Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Interview With My Original Mentor - Part 1 of 4

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

My first mentor that helped me to finally have success online was Mark Joyner. This is a four part series where I had a chance to be interviewed by Mark about how I've grown a company since I met him all those years ago. Here are a couple of the questions Mark asked Russell on this episode: What are the 3 biggest blunders you made along the way? What are the 3 most strategic and pivotal decisions since founding ClickFunnels? So listen in to find out what Russell had to say! Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/337-interview-with-my-original-mentor-part-1-of-4 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. What's up everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. We've got something really fun in store for you over the next four episodes. So when I first started this game back in the day,

I struggled throughout almost two years trying to figure out how to play and what to do and how to get traffic, how to sell stuff. And the person, I think everyone who figures out this game, there's a mentor you bump into. And I'm so honored and grateful that so many people have, that I was the person for them. They read the book or whatever, and the light bulbs clicked for them, right? But I'm also very aware that I'm not everyone's guru. I'm not the person, you know, and I'm so grateful for all the other teachers out there who are teaching things, who give other people the ahas. I always tell people like our goal at ClickFunnels is not to get people to use ClickFunnels. Our goal at ClickFunnels is to help entrepreneurs to grow their companies. And so like, I don't care if it's me that clicks with or if you click with somebody else, I don't care as long as you get

that aha moment. And so for me, for whatever reason, the person that gave me the aha moment was my, my first real mentor and his name was Mark Joyner. And kind of put this into a timeline. Like back when I got started in this business, he was just ending. He had built a huge internet marketing company. He got tired of being in the market. So he sold off all his assets and he did this thing called the Farewell Launch. We sold this farewell package for a thousand bucks. And it was the first course I'd ever bought. And I went through it, um, like the most intense, crazy student of all time. And I learned it, I mastered it and I implemented it. And you know, that was man, 15, 16 years ago now. And he was the one that gave me the shifts that helped me understand that helped all the

things light up and make sense so I could be successful. And so, uh, I'm grateful for Mark. He's been, uh, you know, a mentor, he's been a friend, someone I have I could be successful. And so I'm grateful for Mark. He's been a mentor, he's been a friend, someone I have a ton of respect for. And it's funny because in the middle of all the chaos over the last couple of months, he messaged me and was like, hey, I'm launching this new podcast called The Mark Joyner Show. Do you want to come on and be one of my guests? And I honestly didn't have the time because there's so many things happening, but I was like, you know what, for Mark, if you Mark, I would do anything. And so we set up a time, it was late at night and we jumped on and we, because it was like after hours, my kids were already in bed, like we were able just to go and talk and we talked for a couple hours and it was, it was really, really cool.

And so if you follow Mark, you probably saw that interview. And if not, I asked for his permission to allow me to, to play it here on the podcast for the next couple episodes. And so I'm excited for you guys to hear it. I think you will get a lot of value out of it. We talked a lot about different topics and different things. Talked about things I learned from him, things that I discovered since then. And just, anyway, hopefully you guys enjoy this conversation. We've broken up over four episodes. So this is the first of four episodes.

So I hope you enjoy it. We'll play the theme song when we come back. We will jump right into the interview with Mark Joyner. So the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us, who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, who are spending money from our own pockets, how do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world and yet still remain profitable?

That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing Secrets. All right, everybody, we are live. This is Mark Joyner and welcome to episode number two of The Mark Joyner Show. And, man, I am so happy to have this guest on today. And it was very hard getting this young man. I call him young man now. To me, he's always a young man. I knew him when he was like this college kid.

I know, right? And now he's turned into this enormous behemoth giant that cannot be unseen on the Internet. You can't turn on the Internet without seeing Russell Brunson's face. I don't know if Russell even needs an introduction, but I'm going to give you guys a very, very brief one just in case. So I'll tell you a little bit of the back story here. So Russell and I met when he was trying to make money to pay off his college debts. And I tell you what, man, he had to convince his wife to spend $1,000 on a program that he couldn't afford that I was offering. And that started his online career.

And I'm very grateful. He credits me as his first mentor but i'm at a point now where i'm learning from him and i i want to tell you guys if you are a teacher of any kind that the best blessing you could possibly have is a student that surpasses you if you have any kind of humility if you understand what life is really all about, that is one of the ultimate things that can happen. Because what that means is you did your job well, partly. And it also means that you got an opportunity to learn something from someone. And if you've got a guy who not only surpassed you in certain ways, but is also humble and generous and wholesome the way Russell is, you are doubly and triply blessed.

And that is what we have seen with Russell since his genesis in the online marketing community. When was it? Probably 1991, 92? I don't even remember anymore. Well, when was the farewell package? That's like right when I got started. About 91, yeah.

So right as I was leaving, you were entering in. I was jumping in. You were jumping in. And Russell, I tell you what, I knew from the start Russell had some stuff that a lot of people didn't have. First of all, he was an all-state wrestler. Now, a lot of you guys don't know this, but Johnny Hendricks, the first guy to really give gsp an ass whooping in ufc fought russell brunson in a in an all-state wrestling tournament now russell didn't win that but from from what i hear russell should have won it you see i think i see him grit his

teeth a little bit i'm sweating like this calm up right now i lost by one point to him and to this day i regret that because it would be so cool if i actually won that match i know right well fighting the guy and coming that close and i mean even though you should have won that that's bragging rights in itself this is the guy who was the first guy to give gsp a real ass whooping johnny hendricks okay russell fought that dude and wrestling is the single most challenging athletic program in school at all. So what that means is you come into the game with some mental toughness. Now, I saw Russell's curiosity, his humility, the mental toughness he had.

I saw all of that in him early on, and I knew something amazing was going to happen. I had no idea the heights he would reach. Now, ClickFunnels is on the way to becoming a billion-dollar company, and that's what we're going to be talking about today. And we've only got a certain amount of time because Russell is on a very, very tight time schedule. So what I'm going to do here is, after I give Russell a quick chance to say hello, I'm going to rapid-fire a bunch of questions at Russell. We'll see how much time we have for a little bit of Q&A after that. If you guys have questions, post them inside there. I've got a list of questions that other people have asked.

But I'm going to shotgun blast Russell with a whole bunch of rapid fire questions first. But before all that, Russell, thank you so much for coming on, man. I really appreciate it. No worries, man. I am so grateful for you. It was funny. We were cleaning up something the other day. And I don't know if you remember this, but my wife and I had just gotten married.

And I bought you a package. And it was a year later. Because you kind of disappeared for a year. And then you came back. And you did a phone call with me. And at the time, I had this tape recorder. And I recorded all my phone calls. And I remember I did this call with you.

And I got done. I wrote on the tape, the cassette tape, I wrote a hundred million dollar call with Mark Joyner. And I need to find a tape player so I can actually listen to what we said way back in the day. But I saw it recently and saw it again. And so like, it's just, it's really cool because I just remember you taking the time back then when I was nobody just trying to figure out my way. And just, you were always so gracious to your time with me. And, um,

man, I listened for, for so much time. I plug in the farewell package, my, in my head. And I'd hear you talking over and over again, just different concepts and things that were just blowing my mind.

And, um, so many things that to this day, I still use, uh, that all came initially from you. So I'm just grateful for you and, uh,

and you allow me to, to hang out with you again, man. I, I love this. This is so much fun for me. Well, I'm humbled and honored, man. And I, and I would be, uh, grateful for you and uh and you allow me to to hang out with you again man i i love this this is so much fun for me well i'm humbled and honored man and i and i would be uh i would love to hear that tape actually we're gonna have to find maybe one of the five cassette decks that exist

and in the universe now they're all in the trash heap of history all right any but i will i dude i have tons of rapid fire questions i I just want to throw at you. And this is not going to be easy. I apologize in advance because these are going to be tough questions. I don't know how quickly we're going to be able to get through these, but I've got some really powerful ones that I think are going to deliver the most value. And you mentioned something there. You said, you know, I took the time to spend with you.

I always like to be as generous as I can with my time. And I know you do too. But as you know, as your life progresses, you got to be more and more strategic and more and more careful about that. Now that we have this platform, we can get this information out to a lot of people. I want to deliver at this absolutely maximal value as we possibly can to the listeners of this call. So I have some very strategically designed questions. Before I jump into those, anything else you'd like to say? I'm excited to be hanging out with you and excited to be sharing. I think when I started, I mean, what are we, 15, 16 years ago when this whole thing started, I didn't know it was even possible. But I believed you. I watched you. I was like, Mark's doing it.

I can figure this out. And hopefully, if anyone's watching tonight, everyone's going to be a different level. Some people are just getting started. Some have existing businesses. But I think a big piece of it is just believing that it's actually possible for you. Because I just believed you right out of the gate. I'm like, OK, I trust Mark. I believe him.

I'm just going to do it. And now, 15 years later, here we are. And I think for so many people, the techniques or tactics aren't hard. It's just the belief in themselves is the hardest thing. So if I give you guys anything, like I tell people all the time, like my job at ClickFunnels is to be the cheerleader to get people to believe in themselves. And so as you're listening to these things, there's going to be a lot of stuff that comes up for most people.

Like, oh, that'll work because he's Mark or because he's Russell or whatever. It's like, come on. If you would have seen 15 years ago, I was a little punk kid who was just begging Mark to get on the call. Like geeking out and like, like it's just, it's just time and belief and, and,

and putting in the work. So anyway, hopefully that is a good lens for people to go through this because I'm sure some things we'll talk about would be, what may seem impossible, but I tell you what, I do not think what we've been doing with ClickFunnels is possible. And here we are.

So you never know. Well, first off, I think it's about 19 years, actually, because it was 2001. It's 2020 now. And I remember having a conversation with you early on. You were saying, how do I become a guru? And one of the things I told you was you just decide that you're the guru. Okay? That gurudom is a matter of perception.

Now, there are a lot of people who under, who misunderstand that and they say, Hey, you know, I want to be a brain surgeon. So I'm just going to, you know, chuck up a shingle on, on a door that says I'm a brain surgeon. You know, it's like, no, no. I mean, you have that, that means you internally have faith in yourself, but that doesn't mean you act like you're something that you're not because somebody who is a real teacher, a real guru, somebody who's really mastered anything understands that the learnings never end, right? And once you get to that point where you think you've got it all figured out, I guarantee you stagnation is the very, very next phase. So I'm going to dive right into these questions, man.

And I'm going to start out with probably, I'm going to start out on a slightly negative one and then we're going to get into more positive ones. Okay. So we'll start with, so if you just rapid fire, if you could think off the top of your head, the three biggest blunders you have made along the way. And I got about seven of these rapid fire questions like this I want to go through. So I'm putting you under time pressure. Biggest blunders, what would they be? From like the beginning of time or just like since ClickFunnels time

or how far back are we talking? Well, you know what? Up to you. Up to you because all of these lessons are relevant. The lessons that you learned early in life mattered to you later on in ClickFunnels as well. And I mean, you could say ClickFunnels earlier on in your life, whatever you think is appropriate. I think most entrepreneurs have this initially is because I think most of us get started because we want to make money. That's the thing. And so for the first couple of years of me being in this business, a lot of it was chasing like, where's the money at?

It's over here. It's over here. It's over. And I can't change the money. And I don't know if you probably don't remember this, but one of the big profound things you told me, because this is the same time that Google AdSense was becoming this thing. And friends that were throwing up these crappy little AdSense sites. You just click on them like crazy. And, and you know, people were making crazy money doing that.

And I was like trying to figure those out and something, I don't know if you said it verbally to me or for, cause I was listening to you so often, but you kept talking about like, focus on the fundamentals, build a list, build a list, build a list. And I was like, but everyone's making money over here, clicking on ads on garbage sites. Like, and, um, and, uh, and you just kept drilling my head, like folks on lists, folks on a list, folks on a list. And so, um, eventually I started focusing on that thing. And then what was interesting is that that led to, to, um, the list of people. And then it started listening to like, how do you act? Like, what do the people

want? It was less about like what I wanted to create or what I wanted to, like how I want to make money. But it was more like, like these people are on my list. What do they actually want? How can I serve them? Like, what, what are the things I needed to create or what I wanted to, like how I want to make money. But it was more like, like these people are on my list. What do they actually want? How can I serve them? Like, what are the things I needed to create? Who I need to become? Like,

what are those things? And so I think the biggest blender was chasing money and chasing, you know, the shiny object. And, and the, the resolution of that was really starting to understand that the business is just people.

And it's like, how do we serve these people? I, they, you know, I talk all the time. Like, I feel like business is a calling. Um, I believe it's from God. Some people believe it's from whatever. And it's like, how do we serve these people? I, they, you know, I talk all the time. Like, I feel like business is a calling. Um, I believe it's from God. Some people believe it's from whatever, but it's a calling.

You're called to serve a group of people. And it's like, when you look at it from that lens, it's like, okay, how do I, how do I serve this group? What do I need to do? And when you do that and you shift to that, like, that's when money starts, starts coming. So that's, that'd be the, the first blunder that I think that, you know, took me two or three years to get to figure through. Um, uh, another one I think is I spent a lot of time for a while, like there's like the strategy

of business and the tactics and I can get on the tactics so much. And so I, so I was doing tactical things that like would get me a little pops of money or pops of cat or things like that, or, or a little bit of traffic or whatever it was. But it wasn't, I started stepping back and starting trying to think more strategically, which is a hard thing for a lot of us entrepreneurs because it's not as fast. It's like, it's slower.

But when you strategically put things together and connect things, that's when the big stuff starts, starts coming. In fact, I don't know if you remember this is, this is another funny thing on the journey. It was a podcast interview I did with you probably seven or eight years ago. And I think I asked you a question specifically about that.

And you said the biggest problem you have right now, Russell, is you're focusing too much on the tactics. And I was like, what is he talking about? I didn't even know. And then I just stepped back and, like, I think first I got, you know, first I may be a little offended or like, what are you talking about? You're doing really good. And then I really internalized that. Like, okay, what does that mean? Like, what's the difference between strategy and tactics? And let me understand that.

And then it's like, okay, let me look at these. Instead of looking at it from this tactical lens, you know, up close, like, how do I step back? And so I added a bigger point. And, you know, that's where ClickFunnels was born from was us stepping back. And part of it was it happened because, you know, we had some hard times in the business where it's like we had to refigure things out. And we didn't have time to like, you know, we were out of money to goof around. It was like, okay, look, we got to make the right move. Let's think about this before we just jump.

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,

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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

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to grow. That's probably number two. And then number three is, um, uh, I think this is one that's just a lot of my lens right now is I didn't understand advertising loss for a long time. And I think, um, you know, now, now, you know, we have in-house legal attorneys and we've got everything we write goes through, you know, everything I publish, like literally has to go through an attorney first to make sure I, I'm saying, and like, I wish I would have understood that from the very beginning.

Cause there's so many things that we're, that us as a marketplace are doing that they're illegal that we don't even know. We think that like, oh, because we got this person's success story, I can tell that success story. And it's like, even if that thing is true, you can't just tell that story. Like there's, there's advertising laws that dictate that. And I, you know, I think the last two years is where I've really started to understand that and respect that. And, and first, you know, as marketers, we hate it.

All the rules and regulations that you start respecting. And then it actually makes you a better marketer, a better business person. And I think you can serve people better when you start understanding those things. And so I think that's something I'm going to be talking a lot more to our community as a whole about just because I'm starting to understand it so much better. And there's so many people that are having success, but they're doing it saying things that they shouldn't be and they can't be saying. So those are probably the biggest.

Anyway, three big blunders for me. Well, I tell you what, man, if this were any other guest, I would be commenting back and forth and I have a lot to say about everything that you just said. Could not agree more with all those things you said, but because we have such limited time and because you are such an extraordinary phenomenon right now,

I'm going to use this time instead to shut up and extract more information out of you because there's so many good lessons that we can get from you. Next three I have are, now this is going to be very interesting. This is one I'm probably the most curious about. The three most significant slash pivotal strategic moves or decisions that you have made since the inception of ClickFunnels? Oh man, these are good. Okay. The first one is definitely easy. The first one. So my business partner is Todd Dickerson. He's my co-founder and he's the brains that, that, that built ClickFunnels. I always tell people I'm the dancing monkey on stage

talking about it. He's the guy who got his hands dirty because I can't code. In fact, the joke as he was building was like, if I can make something so simple that Russell can use it, the rest of the world is going to love this thing. And so initially, Todd worked for me for a long time, and we did projects together. And he lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and he fly to Boise about um, about once or twice a year. And we'd sit down and brainstorm ideas. And I remember the time we came out and we, we talked about building ClickFunnels. I was like, I've tried to build, you know,

something like this before. I think most, it wasn't a unique idea. I think everybody had tried to build it at one point. Like, like let's build software that makes this whole funnel thing easy. Like we all, everyone had that idea. It wasn't unique. Right. Um, and Todd was like, we should build it. I'm like, okay, I've tried it before. It didn't work. Like everyone's tried it. But he's like, no, I think I can do it. And so we sat down for a week in front of a whiteboard and mapped out like what the dream would be like the vision. Like we could have all these things.

And, um, I remember after the week was done, I was driving him back to the airport and as we got to like the, you know, I was going to drop him off. He, he kind of stopped for a second. He said, Hey, if we're gonna do this project together or this project, I don't want to do it as your employee. I want to be your partner. And I remember like that, that was the moment where it's just like, but I'm the entrepreneur. I'm the one that's, you know, I like the ego was like, was just there. And, and I had all this fear and all these things, all these things that were just like, ah. And, um, and as I was sitting there, like I literally in that moment made the second

best decision in my life outside of marrying my wife. And it was like, I said, let's do it. And I said, yes. And like that little, that little shift from like, this is, I'm the guy to like, let's, let's do this together, meant everything. And he went home and built ClickFunnels and he has been to this day, the most amazing business partner anyone could ever dreamt of. And so I think that's the big thing is that, you know, the strategy of getting out of your own ego and being okay with building a team and realizing you don't have to be the person. It's, you know, I was talking about this

at Funnel Hacking Live. You know, I think one of the big things that the entrepreneurs do is we're going on this journey and we get stuck and we're like, how do I do this thing? We get into this procrastination mode of trying to learn how to do things. And the question we should be asking ourselves is like, who? Who already knows how to do this thing? And then we start assembling our dream team. And if you look at any good movie series, right? Like The Avengers, you've got Nick Fury comes in, assembles a dream team. They go and take out Thanos. You got justice league, like every, every good movie,

uh, oceans, 12 oceans, 11, like there's always comes in, build the dream team. And then they go attack this thing. And I think most entrepreneurs are so have so much ego and pride that they don't do that. And man, looking back, it was like, that was the first time I said, okay, I'm gonna have a partner. And we brought in other partners. And, and now like, you know, one of the biggest reasons why I'd be able to grow is because I have this amazing team of people around me who have equity in the company, who like they're up tonight working just like I am because like they care and they love it. And it's like, they're invested in it.

And I think that was probably, man, if I would have said no to that, nothing would have happened. You know, like it would have been a completely different landscape. Right. Todd wouldn't have been vested into the whole program the way he is now, but now he's super motivated because he knows that every bit of effort he puts into it, he's going to get, you know, an outsized return way beyond what he would have received had he just been a, you know, an employee. Okay. Beautiful. All right. What's, what's the number two then? Number two. Um, so the strategic, I'm trying to explain it right. Um,

uh, like when we first launched ClickFunnels, um, I didn't know how, like I had an idea, like I remember like we, we created like, like the way I thought we were going to sell, like it was a, it was a funnel. I think I've actually sent you a video about this, but we had, we had a funnel and I, I launched it. We launched it. I was like,

in my mind, I'm like, we have 10,000 customers the first month of like, and we launched it and it was like, it was like a bomb. Like the funnel didn't convert. No, like no,

a couple of those promoted. It didn't convert. They all stopped. It was just like, it was spent a year of our life creating this thing. It was just like, and, and,

and you know, I remember this. I remember this. And you, you've watched me before this because like, I didn't know what i was to do for a long time like i was like we were launching a new new offer every quarter for you know five or six or seven years because i didn't know what to like i was just doing thing i think and so that was the pattern is because i didn't know how to how to run a business or you know all these things and and this was going to

be the thing we thought and we launch it and nothing happened and it was like i need to launch something else and i was like i can't because like we thought. And we launch it and nothing happened. And then it was like, I need to launch something else. And I was like, I can't because we put so much time into this. And I remember Todd said something to me. He's like, we have to focus on this for a year just to prove to everybody that this is actually a real thing. And that meant we had to just all in. And so we had this point where it's like, can we shift another offer real quick and make to like keep us all afloat or we just burn the bridges and so we like we had a supplement company we got rid of we shut down like all these these side projects we just like turned them all off like and it was like revenue is like flying to the bottom right ah but like we have to focus

we have to focus and um and i and we launched like four or five or six different versions of the funnel none of them worked and it wasn't until until I got asked to speak at an event and they wanted me to do a presentation to sell ClickFunnels. And I was like, I've been trying to sell ClickFunnels. Nobody's buying it. And the promoter was like, well, you need to make a thousand dollar version of it. I'm like, I have a free trial. I can't get people to take the free trial. And so he basically, he's like, you're on this, you're on the sales page. You

have to be, you have to speak. And so, um, two days before the event, I was trying to think of like, what's the messaging, how am I going to sell this? And I created the first version of this, of the webinar to sell, to sell ClickFunnels. Um, once this event, I stood on stage and I delivered this presentation and it was like, I figured out, I didn't realize it till I did the presentation, but I got the messaging right. And as soon as I did that, it was crazy because, um, uh, uh, I think like 40, 30, 40% of the room who were in like ran the back and bought. And I was like, Oh my gosh, like we got the messaging right. And I remember going to dinner that night with Todd and a couple of the partners at the time. And, and I was like, you guys just, you know, like, like that was it. Like, what do you

mean? I'm like, I'm like, that's the message. Do you see how people rant? I've never had people run to the back and be like, we got the messaging right. It's game over. But normally what would happen in my prior life is like, cool, we made a bunch of money. I would have went to the next offer, and I was like, okay, I'm going to do that webinar at least once a week, every week for a year, and I ended up doing it. I'm more than that. I mean, I was doing it two or three times a day sometimes, but we got back home. And I ended up doing it. Well, I'm more than that. I mean,

I was doing it two or three times a day sometimes. But we got back home. I was calling everybody I knew. We were buying ads, like everything to this webinar. And I did that webinar every single day. And like webinar would happen. I do webinar, get the sales day, look at the questions. We go back to read them. And then we tweaked webinar, do it again, tweak webinar, do it again, tweak it, do it again. I think I did that webinar live. And it'd be like 70 or 80 times the first year live. People are like, why didn't you automate it? And I'm like, no, no, no. Like this is my baby. I'm not automated. I need to, I need to perfect this message. I need to understand every concern, every problem, every, everything. And we just, we focused on that. And, um, and that's like that, that, that hardcore

focus on like mastering the messaging of it was, was like, was huge. I think some people like they try something and they step back and it's like, that's why things don't scale because like you have a good message, but you know, it's funny because I always tell people, if you can get 10% of people to buy your webinar, it's a million dollar a year business. Um, you know, if you're a little lower than that, you're a six figure business, but you go from 10% to 15%, which seems like a small incremental change. And that's between a million-dollar-a-year business to $100 million business, like 5% increase in conversion. And so because I did that presentation 70-whatever times in a row, we mastered it.

And so we had the messaging right. And so that was the first part. And the second part was the funnel structure. This is where I made a video for you. Because the first time we tried to launch ClickFunnels was just like sign up for the trial. And it was interesting because it was hard. I couldn't afford to pay ads for the trial. I couldn't go negative in the whole.

Affiliates wouldn't promote. It was just, it was hard. Then we had the $1,000 webinar. They got a year worth of ClickFunnels. We promoted that and we made a bunch of cash, but it was like, there was no cashflow. So it was kind of this like, I was back in a launch model,

which we didn't like that either and like the winning combination we figured out was we'd have someone register for the webinar on thank you page you say hey um the webinar is gonna be you know a day or two go get a free click phones account and try it out just so that when you come to the webinar it'll make sense and so people go get a free trial and the webinar happened which would train the people who already had a trial and they hopefully they would they would retain longer and then about a percentage of those people would buy the thousand dollar version. And so that, that, that, um, that combination was like, that's when it was like, it's on like Donkey Kong. And we started going crazy. And, um, after 12 months, we ended up

having, uh, 10,000 members that joined 2,500 to pay the thousand dollar cash. And then the 7,500 were people who had stuck from the thank you page. You know, and that was year number one. And then it was just, you know, it gave us a bit of a way we could spend money to acquire customers because the $1,000 thing. But it was building up this recurring income at the same time. And it just, that was, you know, what took it from, you know, from the ground into liftoff. So mastering the message and mastering, like, the funnel was probably the second big strategic you know what i really love about that is how you're training people to see what the monthly cost would be when they sign up for the trial and then when you give them that big offer at the end stacked with all those other things it becomes so irresistible because you're

training the mind to perceive it a particular way and then boom it's a huge pattern interrupt with the way you do it now i would love to see what your latest and greatest version of the webinar is i've seen a couple versions of it but i want to know and i think i asked you this before i was like man show me what like the the ultimate version of it was because you're automating it now right yeah oh dude see and yeah i anybody watching this if you don't go find out the automated version of that. And by the way, I'm going to give you guys a banner that you guys can look at. I think a place where you can see this is go to this URL here. This is the basic ClickFunnels website.

If you sign up for the two-week trial there, you will probably be shuttled in to watch the webinar. You can start seeing the ads for the webinar. They'll show up. One way or another, they're going to get you to watch that damn webinar. You guys go to SimpleLG.com forward slash ClickFunnels free. Start the two-week free trial. If for nothing else, just to see how Russell structures this, you need to do it. Now, disclosure, my company uses ClickFunnels

now. I've been involved in three other companies before Russell started ClickFunnels that were trying to build the automated WYSIWYG funnel building. None of them did the job very well. We use ClickFunnels now because what they built is so damn good. I'm like, it doesn't make any sense. And by the way, there's a classic thing, and I'm going to say this very quick before I shut up and get back into questions for Russell, but there's a very classic business lesson a lot of people don't understand, and there is a conundrum between build or buy. And the build or buy conundrum is this. If you take your own internal resources and you build something, you got to understand that that's energy, that's time, that's assets that you could be committing to growth, right? If you can take a little bit of money and buy a solution that's already pre-made, often, even though it's expensive, it makes way more sense because I can guarantee you the time, energy, and money that it would take you to build your own ClickFunnels version would be astronomically higher than what it would cost for a ClickFunnels subscription. So when you have the choice between build or buy,

you almost always buy unless there's nothing out there in the marketplace that gets the job done well. And by the way, I've tried all these other funnel builders. A lot of them claim to be better. Well, I'll tell you two more things about this. Okay. Russell's is better. Okay. And two, the culture of the company has proven to be stable over a long, long period of time. I see a lot of companies coming out now with like, oh, we're trying to be better than ClickFunnels. And I'm like, yeah, this is coming from the same dudes that started 20 other companies that lasted six months and disappeared. Right. For like lifetime access for 27 bucks. And I'm like, yeah, right. Right. How much I spent on customer support alone. It's like, there's no way you can survive. Yeah. There's no way you're going to compete with Russell. I mean,

good luck to all those guys. Competition is fair and everything, but you think you're going to compete with this dude. Sorry. I wouldn't compete with you in this marketplace. No way, man. You've got, you've got such a huge foothold. Hey everybody, this is Russell again. And really quick, I wanted to invite you to join, um, arguably the best thing that we've ever put out inside the ClickFunnels community. And it is a challenge we call the One Funnel Away Challenge. You know, everyone in their business, in their life, they're one funnel away from something. Some of you guys are one funnel away from quitting your job. Some of you guys are one funnel away from getting more impact.

Some of you guys are a funnel away from growing your company to the next level. And so we created this challenge to help you to create and launch your first or your next funnel. No matter where you are in your business, this challenge is going to help you understand the strategy, help you understand the tactics, help you understand all the things you need to be successful with your funnel. So what I recommend you do right now is stop everything, pause this audio, go online, and go to OneFunnelAway.com. That's OneFunnelAway.com and join the next challenge. There's a challenge starting in the next few days, so go get started right now. OneFunnelelaway.com. That's onefunnelaway.com and join the next challenge. There's a challenge starting in the next few days,

so go get started right now. Onefunnelaway.com.