The Russell Brunson Show - For Me It's Wrestling... What Is It For You?

Episode Date: May 11, 2022

My thoughts after wrestling at this weekend's tournament, and how I hope this will unlock something cool for you. Hit me up on IG! @russellbrunson Text Me! 208-231-3797 Join my newsletter at marketingsecrets.com ClubHouseWithRussell.com Magnetic Marketing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Air Transat presents two friends traveling in Europe for the first time and feeling some pretty big emotions. This coffee is so good. How do they make it so rich and tasty? Those paintings we saw today weren't prints. They were the actual paintings. I have never seen tomatoes like this. How are they so red? With flight deals starting at just $589, it's time for you to see what Europe has to offer. Don't worry, you can handle it. Visit airTransat.com for details. Conditions apply. AirTransat. Travel moves us. Hey, what's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson.

Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. But today we're not talking about marketing. We are talking about wrestling. 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. All right, I know for some of you guys, you're like, Russell, we don't care about wrestling. We're here for marketing advice. Why are you talking about wrestling? And I'm gonna tell you, there's a reason. There's an actual reason that I think is useful for all of you guys. Otherwise, I wouldn't share it. So as some of you know, if you follow me on the gram or Facebook or any of the other places, you know that this last week I went out and I competed in a wrestling tournament. And it's fun because this is actually my third old man, I put that in brackets, in parentheses,

old man, third old man wrestling tournament I've been to. And it's interesting, you guys know my background. I wrestled in high school. I was a state champ. I took second place in the country. I was an All-American in high school. Then I wrestled a year at BYU until they dropped the wrestling program. And then I transferred to Boise State and wrestled my last four years there. I was ranked in the top ten in the country, but I never placed at the NCAA, which is one of those.

It's the goal I never achieved. I feel like everything else I've tried in life to achieve so far, I've had a chance to. Not that I've had a chance, but I've actually achieved most of my other goals. That was when I fell short of. Um, but actually, it's actually funny looking back now. I think it was also essential that I fell short of that because it caused me and forced me to, um, to continue to be driven in a different aspect, different direction. So anyway, it's all part of God's divine plan that I didn't, but it was the one that I, that I missed. Right. And then, uh, I transitioned my life into business and here we are now 20 years later. But a couple of years ago, I was like, man,

I miss competing. I miss wrestling. Like as fulfilling as business is, like still to this day, the best feeling I've ever felt in my life, like on this planet so far is the feeling of getting my hand raised after a hard fought match. I don't know what it is. There's something about that. It trumps all the other things, and I've done a lot in my life. And I miss it. And it's funny because in business, and again, there's a lot of ups and downs in business, but the closest I've ever gotten in business to the feeling of my hand getting raised is when you do a table rush.

You speak on stage. You see people run to the back. That's the closest I've ever gotten to that feeling, that high, but it's not as good. And so anyway, part of me is just like, I want to wrestle again and wrestle again. And a lot of you guys know when I bought my dream house, man, seven years ago now, we built a wrestling room into it and all my old buddies come over and we have a chance to wrestle. And it's just like, it's a thing that I love that makes me happy. But then, um, three years, well, probably COVID COVID doesn't count as a year, right? So three, three real years ago, maybe four years ago now, one of my friends went to a

tournament and actually wrestled. Then he came back and told me, I was like, dude, I didn't know that we could wrestle in tournaments. I want to go to a tournament. And he said, well, every year there's this tournament called the US Open. And they have, you know, obviously all the high school kids, it's their, it's their big national tournament. Plus there's the college guys.

And then there's the senior guys, which are like the people competing for the World's Olympics. Because like when you get older, like I think 35 years old, it opens a division called the Masters. And then inside the Masters, there's Masters like A, B, C, D, different divisions, right, all the way up to veterans. And so there's people competing all the way to, you know, in their seventies and eighties and stuff. And so I got so excited. So three years ago, I went to my very first one. And it's funny, like a week before the tournament, like we should probably practice and remember how to wrestle. So we did our first practice and within like 15 minutes of a starting practice, I tore my neck out and, um, I wasn't able to practice the rest of the week. And I went to the tournament and I, uh and I didn't cut any weight,

so I was at a heavier weight class, kilograms. I think it was 80-something kilograms. Anyway, it was like 194 pounds, basically. And so I had to lose a couple pounds, but I was about 200 pounds back then. So I lost a little bit of weight, went in the tournament. And that weight class, you know, guys are bigger, and the weight class isn't huge. There's probably 8 to 10 guys.

And I took second place in Greco and third in freestyle, which I was like, this is awesome. It was fun. I got my hand raised, won some matches, lost a couple matches, but it was just so much fun. And one of the big pivotal things that happened to me was as I was warming up for one of my matches, this old guy came up to me. And I'm not even that old. He's probably close to 80. And I remember he walked up and he's like, hey, do you want to wrestle?

I was like, okay, and so we're about to start drilling, he said, just so you know, I've had both my hips and both my knees replaced, so please don't shoot on me, I was like, this is wrestling, that's all, that's like, that's literally the definition of what we do, so anyway, we kind of wrestled a little bit and practiced some. And then during that day, he went out there and he won two matches I saw. I was like, if this dude in his almost 80s, maybe 80s, I don't even know, with both hips and both knees replaced is still competing. I was like, this is something I can do till the day I die. And so I made it a point right then, like, I'm going to put this on my calendar once a year for the rest of my life. Till I die, I will compete in the US Open. Like just, it's's a thing now it's never not going to be a thing the rest of my calendar will revolve around it

and it's like christmas only for me more important at this point so um so we signed up for it the next year we're going to do it and then covet it and then um last year there's actually uh it wasn't that one there's another version of it that spartan actually put on and so we went into the spartan nationals last year and i took um in freestyle and second in Greco at that same weight class, which was awesome. And actually met the dude who started Spartan and he had me on his podcast, which was kind of cool. But anyway, I digress. That was my second year. And then this year was year number three. Now this year, a lot of you guys have probably noticed if you watch my ads or see me at Funoculum, I've lost a lot of weight. I'm down about 15 pounds. And so I was below the weight class. And so the next weight class down was, um, it was a huge gap. It, you know, usually the gaps

pretty small, but in the master's division, it's like 194 pounds. Next one down is 171, which is crazy. So I was weighing like 185. So I had to cut weight down to 171. And then the 171 pound bracket, there's like twice as many people. We had 20 people in our freestyle weight, and then I think we had 10 or so in Greco. So I had to cut weight, which first time I've done that for 20 something years. I forgot how horrible it is, but I was tiny. If you saw the picture, I was 171 pounds last week, which is crazy. Hadn't been that light since college, so it was kind of fun fun and then we went and wrestled and uh wrestled greco and i did shockingly better at greco and i think a big part of it was my my old uh freestyle greco coach actually was there at the tournament he was coaching he's the head

coach now at utah valley university and so he was there coaching his guys and so he came over and coached me and it was cool because i couldn't remember how to wrestle greco we literally spent about 15 minutes practicing greco before the tournament and um so he came over and coached me and it was cool because I couldn't remember how to wrestle Greco. We literally spent about 15 minutes practicing Greco before the tournament. And, um, so he was kind of reminding me and coached me through it. And as I was doing things wrong, he was, he was coaching me. I was adjusting and it was cool. I ended up taking third place in Greco at that at 171 pound weight class, which is, um, they're probably the most competitive weight class for the master's division.

Like that's kind of where the, you know, that's where it's tough. And so, um, I was really excited about that. And the next day was freestyle and freestyle. When my first match, the second match I was winning seven to two and I split my eye open. If you saw a picture on Instagram, like when I was bleeding, I was supposed to get a bunch of stitches, but I ended up just gluing it together. And for some reason, after I split my eye, I switched from like, I don't know, this is like what I'm geeking out on right now is like the conscious mind versus subconscious mind and stuff like that. But to be good at anything, like when you're working on your subconscious mind, that's when you have the most success, right? That's like

when you're wrestling, if you're not consciously thinking, you're just doing it from, from subconscious memories and stuff like that. That's when you compete the best. That's why people always, you know, if you're losing, like, oh, it's because you're in your head, you get out of your head. When you're in your head is when you're consciously thinking through things. So after my eyes split open, I came back to the mat and I was consciously, it was weird, like it kicked me out of like, like me competing. This conscious thing where I was like thinking, I was thinking, oh, I should sprawl and oh, I should try it. And I started thinking and I ended up losing to this guy who I was, who I was destroying. And that kind of threw me off. And then I won my next match and then I lost my fourth match. So I went two and two in freestyle and did not place, which was

hard, especially because two of my friends did place. Anyway, it's always, you know, you know how that is. So burned a little bit, but at the same time, it was so much fun. I popped a rib out, which still hurts like a week later. I'm still barely able to like breathe and move, but it was still worth it. Anyway, I would do it again. Um, my body's healing and it was just, it was so much fun. So why did I share this with you guys? What does this have to do with you and business or anything? Um, the reality is it has everything to do with it. Um, it's interesting throughout our lives. We have different dreams and different things we chase, right? And then for some reason, we forget about the things that meant the most to us, things that brought us happiness and joy. And, you know, sometimes we wake up 20 years later and we're not happy. We can't figure it out. We're

trying to chase these other things we think will bring us happiness. And sometimes we stop and think, well, what made me happy? Like, when I was a kid, I was happy. When I was younger, I was happy. What were the things that made me the most happy? Why don't we reinvest in some of those things? You could easily say, well, Russell, you've grown out of wrestling. Yeah, there's not wrestling tournaments. I can't compete, but I can bring that joy back once a year and have camaraderie and be with my friends and wrestle and have those things and bring it back. That's a big deal, right?

It can bring a level of happiness back to you. It was cool. Cause this year as I was getting close to term, I started posting in like, I'm going to this tournament and a bunch of my old buddies messaged me. One of my old friends from high school, literally he's, he saw me doing it. So he decided to come out and he showed up and he was in the two way classes above me and he won it. And he was like, dude, he's like, I saw your thing and you were doing this. I wanted to do it. I'm like, oh.

And then, um, one of my other friends, um, who I'd known for a long time, I never actually met him in person. Like he saw I was doing it. So he came and he went and did it. And, and it was just cool. And all they could say, man, like I see you doing it and inspired me to want to do it. And by me pursuing an old passion, it got these other people to do their old thing. And they had this, this moment of fun and, and it was just, it was such a, anyway these other people to do their old thing. And they had this moment of fun.

And it was just, it was such a, anyway, it was just such a cool thing. So I want to encourage you guys. Because right now, if you're listening to me, you're probably building a business and you're chasing after the almighty dollar or impact or influence, whatever it is you're looking for, right?

And you're trying to change the world in your own little way, which I love and I respect. And I'm grateful that you are doing that. But I recommend looking back, like what were the things you did when you were younger that you loved? Were you a basketball player? Did you golf? Did you play piano? Did you read? Did you go to movies? Did you go out to eat? Like, what was your thing that you used to do that you don't anymore? And I would recommend trying to figure out how to, how to bring that part back into your life. Not full-time, like wrestling is not my full-time thing anymore. But if I know like once a year for the rest of my life, I'm going to compete and I'm

going to wrestle, like then I don't lose that part of me, that part of my essence, that part of like who I am, part of my identity. Like if you ask me to this day, like my identities, um, maybe we'll do the exercise here on the podcast someday, but like I have many identities that I associate with, right? And one of the strongest identities that is still ingrained in me is that I'm a wrestler. And the fact that I don't wrestle anymore is weird. But now the fact that I'm wrestling, like I wrestle once a year, I'm a wrestler. I still am. I still am that identity that I associated with. Like it brings back those parts of me and my identity and my belief system that, that made me who I was. Right. Um, it's kind of like, I did a podcast a while ago about writing books. Right. And,

and I think I mentioned something like, I can't remember exactly what I said, but I still, one of the most powerful, exciting things you can say to somebody and someone's like, Hey, what are you doing? You're like, uh, I don't know that much. But if you transition, like I'm writing a book and maybe the book takes you two decades to write, but like, like you're writing a book, like you're an author, like it's not done yet, but you're in the process and maybe it's really, really slow. That's okay. Like, but you're writing a book, like you're an author, like it's not done yet, but you're in the process and maybe it's really, really slow. That's okay. Like, but you're writing a book, like how, like it has this little, this, this edge of excitement and, and something to talk about, something to dream about and something to, you know what I mean? And so for me, it's like,

again, I know I'm not going to be the best wrestler in the world anymore. Like that ship has sailed. That's not my goal. But man, the fact that I'm a wrestler and I wrestle and I compete and I go to tournaments every year and I want to, I took third in the country in Greco last week, it gives you something that you miss when you get older. As a kid, that's all we pursue. That's all we went after. And then as adults, we shut those things down and we focus on our careers and those other kinds of things, which are good. But I just want to encourage you guys to look back and see like, what are the things that made you the most happy when you were a kid? And how can you weave those things back into your life? Um, it doesn't have to be all consuming or overwhelming or pull you off of your mission,

but I promise you that it'll fuel your mission in a different way that you weren't expecting, that you weren't thinking was going to happen. Um, because you're, you bring those things back. So that's what I want to give to you guys today. Um, it was a fun experience for me. It was fun for the people I went with. It's fun for the people who, who came because they saw me doing it. I inspired them. Um, and same thing to you. When you start doing these things, you're going to inspire the people. Like when I decided I'm going to write a book, I'm going to be an author. That's an identity I want. I'm going to be an author. I'm going to write a book. I started writing my book. Like other people wrote books because I wrote a book, right?

How many of you guys listening right now wrote a book because Russell wrote a book? Like there's a lot of you. And it's like, I inspired other people to do it along the journey. And like the wake of you going after these, these things, like the wake of contribution, it creates this huge. And so I think that's one of the reasons why we should do any of the things we do, right? Pursuing business or our passions or anything is like, as you're moving forward, trying to accomplish or achieve or create, there's this wake. And when I say wake, like a boat, right? When you're in a boat going forward, there's this wake that is caused behind you. That wake for you is contribution. Like there's this wake of contribution that will go behind you as you're pursuing your dreams. That'll change

other people's lives and inspire them and get them excited and give them permission to live their dreams. Like again, this year, two of my, actually three, Tom Bill as well. I had three of my friends who came to the wrestling tournament because they saw me go to wrestling tournament like that. Like I, like there's a wake that also like their lives got affected and changed and they were excited. And like, because of, because of me going after that thing for myself. So anyway, I'm putting it out there. What's your thing? What's the thing you used to love the most? What is it that you miss? How can you go out there and do it? Thanks guys for listening. I hope that this helps inspire at least one of you.

Hopefully a lot of you guys, I think you'll find the thing that made you the most happy when you were younger and weave that back into your life in some little way because I promise you it's worth it. You know, I'm sitting here now with broken ribs, cut up by, you know, body sore, finger sore, back sore, knees, like everything's sore,

like everything hurts. I'm sitting here like, oh, I miss this. I miss that feeling. And everyone's like, you're crazy. Why do that? You're so old. I'm like, I know, but like this feeling of like, oh, I feel like I got hit by a dump truck. Um, but knowing I did it in a worthy cause, it was, it was fun for me is it's the, it's the best. So I want you guys to experience that as well in your line of whatever you do. So find it, pursue it, and let me know how it goes afterwards. Thanks so much, everybody, and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you for listening to the Marketing Secrets Podcast.

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