Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Isolation And The Entrepreneur

Episode Date: May 20, 2019

The realities of isolation as an entrepreneur and what you can do to protect yourself. On this episode Russell talks about the different phases in entrepreneurship, and the isolation they bring. Here are some of the insightful things to listen for in today's episode: Why the loneliness that plagued Russell when he first got started being an entrepreneur has returned in recent months. How Russell is trying to combat the loneliness he feels as CEO of his company. And why it's so important to find a community that can support you in your journey as an entrepreneur. So listen here to find out why entrepreneurship brings isolation and how you can fight it. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/207-207-isolation-and-the-entrepreneur 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 to Marketing Secrets Podcast. I'm taking a quick break during my lunch at Inner Circle Meetings to share something really cool with you guys today, and I hope you enjoy it. So with that said, let's keep the theme song, and I'll be right back.

So the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us, who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, we're 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.

Hey everyone. So the last two weeks has been crazy. As you probably know, we have a lot of coaching programs here at ClickFunnels. We have obviously the free stuff, which is the podcast, like you're on right now, a bunch of other things. From there, we try to get people into the One Funnel Away Challenge. And hopefully all of you guys have done that. If you haven't gone through that process yet, go to OneFunnelAway.com. And after it goes through One Funnel Away Challenge, I try to get you to come to Funnel

Hacking Live, where you get to experience this whole funnel hacking movement. And if you haven't come to that yet, come to our next event. We only do it once a year, and it's amazing. You can go to FunnelHackingLive. if you haven't come to that yet, come to our next event. We only do it once a year and it's amazing. You can go to funnelhackinglive.com to get access to the event. And then after Funnel Hacking Live, then we try to get people into our 2ComicClubX coaching program where we help people to be able to win their own 2ComicClub award. And then after somebody has been in that program and they've been there for a while, they got to the point where their funnel's made at least half a million dollars and they get

invited into our Two Comma Club X Platinum group, which means they get to come to Boise and do masterminding with some of our coaches. And then from that group, the Two Comma Club X Platinum group is where we start picking out people from my inner circle.

And my inner circle has 100 people that are allowed to be at any given time. And then we're also developing one more tier of our value ladder. It's called the Category King Council. And it's not live or launched yet, but it'll be a really high-end thing where people who are category kings in the market have a chance to become part of that. And that, my friends, is the ClickFunnels value ladder. In case anyone's wondering, like, where are we taking you?

What's the purpose? What's the point? And so that's it. And so my goal for you guys is to get tons of value from this podcast of all the free stuff we put out there so much so that you're like, man, I gotta, I gotta dive deeper. And then hopefully you read a book or something. And then from there you go to one fun way challenge. And if we keep serving you, um, you'll keep moving up our value ladder and that's how business should be. And if you read the.com secrets book, that's what I talk about at the very beginning with a value ladder and how it

works. And for me, I love it. I love, um, I love it because higher value ladder people get the more chance I have to, to work directly with them. And so this last two weeks has been my inner circle meeting. So, um, basically I break the group down into three groups and they each come to Boise and we spend times in groups of, you know, 25, 30 of us at a time and, um, at two days each. So we did, you know, a group last week, um, last Monday, Tuesday, and then this Monday, Tuesday, the group, and right now it's Thursday, Friday is my last group. And so I had a chance to spend time with all these entrepreneurs and we, um, get together. We have a chance to look at each other's businesses in our lives and what we're doing. And, um, anyway,

it's one of my most fulfilling parts of the business for sure. It's interesting. People always ask me, why are you still coaching? You make so much money off ClickFunnels. Why are you still doing this other stuff? And it's funny because I told all the other groups of the last day, and I'll tell these guys, you know, this group after lunch, when we finished the same thing, I tell them that, that for me, that the mastermind group puts meaning to the numbers, right? Like I'm looking at the ClickFunnels scoreboard on Saturday night and as of today, we have 89,014 active users, which is insane, right? But it's just a scoreboard and the people and the groups is what gives meaning to those numbers. Because while I can't personally coach

all 89,014 people like I would love to, I can, you know, I can try. And so, again, this podcast, I try to give to all of them and more for free. And then, you know, from there we get people into the challenge and then to Funnel Hiking Live and then the coaching program, you know, 2ComicClub coaching program, then 2ComicClubX Platinum and then Inner Circle. And so, you know, because I can't work without 89,000, the ones I do have a chance to work one-on-one with like the inner circle, it's, they give meaning to those numbers. And I see each of

their lives and the people that they're affecting through their businesses and their products and their services. And it gives meaning for me and for our entire team. And so it's been a lot of fun last, last couple of weeks. And so I'm like excited for it to be done because I'm tired and it's been, you know, a lot of work, but I'm also sad because I'm going to it to be done because I'm tired and it's been a lot of work. But I'm also sad because I'm going to be losing all my friends and my connections and all these amazing entrepreneurs I have a chance to serve and to work with. So I'm leading that up because it's been interesting in my business. I always tell people entrepreneurship is like the loneliest job in the world, right? Because when you first get started, it's just you and your brain.

And usually the people around you are not supportive or they're confused and they don't understand it. And then as you go deeper into it, you know, usually there's even more lonely times because, you know, first you're not making money, you're broke, you're losing money. And then there's the fear, which causes more loneliness. And some people never make it out of that trap. And it's sad for me. That's why I've spent so much time over the last decade and a half trying to build a community. We call ourselves funnel hackers, but I'm trying to build a community so that entrepreneurs who are trying to brave this journey alone don't feel alone, which I know a lot of us

do at times. And so there's that. Then there's this next set of phase, which is weird, where you start bringing on a team and it's exciting at first because all of a sudden there's other people to talk to about what you're doing, what you're learning, and they're excited by it too. And, and they're growing and it's like the startup phase. And for me, that's my favorite phase of the business is the startup phase. Cause everything's so new and exciting and, and, um, yeah, like that, that phase is so much fun. And, and also you start getting connection with these other people you're working with. And like that phase is so much fun

because now you're not as lonely because you have these other people and the company's growing. Right. And then it gets to the point where there's this weird stress where something happens, right? Where the company starts collapsing or employees aren't working hard or you have to fire someone or whatever that is. And really quickly you as the founder and the CEO, um, as soon as you have to like stop being everybody's friends and start becoming their bosses, it causes this new weird isolation where, you know, it wasn't the same as it was at first. Like the very first was me and my buddies. And like, it's so funny looking back on, I remember, you know, I had this little house apartment that we had as our office and, and two or three of the guys were working for me, lived in it. And so like, I, I'd come from my house over to the office, which was just a house

and walk in. It would smell like little smokies, little hot dogs. They were cooking little smokies and I walk in and stinks and they're all in their jammies and they're hanging out, like watching TV and goof off playing video games. I'm like, all right guys, now this is an office. Let's get back to work. And we'd, you know, get to work and try to, you know, try to be like a real business. And like, that was the beginnings, right? It was just a bunch of friends hanging out. And, um, and like I said, as you start growing into more than that, then either you have to fire someone or you have to let people go, or there's like, you have to be their boss and other friends and it causes a separation or isolation or the business starts struggling. And, you know, for me it was, you know, these people

all need to get paid every two weeks, whether we made money or not. And so it caused isolation for me because I was like, I had to go figure out how to make money because I had all the stress of making sure I could pay them. And, and that was the next phase. And it's kind of weird because I feel like, you know, again, I'm lonely at first and I get some friends and it goes into loneliness again. And, and it's been interesting in just my role here at ClickFunnels, you know, for a long time I was, I was CEO, whatever that means, but I was more like running the funnel team, right? We were building funnels and it was so much fun. You know, first it was just me and then Steven came and it was me and Steven. And then, and then, uh, Steven left and then we brought in Jake and Nick and Karen,

these other people and like, and it became this team and it was so much fun. And then, and then as ClickFunnels became bigger and bigger, um, you know, I, I wasn't able to keep doing my role. Like I had to be the CEO and the content developer and this and that, all these different things. And so for the last, man, almost not quite a year yet, but I've been making this transition. And if you guys listen to the podcast, you remember some of the podcast episodes of me talking about this scary change

from being the all-star to being a coach. And I've had to try to make those transitions, which have not been – I mean, they're hard transitions. Like you've got to find to make those transitions which um have not been i mean they're hard transitions like you gotta find the right people to replace what you're doing and you know luckily we had i've had julie story and come in and really take over my role in marketing she's done an amazing job in building a team and managing the team and like um that whole thing has been amazing watching that but then it's like now she's she gets to be friends with all my friends and then i'm in this office by myself like all by myself and. And it's weird because it's put me back into this weird phase of the business where I'm back to the isolation of it.

And it's just interesting how the cycles go. And so I've noticed that over the last couple months. I've been doing my thing. I've been doing the roles I'm supposed to be doing. I've been producing content and doing the CEO thing. But I definitely have felt more isolation and loneliness. And so a couple of things, number one is don't feel bad for me. I'm fine. But the last two weeks has been fun to kind of get around entrepreneurs again and get the stimulus from

that and the brains, you know, firing and excitement. And that that's been really, really fun. But the second thing, and I'm going to tell you guys this, cause this is the big takeaway, hopefully for you, um, is I had the realization of like had the realization of like, if I don't have the connection from it, then it's not worth it to me. I'm like, I have to figure out how to do that. And I didn't know how to do it for a long time. I just felt like stuck and lost a little bit. And so for me, what I'm starting to do,

and this is actually starting next week, which I'm excited for, is I'm looking at those things I used to miss the most and I'm trying to bring parts of those back. Like, I obviously can't go 100% back to that because there's other people doing the roles. Plus, you know, I'm in charge of the stuff that I'm in charge of.

And so, but I'm basically, every Monday, when I get to the office and working, I'm gonna be working in the section where the funnel team is. So I can be out there. I can feel the energy. I can talk. I can share.

I can train. I can give ideas. And like, I can be around that while I'm doing my stuff, right? As opposed to in my little Russell office. And then the days I'm supposed to be locked down writing or whatever, instead of just me locking down in isolation and not knowing who to share my thoughts with, I'm literally trying to find people to come work with me.

So I talk to Dave, like, hey, Dave, this day I'm working in the office. Just come work in there at the same time as me. Just do your same thing, but just be around me so that as I have ideas, I can bounce in the office, just come work in there at the same time as me. You don't have to like, just do your same thing, but like just be around me so that as I have ideas, I can bounce them off you, right? Or Steven Larson, I was talking to Steven, like Steven, I want to recruit you to come hang out with me one day a week at work at the same time I'm working.

And he was like, that'd be awesome. And just, you know, like those kinds of things. And so just for all of you guys, because I know this journey, I've been on it for 15 years now as entrepreneurs. I know that there's definitely that loneliness. And so what I just recommended for you is because some people get caught in that loneliness and they never recover is, is try to find people. Like I've tried, again, I've tried to build this amazing funnel hacker community for myself and for you guys to be able

to tap into people. But I would look at that and look people, local area, find funnel hackers close to you, find people that, you know, do the same thing and make sure to connect them. Even if you're not working together in the same business, just work in the same spot. Or maybe once a week, you all go to a coffee shop or a, you know, whatever, and you just work together so you can rebuild that connection because the isolation is real and it can cripple you from moving forward. And the worst thing that could possibly happen for you and for the people that you've been called to serve is for you to feel isolated and not get your message out because of that. So anyway, I hope that helps. I hope it helps any of you guys who are struggling with that to know that you're not alone. Um, I felt that multiple

times throughout this journey as well. And recently, like I said, I've been feeling it as well. And this inner circle re has helped reignite my excitement and my passion. And then to not lose that I'm building structure around that. I'm trying to build structure to get people to be around me as I'm working just so I can keep the connection and the joy from that part of what we do. So hopefully that helps. And with that said,

I'm gonna go hang out with my friends for the last four or five hours before they leave me and they all go back to their homes for six months. And yeah, I'm excited and I'm feeling really good right now. Hopefully you are as well. If not, go plug in. The community is here. I built it for you. There's hundreds of thousands of funnel hackers who will support you and work with you. Just go to the Facebook group, go wherever and connect with them, meet up with them.

And hopefully you guys will come join me on this journey on my value ladder. I'm going to keep trying to provide as much value as possible. And whenever you're ready to take that step, the first step from this free stuff is to go into the challenge. Go to onefunaway.com, jump in the challenge, then come to Fun Hacking Live and just keep progressing. And me and this community are here to serve you and protect you. And we're grateful for you and your contribution and your willingness to go and do these crazy things

that make no logical sense to the real world. But you've been called and you know it and I know it. And if I can help serve you on that mission to help serve the people that you've been called to serve, then that means my calling that I've got will be fulfilled as well. So it's a win-win all around. All right, that said, appreciate you.

Have an amazing day and we'll talk to you 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 Dot Com 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.