Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Five Good Friends To Crush Any Market

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

A little piece of advice I gave a new entrepreneur 12 years ago that I want to give to you as well. On today's episode Russell talks about a conversation he had with Justin Brooke 12 years ago about how he would get back on top if he lost it all. He shares the advice he gave him back then because it is still relevant today. Here are some of the great things to look for in this episode: First hear how Russell and Justin know each other, and how this conversation came about. And find out why 5 good friends is better than 100,000 subscribers. So listen here to Russell explaining what he said to Justin in a random hotel room 12 years ago, and why it still applies to this day. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/235-five-good-friends-to-crush-any-market Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to Marketing Secrets Podcast. Today I want to share with you a piece of advice that I gave somebody 12 years ago. He made a Facebook post about it today and talked about how it changed his life. So I thought I'd share that with you guys right now. 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. All right, guys. So about 12 years ago was when I was first starting to hire employees.

And I was building my team and it cost money. And I was like, these guys are all expensive. And every person I add takes more of my money out of my pocket. And I was sitting there trying to figure out a way to solve this problem. And I had this thought. I was like, what if I got people to work for me for free? I was like, oh my gosh, that'd be amazing. What if all my employees work for free?

And so that idea at first was awesome. I asked my employees and they all said, well, we have to eat. And I was like, dang it, okay, that won't work. And I was like, wait, what if I send an email to my list and asked if people wanted to come work for me for free? I would do an internship, but it was an unpaid internship.

They'd pay their own way there, their own hotels or living expenses, whatever, but they can work for me for free for a month and hopefully learn some stuff along the way. Now, I think I've done this two or three times in the past. And before I get like 5,000 of you guys asking me, I don't do it anymore because I literally have had people come here and just beg to work for free and then they'd sit around and they ask questions and it doesn't, it hurts more than it helps at this point. But it was really nice for a little while, right?

But the person who responded back to that first ad, I got a bunch of people responding back, but one guy was so excited, he literally called and texted and emailed like every single person I know. I'm like, how do you find all these people's information? This is pretty Facebook, right? Like, anyway, his name was Justin Brooke

and some of you guys know Justin. He's an awesome entrepreneur, really cool guy and a friend. And he messaged me and said, I'm coming out to Boise. And he did. He jumped in a plane, moved to Boise for a month, paid his own way and worked for me for free for a month.

And it was a really, really cool experience. I learned a lot. He learned a lot. And I think it was a kid. But today he posted a post on Facebook. It was really, really cool. And so I want to read part of it to you because I forgot about this. I remember the experience now, but I totally forgot about it.

So this is what you've posted. He said, all you need is five good, all you need is five good friends to crush any market. Before I explain, let me tell you what Russell Brunson said to me one day while I was interning 12 years ago. We were at a hotel watching infomercials cause that's what marketers do. LOL. Waiting to visit Steven Pierce's house for an event the next day. I was just a noob in total fanboy mode.

I couldn't believe I was sharing a hotel room with this millionaire dude who was only two years older than me. And somehow he liked me enough to bring me along to a star-studded event that introduced me to Ryan Dice, John Rhys, Rich Heffern, Jay Abraham, and Stephen, the real boss. So I asked Russell the question every noob should ask in this situation. Me. Hey, Russ, what would you do if you lost it all and had to make it back? Russ.

I'd get it back in just a few phone calls. Me, hmm. Russ, relationships are the most important thing to build because if you lost your website, your email list, you can just call up your buddies and get it all back with just the help. Me, hmm. He has like a pin with like a shocked face and then a ghost and then a skull. And then he goes on to talk about how in his business over the last 12 years, the times that it crashed or was going down or whatever happened, he would call up some of his friends and they

would do a list swap or a promotion or they'd help each other. And that's how he's been successful. He said at the very end, he said, everyone thinks it takes so many followers and so many subscribers to win online, but it really takes just a few of the right friends. Five good friends beats 100,000 subscribers all day, every day, no problem. And I thought that was really, really cool. And I want to share with you guys because I still to this day think that's true. You know, we spend so much time talking about how we build up, you know, our, our Facebook following and our Instagram and YouTube and our email list,

all these things, all those things are very, very important. But, um, he's right. If I lost all today, the first thing I do is I look at I'd look at who in my Rolodex of friends can I get it back? When a company crashed seven or eight years ago and everything fell apart, somebody had to tell the story before, but I got a call from Tony Robbins and he was like, what's going on? What can I help you with? And I was telling him what happened.

He's like, well, if you want, he's like, you can come and we'll absorb your company inside of Robbins Research and you become a wing of our organization and we'll make sure that nothing goes down. I was just like, oh my gosh, worst case scenario, I become partners with Tony Robbins, right? And that gave me the ability to go and keep moving forward. But if I was losing my business right now, that's what I would look at. Who are the five or ten people I know that either I could go work for them or I could get a job for them or I could do something for them or they could email and promote one of my new products or my programs or like, what would that be? And I've tried to spend a lot of time over the last 15 years digging some very, very deep relationships. And so if that ever happened, that's exactly where I would be. So for you,

I want you to think about that and just think about who are the people around you, who are the five people or so in your market that you've got a really, really deep relationship where they would do anything for you and you do anything for them? If their business crashed, they said, I need to promote my new product. You would stop whatever you're doing to promote their product and get the back on top or vice versa. Who are those people? And if you don't have those relationships yet, I would highly, highly, highly recommend to start cultivating those and getting to know people and spending time and investing in those relationships because they are more powerful than a list of a hundred thousand. So I'm going to end this podcast, just kind of rereading the last two lines of his post here because I think it was so

powerful. He said, everyone thinks it takes so many followers and so many subscribers to win online, but it really takes just a few of the right friends. Five good friends beats a hundred thousand subscribers all day, every day, no problem. So hope that helps. Go make some friends, get some deep relationships, people that you do anything for them and they do anything for you. And there's your financial safety net. There's your security blanket. Everybody always tells me like, oh, I'm going back to college. I have a security blanket. So I, you know, I suddenly fall back on like, no, fall back on the relationship, spend time and energy and effort there. It is the secret 12 years ago and it is the secret today. Thanks again, everybody for listening. Thanks again, everybody, for listening.

Thank you, Justin, for posting that, for reminding me of that conversation 12 years ago while we were watching infomercials in a random hotel in Texas. Super cool. Appreciate you and appreciate all you guys for listening. Thanks so much. I'll talk to y'all soon.

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