The Russell Brunson Show - The Subconscious Mind in Business: This Book Changed How I Work Forever | #Success - Ep. 57

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

In this episode of The Russell Brunson Show, I dive into a rare book I picked up for $75 called The Subconscious Mind in Business by Robert Updegraff… The same author as Obvious Adams. It instantly became one of my favorites. The book hit me at the perfect time… Right after I tore both my biceps and literally couldn’t work. Turns out, not working may have been the key. I unpack how this book reframed the way I structure my workdays, why creative breakthroughs don’t come from forcing the issue, and how our subconscious beliefs shape the ceiling of our success. I also share stories from my own journey, from struggling to break six figures, to hitting plateaus at $1M, $10M, and beyond. And I talk about how each of those levels had less to do with tactics and everything to do with mindset. Key Highlights: The six-hour workday model and how to use the final two hours for subconscious creativity Why success is 90% psychology, and the real reason most entrepreneurs stay stuck How proximity and your environment shape your subconscious identity The hidden ceilings you don’t realize are holding you back Why creativity often strikes when you finally stop trying to force it This book reinforced something I’ve felt for years but didn’t have words for: when you stop working, the right ideas finally show up. Whether it was during my double-arm recovery or a late-night breakthrough on the couch, my biggest answers came when I stepped away from the desk. If you’re hitting a wall, the problem probably isn’t your tactics… It’s your beliefs. AND BTW… If you want my notes from this book, including quotes, key takeaways, and how I’m applying them in my business, you can find it all here! ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://russellbrunson.com/notes⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sellingonline.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clickfunnels.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Special thanks to our sponsors: NordVPN: EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://nordvpn.com/secrets⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Northwest Registered Agent: Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠northwestregisteredagent.com/russell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to start your business with Northwest Registered Agent. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions: Get a $100 credit on your next campaign at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn.com/CLICKS⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Rocket Money: Cancel unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠RocketMoney.com/RUSSELL⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Indeed: Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job’s visibility at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Indeed.com/clicks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Russell Brunson show. Welcome to The Vault. Today I've got a brand new old book you are going to love. This one I got for still is only $75 because nobody has ever heard of it. It doesn't even know the value of it. It's called The Subconscious Mind in Business. It was written by the same author who wrote a book that is famous called Obvious Adams, which maybe we'll review in another video.

But this is like a lost gem. A lot of times you find an author who wrote a book they ever knows about, and then they have these other ones that no one's heard it. I never heard this one, and I read it, and it literally is one of my favorites. I think I've got about a half dozen books with this author, oh. This one was fascinating because when I did a whole event, three event called Selling a Line where we teach people how to do subconscious selling, which is speaking to somebody's subconscious mind to sell them something.

My new book is like using subconscious mind to sell yourself on your ideas and your goals. And then this book's kind of in between where it's like literally subconscious mind and business. So I got it and I instantly read it because I was like, this is my type of book. It's a short book, so fast read. But there were some gems in here that actually shifted my perspective on how I structure my work days. So it's a really good one. Especially in the business where a lot of people don't want to learn about mindset for some reason. I had this conversation with Tony Robbins.

It was after our second funnel hacking line. and I had a chance to have a conversation with him. And I was like, hey, we have this event called Funnel Hacking Live. We have thousands of people from around the world come here. And I'm like, blows my mind. You get, you know, a percentage of people have success. And I don't understand it. It's like, I'm giving them everything.

I'm giving my frameworks, my funnels, my, the best of I have. And I give it all to him. And Tony guy smiles at me. He's like, oh, you could tell that he'd already solve this problem like two decades ago. And he's like, you still think that someone's success is not based on the tactics, right? I'm like, yeah, it's why like, I have the best tactics in the world. He's like, yeah, you have to understand this. Success is like 10% tactics and 90% psychology.

It's like it's the things between their ears, their brain. He's like, and people don't want to hear that though. So usually you have to like sell them what they want, which is how to make money or how do everybody's like, but then you give them what they need, which is help reframe their mindset. So I remember after having that conversation that's when I asked her, I'm like, would you come to funnel hacking live then and do the whole psychology thing with my people because I need them to be successful. Like I'm killing myself, giving them everything I have and I need more success. And so Tony spoke at our third funnel hacking live. And he ended up speaking at five of the 10 funnel hacking lives and he would always focus for three or four. one time you went for like six or seven hours on psychology.

So psychology is interesting and I've noticed a lot, especially business owners and entrepreneurs, they don't want to focus on. They don't think it's what they need. They think it's like, I just need the tactic, I just need the strategy. If I get those things figured out, but the reality is, and this is me doing this now for two and a half decades. I've been in this business 25 years. I've coached literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions of entrepreneurs at this point.

It's not that they're smarter or better looking or faster or like have more money. It literally is the ones who understand how to control their mindset are the ones who win. And I saw it initially in athletics, right? I grew up as a wrestler. During practice, I would lose these guys. They were better wrestlers than me. And then we'd go to these tournaments and we step on the mat and they would lose to people they shouldn't lose to.

In fact, one of my closest friends, I can never beat him in the wrestling room, like, every single time. Same way class, so he was varsity that year, I was JV, I could not beat him, and then we went to a tournament. And in the tournament, we were on opposite side of brackets and we started going through. There was a guy that he lost to. He lost to him by like, it wasn't even close. It lost him like 10 points, right?

I wrestled that same guy and I tech fall them, which tech fall means I scored 15 points more than the other guy, so they stopped the match early. And I was like, how did you lose to it? Like, it's so fascinating to me. And so, like, you look at head-to-head, skill by skill, muscle, strength, all the things, like, he was better than me. When it mattered, I won. What's the difference, right?

Like, it literally is your psychology. It's your brain. Like, and nobody focuses on that. We want to focus on putting in the reps and running and all those kind of things, which are great, but we don't focus on the thing that actually matters the most. And the same thing happens in business. So what typically happens is I try to trick people into, like, come into our world, to teach out to build a funnel, which they need to know how to do.

But that is so simple. Like, I can build a funnel in an hour, right? The rest of the time, like, while they're doing that, I've got to fix their minds. I've got to break the false beliefs. If I can get them on the right path, then they can be successful. And so it's, again, it's one of those things that unfortunately people won't spend enough time talking about.

Like when you do focus on that, it's the only thing that actually matters. I'm doing this now 25 years. There are different times where I would peek out in my success, right? And every time you hit a plateau with something, there's some belief you have that's holding you back, right? Because the person's making $100,000 a year

versus a million versus 10 versus they're probably not working different. They're probably not smarter. It's like there's beliefs they have internally. And so for me initially, I think one of the first plateaus I hit in my business was like the six figure mark because in my mind, I remember my dad made six figures a year. And my dad was wealthy. And our neighbor, I was just like, I was like, that's a lot of money. And so in fact, I remember I was hustling, I was doing all sorts of stuff. I was selling things. I was having some success. And I'm on a call with somebody who's doing an interview with me on a tele-seminor before podcasts were even invented. And he asked me, he's like,

so I'm probably six figures so far in your business. I was like, no, like, that's not even possible. And actually I was thinking, I was like, actually I have no idea. So I went back and I started looking at my bank accounts, my PayPal accounts, in different places, money was coming in, my checks and I added it all up. And I had done over $100,000. At that point, I was like, I had no idea. And in my head, that was such a big number. I was just like, because that's what my dad made. And so for me to go from $100,000 and a million was the first like gap that was really difficult because it was like, my dad was successful. That's what he made. And so to make beyond that was just like, I don't know, it didn't seem real or possible. And that was

hard for me. So what happened about that time in my careers when I started going to events and I started meeting other people. These were people who already broke in the million dollar mark. And I started being around and started talking to me, starts having phone calls with them and just like trying to surround myself with that because that seems so far for me and then being around people who actually hit it, all of a sudden like the more time I spend is like, oh, this is possible. I can actually do this. It took me a couple years before I broke the million dollar year mark. I remember breaking it. I was just like, oh, this is awesome. And then the next ceiling because the what was next 10 million? Like, I didn't know

I made 10 million dollars. Like it was not something that was even something I could fathom or it was even possible. In fact, I remember I did a podcast episode saying, you have to be an idiot to want to make $10 million a year. In my head was like, that's the dumbest thing. world, why would you ever want to do that, right? And I had these false beliefs. It was selfish. It was greedy. It was wrong. Like, whatever those things might be, right? So my first plateau was like, I can't make more of my dad. Next plateau was like a million dollars is like the scary number, right? And the next after that was just like, why would I need that kind of mind? What was the purpose? You know, like, it didn't seem like something that was a value. And so for me,

like, there's always these different belief patterns. And a lot of times you don't realize what they are until you figure out how to break them or you're looking back or you find someone who already has and you're like, man, this person does not have those beliefs that I do. I think I've done four or five interventions with Tony where I bring him a question. He like does is Tony Magic and, like, changes my brain. As after ClickFun's past $100 million a year, and I was stuck. And I was like, I don't know how to get to the next level.

I can't figure it out. And he's like, well, who are the people you're spending time with? I was telling him, he's like, well, cool. Those are all people that have gotten businesses to your level. The thinking that got you there will not get you to the next level. He's like, proximity is power. Like, you were in proximity to that level. But those people were at that level.

He's like, if you weren't at the next level, you have to get in proximity with people the next level. And that's how you're going to get because it's going to shift your beliefs, your mindset, your subconscious mind and that'll get you to the next level that was just a fascinating breakthrough for me because I thought you know like is there a level beyond this and that's how you find it and that's how you figure out what beliefs are holding you back so the interesting thing about this book that's different than like a traditional book about subconscious is he's trying to show

how your subconscious mind can bring out the creativity you need right a lot of times how many of us go and we have a problem they're trying to fix right and so you're doing meetings you're reading books like trying to solve this problem time solve this problem you can't figure out the problem and then does this ever happen to you where you're in the shower not thinking about it you're showering all of a sudden like the idea pops in your like it just shows up magically right like that's what's book's talking about how do you create those moments a little while ago in the office we're saying that we had like eight of us in the in the bull pit talking about so we try to solve this problem try to solve this problem

and just like an hour and a half two hours on it without coming to any like none of this kind of an idea and after about two hours I'd been drinking way too many updates and you know drinks and stuff I was like I don't go the bathroom so I went to the bathroom I'm literally gone maybe a minute I disconnect my conscious mind so I'm like okay I'm going the bathroom and instantly the idea just pops up right this This is what his book talks so much about, is learning how to use a subconscious mind. In fact, on page 13 here, he's talking about business people, entrepreneurs, sitting at desks. He says, desks are not thinking machines.

In fact, they are, with the paper and the clutter on them, they're apt to be distractions rather than to help us to actually think. They're the one place where men get so close to his business that you can get no perspective on it. So he talks about here as he starts talking about creating what's called, he calls the six-hour workday. You know, kind of like Tim Ferriss's four-hour work, big piece of six-hour work days. Like, for six hours, you're in there and you're able to work-conscious. You're trying to figure out problems, you're solving and stuff.

He said the last two hours of the day, when he found all the business executives, he coached on this. The last two hours of day, they would stop doing active work and then they would try to like engage their subconscious mind. I would need creativity and need ideas. You don't do that by sitting at your desk working, working, working, you do that by disengaging for most of these, like they sit down last two hours a day from three to five, they're reading a book, they're talking to the coworkers, they're walking.

One of the stories here talks about Henry Ford, where he says, Henry Ford, who obviously, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time, he said that he didn't ever sit his desk, he would walk back and forth and back and forth. So that's how he became so successful because he's never sitting here consciously doing work. He was spending time on the things he loved the most thinking about. And then like the ideas would just kind of would pop up to the surface. And so that's what is one of the coolest things this book talks about. As you guys know, I am a workaholic.

I love working. I love sitting at my desk, writing, read, like my days are jam packed with a whole bunch of stuff. They have been for a decade plus since we launched click funnels. I have not stopped moving. Like just keeps going and going. As you probably know, about a month and a half ago, I was at a wrestling tournament. And I detached both my biceps. Literally God was like basically took me and put me on the sidelines.

It's like, Russell, you cannot work for a little bit. So I lost this arm first. I got surgery in this arm. I could not type. So I had one hand. So I'm typing one hand as fast as I can, you know, still trying to get everything done. And then on two weeks later, I got this one done.

And all of a sudden I'm in double cast. I cannot type. And so I'm stuck there. And, you know, if we had an event, so I was on stage, an event with double cast. I couldn't talk. Earlier I, they, Todd Dickerson, who's my business partner, ClickFunnels.

Todd brought to me into our entire team, like, basically some big issues we were dealing with and struggling with, right? We sat there for like two hours, trying to figure, how do we solve this problem? And same thing, like, we're going around. Everyone's kind of putting ideas and, like, we left the meeting uneasy because, like, no one knew the answer. And it's like, you have to solve this problem where else there's going to be bad things

that happen, right? Like, you're going to lay off team members. You're going to, like, it was one of those kind of problems. And I remember going home that night and I was tired. It had been a long day. I had no arms, so I was frustrated. And normally what I would do is I would, like, you know, have someone turn on YouTube and I would try to, like, sedate myself and numb my brain.

But for some reason, I didn't want to. My wife left to his church activity, so I was home alone for a little bit. And so I remember sitting down there, I'm sitting on the couch. I'm just going to think until the answer shows up. So I sat on the couch. I'm just kind of daydreaming and thinking and stuff. And within 15 minutes, all of a sudden like, boom, decided to pop my head. I was like, oh my gosh.

I think it solves the problem. I'm looking from this angle and this single angle. I was like, this solves the problem. Like within 15 minutes, it just showed up when I disconnected from me working and doing stuff. And I was telling someone later, I was like, I feel like God literally like, stop working, put me on the sidelines. And like, let me like push something in your subconscious mind. So he literally put him on the sidelines so I couldn't do anything. And also in like all of this idea.

are coming. And so four week period time where I could not use my arms. Doing literally what talks about in this book, like shifting from, you know, the 10 hour work day that Russell's normally doing. Even I couldn't even do a six hour work day that he talks about, recommends this book. I was literally doing like a one or two hour work day and the rest of the time like I could just think or walk or you know whatever. And that's when these ideas started bubbling up. And so it's pretty powerful when you understand like that's how your subconscious brain works. Because if you can't find the answer consciously, your conscious mind can only find things through your five senses, right? So if you can't see it, taste it, touch it, smell it or

feel it. If you can't get the data from there, like you can't find the answer. If you You can't find it from one of those five senses. You need to stay back and let your subconscious mind bring it to you. And when you understand that, that's the main principles book. That's how you start getting more creative in business. All these ideas will start bubbling. Now, this book obviously talks a lot about using your subconscious mind for creativity. But the other thing to understand is your subconscious mind.

It's the belief patterns you have. Yes, it will give you ideas and those things will bubble up when you take the time to break away. But also like your subconscious mind, your subconscious beliefs are the level you're at. I remember Tony Robbins when I'm talking about how your subconscious beliefs and your identity, you're kind of like a thermostat, right? If your thermostat set at 72, you may get a little. above 72 or below but like it snaps back up right it's above like the air condition comes and snaps back down you go down below and the heater snaps back but like that's like your floor

your subconscious floor right it's a lot of us like we have these beliefs and this is our subconscious floor right and we have desire to raise the temperature to raise the heat to 90 or 100 degrees where we want to be at right and so we set that conscious decision like I'm gonna do the thing right what happens it goes up a little bit and then your subconscious is like nope it snaps you back down to where it believes you you belong right to that level and so we all of us we have these subconscious floors these beliefs that we have and so if you ever felt stuck like that's the reason why so understanding your subconscious mind how to figure okay where's the beliefs that I'm at how do I break those beliefs and set a

new temperature right a new level like that's the key to start moving up and actually having more success than you are today you want to get a copy of this book they are hard to find first editions there's some reprints on Amazon that are okay but I got my notes for this if you want to see my notes on this book going chapter by chapter share the best quotes the best ideas examples and case says and how you as a funnel hacker you as a marketer can actually implement these things inside of your busy work days down in the comments in the description we will have a link to the notes we can get notes

for the subconscious mind in business this book is awesome it's powerful it's a quick read but it's something that'll help increase your creativity and help you to break through whatever sticking point you're at and get to the next level