Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Mindset When Your Funnel Flops

Episode Date: July 8, 2019

How to prepare yourself mentally when launching your funnel! On this episode Russell talks about how to prepare yourself for when you launch a new funnel and it flops. Here are some of the awesome tips he gives in today's episode: Why you should never "call your shot" to family and friends. Why you need to be okay with it if your funnel doesn't work the way you wanted. And find out when you should finally tell your family and friends about your funnel. So listen here to find out how Russell takes some pressure off of launching funnels by not telling the whole world about it. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/221-mindset-when-your-funnel-flops Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up everybody, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. Today, I want to talk to you about what happens when one of your funnels flops. So, the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us, who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, who are spending money from our own pockets,

how do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world, and yet still remain profitable? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing Secrets. Hey everyone, I'm in the Tesla right now. I'm driving with no hands as I podcast. Seriously, they just called called the podcast mobile instead of the Tesla because that's exactly what it becomes.

It's pretty awesome. Anyway, I digress. Today, I wanna talk about something that is oh so real. It happens all the time and people always freak out about it. And I've seen for a lot of people, it becomes the death of their business. It becomes the time they walk away,

the time that all their potential fears are realized and they're like, oh, this whole thing is a scam. I told you funnels aren't real, Russell. You lied to me or whatever it might be, right? You put in all the time and the effort and the focus and the strain and the energy into getting this funnel live and then you launch it and then it's crickets or it bombs or nobody buys or one person buys and it was your mom and then she asked for a refund or whatever may happen, right? There's a billion different scenarios of what happened. And so the question is not so much like, how do I fix my funnel in a floss? But like, how do I, how do I prepare for that? How do I make sure that it's not going to be the thing that's the nail in the coffin that makes me walk away from this, from this whole thing. And I feel very qualified to

share this with you because I guarantee I have flopped on more funnels than I bet you've ever even dreamt of creating. Therefore I can, uh, can share a little bit with you. Um, all right. So the number one, uh, my Tesla, I think it just fired me cause I took my hands off too long. All right. I'm driving it again.

Like a, like a good boy should be anyway. Um, all right. driving it again like a good boy should be. Anyway, alright, so the first thing that I would recommend, because what happens to most of us, right, is we get excited and we get sold on this vision and like, this is going to be the most amazing in the world, I'm going to change everyone's life and I'm going to sell a bunch of product, I'm going to be rich. And so what we start doing is we go out there and we start telling everybody around, it's like, oh,

I'm learning this thing and it's amazing. And at first they're like, they're confused, they don't really care, they're like worried about you, right? And so what you start doing, you start like projecting on what you believe is possible. You're like, oh, I'm gonna make a million bucks and I'm gonna make $100,000 in my first launch. Like you start saying these things to people

because they're not getting it and you wanna just like, you know, like prove them. Like you wanna shock them almost. They're like, this is gonna work. It's gonna be huge. And so you start telling these big numbers. I think this is one of the biggest mistakes I see people do initially is the people who are the biggest unbelievers, they start telling them the projection of what they think is

possible, right? Like, oh, well, I'm going to do this and quit my job, make a million bucks. I'm going to do this. And you start telling them things like that. And then the second you start doing that, all of a sudden there's this pressure, right? And I know what happened to me. I went through this problem initially back when I was, um, super young, um, like 12 years old-ish, I was learning all these money-making ideas and tips and tricks. And I would tell my brothers and my sisters and my mom and dad, like, I'm going to be

a millionaire. Like by this time next month, I will be a millionaire. Like, you know, I was so confident and I should have been more skeptical, not skeptical, but I should have been more whatever. Right. And when it is, they tease me and they make fun of me and they should have, like I deserved it. Um, because like you shouldn't be calling your shot like that as much as you want to. It's like, ah, as soon as you start calling your shot, all of a sudden there's so much stress and anxiety goes into it because all your friends are looking and they're watching and they're waiting and you've told them this thing's gonna be huge. You're to make a thousand or 10,000 or a million or whatever number you told them. And now they're all watching.

Now, if you fail, like that's, oh, it's so much bigger. So because of that, just the nature of that, you going into this thing, uh, it's scary. Now, my friend, Steven Larson may disagree with me on this. You know, every single year, the very beginning of the year, he sets like a goal, like I'm going to make whatever, $3 million. And he does a big Facebook Live and he tells the world about it. And I know why he does that

and I'm not against stuff like that, especially bigger goals. Like I want to make a million bucks or hit two comic clubs. Bigger goals like that, I'm not against. But it's like, this funnel's going live and my goal is to make 100 grand the first month. Right?

As soon as you do that, that's when the pressure starts coming. I know with ClickFunnels, I did that to myself again. We were building it out. We were doing the launch and I told everyone. I told myself.

I told my family. I told my affiliates. I told everyone, we're going to get 10,000 members so fast. It's a free trial. It's going to be super easy. We're going to get 10,000 members. I told them all that

and then we launched and it was like, crickets, crickets. What sucks about that is then all your friends who are, even if they're rooting for you, which they probably are your family members are rooting for you they come back how'd it go how'd it go like and they're all excited because they know you're excited

and it's like the most painful feeling in the world to be like oh well you know it's doing okay like you know we got we got 30 signups and like nobody's starting to grow and like oh cool like you think you can still hit 10,000 like no i'm not gonna 10,000 you jerk why would you ask that at this point like you know like that's what always happens. Right. So the reason I'm saying this, my very first, um, recommendation for you is to step back and like, don't call your shot to the world. Um, again, if you want to at the, at the, the macro, like this year I'm gonna try to do this. That's okay. But on the micro, like this is going to do this. It's just so hard because, um, it just causes all this extra

stress and then when it doesn't then instead of you just like adjusting and being okay with it you um it's really really hard i had the same thing happening in wrestling like my junior year i told everyone all summer long i'm gonna be a state champion gonna be a state champion gonna be a state champion i was like gonna be a state champion my very first match my junior year i step out against a guy took second place a year before i step on the mat and the very first match of the entire season i lose and i like want to go hide in in in a corner and cry my eyes out but it gets worse when i go to school every school's like how'd you do how'd you do like i lost like oh you're not going to be a state champion you lost your first match right or your friends your family how'd it go how'd the match go everyone

who's at the match like oh and like, and like that, like the disappointment, other people, at least for me, buries me. Like I just want to hide and give up and run away. Right? And so for some of you guys, you tried to call your shot. You try to launch your funnel and you told everyone in the world, it's gonna be amazing. And then you launched it and it didn't do well. The last thing you want to do is tweak it. You want to go hide in the corner and die. Right? I know, I know that feeling. Now this leads me now to the second, my second suggestion. So when I was wrestling my, my junior year and I lost in the very first match of the year and I wanted to hide and die. Um, luckily for me, um, my pride or my whatever is so high that I was like, Oh, I'm going to beat that guy. And like my whole desire was

just to destroy him. Okay. So if that's like your motivation, that's the right motivation. I was like, I'm going to beat him. And luckily my dad had filmed the match. And so my dad watched the match literally every single morning for the next four months. And then he would come to practice afterwards. We'd practice over and over and over again, how to, how to beat that guy. And I ended up wrestling him in the state finals. Some of you guys know the story and I ended up beating him in the state finals. And, uh, and I became a better wrestler, but it was because I looked at my mistakes. I looked at my failures and I started calling audibles. Like what I need different. Okay. But it was because I looked at my mistakes, I looked at my failures, and I started calling audibles. Like, what do I need different?

Okay, I'm standing too long. My elbows are out. I'm out of position. I'm leading with the wrong foot. When I'm doing this, I'm opening myself up here. I'm shooting my hips too high. All this stuff I started looking at, and I started shifting and adjusting and doing these little audibles along the way. So by the time four months later I had a chance to wrestle him again, like, all the things he had picked apart on me,

all the flaws, all the mistakes that I had made were no longer there. And so I wrestled him the next time, I had a chance to wrestle him again. All the things he'd picked apart on me, all the flaws, all the mistakes that I'd made were no longer there. And so I wrestled him the next time, I destroyed him. It's the same thing for you. After your funnel goes live, I don't talk about the big funnel launch because I know that for most people, including me, the very first funnel does not do well. So I put it out there into the world. I buy some ads.

I pay someone to promote it. I promote my own ads, my own audience. I drive emails or Facebook or whatever. I try to like get some initial sales just to find out the data behind, behind the funnel. Like what's it doing? Is it good? Is it bad? Like what's happening? I want to know that stuff immediately. Again, before I'm calling my shop, before I'm telling everybody. Okay. Now we understand that the, the, again, the very first funnel traditionally kind of flops, right? But it's after that happens, it's stepping back and looking at, say, okay, like what are the adjustments? What do I need to make? What tweaks? What changes? Like,

what does that look like? Right. And then we start looking at the data and the analytics, just like in wrestling. I started looking at videotape and saying, okay, my elbows are out. This is happening. That's happening. This is where I'm making mistakes. Same thing is true in the funnel world, right? I send $1,000 to the trafficker. Should I get 100 clicks or 1,000 clicks, whatever it is? Then I step back and I look at the data and say, okay, my landing page conversion is doing awesome. My 30% of people here are opting in. But upsell, only 1% of people are buying.

So there's my mistake. How do I strengthen this? What do I need to do different? Is it a different hook? Is it a different story? Is it a different offer? Is it a different angle? Is the color scheme bad?

Is the layout wrong? What's the thing? I'm making the tweaks and the changes and I try it again. I make tweaks and changes and I try it again. I'm just looking at the data, looking at the numbers, making these incremental changes

and incremental shifts. And as you do that, you can better that part of it. That's when you all of a sudden, you get the point where you test things into existence, into the point where now they work. And now I can go back to somebody and say, hey, after my initial testing on this funnel,

we spent five grand in tests. All this stuff's gone through, but right now we are profitable on ads. We're getting a positive ROAS, return on ad spent, ROAS, return on ad spent. It's positive ROAS. For every dollar I'm spending, I'm making $1.20. Now that's when you talk to your friends

and you brag about it and say, I got a funnel, it's profitable. And now we're gonna go roll this thing out. We're gonna blow it up. We're gonna have a bunch of things like that. That's when it becomes fun. That's when you start bragging to your friends, you brag about it, say, I got a funnel, it's profitable, right? And now we're going to go roll this thing out. We're going to blow it up. We're going to have a bunch of things like that, right? Like that's when it becomes fun. That's when you start bragging to your friends about it. Okay. You don't brag at the point of idea. Okay. You brag about it after you've got a profitable thing. Cause now it's like, now I got something to scale. Now you can talk about it. Now it becomes fun. Like, Hey, it's profitable. We're having fun. We're buying

more ads, rolling more money into like all the things that start happening. We're doing JVs. We're doing, um, you know, webinars, we're doing all this stuff. And now like, now it becomes fun. Okay. Um, but knowing that going into like, it's probably gonna be a mistake at first. I don't want to tell the whole world about it because if, and when it probably flops, I need to be able to have that room to adjust and make the shifts and make the changes. Um, without that, it becomes really, really difficult.

Um, to, to want to make those because the outside noise becomes so loud. It's so painful. It's hard. So that's kind of second one. Um, and you know, other things I would say is, um, you know, I think sometimes, and this is probably the last big one I'll share on this, on this podcast, but, um, sometimes even after the funnels launch, sometimes it's just not the right funnel. It's not product, right? Not the right product, not the right's just not the right funnel. It's not product, right?

Not the right product, not the right offer, not the right audience, like whatever it might be. And it's being okay with that too. Um, I had a friend back when I first got started in this business, man, how many years ago is that now? It's been, it's been quite a little while, probably 13, 14 years ago. And when I met him, he had written an ebook and he was trying to sell it and it was struggling with it.

And at that point he had spent two years on this ebook. Uh, he'd written it, he published it, he was trying to sell it and was struggling with it. And at that point, he had spent two years on this ebook. He'd written it, he'd published it, he was trying to sell it and like, it just wasn't working. And I met him. And then for the next four years of me trying to figure this game out, I launched like 500 little mini funnels. Most of them flopped. One or two of them hit.

And I remember talking to him and he was still trying to sell his book. And I was like, dude, why don't you try something else? And he told me, he's like, I can't. I'm like, why not? Like, no one's buying this thing. Like, the market has spoken. They don't want this thing. Like, make something different. He like, I can't. I'm like, why not? Like, no one's buying this thing. Like, the market has spoken. They don't want this thing. Like, make something different.

He said, I still remember this. He said, Russell, I can't change my product now. I spent too long. I spent five or six years on this. I can't change it now. And the funny thing is like the, that's actually the reason why you should. You know what I mean? Like, like the, because you've spent so much time on it, it hasn't worked.

Like you need to do it. But I think, you know, obviously for a lot of us, we have this don't quit mindset. I'm not going to quit, I'm not going to fail. Success is the only option and all those kind of things. And that's a good mindset to have. But when the market tells you no and says this product is not the right product,

you have to be like, okay with that. So I try to test so much stuff. We try different offers. It's just not working. Either the product's wrong or the offer's wrong or the market's wrong, something's wrong. I'm okay with that. Let's try something different. Let's shift. Let's do something different. Right. Um, if any of you guys think that ClickFunnels was my very first idea, my very first product, you are definitely wrong, right?

Uh, ClickFunnels is on the back of, I would say conservatively at least a hundred different funnels I've launched, probably closer to 150. Um, and so when you understand that, it's like, man, if, if I would have like done my first funnel, I mean, I'd still be selling potato guns this day, which was a fun market, but it wouldn't be a full-time job. Just so you guys are fully aware, at least not if I, you know, wanted to be making at least minimum wage. Um, you know, it was, it was an idea and it did okay, but it wasn't the idea. It's like, if I would've been okay, like killing that funnel and flopping and like walking away and trying something different, I'd never got to the next funnel or the next or the next or the next or the next or the next until boom, click

funnels came to me. Right. Cause that was the opportunity that came into my door. And so you just have to understand that like, it's not always going to be the first offer and you gotta be okay with that. And maybe this is not the right one. Maybe this one did okay. Maybe this was a, you know, a single, maybe it was a double or maybe it was a triple, right. Maybe this one did okay. Maybe this was a single. Maybe it was a double. Or maybe it was a triple, right? And each one gets a little incrementally better. But if you don't have these other at-bats, you're never going to get the home runs.

So it's like understanding that, being okay with that, and saying, you know what? Maybe this wasn't my big grand slam. And again, if you've just told your friends and your family and everyone you know that this is, you know, I'm retiring and I'm going to be a billionaire by morning, and that happens,

you're going to, it's going to be devastating. It's going to be hard for you to recover from it. But if you come in it with kind of that mindset, just like, hey, I tried this one, it didn't work. We're shifting the product, shifting the market, shifting the offer,

whatever that might be and you're okay with that, then it's okay. Now you're in the next step and it gives you the ability to kind of keep moving forward and not stress as much. So anyway, there's some things.

I hope that helps. You guys who have been in that situation, you know, I've talked about different things like this before in the past. There's always different ideas, different things. Hopefully these two or three for help any of you guys who are struggling right now as you're building your funnels and things like that.

And if you've already called your shot and told your whole world you're gonna be a billionaire by Wednesday and you're nervous about that now, go back to them and be like, you know what? I'm going to do a different funnel. I'm going to take my time. And then just don't tell them. And then launch it.

And then when it's working, then come back and be like, hey, remember that thing I told you about like six months ago? It's on. It's on like Donkey Kong. Because that's the best way to do it. I remember after my junior year when I lost the state or lost the very first match, I didn't talk about being a state champion again. Like I had been calling my shot all summer long,

all year before. And after I lost the match, I stopped talking. I got to work on the adjustments and the tweaks and the changes. And after I won state, then I came out and I celebrated. I told the world and I was proud and I bragged about it and it was fun.

But I didn't do it before. So I hope it helps you guys. I appreciate you all. I gotta go. So I'll talk to you guys. I appreciate you all. I gotta go. So I'll talk to you soon. Thanks 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.