Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - (MS) Linchpin: Two Beliefs Required to Make This Work For YOU - (Part 1 of 2)

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

About a month ago, I did a special presentation for a friend that, for the first time, explained my newest framework called "The Linchpin" in possibly the simplest way yet, starting with the key strategy to ClickFunnels' drastic growth in the past. I've cut it into 2-parts, and in this episode I'll break down how we turned ClickFunnels into the success story it is today, and in part 2 we'll show you how to take your strategy to the next level using 'The Linchpin'! Hit me up on IG! @russellbrunson Text Me! 208-231-3797 Join my newsletter at marketingsecrets.com ClubHouseWithRussell.com Magnetic Marketing FunnelHackingLIVE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hey, what's up, everybody? This is Russell. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. And today I feel like I'm giving you guys a huge cheat code. This is something that I have not shared in a free format yet. I've talked about this in my high-end inner circle mastermind group, which is anywhere from $50,000 a year to $250,000 a year. I shared parts of it at Funnel Hacking Live last year, but this year's Funnel Hacking Live, we're going to go deep into this framework that I call the linchpin because I feel like this is the best way to grow and scale a business today. Obviously, you all know that I'm obsessed with funnels, but this is the evolution of funnels. It's the evolution of the value ladder. It's the

evolution of how we do everything. It's literally the thing that we did to grow ClickFunnels. And it's one little tweak and change we did that is the difference between ClickFunnels being like a $10 million a year business and 100 million dollar a year business was this principle called the linchpin and it's interesting because I did this when we launched click funnels it's something that was kind of a me and Todd hacking around we figured out this thing to help grow click funnels and then after about two years I forgot about it and I shifted away from it stupidly as you know we do sometimes and it wasn't until about two years ago I shifted away from it stupidly as we do sometimes. And it wasn't until about two years ago, I was doing a presentation for my inner circle, showing them how we grew and scaled

ClickFunnels. And I realized that I had forgotten and we'd stopped doing the thing that made us amazing. And so over the last 18 months or so, we've been doing this. If you've been watching what I'm doing, you're seeing it. And it is by far the thing that is growing our companies faster than anything else. We're doing it actually actively today. We're in the middle of doing a challenge with our new supplement company and we're using the linchpin model to grow our supplement company continuity program. We're using it to launch our new personal development program. We did it to launch our video hosting platform. We're using it to grow ClickFunnels 2.0 at an astronomical rate. It is the key. I tease and I joke about it with our inner circle, like, um, you know, the Mandalorian, who was like, this is the way I can tell everyone,

like, this is the way, this is the way you grow and scale a company today. And just through this principle called the linchpin. Now, again, I'm not shared much of this publicly yet. Um, in fact, my social team posts something on my social the other day, like, um, you know, if you're not using the linchpin, your business will not succeed in 2025 or whatever. And everyone's like, what's the linchpin? And nobody knew. And I was like, I haven't actually shared this publicly anywhere. So this is the first time. I hope you guys are excited. This is a presentation I did for one of my buddy, Onyx and Gall, has a webinar event he does with a whole bunch of people teaching webinars. And I was like, what can I share with these guys that nobody else would talk about? There's a lot of things you talk about, webinars and scripting and the perfect webinar, And I was like, what, what can I share with these guys that, that nobody else would talk

about? Right. There's a lot of things you talk about webinars and scripting and the perfect webinar, but I was like, I want something different. So I, I shared the linchpin formula, um, specifically as it relates to, to webinars. Now this is not the full linchpin. There's other pieces, there's high ticket stuff. There's a lot of other pieces that I didn't get into during this. Um, but this is one of the best breakdowns I have of like the core principles you have to understand for the linchpin to work for you. And so I'm going to give you guys this presentation. I'm doing it selfishly for two reasons. Number one, I want you to understand this concept because if you do, you're still using ClickFunnels to build out your linchpins. But number two, it's because this year's Funnel Hacking Live is going

to be different than any other year. Most years in the past, I talk about a lot of different things. This year, everything we're teaching for the four-day event is all pieces of the linchpin. So you will hear these principles reinforced. You'll hear us going deep, deep, deep on them. You'll see best practices, hacks, tricks, tips, whatever you want to call them, for every aspect of the linchpin. And so when you hear this, the biggest thing I want you to take away from it is like, I need to be at Funnel Hacking Live this year because this is where

Russell is going to spend four days going deep into this framework with us, with some of the greatest marketers on the planet. So with that said, this is kind of a pre-sale for Funnel Hacking Live. If you don't have your tickets yet, you need to get them. We're like 80 days away from Funnel Hacking Live, which is crazy. It's insane, like less than three months away. So if you don't have your tickets yet, you need to get them. We're like 80 days away from Funnel Hacking Live, which is crazy. It's insane, like less than three months away. So if you don't have your tickets yet, now is the time to go. Go to funnelhackinglive.com, get your tickets. And as you're listening to this presentation,

when you think about how this can apply to your business specifically, and after you hear that, then go run as fast as you can, get your tickets to Funnel Hacking Live, and make sure you are there so I can go deep with you for four days on this framework and how you can use it to grow and scale your company. Again, it is the evolution of a funnel. It's the evolution of the value ladder that is the key. So all right, with that said, we're going to break this down into two different podcast episodes. Podcast number one is called The Two Beliefs Required to Make the Linchpin Work for You.

And so that's the first one. And then on episode number two, we'll come back and I'm going to show you guys three simple keys to building make the linchpin work for you. Um, and so that's the first one. And then on episode number two, we'll come back and I'm gonna show you guys three simple keys to building out your linchpin. So that said, let's keep the first part of the presentation. Hey, what's up everybody. Thank you, Tom, so much for the introduction. I'm so excited to be here with you guys today talking about webinars. Um, and the reason why I'm so excited to talk about, talk about webinars is because webinars are literally a thing that changed my life forever. I know you guys know that, I know that,

but it's completely true for me. And I'm gonna tell you a little bit of my backstory and then I'm gonna jump into what I actually wanna share with you guys. I know there's so many good speakers talking about all sorts of things from like how to give a webinar, how to do presentations, how to close sales, how to do funnels,

like all that kind of stuff. And I have something different. I was trying to figure out what's something I can bring to you guys that's unique, that's different than what anybody else would actually talk about. And so I'm going to be teaching you guys a framework we kind of developed. And literally it's the difference between ClickFunnels being a $20 million a year company and it being a $200 million a year company. It's just a little tweak to how we do our webinars that I've never seen anyone else talk about or really share. And so it's something that we

figured out when we first launched ClickFunnels. We kept doing it and honestly, nobody really copied us, which is kind of surprising. So much so that we almost forgot about it for a season. And then when we realized it, we kind of brought it back and ClickFunnels has been growing now faster than it ever has because of this one piece. And that's what I'm going to be sharing with you guys today. But to kind of step back, I wanted to take you guys on a journey just of kind of how I got to this spot to become obsessed with webinars. And hopefully this will be motivational for any of you guys who may not feel like you're good speakers.

Maybe you're just beginning out your career and you're trying to figure things out. So remember, I had gotten into this whole internet marketing world. I was geeking out. I was having so much fun. And this is, man, almost probably 20 years ago now. I was in college. I was wrestling at Boise State. And that was kind of my journey. And I started learning about internet marketing. I became obsessed with it. I started reading all the eBooks and buying the courses and doing all the training and Googling all the different keywords about how to make money. And I kind of became obsessed with that. And I remember I started

having a little bit of success here and there, enough I could, you know, make it a couple thousand dollars a month here and there. And then I remember at the time there was this big seminar going on. And the big seminar was called the Big Seminars, Armin Morin's Big Seminar. And Armin was someone who was a mentor. In fact, I remember I used to listen to Armin. He would do these teleseminars back in the day. Before we had webinars or videos, he would do teleseminars. And usually the teleseminars would happen when I was at school or whatever.

And so I would take the audio of it. I would burn it on a CD. And I'd burn a whole bunch of CDs of Armin teaching internet marketing. And then I'd go on these road trips where we'd be wrestling. And so we'd be going from Boise up to, you know, to Oregon. We have an 18 hour bus ride. And so I'd be sitting in the back of the bus with my headphones on listening to Armin Moore and talk about internet marketing. And I got so excited, like learning all these things and like understanding these principles. And, uh, and I remember at about that time he was doing big seminar, I think it was big seminar for something like that.

And that was the big event in the industry. And I was like, I need to go. I want to go. And tickets, I think were a thousand dollars, which was a lot of money. Plus you got flights and hotels and all the things, right? But I was like, that's what I got to be. I got to need to learn internet marketing from these people who are doing it. And so I took a little money I'd been making so far, bought a plane ticket, bought a hotel, got a ticket, flew out there, and attended the big seminar. Now, I want you to kind of put this in perspective. Like, this is awkward, shy Russell. I know you have Russell who's kind of like trying to speak from stage and, like, talk fast and all kinds of stuff.

But I was, like, the nerdiest of the nerdy. I had glasses on. I had, you know, I wore a suit and tie because I thought that's what business people did. I didn't want to be embarrassing. Like, I had a buzzed head. Like, I was so shy. I was glasses on. I had, you know, I wore a suit and tie because I thought that's what business people did. I didn't want to be embarrassing. Like, I had a buzzed head. Like, I was so shy. I was so awkward. So I get this event and there's all these people

where I sat in the back kind of hiding with my laptop, like taking notes, ready to learn internet marketing, right? I just remember the very first speaker got on stage and they started speaking and doing their presentation. I was just mesmerized. It was the coolest thing in the world to see the whole thing happen, right? And so the speaker started speaking

and after about 90 minutes or so, he like made an offer. And I was just mesmerized. It was the coolest thing in the world to see the whole thing happen, right? And so the speaker started speaking. And after about 90 minutes or so, he made an offer. And I was so confused. I didn't know the business, the industry at all. So he made an offer. And all of a sudden, people started jumping up and running to the back of the room. And remember, I think the offer was $2,000. And as people were running back to the room,

I'm confused. I look back. And I'm doing the math. I'm counting people. One, two, three, four. So two, four, six, eight, 10, 12. And by the time he was done, I think it was like 50 or $60,000 this guy had made.

And I was like, what did I just witness? Like, that was insane. And then I was just, I remember like the thrill and the emotion and all this stuff. It's just like, I saw this thing. And then, you know, Armand gets on stage and announces the next speaker. Next speaker gets on stage and I'm like, okay,

I'm going to learn internet marketing from this guy. He's speaking, talking about whatever. And after 90 minutes, he made an offer for $5,000 packages he had created. And same thing, people start popping up all over the audience, running to the back. And I'm like, what is happening? And I'm counting the people like 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. And that guy made over $100,000. And I started watching this happen speech after speech after speech for the three-day event.

And I was just blown away. I didn't even know what I was witnessing, right? But I was doing the math, figuring out the numbers. And then the very last speaker was a guy named John Childers, who at the time was the number one public speaking coach. Not public speaking, like learning how to speak eloquently on stage and that kind of stuff, but how to speak to sell. I still remember he got on stage and he's like,

there's two ways to make money as a speaker. First way is becoming famous. And the second way is learn how to speak to sell. I still remember he got on stage. He's like, there's two ways to make money as a speaker. First way is becoming famous. And the second way is learn how to sell from stage. And he started talking about all these famous people that got paid $100,000 to speak on stage or $250,000 on stage. And then he talked about me, him. He's like, I'm nobody.

No one knows my name, but I get paid more than these guys for speaking from stage because I know how to speak to sell. And he's like, you guys saw this weekend. You witnessed it, right? And I was like, yeah, I witnessed it. He's like, if you want, I can teach you how to sell from stage. Then he made a pitch for $20,000 and everyone's running to the back

and I'm running to the back and it was chaos. Right. And, uh, that was my first experience seeing somebody speak to sell like one to many selling. And, um, I remember shy, awkward, introverted Russell 20 years ago, who's like, you know, coming to learn internet marketing. because I could sit behind a keyboard and a screen and never talk to a human and make money. And all of a sudden I'm seeing this. And I remember thinking in my head, I was like, there are human beings who are just like me, who literally put on pants the same way I do, who stepped on stage and made $100,000 in an hour. That was more money than I had fathomed in a lifetime. You know what I mean? And they were doing that in an hour.

I saw over and over and over and over. I remember thinking when I left that, I have to learn this skill. I have to learn how to do this. Like it became an obsession. So I got home and I remember a little while later, one of my friends was running an event. He's like, hey, Russell, do you want to speak at my event?

I was like, yes, I would love to. And so I came to the event. All I remember thinking in my head is like, okay, last time I went to, I saw all the speakers. They're really good at selling, but like they weren't teaching the best stuff. Like I know way more than these guys do. And so I started going and writing my presentation and I was like, I'm gonna teach them everything I know. I'm gonna blow their minds. They're going to give me tons of money. And so I created this, like what I thought was gonna be the greatest presentation ever. I get on stage, my very first event where I taught

everything. I did the sell and I didn't know how to sell. In fact, I remember my close was, I'm not going to insult you like the others. I'm not going to insult your intelligence like the other speakers. I'm not going to try to tell you how much this costs. All I'm going to do is, you know, it's $1,000 or whatever. So I offered a $1,000 offer, and it was crickets. Nobody moved. Nobody got on stage.

Usually, when you get done speaking, the person in the back of the room is supposed to crank up the music so you don't feel awkward as you're walking off stage. That guy, I don don't think knew I was done because I just went, you know, my pitch was probably 20 seconds long. And so it was just awkward, quiet. I'm standing on stage. Nobody moved. I'm just like, well, that's it. And I kind of awkwardly walk off and everyone's kind of confused. And then the guy turns the music on and it was the worst thing ever. And so people came over and were like, Russell, that was a great presentation. Good job. Good job. And like, it was that awkwardness of that whole thing. And then, and then after it all ended next year on stage, I went back and I'm like, so how many did I sell?

And the guy looked at me, he's like, you didn't sell any. I was like, oh, like, oh, I was so embarrassed. I wanted to quit. In fact, I did for a few minutes. I quit. I remember I like left the room, beeline to the elevator, went to my hotel room. I had, you know, a room to stay there for the whole time of the event. So I sat in the hotel room. I was too scared to leave. And for three days, I remember I sat there watching movies on TV, eating Haagen-Dazs and coconut shrimp from room service.

That's all I did for three days. I was like, I'm never going to leave. I don't want to see anybody else. And then when I snuck out the last day to fly home and I was like, I will never speak again. That was the worst experience ever. But then I kept seeing it, see it happen. People doing it over and over and over again. I was like, I have to learn a skill. And so then I hired, started hiring actually public speaking coaches, right? I learned from,

from Bill Glazer, Dan Kennedy, from Armin Moore and from John Childress, from all these amazing speakers. And eventually I learned how to actually sell from stage. And then I started going to seminars and I would do, I remember the very first time I sold and somebody bought. I actually sold six. I made a $1,000 course and I sold six. I was like, I made $6,000. This is crazy. And I kept doing it.

I kept practicing it. I kept practicing it. And I kept getting better at my presentations. I started tweaking and fine-tuning things, getting better and better and better. And I'm not, during this presentation, going to be talking about the scripting of it. I'm sure there will be other speakers talking about that.

But just understand that this is a learnable skill. I'm sure there'll be other speakers talk about that, but just understand that like, this is a learnable skill. I don't mean the most awkward person of all time to fast forward like 15 years later, I had a chance to speak at the 10X stage and did my 90 minute presentation, did my pitch and we closed $3.2 million in sales in 90 minutes,

which I believe is a world record. Nobody has tried, has told me they beat that yet. I haven't seen it yet. Not that, not like in payment plans, like that was collected in 90 minutes, which I believe is the world record. Nobody has tried, has told me they beat that yet. I haven't seen it yet. Not that, not like in payment plans, like that was collected in 90 minutes in our, in our Stripe account. So I went from being the worst of the worst, literally blanking, getting zero sales to setting the world record of selling the most. And so I want you to understand this is a learnable skill. All you guys can learn this is powerful. Learning this, it's different than like just teaching. It's understanding persuasion and sales and those kinds of things. Okay. And so like I said, there's going to be

speakers, I'm sure at this event to go deep into the psychology and how to speak and present. And so, um, but for me, it's like, um, that was the thing I spent next five or six years on the road speaking, doing, doing stage presentations. And then, uh, 2008 hit and the speaking industry dried up. And so there were no longer seminars happening around the world. And so we jumped online. I was like, I have to replicate this. And so we started doing on teleseminars. And so we did, I remember doing teleseminars every single night, selling stuff from teleseminars. And then I remember this thing called go to webinar came out. We were all freaking out. Like we can do a teleseminar, but they can see our slides, which was a big deal because most of us had been at the time we're doing slides at live events. Right. And so like,

also we're doing these webinars and go to webinar and we started making more money. And so, uh, I remember the first year go to webinar came out, we did 70 webinars and, uh, and just got better and better and better and crushed it. And we kept doing more and more and more. And then, um, when ClickFunnels came out, some of you guys have heard me tell this story before ClickFunnels came out and I'm like, how are we going to sell this thing? And so, uh, of course I did what every software company does, make a landing page, had a trial, started driving traffic to it, and guess what happened? Nothing. People weren't signing up.

And I kept trying, kept trying. I know how many times I tried to sell this thing. People weren't trying it. But it was a free trial. I'm like, this is crazy. It's a free trial. Why is nobody actually signing up and joining ClickFunnels?

This is the thing that everybody needed. Eight years ago, nine years ago, we were the first to market with anything like this. And it was what everybody needed. And so we're promoting it, and nobody's signing up for it. I was so confused. I remember about six weeks into us launching ClickFunnels, one of my friends was like, hey, I have an event coming. Can you come

and speak and sell ClickFunnels? And I was like, well, here's the reality. Right now it's free. We have free trial. Nobody's buying it. And he's like, well, I already have you on the sales page. People are planning you coming. You need to give a presentation on ClickFunnels. I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, you have to give a presentation on click funnels i was like what are you talking about it's like you have to get a presentation on click funnels um and i want you to sell it for a thousand dollars and i'm like oh okay and so i remember still like the event was started it was in san diego and he was streaming online so i actually started watching online i'm still in boise in my my desk as i'm working on this presentation i need to create a webinar presentation or a presentation that i can go to to sell click funnels and so um i pulled up my

old slide deck my old products back in the day. And I started just like changing stuff over. I, okay, well, here's the new offer. Here's a new thing. Like what's the presentation, how I'm going to craft this thing out. And so I wrote this webinar presentation, uh, to sell a thousand dollar version of ClickFunnels. Uh, I remember finishing it and then heading to the airport, jumping in a plane, flying to this place, got there, got on stage, made my, did my 90 minute presentation selling ClickFunnels for a thousand bucks. And I had no idea if it was going to work or not work. And I did the pitch at the end. And, um, have you guys ever seen table rush before? Table rushes are one of the coolest, the coolest feeling in the world I've ever experienced

is beating someone in a wrestling match. Like getting your hand raised is the best feeling. Second best feeling, table rush. Like it is amazing. You see people running, jumping over the tables. And so I did my pitch that day and no kidding, table rush. People are literally jumping on tables, fighting at the back, trying to get the first people to put their credit card in. And I was like, this is crazy. Like I'm just watching this whole thing happen. Right. And so that night, I remember we got the order forms and we closed like, I think it was like 60% of the room had signed up for ClickFunnels for a thousand dollar version of it. And remember that night I went to dinner with Todd and Dylan, who are my partners. We created ClickFunnels together.

And we're all excited and celebrating. I was like, do you guys understand what just happened? They're like, yeah, we made some money finally. Like, yay. I'm like, no, no, no. Like, we have a presentation that converts. I'm like, yes, I did on stage, but we closed 60% of the room. Like, that's rare.

That's unique. Like, I don't understand like how important that or how powerful it is. I'm like, I can go home now and that presentation, I can do it a thousand times over and over and over again. I was like, you guys don't understand like how, how important that or how powerful it is. I'm like, I'm like, I can go home now. And that presentation, I can do it a thousand times over and over and over again. I was like, he doesn't understand. Like, like we're going to be rich. And like, they smiled, like, we're going to be rich. I'm like, like crazy rich. You have no idea. And so they're like, okay, what's the next process? I'm like, we're taking this presentation. We're going to do a webinar.

And so the next morning I'm flying home. I start texting people like, Hey, I have a presentation that's converged. Do you want to do a webinar with me? And they're like, yeah, do you want to do a webinar? And so I'm texting everyone, emailing everybody I know and starting doing these things. And so I get back home and literally this is how we launch ClickFunnels. So I do a webinar.

It's the first, I do the webinar. Right when we get home to somebody's list and it did great. And this is one of the lessons I want to give you that hopefully, separate from what I've been teaching you about this framework here in a second. But the first lesson I want you to understand is like I did the webinar presentation actually

even one step further um as I was leaving the hotel lobby to before I flew home I'm leaving I met someone in the lobby and they're like oh your presentation was so good I wish I could have bought it but the problem is I don't run a supplement company um I'm a coach so I can't use click funnels what are you talking about she's like well your case study shows us supplements and I don't have a supplement company I'm a coach I can't use click funnels I'm a coach, so I can't use ClickFunnels. I'm like, what are you talking about? She's like, well, your case study shows us supplements, and I don't have a supplement company. I'm a coach, so I can't use ClickFunnels. I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, I'm a coach, too.

I have coaching. I have courses. I have projects. You can use ClickFunnels for that. She's like, are you serious? Like, I had no idea. I thought I had a supplement company for Twerk. I'm like, what am I doing?

So she ran back in, grabbed two of her order forms, grabbed two of her friends that came out, and they all signed up while I'm leaving the lobby. And so I realized in my head, like, my presentation only showed supplement funnels. I should show other funnels. So as I'm flying, I'm editing my slides and like, okay, let me show a coaching funnel and a network marketing funnel. And so I'm like tweaking the presentation, right? So when I get home to Boise, I do the very first webinar

live someone's list. I can't remember. We had like 500 people registered. I did the webinar and man, it's been eight years. I don't remember the numbers perfectly, but it was something like we made 30 or $40,000 in the webinar, which was great. What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson. I've got something really cool for you today from my friend, Taylor Wells. 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. Today, he decided to sponsor the podcast to give you guys more access to this super cool

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test for yourself and for your team. And I promise you, it'll change the working dynamics amongst everybody and help your company to grow. And then I had another webinar that was queued up for like four hours later. So the first thing we did is after the webinar is over, I looked at all the questions from go to webinar. We took the questions out and I started reading them. I was like, oh my gosh, on slide 10, everyone's asking the same question like over and over again. So I went back and I edited slide 10 to answer that question. I came down like, oh, on slide 32, they're asking this question. Oh, in the pitch, they're confused about this. And so I spent two or three hours tweaking my slides, getting everything done. And then again, three or four hours later, we had the next webinar and almost the same size. I think

it was like, I think it might've been even less people, like 450, 500 people had registered and you know, 250, whatever showed up. We did the presentation. And the second time it did a hundred thousand dollars in sales. I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. So then I took that same presentation, went through it again, pulled out the question, went through it again, kept tweaking, tweaking, tweaking. And I ended up doing that presentation. I did it anywhere from one to five times a week live for over a year.

I think it was like 70 or 80 times I did that presentation live. And every single time I did it live, export the questions, tweak the slides. Export a question, tweak the slides. I didn't do it most of the way, which is like, I did a webinar, Good. I'm going to automate it. Like I wanted to master this presentation. I got better and better and better and better and better and

better. In fact, my hard drive, my computer, every time I would do the presentation, I would, I would take it. I would save that one. And then my next webinar, I would resave it. I have the date on top of it. And then I would go and I would export questions and redo it. So I have a folder on my computer, which has like 80, whatever versions of that webinar, everyone redone, redone, redone, little tweaks, changes, tweak changes. And over time, that presentation became perfect, right? I knew that if I was, um, on a live webinar, I would close 15% every single time. If I was in a room, it'd be 45 to 50% of people in the room would close every single time. Like just cause we'd done it so many times. And so for those of us who are doing presentations and webinars, like understanding, like that's the magic, like,

like doing the presentation and doing it again and doing it again and doing it again and crafting and perfecting it. Because if I would have perfected it at 8%, ClickFunnels would have done well. But if I perfected it at 15%, 16%, right, I mean twice as much sales for the same amount of traffic, it changes all the metrics. Everything changes, right? And then I did it for over a year before we ever automated and ever greened it. So there's a couple Russellisms I want to share with you guys before I get into the actual framework. Cause I think those are key things to understand. Like this is the learnable skill. You got to practice it. You got to get better. You got to understand

presentations, like the psychology, how to actually craft them. And then also it's doing it and then doing it again and doing it again and doing it again. But if you get one webinar that works, um, that'll change your life forever, right? That one webinar went from us having this ClickFunnels thing. We were at the bottom of our business. We were making home hardly any money at the time. We'd put everything into this, developing the software that wasn't selling when we first launched it. Got one correct webinar pitch, and it changed the world, changed us forever, right? Next year, we will pass a billion dollars in sales from that one, from ClickFunnels,

which is crazy. We haven't been in business 10 years yet. We'll pass a billion dollars in sales all off the back of this one webinar. So that's the power of what webinars can do for you, okay? But today, what I want to talk about is, again, I want to share something unique. I know you have a lot of people talking about a lot of different pieces of the webinar. I'm like, what's the piece I can bring that's different than anything else? And so if we can zoom out real quick, this is the framework we developed. It's called the

linchpin. And so I'm going to talk about this framework. I'm not going to go through all of it. There's a lot of pieces, but I'm talking about the two or three pieces that were the big needle driver. This is the difference between ClickFunnels being a $20 million a year company and a $200 million a year company was understanding a couple of little pieces here. Now, most of you guys are doing all these things right now anyway. Some of you guys already are doing virtual events. Some of you guys are doing webinars. Some of you guys are doing challenges. Some of you guys are doing all these things right now anyway. Some of you guys already are doing virtual events. Some of you guys are doing webinars. Some of you guys are doing challenges. Some of you guys have continuity. But if you look through the things, if you look through your business through the lens

I'm going to share with you, a couple of things are going to be uncomfortable because I'm like, but I do it this way, but I do it this way. I'm already doing this this way. It's going to be a little uncomfortable. But these are the shifts and the changes. If you are willing to make these changes, it will exponentially grow your business. Okay, so the reason why we're still able to outspend all of our competitors, even people have literally gotten hundreds of millions of dollars of VC capital because of this framework right here and how it all works. Okay. So again, I call it

the linchpin. There's something I only work on right now. We only work on with people inside of my inner circle and my high end coaching programs. Eventually we have a book coming out and some other stuff, but this is the first time I really shared it publicly outside of just in my world. And so I'm hoping that you guys grasp this. Again, there's going to be some things that it's going to take some of the conventional wisdom and things you're used to and kind of flip them on their head. So I want you to, for a minute, to say no. Instead of saying no, Russell, no, Russell, I want you to say what if. What if Russell's not crazy? What if Russell built a $200 million-a-year company off of the back of one webinar?

Maybe he knows one or two things. Trust him, okay? So that's the kind of game plan. So there's two core principles that we have to kind of lead with for this whole thing to make sense, okay? Principle number one. This is something I learned from David Fry, who's one of my friends and mentors, one of the smartest guys in our industry. David Fry said something really powerful one time. He said, if you don't have continuity, then you don't have a business.

Okay, that's going to hit hard for some of you guys. Some of you guys are like, I have webinars. I make $100,000 a month of webinars. Do you have continuity? No, you don't have a business. Okay, that's getting hard for some of you guys. Some of you guys are like, I have webinars. I make $100,000 a month webinars. Do you have continuity? No, you don't have a business. You have a promotion, which is great. That promotion is amazing. You make $100,000 every single time you do it, which is awesome. But if you don't have continuity, you don't have a business. Okay? Now, I didn't understand this. I was just like you for a long time. I was really good at webinars. So I'd go to an event. I'd speak on stage. I'd do a webinar. I'd make a bunch of money. I'd take three months off. Like I, like I get it. Like that was the world that we lived in. Right. But Dave Fry said this, if you don't have continuity, you don't

have a business. And for me, that was really hard. I didn't understand it until I started building ClickFunnels. Okay. When I started building ClickFunnels, everything I did, um, you guys heard of like the, the principle of compounding interest, or I think it was Einstein said it's like the eighth one in the world. Compounding interest is great, but what's even better than compounding interest is compounding continuity. Okay. This is the key. When you start shifting and you start building out your business inside what this linchpin model, I'm going to share with you guys, every single thing you're doing, every webinar, every challenge, every live event, every time you go live, every, uh, everything is all compounding your continuity program. Okay. And the time I

really got this launch, click ClickFunnels, started growing, and it was interesting because, like, our continuity, you know, you guys have the Stripe app on your phone. Every morning you wake up and, like, Stripe pops up, and it's, like, how much money you made the night before or how much money you made that morning, whatever it is, right? It pops up every single day. It's the greatest thing in the world.

Like, I remember when ClickFunnels came out, I remember it first started popping up. I was like, I made $1,000 today. I haven't even got out of bed yet. This is amazing, right? But then we kept doing this process, playing this playbook, kept adding more people to continuity, and that continuity number started growing.

Went from $1,000 a day to $5,000 a day, from $5,000 a day to $10,000 a day, $10,000 to $50,000, $50,000 to $100,000, $100,000 to $150,000, $150,000 to $300,000, right? And like every morning waking up, I'm like, I have not gotten out of bed yet. We already made $350,000 today. Like that's the power, okay? Like having a promotion is great. A whole bunch of money goes away, but compounding

continuity is the key. This is how you actually have a business. So number one thing I want you to think about is whatever it is you are selling, don't sell a course or product one time. Create something that's actually continuity. Okay. And we're doing this now. I'll show you some examples. We're doing this with Dan Kennedy's company. We're doing it with our company. It doesn't matter. It can be software, it can be info products, it can be supplements. Like I'm doing it in all those industries, but the core fundamental principle in our business is if we don't have continuity, we don't have a business. Okay. That's the first thing to understand. So if you look at the linchpin model right here, down here in this corner, this is continuity. So everything we have is leading

to this. Everything is compounding continuity. The front end traffic, the challenges, the webinars, the live events, everything's goal. The only goal is to get more and more people into continuity. That's it. Okay. So that's the first premise for you to understand. I promise you guys, this is why most people get wrong. Like they, at the end of their present, so that I hear is a challenge webinar. So your challenge webinar, then if you say a thousand or 2000 or $5,000 course, make a bunch of money and then it goes away. Okay. Instead we're going to, I'm going to talk about this a minute, but how we shift our offers. So everything's continuity and that will change everything in your business. Okay. So premise number one is if you don't have continuity, you don't have a business. Premise number two is we have to move the S L O. S L O

stands for self liquidating offer. Okay. Now most of you guys in this room, I'm sure understand what a self-liquidating offer is. And so I'm gonna show you guys what, um, what traditionally happens for most, uh, most people in the webinar business, right? In fact, this is what, um, when we first launched ClickFunnels, when I first did the first five or six webinars, this is exactly what we did. Okay. So what would happen is we would drive traffic to a webinar registration page, right? So here's the registration page. People email in here, they submit. And then from there, we would take them to a thank you page, right? So register the register webinar. Thank you page. Thank you for registering webinar. I hope you enjoy it.

Here's the date and time, right? And then you put in a special offer right here, which is, again, we call it SLO, a self-liquidating offer, so we might have something where it's like a $17 e-book or a $27 video or whatever, we have some like self-liquidating offer, okay, so what people do is they go and you spend some money over here with Zuckerberg, right, you spend, let's say you spend $100 in ads. From that, you get 10 people to register. And then from that, you get three people to buy the self-liquidating offer.

And hopefully, we call it self-liquidating offer because hopefully you make that $100 back. And that way, you get all the registrants for free. That's the goal traditionally with a self-liquidating offer, right? Okay, and then from there, then the webinar happens. So you do the actual webinar.

And the end of the webinar, you sell something, right? You sell your $1,000, your $2,000, your $5,000 course, whatever it is. And this is where most of you guys actually end up making your money. All right? So let's just say, for numbers' sake, I'm going to say $1,000. Okay? You can sell it, obviously, for everyone. But let's say this is where you sell your product, and that becomes your $1,000 offer.

Okay? So that's what, when we launched ClickFunnels, initially, that's exactly what we did. That was the, that was the play. And so we drive traffic, people register, they keep age. We sell whatever it was. I can't remember. It was a 17, 18, $20 product. Try to cover our ad costs. I do the webinar. I sell the thing at the end. And at first it worked the first four or five webinars. Like I'm doing this, making, you know, again, 30 grand first, 100 grand next one, next one, you know, 50 grand webinar after webinar. I'm like, I'm in my element, I'm running, I'm doing my webinars, and I wouldn't have changed anything, but luckily for me, I have a business partner who's way smarter than me, somebody who has no Todd Dickerson, Todd's the one who built ClickFunnels initially,

and Todd was like, I didn't get in the software business to get back in the webinar business, I'm like, but what, dude, we're killing, we're making tons of money, he's like, yeah, but all that money is just one-off sales, right? If we don't have continuity, we don't have a business. And Todd was like, I didn't get in the software business to get back in the product launch business. We're launching, you know, like when Russell does something, we make money,

but otherwise we don't. He's like, I need, like, the whole purpose of this was recurring income. And I was like, well, at the end of, you know, like we were giving people a year's access, a year access to ClickFunnels. So like in 12 months from now, they'll start getting billed the $97 a month,

whatever it was at the time. So like there'll be continuity, but not for a year's access, year access to ClickFunnels. So in 12 months from now, they'll start getting billed the $97 a month, whatever it was at the time. So there'll be continuity, but not for a year from now. It's like, we need continuity now. That's the whole reason why we started a software company. And so then Todd had this brilliant idea. And it's so simple. It's so dumb. It's so easy. But this is the difference. This is what I want to show you. I hope you guys understand here in this linchpin model. At Wealthsimple, we're built for whatever you're building. Built for Jane, who wants to break into the housing market. We're built for Ted, who's obsessed with what's happening in the global markets. And built for Celine, who just wants to retire and explore the world's flea markets. So take a moment and think about what you're building for. We've got the financial tools to help make it happen.

Wealthsimple. Built for possibilities. Visit wealthsimple.com slash possibilities. With Smartwater's pure, crisp taste, there's nothing to overthink. So while you may be spiraling over double-texting your crush, whether your skincare routine is working because you look the same or is doing nothing because you look the same or is doing nothing because you look the same and whatever the heck red light therapy is, it's definitely not that. Don't overthink how you hydrate. Life's full of choices. Smart water is a simple one.

What Todd's big idea was like, what if instead of having our self-liquidating offer here, we got rid of that. And on the thank you page, we gave people a trial to our continuity program. Okay. Really, really simple. And so we did that. And at first it was weird because people registered to pay the thing, they get a trial, but we didn't make any money right out of the gate, right? But they had a 30-day trial, 30-day. And the end of 30 days, then they started getting billed the $97 a month, right? And so we started doing that.

We started shifting. What was cool is people registered webinar. From here, we get a bunch of people that would sign for the free trial. Then the webinar would happen. At the end of it, I would sell this course that we'd bundle with 12 months worth of ClickFunnels. And that was kind of the process. And so we ran that playbook for a year, okay?

Now, I want to show you guys the numbers in a year because at first, I didn't really get the impact of it until we were a year of the process. And so we ran that playbook for a year. Okay, now I'm going to show you guys the numbers in a year because at first I didn't really get the impact of it until we were a year into business. So ClickFunnels was in business for a year. At the end of the year, a couple of cool things happened. Number one, we had 2,500 people that had bought this, right? So 2,500 people times 1,000 equals what? You guys know the math, right?

Business math is easy, 2.5 million. And that's a huge success. Most of you are like, you did $2.5 million in sales your first year? That's crazy, right? In our world, we give away two comic club. That's two and a half, two comic club awards. Like, this is amazing, okay? But what you would have missed is a couple things.

We had 2,500 people who bought the thing. But what's crazy is from this trial, fast forward 365 days from that, we actually had 7,500 people who stuck on continuity. So after the cancel, refunds, all kinds of stuff, 7,500 people stuck on continuity. Okay. 7,500 times $97. I'm going to write a hundred because it's easier for my math brain. $750,000 a month in recurring income times that by 12 months equals $9 million. What? Wait, what? The SLO trial thing made you $9 million?

Most people are missing the $9 million because they're so focused on the $2 million. Okay? Now, what I mean by moving the SLO, moving the self-liquidating offer, we start looking at our business different. We start saying, this $1,000 is not our business. For most of you guys, that is your business right now. The thing you sell at the end of the webinar is your business. For me, it's not. This is my self-liquidating offer, okay? This $2.5 million, I did not pocket any of that. We took that $2.5 million and we dumped it back into ads over here, okay? So the 2.5 got dumped into ads and kept growing and kept growing.

Everyone kept falling here in the trial. And this became what we call compounding continuity. Kept growing and growing and growing, getting bigger and getting bigger and getting bigger and getting bigger. You guys getting this? Okay. So these two little tiny shifts, two little shifts, and they're not difficult, but it's the shift in mindset. Number one, you have to understand you're not in the course business, not in the software, but again, the continuity business for this model to work, you have to understand. So you have to change it. Okay. Change it from whatever you're selling for. Like I'm selling a thousand dollar course to I am selling a continuity program and it's, it's a thousand dollars a year. It's a hundred dollars,

whatever it is, like it's shifting your business. Understand that the thing you were selling is always continuity. Everything else is just appendages to that. And number two is you moving the self-liquidating offer from the thank you page to the thing that you think is your business right now will become your self-liquidating offer. Okay. Dan Kennedy, my number one mentor in this business, he always says, whoever can spend the most money to acquire a customer wins. The reason why I can beat everybody else is because the thing that everyone else is their business. I dump 100% of that back into advertising and it brings people back through. And the continuity is the key.

Okay? So those are the two caveats that we got to kind of get out the door initially for this whole model to make sense. Is that cool? You guys getting it so far? All right, everyone. That's part one. I hope you enjoyed it so far.

Hopefully you're seeing like, oh, this is why Russell's so excited. This is, you know, compounding continuity. Like that's the goal. Like this is gonna be so exciting. So hopefully you enjoyed part number one. Again, on part number two, next episode, we're gonna go into the three simple keys you need to actually start building out your linchpin.

And so far, those who saw this presentation, especially my internal team who have seen me talk about the linchpin a lot, they said that this is the simplest and the clearest way I've ever taught it before. So it should, if you've been struggling to understand, this should help clear up a lot of things for you and make this even more simple for you. So with that said though, if you're starting to see where I'm going here and why it's so important, again, we're spending four days together in Orlando, Florida in a couple months with the entire Funnel Hacking community going

deep on the linchpin at this year's Funnel Hacking Live event. So if you don't even take it yet, now is the time. Go to funnelhackinglive.com. It's going to be an amazing experience and I want you there. All right, that's it. Thanks so much, you guys. And we'll see you on the next episode.