The Russell Brunson Show - Why I'm "Pausing" The Inner Circle (Part 2 of 2)

Episode Date: October 16, 2019

The second half of my conversation about why I decided to pause my Inner Circle. On today's episode hear how Russell came to the decision of pausing his inner circle group, and why it could help motivate you to look at what's most important in your life. Here are some of the awesome things to listen for in this episode: What were Russell's reasons for pausing Inner Circle. Why we have to sometimes take a break from good things to focus on great things. And find out what will happen with inner Circle in the future. So listen here to this powerful episode about pausing inner circle to focus on other things, and why it's so important. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/250-why-i-m-pausing-the-inner-circle-part-2-of-2 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, and supply. AirTransat. Travel moves us. Hey everyone, this is Russell Brunson.

Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Show. This is part two of the episode where I'm telling you why I paused my inner circle. Some people have told me I'm crazy, some people think I'm insane. But today I'm just going to tell you the rest of the story about why I did it. And hopefully it'll help you as you're making some decisions in your personal life and your business as well. So the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, who are 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 answer. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing Secrets. All right, everybody. So I left off talking about the history of the Inner Circle and how we got to the spot where we had 100 entrepreneurs and I was and um and it's crazy like how much uh like i just want to keep re-emphasizing how fulfilling the work with this group has been for me um as i wrote the

expert secrets book and the traffic secrets book you know they they were you know again we have 90 i think 97 almost 98 000 people inside of ClickFunnels. And obviously I don't know all the businesses, but this sampling of a hundred people are the ones I have a chance to like fill the pult all the time. And it's my, my pult on the markets and what's happening, what's working, what's not working, what we need to develop, what we need to change, what I need to teach. Like all those things came from my interactions with this, uh, with my group, with my inner circle.

And, uh, and, uh, and so, um, uh, it's been one of these things where it's just like, I love it so much. It's so important to me. Um, but about six, six months or so ago is when Todd Dickerson and I, uh, Todd's my co-founder at ClickFunnels. Um, we had this meeting and it was just basically like, look, if we were to start this whole thing over from scratch, ClickFunnels, like what would we do different? And, um, we called it our sacred cow meeting. And this is basically said, there's no sacred cows, like anything goes, like whatever we need to change, we, we, we, we need to change it. And it doesn't matter how hard it is, how painful it is, no matter how much we love the feature or the program or the thing, um, we need, we need to, to have that, those hard conversations that

aren't fun. And so, um, we and we went through a whole bunch of stuff, which is why some of these announcements that are happening and ClickFunnels are happening, because we decided, look, this thing we spent two years on and $7 million in development, we're going to stop working on it. We're going to sunset it, right? There's this thing over here and this thing over here

and this program here and this coaching program, this thing, and all these things were up on the chopping block for potential discussion, like like what are we gonna do with it and one of the ones that um was a sacred cow to me was my inner circle and again it's it's been oh like this amazing thing to me but right now you know five years in the click funnels 15 years into this this career that i've been in um you know it know, it's been, it's been a lot of work. And I think you guys see that from the outside between writing books and managing teams and software and events and, and all the things it's, it's become a lot. And so not only was it like, I didn't mean to shift

things for, for ClickFunnels, but it's like, what do we actually want? Like, what's the point of us running this huge company and doing these things if, if our lives aren't, aren't doing exactly what we want. And a big part of the, the thing for me was like, I'm like, I'm doing everything, but my kids, like my, my oldest twins are going to be in high school next year. And, uh, the other kids are not far behind them. And it's like, I have so many things happening. It's like, I need more time for, for the kids, for everything. And, and, uh, and also like, you know, how much of my time, you know, eight days, twice a year, plus a lot of Fridays I'm spending with Inner Circle. And while it's amazing, fulfilling, it's also, it takes me a lot of time that I could be focusing

on the thing that's growing the most, the thing that serves the most people, which is click funnels, right? Which is the content that I create that's evergreen, like writing a book or things like that, that live beyond just the moment. And so for me, I had to make that hard decision, like what I do at the inner circle. And just to kind of put this in frame for everybody, like inner circle nets me after everything over $2 million a year. So it's like the sacred cow here is like, am I going to turn off a business and that's my two million dollars a year um but more importantly and more the thing that was harder for me was just like this relationship i have with these amazing entrepreneurs who are literally changing the

world okay if you've been to fun hiking live you've seen the speakers most of them are from my inner circle like it's these are the people that i that we i work with directly you know that we we anyway we've been through war and back with with these guys and so um that was the the more difficult choice and um finally I mean it's probably six months ago I kind of made a decision like I need to I need to wind this down so I can spend all all the extra free time with my family and then be able to focus 100% of my focus on our core business and um and but it was like I couldn't tell anybody. I, I didn't want to, I didn't want to announce it because I knew how hard it was going to be for me and for them and

for everybody. And so, um, and so I didn't, I delayed it. I delayed it. I delayed it. I delayed it until, you know, everyone's coming here on Monday. And so Friday before I, I finally did the Facebook live and the group and kind of told everybody, this is what's happening and this is the plan. And, you know, ClickFunnels, we have a mission to get to a billion dollar valuation, which no software company's ever done that wasn't backed by venture capital. We're on a mission to do that.

That's gotta be my focus when it comes to my work. And then it's like, my kids, I need to spend more time there. It's like, I can't keep juggling all these things. And a lot of things are getting cut. A lot of things are being shifted. And one of the big ones that unfortunately I have to pause right now is the inner circle and i told him like i'm pausing for a couple reasons number one it's inner circle for life like you guys are in this

for life and i want to keep creating things that you can be part of and you can network and you can um we can keep the community together but um but number two um i just need to pause it for a while and it's not indefinitely. Someday I'll step down as a CEO of ClickFunnels and I'll have more time. My kids will be graduating from high school. I don't know where or when, but I want to bring it back with the same group of entrepreneurs

and have a door for some of you guys who have been working towards that and trying to prepare yourselves and building businesses and changing people's lives to be able to be in there. I want that to still be something that's available and possible. And so right now I announced that it's lives to be able to be in there. I want, I want that to still be something that's available and possible. And so right now, um, I announced that it's going to be,

it's going to be paused. And man, I can't tell you how much fear I had making that announcement and how difficult and hard it was because I was so scared that these people that I've, that I've learned to love and to respect and to, to literally been on the front lines of business war with, um, how they were going to accept it. And some might be upset. It might be frustrated. I'd be angry. And people pay a lot of money to be in that group. You know, we, uh, had over a year, a year and a half ago, we raised the price in 25,000 a year to $50,000 a year, and they still stuck in. They still want to be part of it. And so, um, anyway, so that's, that's kind of the, uh, that's kind of where, where is that? And so the last piece of the story,

I was going to tell you about the first two days of Inner Circle. And I have the next two days, Thursday and Friday, but Monday and Tuesday have been so emotional and hard and amazing. I felt like it was almost like my funeral. Everyone had a chance to get up and thank me for stuff, which was really, really special. But the other interesting thing that I kind of got that I didn't expect was, um, for a lot of people, and I'm going to, um, tell you paying June's experience. Cause it was one that's probably the most tangible and relevant

for you guys. But paying June told me, he said, you know, after he made the announcement that night, he was like, um, he's like, I laid in bed and I couldn't sleep. And he started thinking, he said, you know, I joined your circle four years ago. Five years ago, he launched ClickFunnels. He's like, we've seen now what's possible. He's like, what am I going to do over the next five years? You know, in five years now, I could build a company to a billion dollars. But I got to start looking at things differently and acting differently. And it actually became motivational for him.

I had other people like, and it's the homes who just told me. She said, you know what? Like, you're taking this break. Spend more time with your family. And she's like, it made me reflect back. I'm like, man, do I need what, like you're taking this break, spend more time with your family. And she's like, it made me reflect back and like, man, do I need to take a break? Do I need to spend more time with my family? What shifts do I need to make in my life and my business as well? And so I hope that me doing, me pausing this, not only is it going to buy me some time to

spend with my family and my kids and focus on our core mission, which I think is important, but hopefully it inspires some of you guys to look at that as well. You know, sometimes there are things that are really, really good. Like this inner circle group has been good. It has changed my life. It's changed their lives. It's changed lives of so many people, but, um, there are things that are great, like your family that you can't get that time back no matter what. It's like, um, we sacrifice great things for, or excuse me, we sacrifice good things for great things. And I hope that some of you guys can get that lesson. Second thing is just showing you guys what's possible in five years. Like five years ago, we didn't have a ClickFunnels. Six years ago, like we were at the brink of bankruptcy trying to like keep the doors open while Todd was building ClickFunnels, right? Like

it's amazing what can happen in the next five years. And I hope that you guys look at this as a moment to stop and like, hey, what's possible for me in the next five years? What's my vision? What's the direction? What am I running towards? What can I go and try to accomplish? And so, yeah, so that's some of the reasons I want to share with you. To end with, I'm going to actually read you

a little piece of the Traffic Secrets book. And I read this to the Inner Circle members. And I told them, I said, look, ClickFunnels has, again, 97, 98,000 members. But I said, you know, when I think i think about like when i'm creating things um i was like i'm creating for the inner circle they're like they're the face of the customers i see all the time the people i know their names i know their families i know their kids i know their employees and other staff like i know their vision their mission like like so for me like i i like my, my lens of this entire huge community is the inner circle.

And so, um, as I was writing, um, the dedication for the traffic seekers book, um, it was interesting. I started thinking, I'm like, well, like I, I can't remember the.com secrets, expert seekers book. Like who did I dedicate those books to? And I opened up the.com seekers book and it was interesting cause I dedicated it, um, uh, to my mom and my dad and my wife, Colette. Um, and I looked at the expert seekers book and I dedicated it to all the experts who were willing to put out their information to change my life and then I dedicated it to my kids. And so the third book, as I was writing it and as I was sitting down to write the dedication,

I started thinking about this community and it started with the inner circle, but it also bleeds down to you, to every single person who's hearing my voice right now as my funnel hackers. And the third book is dedicated to all of you. And so I wanted to read you the dedication and hopefully it'll get you pumped to read the book when it comes out, but also to help you understand why this work

and this mission has been so important to me. So this is, here we go. Here we go. It says, this book is dedicated to the entrepreneurs who I've been called to serve, my funnel hackers. You made it possible for me to do a work that interests me, that I feel is meaningful and worthwhile. This final book in the Seekers Trilogy was created to help you find more

of the people who are waiting to hear your message. If this book helps you to reach even just one more person and change their life with your God-given gifts, then this work was a success. And so as I told yesterday, and when I sat up with the first group in a circle, I read that to them and I bawled my eyes out like a little baby. But I hope that as you heard that,

you understand that like, if you're listening to this, if you're feeling the calling, the tug, the pull that's got you into this community, into ClickFunnels, into my podcast, into all these things, it's because you have a God-given gift or talent or something. And you've been called to do something with that, to help get your, to help change somebody's life in some way, right? That's why you, that's why you tune in. That's why you listen.

That's why you dream. That's why you have these visions because of that. And so if everything that I've done to this point in my career, 15 years, but five years of click funnels and with the books and the coaching, all these things, um, if, if my work has helped you to help change somebody's life, then, um, then it's all worth it. And, um, and if you change more people's life, then man, it's, it's, uh, it's insane. Um, there's one more thing I want to share with you, but I'm not going to share on this podcast. I'm going to, I might do it in the next one. It was a message that one of the members of the inner circle said about, um, about funnels and about, anyway, I'm going to save that one for you. So there's my hook to hook you to the next episode.

But hopefully you got something from these ones. And for any of you who've been striving and working towards getting into my inner circle someday, keep striving. It's not going to be long. It's not going to be a 20 year thing when I bring it back. I told them all, I said, look, it might be a year from now, it might be two years from now, but I'll be sending an email out saying, okay, I'm back and we're opening it back up.

This is what it's gonna look like. And at that point, I hope that you are prepared and ready because I would love to have you as part of this group, this group of people who are changing the lives of millions of people around the world. And they've changed my life as well. So I'm grateful for anybody in the circle members who are listening.

Thank you for the last five or six years and keep doing what you're doing. I'm so proud of you and impressed with the lives you've changed. Circle members who are listening, thank you for the last five or six years. And keep doing what you're doing. I'm so proud of you and impressed with the lives you've changed. And for everyone else, just keep moving forward towards that goal. And someday I hope to have a chance to sit with you in one of my meetings, one of my mastermind groups, and have a chance to see how you're changing the world as well. All right. Thanks, everybody.

Appreciate you all. And have an amazing, amazing day. Would you like to see behind the scenes of what we're actually doing each day to grow our company? If so, then go subscribe to our free behind the scenes, reality TV show at www.funnelhacker.tv.