Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - What Is A Funnel Hacker?

Episode Date: February 10, 2020

You are an entrepreneur by birth, but you are a funnel hacker by choice... On this episode during Russell's first presentation at Funnel Hacking Live, he talks about what it means to be a funnel hacker. Here are some of the awesome things in this episode: Find out what the difference is between a regular entrepreneur and a Funnel Hacker. Hear an emotional story about how entrepreneurs can change people's lives when they are super passionate about their art.. And find out what mantra Russell and Clickfunnels are going to push for the next 12 months, and why it matters. So listen here to the first part of Russell's first presentation from this year's Funnel Hacking Live, about what it means to be a Funnel Hacker. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/283-what-is-a-funnel-hacker 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's episode is streaming to you from beautiful Puerto Rico, where I'm taking a much-needed vacation slash mastermind retreat and break after Fun Hiking Live. But I wanted to do a couple special episodes while I'm out of pocket, out of the country. I think I'm technically still in the country, but you know what I mean. Out of the States to share with you some of the highlights from Fun Hiking Live. Obviously, I'm not going to, out of the, uh, out of the States, um, to share with you some of the highlights from Funnel Hacking Live. Um, obviously I'm not going to post all of the audios from all the presentations here.

Um, but there were some key ones that I really did want to share with you guys. So, um, in fact, some of my keynote presentation from the opening day, which I'm really proud of that I want to get into the mindset of all of our funnel hackers. Um, I'm going to share with you guys right now. So the next probably three or four episodes will be parts of my funnel hacking live presentations. But the first one, um, when I kicked off the, uh, the presentation, I wanted to talk for a little bit about what a funnel hacker is like, what makes you a funnel hacker? In fact, we gave everybody at the event at funnel hacking live t-shirts that on the front said entrepreneur by choice, but funnel hacker by birth. So what

is a funnel hacker? Excuse me, flip that around. Entrepreneur by birth, funnel hacker by choice. That makes way more sense. So, you know, you're born as an entrepreneur, but you chose to be a funnel hacker. So what does that actually mean? What did you choose to be part of? Like, why do you listen to me? Why do you come to our events? Why do you use ClickFunnels? Like what is the difference between a typical traditional entrepreneur and a funnel hacker? And that was kind of this, um, that my opening, um, kind of how I kicked off the event. So, um, I'm having my brother grab that part of the audio and post it here for you guys to listen to. And hopefully it helps you guys to understand a little more about the community, about who you are, why you are here, why you're different, why a funnel hacker is different from a traditional entrepreneur and why that matters. So with that said, I'm cute,

but theme song, we come back. Um, you guys have a chance to listen to part of my keynote presentation from funnel hacking live 2020. So the big question is this, how are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital. We're spending money from our own pockets. How do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world, and yet still remain profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Russell Brunson, and welcome to Marketing Secrets. We gave everybody who came today, either last night or today when you guys registered, we gave you guys all a t-shirt.

And the quote on the front of the t-shirt, it says, entrepreneur by birth, entrepreneur by birth, and funnel hacker by choice. And this is something, it was interesting, I was actually at a wrestling tournament with my kids, and I was watching my kids, I was coaching, and I saw somebody had a shirt on that said, it said athlete by choice, excuse me, athlete by birth and wrestler by choice. I remember seeing that, I was like, oh my gosh, like that called to me. And I started thinking about it in this context. I said, you know, all of, all the people that come to Funnel Hacking Live, they're entrepreneurs, right? You guys were all born that way. And I'm curious for each of you, like when was it in your life that you were sitting there and you realized that you were a little bit different? Let me, the laughs tell me I'm in the

right room. Good. Do you remember like the first time you're sitting there and you're like, I think I'm different. I think differently than all the people sitting around me in the classroom. You guys remember that? That moment? I remember sitting in class in elementary school. I'd be sitting there and the teacher would be talking and I was like, I don't understand what they're saying. I look outside, I see the kids on the playground and I was like, I just want to go out there

and create and do stuff. I'd be fidgeting in my seat and it was hard to pay attention and I struggled. I've struggled through school as a lot of entrepreneurs do. And I remember all through junior high, all through high school, and even through college, thinking I was dumb. If people ever asked me, like, hey, what are you studying? I'm like, oh, I just study wrestling. Like, I don't care about school.

And the reason why I always had that response is because I always thought I was dumb. I just assumed that I was, because I couldn't understand what the teacher was saying. I couldn't memorize the things they were telling me and regurgitate them, and I struggled on tests, and all those things were really hard for me. And it wasn't until towards the end of my college when I started learning about this world, that entrepreneurship, about what was possible, and it was like the most exciting thing in the world to me. I'm sure it's the same way for a lot of you guys, especially some of you guys who are newer, who are just kind of like starting to learn about business and starting to

feel that excitement and that joy. I remember sitting there listening to some people that I met who were starting businesses, and I hear them talk about it. And every single minute, it was like Christmas. It was so exciting. And I remember that as I would start learning things, because even up to college, I didn't think I was a reader. I didn't really like reading, but I think it was because most of the books I read weren't interesting to me. But I still remember the very first time I read a book. It was a business book, and I learned a principle. I was like, that's interesting. I took that principle, and I applied it to my business, and I saw my business grow. I was like, oh my gosh, like, that is the most exciting thing in the world. I learned something, I applied it, and I made more

money. And I was like, I want to learn something else. I read another book, and I'm like, there's three cool things. Let me try that. I tried this, this, and this. I tried it, and my business grew. And I was like, this is the most exciting thing in the world. This is like a treasure hunt every single day. And I got into reading and studying and learning and going to events because I was looking for every one of these little gold nuggets I could get that could apply to what I was doing to help what I was doing grow. And that's when I realized I wasn't dumb. I was just, I was not interested in the same things other people were. I was interested by growth, by business. It was the most exciting thing in the world for me. I think for a

lot of you guys, if you're here in this room, you're probably the same way. Am I right? Okay. You guys were born as entrepreneurs, but you're here today because of a choice you made. Okay. A lot of people hear the entrepreneurial call, the call to contributions. Alex, as Alex Sharfman calls it, we hear the call to contribution. We know that we want to do something, want to create something, want to give, we want to serve. Right. But a lot of people don't listen to that. They ignore it and they forget about it. But the fact that you guys are here in this room means you heard the call and then you made a choice. You said, look, I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to start a business. I'm going to take this idea. I'm going to take this thing. I'm going to create it. I'm going to do something different. And so while

you're an entrepreneur at birth, you are a funnel hacker by choice. That's why you guys are here with us today. We've got almost 5,000 funnel hackers in this room, which is insane. So excited to be here with you guys. So the question then is like, well, what in the world is a funnel hacker? We've got funnel hackers from all around the world. These are some of the kids in Kenya we build schools with. We bought them all funnel hacker t-shirts last time we came out. We got funnel hackers everywhere. So what is a funnel hacker? Okay, outside of like this world, people don't know what that means, right? So I want to kind of define what it means to me, and hopefully what it means to you as well we recently made a new manifesto I'm gonna kind of go through this this is

the funnel hacker manifesto I believe it's on the back of your guys's programs as well so when I talk about I'm gonna kind of break this down piece by piece so the first thing here is that the funnel hacker is a new breed of entrepreneur they're smarter leaner faster and free what's interesting about this community that's different than any other event you come to is in this bit, like, everyone is coming here with their own businesses, right? We don't put people into business. This is not a business opportunity. What this is, is you guys all have businesses. We got businesses from every, every range of the spectrum. People that have, there's dentists, there's chiropractors, there's people that are LASIK surgeons, there's people

that sell courses, there's people that do coaching people to do live events There's there's every kind of business you can dream of physical products people do in franchises Like it is insane how many businesses come into this world? The click funnels is not something that creates businesses. That's not what we do What we do is we are a tool and a training platform to help your business go faster Okay, that's what we do And so as a funnel hacker, when you come into this world, understand our goal, our mission is to help you take whatever it is you've already got.

That's your business, your job. And our job is to help you to amplify it, to make it go faster. Okay, that's the mission we have. That's what we stress about all the time. How do we do that? How do we make it so the entrepreneurs can move faster and faster and faster? And so as I was going through, it's like, well, funnel hackers, new breed of entrepreneur, like what does that actually mean?

I started thinking about it. The funnel hackers, the people that are in this room, they're not people that are like, oh yeah, I've got a business, right? How many of you guys understand that you don't just have a business, but you are insanely passionate about your business? Let's face it for that. The thing that makes you different than a typical entrepreneur or a typical business owner is that you are obsessed with your thing. Every one of you guys have your own thing, right? You have your

own business. Whatever it is you do and you're obsessed with it. You want to be the best in the world at it, okay? The dentist or the chiropractor or the small business owner who's not obsessed is not here. They're home doing the thing, okay? You guys are here because you are obsessed with it. You want to do more, okay? You're obsessed with your thing. You look at your thing as your art, okay? And some of you guys went to school for your art. Some of you guys have figured out, have learned on your own, but it's your art. How many of you guys feel like what you do, your business is your art? Yes. I feel the same way. Our business is our art. This is our creation. This is what we're doing. This is what we're giving such a huge percentage of our life to. If we don't believe in it that much,

then we're in trouble. So the first thing is that funnel hackers are obsessed with their thing. And the second thing, and this is what really differentiates you guys, is that you are also not only obsessed with your thing, you're more obsessed with the marketing of your thing. Okay? You understand that no matter how amazing your art is, if nobody sees it, then what good is it? It hasn't helped anybody, hasn't changed anybody's life.

It's because of that you come here to learn how to market your art. Okay? I can't make you guys better at what you do, but I can make you better at getting the word out about what you do. Okay, and that's what's different. That's what we do here. Okay, that's the first step. Number two, a funnel hacker believes that their business is a calling. How many of you guys feel like your business is a calling? Okay, a funnel hacker believes that their products, their services, and the messages they share have the ability to change the lives of the people that they've been called to serve. I want to tell you guys a personal story about a business owner, an entrepreneur, somebody who believed this.

This is a picture of my beautiful wife, Colette. Let's give Colette a huge round of applause. There she is. I don't know how, but I convinced her to marry me, which was the most amazing thing that ever happened in my life. What if we can move this table up a little closer? Sorry. You have to jump back to the back. This is my wife, Colette, who I'm grateful that she is here. And this is one of my favorite things about Anika Live.

She comes every year, and it's just like, it's fun to see her in this environment. So make sure you guys all get selfies with her. She hates it, and it'll be awesome. I'm just messing. So after Clint and I got married, this summer we're celebrating our 18 year anniversary, which is amazing. Thank you.

Can you imagine being married to me? It would be a nightmare. I don't know how she's done it. But a couple years after we got married, we decided that we wanted to start a family. And we were so excited about starting a family and went through the process. And after about... Yeah!

I'm so sorry. Where are we? Oh, man. This is day one. What's going to be happening by the time we're done? Anyway. We tried to get pregnant, and unfortunately, we weren't able to. And we tried for a year, year and a half, and it started to get to a point where we were really, really scared

Like what in the world are we going to do? Your whole life talked about growing up, finding your wife, getting married, having kids That's the plan, that's the process And we found out we weren't able to have kids and we started freaking out Like what are we going to do then? What's the purpose? Why are we even here? And it's a scary thing, I know that a lot of you guys have gone through this process. Some of you guys are probably in it right now, and you feel the pain of it. And I don't make light of that at all.

I remember what it felt like. I remember the pain that we were going through as a couple, especially as all the people that we knew around us, that we loved, were having kids. And it was just like, we were so excited for them on one hand, and on the other hand, it broke our heart every single time. And we didn't know what to do, and we were trying all the things, and we were reading the books and reading the online articles and all the things, trying to figure out what to do,

and nothing was working. And then I remember I was driving to the office one day, or maybe I was at the office, and Colette called me. She's like, guess who's on Oprah right now? And I'm like, I have no idea. She's like, there's this fertility doctor who's on Oprah right now talking about how they help people get pregnant. I'm like, oh, that's awesome. Like, how does it work? And he said, no, no, you don't understand. It's the doctor who lives in Boise,

Idaho. I was like, what? Like, that's where we live, right? And she's like, the doctor's in Boise, Idaho. I'm like, are you serious? Like, call him right now. Like, let's go. Let's do this thing. Let's figure it out. So she hangs up the phone. She calls the doctor. Two days later, we're in the doctor, sitting in the office and talking face-to-face to the doctor. And we start saying, okay, well, how does this work? And they gave us some shots and some pills and some things. And month number one went through the process, tried to get pregnant, and you go back for the test, and nothing happened. Right?

Oh. It's just okay. It's okay. Sometimes it takes a couple months. Let's come back next month and try again. Come back the next month. We go through the process. We try again.

Nothing happens. Then we start getting discouraged, like, do we really want to do this again? This is expensive. You put all your energy and your excitement into this thing, and then when it doesn't happen, it's hard. We decided to try one more time. Went back the third time. Went through the process. I remember it was during my senior year. I was at the Pac-10 wrestling tournaments, and Collette had to give herself shots in the stomach every single day, and it was just like this scary, just scary thing. I went through the process. That month, the month comes to the end, we go in to take, do our test, we go back home, and it also happened to the same day it was my

graduation, and we had, my parents were driving up from Salt Lake, Colette's parents were driving up from, from, from Burley, Idaho, waiting for them to show up, and about five minutes before they show up, the phone rings. I pick it up, and it was the assistant to the doctor, and she said, hey, just want to let you guys know, you're pregnant. I'm like, oh. And I look at Collette, I'm like, we're pregnant. She's like, no, there's no way.

And we start crying, we're bawling our eyes out, and all of a sudden, both sets of parents pull up in the driveway at the exact same time. And she looks at me, she's like, you can't tell anybody. I's like, no, there's no way. And we start crying. We're bawling our eyes out. And all of a sudden, both sets of parents pull up in the driveway at the exact same time. And she looks at me. She's like, you can't tell anybody. I'm like, what? We've got tears streaming down our faces. We're trying to act all cool. And they all come in. They give themselves hugs. We're talking. We're looking at them. And we're just both crying. They're looking at us like, what is going on? And then I look at Colette. She looks back at me. She's like, okay, you can tell them. I was like, we're pregnant. And we start freaking out. It was amazing.

A couple weeks later, we went in to get the ultrasound. I pulled out a magazine waiting for them to start. And all of a sudden, I heard the doctor say, there's two of them in here. And I said, well, you started? I look up, and on the screen, we see this. I was like, what? Two kids. We have no kids.

That's a lot of kids. Man. And that's where it all started 14 years ago. The twins, this is Down and Bowen. Down's baby A, Bowen's baby B. They were born 14 years ago. And now, 14 years later, this is what our amazing, cute little family looks like. And I share that story with you guys because For this doctor what they did was not a big deal. They went to school. They learned the thing. Here's the drugs

Here's the process. Here's how it works But that doctor that entrepreneur that person believed so much what they did they went out there and tried to get the message out about their art Do you think it was easy to get the message out about their art. Do you think it was easy to get on Oprah? No, I tried for like six years before she canceled her show. It is not easy to get on Oprah, okay? Whatever that doctor did, they did something.

They went out there, he said, I believe my art so much. I believe it can change people's lives so much. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get on Oprah. And because that doctor put forth the sacrifice and learned how to market their art, they got on Oprah, got a chance to see it, and my life was changed forever. Every good thing in my life happened because there's an entrepreneur who took a risk, who did something that didn't make a lot of sense, to put themselves out there to change everything for somebody else. Okay, the thing that makes us entrepreneurs weird, while the majority of the world is trying to like get rid of

responsibility, entrepreneurs look at something and say, that is a problem. That's my problem. It's not my responsibility, but I'm going to take it. I'm going to figure out a way to solve this problem. That's what makes entrepreneurs different. So I want you guys to understand that right now you may be here at different points in your business. Some of you guys are at a high spot and you're in growth mode, you're having fun. Some of you guys are in the beginner mode, you're struggling. Some of you guys are in between. I want you to understand,

when you really look at it and say, look, my business is a calling. I've been called from someone higher, something higher. It's called me to do this. I'm here, placed on this earth to serve other people. When you look at it through that lens, everything else becomes easier.

Okay, when you look at it like, I'm trying to figure out how to make more money for myself, business becomes harder. When you look at it from this lens, life becomes so much easier. There's no way I would have 5,000 people in Nashville, Tennessee in January here if I was trying to make a bunch of money on this. Okay. I believe my message so much. That's why you keep talking about it over and over and over and over and over again. So I were consistent with it. That's why you guys are here today.

Okay. 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 Okay. as well, and it is amazing. But to kind of give you some context about this offer he's making for you guys, as you may or may not know, a few years ago, JPMorgan Chase did a study, and guess what they found? They found that the average small business only has about 28 days of operating expenses in reserve. That's right, less than a month of cash on hands. Now, if you're like me, the idea of your business being one bad month away from disaster is enough to make your stomach drop, am I right? Especially with how the economy's been lately, it's not the time to be gambling with your finances. So Taylor put together this book called The Revolving Pricing Method, and it's awesome.

It helps you turn every client you close into a long-term profit machine. We're not talking about one-time paydays. We're talking about creating sustainable and real predictable income for the long haul. Now here's where it gets even better. Taylor put together an awesome exclusive deal just for you guys, my Marketing Secrets listeners. And if you go over to wealthyconsultants.com slash secrets, you can grab the revolving price method book and over $150 worth of bonuses and get this all. It's at 70% off. And I promise you guys as a customer of this, you are going to love it. So if you're serious about growing

your business with real stability, this is the model you need to add into your funnels. So go over to wealthyconsultant.com slash secrets, grab your 70% off deal, and let's start turning your clients into long-term revenue. Again, that to wealthyconsultant.com slash secrets, grab your 70% off deal, and let's start turning your clients into long-term revenue. Again, that's wealthyconsultant.com slash secrets. Do not miss out. Hey, this is Russell Brunson, and I want to jump in really quick to share with you a new assessment I found out that is insanely cool. You guys know I'm obsessed with personality profiles and assessments, but this one is different because not only does it help you understand yourself, but more importantly, especially for us who are entrepreneurs, it helps us understand our employees, our teams,

and get people sitting on the right seats in the bus so they can get more stuff done. I just had a chance to interview Patrick Lanchoni talking specifically about this new assessment they created called Working Genius. And the Working Genius is awesome. Like this test, I had actually blocked out an hour to take it because I was so excited for the new assessment.

And it only took me like 10 minutes or less to get it done. Yet, even though it takes only 10 minutes or less to get it done. Yet, even though it takes only 10 minutes, like you can actually apply this immediately. I took it for myself. I had my team take it. And what's cool about it is from there, we figured out exactly what people's working geniuses are. And that's important because if you're building a team or a company, you got to figure out, make sure that you have first off the right people, but make sure the right people are sitting in the right seats on the bus. And this is what this assessment will teach you how to do. Now, normally this assessment, you can go to workinggenius.com,

and there's two Gs in the middle, workinggenius.com. But I got you a 20% discount on the assessment, which is only $25. So don't stress, it's not an expensive test at all. But you get a 20% discount off when you put in the keyword secrets at checkout. So go to workinggenius.com. Again, two Gs, workinggenius, two Gs in the middle, workinggenius.com. Again, two G's, workinggenius, two G's in the middle, workinggenius.com, and then use promo code SECRETS, S-E-C-R-E-T-S at checkout. You get 25% off. But then go take the test. Again, it takes you 10 minutes. But even in a 10-minute session, you will get something that is so insanely valuable to help you understand yourself,

to make sure you're working in a spot that's going to give you the most joy, number one. But then number two, it's going to make sure that you are with your teams, getting them in the right seats as well. So anyway, I love this assessment. Go check it out at workinggenius.com and enter the promo code secrets for 20% discount. Take this 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. Number three, a funnel hackers in control of their destiny. They start without a safety net. Venture capital is a four-letter word. Bootstrap is their middle name. Funnel hackers, they define their own destiny.

They create their own luck. They build their own empires, and they change the world. I've told you guys this story a lot of times. As we've been growing ClickFunnels and looking at what the next phase, next step is, people always come to us like, how in the world did you grow ClickFunnels without any money? It makes no logical sense. I say, well, it's the principles we teach all the funnel hackers. Okay, we use funnels. We

practice what we preach. We drink our own Kool-Aid. Okay, we build funnels that grow our companies profitably. Okay, and that's the power. It gives you guys so much freedom that you don't even understand. And so that is our manifesto again on the back of it. It ends with, I'm a funnel hacker and I'm just one funnel away. I got one more thing I want to talk about before we kind of transition. And this is something that we're going to be pushing a lot over the next 12 months. In the side of this entrepreneurial world, I think that the message that so many people have been hearing over and over again is wrong. The message of we need to hustle, hustle, hustle. The message of all these different things are coming out there. I don't think that's the message

of entrepreneurship, not true entrepreneurship. The message of true entrepreneurship is this. It's how do we over-deliver? And this isn't just in your business. This is in all aspects of your life, okay? It's interesting. I did a podcast about this a little while ago, and I talked about how somebody asked me to do something. I was like, oh yeah, I can do that for you. Sure, I'll try that. And I stopped for a second. I was like, what kind of response is that? If my boss came and was like, hey, can you do this? Like, oh sure, I'll try it out. Like, that's not the right response. I want somebody to come to me if I say, hey, can you do this for me? To say, you know what? Not only can I, not only feel like I can do that, I know I can deliver on it. Actually, not only can I deliver on that, I'm going to over-deliver on that. Okay? And this is the thing I want us all to think about in all aspects

of our life, okay? In our relationships with our family. you showing up here like i'm doing the thing i'm doing the motions Or you come in saying how in this situation with my wife with my kids with my spouse with my whatever it is for you How do I over deliver in this situation? How do you over deliver in your business relationship? How do you over deliver in your businesses? Okay, as you start thinking about that over and over and over again, it's going to change everything for you How many guys when you got here to nashville and you saw the little mini city we built here, and you saw the swag you got and the shirts and the bags and all this stuff, you're like, oh my gosh, ClickFunnels over-delivered.

How do you guys felt that as you came here today? Our goal is to do that in every single interaction. We talked about it with our staff. Every interaction with someone, it's not like, I'm going to do the thing. I'm going to deliver. I'm going to, yeah, I'll get it done. It's like, no, no, no. I don't want people to get things done. I don't

want people to deliver on things. I want everybody to over-deliver. And this is our message from the, for the next year is how do we over-deliver in all situations? So you guys okay if we over-deliver this week for you? You guys okay with that? All right. Okay. So that's what I mean when I say that you're an entrepreneur by birth, but because you are here, you guys are funnel hackers by choice. That's what it means to be a funnel hacker. Hey, everybody. This is Russell again. And really quick, I wanted to invite you to join arguably the best thing that we've ever put out inside the ClickFunnels community.

And it is a challenge we call the One Funnel Away Challenge. You know, everyone in their business, in their life, they're one funnel away from something. Some of you guys are one funnel away from quitting your job. Some of you guys are one funnel away from getting more impact. Some of you guys are one funnel away from getting more impact. Some of you guys are a funnel away from growing your company to the next level. And so we created this challenge to help you to create and launch your first or your next funnel. No matter where you are in your business, this challenge is going to help you understand the strategy, help you understand the tactics, help you understand all the things you need to be successful with your funnel.

So what I recommend you do right now is stop everything, pause this audio, go online and go to one funnel away.com. That's one funnel away.com and join the next challenge. There's a challenge starting in the next few days. So go get started right now. One funnel away.com.