The Russell Brunson Show - Truthful Advertising: Napoleon Hill’s Secret Strategies That Still Work 100 Years Later | #Marketing - Ep 51

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

In this episode of The Russell Brunson Show, I share something I still can’t believe I own… The only known copy of a 1917 advertising course written and taught by Napoleon Hill himself, 20 years before he wrote Think and Grow Rich! This is more than just a cool collectible. It’s the missing link that explains how Napoleon Hill became one of the most influential personal development authors of all time. Before he shaped millions of minds, he was teaching people how to advertise. And not just the tactics, but how to become the kind of person who can persuade, influence, and move people to action. What he taught over 100 years ago still applies today, and in this episode, I break it down. What Hill got right, what today’s marketers are missing, and why timeless strategy beats trendy tactics every single time. Key Highlights: The real reason Think and Grow Rich has sold over 100 million copies, and it’s not what you think How Hill’s forgotten ad course focused on developing the advertiser before teaching any copy techniques The biggest mindset shift every marketer needs before they write a word of copy or launch a funnel Why so many entrepreneurs fail when platforms shift, and how to become “bulletproof” instead The powerful advertising principle Hill taught: help your customers visualize the outcome, not the process Why the best salespeople don’t sell products, they sell visions I’ve gone through every page of Hill’s original manuscript and taken notes on everything. If you want to understand the strategy that makes any tactic work and become the kind of person who can market, sell, and scale anything, this is where to start. This episode isn’t about chasing the next trend… It’s about learning what never changes! Get Russell's book notes 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. If I went to the black market, I could probably sell this, I think, pretty easily for, you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars. This is something that is insane that even exists, and this is the only copy on the planet that exists. A lot of you guys know Napoleon Hill, who is probably my favorite author. I've got the most Napoleon Hill stuff. I'm in my Napoleon Hill room with all his collectibles. But what's crazy that most people don't know is 20 years before Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich. He actually taught an entire advertising course at a college.

And this is the manuscripts from his advertising course. These were like the lesson manuals that he would hand it out during school back then. The George Washington Institute, founded by Napoleon Hill in Chicago, copyright 1917. So literally 20 years before Napoleon Hill wrote the book, Think and Grow Rich, he was teaching and studying and doing advertising. In fact, a lot of people know that Napoleon Hill was actually a copywriter first. He was writing sales letters. He was writing marketing campaigns.

In fact, a crazy fun fact. My first mentor, Dan Kennedy and Napoleon Hill both worked for the same company, writing copy way different generations, but the same industry. So a lot of people think, like, how do you write a book that sells 100 million copies like you can grow rich? Well, you do it by first becoming a really, really good advertiser, learning how to advertise and promotions and campaigns and all sorts of stuff like that. So this right here, this book set is insane because it's the original manuscripts from

him teaching the college university. The only place I've ever seen him actually teaching advertising. When I first got this, we started reading through him. And it's just insane to see the way his brain worked way back then. It's funny now because he's like, how did he sell so many copies of books? How is he still relevant, you know, 40, 50 years after he died. It's because he knew how to advertise, he knew how to give his message out there. And the principles that he taught in here are so fundamental and amazing that I'm excited

to share someone with you guys today. Luckily for me, I didn't actually have to pay for this. We have a really cool partnership with the Napoleon Hill Foundation. A little while ago, I donated a half million dollars to them to help with the initiative they had. And then since then, they keep sending me really cool things. Like, for example, Napoleon Hill's actual typewriters behind me, a bunch of other different books and one of the shipments came out and it was this and I was like what

is this and they're like it's Napoleon Hill's advertising course I'm like Napoleon Hill taught an advertising course like this is insane I'm like when do I look it up in 1917 I'm like literally 20 years before thinking grow rich he was teaching advertising and so this is something that it's priceless this is the only copy if I went to the black market I could probably sell this I think pretty easily for you know a couple hundred thousand dollars and right now it's locked away and safe except for right now there's controversy behind Napoleon Hill He's just like anything when you have someone who's out there, there are haters that come out.

But it's fascinating because we actually had Napoleon's grandson came out. We spent like an entire day filming the entire timeline going through like Napoleon's claims and what was true and like refuting all the different things that people said against him. But it's interesting because if you look at his life, like he got this commission from Andrew Carnegie to go and like spend 20 years to go interview the most amazing people in the world and then write this philosophy on personal achievement. That was his whole mission was to do that. He'd go out there and he started doing some things. He wasn't getting paid by Carnegie.

So he's freelancing. He's trying to make some money. and he starts having success. He wrote his book, Laws of Success. He made a whole bunch of money and then depression hit and he lost it all. And then the next thing happens, he starts going through his life. He writes thinking grow rich, makes a bunch of money. And then his wife leaves him and then it crashes again.

Like this pattern kept happening throughout his life. But then also, if you think about this, he was living like early 1900s. This is before most of like the advertising laws were even in effect. So a lot of times he would do stuff that was legal at the time and then the government would change the laws and then he would get hit for it. So it did multiple times where he ran into problems with the government. In fact, one of them was this college he set up. He set this college teaching advertising and it was very successful.

But then he had this idea. Like, what if I let the students go and sell access to the course and then it'll get more people in? And so he created this whole like multi-level marketing thing, had people out there. The students are selling more people into it's having more and more success and the government comes in like you can't actually do that. And you think about it back then 1900, like they didn't have the internet. They couldn't look at case law. They were just pushing the boundaries of stuff and you don't find out about what's legal or not legal until someone comes to you. You know what I mean?

It was such a different period of time. But it's interesting because if you look at all of the critics, you look at the things that they bring up, like, there's very good explanations for every single thing along the line. You know, all of a sudden, Napoleon Hill is human, just like me and just like you. I make mistakes. I'm sure in 200 years now, people write stories about the dumb stuff I've done and the mistakes that I made.

But the reality is like, we're all making these mistakes. It's fascinating. You look at Tony Robbins. Like 20 years ago, Tony Robbins was on infomercial saying all sorts of stuff. They have to see him and hit him. But he's still Tony Robbins. He's still transitioned from that and he's become Tony Robbins. Whether you love or you hate him, like FTC came and shut down Trump University because they were making claims at the time, right?

And he was able to evolve past that. So sometimes we're looking at someone's life as someone who's passed away and judging them based on like our standards of today. This happened when he was, you know, 30 years old. He lived to be 80. Like, so there's a whole lifetime he lived after that to fix the things he did that were wrong to make things right. I think one of the last claims that people always say is like he died broke and that's not true. If you look at like when he died, he was at the peak of his success. Anyway, so it's just kind of an interesting watching the critics.

The reality is there's a grain of true. truth, but then when you hear the whole story, it's not the same outcome. I'm obsessed with this right now and we're literally like republishing this book over at truthful advertising.com in the near future. The reason why I'm doing this right now is because this book isn't just advertising. You may think like, oh, well, he's teaching advertising back in the 1900s. But what's interesting is a couple things. Number one is most of this course, Napoleon Hill, again, he was obsessed with personal

development. You look at most of his life work was laws of success, think and grow rich, outwitting the devil, like these other books about success. And so when you look at like the lens of the way he taught the advertising, you look at the advertising course. Most of this curriculum is actually him trying to develop the advertiser, which is I've never seen before, right? People talk about advertising and figuring out right better hooks and headlines and stories and he does go into that but the bigger part is like you as an advertiser, how do you become the person who can

actually have the confidence enough in themselves and the writing abilities to be able to write a sales letter, right? How do you develop yourself and so he's weaving in all these personal development things into person to help them become the person who's able to do it, right? I see this all the time. I see this and people come into my world. They want to build funnels. They want to do whatever. and they're trying to learn the skill set or the tactic, right? When they don't understand it's the thing that they're missing is who they have to become to be good at that, right?

If you want to be an expert and be on stage speaking, that's awesome. I can give you some tactics how to speak on stage, but you have to go and, like, you have to earn your expertise. You have to go out there and do it over and over. You have to become somebody to be able to be the person who can stand on stage and carry an audience and hold an audience. And I think that's what people are always missing. You are where you are and what you are

because of your mental attitude in which you relate yourself to other people. Remember also your mental attitude is the one and the only thing over which you have complete control. This fascinating is just watching him focus all his effort on developing the advertiser. And then from that, it's like now we can actually talk about and get into the tactics and the strategy of advertising. I think that's one of the most fascinating things about this book and why I love it so much. You know, you're running Facebook ads or YouTube, like whatever you're doing, like your belief in what you are doing yourself is the key. Like it comes through on the camera. It comes through when you're speaking, comes through when you're writing copy.

Like whatever you're doing, it comes through. And so it's like, how do you develop that belief first in yourself? And then from there, now we can get into all the tactics of like creating great advertising. One of the actual advertising principles that Napoleon spends a lot of time in here that one of my favorites is back then they didn't have video or YouTube or radio. Like the method of advertising was written copy. So it was magazine ads, it was sales letters. Like that was how they communicated, right?

And so all communication came through some type of print. And so what he's talking about in here is as you are learning how to write, so there's two things. Number one, you have to get their attention. So you have to have a good hook. Like, we talk about all my books. Like, hook story off. Grab their attention initially. Tell them a story. They make them an offer. And Napoleon was saying, you got to grab their attention first. And then Athay said, you've got to persuade them. But the way you persuade someone, this is what the key thing he brought in is you have to help them to visualize the outcome of what the product or the service you're selling is. Like how you create that vision. And you do that through

the written word, obviously. And I remember when I read this, it reminded me of, man, 18 years ago, if you guys remember Robert Allen who wrote, no money down, he was the real estate guru back in the day. I remember I was funnel hacking him before funnel hacking was a word, but I was going through this whole process. Like, what is he doing? How's he built this huge brand? And I remember going through it. And back then, he had these, you buy one of these friend in books and invite you to a tele seminar.

You jump on a teleseminar. It was so fascinating that Robert Allen was doing that's based on these principles from Napoleon Hill, is he would have everyone sit down and create in their mind a vivid vision. That's what he called it. And you sit down and say, okay, I want you to visualize the home you have. Now, after you see the home, like, what does it look like? What does it look like? What does it smell like?

When you walk through the door, like, you have kids, you have dogs? He goes to this whole, it's like a 20 or 30 minute experience where he's creating a vivid vision in your mind. He calls that, like, we're creating your vivid vision. And so he goes to this whole process. And by the time you're done on this call, like, you know what you want. You desire this thing so much. And then it comes back and like, okay, now to make this vision a reality, invest in my real estate

I'll help you like sell real estate so you can have the big. But he creates the vision first, right? And that's what Napoleon Hill is talking about in this book is like you got to get your customer. After you grab their attention, then you have to help them to visualize the outcome. Not the process. A lot of times we get in the mistake of trying to sell the process. Like, I'm selling the course or I'm selling, you know, here's my step-by-step coaching program.

Here's like, we keep selling the process versus helping people visualize the outcome. Alex Ramosey spoke at one of our events one time and he shared a really good principle. We talked about like if you were a travel agent, the thing that you're selling is you're selling Hawaii. Right? You're selling Hawaii. It's going to be beautiful. You're going to be on the beach. You're visualizing the outcome.

You're selling the outcome, right? You're not selling all the stuff that happens between now and you get into Hawaii because that stuff's a nightmare. Like, you got to get tickets and you get hotels and then you got to like get on the plane and you're probably going to be sitting like on the back row with your kids and like carrying your bags and the pain of it. And then you have four layovers because you're from Boise and there's no direct flights to Hawaii. And then when you do get there, you got to come off and you're going to sit through customs and it's going to be hot and sweaty and like, you know, all this stuff.

You're talking about all those things. You just paint the vision of the outcome and then people buy and then they'll figure out all the rest. They'll go through all the pain because the vision of the outcome. And so the key thing from Napoleon here here, after you like learn how to become the advertisers you believe in. Number two is like, we're going to grab their attention that we got to help them to visualize the outcome, right?

And they teaches you. here like in the written word like how what do you say and how do you say it so the people feel this and again for me it just comes back to Robert Allen listening on a call of him explaining the vivid vision so think about for your audience could be you on a webinar it could be you know speaking on a YouTube video could be you writing a sales or whatever version of selling you have like how do you help your audience see the vivid vision where they're literally like it's like so tangible they can smell they can taste they can touch it because then the selling the product is easy right oh yeah we will flights to to Hawaii is this much money right that

part becomes really easy when you've actually helped them visualize the outcome successfully. You see people on YouTube, Instagram, podcasts, like, they're all trying to give value and they're dropping these ideas and stuff, but what's interesting is that most of the things that people are sharing are very tactical, right? Oh, do this thing on Instagram, you increase your views by 5%. Do this thing. And so, like, they're all leveraging like the tactic or the hack of the day, right? The thing with tactics is they disappear and they shift it and they change.

I've been in this business now for almost, I think, 25 years. And in 25 years, I've been in this business, I've seen all the gurus who have come and gone and come like they and the reason why is because they write a trend like oh my gosh there's this trend Instagram Reels the thing they become the guru of that they talk about they share it and then like that thing changes it shifts and then they fall apart and then they can't figure out next part of business and they just appear you know and I look at like why is Napoleon Hill stuff still relevant like why am I studying the old books and advertising Russell you have access to anybody you want why would you study

Napoleon Hill Robert Collier these people these people when they were writing the stuff they didn't have the ability where they could just throw up free stuff on to Instagram or Facebook or YouTube and hopefully get traffic or get money right They had to test everything with their own dollar. So if they're writing a sales letter, they got to write it, they got to go get printed, they got to go, like, fold it and put an envelope, they got to lick a stamp and put it on it and send it out and hope it just makes money. So they're not just like throwing stuff out there,

they're thinking through it and the strategy and understanding, right? And there's this whole philosophy and strategy that was built in the early 1900s by these advertisers that was based not on ideas or hoping stuff for it based on like, I just spent my last $1,000, do I get it back next week, right? If they did, like, cool, what did I do? How do I double down on that? And they just thought through things differently. And these are the core strategies that don't shift.

They don't change. They don't move when the algorithm changes, right? They're like the core foundational things. And so while it's great to like go study the fastest tactic, what's happening, you know, like whatever, you know, that's working today, it's so much better to understand the core fundamentals. The reason why I have been in this business now for 25 years. Number one is like I had a bunch of mentors teaching internet marketing right. I was going after like the shiny object of the day. But Dan Kennedy was my first real mentor.

And when Dan came in, he was like teaching me. about how they did marketing with fax machines and direct mail and I'm like a fax machine right I'm like how does this work but he was teaching me the strategies that work regardless and so when Google did the first Google slap it hurt my business because the traffic I was using from that shifted but it didn't kill my business I just shift like I knew the strategy as it'll move different platform right and when PPC shifted and then when MySpace shut us down then we shifted to Facebook and Instagram and Google and like the ups and the downs like when you understand the strategy it was what gives you longevity in this business too many people so many

people, like hundreds and hundreds of people that I know who've came in, learned a tactic, capitalize on it, made some money, and they disappeared because they don't understand the foundational strategies actually make it work. When you understand that and you study it and you learn it and you master it, it makes you boltproof, right? It makes it so you will be here in the long term. And again, 25 years have been doing this. The number of people who were in this business when I started right now, I can count them

on one hand. So it's very rare because everyone's going after the tactics versus like really understanding and mastering the strategy. I have my notes. I think I'm the only person on planet who's gone through this entire thing. I have my notes and my doodles and everything I learned from here before we publish this. This book, I don't think is live yet, depending on when you're watching this, but this book's not live yet.

But if you want to get my notes from everything, there'll be linked down in the description. Click on that, take you to a page. You can download my notes. And then eventually when the book comes live, we'll notify you from that page and let you guys know if you want to get a copy and read these original manuscripts to the first time ever. And if you want to really understand and master the strategy of advertising, this is the first place to start. Because not only needs to teach a strategy, it's going to develop you as the advertiser. It can help you to become the person you need to be to actually have success in this game. Thank you.

Thank you.