How to Own Success Using Two Phrases with Steve Larsen - FHR #323

Why Dave Decided to talk to Steve Larsen:

If you’ve heard the phrase “Lean into it” and “One Step Learning” then you most definitely have heard the name Steve Larsen before. Russell Brunson’s Padawan turned Master uses these sayings and principles to teach businesses and clients how to maximize their profits but today he wants to tell you how you can personally use them. He talks about the how and why behind each principle and how he used these exact principles to go from broke to a business coach. Like always, listen in for some great content and even learn how to maximize your knowledge gained at live events.

Tips and Tricks for You and Your Business:

(3:14) Steve’s Recent Geek Outs on the who

(4:28) What Do You Know About “One Step Learning”?

(6:44) Why Dave Loves One Step Learning

(9:23) Everything Isn’t New: Steve’s Philosophy on Events

(10:44) Steve’s Why’s and How’s for Frameworks

(14:04) Leaning In is How Steve Gets Through Challenges

(17:22) Sorry To Say It But...The Obstacle Is the Way

Quotable Moments:

(3:59) “They’re already a great fit, they don’t need to go create the problem and then go find the solution because they’re already feeling the problem.”

(6:24) It’s all about identifying where you want to go, where you are, and only learning like a hunter for the next step in front of you. That’s it. Blinders on everything else.”

(11:44) “ Understanding what those frameworks are and the natural step that most of the industry is taking that takes out most of the guesswork and it’s pretty hard to fail if you do it.”

(16:01) “It’s brutal honesty in oneself and with where you are like, ‘Steven...YOU’RE BROKE’ you know? And being okay with that and not judge your value off that.”

(19:08) “‘I don’t have any time’ Great, lean in. It’s not an excuse. I have empathy, but I have 0 sympathy for those kinds of scenarios.”

Other Tidbits:

Did you see Steve shaking at the Round Table Event at FHL? Our good friend is all good now but that’s just what happens when you’re trying to provide too much content on an empty stomach.

With consulting for thousands of companies now, Steve has become amply talented at Funnel Hacking other business strategies to understand the reason they worked for them.

Steve was unwillingly diagnoses with the symptoms of ADHD, he had too many goals and aspirations to allow the doctor to fully brand him as ADHD

Important Episode Links:

SteveJLarsen.comSales Funnel Radio PodcastFunnelHackingLive.com FunnelHackerRadio.com FunnelHackerRadio.com/freetrial FunnelHackerRadio.com/dreamcar

---Transcript---

00:00     Welcome to funnel hacker radio podcast where we go behind the scenes and uncover the tactics and strategies top entrepreneurs are using to make more sales, dominate their markets and how you can get those same results. Here's your host, Dave Woodward. Everybody welcome back to funnel hack black

00:18     radio. I literally have one of my most favorite people in the world on the show. He does not need an introduction, but I will introduce him afterwards. I want to welcome to the show with my dear friend, Mr Steven or Steve Larson. Welcome to show, but hey, thanks so much for having me, man. This is awesome. I am so excited. This is, I was going to try to go back. You are, I think what episode? Like 12 on funnel hacker radio. The one of the very, very first ones I ever did. I was so way, way, way back when, way back. Let's figure that one out. But it's been so cool for me to see your journey and you're just such a dear friend. You provide such massive value for those of us who were not at funnel hacking live. I don't know why you wouldn't have been there for some reason if you weren't, uh, just one of the many things that just epitomizes the kindness of Steve.

01:04     Do you want to go by Steve or Steven on this podcast? Which one you want is fine. Okay, so we'll go with Steve. So Steve was basically, they're at funnel hacking live. He was one of our round table hosts. You've already spoken. He just bought a ton of value. He's literally standing on a chair speaking to, he had the most people at anyone. I think we were like eight rows back of people around this circle. And so you basically have the knights of the round table with eight concentric circles behind it. Just couldn't get enough people around him. And all of a sudden I see Stephen sitting down. I'm like, Huh, that's kind of different. It's not normally like to you. And then I'll come over and he's like shaking. I'm like, dude, what's going on? He goes, I haven't eaten and I'm, and I'm like, stop everything.

01:45     You can't talk anymore. But like, listen, you guys are going to kill my favorite person in the world. You cannot do this to Steve though. Visit got us food. But that's just who Steven, I mean Steve, you give so much to everyone and it's just the most generous person in the world. The part I love is you just, you immerse yourself in content to a point that it is far beyond what most people would ever do. And because of that, the value that you're able to give people is so huge. I mean, I had people coming up to me, I would've paid $50,000 just to be, it's even stable. I mean people were so excited to be there, so we'll probably have to pay you next year to be around people. Hose. I was going to say, man, who is that guy?

02:26     But with that I just again see if thanks so much for being on. Anything else you want to say before we dive into some fun stuff and I appreciate that, that you know, I, I, the feeling is mutual. I just about passed out that day. I, I all the tricks, my vision actually boring. I was like, I'm not used to blurring out. And then I felt your hand on my shoulder pulling me down and I was like, oh, thank you. Oh my Gosh Dave. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Crazy. But honestly, the thing that I just love is Steve, you have this ability to connect with people at a level most people don't, which is, I know you're real strong. D I personality anyways. And with that you're, you're so driven, you get at the same time you have this heart of gold that people feel and they're just so drawn to you. I mean, it was funnel hacking live was so fun for me to watch it at the same time, scary because they've literally mauling you, they couldn't get enough of you. And it was just like, and I know you had friends there protecting and everything else, but every once in while it's like, listen back off.

03:27     Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks. So it's just neat to see. But so tell me, what are some of the things that you're, what are you geeking out on these days? What are the things that you're really enjoying the most? Yeah. You know, one of the things I've been focusing on a lot lately is this whole concept of getting more clarity on, on the WHO that we all sell. You know, this past little while, like I'm so geek out so hard on the funnel itself, obviously in the offer and the sales message, but what I've been noticing, the thing is that there's these people out there who frankly have terrible funnels, terrible offers, really bad sales message, but they're making a lot of money and it's been a pattern I've been diving into really in the past eight months and following up and seeing what's happening and the piece that they've all gotten good at is the WHO and they're good at talking to these people who are already a great fit.

04:18     They don't need to go create a problem and then present the solution cause they're already feeling the problem. They don't need to go and see, oh if I already see the, how do I build up the value of this land? They already see the value because they've been trying all the other avenues and products that already exist and because they get clarity on that one piece, the rest of it, they can be terrible at and make a lot of money and has been the thing of a Gig and out a lot lately is how to identify that. Who and where they are.

04:44     One of these you said at funnel hacking live, which I've taken notes on and I'm actually making sure I implement my own life these days. And that is [inaudible] one step. Learning, learning one step ahead. Oh yeah. If you don't mind just kind of explain to people what that is cause it'll tie into exactly what you said when you were talking about this. Who,

05:00     yeah. You know I, it was probably three years after I really started trying to do business on my own and it was, it was challenging. You know, it's very challenging and, and I'm, I'm reading and I'm studying and immersing and I think that's important, especially at the beginning of any journey is to really go deep for a little while. But then eventually you got to stop and put everything down. I remember one day I was riding my bike home from campus. We're broke, we're living on loans, and uh, and I started beating myself up and which if you're listening or watching to this right now, like I asked you not to do that. We all do that as entrepreneurs and it's not really fair to us by what we're trying to solve, you know? And, and, uh, I started beating myself up and I was like, basically, I was like, dude, why are you still broke? You know, I was like, what is going on? And you know, I started doing what we all do little, I know what I would do in that guy's business. I definitely know what he's doing wrong and I'm over here broke, you know, who am I, you know, to say that. And I started kind of beat myself up a little bit and I realized that I was getting stuck in these learning

05:57     loops where I would just study for the sake of feeling motion and the seventh of motion, but not actually doing anything. And for a couple of years, that's the way it was. And for a while if necessary to kind of immerse, but I would, I recommend everybody as fast as you can to put the books down and uh, I'm not telling you not to learn, not to read or study and everything, but the learning style changes. Um, most CEO's, like we all know, they read a book a week, which is great, but most of us in the entrepreneur world are not CEOs yet, but we try to behave like one. And so we consume and consume, consume and all it does is it bogs us down because we're trying to distill all this information figured out to do with it, but we didn't even have a thing to do at two yet.

06:40     And that's the issue. So it's all about, it's all about identifying where you want to go, where you are, and then only learning. But like a hunter, you know, for the next step in front of you and that's it. Blinders on everything else you just learn for to take the step rather than to learn generally hit stop learning generally. I think that's the big piece that would really help a lot of people now. I totally love that. I, it's uh, it's interesting, I went through this, that experience last year. Uh, I end up hiring a whole bunch of different coaches in different areas and um, part of was I just wanted to, I wanted to up my game a ton and one of those I ended up hiring thing I mentioned made a mention to you was, you know, Jerrick Robbins, Tony Son. And I wanted it primarily on the relationship side.

07:19     Um, I've had this experience of uh, being probably a little too direct for people. And it's interesting in my role at click funnels I had obviously I forward facing, I see a lot of people and I want to make sure that I, I care so much about people, but at sometimes I, I'm just, I've got so much on my mind, I'm like, listen, I'm so ROI based that at times I'm like, this conversation is going nowhere. And I ended up too fast. And I thought, all right, so Jerry, I need some help on how to get out of conversations in a kinder way and yet at the same time not spend a whole bunch of time. And so it was fun when I was talking to him because he had the exact same approach that you set and that is, you don't pick one thing you want to focus on what's the one thing.

07:58     And so for like a month we just dive deep into my marriage for a while or we dive deep into how do you communicate with your employees or we dive deep into, you know, different things and literally spend that whole month. And so everything he was giving me, it was just in that one area and the port I I loved the most was I saw such massive growth and areas that I, before I thought I was just kind of dabbling in, but then all of a sudden within a month or six weeks, I would literally get like a year's worth of growth just because of that focused opportunity. Yeah, it was just crazy. And so I, at the end of the year, I basically kind of came down the end and I'm like, jerk, the thing I need next is we're churn for us right now at click is the most important thing I'm working on.

08:40     And he said, well Dave, that's not my specialty. And but he referred me to two different people. One Who, uh, was a dear friend of mine, Dan Martell. So Todd and I hired Gan and we're working through some of his stuff. And then Keith Cunningham who speaks at Tony's mastery is this genius guy on understanding the numbers. And so I'm going to his event in April with gear three white, he happens to be there as well just to really dive in on the numbers, which is something I don't like as much, but I know it's what the next chapter is for me to get involved with. And so I just totally, when you set that at funnel hacking live, I'm like, man, I've, I've had personal experience with that and it made a ton of sense to me. And yet I was, I wanted to literally stop you and say, now listen, everyone, stop what you do.

09:26     It just pay total attention, justice deep right now because this is the only thing I do, the entire event that matters to you is because you go to an event and I've had that experience would go in there. Oh, that's a great idea. That's a great idea. And that's a great idea. And you get done. You're like, I can't implement all this stuff and nothing. And so I just, I just wanted to thank you for that and I want to make sure that people were listening. If you do nothing else, take Steve's advice on that because it's a game changer.

09:50     That's so true. You know, and what's interesting is like, I think because we're entrepreneurs, we're creators and we come up with these new things, we think that everything is new. It really isn't. It's like 80% is the exact same thing as what's already been done. 20% is your little glaze. That is, you know, your creativity. And if you can't name the framework that you're following the model that you're falling, that's where all the wheels spinning feeling comes from. That I've noticed in these coachings that I'll do and what do I do next? What to do next? I'm like, well, you're in the info product model, so just do it. All of them do you know book. Of course I take a thing. There you go. I'm in supplements. What I do. Well, all of them have already proved out how to sell supplements. Like I'm unique, not that unique, you know, get back to the basics. You know I'm special. Not really. You know, it's like, it's so funny. I feel like he can't name what you want, where you are now, the next step and then really understand the model that you should be following that there in lies noise. That's the formula to be feeling lost, you know?

10:47     Well you just mentioned a keyword. I think that people don't understand the importance and that's framework. Russell's done an amazing job, but that you have been a phenomenal job of that. How does a person find the framework and what exactly is a framework if you don't mind addressing those two

11:00     questions? No. Yeah, totally. So if you think about like a phone like Stephen, I'm in the B two B space. When you have to realize is that like if anyone has been selling in that space successfully at all and you are not like you're the variable, right? So you got to go back and he study. You got to look and be like, what is wrong with my business model and what are all these other like it's not so much looking at the funnel, it's looking at the whole business. How are they bringing people in and fulfilling on it? And now they continue to do that and we can look at it from a very 30,000 foot view and be like, okay, this is how most supplement companies are doing it or Btb or retail. It doesn't matter. Um, and you're seeing as a whole, the majority of them tend to be doing it this way.

11:39     And when you can figure that out, the game gets really easy. So your product is what's unique, your sales message or you're the banner that you lead with the charge, you know the beliefs that's unique. You are the attractive character, unique, but you're sitting on top of a model that's extremely proven. And then the game like most of the risk gets taken out of it. And so I can go take s a summit and figure out what the summit model has been and just put my stuff in there. And so understanding what those frameworks are and the natural step that most of the industry's taking, that takes out most of the guesswork and it's pretty hard to fail if you just do it. So what's been your experience to find out what that actual framework is? Cause you just rattled off a dozen different ones and because of your experience and you've literally have consulted with at this point, I would say venture say thousands of companies or clients.

12:26     You've had a lot of exposure to that. How does a person who's new to it tries to figure out how do I find out what a framework is? Yeah, I think it, I mean it takes a lot of homework at the beginning, you know, um, I think this truly is really what funnel hacking is. Um, if you go in and you start looking to see, like I would go see, okay, like all beliefs are upheld by story. Right. And um, I love, I love Ryan holiday. He teaches that when it, basically, the thing I learned from one of his books is that if you want to control an industry, you have to control the content they're consuming. And so that's one reason to publish so much. So one of the things I like to go do is if I'm doing supplements or B to B or whatever it is I'm looking at, I liked that goes personally, I like to go see who the content generators are.

13:10     It's really easy to find them because they usually are the tops of iTunes, the tops of their blogs, the hop and go start listing them out and then see what models they're actually making revenue off of. I found that those who are willing to publish frequently, usually they have some kind of, not always, some of them are just publishing for the sake of it, but it's usually easiest to find people who are both publishing and or spending ad money. So go click on ads, go look to see specifically the content that's out there and start buying their stuff and let them sell you and lean into the sale. You know, like I think it's so funny. Oh they just want to sell me something. Yeah, good de like you're doing your homework, you know, let them sell you by slowly and watch everything that they're doing and you're not just funnel hacking the sales process.

13:53     You're actually hacking their business process and you can start asking questions about the followup, the fulfillment, how many people they have in there and people get excited about their business, actually talked to you about it and you go in and start figuring out, oh my gosh, of the 10 people I just talked to, eight of them are kind of doing this, you know? And you'll see that a lot of the times, even if they didn't mean to naturally industries tend to sell in the similar ways. I love that. You know, one of the things you said there, which you've become quite famous for and that's his whole idea as far as lean in. What exactly do you mean by lean in? I Dunno. Everyone listened and you put a little tough skin on. Now is this all right? Go as tough as you want. Uh, so I keep the coin on my desk.

14:34     So when I was in, I was in college, I started going to some counseling. I was going through a rough time when did some counseling and I got inside of this, um, his counselor's office and he said, hey, have you ever been tested for Adhd? And I got so mad. And I was like, please don't tell me something's wrong with me. Like, who are you to tell me that something's wrong with me? Because I had all these dreams and aspirations and things are doing now and I didn't want to feel disqualified. And so I went and reluctantly took this test. I handed it back to him and he's like, you don't have ADHD but you have a lot of symptoms of it. And I was like, isn't that how you tell?

15:08     And I was like, I don't get it. Well, for a while this became like a banner. I would hold this on my, on my shoulders, like a flag. It was a burden. It was an excuse for me to not be successful. The fact that I was stupid, but the fact that I didn't own a briefcase made me feel like I wasn't professional enough to be an entrepreneur. Stupid but so is everyone else's excuse. Um, I couldn't talk. I was very overweight. Um, I was, I, uh, there's no way you would've gotten me on a podcast. I believe that I am the least likely success story. And if you think about like what? Like it wasn't by me sitting back at, well, I'm not that fat, right. Broke. You know what I mean? Like it. That's what's hard about this is that most of the time it, when you're sitting back with all these people who are trying to build a funnel or a business or being an entrepreneur for the first time, it's not that the models that they're falling don't work.

15:57     They are not working the model. And most of the time what's happening is like the s the stuff between their head isn't geared appropriately for their own benefit yet. And so I have to go back and help them realize like, look, the reason I can talk is because I couldn't five years ago. Right. The reason why I will loop athletic more athletic nails because I wasn't. And so it's brutal honesty in one self and where you currently are, Steven, you're broke. You know, and, and being okay with that and not judging your value off of it, but clearly feeling the state that you're in. Stephen, you're broke. It's even, you're dumb, right? I got kicked out of college. I had to go back four years later and apply and then I had to learn how to learn. And, um, all right, Steven, you're dumb. You don't know how to do this, you don't do this.

16:40     You've got no discipline. You have a video game addiction. You know, and I had to get really raw and real and too many people are afraid that they, um, that they, that they're not to be able to do that. Here's what I've noticed happens in one phone away in 2000 coaching. And that us as adults, most of our train track is actually built for us for the majority of her life. And it should be, you know, hey, you know, I've got three girls. Hey thing one, you cannot throw your spaghetti thing too. You know, like there's train tracks, he can't, there's rules of life. But eventually what happens is, you know, as the truck stop, and I've noticed that the majority of adults that I consult and teach and coach with is that they have never in their life actually picked the hammer up on their own, had a fought put down a track and put them first nail.

17:25     And on their own. They have done everything that everyone else has always told them. They've never had ever gain the confidence to do those kinds of things in their life. And so the whole concept of lean in is that when you think about Steven, what are my tracks? What are the tracks that I need to go down and follow? The reality is that the obstacle is the way, right? If you don't know what the tracks to follow, oh man, you don't know how to talk to you and write it. Dime to get raw. There are obstacles away. Go learn. You're broke, broke as a joke baby. Right? You've got to figure that out. You're lost in the sauce and just admitted, right. It stopped trying to like save face or save pride. No, you're dumb man. You don't have to learn. You know, and just being hard about it.

18:04     I don't know the tracks to go build as right. The obstacle's the way, it's why I keep this coin on my desk, you know, it says the is the way on the Ba. You got Yours too. Nice. So I actually, she even are showing each other our coins. I have to give Chris total credit to Stephen for this. I actually loved the book from Ryan Holiday. The obstacle is the way, but I never took the next step like he did and actually bought the coin. So I bought the coin and then I bought the coin for every one of my, my kids, my wife. And it's so true, Stephen. I love it in Pendleton and advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way best. I love that. And so whenever I get a little negative Nancy or I get poopy pants syndrome and I'm like, man, I don't want to be doing this right now.

18:44     I picked this out and I'm like, look, Larson. All right, what do, what do you want? You know, and stop blaming other people. So that's what lean means. Just lean in to whatever you feel like is your obstacle. You find out eventually it's your super power. No one would know who I am if I did not like, I'm completely convinced had I had the money to get to my first funnel hacking live. I wouldn't have worked for Russell because I wouldn't have had to go learn how to build funnels. I wouldn't have. I learned how to bootstrap. I got me in a certain mindset, but then too many people were like, oh, I don't have any money. Like, man, you are. It is literally tailored to you what you're supposed to be doing right now. But we, oh, easy out. Let me take that. You know, the easy road here, easy streets, like I don't have any time. Great write, lean in. It's not an excuse. I have empathy. Have zero sympathy though for those kinds of scenarios.

19:33     I love it. It's actually a, one of the main reasons we're so excited to have you as our one funnel away coach because you do have so much empathy because you've been there. There's, there's not a single person who can get on a call and say, well Steven, my life is different than yours. Okay. Yes. I mean you've, you've been through it. There's not an excuse you haven't dealt with in your own life or in dealing with other people and I appreciate that. A time that I actually, my kids have more of a man crush on you than they do on me these days. It Chandler and Christian like, oh my gosh, did you hear what Steven said? I'm like, I said that to you, but it doesn't matter. It's Steve set it. So it came from Steve Larsen, therefore it's God and whatever he says happen.

20:09     So, uh, it's been fun for me to see how much they appreciate you because of the fact that you have leaned in. Uh, I was thinking about you this morning. I was doing the stupid bloodflow resistant bands on this box steps that I, for some reason mentally these box, that stupid box step has just, Oh, just has my number. I cannot, I'm literally, I'm crying. I'm mad at Eric. I just want to hit him. I'm just just, but anyways, I agreed after I got done afterwards I sat there and thought, you know, it's the whole idea as far as lean in, if I quit, if I had said, you know what? Oh Gosh, I got to go. Really? I, you know, there's a million excuses that could have come up with and I hate it. Even the first, even hour afterwards, I was still sore complaining to my wife and kids.

20:54     I'm never doing this again. But again, it's that idea as far as leaning in and you become good at those things. And I think again, you've done such an amazing job at that and not just massive Kudos to you for that. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Yeah, that's super cool. Well, tell me, I know kind of get close to wrapping things up here with you and I, I literally could talk to you for hours on end and I'm sure as, as you know, everyone else could do the same. Um, what's the best way for people to reach out to you? Honestly, Steve Jay larson.com and you know, that's the best. It's got all the, it's kind of my funnel hub. You know what a Dj Larson, l. A. R. S. E. N. It's not common. I think that's awesome. You're taking the same Garrett white thing with the, the middle initial only cause the guy wanted, Steve Lawson was asking for like 20, 30 grand.

21:42     I was like, oh my gosh, crazy. No, I totally understand that. Uh, again, if you guys aren't following seed on his podcast sales funnel radio, by all means, please listen to him there. Uh, you should be definitely signed up for the ones on a challenge is literally, it's the coolest thing for me, Steve, just to sometimes I, I laugh only because I hear you louder than I hear my own thoughts when you're in the room. I feel bad man, because if you guys don't know, it's literally on the other side of the wall is Dave and I'm like, crap. He's on a call here at cons and I'm known for the boom boom. I'm like, oh gosh. Well, the best part is there's about three inches of foam on that wall as well. Supposedly is supposed to absorb some of it. But for me, I love it.

22:25     It's a, it's a neat for me to see the excitement that others have following you. Uh, it's, you've been such a magnet to so many people and I think it's really, it's exciting for me to see as we look at our, you know, our two, two Comma Club coaching program, how many of them got started with you? And as they progress in and their sign up again next year because I need more, Steve, I need more of Steve. And it's because you give so much, you're the most gracious guy in the world. You care so much. And again, I think there's a huge difference between empathy and sympathy. And you do an amazing job of really, you'll pour your whole heart and soul into a person who's trying. Yeah. And if they're not, it's like, dude, I don't have time for you. Which is how it should be. Yeah. Any parting words? My friend? Very excited. Thank you so much for her, for having me here. Obstacles away, everybody. Awesome. Thanks Steve.

23:14     Every, thank you so much for taking the time to listen to podcasts. And one of the things we're really passionate about is trying to get everyone up and running as fast as they possibly can. And one of the things we've done recently that has helped so many people, and that is our one funnel with challenging. If you don't mind, if it's something of interest to you, we actually will pay you $100 for anybody who signs up for the one funnel away challenge. Or if you want to go ahead and sign up and do it yourself, just go to one funnel away. challenge.com again, that's one funnel away, challenge.com sign up, go through a 30 day challenge. Uh, it's one of the great, we've got Russell. Basically give me a 10,000 foot level. Julie's Swain comes in and gives you, kind of hear the nuts and bolts of exactly how to make it work. And then Steven comes in every single day and spends time basically telling you exactly what to do on a daily basis. So he'll you to hold your feet to the fire. Super Accountable. We've had more people get more success and things out of this than anything else. So go ahead and sign up at onefunnelaway.com. Thanks.