Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Leveling Up and Leaving the Old Version of Yourself Behind | #Success - Ep. 100

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

In this episode of The Russell Brunson Show, I share a raw, unscripted talk from a private mastermind where I break down what it actually takes to level up in business and in life. This is not about tactics, funnels, or hacks. It is about the internal shifts, humility, and skill rebuilding required when the old version of you can no longer take you where you want to go. Through personal stories from wrestling, entrepreneurship, faith, and leadership, I explain why growth feels uncomfortable and why that discomfort is often the signal that you are on the right path. Rather than teaching another framework, I’m walking you through the psychological and emotional realities of moving from one level to the next, and why most people stall out when their ego refuses to let go of past success. Key Highlights: ◼️Why every new level of success requires abandoning the skill sets that previously worked ◼️How the Hero’s Journey explains personal growth, plateaus, and the need to leave the “ordinary world” ◼️Why ego and attachment to past wins are often the biggest blockers to scaling ◼️The difference between technical growth and internal readiness for the next level ◼️How humility, reflection, and learning from others unlock the next phase of progress Real growth does not come from doing more of what already worked, but from being willing to relearn, rebuild, and let go of the identity tied to past achievements. This episode is a reminder that leveling up is less about external strategy and more about who you are willing to become in order to move forward. ◼️If you’ve got a product, offer, service… or idea… I’ll show you how to sell it (the RIGHT way) Register for my next event →⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://sellingonline.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ◼️Still don’t have a funnel? ClickFunnels gives you the exact tools (and templates) to launch TODAY → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clickfunnels.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you have a funnel, but it's not converting? The problem 99.9% of the time is that your funnel is good, but you suck at selling. If you want to learn how to sell so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket to my next selling online event by going to sellingonline.com slash podcast. That's selling online.com slash podcast. What's up, everybody? This is Russell. Welcome back to the show. All right, I want to share it to you guys something really cool. As you know, we're getting closer and closer to the rebrand of my podcast.

Bootstrap Secrets is coming soon to a funnel near you. It's going to be awesome. But in the interim, I'm giving you guys some presentations that you probably have never heard before, haven't seen before. And so this next one is actually, we do a mastermind about once a quarter out here for our two Comic Club X and our prime mover members. And it's really powerful. It's a small group of, you know, 100 or so entrepreneurs, they come to hang out.

And at the last one, I wasn't there for the whole event, but they wanted me to come in the very beginning and talk to everyone and just like figure out how to get everyone to, like, level up and like have more success and despite their failures and things are holding them back and anyway it was interesting I remember that morning I was driving downtown Boise getting prepped and think to like what what's the best thing I can give everybody and I had a pad of paper next to my seat I was like sketching out a couple ideas and some doodles and you know doing Russell stuff and I got there and again it was probably one of the presentations I felt the least prepared for which a lot of times is where the magic comes

I had a lot of ideas but didn't know exactly how to land it until they called my name I came on stage and I started going and after it was done, I got texts from a bunch of the people in group just thanking me for that saying that was the thing they needed that shifted everything for them. So this is what I hope you can listen to. Hopefully you can listen to it often. I would bookmark it. I don't think you'd bookmark things in podcasts, but listen to it once a week. Listen to it when you're struggling. Listen to it when you're trying to figure out how to get out of a, you know, how to get to the next version of you and who you want to become and things like that.

So anyway, I hope you enjoy this one. This is one that, yeah, I think is really powerful and really important. that's probably going to change your life. So I hope you enjoy this episode from my friend, Mr. Russell Brunson. This is The Russell Brunson Show. Yeah, like Brent said, super excited to be here. I was not supposed to be here because my daughter is going to college, breaking my heart, leaving me, and we're supposed to sleep today, but then I got bumped and we're leaving tomorrow.

So I'll... Is that me or is that like an airplane flying into our building? It's an airplane? Okay. Everyone duck in cover if you hear it again. Anyway, yeah, so tomorrow we're driving her up and dropping her off, which is like heartbreaking and exciting for her. But because that, I got to hang out to the USA, which is so fun.

So thank you for letting me come and spend a little time with you guys. I'm excited. They put together a really, really cool event for you guys over the next two days, all about taking what you guys are learning, having success with it and how do we grow it? How do we scale it? How do we kind of take to the next level? So I was thinking about that over the last couple of days,

like, what can I share this different? We have amazing trainers talking about a lot of things from copyright to traffic to split testing to value ladders, like all these other pieces you guys are go deep on. I was like, what can I bring different and unique today, just to kind of kick off the event and kind of start everything? And so I just got back two days ago from Alaskan Cruise. It was my parents' 50th anniversary, and they took us all their kids and their spouses up to this Alaskan cruise. So I've been up there for the last five days or seven days and just thinking about like, what can I share? What can I share? And so I have an idea, I haven't prepared this or practiced this, so I have no idea it could go off the rails. But I was thinking about, like, as you're scaling, there's two different things.

Like, there's the technical part of, like, how do you scale. But then there's also, like, the psychological things that you have to go through as an entrepreneur as you are scaling. Because it shifts in as different along the way. And so that's what I want to talk about a little bit today. So hopefully it'll help you on that side of it as you're learning the actual techniques and tactics on how to actually scale. How do we fix ourselves so that we can physically do it? And I started thinking about this in my life, different times where I've tried to go to different levels, right?

And the first time that I can recognize this was in my wrestling career. So in high school, I was a wrestler, and I remember when I first got into wrestling, I was like this, I always joke, before I started wrestling, all I would do, I would go to school every day and I'd come home and then I'd sit down and I would eat Cheerios and watch cartoons after school until dinner time, then I would eat dinner, and then I'd do homework and go to bed. life forever. I was like the ordinary world that I lived in every single day. And then my dad, who was a wrestler, found out one of our neighbors was wrestling. He's like, Russell, I'm taking you to wrestling practice. It's like, why? That sounds horrible. He's like, no, you're going to

wrestle. Like, I wrestled. I'm like, I didn't. I was like, I don't want to, but he kind of did the whole thing. And I went to wrestling. And I started doing it. And the first year, like, I just showed up and kind of did the things, eighth grade year. And I wasn't great, but I had some matches and kind of had some fun with it. I was like, okay, this isn't that bad. And then my ninth grade year was when I started getting more serious into it. And a whole bunch of things happened along the journey. Like I remember I came into the wrestling room with all the high school kids and they're all big and scary and I was like this huge intimidating thing.

Like how am I supposed to compete with these guys? And I remember during the first round of wrestleoffs, I was wrestling a kid who had been JV like the year before. I think he was a junior or senior and I was so scared. And I beat him in the wrestle office. I mean, I got to be JV. So I remember going home like, Dad, I beat the guy. I got to be JV wrestler.

And so that next duel meet I was going to be like wrestling on the mats, like what everyone can actually watch you. And somebody hasn't heard me tell the story before, but I remember I got out there and we had wanes ahead of time. Anyone here, wrestlers in the room, by the way? Okay, so a couple of you guys have cut weight before. So first time I've ever cut weight. I'm 9th grade.

I didn't know how to cut weight. I'm just trying my best, you know, and then I get to the thing, and everyone just lines up in the locker room and they've got to scale out there and then they have you all stripped down to your tidy witties and get on scale. And I'm just like, ninth grade kid,

never been stripped of my tidy witties ever. I scared to death. I'm like, you know, but everyone's doing it. I'm like, oh, so strip daddy whiteies. I get that I get on the scale, and luckily I make weight, and then I get off, and the next guy gets up, and his tidy white is, and it's this dude with a mustache. And he's just like staring at me. I'm like, what?

And you have to understand, to this day, I still cannot grow a mustache, right? Like, this is, I've not hit that part of puberty yet. And I'm watching this kid with a mustache, and I get off the scale, get my clothes back on. I'm like, I'm like, I'm dead. This guy's got a mustache. This is going to, like, he's going to destroy me. And then I remember I call my dad. I'm like, dad, I'm so scared.

and so JV wrestled before the varsity. So I remember getting there and we're warming up and you look in the stands. There's like four parents in the stands and nobody else shows up for the JV matches. So I see my mom and my dad and it's my turn to go out there. I shake the mustache guy's hand and we start wrestling and I don't know what I'm doing and we're wrestling.

We're scrambling and the match ends. I don't know what happens. We shake hands and the refraises my hand. And I was like, I look over and I see the mustache guy like his head down. I was like, I peek the guy. I look at my dad and my dad's jumping up and down and I was like that day is like when I became a wrestler.

It's like this is the best. feeling I've ever felt in my entire life. I want this experience over and over and over again. I became obsessed with it, right? And I went on this journey. And so from ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, I want to stay title. My senior year, I took second place in the country. And I like got the skill sets, right? And anything, any journey you go on life is all about skill acquisition, right? What are the skills I have to learn? And you go through this journey, right? You start learning skill sets. And so I get done with high school. I go to my senior year, I go to the high school nationals. I go to this tournament where basically it to be a state

champion to go to this tournament. So every state champion from around the country is there. In my way class, there was like 60 something state champions and huge bracket. And I'm on one side, everyone else is the side. And we go through the thing and we're all of a sudden down and I end up taking second place in the nation. And so in my mind, I'm like, I am one of the greatest wrestlers who's ever lived. This is amazing. Like, I'm thinking I'm good, right? I get a college scholarship. And so I show up to BYU. It was like in my scholarship. I show up to BYU the very first day. And in my head, I'm like, I took second place in the nation. All these chumps are going to lose to me. It's going to be really easy.

and I go out there the very first day and I start wrestling with like the third and fourth string guys and I got beat so bad so consistently day after day after day and it was humiliated I was just like somebody who has ever experienced

being re-humbled in your life when you started a journey right? Yeah that's exactly what it was and went through his process and I was just getting killed every single day after day after day and I was like I thought I was good at wrestling like this guy's fourth string

and he just tech followed me in the first period like every single day day after it was just like humiliating And it was weird because, like, I'd gotten to a certain level, and I was going to the next level, I realized that, like, none of the things that I learned were working here. And finally had some really good coaches come back, like, hey, your stance, you're out of position. Like, you're standing too tall. Your elbows are out.

I was like, what are you talking about? They'd never affected me. I was in high school. It didn't bother me. I was able to beat most of the people at that level. It didn't bother me. But they said, no, you're out of position. So I had to learn how to do a different stance.

I learned how my elbows different. I had to learn how to shoot. Like, everything that I thought I knew was wrong. and I had to go relearn everything and relearn all the skill sets to get to college. And so I spent that first like three or four months from school starting until Christmas break, like re-learning how to wrestle. And it was humiliating. It was hard.

It was painful. And I remember going home for Christmas break. And I went back and my high school had a practice. I went to go wrestle with all my old buddies who were still competing. And I was just like broken. I'm like, I suck at wrestling. Like I'm the worst ever. And I remember going to high school when I started wrestling all my buddies.

And they seemed so easy. it was like playing with babies. I was like, this is so into my coach who would always beat me up. He's like, I want to wrestle you. So we started wrestling. The first time ever I'd ever like scored on my coach. I was like, oh my gosh, I got better.

I had no idea, right? And I all of a sudden I went through it and then the next four or five years of my college. Like I was a different tier, right? I got better and better over time. But it was interesting than went from one tier to the next. Like I had to like almost forget everything I'd learned and rebuild to be able to do the next tier

and the next level, right? It was so fascinating. And then I got into business and it was very similar. Right? like, when I got into business, I had no skill sets at all. So I'm like, I'm going to learn a skill set. So I went and I learned a skill set, start learning how to sell stuff online. And I started having some success.

And it was like, this became the new plateau. This became my new ordinary role. It was having some success. And then I remember seeing John Reese, who made a million dollars in a day. I was like, that's the journey. I want to figure out how to do that. Like, what skills do I have to learn to be able to make a million dollars in a year? Right?

And what was interesting is like all the things I was doing to make some money was different than what I had to do to get to a million dollars a year. It was a different skill set. So all this stuff I thought I understood, I had to flush it away, I had to get rid of it for me to go and learn how to actually build a company that can make a million dollars a year. And it took me, I think, two and a half years before I was able to make a million dollars in a calendar year. When I did that, I was like, I'm the greatest man. I'm like, I'm a genius. I'm so smart.

Like, I figured out how to make a million dollars, right? I was so excited. And I was like, hey, next thing, I'm going to figure I can make to $10 million. And I tried. And I tried. And when I realized, after three or four or five years of failing to get $10, I was like, the skill set that got me to $1 million is not the skill set that gets me to $10. It's completely different. going from high school wrestling to college wrestling. It was a completely different thing.

Different game, different everything. Right? And so I started figuring out, like, how do I go to 10 million? I started studying different things and learning different things. I realized for me to get 10 million, like everything that I learned to get to a million was not going to work to get me to 10 million. I had to learn different skillsets, different things, different, like everything had to be different. And it took me years to understand that. When I did that, I understood it then it's like, I learned the new skill sets and then getting to 10 million was really easy. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. Now how to get from 10 to 100? And guess what? Same level up. Everything that I used to get to 10 million dollars did not work.

around, should I get to $100 million? It's like I had to go relearn this whole process. And so I was thinking about that like in context for all of you guys here, but just like for all of us in any area of our life, right? You think about this, like we all come in and we get good at something, right? This becomes like who we are. And then we get called on this adventure to do something bigger. And by the, by just the nature of like you're getting called to do something bigger, like none of us are qualified to do the next thing. We think we are like, oh, I can do that. That'll be easy. But then you go on the journey, you find out really quickly, you're not actually qualified to do the thing. And if you were qualified to do the thing,

then what's the point of you've been doing it? Like, you could just, it's like me right now going back and winning high school state title. Like, yeah, I could do it. It'd be really easy, but like, what's the point of that? That's not a good goal, right? The goal is like the next thing. And by default, you picking a good goal and it's something that's going to stretch you, you're not qualified. You don't have the skill sets. In fact, most of the times the skill sets you have at this other level will actually hold you back from getting to the next level. Okay? And so as you guys are trying to talk about how do we grow and how do we skill like what's that journey look like a lot of it's going to be you understanding what got you to where you are today is probably holding

you back and it's going to get you to the next level and that's what we got to start thinking about as you're going through this like skill acquisition like what are the new skills that I have to learn a master to get to the next tier and the next level okay um I as you know am a geek with the the hero's journey how many guys geek love learning about hero's journey or talking about it or something all right i got a half a clap there thank you guys um it's funny because like i i'd never heard about it and i bumped into it right before we started writing expert secrets and i freaked out and i talked about it and then after i started hearing everybody talk about it i was like was i just never aware of it prior or did people not talk about it i don't know but for me i love it

and i love it so many areas life and i was thinking about that specifically for this topic today because if you think about the hero's journey right um here is here's the hero's journey right and And then all the heroes that you guys know, they start in an ordinary world. So, OW, this is the ordinary world. And the ordinary world is basically your current skill set, your current level of, like, what you're good at doing, right? If you think about, like, how all skills are about training your subconscious mind, like it is your subconscious floor.

Like, this is who you are, who you've become in your life up to this point, right? So before I started wrestling, everything I learned up to my life got me to this. And this was like, this was my base, like my subconscious, like, that was the floor. That's like the ordinary world I lived in, right? And then I got called in this adventure. I want to become a wrestler. I want to do something different. And I decided to go on this really cool journey, right?

I leave that ordinary world. And I have to go learn a new skill set, right? And you learn new skill set. You go through the process. You get better and better, better. And what happens over time is you figure out, like, this was your, how do I illustrate this? You have, like, this subconscious floor of what your current skill set gives you, right?

And you have this goal, and this is your subconscious ceiling. Like, this is where I'm trying to get, to try and get this new ceiling, right? This new level. And so you go through the skill set. you're learning, you're practicing, and eventually you get there where no longer is your skill sets down here, your skill sets here,

and this becomes like your new subconscious thing, right? If you study the hero's journey, what's fascinating at the end of the hero's journey, what the hero does is he returns back to the ordinary world with the elixir, with the thing, right? He returns back and brings back to the ordinary world the thing he discovered, right?

That's what happens every hero's journey. And the same thing happens for us. Like, when I was a wrestler, I left on this, I had this ordinary world, I left on this journey, and eventually I became at this level, right and then what's interesting if you look at this this now becomes your subconscious floor right what was your ceiling now becomes your floor and all of a sudden you get called on this next thing you

want to do i want to go from a million to 10 i want to go from 10 to 100 i want to do whatever the next thing is right and all of a sudden this now which was your subconscious thing that you were hoping to someday be able to achieve this now becomes your subconscious floor this is your new ordinary world right and now you got to leave on a new adventure and this is why most people don't go from level one to level two. Okay? Because they go off to this. Like, I've already figured out. I already did the thing. I became a state champ. I became second place nation. I already figured this stuff out. Like, I'm good enough. I should be able to do it. And because of the past things, they're not willing to burn down the skill sets they learn to get the new skill sets to get

them to the next level. Okay? Because they're so obsessed with the ego and the tying to the thing that they accomplished in the past. And that's the hardest thing. I was looking at my own personal life. I was reflecting this last week on it. The reason why I've been struggling in a lot of areas is because for me to get to my next level, I have to stop doing and change and burn down a lot of stuff that got me to where I am today. I was like, why is this so hard for me? I was like, oh my gosh, it's my ego. Our egos are so obsessed with like the thing. Like, this is the thing we dreamt about that we wanted for so long. Like, if I could just become a state channel, if I could just make a million dollars, if I could just, like that became a thing. And then you got it. You're so

proud. The egos are. It's like, I'm a genius. I'm the smartest man alive, right? And also it's like, you got to go on this new thing. It's the equivalent of walking, for me, walking into practice of YU my very first day. And these guys aren't going to just destroy me. And the ego gets destroyed. It's so much easier just to live in the glory days. Right? And come back like, oh, who, that sucked. I'm going to go back here. I'm going to hang out. I want to hang out back here in the ordinary world where I feel comfortable. Right. But that's the problem with growth. Like, if you stay in your ordinary for a world forever, you never get to the next level. And so the thing that you thought was this amazing thing. You've accomplished it.

That now has become your ordinary world. And now it's time to leave again and go on your next journey in your next adventure. It means you have to give up your ego. You have to, like, be willing to change things, willing to understand, like, the skill sets that got me here are probably not skill sets that are going to take me to the next level, okay? And so what's cool about this room, by the way, is there's people here at different levels, okay?

Some of you guys are at the beginning of this whole thing. Like, you just learned about this. You're excited. You're figuring the things out, you know, the first, and inside of, like, click phones we've tried to get people, like, these milestones for you to work towards, right? Like, the first milestone here is, like, create a webinar and get it. and get it to make $10,000, right? And that seems, when you hear the first time, it seems really really small. But that's honestly what I think is the hardest step in the hero's journey over

and over and over again. Because the very first time, like, you have to figure out so many things. Like, how do I create an offer that people actually want? Then how do I make the product? And then from there, how do I write copy? And how do I get people to register? And then how do I actually perform the webinar? And how do I tweak it? And how do I drive traffic? And like, there's so many things for the very first one. Like, it's the hardest of all. Right? And you go through a process, you make your first $10,000, you got through that, and then you're going to get a ward. You guys have seen the war. I think we've got, I think, eight or ten people in the room who've qualified since the last meeting.

We're going to get pictures here in a minute with this ward. You got the very first thing, right? And it's like you got that, you figure out the first skill set, and that's the hardest one. And then it's like, okay, what's the next year? What's the next level? Okay, we're going to go a little deeper. How do we get to the million dollars, right? Different skill set.

Okay. It all builds upon the last skill set. Like everything you guys did to get a webinar to make you guys $10,000 is great. But now it's like, now do we get you to a million dollars? Okay? We have to learn. Because what happens, what you'll notice is like a lot of people, the very first time they do webinar, they make the first $10, $15,000, $20,000. It's like they're doing it to an audience that's warm, right? People who know them, they like them, they trust them, it's a little easier. And then we start driving traffic. People start showing up who don't know who you are. Guess what? It's a little bit different. You've got to be a little bit better. You have to learn how to get somebody who doesn't know who you are, who doesn't understand the value of it, who has no relationship. How do I convince that person that I can, can change your life. You have to have a different skill set. You have to get better at it. How do I get people to actually show up? Different skill set. How do I buy cold ads, cold traffic? How are my consistent? And so there's different skill sets now to get you to the

million. And then when you get to the million and then the next conversation, that's what's fun. When people get to the million dollars, that's when we invite them in your circle. And your circle is similar to this. Room's a little bit bigger than this, not much. And those conversations are less about like, what's the offer? How do we sell stuff? And those conversations are like, all right, if we're going to scale from a million to 10, what does that look like? It's like, oh, at this point, I need teams. I need structure. I need operations. Like, those are the conversations we have in those rooms because it's a little bit different, right? Most of you guys at this point probably aren't a spot where you're trying to figure. I've got to have 10 people to build

the demand. I'm like, I'm like juggling a million things. I'm drowning, right? You're going to get to there and that's when the next phase is like, okay, cool, you master the skill set and make a million bucks. Next skill set we've got to master of you guys is operations and structure and how do you make sure the business is going to run and how you start scaling and growing, right? And that gets usually from a million to 10 million. And in 10 million, that's what people join the Atlas group. And it's a whole new conversation in Atlas. In Atlas conversation, everyone's like, man, I'm doing all the stuff. I'm stressed out. Um, my warm audience doesn't buy it anymore. And it's like, how do we scale? How do we grow even bigger? How do we, uh, how do we function with

the dysfunction of entrepreneurs where we're trying to change the world and change all these people's lives? Our own lives are falling apart. And it's like, it shifts again. And like, it's just crazy what happens every single step and every single tier. And so what I wanted to lead with today is just talking about that is just thinking about where you guys are in this, okay? And all of you guys here are at different tiers and different levels. but as you're thinking about this, just realizing that, like, you're in an ordinary world, okay? And it could be the very first of some of you guys,

but maybe it's here, maybe it's the third, whatever it is. And the thing that's going to keep you from getting to where you want to go is probably the ego about the thing you already accomplished before you got here. Okay? I'm saying this to you, but I'm saying it to me. This was my big epiphany this week

where I'm sitting in Alaska Cruise with my wife and I don't have the ability to work or to type or doing that. I'm just like sitting there with my brain. I just like, oh my gosh, my own ego is keeping me from the next, adventure, the next thing I'm supposed to accomplish. I was like, I bet that's where a lot of other people are struggling with. I forget about that sometimes. I've been on a 10-year journey

for my last hero's journey, right? It's been insane and fun and it's hectic and crazy and all sorts of stuff, right? But now I'm like sitting in the spot for the last two or three years. I'm like, I'm not growing the way I want to. And I'm like feeling that. It's like, God, I want to contribute more. I want to create more. I want something and I can't figure that out. I was like, oh my gosh. It's because my ego is obsessed with what I accomplished in the past. And it's great. And we should be happy. And you should be like so grateful for the things. The things that used to be your dreams, but eventually understand that becomes your new ordinary world, right? If you want the next tier and next level, it's like, okay, the subconscious, like, this is my subconscious

is now, like I can do this in my sleep now, perfect. If I want to get the next level now, I've got to be willing to say, I accomplished in the past, I'm going to put it behind me, and now I've got to figure out the new skill sets. What are the people doing this thing? What things are I have to believe or understand or do to be able to be successful like those people, okay? And so while you're in this room, again, you're going to have people speaking with you, but also a lot of times in these rooms networking and get know people, like I recommend finding someone who's like one tier below you and share with you like the things that you're doing that got you to this level, right? There's so much value

in that. And then the other way is like I also find people who are a tier or two above you and start networking them and finding out from them, right? And as you start doing that, this is how this group grows. This is how you guys start having more success because you're understanding those pieces, right? When I first got into this business, I started, it was after John race did the million dollar day and everyone in our industry was just freaking out. We all wanted to do it, right? I started going to events. It was cool.

It was like in these events because all of us had seen it, all these guys kept talking about it and all of us were trying to figure out how did John do that? How did we reverse engineer that? And so we're all networking and talking and like we met in rooms like this and then went back home and back then we all got on AOL Messenger, which was pre-Skype. And then eventually we all migrated over to Skype. And in Skype, you see Skype shut down last month? I was just like, I saw like 10 people I literally talked to every day on Skype from way back

and, like, when I first started this whole business, and, like, they're just gone. I don't even have to contact him anymore. Like, Skype just disappeared. I'm like, how do I, like, anyway. But, like, understand, like, part of this room is, like, in here, but a lot of it's, like, finding a couple people that you connect with afterwards who are all striving towards the same goals, right? Because you're going to learn different pieces, different spots, different places,

and all you guys have different skill sets and, like, the networking part of it is the key. What happens after we leave this room, right? Our job is to give you guys ideas, stimulate thoughts and conversations, and your job is take that in the network. networking inside the group, when you go back home, then start implementing those things and start plugging them in. And that's how you start growing to the next level. And everyone starts growing together.

The first time I really saw this inside of our community is when we first launched the Inner Circle. Man, wait, it was... The Inner Circle launched at the same time ClickFunnels launched. It was a decade ago. And back then, it was the only, like, coaching program. Well, that's not true. We had two.

One called Ignite, there was $10,000. It was $25,000. Those were the two programs initially, right? And we started growing the first group. The only qualification to get in a circle back then was if you could spend $25,000 you were in. Congratulations. If you couldn't, then you were in Ignat, you only spent 10. Like, nowadays, like, you have to have at least a million dollars to be in the inner circle. Back then, it wasn't that way.

It was just whoever was able to pay came in. And it was really interesting watching that group. And I'm Stacey and Paul, we're in that group. You guys came in probably two, a year or two into, yeah, 2017. They came in. And it was interesting because, like, when that, when that, group started, everyone came in, and everyone was at different levels. And click phones have been running for three or four years. So my business was the biggest. And it was always like a hard

thing about that. Because at first I'm like trying to share out all these different things. But a lot times people like look at me and like, oh, well, you got click phones. So it's easy. Mine's different. And so it was weird at first. The first year or so was kind of harder because I'm trying to coach everyone and everyone's different levels and they're kind of struggling. And it wasn't until I started seeing a couple of our people have a lot of success. A very first group, the first people started having like really good success in our group was Brandon. And Kaelin, Poland. And they launched a company called Tooltime Trainer. Do you guys remember Tooltime Trainer? None of you guys do. And then one of our inner circle meetings just like this. I was talking

about building a culture that you could grow people around. And Kalin was like in the plane flying home. She's like, I can't build a cult around tool time trainer because her maiden name was Tool, T-U-E-L-E. She's like, I'm going to change everything. She's like, I'm going to build if I'm going to build a movement, I'm going to call it Lady Boss weight loss. They bought ladyboss.com. And they launched this whole thing, right? And they started growing. I remember they were the very first people in our group to do a million dollar month. I remember they did a million dollar month, and then they posted in the Facebook if they're on a cruise ship, they're like, we just passed a million dollars.

Everyone in the circle is freaking out. But what's cool is that everyone in the group is like, one of our peers is a million dollars. This is insane. As soon as they saw that they did it, then everyone's like, I think I could actually do it. And then they all started competing with each other and started networking, talking, hanging out. Dave Lindembaugh, I know Dave. Dave, when he was in her circle back in the day, he, how many guys have done a call Dave and you guys been around him okay so we guys is he here oh I was like he's Dave here

he's a little crazy if I met him um but he literally um when he joined he's like I'm gonna call every single person in their circle and just get everything from them so he literally called all hundred people and like just did that and like took everybody's superpowers and kept adding to his business and it blew up right um but what's cool is like the next when you came back and all of a sudden we had like four or five different businesses who all done over 100 grand that month and it's like oh my gosh right and then the next month they the four or five business at 100 grand. We came back for the next meeting. Everyone was like, everyone saw that 100 grand was like, that was the new, that was like the new standard everyone had. And so that everyone

started doing it. And by within, within two or three meetings, everyone was doing at least 100 grand a month. And there are people not doing half a million dollars a month, right? And then Braddock got there started growing. And they kept doing that. And it started leapfrogging. And I watched it's like, all of the people in the room. It was like, what's the quote? Like, uh, rising tide raises all ships. Like everyone started growing together. And it was the coolest dynamic. And we ran that for four or five years and then I took a break for a couple of years before we brought it back. But that was the first time I ever saw that dynamic. And so my goal, I think all of our goal is in this room for you guys to fill that same kind of thing, like spend time networking, getting to know each other

because if you start doing that, everybody will start growing together if you leverage this network for that. If you don't, you're going to come hang out, have some fun, see some people, but the magic is what happens when you leave this event afterwards, right? One of my things my dad used always, in fact, I remember the first time he told me this, my junior year in high school, and say title, and then at the end of the season, they do like a banquet for all the wrestling team, you know, and they give awards out. So my dad gave my award. And I remember he said something that still stuck to, like, stuck to me this little, this little, um, a five-minute presentation he gave. And he said something, he said, if you look at, um, like a champion, he's like,

if you look at in the wrestling room, for example, he's like, everyone comes in, we're in the restaurant, the same hours every single day, same coaching staff, same moves, same everything. He's like, so why is it some people, like, become champions, some people don't, right? Everything's the same, right? He said the difference, he's like, the people who become champions are those who are willing to put in the extra 20% than nobody else is. They're the ones who stay after practice late. The ones come in early. Those are the ones who at nighttime aren't doing their homework instead they're focusing on the moves, right? I struggled in school, but I got the moves down. And I thought about that. And then I got into business, I remember that life lesson

to learn from my dad was the same thing. I was like, okay, everyone right now. was trying to learn business. We're all like studying stuff together. I'm like, I got to do what nobody else is willing to do. And me, very introverted to Russell, who hates talking to people face-to-face and my biggest fear on this planet is phone calls. Like, there's nothing scarier to me than, like, when the phone rings, I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, so I don't answer the phone unless it's my wife, that's it. Because everybody else, if they're calling me, I'm just like, I don't know what I'm walking into. This is going to be a trap. They're going to try to sell me something. I don't know how to say no on the phone. Like, and so I like, I just avoid,

I hate phone calls, right? And I was like, if I'm going to be successful, like, I have have to do what other people are willing to do. And so that's when I was like, I'd go to these events. And I remember, I was like, the first group events I went to were like, Armourmore, and he had this big seminar. I'd go to these events. And it was so intimidating and scare all these business people in suit and ties. And they're all like professional.

I'm this little dorky kid walking around with my shit buzz, my head shaved and glasses on. I'm just like this awkward kid. And everyone's going to bar and drinking. I never been to a bar before. I'm like scared to death. I'm going to get drunk somehow. Like, I don't know what's going to. I'm so scared of everything.

Like this is 21-year-old Russell, scared to death of everything, right? And I was like, okay, I've got to get out of my comfort zone. Like, I have to be willing to do uncomfortable things if I'm going to get to the level what I want to do. And so, I remember the very first event I went down to the bar and I was like so scared because I was like, I don't people see me in the bar, people are going to think I'm drinking. And again, I've never drunk, I've never drinking my entire life. And I didn't want, I was just very scared of that.

So I went to the, I went in there and the bartender or whatever came up to me. Like, do you want to drink? I was like, do you guys serve milk? And he's like, what? I'm like, do you have milk? He's like, can you give me a milk? He's like, you seriously want a milk? I was like, yeah, because if you give me a spry, people are going to think it's, I don't

vodka or something, I don't know. I don't want anyone with these. So they gave me milk, so I literally was like holding a milk as I'm like networking with these people and everyone's like, are you drinking a milk? I'm like, yeah, I'm a Mormon, I don't drink. And they're like, huh. And like, everyone started getting no-meas. The kid that would walk around drinking the milk at these bars.

And I got to know all these different people, right? And then they'd get more and more drunk. And the more drunk they got, the more they start sharing. I'm like, they're telling me everything. I'm the only sober person in the room. I'm like, I'm getting so much value out of this situation, right? And they got to know their names and phone numbers. And then I would add them to Yahoo Messenger, eventually Skype,

and start talking to them. And the introverted Russell could, like, chat with them through Skype. It wasn't awkward for me, right? But that's how I started doing these things, right? And then, like, everyone else would, again, I just became obsessed with this. I'm like, if I'm going to be successful, I got to do 20% that the 20% that champions do that nobody else is going to do. I got to do that every in the business.

And so, and at the same time I was going to college, I was doing other stuff. But it was like that obsession is what helped me figure out and be successful. And so those are some of the things I want you just thinking through as you're looking through it. Because we're going to give you all the tactics and techniques to go from there to here to hear the different levels that you want to get here inside your business. But I think a big part of it is understanding that like the bottleneck in your growth is not going to be the tactics or the skill sets is going to be like in your brain. It's going to be your ability to let go of the past, let go of the glory days, let go of the success that you had in the past. Humble yourself and be like, okay, for me to get X level, I have to re-learn this stuff. figure this out. I've got to learn how to do it differently. Right? And it's tough because I think

about like in high school. You got I took second place in the nation. Like I was really, really good. There's one guy that beat me in the nation. Everyone else I beat, right? And I'm going in there and I'm going to college and the coach is like, you're standing too tall. I'm like, what are you talking about? I've been doing this for the last five years. I beat everybody in the country this way. He's like, you're standing too tall. Your elbows are out. Like all these different things. And it was so frustrating because I'm like, fine. I'm like, no, you don't understand. I'm a really, really, really good wrestler. It's like, yeah. But you're losing to every day. If you want to become great, you have to give up all the crap you're doing right now

and relearn the sport. I have to humble myself. It was hard. Okay. Right now, again, in my business, like, I'm coming back to that humbling ground. Like, how do I get to the next level? Okay? And there's a lot of different humbling. Sometimes it's humbling yourself just in a community like this. It's humbling to your spouse, to your kids, other times. Sometimes it's humbling yourself to God. For me, I had a really profound experience, man, two months ago, three months ago. After a really stressful day, where at the end of it, I just felt hopeless. I'm like, I don't know how to, like, what do I do? How many of you ever felt that experience before?

And I was just like, I don't, I'm out of ideas. Like, I've tried everything. Like, I've got a basket of tricks that I use. I've tried every single one of them a hundred times. Nothing's working anymore. I don't know how to, like, throw my hands up. And it was a Wednesday night, I remember because my wife, that night got home. And normally I sit there and I talk to my wife, whatever.

She was going to this church activity. So she left. I was by myself. And what did I want to do? I wanted to numb myself. I wanted to turn on YouTube and watch. watch stupid videos to numb my brain out. That's like my default I wanted to go. And I was about to do that. And I was like, if I numb myself out right now, I'm never going to solve this problem.

And so I turned my phone off. I put it away. I sat in the couch. I set a prayer. I was like, I'm going to sit here until I figure out the next step. And I sat there. I was like, I'm going to sit here for four days. I'm going to sit for a month. Whatever it takes, I'm going to sit here until I figured out. I sat there. Within 15 minutes, literally, like for me, revelation from God comes in ideas. And it was just like, there's an idea. I was like, oh my gosh. Like me doing what I know how to do over and over and over and over again was not the answer. Me getting to my next level was me humbling myself, sitting down and waiting for an answer.

And like the answer was not something I would have to come off by it. It's not like, oh, here's like, this is the Russell Playbook. We're going to do blah. It's something completely different. I sat there. I was like, oh my gosh. Like that's it. That's the next step.

And I start running. That's the key. When you get the insight, you get the idea, you get the thing planted. step next step is you got to run with it um god gives a lot of people ideas and he looks for who's going to be the ones who take those ideas and actually um do something with them and those who do something with them it gives you more gives you more and so for me that's what it took was me actually humbling myself to get the next idea now i don't know this could be a wild use chase i'm going on it could be something that crashed and burn i don't know but you're all going to see it on a grand

scale when i launch you here in a couple months um but it's fun and it's exciting and it's just like It's me re-learning this stuff and re-understanding. And me understanding that, like, what got me here is not going to probably be a thing that gets me to the next level. I got to come back and humble myself and learn from people again, and study and go to seminars. I'm like, go as an attending, go listen, go, like, pay attention, go network with other people. And so for me, that's what I'm personally doing to try to be able to get to my next level.

And so I wanted to part of that to you guys, because that's what I'm sure a lot of you guys may be stuck on inside of your journey. So was that helpful for anybody somewhere inside of here? Yeah? Cool. Cool. I'm grateful you guys are here. I love this stuff.

My life was changed in rooms just like this around people just like you guys, entrepreneurs who are trying to figure things out and trying to change their world and change the world that people have been called to serve. And just grateful you guys are willing to come make this trip out to Boise.

I know it's in the middle of nowhere. It's hard to get here. It's the only place on the planet. You can't get a direct flight to you, I know. I'm grateful for you guys coming here.