The Russell Brunson Show - Marketing Lessons From a $150,000 First Edition “Book of Mormon” | #Marketing - Ep. 75

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

In this episode of The Russell Brunson Show, I take you inside the vault to share the story behind the very first book in my rare book collection… A first edition Book of Mormon. I paid $150,000 for it, but for me, the value goes way beyond money. This was the book that started my obsession with collecting, but even more than that, it taught me a foundational business principle that I still live by today. If you’ve ever wanted to build a movement, create a following, or lead a community, then you need to understand this: almost every mass movement in history (religious or otherwise) started with a book. A message…. Some sort of doctrine or manifesto. I break down how this truth applies to you, your business, and your calling. Whether you're a coach, an entrepreneur, or just someone with a message to share, this episode will give you clarity on how to put your stake in the ground. Key Highlights: Why the Book of Mormon was the first book I ever bought for my collection (and what it’s worth today) The connection between religious texts and modern marketing movements How books like Dotcom Secrets created the Clickfunnels community Why your “heretic message” is what your people are waiting for How to start writing your book or manifesto (even if you’re not a writer) This isn’t about converting you to any religion, haha! It’s about understanding the power of putting your beliefs into a book, and how that act alone can change the trajectory of your business and your life. Want to see my favorite verses about Christ from the Book of Mormon? Grab them in the show notes below. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://russellbrunson.com/notes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sellingonline.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clickfunnels.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's selling online.com slash podcast. This is the Russell Brunson Show. This is Russell. Welcome back to The Vault. Today I'm going to show you guys one of my favorite books. In fact, this is the book that started my entire book collection. This is a religious book. I know some of you guys are out here for religion, which is cool. I'm going to tell you more stories about this book

and how it relates back to you and your business. But this is one for me that started at all. This is the first edition Book of Mormon. This book costs me $150,000. About four years ago, and right now I could resell this for about $225,000. That's how much the rare book market is in the LDS world. In fact, an interesting stat for those who collect old books like me.

Right now, rare Mormon books beat the stock market 20x. That's how fast books appreciate. It's a great investment, but also this is the one I wanted forever that kind of got me into the whole book collecting world. So this is a clamshell. And if I open up, you can see the actual book here inside. This book was published back in 1830. There were 5,000 copies printed the very first printing.

And there's about 350 known copies that are still on Earth. And it's only a few that are really, really good quality. And this is one of the 350. And this one is probably one of the top 10 copies on the planet as far as still all there. It's beautiful. It's my favorite. All right. Now, real quick, don't worry.

I'm not here to try to convert you yet. No, just kidding. We're not here to try to convert you, but I want to tell you because there is a very powerful business lesson behind this book that I think will be very useful for everybody, okay? A lot of you guys know,

I wrote this book called Expert Secrets, which is about how to create a movement of people. And one of the things that, as I was doing the study and research that book, I realized that basically every mass movement throughout time, every mass movement began with a book, right? A book that shares like, here's the beliefs,

here's the doctrines, here's the dogma, whatever you want to call it, for this movement, right? And I start thinking back about when I launched ClickFunnels back in the day. I remember we launched the very first version of ClickFunnels, and it did okay. People were signing up. They were trying to use the software,

but it wasn't until, and it was probably five or six months after we launched ClickFunnels is when I finished the dot-com Secrets book, right? And it was the book that explained the original, like, philosophies, and doctrine or dogma, whatever we want to call it for building a funnel, right?

And it took that book, and we launched it to the world, and people started reading it, And when they understood, they read the principles and how it worked, and the strategy is like, oh, I understand how this works. And that's what created the whole funnel hacker, click funnels movement, right? People got the book, they read it, and then they came in and they started using software, and they started joining the community, and everything else shifted because of that.

You look at something like the book of Mormon, right? When Joseph Smith translated this, he puts it out there into the world, you know, he said missionaries all around the world, and people grab these books and they read it, and also like, the book was the thing that bought them into like, oh, this is the movement, this is the mission, this is where we're going, right? And so I always tell people when they come into my world and they're like, I want to create a movement. I want to have people that I'm teaching

and I'm serving just like you. Like, what should I do? And I come back and say, look, every, I mean, for the most part, every mass movement throughout time, both positive and negative. They almost all start with the book. And so a question for you is like,

what is the book you're going to put out there? What is the thing that you're going to put out in the world with someone's going to get and they're going to find. It's going to teach them like, here are the philosophies and the principles that we believe as a movement, as a community,

as whatever it is, and they read that. And then if they agree with it, then they're going to come and follow you. If you've seen Derry McGuire, the very first of the movie, right, Tom Cruise is in the industry, and he just like the way things are working and he doesn't, he's not happy with it.

And one night he sits up, he's like, I'm going to write a manifesto on the way this market should be, the way it's going to be. And it's different, right? Different for what everyone's believing, what they're all doing. He writes this thing up, spends all night,

and he wakes up the morning, he gives it to all the employees. And most part, most people are rejected. And what's interesting you're to find out is, usually when you are coming out with a book and you're creating a movement, you're a her her her a heretic, right? especially, especially, right?

But there's going to be some people that, in fact, Dan Kennedy talked about this. He said, at any market, he's like, there's a third of the people that are happy with the status quo. There's a third of people that are kind of uneasy, but they're not going to change anything. And there's a third of the people who know something is wrong, and they're waiting for the heretic to arrive. And that's when you come in, you're like, this is the difference. This is what we're changing, right?

With Joseph Smith, like, that was happening. They're people that were looking at the religious movements back in 1800s. They get a third of the people were just like, this isn't making sense. This is okay. And he came out with this book, and the people read, they're like, yes, and they left. They were waiting for the heretic to arrive. In ClickFunnels World, same thing. They were waiting for me.

They're waiting for someone coming and say, look, there's a better way to do this, and this is what it is. You know, and say, New Jeremy McGuire, you get hands that out. And again, most of the people hate it, but the one girl, right? Renee Zelle Weggard, his assistant, whatever, she's one of reasons like, yes, I'm in, and they go and they leave and they create this movement, right? It keeps building and building over the movie.

And so I want to share this, number one, because it's the book that got me into rare book collecting. In fact, I remember I served a mission for my church in New Jersey back when I was 19, years old and I met a lady who we actually ended baptizing her but she would buy old LDS books on eBay she sell them on desert book auctions and that's how she made her living and remember she showed me one day like on eBay like here's the first edition book of Mormon and back then again this is back you know early 2000s you know it was I don't know 20 30,000 dollars for first edition I was like

that's crazy so I'm going to buy that much for a book and when I got older I launched click funnels and money was coming in I remember I always wanted to have one and so this was the very first one I bought and after getting I was like this is so cool and I remember sharing with my family and telling the stories and like smelling it ever makes fun of me but like you smell the old books they smell so cool and so this is the one that kind of started it for me started the whole book like because i want to share with you guys i thought it was a really cool thing but more so just to get you guys thinking about when you were creating a movement right you look at the best of the best ones they've done it both religiously in business in in in like almost everything like it leads

with that thing that manifesto that like that stake in the ground you're saying look we are different and if you're willing to go put that out there your people will hear your people will find you like i'm going to go follow okay and so this is that you're going to go follow okay and we're on a religious topic. I'll share another scripture, not from the book of Mormon, but from the Bible for all my Christian friends. And so Christ talks about this, right? He says that my sheep will hear my voice and we will become onefold of one shepherd, right? You look at Christ, like a lot of people did not like him. Most of them didn't, right? He ended up getting crucified from these people, right? But they're a group that followed him.

They heard his voice and they became his people. And that is an eternal principle, right? When you come out there and you're willing to share your message, your sheep, your people will hear your message, and they will come to you, right? And so in our world where we are training experts and coaches and try to help them to get their message out to the world. I tell people all the time, like, you're going to be a heretic. A lot of people are going to hate you. You're getting nasty comments, right? I guarantee in the video comments.

I'm going to have so many people like, Joseph Smith, the scam artist, like, da-da-da-da, I'm going to see them. Like, there are people who are going to be upset that I'm even talking about this, right? And that's okay. Because the majority of people, again, a lot of them are going to ignore you, you're not going to care. Third of them aren't going to care. Third of them, like, ah, I don't really like this.

And third of them are waiting for you to step into your calling, to be willing to show them, like, this is where I believe. This is why. This is where we're going. Who wants to follow me? And they're waiting for you to step up. Like Dan Kennedy said, they're waiting for the heretic to arrive. If you'd be willing to put on that calling and step into it, you can change the world. At least you can change the world for your sheep, for your people, because they'll have guidance that are looking for somebody like you to step up into that calling. And so this is a representation to me of that. Something that was important to me that literally changed my life. My faith and my religion changed my life because he was going to put it out there. And

for me, this is what I connected with. For you, maybe not. But for me, this is what I connected with. And in my world, with my funnel builders, with my things, like the next book I'm working on is because I'm trying to attract a new group of people. I'm putting out a new message that's different, right? And that's how you attract people into your world so you can serve them and so you can change their life. When you're thinking through, like, how do I create a manifesto or write a book or whatever that thing might be that's going to divide people and bring your people to you?

A couple of things to think about. For me, number one is, and we talked about this during the true believer video, right? Talked about people don't have to believe in a God, but I do need to believe in a devil. So who is the devil? who is the person that you and your market are fighting against, right, the people you're coming into you. You have to think about, like, who are people against, right? And so you list those things out, like, here's the things that people are against. Then the next question, like, what are the things that you are for? Like, uniquely for? Like, uniquely for happiness and goodwill and peace on

earth. Like, those are great. Like, what are the things you're uniquely for that? Uniquely stand for that are different, right? A lot of times things that may be a paradigm where somebody else says one thing and you believe something completely different, right? What are the things you can do on both sides of that? That's kind of where it begins, right? It's understanding that the third of the people that we are trying to attract, like, what are the things that they see that aren't right? And you could ask you, like, hey, in this market, like, this, this is somebody else seeing some weird stuff?

Like, what are the things that bother you the most? What are the things that you're frustrated with? And they'll tell you, like, I'm frustrated this and this and this. And you start looking like, wow, these are the things. These are the pain points that my people have. What can I do to get rid of those pain points? And what's cool is like, again, it leads with, it leads with your book or your message or the thing that brings people in, right?

But then the rest of my business literally is me sitting back and just paying attention to my people. Like, what are you struggling with? I think about this all the time. Like, the job of the entrepreneurs is if you can make the process for somebody simpler or easier, that's how you get paid to big bucks, right? Like, here's the thing that's really hard. How do I make it simpler and simpler?

So for us, it's like, when people read the dot com secrets bug, they're like, that sounds amazing, but this is hard. How do we do it? Like, oh, we have software. It makes it easy. Like, oh, start using software. Like, this is a lot easier, right? It's make it faster and make it easier.

And then we started listening. Right, after the dot com secrets book, I started listening to my audience. I'm like, man, people are building funnels, they understand structure. All this stuff I taught in dot-com secrets, like they become experts at. It's amazing. But then I was noticing people's funnels aren't converting. And people are confused. Like, why is nobody buying?

I sent a thousand people in my funnel and nobody bought, right? So I'm listening like, oh, why is it not buying? Like, oh, they're not buying because they don't know how to share their message correctly. They don't understand, they're building following. They don't understand all these things. And so from that, I'm like, I need to write expert secrets. And the next idea came from that, right? And then people got really good at creating presentations and VSLs and webinars and stuff

like that. And they got stuck, how do you get traffic? I get people show up. And I was like, ah, I should make the next thing. they against? What are their pain points? That's where all your ideas are going to come. People ask them sometimes like, Russell, you're so creative. How do you come up with these ideas? I'm like, I am not creative. I just pay really close attention. I'm paying attention to what people are saying, and then we just give them what they want. And like, that is how you get successful

in this world and in the business world. You're just paying attention to what your customers want, and then you just give it to them. Like, that's it. Obviously, it's a little different. This is not a business book. If any guys want to know what my favorite verses from the book of Mormon are, these are all verses that talk about Jesus Christ. In this book, Jesus Christ actually came to American Continent. In my show notes down below, if you click on a link down below, we'll take you to my notes page. And basically, I'm going to give you a list of my favorite scriptures that'll teach you more about Christ. Other than that, if you want to learn more about how to build a movement, the video I did about the book True Believers, a great place to start to learn a little bit more about

how to go and create a mass movement of people who are going to follow you and listen to your advice.