SFR 159: Funnel Training Wheels...

Boom what's up guys? This is Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio!

 

We're gonna talk about training wheels - and, “Is this a real gun?”

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today, and now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

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My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. What's up, guys?

 

Hey, first off this is not a real gun okay just so you know, it's an airsoft gun but is a replication of a few others.

 

Hey I know I give a lot of military examples, but I wanna give one for you right now, just 'cause it was a part of my life for a while, okay?

 

So, this lesson, if I can get you to understand how this relates to sales funnels... it has everything to do with sales funnels... follow me for a moment.

 

Okay, when we were shooting; we would shoot, and we'd shoot, and we'd shoot, and we'd shoot.

 

Before we ever shot a bullet; guys, for weeks and weeks and weeks - all we would do is we would lay prone on concrete. We'd sit down, and they would make us hit our elbows on the ground "bam, bam, bam," right on the concrete to make our elbows stronger.

 

It hurt like crazy for the first few days, but we started getting tougher and tougher and tougher so we could lay in the prone longer.

 

Anyone else who's in the service, you know you guys have been through this as well -  you know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

For like two or three days we did that - and each night in the barracks we laid down just" bam, bam, bam, bam," smacking on the ground trying to get my elbows stronger and tougher.

 

Then eventually we could lay prone for a long time, and it wouldn't hurt your elbows anymore - you wouldn't need little elbow pads - you didn't need any of that kind of stuff.

 

The other thing we would do is for a long time, we would just sit there in a prone, and we'd take a full canteen,  and we would hook it on the end of the barrel (so there's all that weight), and we'd just stay there.

 

There'd be no bullet, and all we would do was practice cycling the weapon. That was it, "bam cycle the weapon, bam cycle the weapon."

 

The next thing they would have us do is we would... (again I know a lot of you guys who have been in you know the service, you guys have done this as well okay, and you know exactly what I'm talking about). We would lay down there and we'd take a dime and sit it on the end of the barrel, and then we'd shoot...

 

There'd be no round, and there'd be no bullet; we'd take a shot right, and then we would recharge the weapon while keeping balance.  The dime, and even sometimes a canteen would be hanging off the end.

 

If we could cycle the weapon multiple times without dropping that dime and leaving belts you know without rotating back and forth, then we were successful.

 

We would do that over and over and over and over again; point, shoot, point, shoot - over and over and over and over.

 

We did this for weeks and weeks and weeks before we ever even put a live round inside of a weapon.

 

There were these guys that would show up, and they were like, Man I'm gonna be a sniper, and they expect to be this high-fluent guy - but they can even sit in the prone for like five minutes without hurting themselves - they were way way ahead of where they are, right!

 

One of the things I wanted to talk about with you guys real quick is this whole idea of funnel building.

 

A lot of people wanna be snipers when they can't even cycle a weapon in, right! A lot of people wanna build sales funnels that are successful when they haven't even figured out what copy is. They think, "Oh, it's not about copy, it's not about copy."

 

However, they don't even know the actual psychology of what's happening in the brain. They don't know the difference between marketing and sales. They have not done the things inside of their life, right and there's no pattern in their life to actually know how funnels work, or what a funnel is.

 

For a little bit, I used to think, "Oh, a funnel is pages." A funnel isn't pages -it's a way to do a funnel, okay?

 

Anyway, what I wanted to do real quick is - I wanted to show you guys a notebook, and how much I've dedicated my life to this topic, okay?

 

I wanna show you a notebook; this is the original notebook where I first heard about Russell Brunson and his very first course  - the first course that I went through of his was called "DotCom Secrets X."

 

Check this okay, I just wanna show you guys these pages. Here let me make sure you guys can see it. Check these pages out! They are chock full.

 

I stayed up till 3 AM for three months in a row, I mean look at that, studying funnelology. Studying.

 

Alright, this is all ads the beginning of it... This is all ad strategy - ad strategy, ad strategy. I mean look at that guys; this is one notebook!

 

I just found a whole bunch of 'em over there, and I've been kinda walking through memory lane. I probably spent too much time today doing that, but I was reminded like, "Oh, man, I really have spent a significant portion of time in this game," okay.

 

When I was in college, I would stay up till three AM studying Russell's first course, and this is the way I did it; I would press play, and I would pause after about five seconds, and I would write down what he said.

 

Okay, and I would press play, and I would press pause after five seconds then I would write down what he said. Look at this (Stephen flicking through pages of his notes), "Finding good sites," "These are the best tools," "This is the best way to buy banner ads," "This is the best way for media growth and traffic."The Online Traffic Blueprint:  this is how actual sales process happens part two of three, three of three, right! This is "Facebook strategies." I mean tons and tons of stuff, right... "How to take advantage of the lifeline of your leads," how to... I mean this is so rich, oh my gosh I can't even believe...

 

In fact, I was reminded of a few things that I'm gonna start doing differently!

 

I started calling this my "Indiana Jones journal." I wrote them down in my diary so I wouldn't have to remember, right? It's the exact same thing from Indiana Jones.

 

What I want you to know and understand is that if you're just starting out, or you've only been doing this for maybe like a month or two, and you're like, "It doesn't work,"  understand that's a false belief, it's not true! Get real with yourself and realize that when you're looking at other guys... don't compare yourself to where other people are!

 

Use it as leverage, use it as motivation - but don't compare yourself, or put your self-worth on somebody else.

 

That's the fastest way to go down.

 

Think dime drills, okay? Think you're laying down practicing...

 

This is like training wheels, okay? This is like Rocky; remember the first Rocky, and he's just breaking ribs pounding the meat in that freezer...

 

A lot of you guys haven't even done that yet, and you're expecting to go to an octagon, okay? Understand that this is a dedicated thing for you to get into.

 

If you're like,  "I don't know if I wanna get into this game?"  If that's a scary place for you to go, okay? I remember the day I was standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, and I looked at myself;  I had done real estate, I had sold eBooks on the internet, I tried to through Amazon, I had done door-to-door sales, I was a telemarketer, diamonds, literally...traffic driving and that kinda...

 

I started seeing this funnel game, and I started getting into that.  I'd tried, I think it was definitely 17 businesses I think that I tried before one of 'em actually took off and was successful. It was easily like 9 or 10 industries.

 

I obsessed until I found the one.  

 

If you're asking yourself like, "Stephen, I don't know what I want to do?' Here's simple fix, "Try More Stuff," okay?

 

I started doing real estate, and I started doing stocks and options; I mean I obsessed. We go spend a lot of money to learn from the best person at just this one thing; just this one thing, or just this one thing, right?

 

I dove in as if it was what I was gonna do for the rest of my life.  I committed right, but after about three, four, five, six months, I was like, "You know what, I just don't feel like I've found 'the thing' yet? I don't know if this is what I want?" Then I'd go to the next thing, and I'd dive in as if my life depended on it.

 

I called it an "Age of Exploration.'  I actively entered an age of exploration. I actively wanted to know, "is this what I want to do?"

 

And then number two, once I find it, I sink my teeth into it. Does this industry, or is this thing that I'm doing... do I have the capacity to obsess?

 

I wanna look ridiculous to people that are outside of the industry. If they don't know what I do, I want them to look at me and be like, "Dude, that guy is crazy about what he does!"

 

If you don't see that you have that capacity in what you're doing right now... If you don't have a capacity to obsess; I mean insatiably, inconsolably...

 

Are you able to "obsess, obsess, obsess" and become one of the best, if not the best at what you do, right?

 

Am I the best funnel builder? No, but I'm probably up there. I don't know of any other person, besides Russell, that's built so many funnels as I have - which is interesting, right? You think about that...

 

 I was looking at some goals that I wrote three years ago, and one of my goals before I ever met Russell; one the goals I wrote down was, "I wanna hang out with Russell."  I just sent it to him, and I was like, "Dude, that happened. That's crazy!" However, it's part of it was part of the obsession.

 

When you obsess and declare what it is you want - it's funny how many things in the world start to conspire for you.

 

If you feel like things right now are conspiring against you - most of the time,  it's because you haven't declared what you want, right?

 

Things want to align up for your benefit, but if you've not declared - no one knows what you want. No one can help you. There are things that can't come together.

 

I'm not saying like, "the power of the universe." I believe in God, okay? However, I believe that God can't help me "do the thing" until I say, "This is what I wanna do."

 

So when those things came into alignment, and I said, "Boom, I wanna be the best funnel builder in the world," when I said that, things started coming together.

 

I saw that I had the ability; that this was an area where I was able to obsess.I saw it was an area and ability where I was able to try and become the best in the world. Where there was capacity and room.

 

If you're like, "Oh, I don't know what I want to do yet?' Well, start exploring with intent. Figure out, "Is this the thing I'm gonna sink my teeth in?" Are you just gonna be known for just this one thing?

 

What's funny is, when I actually got really really far down into the funnel game, suddenly this whole area's opened up where I can really obsess over; it's offer creation. So I've kinda become the offer creation guy.

I was like, "Okay I'm gonna put blinders on." You know those horses with the blinders? "I'm not gonna look at real estate anymore." If you're doing that, "great," I'm just saying I'm not gonna look at real estate anymore. "I'm gonna stops selling eBooks." I was really into that kinda stuff for a while. "I'm gonna stop looking into doing diamonds, stocks and options too." I'm not gonna look at that anymore. Instead, I got real focused.

 

I put down every book that had nothing to do with funnels.  Even though all sales have to do with funnels... I mean specifically funnel building, and on the internet. I put  everything away, and I was like, "Who is the best person to learn from?"

 

I was walking out of the event room at Clickfunnels one day (this wasn't long ago, I think this was like last fall), I was walking out, and Russell was walking out of one of the other offices, and we were walking back to his office, he goes, "What's up man?" I said, "Oh just recorded this sweet video." He goes "Dude, you know what I figured out about you?" I go, "What?" He goes, "You live by a principal, it's kind of interesting I wish more people lived by it..."  I was like, "Oh yeah, this is interesting! What is it dude?" and he goes, "You live by the principal of following whoever has the biggest cheese." I was like, "That's kind of an interesting way to say that." and he goes, "If you wanna go and learn how to do this thing, you don't go learn from like a sea-level person, you see who has the biggest cheese in that thing and you learn right at their feet." And he pointed out all these places I'd done that.

 

I was like, "yeah that's right, yeah I've done that." And he's like, "Think about funnels and me." I'm like, "Yeah you certainly have the largest cheese on the funnel game there Russell."

 

However, first of all, just figure out where you are and then just declare it. Decide and then declare, "This is what I want. This is where I'm going."  Then be willing to put the training wheels on. Do the freaking dime drills. Take time to hit your elbows on the concrete. Do what you're supposed to. Don't shortcut the actual process - fall in love with the process. That's the easiest way to stay in love with what you're doing.

 

I'm really really passionate about this topic because man, I remember growing up, I would have conversations with my parents -  you know kinda complaining like, "I don't know what I'm good at?" Like I'm not really that "crazy for sports guy," although I like it. I was really physical; still I wasn't really into sports.  I didn't know what I do?

 

I'm so passionate about this because after a while - when I accepted the fact that I hadn't just tried enough stuff yet - I tried stuff, tried stuff, tried stuff tried, stuff - and then suddenly I was like "Boom!" I declared right. I decided and I declared publicly.

 

It's the reason I always give you guys my goals at the beginning of each year. It's the scariest thing I do.  January first comes along, "Alright, guys, here's how I financially did last year. Here's how financially I'm going to do this next year." Do I hit it? Not usually, but I usually come close. And it's because I'm declaring intent.

 

Because I have the intent, I  find the person who has right the biggest cheese. Boom! This is a Mr. Miyagi scenario. Too many guys are fearing looking stupid while you're painting the fence and sanding the floor, right? "Oh that has nothing to do with what I'm going to go do, I don't wanna look like an idiot."

 

Man be willing to look like an idiot, you're gonna be. You're not gonna know anything about the industry for a while - so who cares?

 

You're not gonna have any following  - so who cares?

 

No one's really watching you for a while anyway, okay?

 

If you're gonna go and you're gonna choose, be willing to find your Mr. Miyagi, "the biggest cheese." Then when he says, "Sand the floor, paint the fence, put a water bottle on the end of your gun," be willing to do it.

 

What ended up happening with that shooting thing is; I dedicated so much of my time,( not that you have a lot of time in basic training) but in the evenings, I would lay down in the prone I would keep hitting my elbows. I would keep cycling like visualize my sight picture like crazy. I would do everything I was supposed to do over and over and over.

 

I became pretty obsessed over it in basic training, and I was one of two guys out of 200 to win a phone call home because of how well I shot.

 

I only missed a few rounds, and they're like "dang."  It was super cool these off iron sights; you know really really far sho - it was really fun. I obsessed over it, and it was those kind of experiences though and realizing fascinating.

 

It's the training regiment that gives you success once you actually find the thing and you declare that that's the thing you want just everywhere, to the market to whoever, to God, yourself, spouse, whoever when you declare it.

 

Then you put blinders on, and you're willing to find the guy with the biggest cheese and do as he says; it's the dedication to the training regiment, it's pressing play and stopping after three seconds - that's what ends up giving you success inside of whatever you're deciding to do. Anything, right anything that you do.

 

In fact, the way I started learning how to do sales videos was actually pretty interesting. I went, and I found this guy's sales training, and it was really cool.

 

I wanted to do it, but I didn't know how to write sales copy - so what I started doing was, I would find these different sales videos, and this was a serious pain in the butt, but it taught me like crazy...

 

I would sit down for  2 hours and be like, "Okay, I'm going to do nothing but this."  I would press play for about 5-seconds and listen to what the guy was saying in the sales video, and then I'd press pause, and I would write down what he said. There were five videos I transcribed; it took me 6 weeks to do that.  I was in classes and doing other things as well, but every day, I would dedicate several hours to doing this.

 

Then I'd go back and read 'em I'd be like, "Oh patterns,  patterns everywhere."

 

Then I'd do it again to the next video, I'd see what he was doing, and what he changed from the last one, right. (This is a guy in a different industry - it wasn't sales funnel industry.) Then I did it again, and I did it again, and I did it again.

 

In fact, Russell's told me this story; he's got a big stack of sales letters behind his desk it's a huge stack, big old stack of swipe files. Back in the day, what they used to do is they would go to events, (I don't even know if there's still events like this - there might be though). But he's like, "If you wanna learn how to be like a copywriter, a sales copywriter, what you do is you go to these events, and they'd hand you like the top converting top performing sales letters from multiple industries. You would spend 3 days rewriting the entire sales letter by hand.”

 

That's all the event was - because writing it and thinking through got you to learn the process.

 

Learn the process, learn the process. I guarantee whoever has the biggest cheese; number one: they're clearly masters, but what they really have is a process.

 

I have a process for funnel building. I have a process for pumping funnels out of the door.

 

Just like there was a process for the shooting; there's a process for me going through and learning that stuff - there's a process for me.

 

I got third in my first sprint triathlon - which is really cool. It was a while ago - it was like five years, six years ago. There was a process I was going through... the process is the success, okay? What's funny is, if you wanna shortcut it; first, set the sight and declare. Go find the guy with the biggest cheese and learn that person's process. When you do that, it's the process, it's the training regiment that gives you the success.

 

Anyways, this feels like it's all over the place.

 

I just want you to know I know why I am where I am. I know exactly why, and it's because of these little realizations that I've had along the way.

 

It's kind of like if you guys remember the movie Titans? Great movie, right, great move. Remember in that training camp, and they're doing all these things that might seem kind of trite, right? The coach knew what was up; he knew exactly what things would cause what outputs.

 

So when you find that person; you find that Mr. Miyagi, and you're doing "wax on, wax off." You're doing all these things - you're doing dime drills.

 

The equivalent of that is you're pressing play and pause every 3- 5 five seconds.

 

Those are the things that make you a master. You do those things - don't watch the clock. Throw, shoot your clock. Okay get rid of it, don't watch the clock, and you'll realize that within like a year of you doing that kinda thing you're gonna be an expert. Meaning, more so than 80% percent of the population you keep doing that stuff.  You're gonna go 90% alright 91, 92 and you're gonna get without that much time - you're gonna get a lot of progress. You're gonna be able to remove those training wheels and suddenly you'll be training others.

 

You have to understand that most of the time when someone asks me, "What should I go do?"  I'm like, "Man you haven't tried enough stuff. Go try stuff and then declare what you want. Go find someone with the biggest cheese and learn from them - learn their process they've somehow formulated their process, learn their process."

 

In that training regiment, there's virtually guaranteed success. Then you turn around you start teaching others that solidifies what you've learned. That's the model that I use, and it's literally why I do this podcast.

 

If I can turn around and I can teach you guys what I'm learning at the same time, it serves me just as much as it serves you. I'm living the exact process I'm trying to teach you guys.

 

Anyways hopefully it's been helpful? My urge to you is to keep the training wheels on unless you feel like you can turn around and train somebody else.  Keep the training wheels on and find the person with the "biggest cheese." Go find the person with the process who's so good.

 

I have an offer creation process, so people come to learn offer creation process from me. I obsess over it, and it's become my thing. Offer creation - right, the actual sales message creation, the actual market message creation, that's my thing.  I think about that like 24/7 -I obsess.

 

If there's no capacity for you to obsess over the thing that you do , then you're probably in the wrong thing.

 

Alright guys hopefully this has been a helpful episode to you if you have liked this at all please go review it and rate it inside of iTunes - that means the world to me, and I do read them. I'll turn back around, "Oh check it out - a new review, and I go back, and I read it.  It means a lot to me, and I do see who does it. It means a lot.

 

Hey guys thanks so much and I'll see you in the next episode, bye. Oh yeah!

 

Hey wish you could geek out with other real funnel builders and even ask questions while I build funnels live? Wish granted, watch and learn funnel building as I document my process in my funnel strategy group. It's free just go to thescienceofselling.online and join now..

 

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