Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Need A Procrastination Hack?

Episode Date: April 26, 2021

Here’s a trick to help you get more stuff done. Hit me up on IG! @russellbrunson Text Me! 208-231-3797 Join my newsletter at marketingsecrets.com ---Transcript--- What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Today, I am streaming from you, from the top of Boise. Literally, I'm in the penthouse looking over Boise. And this is where I come when I am writing. And I don't know about you, but when I have big projects, sometimes my mind tries to do everything possible to make sure I don't do the thing. And so, I want to talk about that today, what I'm doing, some of my thoughts and some of my struggles. And hopefully it'll make you guys realize that you're probably just like me. All right. Hopefully this helps get you guys to get more stuff done. And with that said, we'll cue the theme song and then I'll be right back. All right. So, the last time I was doing this, I was in this penthouse. I was writing the Traffic Secrets book, which is crazy. And I would come up here for multiple days at a time. I'd lock myself in here and I would just write like crazy. And right now, I'm finding myself under similar deadlines. I thought with this book, I was going to have one more time. So, those who already know, I'm writing book number four. This is my first personal development book ever. I'm really excited for it. It's everything I've learned in the last 20 years put into doodles. So, if you like my doodles, hopefully it'll help make all these things make more sense to you. So, I'm excited for it. But I found, and I wonder if ... I think we're all this way. I definitely know I am. But when I have something I need to do, right? Even if it sounds cool at the time and I'm excited about it, my brain ... As I start doing the thing, my brain's Like, "Ah, this is painful. I wish we were watching TV. We should be eating candy. We should be doing something else." Right? And so, as I sit down to start typing, I get energy, excitement. I sit down and as soon as I start typing, my brain's freaking out, looking for anything possible. Like, "Ah, there's a TV. Ah, there’s outside. A bird just flew by. Oh, your phone's ringing. Oh, you should turn on some music. Oh, you should check your email. What happens if Facebook, somebody dings you? What if someone texts you?" All the things, every possible distraction my brain starts screaming at me, like bloody murder, trying to get me to not do the one thing that I got to actually do. So, my first question is, do you guys feel that way ever? Do you have something you're like, "This is so important, I must do it." But you have some kind of pain associated with it in your mind. So, as you start getting closer and closer to actually doing the thing that you need to do, man, it's like everything possible around you starts flying around, trying to stop you from doing the thing. If so, you are in good company because it happens to me too. And so, I'm going to share some things that have helped me. And again, I am so far from perfect. I'm in the middle of this right now. I literally recorded this podcast and my brain's like, "Oh, you should record a podcast. That'd be way less painful than actually writing." So, I'm literally being a bad example by doing this podcast, but hopefully it'll help get me back to work as well. So, a couple of things I found. When I have to get something done, if I'm in my ordinary situation, right? If I'm at my office or if I'm at my house, somewhere where I'm there a lot, I know what the distractions are, right? I know that my wife's outside or my kids are outside. I know where the TVs are. I know ... It's so familiar, I know quickly every single distraction. I’m at the office. If I’m at the office, there's a million people I can talk to. There's always something I can do to not do my job, right? There's something exciting I can share with Dave, or I can go talk to Brent, or I can tell Melanie something. There's always something that I can do to distract me from doing the thing that I got to actually do. And so, because of that I'm in this space and I'm used to those interruptions, or I'm used to things. And on top of that, people see me, like, "Oh, Russell's here. Let me ask him a quick question." Right? It pulls you and derails you off this thing. And so, a big part of it, for me, is I have to literally shift my environment. This is why I flew ... Not flew. I drove down to the penthouse, I'm here and I'm by myself. It's lonely. There's nobody else here. It's just me and my thoughts. And so, first off, it cuts off 10 levels of potential distractions. Okay? So, that's the first step. The second step is, for me, I have to find rewards of things I want. Like, "I want to listen to this thing. I want to watch this show, or I want to eat this thing or whatever." And I have to have those things and I cannot give those to myself, right? These have to be the carrot to get me to actually do something, right? So for me, for example, is 11:00 right now, I'm starving. I want to eat breakfast this morning and I said, "If I eat breakfast right now, then I'm going to feel really good. And I'm going to go ... I'll just ... " There's no carrot. So I was like, "Okay, I'm going to eat, but I can't eat until this chapter's done." And then my brain's like, "But the chapter, it could be really long," and all the things. I'm like, "I know, but if you're hungry, you got to figure this out." And so, I was like, "Ah." And so, finally, I sat down ... And at least for me with writing, it takes a minute for me to get into flow state, right? Sometimes it takes 20, 30, 40, an hour for me to be able to get to the spot where I'm writing, right? I'm thinking, I'm analyzing, I'm trying to think about stuff, I'm researching. I'm trying to find stuff. And then I start writing and then I can get into the zone. And then it's like, "Okay, now I'm in the zone." So, then I start writing as fast as I can, right? And I'll be like, "Okay. As soon as I get to the end of this, I get my reward. I get to go eat lunch or breakfast or whatever it is and I'm so excited." So, I'm writing, I'm writing. I'm going as fast as I can. And I'm in momentum now, right? So, that's the next thing, it's like tricking yourself with these carrots to get you into momentum, right? And then when you're in momentum ... I can't remember who it was, some writer that I was following said this, and it was really, really cool. He said that if you end your writing ... If you end at the end of a chapter, then it's this is ending point, right? And then the problem's like, "Oh, I'm done." Then you go and you do your thing and you reward yourself. Then you come back and you're like, "Ah, how do I get back into this?" Right? Into the next chapter, the next project, the next video, whatever it is. And so, it's starting all over again. So what they recommended was when you get to the end of something, you don't stop, you start the next chapter, right? You write the first three or four paragraphs where there's still momentum, where things are happening. And then when you stop, it's like, "Oh, I know where I left off. I can pick up a lot faster than going through that whole exercise of spending 45 minutes to an hour trying to figure out what you're going to talk about and get your mindset back right. And getting into the spot." Right? So, you're starting the next part of the process, the next part of the project and you get part of it done, so that brainstorming session you had was ... Happened while you're in momentum, it's going to be faster and then you can pick up faster when you come back from eating breakfast, or your activity, or whatever the thing is that you reward yourself with. So, that's kind of cool as well. So, those are some of the core things I'm working on right now. So, literally I just finished the chapter. I got the next intro written and now I'm like, "maybe I can come eat." And then I'm like, "I'm going to reward myself by doing a podcast real quick and eating." And all these little things real quick, knowing though that I got to be back up in 20 minutes and I got to pick up where I left off and I got to do another two hour sprint to get to the next chapter, because I have my next reward after that. And then I've got one more tonight and then I'm done and I'm going to head back home and go be with the kids, which is the ultimate reward. So anyway, there's some tricks. Again, it's not a flawless system. It's not perfect. I'm still struggling, but they're some of the things that are helping me. And so, I think for any of you guys who are like me, who have the ADD, like, "Squirrel, there's a squirrel over here. No, right here and over here." These are some tricks that will help you actually get your projects done. Change your environment, get away from your normal world, right? Some people will go to a Starbucks. They'll go to a library, or they go to the park bench. If that's what it takes, go there, right? Some people come in early in the day. They come out late at night, when everyone's asleep or whatever. Figure out what it is that you need to go to be able to do that is number one. Number two, get yourself into momentum, right? As quick as you can. When you're in momentum, you're going to get more stuff done. And when you're in momentum, keep working through it, right? Oh, and give yourself treats, or prizes, or something at the end of a momentum session to make sure that you actually get to it. And then again, don't end on the end of a chapter or the end of the project. Start the next ones, so that way you're able to keep moving forward. So, there you go. Hope that helps. With that said, I'm going to pound my breakfast real quick and get back to work on this book so someday, hopefully you guys have a chance to read it. So, that's my goal. That's my plan. I appreciate you all for listening and we'll talk to you all again soon. Bye, everybody. 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 am streaming from you from the top of Boise. Literally, I'm in a penthouse looking over Boise. And this is where I come when I am writing. And I don't know about you, but when I have big projects, sometimes my mind tries to do everything possible to make sure I don't do the thing. And so I'll talk about that today, what I'm doing, some of my thoughts, and some of my thoughts, and some of my struggles, and hopefully it'll make you guys realize that you're probably just like me.

So, all right, hopefully this helps get you guys to get more stuff done. And with that said, we'll cue the theme song, and then I'll be right back. So the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us, who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, who are spending money from our own pockets, how do we market in a way that lets us this. How are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, we're spending

money from our own pockets. How do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world and yet still remain profitable? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Russell Brunson, and welcome to Marketing Secrets. Alright, so last time I was doing this, I was in this penthouse, I was writing the Traffic Secrets book, which is crazy. And I would come up here for multiple days at a time, I'd lock myself in here and I would just write like crazy. And right now I'm finding myself under similar deadlines.

I thought that this book I was going to have more time. So those who don't know, I'm writing book number four. This is my first personal development book ever. I'm really excited for it. It's like everything I've learned in the last 20 years, like put into doodles. So if you like my doodles, hopefully it'll help make all these things make more sense to you. So I'm excited for it.

But I found, and I wonder if, I think we're all this way. I definitely know I am, but when I, and I wonder if I think we're all this way. I definitely know I am, but when I have something I need to do, right? Even if it sounds cool at the time and I'm excited about it, um, my brains, I start doing the thing. My brain's like, Oh, this is painful. I wish we were watching TV. We should be eating candy. We should be doing something else. Right? And so as I sit down, like start typing, I get energy, excitement, sit down. As soon as I start typing, my brain's like, it's like freaking out looking for anything possible. Like, uh, there's a TV, uh, they're outside. A bird just flew by. Oh, your phone's ringing. Oh, did you just turn on some music? Oh,

you should check your email. What happens if Facebook, what happens if Facebook, somebody bings you? What if someone texts you? Like all the things, like every possible distraction, my brain starts screaming at me like bloody murder, trying to get me to not do the one thing that I got to actually do. So my first question is, do you guys feel that way ever? Do you have something like, this is so important, I must do it. And it is, but you have some kind of pain associated with it in your mind. So as you, as you start getting closer and closer to actually doing the thing that you need to do, man, it's like, it's like everything possible around you starts flying around trying to stop you from doing the thing. Um, if so you are in good company because it happens to me too.

And so I'm going to share some things that have helped me. And again, I am so far from perfect. I'm in the middle of this right now. I literally recorded this podcast and my brain's like, Oh, you should record a podcast. That'd be way less painful than actually writing. So I'm literally like being a bad example by doing this podcast, but I'm hopefully it'll help get me back to work as well. So, um, a couple of things I found, like when I, um, when I have to get something done, if I'm in my ordinary like situation, right? Like I'm, if I'm at my office or if I'm at my house somewhere, I'm at them there a lot. I know what the distractions are, right? I know that, um, you know, my wife's outside and my kids are

outside. I know, I know like where the TV's at. I know like, it's just, it's so familiar. Like I know quickly every single distraction. Same with the office. If I'm at the office, there's a million people I can talk to. There's always something I can do to not do my job. Right. Um, there's something exciting I can share with Dave or I can go talk to Brent or I can, you know, tell Melanie something, or there's always something that I can do to distract me from doing the things I got to actually do. And so because of that, I'm in the space and I'm used to like those interruptions or I'm used to things. And on top of that, there's people will see me like, Oh, Russell's here. Let me ask him a quick question.

Right. It pulls you derails you off this thing. Um, and so a big part of it is like, for me, is I had to literally shift my environment. This is why I flew, not flew. I drove down to the penthouse. I'm here and I'm by myself. It's lonely. There's nobody else here. It's just me and my thoughts. And so first off, it cuts off like 10 levels of, of potential distractions. Okay. So that's the first step. The second step is, um, like for me, I have to, I have to find, like I have to find rewards of things I want. Like I want to listen to this thing or watch this show or I want to eat this thing or whatever. And I have to have those things and I cannot give those to myself. All right.

These have to be the carrot to get me to actually do something. Right. So for me, for example, it is 11 o'clock right now. I'm starving. I wanted breakfast this morning. And I said, if I eat breakfast right now, that would feel really good. And I'm going to go like, you know, I'll just like, there's no carrot. So I was like, okay, I'm going to eat, but I can't eat until this chapter is done.

And then my brain's like, but the chapter, like, it could be really long and all the things. I'm like, I know, but if you're hungry, you got to figure this out. And so I was like, ah. And so finally I sat down and at least for me with writing, it takes a minute for me to get into flow state, right? Like it's going to take 20, 30, 40, you know, an hour for me to be able to get to the spot where I'm writing, right? I'm thinking, I'm analyzing, I'm trying to think about stuff, I'm researching, I'm trying to find stuff. And then I start writing and then I can get into the zone. And then it's like, okay, now I'm in the zone. So I start writing as fast as I can, right?

And I'm like, okay, as soon as I get to the end of this, I get my reward. I get to go eat lunch, you know, or breakfast or whatever it is. I'm so excited. I'm writing, I'm writing, I'm going as fast as I can. And I'm in momentum now, right? Because that's the next thing is like tricking yourself with these carrots to get you into momentum, right? And then when you're in momentum, I can't remember who it was, some writer that I was following said this, and it's really, really cool.

He said that if you end your writing, like if you end at the end of a chapter, then it's like this ending point, right? And then the problem is like, ah, I'm done. And then you go and you do your thing, you reward yourself, and then you come back and you're like, oh, like how do I get back into this, right. I got to do the next chapter, the next project, the next video,

whatever it is. Um, and so it's like starting all over again. So what they recommended was like, when you get to the end of something, you don't stop, you start the next chapter, right? You write first three or four paragraphs. So you're still momentum where things are happening. And then when you stop, it's like, oh, I know where I left off. I can pick up a lot faster than going through that whole exercise of spending 45 minutes to an hour trying to figure out what we're going to talk about and get your mindset back right and getting into the spot right. So you're starting the next part of the process, the next part of the project, and getting part of it done so that that brainstorming session you had happened while you were in momentum. It's going to be faster, and then you can pick up faster when you come back

from eating breakfast or your activity or whatever the thing is that you're in momentum. It's going to be faster. And then you can pick up faster when you come back from eating breakfast or your activity or whatever the thing is that you reward yourself with. So that's kind of cool as well. Um, uh, so those are the, you know, those are some of the, the, the core things, um, I'm working on right now. So, um, literally I just finished the chapter. I got the next intro written and now I'm like, Hey, I can come eat. And then I'm like, I'm going to reward myself, reward myself by doing a podcast real quick and eating and you know, all these

little things real quick. Um, knowing though that I gotta be back up in, you know, like 20 minutes and I got to pick up where I left off. I got to do another two hour sprint to get to the next chapter. Um, because I have my next award reward after that. And then I've got one more tonight and then I'm done. I'm going to head back home and go beat the kids, which is the ultimate reward. So, uh, anyway, there's some tricks again. It's not flawless system and then I'm done. I'm going to head back home and go beat the kids, which is the ultimate reward. So anyway, there's some tricks. Again, it's not flawless system. It's not perfect. I'm still struggling, but there's some of the things that are helping me.

And so I think for any of you guys who are like me, who have the ADD, like squirrel, there's a squirrel over here and over here and over here, you know, these are some tricks that will help you to actually get your projects done. Change your environment. Get away from your normal world, right? Some people go to a Starbucks, they go to a library, they go to the park bench. If that's what it takes, go there, right? Some people come in early in the day, they come out late at night, you know, when everyone's asleep or whatever, right? Figure out where it is that you need to go to be able to do that.

Number one. Number two, get yourself into momentum, right? As quick as you can. When you're in momentum, you're going to get more stuff done, and when you're in momentum, keep working through it, right? Um, oh, and give yourself treats or prizes or something at the end of a momentum session to make sure that you actually get to it. And then again, don't, don't end at the end of the chapter or the end of the project, like start the next ones. That way you're, you're able to keep moving forward. So there you go. Hope that helps. That said, I'm going to power my breakfast real quick and get back to work on this book. So someday, hopefully you guys have a chance to read it. So that's my goal.

That's my plan. I appreciate y'all for listening. And we'll talk to you guys all again soon. Bye, everybody. Hey, everybody, this is Russell again. And really quick, I just opened up a texting community, which means you can text me your questions. And right now I'm spending anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes every single day answering questions through text message to

people who are on the podcast. And so I wanted you to stop everything you're doing, pull your phone out and actually text me a message. Okay. Now the phone number you need to text is 208-231-3797. Once again, it's 208-231-3797. When you text me, just say hello and then what's going to happen is they'll add you to my phone and then they'll send you back a message where you can add me to your phone and then we can start having conversations. On top of that, through this texting community is where I'm going to be giving out free swag, giving away free copies of my book, let you know about book signings, about times I'm coming to your local area and a whole bunch more.

I just want to make sure you are on this list. On top of that, every single day, I'm sending out my favorite quotes, my favorite frameworks and things you can get for free only through my texting platform. So what you need to do right now is pull out your phone and text me at area code 208-231-3797. One more time, that's 208-231-3797.

I can't wait to hear from you right now.