, like the first edition printings under glass and behind it will be all the physical versions of, of all of the books, but there'll be like, yeah. And then same thing in business and advertising. Same thing in, um, yeah, all the areas of my life I'm passionate about. I'm again, acquiring all the first edition copies of these different books to put them under glass. And then also just tons of copies of all the other ones.

And so when someone comes in there and they're like, I want to go deep with Russell's like, cool, here's the section library. We talk about this, you know, you can go, you can find the actual things you can study and you can learn them. And then, or here's Russell's curated version of like, here's the book or the course or the thing that gives you the simplified version of it. So anyway, I'm excited. I'm geeking out. I hope you are as well. Hopefully that by me recording this episode, I can remember the word curate because I always forget that word, but that is the role that we are doing. And, um, the better

you get at this again, people will come in because they want to listen to your music, but then they're going to buy things based on your style of, uh, furniture and, you know, pictures on the wall or, um, you know, in the example of Dan and, and, uh, his favorite artist Rufus or with me, they come in for marketing advice, but then hopefully here in the near future, they get personal advice, health advice, health advice, and other things I am passionate about that I geek out at a level that I think most people aren't able to. So anyway, it's exciting. I'm going to curate something today for you. I hope you do as well. Thanks for everything guys. And I will talk to you soon. Thank you for listening to the marketing secrets podcast. If you've loved this episode,

then please take a screenshot on your phone and post it to Facebook, Instagram, or wherever you post stuff and be sure to tag me and let me know why you like this episode and what you'd like to hear in the future. That'll help me to know what to create for you. Also, Dan, Kenny, and I would love to give you the most incredible free gift ever designed to help you make maximum money in minimum time. And this free gift comes with almost $20,000 worth of pure money-making information for free just for saying maybe. You can get this gift from Dan and from me right now at NoBSLetter.com. Not only are you going to get the $20,000 gift, you also can get a subscription to two marketing newsletters that will be hand-delivered by the mailman to your mailbox each and every month,

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