Sales Funnel Radio

Click above to listen in iTunes... What I realized I need to change 15 minutes after finishing my first webinar… What's going on everyone, this is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host Steve Larsen. You guys, this is literally episode I think 101 and just so you know here on out, like what I'm going to do is from episode 101 on, is all about me documenting the journey of my entrepreneurial life now. You know what I mean? I'm on my own, I work for myself, which is both awesome and completely terrifying. What I want to do is, I'm just going to be, I want to walk you guys through what it is that I'm doing and why I felt okay to do what I'm doing and take the leap. I know a lot of you guys want to, and I know a lot of you guys are and already have, which is great. Also, a lot of you guys that are listening are trying to. I've had a lot of messages from you lately, especially from that last episode I put out about my goals, reach out and say, "Hey, Stephen that's awesome. I want to do X, Y and Z." I'm like, "Hey, that's awesome, like keep going at it, keep crashing it." Get public about the goal. I always love doing that episode, look forward to it every year. I've got to wait another 362 days to be able to do it again, 61 days. Anyway, hey, I just wanted to share something with you guys though. I just did my first live webinar, and it was a smashing success, which is very, very exciting. I have been preparing for this webinar for specifically just working on this one thing for the last three or four days. Here's how I did it. Okay, so last Monday, nothing was built, and so what I did is on day one, I built the registration process, so I went through and I built. I don't care what it is that you do, I recommend in some way, finding some way to charge $1,000 in whatever industry you are and sale it on a webinar routinely, repeatedly. That seems like the thing over and over again that people seem to make the money, the fastest money with $1,000 product on a webinar. Okay? I would think through something. What's one thing that you can go out sell for $1,000, okay? That's what I did, is I followed this step, this formula, which is day number one on Monday, I built the registration process. People would go in, and they could register, so there was a registration page. There was a confirmation page, and then an indoctrination page, okay, where they go through and there's an indoctrination series that people got put on. Then I like Zoom. I use Zoom with Zapier. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's totally fine, but I just use Zoom, it's a webinar platform, and I love Zoom. Anyway, so what I've done is, day one was the registration process. Day number two, which pretty much took the entire day, because I am a funnel perfectionist, I want to make it look awesome. I probably didn't need to, but really takes a long time day one is coming up with the headline and the three secrets. Once that happens then I can move on to the next phase, which is building up the actual registration process. Then that was, so that was day number one. Day number two I started focusing mostly on the script and like getting the first parts of those things done. There was a lot I had to think through with the script, specifically the first thing you have to come up with the script is the offer, so I started coming up with the offer, how to make a sexy offer for a thousand bucks. On day number three, which was yesterday, I built the membership area and put just something in it, the awesome stuff, totally amazing things. I built the membership area and the order process, so people go through that. There's a way for me to actually get and collect money from people. I also put inside the members area several ask campaigns. I love the book 'Ask' by Ryan Levesque, that is a fantastic book and Russell obviously talks about the ask method as well in a little bit of different light in the book 'Expert Secrets'. Anyway, there's a lot of other people that talk about that principle, how your success, the things that you want to go do, the things you want to accomplish you don't currently have the creativity inside of you to actually become successful and actually how to make the money that you want to. Get used to asking people in the market what they want and get used to making that, instead of your own thoughts and ideas right? I created several ask campaigns inside of the members area, so that while they go through and they're consuming the kind of training that I have in there, they also could put certain questions in there they have. Like, "Hey, I'm struggling with X, Y and Z." Now I have a map for the things that I need to go create. Then they're telling me what they want me to make for them. The reason that's such a big deal is because there's so many times in the past I have way overshot, way overshot the expectation of the customer. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you do that little every time and do it in such massive extents, you actually can cause overwhelm. I'm excited to see what they say, because that's currently running right now. I went to sleep, sick actually, I had the fever chills, which sucks. You know like the shakes, I hate that, oh my gosh. I had it all day yesterday, and I was trying to work on the webinar and stuff and that was awful. It slowed me down a lot, but I was ... Then I slept few hours, and I got up and I worked on my script on the slides, the actual present, the perfect webinar script. I worked on it and I finished the first half, the three secrets about one and a half hours before the actual webinar. Which means I had an hour and a half to create an entire stack. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read the book 'Expert Secrets' or go to I think it's perfectwebinarsecrets.com. You can download a super amazingly valuable $7 thing that can totally change your life. Anyway, so the stacks amazing, but I had an hour and a half to create a stack, which really I think it was like an hour. Actually, no, no, wait, it was 45 minutes, because there was an hour and a half from it that I was like kind of dying a little bit. Anyway, yeah, okay, cool. I had 45 minutes to create the full stack. I did not create the kind of stack that I want to have ultimately out there, but I still made one and it was there and it worked. I had 170 people register, so I just want to, I'm not bragging, I just want you guys to know what I'm doing and I'm documenting the journey along the way, so you can follow it. You guys can see what you might do and get ideas on how to move forward also. Please notice that I did not have the things ready in order to actually sell to get started. I just set the date, I started promoting it. There's 170 people that registered just for my hot list, which is in a different audience, it's a lot smaller. Anyway, 170 people came and registered and then 100 showed up, which is actually significantly, it's pretty high, that's pretty high show up rate. 100 showed up and then 20 bought right off the bat, which is awesome. There was only about 90 people on when I actually started the actual stacks part, which is like a 20, it's a 22% conversion rate, that's pretty high. That's really high for a webinar, so I'm very, very excited about this whole thing. That's what I've been doing. Now, as I was giving the presentation, I could tell and I could feel the sticking points. I'm going to go back and I'm going to adjust those sticking points. I'm going to adjust all the different pieces there, and I'm excited to make those adjustments. There's one massive thing that is missing from the webinar I just did, constraint. This is one of the biggest lessons that I ever learned sitting next to the desk of Mr. Russell Brunson. I know I talk about him a lot, I hope that's fine with you guys, but I just spent the last two years there, how can I not talk about it a little bit? This is one of biggest lessons though and it's one of the things that I've got to go add in, because I could feel that there was a lack of constraint. If you go look at the funnel hacks presentation, that webinar did $40 million, $40 million dollars in what? Like two years. $40 million in like two years, two and half years something like that, that's crazy you guys. That's ridiculous. $40 million, so I think we can learn from it a little bit. One of the things that he, I heard him say once was that one of the reasons it does so well is because of constraint. At the beginning of the webinar he talks about ClickFunnels and he talks about the cost of ClickFunnels, how people are paying $97 a month or even up to $297 a month. The reason he does that is to introduce a limit and then as the webinar goes and he's going on, he's going on, he's going towards the very, very last part of the entire webinar. Because he's introduced the limit at the beginning, he can now release the limit for the people willing to take action now. I think, I'm not near you, but I think I'm seeing a light part above you. There's, yup, there's a halo there, yeah, and definitely choirs of angels. I'm sorry angels of choirs, however that Christmas theme says it. Does that make sense though? You introduce a limit with the purpose of being able to remove it later on for the people who take action. That's a huge, huge secret right there, massive secret and I hope that you understand what I just said there. I am creating a software. I'm creating, it's amazing, it's brilliant. Oh my gosh, it's something that I want, something that I need. I'm putting a software together that I already need, I already want it. I know it's going to be amazing. It's something that I want anyways, but what's cool about it is that it's going to allow me to introduce a constraint, because I'll probably sell it for $27 a month, $30 a month. I want it to be kind of lower on the price amount, so that lot of people can get it. It's less about me making money. It has more to do with me being able to introduce constraints on my webinar. No joke, okay, so think through... Software is one of the easiest ways you can increase perceived value, that and physical stuff right, there's a whole episode I did a little while ago about that, about how to increase the perceived value of things, very easily. If you're selling electricity or you're selling air, you really got to build that up. Anyway, so I am very, very excited to build the go and create this thing, because I want to introduce constraints. As you're thinking through your product, there's something to, not something to it, is the tool of marketers scarcity and urgency. Find ways to introduce it. If you feel no natural scarcity and urgency in your own offer, create it, make it. Find out how to have it, because people won't take action unless you help them do it, so unless you help them. Unless you actually put things out there where they're like, "Oh man, I have to act now." Yeah, humans are naturally lazy, so you've got to do things, you've gotten things you're offering, you've gotten things to your business whatever it is so that there's scarcity and urgency with it. If you're like, "Oh Stephen and I sell pretty well, but it's not like amazingly," or even if you do, start looking through and start dissecting what scarcity and urgency does somebody have to actually take action with your business now? Is there any? Have you crafted it? There's probably some natural scarcity and urgency, right, you can't spend time with everybody, so you have to choose someone. There's just some natural stuff, but how do you make people go a little crazy for it? You introduce actual scarcity and urgency. In Funnel Hacking Live, right, anyone of you guys have been to the last Funnel Hacking Live events or any events in general where someone's selling, watch what they do really carefully. There are elements of limits that they put on top of their pitch so that they can release them later on, and so that's exactly what I'm going to be doing here shortly. I'm excited to do that, so I'm going to get going on this. I've got to wire frame it still. I want it to be an app mixed with like a desktop, like in browser or software as well. You could do it off your phone or off of the computer browser, and I'm excited. I've already found some coders that can do it. I've already found a lot of ... Anyway, it's awesome. I'm excited to do it. It's exciting and it'll be cool, but that's where my head is. I did, I sold 20 people out of 90 people are on there. It's not a bad close right, and then there's going to be, there's a lot of people who couldn't get on it with the ... I am going to close it out here very, very soon and I think I can get at least another 10 people in as well. It's awesome. I mean that's pretty awesome. That's what I'm doing, that's what I'm thinking about, that's my stuff for the webinar, That's all I really want to tell you guys is, as you are and that's what exactly I just did. I just barely, actually just as a recording episode, the replay just finished. The replay's done, so what I'm going to do now is go create a replay series for all the people who weren't able to get on. Someone said they got on late, they thought it was at another time. Someone said they got on, they watched, but they couldn't get, the couldn't actually buy it because they were in the car driving and they were listening to the whole thing. Anyways, I'm going to do a replay series out to all these people, which I'm very, very excited about. I should close at least another 10 people, which is awesome, but that will more than fund the software that I will use to sell everyone else in the future, so there's actual real scarcity and urgency. I mean constraint in order to create scarcity and urgency, but I want to introduce more constraint and I want to introduce more, "Hey, seriously take action now, because I'm not going to be here forever," kind of feeling. Anyway, there's a whole bunch of more stuff coming up that I'm going to be building and tossing in there. I just thought I'd kind of ... That's the whole purpose of like the next 100 episodes or however long is, well from 101 and on is to for me to document this journey. For me to go through and say, "Look, this is what I'm doing," and it's not just so that you can put me in your ears, which however much I love that. It's so that you can take action on it, and I would love to know what you've done with the things you've learned from this podcast. I love reading the reviews on iTunes. I'm I asking you blatantly to go and put an iTunes review on there? Yes, I am. Do you guys know there is four to 500 downloads per day of this podcast now, there's a lot of us out here and I would love to know what you guys are thinking about this with complete honesty. I would love it if it was a five star review, but still though even if not, I would love to know what it is that you guys are thinking about this, what things you'd like to hear, what things you'd like to know and let me know. Go to iTunes, put in a review there and toss it on there, because it means a lot to me. It takes me about an hour per episode to get these things out the door. That's a lot of freaking time, okay, I do it for a lot of reasons, but I love seeing what it actually does for people's businesses and their lives. It's fun for that last episode for me to see a lot of comments come back and see like all the goals you guys are setting, all things you guys are doing. That's the exact same thing with this, is I want to be able to go and keep documenting what I'm doing so that you can model it too. It's not just me talking to hear myself, although I do think I sound pretty amazing. It's that I want to be able to help you guys whatever it is that you're doing. Anyway, go to iTunes, let me know, but then stay tuned as well, because I'm going to be documenting the journey of all the things that I'm doing and creating, so you guys can follow along and use it in your own business. All right guys, I will talk to you later. Go get them, bye. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnel for free, go to Sales Funnel Broker.com/freefunnels to download your pre-built sales funnel today.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Every year i set a public goal for my income. It’s always weird and kinda challenging but it helps me get clear on what I want. Welp, this is that video. I just ripped the audio from the video. Make sure to get public about your goals… Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host, Steve Larsen. Hey, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen, and I'm super excited for this video. At the beginning of every single year, this is the fourth time I've done it in a row now, every January 1st I go and I find a spot, and I think through what it is I want to get done in the next year. And then I publicly declare what that thing is. It's one of the scariest things I do. I honestly started it because I was tired of not feeling like, I felt like I was going nowhere in life four years ago. Financially, I mean. Professionally, it was where I was going with my goals. All those things. I felt like, I don't know. It was in hopes that by declaring, to go publicly, several things would happen. Number one, I'd hold my own feet to the fire better. Other people did, as well. But really, the thing that I wanted to have happen, is that by me getting serious enough to actually declare, "Here is my goal!" I finally would have a goal. Does that make sense? Like, by getting specific enough on what the goals are that I have, I actually would know what my own goals are. I don't know if that makes any sense. I wasn't really setting goals. I didn't have those. I didn't have things that there were ... I didn't have any of that kind of stuff. So what I decided to do is, what if I was to go set a goal publicly, and tell everybody. And the interesting thing that happened is exactly what I thought. Number one, it was scary. Number two, it felt weird publicly to be saying a number. And then, what was kind of interesting is, all these people started kind of coming out of the woodwork and saying, "Stephen you can do this. You've got this. You're the man. Go for it." Stuff like that. And you know what's funny is, I don't think ever, I've actually hit the goal on target. I don't think ever. And that's okay. The first year I was like, "If I could just make an extra $1,000 a month, it would change our entire life." We had almost nothing. We were living on student loans. It was hard as a man to go through that. I didn't feel like I was being a provider, which was really rough. So it was like, "Man, if I could just do a $1,000 a month." That was four years ago. Three years ago, the second time I did it was $3,000 a month. I was like, "Oh, man. I hit the thousand a few times, and coming up this next year, I'm going to go for 3,000 a month." And then this next one, the last one I did was, $30,000 a month, which was significantly higher, obviously. But I'm pleased to say that I actually hit it a couple times. And this is excluding my salaried position. You know what I mean? It was exciting for me to see that. It was exciting for me to see that progress happen. And so, yet again, here I am. I'm going to set another goal for 2018. I really focus on just one goal. I'm not really like a, "Let's set a billion goals out there." When I'm onstage, when I'm teaching, when I'm doing the different things I do, one of the things, especially with a lot of my students, one of the things that I see happen over and over and over again is, somebody won't get started, simply because they can't see all the path in between where they are and where they're trying to go. And that's not how life works. You see the few steps in front of you. You see the peak of the mountain, but you don't see all the trails in between. You don't see that there's a canyon in the middle. You don't see that there's going to be all these different obstacles along the way. That's how life works. There's all these unexpected things that happen. And so, the reason I like setting these goals publicly like this, is for the sole purpose of ... Like I said, holding my feet to the fire. But, it's fun to know what I'm going to go try and accomplish. And if I don't get it done, I'm going to be personally offended by myself about that. I'll actually get mad about it. I'll actually get mad about not hitting the goal, not reaching what it is I said I would do. But I also know that's okay, and I sprint as hard as I can towards it. And it's cool. That first year, there was only a couple times I hit $1,000 a month. And it felt like this insurmountable, massive thing. It was like, "Oh, my gosh! This is changing my life!" Then the second year, when it was just $3,000 a month, the same thing. I only hit it a couple times, I think, and it was like, "Holy crap! That's massive!" What it made me go learn, because I set the goal, was the kind of knowledge I needed to hit those goals.   I don't totally know all the steps and pieces to be able to hit the goal that I'm going for, for this next year. But I know that I'm motivated enough now to go hit it, and people are watching me, which is kind of weird. But, you know, it's how I'm doing it, and it's been working. So, here's the goal. Okay, so the first year I hit $1,000 a month just a few rounds. Second year, I hit $3,000 a month a few rounds. Last year, I hit $30,000 a month a few rounds. And I decided I would take a leap, a huge leap of faith here and quit my job. And so, I actually, as of yesterday, am no longer employed by anybody. And I am self-employed, which might sound ludicrous, but I'm just following the pattern. I'm following the pattern I see from other people. I'm following the pattern I've seen the last few years. And I'm self-employed. And that extra little added good pressure, not bad pressure, good pressure, is helping me grow. I can already feel it. It's only day two. I already feel my feet being held to the fire, which would be nice right now. It's pretty cold out. But I was sitting in a Mastermind. And I was listening to all these other people, and I was listening to how they were talking. I was watching, most of them were all self-employed, and I was watching each one of them and the struggles and the challenges they were going through. And I was like, I feel like the thing that I need to do to keep my progress going is something that I'm afraid of admitting. And I remember sitting in the room right there, I sat in the room, and I couldn't get the stupid topic out of my head for weeks, that I should probably leave my job. I was like, "I can't. Are you serious?" And I was trying to distract myself from my own head. And then one day, it was sitting in the Mastermind when I kind of came to terms with it. I was like, "Okay. For me to move forward, I have to leave my job." And I was like, "Oh, my gosh." It scared me. It actually really freaked me out. Because, I understood clearly ... Because of where I worked, click funnels, right, there's like 56,000, at the time we were making this, there was 56,000 active users of click funnels. That lets us see businesses and pretty much every single industry. What's working, what isn't. And as the lead funnel builder there, my role there, I saw a lot of funnels. I knew what worked, what didn't. What things were good, what things were bad. What was cutting edge versus what are things that are going to stay true forever in this industry and that industry. But not that one, nor this one. You know what I mean? It was cool to see this big broad thing. And so I was sitting there, and I was like, "I think I have to quit my job. And I think I know what I'm going to go do first. And I'm excited to go do it." And this feeling of, instead of fear, this feeling of almost like, I used to do sprint triathlons, and it was the feeling I'd get before a sprint triathlon. Little bit of nervous feeling. You know that what you're about to go through is actually going to hurt just a little bit. But, you ultimately know it's going to go pretty good. And even though you're going to get banged up, or scraps, or you're swimming in the lake and you're getting hit by a stick that's random in there, someone kicks you in the face. You know what I mean? That's all the stuff that would happen, and it still would end up being, I look back on all those memories with huge fondness. This is going to be like that. And I've had people reach out and take time out of their day to tell me that my plan is stupid. And I've had people reach out, take time out of their day to tell me that my plan is awesome. And that tells me right there that I'm heading in the right direction, as well, to get that polarity and get that split between people. So, I'm excited for this. I'm excited for it. I've worked hard towards this. My goal is a million dollars. That's my 2018 goal, is to get in the two comma club by the end of 2018... And I'm quite positive I'm going to be able to do it much faster than that, because of the stuff I've identified, where I'm going, what I'm selling. I mean, it is extremely calculated, everything that I'm doing. And I know life's all about curve balls, so that will probably change a billion times. But for right now, that's what the goal is. That's what the plan is. And I know exactly what I'm going to be doing for the next, especially the next six weeks. It's going to be straight up hustle time. I'm going to put down anything happy, or fun, or relaxing, or whatever. But I'm excited. And I hope that whatever you guys are doing, that you go set a goal for yourself, and get public about it. I don't care what it is. The important part is to not be afraid to tell people. Funny enough, we all think that by telling people our ideas, our ideas will get stolen. And I've never actually had that be the case. I try and tell everyone what my ideas are. I try and tell everybody what the things are that I'm doing. And I find that people actually end up adding to the idea, rather than steal it. I mean, there's only been maybe like one or two people, ever, who've actually tried to do the thing I'm talking about. And people don't, because it's not their idea. It's my ownership on my side. And even if they did go pull it off, even if they did go do the thing that I was doing, they still won't do it the same way. I'm the only one. I'm the only me. You know what I mean? Anyway. So, I'm excited. I'm really pumped. My goal's a million dollars. That's $83,000 a month. And I think I can do it. I've stacked a ton of high ticket sales scenarios and environments at the beginning of the year, to help me get towards that right off the bat. And then I think I know where I'm going to take it afterwards, and I'm excited. It's requiring that I go hire people. And it's requiring that I build a team around me. And it's requiring that I grow, that I learn how to manage, that learn how to delegate, that I actually have a structure and schedule for my days, personally as a human, as an individual. And I'm looking forward to the growth. And I know there's some discomfort that's going to come with it, but I'm actually excited about that, as well. I'm ready for the next change. So, this is it guys. Four years ago, my goal was $1,000 a month. And now, I'm going to $83,000 a month. It sounds ridiculous, but I kind of like that. So, I'm going to do it. So if you want to follow me on the journey from here on out, I'm going to be documenting what I do, and showing everyone what I do, so that we can all kind of, I don't know. It's not about me beating my chest. It's about actually, selfishly, everyone else is still kind of holding me to what I said that I was going to go do. So anyway, I thought I'd come to this park here. It's freezing out. But, that's my goal. 2018, a million bucks. It's crazy. I remember scraping by at the beginning of our marriage. Just like with nothing. We had like nothing. Not even two nickels to rub together. And the ridiculous stress that that pulls in. I used to think rich people were greedy. That's not true at all. I actually have experienced more of the greedy side when you have no money. And you're like, "Where's my next meal coming from? When am I going to eat? Where's this? Where's that?" And you get like scraping by, clawing. You're getting past everyone, every thing. Don't care about other's emotions. You are just thinking about how to make the next meal. I know that's a stereotype, but it's been my personal experience that it's actually a little bit the other way around. I'm excited for this, and how it's going to change me, and change my family. It's going to require me to change. I understand that where I am, I probably don't know enough, or have enough, or whatever to get to that next level, but I'm ready. So 2018, here I come. What's your goal? Post your goal down below. I'd love to know what your goals are. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnels for free? Go to salesfunnelbroker.com/freefunnels to download your pre-built sales funnel today.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Click above to listen in iTunes... Little did I know (or notice), but very subtle moves by my awesome parents helped to cultivate an entrepreneurial environment… Welcome to the first episode of me totally on my own not working for anybody else. I'm very excited to be here. Man, I've been dreaming about this for six years. My name is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host Steve Larsen. What's up everyone? Holy crap. I woke up this morning and I thought to myself, "Self, holy smokes. You really did this." Oh my gosh. Then I got up and I lifted and got ready for the day and I'm here. I'm ready to rock. This is going to be fun stuff. What do you do when you have that clean of a slate? It's been a lot of fun though already. I'm excited for this though, I've been dreaming about being on my own, owning my own business, being my own entrepreneur, I've been dreaming about this for probably six years. Really though it's been since like the middle of high school, so I don't know like 15 or 20 years, something like that. So, I'm excited for what this means. I'm excited for what it's going to require me to do and grow as an individual. I understand that I know that there's things I just don't know. There's stuff that I don't even know that I don't know and I'm excited to go find those things out. I know it'll cause some bruises and cuts and tears, every once in a while I'll get a bloody eye. You know what I mean? I know that. I understand that. It's so funny how many people have reached out and been like, "You're an idiot. Oh my gosh!" There's tons of people who are like, "You can do it. Oh my gosh!" It's been cool to have both sides of it, 'cause to me it means that I'm doing the right thing. So, when there's that much polarity with it, it's kind of like, you know, if you've offended nobody by noon you're not marketing hard enough. I feel like it's the same thing for you as an individual. If nobody's nay saying what you're doing, you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough. You know what I mean? Anyway. So, I'm excited. I've got my first product launch, well, it's not my first one. I've done a lot of them but it's my first one solo on Thursday, and excited for it and I've been planning this product for a long time. I've tested it and it's been working like crazy and I've got honestly really two beta groups that I've been doing it with for the last while and it's been killing it. So, I'm finally ready to go public with it, which I'm very excited about. A lot of people have asked, you know, "How do you feel like you're ready? How do you feel like you're set to do this?" I know there's a lot of people, you guys are listening and you A, might either be hoping to one day get out there and do something on your own, you're dreaming about it and there's something keeping you back or you feel like you're not ready or whatever it is. Then the other side is I know a lot of guys who listen are actually by yourself and you actually have been by yourself for a while and that's awesome, I'm pleased to have you as well as a listener. I understand we got both sides of the coin here and both sides of the coin as far as how people feel. It's funny that people like reach out and tell you their opinion about what you're about to do with your own life, you know what I mean? Just expect that. Just expect that especially as you start publishing. Like if nobody has been doing that to you, you probably haven't been telling enough people and there's something weird that happens when you get really clear about what you want and you start moving forward. People start reaching out all over the place. Number one to say yay or nay, but then number two when you get that clear and you start going out saying, "Hey, this is what I want or don't want" it's funny how stuff kind of just starts to fall in place if you're actually serious about it and you're actually moving on it and you're not waiting for other peoples' blessing to move forward. You know what I mean? Stuff just will move forward with you, if you are. So, anyway. That's the deepness of this one. But I was thinking about just how I got raised and things like that and there's a great question that I got from a listener that I'm actually going to toss in right now. I thought it was the perfect question for what it was that's actually been on my mind, 'cause there are a few things that I did as an early kid that I can look back now and be like, "Oh my gosh, there's a few things that look, this helped me be prepared. This helped me get in the correct mindset where I could go do this." I understand, guys I'm only 29 years old and I understand there's other people who have been far more successful than me by this age and a lot of people who have been far less successful by this age. I think one of the keys is just to quit watching other people. Who freaking cares! I don't care. It's my life, it's where I am in my spot and I'm in competition with myself. Over and over and over again in Two Comma Club Coaching or any coaching in general that I do, side clients, you know, all over the place, one of the biggest things I see over and over and over again where get fumbled up, is it's good to look at other people, right? We tell people, we teach people, look go funnel hack this guy. Go funnel hack this person, this business, this over here. Copy them, model them, go through figure out what is it they actually did, how did they prove that that offer worked? How do they prove that they're attractive character works to that kind of audience, right? But also, please understand that your actual progress in this, right, should not be compared to another individual. Your actual value as an individual cannot be compared. "Oh well they did this by the time they were this age. They did this by the time they were this age." If you're doing that as far as competition, okay that's great but understand that I've seen a lot of people get crippled by it. Because what they do is they get out there and they start saying things like, "Oh, I must be doing it wrong. I'm never going to make it because I was never Russel's right hand funnel builder." You know what I mean? That's kind of what they do and they come out and they said, I've heard that a lot lately, it's like, oh my gosh, I wasn't planning to be, I wasn't even trying to be in that role for a while. I was just already in motion, they saw that, and they picked me up. You know what I mean? So, go get in motion. Go do stuff. Be in motion. Don't wait for approval from anybody else. You'll never get anything done. You'll get things done at a very slow rate 'cause you got to get second opinions on all this stuff. It doesn't work that way. Okay? You got to be willing to frankly give people the finger a little bit, which is something I don't do. Just move on. Like whatever, this is what I'm doing. Get out of my way. This is what I'm going to go do, and then you go do it. I don't know. Maybe I want to SoapBox right now but I'm certainly feeling excited and a little bit euphoric about this whole thing. Obviously there will be rough spots and everyone tries to remind me of that, duh. I get it. But there's also going to be a lot of freaking kick-butt stuff and I've got six mega selling opportunities this next month alone that I've pre-set up to help the jump as I leave. I mean, my goals are huge. I know that. It's going to be great. Do the same thing though in your life. Whatever it is that you're doing, the funnel that you're trying to put together right now. I was looking at a post the other day and the post was saying, "How many funnels are you going to build this next year in 2018?" I was like, "That is a rough question. Ouch. Who cares how many?" Focus on just one. Just do one. If you do one really good it'll change your whole life. It doesn't matter how many. I have no idea how many funnels I've actually built. I always tell people that it's like 300 but it's way beyond that. There was a single project that was 86 funnels two times. Okay? 86 funnels in two different times on a single project. I did it in like three or four days. Another one where it was supposed to be 330, I only ended up getting like 90 of them done but that was in two days. There was another one, like when we built Anthony DiClementi's that was 12 funnels. That was over the span of not that much time. So, it's in reality way past 300. I have no idea. But you know what's funny, is I can look back at the 12 that are killing it. Don't worry about the number of funnels. I know there's a strategy out there where you try and build a funnel a week, that's okay but you end up getting micro focused or hyper focused I should say, hyper focused on just the funnel that you're trying to get done and not actually making sure the thing converts and you're making money from it. There is so much mental capacity that is required just to get one kick-butt funnel out the door. Who cares about number two til you get number one done. You know what I mean? It doesn't matter. Stop caring how many funnel it is. Stop caring about, "I'm going to go get this done, this done, this done, this done." Well, then you're not going to get any of them done well. Okay? Do less better. Do less better. That's one of my favorite... I don't think he actually said that but it's a lesson that I got from him and I wrote it down. Do less better. It's all about saying no to more things than yes to a bunch of stuff. Say no to like everything. Okay? I do. It's the reason I don't funnel build for other people anymore. The kinds of people I want to funnel build for are like massive companies, huge companies. I would love to build funnels for huge, huge companies because I know with complete confidence that in a few tweaks I can totally change the revenue coming in to them. I could either take away their cost to acquire customers or we could go expand how much each one of them is giving them. I want to go build for massive, massive companies. So, I say no to like everybody else. I got tons more asks this last week and I get it. That's awesome, that's exciting, and quite honestly I'll probably do you know, some kind of event in the future where people can come in and I'll help them get their funnels out the door that they've been sitting on for a while. I would love to do that kind of stuff. I want to be involved with that kind of stuff, but the amount of mental mojo that it takes to get one of them, one awesome one out the door is huge. So, don't worry about number two, number three, number fifteen. Don't worry about number 12 til you have number 11 done. Number two, don't give a crap about number two until number one is kicking butt. You know what I mean? Anyway. So, as you think through the goals, whatever you're trying to do in 2018 whether or not you set goals and new years resolutions all that stuff, I'm off my high and mighty horse now. Let's get to the question from our listener, which I'm super excited about. Steph Brown: Hey Steve! This is Steph Brown. On your podcast you have given a few stories about how some events in your life growing up helped you on your journey to become an entrepreneur. I'm a mom of three young kids so far, and my question for you is how can my husband and I help to build a solid foundation for our kids so they would be ready to start their own businesses? What are some things your parents did well, what do you wish they would have done? What do you plan on doing with your own kids to help jump start their journey if they decide to become entrepreneurs? Thank you. Steve Larsen: Hey Steph Brown, fantastic question. Absolutely love the question. I have a four year old and a two year old right now and my wife is pregnant and expecting in June. I've had those same questions, the same kinds of things and it's made me very be introspective lately as I kind of look back and I think through oh my gosh, what are the three things that my wife and I should be doing? What are the things that my parents did? What are the things that I liked, what are the things I didn't like? Which is what each generation does building on the next. You know? You should look back and figure out what you liked that your parents did or didn't do and go build from it. Say I'm going to do this but not that. So, I totally get it. I'm not telling you how to parent but I totally get it though. In my mind that's how progress happens anyway. One of things my parents did is my dad grew up on a farm and he knew how to work and he wanted me to know how to work. So, he taught me how. I remember literally every single Saturday as a kid we would go do yard work. It pissed me off. I was so mad about it just week, after week, after week. People would be like, "Yay it's the weekend!" I'd be like, "Crap, I'm going to be picking weeds in the garden for six hours tomorrow." Which is not a joke. We would do that. We'd sit down and be like, "Oh my gosh." By the time I was eight years old I was mowing our lawn and I was mowing neighbors lawns and had my own little business. So, I was eight years old and I was going around. I think I was eight when I started doing it for other people, I was really young though. I learned how to ask people for money. I learned how to talk to people, 'cause it's not like they walked over with me to the neighbors and asked with me. It was like, okay, let me know what they say. I would walk over there by myself, scared out of my mind and I would go talk for myself, negotiate for myself as a very young kid. That was invaluable. I had no idea how much that would add to my life, later on down the line. As we continued to grow up though, we would do things like paper routes. My parents were not like ... We were far from poor. We were not wealthy though either. We had more than enough, we were middle class, very taken care of. It was awesome. My dad was an executive at IBM. He ran his own couple businesses for a while. He's a rockstar. He taught me how to learn. He taught me how to work. What I noticed they would do is they would set up these little scenarios for me to learn, these scenarios for me to own the projects. I think they understood, 'cause I'm the oldest of six kids, and they understood that my personality requires that I have ownership in stuff and it's been that way my whole life. So, when someone else would stand up and tell me what to do it took me a long time to be willing to understand that they're not trying to boss me around, sometimes they are my boss or sometimes they ... You know what I mean, so from a young age they understood quickly that I needed to have ownership in things. So, I'm excited to do that for my kids 'cause I've been thinking through what kind of cool projects I could give them where it's like, "Hey, children I want this outcome" and I give no instruction on how to get it done. Right? I love the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People when he's talking about his kids taking care of their lawn and their grass was brown 'cause the kids were still learning how to do stuff. There was trash all over. It was disgusting. People were like, "Why don't you just do it on your own and make it look nice?" His response was, "Because I'm raising kids not growing grass." Right? This is not meant to be a parenting show or anything like that but I'm looking back though, identifying the things that it was. There was a summer where ... My dad worked from home actually. He had a home office. I grew up in Littleton, Colorado, which is a suburb of Denver. Skied like crazy growing up and very outdoorsy. I backpacked my face off all over the mountains. Anyway, really enjoyed it. Lots of fun. There was a summer though that my dad was like, "Hey, children" and I was the oldest so mostly he was talking at me. He said, "Stephen come on in." I went and I sat down in his office and a lot of times it was almost like an interview when I was sitting with him, and I sat down with him and he's like, "I want to make you the yard manager." I was like, "Okay, what does that mean?" I had been mowing lawns and doing the trimming and weeding and all that stuff for some time but he's like, "I want to make you the yard manager." What he did, and this was one of the best lessons I ever had in my entire childhood ever, okay? I can't wait to do it with my kids. It's one of the reasons we bought the house that we did so that there's a yard, so that there's projects that need to be done. I am not trying to hire a maid. I am not trying to hire a yard guy. I have two little yard people right now that are in training, my two little kids. A third one on the way. That's how I'm looking at it because I expect them to work. I don't care how much money I make, they will have no idea that ... Anyway, I'm very firm on that. I know people who are like, "Let's give you a better life than I had." Yeah, okay, but I'm trying to teach you how to fish. I'm not trying to give you fish. So, what my dad did though is he sat down and he goes, "I want to make you the yard manager." What he did was he's like, "Here you go Stephen, I'm going to give you a budget. Every single week I'll give you a certain amount of money and you will go hire out your siblings for specific tasks and at the end of the week send me an invoice and I'll pay you and then you take whatever was over on the top." Now, that might sound funny to you but it was one of the coolest things I ever did. He gave me no other instruction. Right? He gave me nothing else and I was like, "Well how much money?" He's like, "Well you come up with the amount. Let me know how much it is." I was like, "Crap." That was one of the things that he was very, very good at is whenever I had a question this was one of the best things he ever did with me, he always asked me what I thought before he ever told me what he thought. I would have to go come up with the answer on my own. Do a Google search or ask friends, talk to people. Try and figure out what's the answer that I think it is and then I would take it to him and check it with him. He did that for tons of stuff. Totally pissed me off for a lot of my childhood but was one of the best ways that I learned how to solve problems on my own or at least take a stab at them. Then I'd go check them with now, the market. You know? Or now, a guru or a mentor or a friend or something like that. You know what I mean? So, what I did though is my dad said, "Okay, go figure out the amount." So. What I did is I literally wrote a contract. I sat down with my siblings and I interviewed them and I hired them to like okay, I'm hiring you younger brother of mine to mow the lawn. They would be applying for the position because it paid $11 a week, something like that. Trimming was $6 a week and weeding around the garden, weeding around the sides of the house it depends where you were 'cause the weeds were different depending on what part of the yard you were in and how crappy of an experience it was. Fertilizing was twice a season and aerating was this amount and I foresee these expenses and I foresee this. I had to come up with a plan. I think I was like 14 when I did that, 15, something like that. I can't remember how old but I was in my middle teens and I had already been running kind of a side business doing this stuff for other neighbors. I had a paper route. I was extremely active. I was actively trying to make money as often as I could as a kid. I was that kid that was like, "What can we sell to the other kids on the street in the neighborhood so that we can make money?" They'd go buy cases of soda and we'd sneak onto a gold course and we'd go sell it for a little bit more. We would take backpacks, we'd put backpacks on, put our swimsuits on and we'd go dive, which is totally disgusting. We'd go dive into the ponds at the golf course and get all the golf balls off the bottom. We'd clean them up and go sell them back to golfers. That's the kind of kid I was. I was always trying to sell stuff. I never realized that business was the thing that I was doing. I always thought entrepreneurship was like this nasty thing where you try and make as much money as you want. You know what I mean? I was totally wrong. It was totally false belief. I don't really know where I picked that up but I had to break that eventually. But anyway, so that's what I did though. So, my siblings would go out and I ran it like a business. That's what my dad was trying to get me to do. He's like, "Look, it's your thing. How do you want to run it?" He's like, "It's not on me anymore." He transferred all the ownership to me and he said, "Do it how you want to but here's the outcome I want. I want the grass looking good." That was it. So, I had to learn how to do sprinkler monitoring, you know, the systems. I had to learn how to do all this stuff and hire people out and at the end of the week my siblings were going be like, "Okay. Pay up." I'd be like, "Crap. I don't have the money." So, I'd go ask my dad and be like, "Dad can I get the money?" He'd be like, "Yeah, just write up an invoice." I didn't know what an invoice freaking was. He didn't tell me. He's like go look it up. So, I went and I looked it up and I made up what I thought was an invoice and I sent it over to him and he was like, "Okay sounds good." Before we even started with this I would send over an estimation of what I thought the weekly cost would be and be like, "Okay, think you could pull it off for that amount?" If an employee of mine, a sibling of mine, if an employee of mine didn't do their task that week I had to pick up the slack. I had to go do the job and I wouldn't pay them, I'd keep the portion for my own. So, I'd keep a management fee for myself to keep it all going and then my siblings would do all this other work on the side. Interesting experience. I mean, absolutely amazing. I totally took to it. I had full ownership over it. I took full ownership of it and I loved it. It was a great experience and it taught me management. It taught me delegation. It taught me that no job was below me. You know what I mean? I learned how to work my face off through that thing alone, and later on I was like hand digging trenches for sprinkler lines and putting up ... Like, I later on was insulating on my own and dry walling, patching and painting our whole garage on my own. You know what I mean? It taught me how to learn and work and solve the problem directly in front of me so that I didn't lean on another person to get it done. "That sounds hard". It's like, "No, what would you do first? What would be the first step?" "Well I'd probably do this. Then I'd do this, then I'd do that." Then I'd go check it, the whole system I was thinking of with another person but I didn't wait to start. It wasn't contingent on somebody else. It's totally this problem solving mentality that my parents instilled in me and that's kind of what I'm doing also. It might be weird to do it for a four and two year old but sometimes my little kid, like yesterday I can't remember what she asked me but she asked me something, I said, "I don't know, what do you think?" Obviously I had an opinion but that's not why I did it. That super helped me like crazy. Yeah, that yard manager thing was killer. That was absolutely amazing and obviously if you don't have a yard or whatever, or you have yard people, you can fire them or I'm sure there's other ways you can instill that or do that. That was amazing and that experience taught me a ton. I had side businesses my entire childhood growing up. For me to say, "This is the first time I've ever launched a business on my own" that's not true at all. I'm 29, I've been doing this for probably 21 years now. Have they all been very successful? No. Most of them haven't but I know what doesn't work and I know more of what does, and I know how to launch stuff. I know how to put plans together and I know how to manage and orchestrate people and put them all together and things like that. That's really what that taught me how to do, was how to orchestrate. How to delegate. How to not be the only person. My dad just, hey, here's the outcome I want and here's maybe a few pointers but after, I'd go try and find out the answer on my own. You know what I mean? That was ridiculously valuable. The other thing they did with me is they always fed me, clothed me, paid for school field trips, all that kind of stuff but any entertainment on my own, I mean, I paid for my own car insurance as soon as I started driving. My own gas, any movies I wanted to go to. You know, we'd get clothes at the beginning of each semester or before school would start again but after that though if I wanted anything extra I was really on my own. I'd go figure out how to do it. That was awesome. That was awesome to do it that way, because I got out of the mentality at a very early age, "Oh, I can't afford that" and I started getting into the mentality at a very early age, "Man I really want that cool cork gun" I remember thinking that and I totally saved up and I got one and I figured out how to get creative. I sold all sorts of crap to make money in order to go get toys. I did that a lot, tons growing up. Tons of times. Anyway. It taught me how to problem solve like crazy and keep me in good stress. Anyway. I am a huge advocate of good stress. Obviously there's distress and if i can tell that my little ones are entering a state of distress it's time to cut it out and time to intervene for me. I'm not telling anyone how to parent, please know I'm not a parenting expert, but that's when I would intervene though. That's when I do intervene, when I can tell they're entering a state of distress where the stress is no longer a growing and enabling style stress. You know? Like going to the gym. It's a bad kind of stress. It's the stress that's destructive. It's going to kill confidence. I don't want to kill confidence. I want them to have confidence to be problem solvers on their own, that they'll be self sufficient adults and they know how to do things on their own. I think particularly my mom wishes that I wasn't such an individual so that we would chat more and maybe ask more questions to her and stuff like that but they raised me to be a very self sustaining individual and to solve my own problems. It's not that they won't help, it's not that I can't chat, it's not that ... But it is primarily squarely, all of life, everything that I am, everything that I'm doing, everything that I'm being is on my shoulders and that was instilled in me at a very young age. I appreciate that. There were times where it sucked and there were times were it was not ... Oh man, but I carried that. While I wasn't very book smart in school at first I did learn how to learn and ended up getting almost straight A's throughout the remainder of college afterward because of the confidence they helped instill inside of me. Does that make sense? Anyway. It's interesting, as I'll hire people out or VA's or whatever, it's not that I can sit back and be like, "Oh, that's the kind of childhood you had" but I can sit back and go like, "Wow, you have very little confidence in your abilities." Sometimes I'm a little bit withdrawn on what I am able to do also for fear of looking like I'm being giddy, and I hate that in the internet marketing world. It drives me crazy. I'm not about to go take pictures of me laying across cars and crap. It's just not my personality. I would rather ... Anyway. It's funny 'cause I can tell though, there was a time when I was trying to hire ... You guys will meet her here soon 'cause I want to interview her, she's a rockstar of an ads driver, Facebook ads driver. I don't want to learn how to do Facebook ads. It's not a peak I'm going for. So, what I've been doing is finding these rockstar people and I went, and I've talked about this before, but just to recap I went and I created this cool contest and whoever was able to drive the most converting traffic to one of my pages, that's who I hired to be my Facebook ads person forever. Just because it was a competition, one person backed out. I was like, "Cool." So, then there was only two left. This is after I vetted out a huge list of lots of people. Then I went and I talked to the remaining two and I was like, "Okay, person A and person B this is the competition. Okay, I'm going to give you guys each $500. Whoever can drive the most converting traffic, you now have a job." I put a little pressure and there's nothing wrong with that, and it was awesome. Viva la Capitalism okay? That's what I'm all about. They were both pumped that it was a competition but the second I could tell was not going to be self sustaining. The kinds of questions that were coming from person B were questions that I didn't know the answer to, I don't know Facebook ads. I'm like wait a second, "You tell me what's best. I'm hiring you." It's the same thing that my dad would do with me. That's exactly what I said. It was interesting. I was like, "Huh, I can tell this person's going to be more of a liability on my time." I was like, "I don't know. You go do it. That's your job. That's why I'm hiring you." It's not on my shoulders, it's on yours. I'm paying you to figure that out. "Well what about this, this, this, this, this?" I was like, "I have no idea what even half of you just said 'cause I'm not trying to learn Facebook ads. I'm trying to be the best at funnel building, what you do with a customer afterwards. Offer creation. That's what I'm trying to be the best in the world at." You know? So, I got rid of person B because person A was just executing. Person B was asking a billion followup questions before they even got started. I was like, "Ugh." But anyway, that's part of it. So, anyways. This has been a long episode. I hope that's okay. They've all kind of been a little bit long lately. It's funny though how much ... It ticked me off like crazy that a lot of times it wouldn't be like, "Well here's the answer" and sometimes it would be. But a lot of times it was, "What do you think Stephen?" I'd be like, "Just tell me the answer! I don't want to go think! Don't do that. Don't make me think." But it taught me how to problem solve at a very young age, how to take responsibility. Anyway. So, you asked the question what I wished they would have done, which is a great question. While all those other things were awesome, I have incredible immense respect for my parents. I have absolutely zero bad feelings about the way I was raised. I'm completely thankful for both the good and the bad, the hard and the good. Everything that happened, both amazing and rough, for the way I was raised and I feel like that's powerful for each adult to eventually come to terms with. If you're okay with that. Man, this is like deep crap. This is not like a normal funnel episode. I am excited to make this change though. I had a very, and this is probably going to shock a lot of people, I was extremely shy as a kid. I'm not just saying that. Out of the 600 people in my senior graduating high school class, 600 people, I was rated and voted as the nicest kid. You know when they're giving like the most likely to do this, the most likely to do that, I was voted the nicest kid award out of 600 people. Nicest kid. It shocked the crap out of me, because in my head I was not that way. I was a little rage machine I just didn't know how to deal with it. But I had a huge fear of other people, I had a massive fear of adults. I was very shy. I'm excited to help instill greater confidence in my children. You'll notice that I love Setema Gali, I think that is his last name. He says something all the time, he's like, "Confidence is for kids." As an adult, especially as an attractive character you have to mean and exude absolute certainty, absolute certainty the evolved version of confidence. Okay? Again, no regrets. Nothing else. But I am looking forward to helping my kids have more confidence and help them be able to make ... I'm trying to figure out how to say that. But yeah, I think that'd be it. I just don't want my kids to be shy, and if they are that's fine. I'm not trying to change them or whatever, you know, but that would have been very nice. I had a fear of speaking, which is funny 'cause that's what I do all the time now. Stage, podcast, all over the place. But I had a huge fear of speaking and so eventually I had to face that fear on my own and I started doing things like door-to-door sales, musicals, stage presentations, things like that in high school at a very young age so I could get around that 'cause I started learning that about myself. But anyway. That's it. Long episode answering that question. Thank you very much Steph Brown for that. Shout out to you and thanks for ... If anyone else wants to get a question on here I do love hearing what it is that you guys have questions on and they often bring up kind of cool topics kind of like this one. Anyway. If you wanted to go to SalesFunnelRadio.com and there's a green button down on the bottom right and if you click that button you can record a voicemail to me straight off your browser. It won't take you anywhere else or anything and it automatically emails that over to me, the voice file and everything so I can toss it right in the episode. Obviously I kind of vet through them. Start with the phrase, "Hey Steve" and then ask your question in 30 seconds or less and that's how we do it. Alright guys. Hope you guys are doing great. That was some serious massive introspection. It was kind of a long one, I apologize. But great question though. There was a lot in my childhood that had to do with what I'm doing now and thanks for bringing that up and making me realize all that. That was helpful. Thanks Steph. Guys, thanks everyone else for listening. Go crush your 2018. I had a special episode coming out next, which I'm very, very pumped about. The next few are going to be really awesome. Alright guys, talk to you later. Bye! Thanks for listening to Sales funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnel for free? Go to SalesFunnelBroker.com/freefunnels to download your pre-built sales funnel today.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Click above to listen in iTunes... I use funnels to sell AND manage… What's going on, everyone? This is Steve Larsen, and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business, using today's best Internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host: Steve Larsen. Hey, guys. I can't believe that we are almost to episode 100. That's crazy. That's ridiculous. Seems like we just passed 80,000 downloads, and we're almost at 85,000 already, which is kind of crazy. Anyway, thanks to all you guys who are listeners out there. Hopefully, the holidays went well. I know that's the political way to say it, but whatever. I'm Christian, so I'll just say it: Merry Christmas!  Happy to have all of you guys here on the show. Really appreciate every one of you. Hopefully, whatever's goin gon for you right now, you're enjoying it. It is the day after Christmas, here. I'm not going to lie: after three days of vacation, Saturday, Sunday, and then Monday, technically, I have today off. What is it? It's 5:00. I have spent almost 10 hours building funnels today. Yes, for fun.  That's what I do. I had a hard time. Even yesterday, at the end of the day, I was like "I got to get back to work." You know what I mean? I don't know if that's a problem or an issue or whatever. There's snow all over the place, which is very fun. We had snow Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. It's snow all over the place. I grew up in Littleton, Colorado. Denver area. Kind of a suburb of Denver, right up against the mountains. The elevation's pretty high there. There's a lot of really high mountains and snows like crazy. There was one year that there was a five-foot snow storm. I always laugh. Here, in Boise, Idaho, where we live now, last year they called it Snowmageddon. "There's so much snow! It's Snowmageddon! Oh, my gosh!" There was, like, maybe six inches on the ground. It wasn't that much snow. I was laughing at how big of a deal everyone made it. But there's actually a good amount on the ground here. Anyway, growing up there was this golf course that we grew up on. We grew up on the back nine, on fairway 16. It was a public golf course. Not super fancy schmancy or anything like that. It was kind of fun, though, because every time it snowed super, super hard, even just a foot or two, which is pretty frequent in the winter, we would jump the fence. Yes, I know. I'm confessing right here on the podcast. We would jump the fence, though. We would go out onto the fairway of the golf course. Obviously, there's no golfers out or anything, so it was this massive snow playground. We would build these huge snow forts. We'd build two of them. The other one would be 20 paces away from the other one. What we'd do is we would go grab bottle rockets and roman candles, and all sorts of fireworks and paraphernalia, and we would load up two different teams and we'd shoot back and forth at each other, between the two snow forts. We had very minimal injuries, doing this, but it was a lot of fun. Every time I see snow, in any kind of accumulation, I always remember that experience for some reason. A whole bunch of others as well, but, specifically, that one. Anyway, hopefully, it's been good. Hopefully, you had time to spend time with family, and you remember the reason you got into this business in the first place. "Steve, what have you been building today?" Funny you should ask. I've been building a lot of management funnels. You're like, "What? Oh, my gosh! Steven, what is this? Holy crap!" (laughs) Anytime that there's a process, internally, that I have to do over and over and over and over again, that drives me crazy. I'm not an efficiency snob, but I do love variety enough that I hate doing the same thing over and over and over again. I will go automate it. I will go automate as much of it as I can. I'll go automate every piece, every little nook and cranny, as much as possible, so that there is enough variety in my own business life. It's almost a move, for me, of self-preservation. Funny enough. Some people are like, "You're efficiency snob!" Not really. It's kind of a mess, where I am right now. I've got parts of guns around me, as I've been toying around, tweaking some stuff with some guns. I've got packages, things I got to finish shipping. I'm not necessarily a neat freak. I'm not necessarily an efficiency snob. It's the other way around. I love variety so much that, if I have to do the same task over and over and over again... Whether you are an efficiency snob, or whether or not you're like me and you crave variety constantly, whatever it is, you can use funnels not just for sales, but for the actual automation of things. What I've been doing... I do this a lot. I've done this a lot. Who's that I was talking to? I think it was Miles! Miles Clifford! Shout out to you buddy! A few days ago he was asking, "Is Zapier the tool that seems to be really underutilized? That really opens up the rest of ClickFunnels?" I said, "Yes! Absolutely!" If you've never used Zapier, especially when it comes to the management funnels and the management funnel topic. Zapier is like the ring from Lord of the Rings. It's the ring of power. That's how I look at it because I'm not a coder! I have no idea how to code. What I will do a lot of times is, automatically, anytime anyone buys, or anytime anyone becomes a lead, I will pass that data on to Google Sheets. Whether it's a VA, and I don't want to give them access to my ClickFunnels account, or whether it's somebody... I will go and I will automate those different things, so that, A, no one else has access to my ClickFunnels account, then, B, everything's automated. Steve Larsen: I can say, "Anytime a contact hits this sheet, go ahead and follow up with them about X, Y, and Z, and do the one, two, and three. That's exactly what I've been doing. I've wanted to build this for a while. I've wanted to build this for quite a while. I don't like automating stuff right off the bat, when there's no need. You know what I mean? I like to look where the biggest pain point is. I started looking at all these different articles of when to automate, when to do X, Y, and Z. Stuff like that. And, quite honestly, people get really intense with it, which is great. It's not exactly my huge thing. But I love management funnels. That's why I call them. These are like internal processes. A lot of people don't know that, before I worked for ClickFunnels, my job was to go around and to create internal processes so that the company could run better, rather it was shipping or automating tasks to support agents. All these internal processes. That's what I was doing. Very heavily, very strongly. I was very good with Infusionsoft, plus ClickFunnel's integrations. The integration back and forth between them. That's what I was doing. There's a side of me that loves setting up that structure. I don't like to run it. It's not my personality to run it, but I love setting it up. So I've been doing that same kind of stuff to my own business. What I've been doing is thinking through "What are the pain points? What are the things that I've wanted to go fix and get done?" This is something that I've wanted to do for quite some time. That is to automate, or far better manage, the interview process that I have. Episodes 60 and 61 of this podcast go through and talk about how I podcast. All the systems I use, all the little things that I put together. I've got my own systems for this. After 100 episodes I've got a pattern, and it's on purpose. A lot of the stuff is things I'm going to do when I do an episode of my own. But what if I want to go interview somebody else? What if somebody wants to interview me? It is literally handled different every single time that happens, that scenario, and it's driving me crazy. I have a huge list of people that I want to interview. There's a huge list of people that are trying to get me interviewed on their show or their YouTube thing or their Facebook. Whatever it is. I'm flattered by it. It's awesome. I would love to do it, of course. But every single individual situation is being handled differently right now. So I thought, "There's got to be a better way to do this." What I did is I came up with... It's a blend between an opt-in funnel meets application funnel meets Zapier. I found out some cool ways to not have to use things like Wufoo or Typeform or anything like that. I just use the generic input form straight off of ClickFunnels. I do some cool things with them, so that's all I use now. Oh, my gosh, you guys. This is way too technical of a podcast already. I can feel it. I can feel it. We're craving a story here. We need some story, here, wrapped in this. Otherwise, people are going to start drawing out, here, and I get it. I feel it. You probably are too. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to help you realize there's five steps that I use to automate internal processes. They're very simple. A lot of them are "no-duhs." Like, "Duh. Why would I not do that?" But, honestly, if you can do this, it saves you so much time! It is ridiculous how much it saved me. When we launched the 2 Comma Club coaching program, the Funnel Hackathon event... It's an event for three days. Russel and I go on stage. Him for a while, me for a while, both of us side-by-side for a while. It's a lot of fun. I really enjoy it. But there was tons of these little, internal processes that the ClickFunnel support team was having to handle, just off these one-offs. Someone would come in. He was, "It's driving me nuts." So I came in, added these cool little, internal processes that made support talk better with the [inaudible 00:10:26], which made it talk better with me, and it's all automated. Obviously, if you don't have a business yet, this is not going to matter. If you do have a brand new business, I wouldn't worry about this stuff, either. The moment when it's best to start thinking about internal management, funnels or internal management processes, whatever you want to call them... They're not sales funnel. To increase efficiency, is really after you've been in business a while. Not a while, but enough time to see where the pain points are. I'm a huge advocate of Tim Ferriss, in The 4-Hour Workweek, when he said that you should be the support agent for the first... He even recommends a month. So you take note of all the support that comes in, all of your answers back, because now you know exactly what to do when you go hire somebody else. You can hand them this sheet of all the different pieces that you get asked about most frequently. All the pre-canned responses that you've handed out. And you are literally duplicating your position. That's the time when you start figuring out internal processes and management funnels and things like that. Not for a while, though. I always kind of laugh when someone's like, "It's a brand new funnel. Then we're going to automate this and automate this and automate this and automate this." I'm like, "Oh, my gosh. That's so many things. That's so many pieces that, if something was to break, you may not know what's actually broken because there's too much automation." I'm not an automation fanatic, but I am definitely a practicality fanatic. I do not want to marry certain aspects of the business. Does that make sense? I'm not a good support person, as an individual, but I'm great at setting up the processes. I'm great at training another person. I'm great at putting those kind of people to replicate me. To replicate the processes. To keep doing over and over and over again. That's all I'm trying to say: take a step back. For me, personally, it's really one of two things: is there a ton of repetition, and I can automate it? And number two, is there just a huge pain point that I hate doing anyway? What I do is I take a step back and start looking at those things. I start saying, "Okay. How do I duplicate me? How do I free up my time?" I step back and that's literally what I do. That's the question that I ask. The answer to that question, this time, was "Your interview funnels, Steven. Interview funnels, interview funnels." Or interview applications, or whatever you want to call them. They're not necessarily funnels. They kind of are. They're mostly just internal processes. I guess, the way I'm using them, they're still kind of funnels, though. It's leading to this specific place, so that makes sense. In the past, someone would say, "Hey. Can I interview you, Stephen?" I'd be like, "Sure." It's literally the same questions that they're typically asking. It's usually the same questions that I'm typically asking. With both, I'm sure, giving the same kind of answers, and it's driving me nuts. So what I did is automated the whole thing. Like I was saying before, step number one is I look for wherever the repetition of the pain point is. Or, if there needs to be more automated communication in general. Number two, I don't care how many funnels you've ever built. Please know that Russel and I both draw the funnel before we build it. Every time. I don't care how many times I build... When I have not followed that rule, I'm usually more lost, number one. Number two, it takes me way longer to build it. I don't know why. I don't get it. Sometime about me putting it out on paper, and drawing it, helps me work out in my head all the kinks. It literally helps create the map of each page, what each page is going to look like, as I draw it. Literally, they're boxes. I'm drawing boxes with very high-level detail, with little squiggly lines back and forth, piece to piece, side to side. Does that make sense? I'm just drawing a high-level, 30,000 foot view funnel. Anytime I skip that... I don't know what it is. It really slows it down. Anyways, step number one, find the repetition/pain point. Step number two, draw the funnel. You've got to draw the funnel. I had to go buy another whiteboard. It's a free-standing one in the middle of the room, with two sides on it, which is kind of nice. It's chock-full of four different funnels that I built. I built three funnels today. The four was kind of inter-working with the other three. These three funnels that I built today, I drew it out. Then I go build it. I usually will work off of the design of the main funnel that I've been building off of. Step number one, like I said, repetition. Step number two, draw. Step number three is building it. Number four is test it like crazy. Number five is really key: I release it slowly. I phase it in. That's not always true, but most of the time it is. Going in and automating something that... I know you've tested it. It's actually more important to phase it in if you're working with other people. If you're still a solopreneur, it doesn't matter as much. At the end of this, at the end of today, when I stopped building all three of these funnels, what I did is I turned back around and I created a seven minute video, with just my phone, talking to an assistant that I have. She's amazing. She's going to be the one who's managing all this. She knew it was coming up. I walked her through the entire process so she knows how it works. Then, I showed her the two things she has to worry about. That's it. Now she knows how to do it all. So when someone wants to interview me, they fill out the little form so I know what it's about. I know when they want to do it. I know the topics they want me to deliver, if there's a value bomb they want me to drop. Does that make sense? I know what those things are. They give me the Skype ID. Facebook ID. Stuff like that. And it's all automated. Shoots that data over to a Google Sheet, then automatically notifies the assistant, so that they can go in and check it out. Vet the person. (laughs) They go through and check out the person. Then, there's Calendly link that's totally set up so that she just drops it over once the person's vetted. That's the only manual part. The rest of it takes care of itself. We get hooked up whenever the interview happens. Does that make sense? I went through and I pre-selected the times that I want to be available for interviews or interviewing. That's pretty much it. SI have two podcasts. This is one of them, obviously. I have a second one. The third category, I did, is off of stevejlarsen.com. They're very similar, but there are very subtle tweaks between all of three of them that I built. The first one is for stevejlarsen.com. That's if someone wants to interview me. I get that request like crazy. I know there's some podcasting agencies out there, and they keep trying to put tons of people on their podcast. I'm very protective of you as an audience. (laughs) I don't want just anyone coming in. I'm fine if people want to interview me. If they want to interview me over different places, yeah. That's great. That's awesome. I just want a process. I want something in place that I can send people to. So stevejlarsen.com, what I did is I added... You can check it out if you want. Or, if you are asking to interview me, that's fine too. But, stevejlarsen.com, up at the top it says "Interview Me." You click Interview Me at the top, and, basically, what I did... This is super clever. (laughs) I created a whole bunch of show/hide elements. Show/hide rows. So it looks like you're going from one page to the other, and you're not. It's actually one page, where things are getting swapped in and out. At the very last button, the whole form, all the forms, submit at once. It's pretty cool. Then that data gets sent over to Google Sheet, notifies the person, sends over the confirmation email, saying "Hey. We got you." On the "thank you" page, I took the concept of an "offer wall." I put it there on the thank you page. It says, "Hey, look. You want to come check out the talent directory? Do you want to put your talents in one of my podcasts?" It pushes itself, anyway. It's pretty cool. It pushes all over the place. Really awesome stuff. Three different places so that the loop doesn't close in the head. That's all I'm trying to say: the loop doesn't close. On the last page, it is not a dead end. I push them to other places. If a person is in momentum, I want to keep them in momentum. I give them three other places they can go that are literally the beginnings of three other funnels. That's it. Does that make sense? This a lot more technical babble styled stuff. I'm sorry if this is boring. I'm sorry if this is not as interesting. I usually try and tell more stories on this podcast. I just wanted you to know what I pulled off because it's really, really awesome. (laughs) It's pretty cool. That was the first one. The second one is for Sales Funnel Radio. The first one is if someone wants to interview me, but if someone goes to salesfunnelradio.com... I need to redo that entire thing. But if they go to salesfunnelradio.com, up at the top it says "Get Interviewed." Those are for the people who are trying to get on the podcast, to get interviewed. I am very protective. I vet those people very, very heavily. So there's an application process. It's kind of an application funnel, kind of. Kind of a blend of them. But, on that first page there, they go fill out somewhat of an application process. On the second page, it says "Hey, look. Here's the plan. The VAs"... My assistant. Not really VA. Kind of VA, kind of. "Goes through and vets it out. We talk about it. We look through the content. We look at the kinds of things you want to pull on there and talk about and stuff. I do believe heavily in interviews. Then, we send out a specific Calendly for that, with specific times that I'd love to be able to do those kinds of interviews. That's it! I did the same thing for my second podcast show. Does that make sense? I did this because I know that you guys... There's so many rock stars out there. I am not trying to be the guy who puts his own voice, only, on here. You know what I mean? (laughs) How should I say this? How should I say this? I put this episode out a while ago. It said "publishing get haters," which is good. If you don't, something's wrong. (laughs) I always laugh at the people who take the time to complain to me that I'm publishing. If that's your thing, stop listening. Okay. I'm going to move on. Moving on! I want to be able to get other people on the show. I want to be able to get other people onto... I love that. And I know that you guys love that. It's list hacking, for me. It's value adding, for me and you. It helps show other awesome people in the industry and what they do in their talents. I want to interview people. I love interviewing people. There's so many who are asking to, though, that I needed a process. I did that for both podcast shows that I have. Then, I also... (laughs) There's about to be a third podcast show. Oh, man.  I'm a gluttony for punishment, I guess. It takes, like, an hour per episode. Just so you guys know. To be able to put these out. Then, I also wanted to give people a way if they want to interview me, which I also love and I'm far more lenient on getting on anyone's. stevejlarsen.com. There's a lot that's going to change with stevejlaren.com, coming up soon, also. I'm kind of talking in circles now, but that's pretty much it. Management style funnels: you can use them for tons of things. Here's another example of one: when somebody bought Secrets Master Class. When we were selling it a little more a la carte. It's not so much that way anymore. When somebody bought it, as part of the offer, we were shipping out to them a physical thing. A book. A physical book. Think about this for every one of your offers. When somebody buys one of your offers, is there something physical that's getting shipped out? What I did is I thought how cool would it be if, number one, let's send that data again, over to Google Sheets. But, number two, there was a lot that happened ....I can remember... Guys, learn Zapier. It's not hard. There's tons of tutorials. If not, you could probably figure it out on your own, anyway. It's pretty self-explanatory. It's a whole bunch of "if this, than that" statements. That's it. What I did, though, is I automated a Trello card, being created with the customers address, all the data that a fulfillment person needed. It created a Trello card automatically for a specific individual, and pinged them and gave them a notification, so that they knew to go ship the specific thing. It was very specific. It was super, super cool. Calendly, you can automate stuff to slack... There's so much stuff, and I feel like a lot of people miss the boat on it. Yes, ClickFunnels is amazing, but we know it is not necessarily for a CRM. It's not necessarily for management-style stuff. You can do it. You can build it like that. I do it a lot. But it pretty much always does require a small Zapier integration, which is not hard to pull off. And, if you do have to pay for it, is extremely cheap. If anything, you can just use the free plan for a while, anyway. This is not a Zapier promo. I just wanted to tell you guys more about that. Guys, the thing is that I want all my time, all my attention, all my focus, all of my brain power and mental shelf space, focused on selling. That's it. If there is something in my business that I am doing over and over and over again, I'm doing myself and my customers a disservice. It's the reason I set these things up. I don't do it immediately because I'm not sure what the pain points are yet, but they come quickly, and I am able to see pretty quickly. They'll start to pop out of the woodwork, and I'll go: "Oh, my gosh. I have to automate X, Y, and Z. One, two, and three. Let's go through and let's create that." I follow the same steps. Number one, where's the repetition/pain point? Number two, draw it in depth! Explain it to somebody else. It will make the build, which is step number three, so much faster. Then, step number four, test it like crazy. Go through and fill the form out. Put it in test mode or whatever it is. Do whatever. Fill out. Then, run through a few test runs with your own VA or assistant or someone on your team... What it is, and start to phase it into your processes. Pretty soon you can step back and let go and, maybe, check it again in a month. Everything should fire pretty correctly. I never had too many issues with Zapier, to be honest. They're awesome. (laughs) That's pretty much it, though. It is with the intent that I can continue to sell, and focus on selling and create offers, that I made these three funnels today. That's pretty much it, guys. Go back, figure out what it is that you need to automate. Whatever your pain points are. If your time and your attention has not been on selling, ask yourself what it has been on. Then, ask yourself how you can get back to that. It's the only thing that matters, especially from the zero to seven-figure range. It's the only thing that matters. Don't worry about your desks. Don't worry about renting an office. Don't worry about your freaking logos. Only thing that matters is selling! That's all. That's it. You don't even have to have the product done. Anyway, getting ahead of myself, and getting on to another topic, so better end this one. All right, guys. I'll talk to you later. Merry Christmas. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best Internet Sales Funnel for free? Go to salesfunnelbroker.com/freefunnels to download your prebuilt sales funnel, today.  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Click above to listen in iTunes.. Untold ideas are already dying.... Hey, guys. I am very excited for this episode... I've actually had this episode on my mind for, I don't know, it's been a while. I've had a hard time trying to figure out how to actually present it. I want to walk you through a little bit of, I don't know. About four years ago I decided that I would create, every January 1st, I would go and I would create a video that would basically publicly declare my financial goal for the next year, and it's the scariest thing that I do pretty much every single year. It's interesting what has happened though because of those videos. They're on YouTube. If you go to my YouTube channel, you can check it out. About four years ago, it's me, I'm in the army, I've got a shaved head, and I'm like, gosh, you know what guys, if I could just make an extra $1,000 a month that would change my life. That's where I was. I was like, hey, and here's my plan. That was the video for that year. Then three years ago I was like, "Hey, if I could just do $3,000 a month that would be crazy. Oh my gosh, that would change my life." It's crazy, because what I do then as I go through each one of the months and I say, hey, here's what I did, here's how I did. Then the year before this one, I was like, "hey, I just want to do $30,000 a month". That's excluding salary income, excluding any other income on the side. Just my own stuff. I'm pleased that I hit that several times this last year, which is awesome. I want you to know that that's on the side, working for somebody else more than full-time doing ... Still have a family, two kids, a wife. You know what I mean? This is not meant to be that video, but about four-ish years ago. Let me check actually. About three-ish years ago, I so badly wanted to be able to just start being around other people who shared my common interests. I was in college at the time. It was 2015. It was wrapping up the year, and I just wanted to be around other people. I felt like I was very alone, funny enough, even in my marketing degree, my marketing classes, which I love school for the environment it gave me to learn, but I didn't actually learn that much stuff that I use now, hardly at all, which is true for pretty much any education now. That's fine. I had been following Russell for quite some time at that time, and I knew that Russell was really into things like masterminds, and he had this Inner Circle and stuff like that. Honestly, before Russell, before I ever knew who Russell Brunson was, I thought masterminds ... I'm just going to be open and honest with you. Because I had no other expectations at all, I thought masterminds were a way to get more money from people. I didn't know what they were. I had no idea if there was any kind of value or anything like that. My perception was just that it was a high-ticket experience to hang ... It was a reason to hang out with people who paid you a whole bunch of money to hang out with them. You know what I mean? That's what I thought it was. Then when I saw that Russell was doing masterminds and he came out with his Inner Circle, I was like, huh, that's kind of ... Pre-Russell my attitude towards masterminds was very like, "Meh. You're just trying to take my money," or something like that. You know what I mean? That was my attitude. It's more of a scarcity mentality as well by then. This is like three, four years ago now. A lot's changed since then. After figuring out who Russell was though, and after seeing more of what he was doing with his Inner Circle and more what he was doing with that, it became very apparent to me very quickly that this was not a normal thing, that this was an extremely rare opportunity to learn in some really, really high-speed ways. I was seeing the results that some of these people were coming out and saying like, "Hey, I've got these results, X, Y, and Z." And be like, "Holy crap. That's awesome. You get that from the mastermind?" I had to change my mentality. I had to change the way I was looking at it. I found myself really wanting to go attend one of these masterminds. Granted, they're not all the same. The only thing I knew of Russell at the time was his DotComSecrets X product, DotComSecrets book was out, and I had read that definitely by this time. I believe so, anyway. I really just wanted to learn more from him, and I really, really wanted to get into his Inner Circle. I knew I did not have 25 grand though at the time to be able to do something like that. Fascinating, right? Fascinating experience. Fascinating predicament. I know if you're listening to this podcast right now, you've probably been in the same boat before. You've probably experienced it before, be like, "Hey, I wish I could be a part of this program. I wish I could do this or that." The FAT event and funnel hackathon event, secrets masterclass, 2 Comma Club Coaching, he has few different names for it. That's 15 to 25 grand, and for very, very specific reasons. I understood the reasons. I understood why he was charging that much, but I was in college and I still wanted to be a part of that. One day Russell sent out this email, and in fact I can tell you it was December 14th, 2015 at 5:44 p.m. I remember it. I remember this moment. This was a huge moment for me. I went and I actually found the email. I found the email, and Russell said, "Hey, look, there's 74 out of 100 spots taken. As you probably know, I have a small group of entrepreneurs that I personally coach and I call them my Inner Circle. For the past two years, I've had dozens, and dozens of success stories come from this group, in fact." Anyway, he went through and he started talking about it, saying, "Look, this is a new development. I'm going to say that when we're at 100 spots I'm going to end it." I was devastated. I was so devastated. I remember exactly where I was. I was in the campus basically rec center. There was a pool in that room or in that building. I was standing in the hallway and I was walking down in the stadium steps, the basketball stadium steps. Smell of chlorine from the pool from several rooms over was in the air. It was quiet. I was one of the only ones in that room standing in the middle or almost in the middle of the basketball stadium. It was quiet, and I remember reading this email, and I remember out loud actually saying, "No! No! Crap. No!" I was pissed that he was closing down his Inner Circle at 100 people because I knew I would make it somehow, but I knew I couldn't make it at the speed he was filling it. I just knew that I couldn't make it. I was like, "Oh my gosh. No." I remember I sent a message to my wife, and I was like, "He's closing it down." She didn't really know what it was at the time still, or what I was really doing or what I was into and stuff like that. She said like, "Oh, that's too bad." I was like, "No." I remember at that exact moment though, I mean I was crushed. I was shattered over it. I so bad wanted to be a part of that group. Again, this is December 14th, 2015, three years ago. That's crazy. Is that two years ago? What's the year? What's the year? '16, '17. Wait, this was only four months before I got hired. Holy crap. I thought this was longer ago. That wasn't actually. This is only two years ago. Never mind. It's December 28th right now. This is only two years ago. I remember I was pissed. I was so sad that I wasn't going to be able to be in that group, because he had already been changing my life so much, and I had a successful funnel building agency at the time and I was making money for other people, and I was making money for myself finally. Now that I know more of the timeline of where all this was happening. I remember standing in that room. It was silent, but you know like when you're in a huge room and there's really, really high fans, so you can hear the light hum in the air, and there was a little bit of the smell of the chlorine in the air from the sport unit, from the lap pool that was over. The racketball courts were near, and I could hear them ping ponging around. For the most part it was pretty silent. I was standing there, and it was one of those moments that was just like, "I'm going to get in that group. I don't know how, but I'm going to get in it." I stood right there, as soon as I read Russell's email, and I actually wrote him one back. I just clicked reply. I was right on my phone, and I wrote an email back to him immediately on the spot. This is what I said. I know, because I found it. I said, "Dang it. This just breaks me apart. I'm in college and working to get in, and I'm trying to become your dream client, because I know I'm not yet. Thank you for everything you've given me. I can't express how much you've changed my life, but you don't even know me. I feel like I know you because I've gone through so much of your material for years. You're a blessing to me and my family, and I sincerely thank you for all you've sacrificed and given to make sure others are successful. You're one of my very real inspirations and I thank you, Steven Larsen." Then I put in parentheses: "See you at Funnel Hacking live event. Woo!"   At that time, that's when I was bootstrapping my way to the funnel hacking live event, because I still didn't have any money, so I was exchanging funnels for the event tickets, funnel for the flight, funnels for the hotel nights, and that's how I got there. Which was literally what, like three months later? Then I sent this email over. No one replied. I didn't expect them to, but I kept sending stuff like this. I sent tons of stuff like this, and what was funny, what was interesting is three months later I was at his event. I applied on a Saturday. I think it was a Saturday, because that's when the event was over. I think that's when it was, on a Saturday. I got a call on Monday to come get an interview, so two days later, two days later. The next day, Tuesday, so this is three days after the event was over, I was in Boise doing the interview. Actually, I think it was on Wednesday, so four days later. I was in Boise in the middle of my finals week and I got the job. I was in Russell's office working full-time within, I think, eight days after funnel hacking live 2016 ended, within like eight days. What was crazy is within a month he had his first Inner Circle, not first, but first since I had been there working for him, a mastermind come up for his Inner Circle. Guys, before I recorded this episode I was trying to find the Voxer that Russell sent me inviting me to come to the Inner Circle meetings. I was blown away. I was like, "Are you kidding me? Oh my gosh." I went berserk. I think I almost killed Voxer, which seems like it's dying anyway. I literally spent, because it took so long for everything to load, plus I was reading all of our old conversations over the last two years. Anyway, it took 30 minutes, and I was one month away from going back to where the messages were, where he invited me and then my response. I was going to take those excerpts of him inviting me and then my response back and put them in the episode. Voxer wouldn't load anymore messages. Said there was no more messages left. There was messages left. I think I just broke it. Super-sad, honestly, that I didn't do that. I went nuts though, I went crazy. I got into the mastermind. I was freaking out. I got there early. I sat down. I was like didn't know if I should talk to anybody. I was like, "Oh my gosh. This is Russell's Inner Circle." I was like, "Oh my gosh." I was kind of slinking around the sides of the room, because I didn't feel like I was qualified to be in there. Just four months, five months earlier I was telling Russell how much I wanted to be a part of it, didn't know how I would, and I ended up now working for him in the same room with him. Like crazy. It's ridiculous. The turn of events, that's insane. That's pure insanity how that all worked out. I sat in there, and holy crap, it was fantastic. Everyone was following the same format in this mastermind, and it was better than I thought it would be. Everyone stood up and they shared something amazing. We're not talking about like little tiny tips and tricks. I got almost straight A's in college in my marketing degree, and I was also that kid who was like fighting with the teachers actively and didn't really get along with a lot of the other students in there, because none of them were doing it. They were all freaking studying about it. No one was actually starting businesses. No one had been doing it. I had been doing it for years by the time I got there. You know what I mean? I was that weird kid who was kind of on the side fighting what everyone thought, or was just taking as face-value truth. I was like, "No, that's no. No, and it's not true because of X, Y, and Z." With that backdrop, the stuff that people were just getting up and openly sharing was ridiculous. What I did is I actually opened up Trello while I was in that mastermind, and just sitting on the side listening and taking notes, I mean ferocious notes. I was going back through reading some of these, and I was like, "Holy crap." It's not like some of the stuff was like, "It only works right now. You got to do it now, because the trick is going to end soon." It's like, no, like the stuff that I'm reading that I learned from that mastermind is still stuff that I both teach and use and apply to this day. That was a year and a half ago, which is crazy, which is crazy. I can't believe, I cannot believe that I got to go do that. Then I got invited to the next one, and to the next one, and to the next one. It was like over and over and over, and drinking deeply with that group, just listening, taking notes. Very super-observant, like just writing it all down. It's nuts to me, absolutely nuts to me the amount of personal progress that came to me because of those masterminds. I'm frankly a little bit ashamed that I ever thought something like a mastermind wouldn't be valuable. Then as time progressed and I started getting invited to go speak places and present in different masterminds, several of them, which has been so much fun, and come be a keynote in some masterminds, and things like that. It's been interesting to see how much I've learned to just flat-out adore them, and not even learn to. It's really easy to love them because they're amazing. I'm very anti-meeting. Meetings freak me out. My first perception was that, hey, I'm going to have to go sit in this meeting and it's going to be boring. I'm going to sit there all day. It's like no, like it is fun. They are high-paced. They are high-energy, and if you've never been a part of one, I want you to have that experience. Want you to be able to know that is. Since I'm leaving ClickFunnels, there are two questions that have been popping up very, very frequently. Very frequently. The first one is, "Steven, will you coach me?" That question has been asked to me like crazy. Is there any kind of coaching package? No. Not yet. I'm sure there will be at some point, and when I decide to do that. I'll tell you why I'm not doing it right now, also. For right now, no. I do 30 minute consultations on people's phones before they go launch them. That's fun. That's awesome, but I don't do active coaching yet. Then the second question that people have been asking me like crazy, I finally have a support team, awesome support system, a ticketing system finally. I finally have structure underneath me that I've been building ferociously in the evenings; it's 1:30 in the morning right now, as I am literally in two days going to be unemployed. What would you do if you knew you were going to be out of a job with like four or five months advance notice? Russell and I both knew way before I ever told anybody. You know what I mean? What would you do? You'd do the same thing I'm doing. It's not exactly relaxing. I almost feel like it might have been easier to just have the whole two weeks notice thing, but instead ... Anyway. The second question I get like crazy is, hey Steven, is there any kind of mastermind or event you're going to be doing? The answer to that one is yes, because I am such a proponent of them. I cannot believe how much growth has come to me because of them. There's 100 people in Russell's Inner Circle. That's four different mastermind sessions twice a year. That's eight mastermind sessions per year, and I've got to sit in a huge portion of them and learn like crazy, I mean from ... Just brilliant. Brilliant. Even the ones that aren't Russell's that I've been able to go like, people are like, "Have you really done much? Have you accomplished much?" Sometimes one of the fears people will have, I've noticed, is they'll be like, "Well, I haven't accomplished these great things, therefore I can't attend because there's nothing to contribute." No. That's not how it works at all. This is very much like a huge synergy situation, where you just put multiple minds together who are trying to go towards a common goal, and it is ridiculous. I don't care what kind of background you have. It's fun to watch just different experiences and backgrounds and stories that people bring to a room and go like, "Oh, yeah. Do this, or X, Y, and Z, or this is my feedback for this." The amount of decision making, the time that it takes to make the kinds of decisions that people need to make in order to be successful, the timeline decreases. The clarity of the path that people go down afterwards is amazing. Clarity not just on the marketing, or clarity on the offer, or clarity on this, but how they actually operate and conduct themselves outside of the mastermind in order to get their goal. I wish I could just dive in and start telling you all of them. I am shamed to say that I have not taken notes in every single one of them. I should have. I don't know why I didn't for a lot of them. Some of it was because I was building funnels on the side. Actually, a lot of it was because I was building funnels on the side, so I'd be listening and when there'd be some massive thing, I'd come over and write it down. I've got this huge, massive, Trello column of just huge. On one side it's direct quotes from Russell from all the lessons of me sitting next to him and hearing him as he's talking to other people on those podcasts. The other one has all these ones that he hasn't actually explicitly told me, but I've learned from him, or gleaned from him either in a mastermind or directly from his desk, or whatever it is. I mean it just blows my mind. I couldn't have gone and got a master's degree, even PhD in marketing or internet marketing or whatever it is, and I still would not have learned even a fraction of this stuff. I know that. I know that, because these are the people who are doing it. These are the people who are out actually proving what's actually happening, what's actually working right now. You know what's funny, like I was saying before, of course it matters who all is in the mastermind. Obviously, if you're more experienced, overall it's going to be awesome, even more awesome. Even if you're not crazy-experienced and you have the chance to go to one, you should do it because it's crazy to see how much actually comes from it. Anyway. I feel like I'm saying the same thing over and over again now, and I apologize for doing so. It's just if there was one thing that I could do the rest of my life, if there was one activity that I would go do the rest of my life and never read another book again, and never take another course again, if there was one thing that would replace it all and I would still feel like I would be able to stay on the edge, the peak, the cutting edge place of the markets, whatever I'm trying to do, it would be masterminds. The mastermind would replace. Now, that's personal preference. Obviously, I've quite a bit of experience in the funnel building world, a lot of it. It's true though. I would put down all these books. I've tons of books all around me. Lots of bookshelves, bookcases and stuff. I love them and they're awesome. It's gold, amazing stuff. The one thing in my mind that has actual potential to replace the huge amount of knowledge in books that's sitting around me or on courses, or whatever it is, is masterminds. It's masterminds. For whatever reason that kind of synergy that comes from people who are truly trying to dive into and dump amazing information in and get amazing things back out, I mean it's amazing what happens. There's this really interesting study that happened actually, and I'll end this episode soon, because I know I've been going for a bit here. There's a really interesting study that happened, I heard the results from anyways, where some people went through and they watched those who contributed the most. Here was the rule. This is what they found out. Those who contribute the most in masterminds, those who contribute the most in masterminds almost always are also the top earners in the room. That wouldn't shock you. That wouldn't shock you at all. Think about that. When you get into a mastermind, and you see people who are just giving and giving and giving and giving and giving and giving, it is very much the antithesis of what most people treat wealth creation and secrets and, "I got to keep all my products to myself, and no one's going to know what they are. If I say anything, someone's going to steal it." It doesn't really happen that way. Guys, I tell you everything that I do and there's maybe like one or two people who have attempted and kind of done the stuff that I say, kind of done. Why? It's because I'm a different person with a different background, different frame of mind. Even if they did take the same idea and they did try and go, they still would execute it differently than I did. Ideas when they are shared grow. Ideas when they are shared actually turn into better ideas. You get up, and you stand up, and you actually start sharing all of your best stuff with the room, and you'll be shocked, shocked, completely floored, completely floored at what ends up happening to your idea, things you would never, ever, ever have thought of or it would have taken you a very long time to think of. Time is money. Anyways, I have a mastermind. It's not necessarily a Steve Larsen mastermind yet. I am having fun partnering with a lot of my friends at the moment, but no matter what, you can always find whatever mastermind I'm doing or running or pulling off, or whatever, at SteveJLarsen.com, and just click mastermind up at the top. It's in the top header. Click mastermind up at the top, and you'll be able to go to whatever mastermind is currently going on that I'm doing. Would love to have you guys. There are different prices, different price points, different things that you can go check out, whatever it is. I just got to bring up one other thing, one other thing. As I've been preparing to leave my job, as I've been preparing to leave ClickFunnels, I've surrounded myself with a lot of coaches, just to make sure that I keep the edge. One of the pieces of feedback that I've received is actually from Mandy Keene who's actually the Inner Circle coach who's amazing and has totally changed my life in ways that I still have a hard time expressing to her. I'm very thankful for her. What she taught me and actually what Russell personally taught me also, he and I were chatting and we were talking, and we were talking about the purpose of Inner Circle and the purpose of masterminds. Mandy separately was also talking about this, also. Russell has his own mastermind for many purposes. One of them is so that he can stay up to date with all the other industries and what's going on and all those things, so he knows how funnels will work in those different areas, things like that. That totally makes sense. The money, yeah, I mean the money's nice, but that's not really the real, real reason. The real, real reason is to keep him sharp. Then he'll attend these extremely high-ticket masterminds, these 100K masterminds in order to attend. $100,000 just to go to the mastermind, with these extremely high, A players. You can imagine the kind of goodies that go into there. The only thing I'm bringing this up for is so that you understand that if you're not collaborating actively and you're not actively your ideas, the idea is already on the way to dying. In my opinion, going to masterminds and being active in them and contributing your face off, it's one of the fastest, best accelerants I have ever, ever, ever seen, or ever witness ever. I think I could say ever a few more times. Ever, ever, ever, ever... It's because of all those things, not just the personal growth of the person explodes. Obviously the business does. The connections do. Hey, I know a guy who can hook you up with X, Y, and Z over here. The connections in the room, the ideas in the room for both your offer, or the marketing message, or the litmus test of the people who are sitting in there. People who are offering their connections. People are offering things that they've taken time and money to build on their own in order to contribute because they all understand the law. The law is if you give the ideas away, yours explode and expand in ways you could have never done on your own. People know that when they're regular, habitual mastermind attenders. I invite you to come. If it's not mine, I don't care. Choose one. I would love it if you came to mine, but my gosh, choose. Just attend. Go to one. You will be shocked by what happens. If you're like, "I don't know which ones exist out there." Just start looking around or come to mine, or go to someone's. I guarantee if you go to Google and start looking around, or any guru, gosh, just start asking around, and you'll find one. Anyway, hey, so if you want to do whatever one I'm currently running or putting on or about to go to or whatever it is, I'm just going to be putting at SteveJLarsen.com, and you can click mastermind up on the top. The next one is actually here in just a few weeks, which I'm very excited about. Anyways, guys, appreciate it. Go collaborate like crazy. Share, share, share, and give your ideas away, and you'll be shocked at how much, A, they grow but B, no one steals them, because no one can truly replicate you. Anyway, talk to you later. Bye. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnels for free? Go to salesfunnelbroker.com/freefunnels to download your prebuilt sales funnel today.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Click above to listen in iTunes... WHO Is The Best At XYZ?... What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen, and I've got a bit of a treat for you guys today. I think you're gonna like it a lot, here on Sales Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business, using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host Steve Larsen. All right, you guys. Hey, so as I have been moving along the entrepreneurial path, as I've been putting things today. One of the things that I've noticed that I need more, and more, and more is people; like just straight up talent. The longer I've been doing this stuff I've realized ... Here's an example, okay, I'm sitting at my desk and I was working, I was getting some things done, and I sat up and I looked across the room and I was like "Man, Russell dude, I want to go ... I would be so nice if I understood more Java Script. I'd love to be able to code out a few pieces just here and there, things that I wish that I knew how to do." He looked at me, he goes, "Why would you want to know how to do that?" And I was like, "'cause it would be so cool, like, look at all the things I could go do." And he goes, "Dude, you don't need to know how to do that, we have people for that." And I was like, "yeah, but like I ... It might be faster if I go learn." He's like, "No. It would be faster at first, it might ... It's gonna take you all to go learn it, you get distracted, and now you become like slightly renaissance man." He said something like that, I can't remember what exactly. But, that was the point, is don't be a renaissance man. And I was like, "Huh, all right that makes sense. That make sense." You sitting there listening might be like, "Well, yeah, it does Stephen." But, to me from where I sit, most people are like, "I got to learn this next thing in order to be successful. I can learn this next piece, I can learn this next piece." Over the last 18 months working there ... Guess it's been 20 now, but he ... There's been repeated times ... It's funny how it's been like a topic, and it finally ... It sunk in now enough that it's not just something I know, it's something I'm applying that you don't ... You don't just go learn crap for the sake of learning it, you learn it because you need it in the exact moment. It's kind of what I call that Learning Cycle. The Learning Cycle for me is very heavy as soon as I'm about to enter an industry, 'cause I go learn as much as I can then I stop. Actually, I put the books down, I stop learning on purpose. Then, I only learn for the problem that sit directly in front of me. How do I solve the exact problem that's in front of me? What he was telling me though, and what he's told me repeatedly over and over again is like, "Stop obsessing over learning all the little nitty gritties." He's like, "Dude, no, we got a guy for that." I was like, "[Cabe 00:02:38], it'd be fun to go learn that." He's like, "No, go ... Dude, we have a guy for that too." He's like, "Dude, just because you can learn something doesn't mean you should." I was like, "Aah man, that's massive, that's a huge ... Wow, okay. Yeah, that's right. That's right." Conceptually I understood that, I understood it before but I hadn't been applying that at the time. So, I've got a bit of a gift for you guys, I was looking at some people's websites, and I was looking at some of their funnels and things like that. I came across a persons' site and ... I know a lot of people do this, but it was a directory of all the valuable internet marketing apps. All the valuable internet marketing software, and I was thinking like, "This is kinda cool. It's kinda cool." I mean, I visited the page once, maybe twice but that's about it. The problem I had with it is that most of those apps, most of those pieces of software, I'm like, "Hey, I got to find an email platform." Or like, "Hey ..." I mean, these [inaudible 00:03:27] but ... Or "Hey, I wanna find ... Where can I find anything, any piece of tool that I'm looking for, the first place I'd go is Google. Or I'd ask a few buddies and see what they're using, and then I'd go to Google. Honestly, YouTube see what the best reviews are, maybe a blog or two see what the best reviews are there. Those are kind of easy to find, so I was like ... I was thinking through I was like, "Okay, I wanna ... How do I combine this concept that Russell just talked to me about versus ... And combine it with this whole directory kind of model?" So, I've got kind of a gift for you guys. So, I wanna take a step back and I realized that the first four minutes of this episode might feel like it's all over the place; let me kind of bring it all together. I want you to know what's going on inside my head. So, let me take a step back from the episode and where we're currently are right now. I am in a place right now where I am realizing ... Not realizing, but I'm applying all the stuff that I have been learning from the man himself. Honestly, I've been ... I started honestly doing that at least two years ago, and I was hiring out tons of people, and I was ... I'm a huge fan of freelancer.com, I'm all about getting things done through other people who would rather do them. I could go figure out how to code stuff, but frankly, the guy over there is begging to do, and he wants to do, and he loves doing it. He loves doing it more ... as much as I love building funnels, so let's let that guy do it 'cause he's gonna be ... He's gonna throw passion behind it, whereas I'll just throw an objective behind it. So, I like hiring people to go do these things, I don't want to be a Solopreneur. Most of the time when I see a Solopreneur usually they don't go very far, because you can't do it on your own for very long. Or you can't do very long and you actually go that far. It requires other people, it requires a team. So, I was think like, "Where do I find like the best of the best of everything. Where do I find the best of this topic over here? The best of this topic over here? The best of these different skill sets around? I was thinking, "How cool ..." I don't actually remember where I got the idea, I think it was a couple mon ... Maybe two months ago-ish almost, and I was sitting there I was like, "What if I made a Talent Directory." A Talent Directory, so, it's not so much about like ... It's not so much about like, "Hey, here's the best softwares if you're trying to this. Or here's the best companies if you're trying to do that." People, who is the best individual that does JavaScript? Who's the best individual to get for this? Who's the best individual for this? So, what I was thinking was like, "How can I ..." 'cause I believe I'm a huge proponent you guys of pumping as much value into the marketplace as I possibly can, so that when it comes time, anytime I come ... Excuse me, anytime I come back and I'm like, "Hey, market please pay me for said product." There's so much reciprocity that I've created, and there's such a relationship that I've gone through and actually put together. That the market is like, "Sure, here you go." You know what I mean? It's easy for me to sell that way, obviously it takes a little time. I've had this entire podcast, and I've been doing this stuff for ... I've be doing this podcast now for 18 months and then the ... I've been doing funnel building for 5 years 'cause I was doing a word press before, which is ... Was terrible and I didn't know honestly it was a funnel, but that's what I was doing. So, anyway, guys I've created a Talent Directory and anyone can apply to put their name on it. Anyone can ... And their talent, so, I'm gonna ... On stevejlarsen.com, stevejlarsen.com, I'm gonna go rebuild the whole thing I don't really like what it is right now. But stevejlarsen.com, I'm gonna go rebuild it and if on the tab on the top I'm gonna put something in there that says Talent Directory; top or bottom okay. There's a part ... Anyway, it's in the top and I wanna make sure I probably add it to the bottom too for the footer. But, if you go there it's in the header/footer, click on Talent Directory. What it is, it's a page of all the different things that I see are needed in order to get a successful funnel off the ground; images, video, funnel building, this, that, copyrighting. You see what I'm saying, design, traffic, fulfillment, all the stuff in the backend; a coder front end developer, a back end developer. I want ... All those things I want to have, I want a big bank of those kinds of talents. I want to know who those people are, I want to know ... So, again, let's take a step back and I want you to know why I'm doing this, because I want a huge list of that. I know if I ... As a marketer if I increase the status of the individual who's willing to put their name on that list, I can in turn put it out there into the market and use it of my own benefit at the same time. Does that make sense? That's why I'm doing it. So, I'm putting ... It's a living document, it's a Talent Directory but it's a living document. Meaning if you get on the list, for the people that are on the list or whatever, I want to be able to showcase each person. I want to be able to showcase each individual and show like, "Hey, look this person is awesome at this and here's their contact information." It's all gonna be free. I will probably require an opt-in of you to see it, why? Because I'm a marketer you guys of course I'm gonna ask you to opt-in; Duh, that's what I'm gonna do. But, how cool to be able to show and showcase tons and tons of people for free. All the individuals, and all the Talent Directory like, "Who's the best of this? Who's the best of that." Guys, I have sat in an amazing place for the last two years, I know who a lot of the best people are, and I know exactly the people to hook others up with. I can't by name actually suggest certain things to you. So, if I can't ... If I can't tell you, "Hey this is the one to do this. Hey, this is the one to do this." I can at least make it user generated. Does that make sense? In some things my hands are tied simply because it's a need-to-know basis, and that's a trade secrets' kinda thing. Anyway ... You know what I mean, but ... So, if you wanna know who like the best ... So, it's gonna be by application basis where someone comes in and they're like, "Hey, I wanna get on the directory." Well, if you go to ... If you click on the Talent; I'm gonna call it The Talent. It's Talent Directory currently but I think that's too long, so it'll be like The Talent, or Finding Talent, or Find Talent. Maybe that's what ... Find Talent. So, it's Find Talent, I'll change it to that. Find Talent, you click on that up in the top and it'll ask you to opt-in. But, it's gonna push you over to the list that I've got where it's like, "Hey, here's the best writer, here's the best this, here's the best that, here's the best sales guy, here's the best ..." I don't wanna say The Best, but I'll give a list, I'll give several different option. Why? It'll showcase like crazy all these amazing people, but it also let me get a relationship with those individuals so that when I want to go higher the best fulfillment guy, or the best this, or the best that. I also have places to go to, okay. So, that's what I'm trying to tell you guys is that I had this problem. I've got a current team they kick butt, they take names, I want to be able to interview all of them so you know who they are, and what their roles really are. Some went here shortly, and I wanna showcase each one of them also on https://stevejlarsen.com/download However, I don't feel like it's time yet for that, I think in the next two or three months it will be for a few specific reasons, which I'm not ready to put out yet. But, I wanna showcase each one of them, which would be really cool 'cause I'm fully aware that this is not just ... I know I'm not a one band stand, I do not drink my own Kool-Aid, and hopefully ... Why? Because usually ... Number one, I think that it's kind of wrong. Not wrong but, I mean, come on it's not really that ethical sometimes and whatever. I'm sure I offended some people but whatever. But, B) It's bad juju like, "Holy crap, anytime I ever seen any marketer started to drink their own Kool-Aid, and think they're all that they literally separate themselves from their own market, which is stupid. Why would you ever do that?" Anyway, I don't drink my own Kool-Aid and I know that it's more than just me. So, I'm constantly looking for the coolest, awesome, most kick butt people to be able to hire. So, the Talent Directory that I'm gonna go put up or that is there ... I got to edit it, I got to change stuff, it's in ... By the time this episode is up it will be done, just so you know that's how I launch stuff. Just like I talked about in the last episode. So, by the time this episode is up it will be ready to rock. But, you can go in and if you want to get on the directory, there will be a button there too you can click, and it'll have you go through and tell me why you should get on it. Believe me you are selling me, you are trying to tell me why you're a kick butt and should be able to be on there. What I want it to be though is for the rest of the community, so they can jump on and be like, "Holy crap, this is freaking awesome." This would be a huge Lead Gen for tons of people that I want to think that ... I want them to think that I'm cool, that's why. As a marketer I'm trying to figure that out, I'm trying to make sure that I'm staying in the forefront of what is awesome, of what's good, of what's ... Does that make sense? So, I want you ... Start thinking like that when you're like, "aah gosh, I wish I knew who the best person for this was. I wish I knew who the best person ... Or I've got this problem in my business." Instead of ... don't let it ... I'm not saying it does bring you down but don't ... Instead of letting it be too big of a barrier, think through how you could answer that and put value into the market. If you treat every single problem in your business that way what's gonna end up happening is, you will put tons of value into the market in a way that lets you create a relationship with everybody. People will know who you are because you scratch their back without you asking anything in return. Does that make sense? So, I'm being open and honest, and I'm being completely transparent to show you that is the reason why I'm doing it. I want to be able to help everyone be able to progress, be able to go forward, and push forward, and it's gonna be awesome. But, at the same time I wanna know who those people are too so that I can hire them. So I can use them so I know the best person who that is. Or here's three options for that problem or three option for this skillset. Does that make sense? So, that's why I'm doing it. So, if you want to; number one, see who that is. Go to stevejlarsen.com, click on Find Talent up in the top header; Find Talent. It'll ask you to opt-in, duh, just know that. I was getting nervous if somebody's gonna be like, "Well, you ask me to opt-in." Like, "Yeah, I'm putting the list together, it's the value that I'm giving. But, of course I'm gonna ask you to opt-in. Why would I not Lead Gen from it, right?" So, you think through like, "How would you do it?" Find out maybe there's some other kind of directory that would work well for your industry. It doesn't need to be a Talent Directory, or a directory of all the software, or a directory of this, or that, or whatever. But, this is a huge opportunity. You guys, you know this episode ... I'm sorry, you this podcast like I'm only pumping out usually two, sometimes three a week of these things usually. They get three to 500 downloads a day, which I know isn't massive, massive but it felt completely organic you guys. I think you'll spend ads on it maybe one time a year ago and that's it. I understand that and I get it, but we just screened pass 80,000 downloads and it's doing awesome guys really, really exciting. There's a lot of you out there that are listening to this just so you know, the community is big, and it's growing, and it's actually growing really quickly. Anyway, so, number one; if you wanna know who those people are go to stevejlarsen.com, click on Find Talent up at the top [inaudible 00:14:53] 'cause the guy that wanted Stevelarsen.com, the guy wanted 40 grand, I talked him down to 20, and I was like "It's not worth it, come on. I'm not gonna do it." Anyways, it's Steve J. Larsen, my full name is Stephen Joseph Larsen. So, stevejlarsen.com.... Then, number two though, if you want to get on the directory please do not PM me on Facebook. I get way too many messages it will get lost. I know notice a lot of people sometimes they get frustrating with me like, "You haven't answered yet." I was like, "You got to get in my shoes and understand that logistically I will spend the entire day answering messages, if I go answer every single message." It's not to be rude it's to protect, and sustain my own momentum. You know what I mean? So, number two, if you want to get on the directory go to, again, stevejlarsen.com, click on Find Talent. Then there's gonna be a button there that says ... probably like the top right or something like that, probably make a subheader menu bar where it's like, "Get on the directory, or apply to get on it." It is an application funnel. On the backend I'll put an application funnel; a watered down version of one. But, you are definitely selling me on why you should get on it, because I wanna make sure that it's awesome people. I don't mind to have several people in a certain topic that's totally fine with me. I just want to make sure that you're awesome because you are on my ... Literally my page. I mean, I'm gonna manage the thing, if I find out someones being shady, or dumb, or whatever I'm gonna delete you. It's not worth it to me and everything I've worked hard to build. Anyway, so just know that it is being watched like a hawk and because those are the people that I wanna go to, I wanna hire, I wanna get relationships with. So, I don't care what it is that you do as long as you're good. I don't care if it's fulfillment, I don't care if you are good at like back office style management, a phone sales guy. I don't care if it has to do with sales, or if its more about management, or if you're like HR, I don't care what it is. Whatever you are if you're great at it I wanna know, I would love to be able to meet you, and say hi to you, and start pulling together rock stars like that. Then, be able to help showcase you so that everyone else can also benefit. I think it's gonna help the community as a whole because one of the biggest questions I get over, and over, and over again, which is why I'm responding to the market That's the other reason why I got the idea 'cause I was like, "Man, everyone's asking me, like, who do you hire to do this? Who do you hire to do that?" And I was like, "Ugh, I don't wanna ..." In some cases, I can't tell you because my hands are tied because I work at ClickFunnels and it's a conflict of interest, and we got to protect ourselves too. And I was like, "Ugh ..." But, if it's user generated, if it's user created that's totally different. You know what I mean? So, I was getting the question all the time like, "Dude, who'd you hire for this? Who'd ..." And it's like I can't tell you that. Literally, that's me showing favoritism and I work ClickFunnels not for too much longer obviously but ... Anyway, so, if there's not a ton of people on there right now when you go to it, just know that it's a living, breathing thing and you should be able to get on their quickly. So, here's how the funnels gonna go though. Funnel, what? You use funnels for managing things, what? Yes, they're not just for selling things, I use them to manage all the time. There's more to come of that, which is why I'm podcasting this so you know about it. So, first if you go to that page it'll have you opt-in, now, think through the funnel. Number two, you're gonna see the page. Number three though, if you wanna get on the list, people will go through and they'll apply. Well, one of the last steps of the first page will say, "Hey, let me know why you should be on here?" If you have a one sentence bio of what you've done, and a one sentence credentials thing of what you are good at, or something like that; what are those things? Write them down. This is almost like a resume, I feel like resumes are crap but the traditional sense resume. This is a way better form to have a resume though, you know what I mean. But, anyway, so you'll be able to go through and you actually toss in stuff that I'll put directly on the page; probably not a picture I'm just thinking space wise. 'cause it's gonna be like a phone book, the text is gonna be slightly tiny eventually maybe not first. 'cause I wanna keep adding to it or removing from it if something happens, you know what I mean? Then, the next page it's gonna say, "Awesome, thanks so much ... Appreciate the application we'll reach out if we put you on there." Then, what I want each person to go do ... Okay, think about this. Think about what I'm doing, what I want you to go do if you wanna get on the directory and get all these sweet leads is, we got the make sure that there's eyeballs that get to it. Please share this link and post about it to your profile. Some people are gonna be like, Stephen, I can't believe you just publish that that's what you're asking people to do. That's really what you're going on. Oh my gosh, what ..." Guys, it's Lead Gen that's why I'm doing it, I'm amassing a list. I'm amassing huge ... Oh my gosh, huge value. You know what I eventually wanna do is I wanna interview on the podcast each one of the people who truly are rock stars in each one of those areas. I don't care if you're not involved directly at Sales Funnels, it's all part of the sales process and management in the back end in order to get the sale. Does that make sense? This is like ... So, I'm to farm out the best, of the best, of the best, of the best, and of course I'm gonna interview them I wanna be ... If I can, I probably can't get anybody but like The A player, The Rock Star for each thing. I wanna interview them on the podcast. Then, I'd love to be able to go and have them drop the link for that same directory to their own people. This is how a marketer thinks through this kind of stuff. How can I solve the problem but leverage it? In a positive way that scratches everyone's back, that solves legitimate problems, this is solving a legitimate issue. There's a lot of people that ask me who to hire for X, Y, and Z and I can't answer them. But, if it's user generated, if I know you're awesome, if you're a rock star holy crap, why wouldn't I do that? Why would I not create a directory? Anyways, I felt like it's more valuable than the software directories that are out there because you can't Google that stuff. I mean, it's not ... But, it's harder to find good people, it's harder to find individuals. I have wasted thousands and thousands of dollars on really bad VA's, really, really bad freelancers. Really, really bad people who said that they can do the did, and technically they did it but it was so crappy. You know what I mean? I wanna know who the actual A players, and rock stars are out there so that's why I'm making this. Again, if you want to; A) see it. Go to stevejlarsen.com, click on Find Talent. If you wanna be on the list, same thing, go there click on Find Talent and I wanna showcase rock stars. You can apply to be on there and yeah that's pretty much it guys. I'm super excited for this. I've actually been planning this for a long time because it's just a serious issue that's out there. Anyways, if you ... I invite you to apply regard ... How should I say this? If you're like, "I'm pretty good a what I do but I don't know." Just do it anyway, you know what I mean. Gives us a chance to say hi and pull on in. So, anyway, there's a funnel for this and that's the funnel ... If you wanna see the funnel, if you wanna go through the process anything like that, that's how you do that. Anyway, so, I gotta do some tricky stuff on stevejlarsen.com, the homepage in order to pull this off because there's gonna be multiple exits. It's not actually a funnel, that first page is more like a website. By definition if there was more than one exit then it's no longer a squeeze page, so, there's gonna be multiple exits and multiple things all over the place. Anyway, it will be fun, I'm excited. I got to think through some stuff for the ... Okay. Yeah, that'll be cool though I got to go map it out and draw it out. I got another white board I'm super pumped about it, so I'm gonna go draw out the whole thing and I'll go build it. By the time this thing is launched you guys it will be ready. So, anyways, you're all awesome and this is a chance to show others that you are too. There's a cool quote I saw it said, "You're already a rock star, we're just here to help others know it." So, I guess this maybe the title of this or something. All right, guys talk to you later. Bye. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnel for free? Go to salesfunnelbroker.com/freefunnels, to download your prebuilt sales funnel today.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

There Are Two Things On MY Calendar. Events, And Product Launches... Hey, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen, and you're listening to an early morning Sales Funnel Radio  Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host, Steve Larsen. I am literally about to go downstairs into my garage. In my third car garage, I've got a full gym, got the squat rack, the dumbbells, the barbells, the bench, the pull-up bars. I love it, I love it. That's always been a part of my life. When I first graduated from college, it's only been about two years ago, I actually stopped all those things and I have missed them greatly. So I've loved diving back into it all in the last month and a half, two months here. I'm excited. I was about to go downstairs and get going. The hard part is that I know that outside right now it is 29°, so I was bundled up. I was like, "Uh. Right now it sounds more fun for me to do a podcast," actually for something that's been on my mind for quite a while. It’s cool that ... Okay. I'll tell you the story. Two or three days ago, I was standing next to Russell and he said something that summed up something that I have been wanting to say for a while. I was standing there, I was in his office, and he goes, "Yeah, check out my calendar. My life is run by deadlines." I was like, "Hm, That’s a good phrase right there. My life is run by deadlines." It's true. If you look at his calendar, and mine actually, the one that's right next to me on my left right here on that wall, it’s run by deadlines. I have a huge full calendar. I'm sorry, massive calendar on my wall, and I circle dates. Now, some of the dates are events that I’m going to, that I'm going to speak to, or I've already been asked to speak at like eight different events next year, which I'm very excited about. Then, so one category is an event. The other category, though, that’s on here though is a product launch, something that I’m actually going to be putting out into the market. You know what’s funny about that, and what’s funny about the pattern that we would work by, you guys have got to know that since I'm leaving ClickFunnels, what I've been trying to do is I'm trying to extract every lesson that I can that I learned there and I’m trying to publish it, not just so that you guys can know what it is but also that it sticks in my head. What I've been doing is I'm going and just trying to nitpick and pull out all the little things here. So some of these last episodes, especially episodes 90 to 100, know that that's what the goal really is. I've got more and more of those coming... I did that episode called 11 Brunsonisms, but I keep trying to pull out some of the best and biggest lessons, and you need to know how we operated there and how I'm going to continue to attempt to operate on my own come January 1st when I’m totally solo. Just know this is how we did it, is we would set a ... Okay. Please note that the reason I want to go through this is because I see people launching stuff really slowly. I understand there's a full team at ClickFunnels, Russell and I working in tandem, but a designer, traffic guy. There’s all these different elements, videographers, copywriters, email person, this person, and I get that. I understand that. There's a full team there, but still, I think it goes to say, I think you need to know why we launch so fast, why and how. I want to go through both of those things real quick, so if you look at his calendar, like I said, there's really two different types of things on his calendar. One is product launches and the other one is events that he’s traveling and speaking at, and things like that. It gets full really fast for the full year every single time, and we never want to erase it because it’s almost like a ... I don't even know what to call it. It’s cool, it's awesome to look at it. You're like, "This is what I did this year," and that's what we call them, funnel years. Anyway, so the way we launch stuff and the way I launch stuff is, the way I'm going to keep doing it, is we will set the date for when we want to put something out. Too often ... I'm sorry, it's like five 5 AM right now and I'm trying to wake up still so let me get this out there. Too often, what I’ve noticed is that somebody will ... In fact, here’s a good example. The other day I was on a coaching call and I was coaching somebody. I said, "Hey. When are you going to launch this thing?" The individual was like, "Oh, you know what? I think I'll launch it on, maybe I'll do it on Thursday." I was like, "No, no, no. When are you going to launch it?" The person goes, "You know what? Maybe I'll launch it on ... Maybe I'll do like Thursday or Friday or Saturday." I said, "No. When are you going to launch it?" I had to get forward about it, and the person was like, "You know what? Maybe Saturday." I was like, "You're not understanding what I'm telling you. When are you going to launch it? Choose the freaking date. Choose the time and the date right now and you hold your own feet to the fire on it." The person was like, "Okay. I'm going to do it this day." I was like, "Cool, what time?" The person was like, "I'm going to do it at this time," and I was like, "Cool. Awesome. Now you have the time. Now the trick is to hold your own feet to the fire. What mechanism can you put in place to hold your own feet to the fire?" Guys, that’s one of the keys of what I’m trying to teach you right here. When you set a launch date for product or a funnel that you're putting out, or anything at all, one the biggest keys is to ask yourself, "What is the mechanism, to hold your own feet to the fire." One of the easiest ways to do it, one of the ways that we do it, one of the ways I’ve done it is to be public about the launch date. It’s real easy to let that launch date come and pass if you’ve told nobody. It’s one of the reasons why I've told a ton of people about a product that I’ve been ... I'm putting out on January 4th. It’s not totally done yet, and the reason why is because it’s public so I have to finish it. Does that make sense? That’s how we ran everything at ClickFunnels. That's why we put everything out there. We literally ... You know the Expert Secrets book funnel, guys we started that funnel two days before the actual launch. That was the freakiest thing. I don't recommend that. That's a full team of fanatic experts to pull off in two days. We did not sleep for ... Oh my gosh, that was ridiculous, but you get the point though? You get the point. I hope you get the point. What’s the mechanism of you being able to just ... That’s one of the reasons you launch as fast as you can. Just set the date, set the date, set the date, and get as much stuff as you can done before the actual launch. You're being public about what isn’t done. In the sales picture, telling people, "Look, you're part of this first group. I'm going to take you through it personally, and we're going to finish building out this thing together," or "Look, this first time I want to take a big group of people through it together and you’re going to get more one-on-one help from me than anybody else." This first group, does that make sense? Module one is going to launch in two weeks, module two is going to launch in three weeks. That make sense? You're being open about it, and this is the way you're releasing. You're unraveling it, rather than having it be done all in one big package and you waste a ton of time and not get paid for it. What you’re doing is like the snowball unraveling, unrolling kind of a thing. Does that make sense? It's like you're unraveling a map that's rolled up like a scroll. You know what I mean? That’s how you do it. Otherwise, what ends up happening is you never launch anything because you think it has to be perfect when you launch it, and that’s not how things work. You don’t know, we don’t know what people want all the time. What’s funny is if I go create a course or if I go create a product or if I go create something to my own specs, I usually overshoot the ball way past what the market actually wanted. Does that make sense? Or needed or is expecting, or would be good enough, and so I would go and I'd create ... I've done that so many times personally where I'll go create something and it’s good and it’s so beyond what the person was wanting or expecting or beyond the current spot where they were needing, or whatever it was, that it almost overshoots expectations and creates overwhelm. So you create it with then the first round out, which should take pressure off of your back because the market is helping you make the product. You are not there doing it on your own. Does that make sense? Okay. So you unscroll it. You unravel it. Unravel the product, and that's how you put it out there. The first thing I'm trying to put across here is, number one, what's the mechanism that you use to hold your own feet to the fire once you set a launch date? Really, if you think about that, what you’re doing this first round, the first thing, because the market will be making the product with you, what you’re really doing before the launch is trying to perfect the sales message itself. You've got to think about the product and the sales message as two separate things. They’re not the same thing at all, and when people screw up, most of the time I see that they think the product is a thing that sells. If they've never sold anything before, you're like, "No. The product never sells itself." Rarely does a product ever sell itself, like the iPhone. The iPhone sold itself. As soon as people saw it, they're like, "Holy crap. I gotta have that." It sold itself a little bit, but that kind of product is not very often, and I wouldn't hold your breath for it. Instead, go perfect this awesome sales message that breaks and rebuilds the belief patterns around a single big idea... That’s what ... The product is facilitating the big idea. I’m going off on the side, though. The first thing, though, create the launch date and then a mechanism to hold your own feet to the fire. Yes, even Russell has to do that. The way that we did it was to be public. That’s one of the ways, be public about the actual launch date. When you’re public about the actual launch date, now you have to make it because hundreds and thousands of people are watching you now. They’re watching you, and it puts you in this area where you know what? There’s potential to be really uncomfortable. You might have to stay up really late. You might have to get things done, whatever it is, but it’s cool because 99% of time it gets done because now it’s public. It’s public knowledge. If you never told anybody your idea, that’s the wrong approach. That’s it. That’s a really bad approach. Anyway, terrible. That's a bad approach. Tell everybody about your idea. I’ve never had anybody steal an idea from me ever, and I try to tell ... Guys, this podcast for me, I try to tell all of my ideas on it, all of it. There's some products I haven't told you guys about because they're slightly in a different market, but anyway, I've got a few episodes coming up where I tell everything though. I'm trying to put all ... and you should too. One of the reasons why is because it holds my feet to the fire. I no longer have a choice. I've got to get it done. I’ve got to get these things done. It’s one of those letter gold moments that Russell always talks about too. It’s the plot to a [inaudible 00:12:25]. Am I going to actually pull off and do this thing that now others are also holding me accountable to? So what’s the mechanism? One of the mechanisms, like I said, is to go and be public about it. It takes the pressure off of you knowing that the first group is going to create it with you. Follow me as ... These are all, they're all intertwined. All these reasons are intertwined. Another mechanism, though, that you can use is like an accountability partner. So what I’ve been doing, what one of my buddies and I are doing is we are doing ... Have you guys ever heard the thousand dollar check thing? I don't know if you guys have before, but anyway, this is what it is. I messaged my buddy and I said, "Look, dude. I'm about to go solo. I’m excited about it, but I want to make sure that I hold my feet to the fire as far as being ferocious in the business place," being ferocious. You know what I mean. That’s how we are every single day. That's how Russell is every day at ClickFunnels, because we got accountability from the public where we've got all these launch dates going on, but one of the methods that I love, so awesome, from one of his earlier podcasts was that he would write $1000 check to somebody else. They wouldn’t cash it. The other person would write $1000 check back to him also, and what you do is at the beginning of the week, you tell each other, "Hey. This is what I'm going to get done this week," and at the end of the week you report. Real fast. This doesn’t take long. These are not full, massive, huge meetings. You're just reporting. If you do not get all those things done in that week, the other person cashes your check. Does that make sense? That’s what I'm doing. So my buddy Ben and I, I've talked about him many times on here, Ben's the man, but what I’ve been doing, what we’re doing is this thousand dollar check swap. Right now, he and I are rigging our checks together and I'm sending mine, $1000 to him. He sent $1000 to me, and if we don’t get those things done, we get to cash each other's checks, which is awesome. That's another mechanism. Does that make sense? That's another way. There's a lot of ways to do it, as you go back and do it. So hold yourself accountable. Run your life by deadlines, not by, "For a while, I'm just going to focus on the product. I'm just going to get the product done." No. It sucks so bad to actually have created an entire amazing product that (a) the market may not have wanted and was overshooting it, and (b) quite honestly you didn’t get paid to create it. You know what I mean? In fact, okay, my brain ... There's another squirrel that just popped up in my head. I'm going to follow it for a second here. I was just reading this morning from a book called, The Innovator’s Dilemma, and it is fantastic. It’s by Clayton Christensen. This guy is a genius. He teaches at Harvard Business School. Absolutely amazing hero. Another book called How We Measure Life. Anyway, he's the man. If you've never studied any of his stuff before, it’s like deep stuff though. I have to read it ... It's the kind of book where I've got to read the paragraph two or three times to get it. I'm like, "Holy crap, that was so deep. That was so good." Anyway, it’s awesome stuff, but here’s one of the reasons why you want to create the product with your people that first round. As you are unraveling a product, as you’re putting it out there, and this goes to support the fact that I was saying before that many times you’ll create something that’s overshooting what the market even wanted. Let me read this. It's from a chapter called Discovering New and Emerging Markets. In Expert Secrets, the book tells you to create a market, so I was like, "That's a cool supporting chapter for this entire thing." I actually immediately flipped to that and this is the first paragraph that I read. I was like, "Holy crap. This sums up the entire thing that I’m saying right here." What Expert Secrets tells you to do, don’t choose the freaking niche. You go create it, but with this in the backdrop. This is it. Markets that do not exist cannot be analyzed. Suppliers and customers must discover them together. Not only are the market applications for disruptive technologies unknown at the time of their development, they are unknowable. Let me say that one more time. Think about this. Think about this. Markets that do not exist cannot be analyzed. Suppliers and customers must discover them together. How can you analyze? How can you go create a market that is not even created? If it's not created, you can't analyze it. It’s the same thing with the new niche that you’re trying to create. You have to take your best guess through the formulas of books like Expert Secrets and throw it against the wall. Then that first group that you’re selling to unravels it with you as you sell it to them. Funny, it's a different way to think about it guys, but funny enough, it actually is a huge alleviating thing to realize. Whether it’s an info product, a piece of technology, I don't care if you've got to code something, I don't care if it’s this first group, and if you can’t sell it to make money with, then you go get a beta group... Those are the two different launch strategies that I personally. Either I set the ... I always set the date so everyone knows about it, but I’ll sell it, get paid to create it and make it with them, or I will go get a beta group and I will unravel it with them as well. I never ... Guys, don’t do it on your own... Do not create the product on your own. That’s what I’m trying to say here, and you use launch dates as a tool and all these mechanisms to hold your feet to the fire. You're like, "Launch, launch, launch, launch, launch." Launch this product. A couple weeks to sustain it and get on its feet. Then you have your next product launch, then the next product launch and the next product launch. Now, I know I say focus on one funnel at a time, and it’s so true, but also know that sometimes one funnel has a whole bunch of different products in it. They don't all have to be created in order to launch it in the funnel. "Stephen, that’s going to be crazy. There's all these things to juggle the first round." Yeah, I know. There's a lot of stuff, but it helps you get it up so quickly. You don’t have to actually have it done before you launch it, and I beg you to not have it done before you launch it because of this principle. Not only are the market applications for disruptive technologies unknown at the time of their development, you're trying to create a disruptive technology, a brand-new opportunity... It's something like that. It's something disruptive in general. A brand-new opportunity, what you’re trying ... You’re trying to go in with the brand, the niche that you're trying to create and you’re trying to say to every other person in the sub-market, "Look guys, the old vehicle is wrong." That’s the reason why you don't have to sell it as hard. That's why you don't need all these hard-core sales tactics or anything because it’s a brand-new opportunity. "Hey, check this out. Instead of painting your car, I've got this brand-new one over here for you, and it does all these things that have never been done before." Cool. It doesn’t take much of a sales pitch. You know what I'm saying? Not only are the market applications for the disruptive technologies unknown at the time their development, they are unknowable. You take the best guess you can, you throw it against the wall. Using the formulas of Expert Secrets and how to create that niche, you throw it up against the wall and then you say, "Okay market, now it's your time to come help me create the rest of it," and that’s how literally ... That’s how we launch stuff. Anyway, oh man. Quite honestly, I was just looking for a cool paragraph that would help support what I’m saying, and now that I've picked this book, I'm like, "Crap, that was freaking awesome." That was one paragraph. I should probably finish reading that book. Anyway, I hope that makes sense though. So my buddy and I, Ben and I, he lives in Utah, I’m here in Idaho, and we chat pretty much every day, almost every day, but we're doing that now. He’s solo, he’s been running solo for a while. I'm about to go solo, and I want to make sure that I still stick to this style of launch because it's very different than any other kind of business I've ever worked in. When I saw the way my dad worked and stuff like that, I know that those companies don’t work like this either. It’s a very fascinating way to approach your business, to launch in this kind of way, to have your calendar be full of events and the stuff that you ... Guys, it’s like, there's good and bad to literally everything in life and this is using the positive parts of procrastination. That’s what people would call it. With that, when you set the date and you're starting to create the message, just like a few weeks before or if you’re starting to be really good at this, maybe a few days before, I wouldn't recommend that though until you have really done this several times a lot, but it’s the good parts of procrastination. You’re going and you’re creating a scenario where you have to come up with something awesome because you don't have time to mess around. You get it out there, you sling it together, and in a way where you’re focusing on what sells it, not the product itself. Then with the market, with the market, with the people you've sold or with a beta group or with the ... Whatever the point ... Whoever it is, the point is it's not by yourself. They are creating it with you, and then they go through, and what's nice about that is, like I said before, it takes that pressure off as the public is doing it with you. That's one of the ... They're unraveling what this new opportunity is with you, because you’re not going to be able to guess what that is, which is what that book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, was saying. It’s like, "Look, it's unknowable. You can’t know what it is because no one’s been there before. You can’t analyze that market because it doesn’t exist yet. You're trying to create a new opportunity that has never been there before. You’re creating a niche." If you're like, "I'm going to do what this guy does because it’s already out there," then you’re not creating a niche. Anyway, think about that though... Has ClickFunnels had all these products ready to launch at the time that they actually went to market? No. They're still creating tons of stuff all the time, and it’s awesome. That’s how fast they move with it. You're like, "Oh man, that’s really intense." It is intense, but it is so much less risky. Funny enough, then trying to make all those things before they're ready to launch, anyway. So I'm doing that, holding my feet to the fire. I'm trying to have an accountability partner, which I'm super stoked about to help hold my feet to the fire, and hold true to the launch date or hold to my calendar that I’m creating. My calendar is full of events and launch deadlines. That’s really it, and then I backwards plan on getting each of those things done a couple weeks in advance. I start putting together the sales script. I put together the funnel to sell the thing. I'll create the first model that I think is the coolest one but then really after that, the rest of them, it’s all ask campaigns inside of each individual module, or if it's a software, each feature has its own little ask campaign. You know what I mean? You can use it any way you want, but this style, get used to it and let it sink in and be like, "Huh. When is my launch date?" That's the first thing to figure out. When is the date? Set the date and the time that you're going to launch it. Now start telling people about it and you're going to start crating these cool mechanisms where people create it with you, which takes the pressure off your head, and number two, find someone else to be accountable to with it. So anyways, I feel like I said the same thing over and over again, and I’m actually trying to. I'm trying to say the same thing in several different ways so that it clicks. I hope you get it and you're like, "Oh my gosh. That's how. That’s how the launch is done. That’s how you put it out there and be successful on such a regular recurring basis and launch things as quickly as you're able to." What’s fun is that when you actually have the thing up and ready and done, you have that first round of people that have gone through and you’ve created the product with them, oh my gosh that’s such a good feeling because then you just focus on selling it, which is the funnest part in my opinion. Maybe people come back after a while and say, "You know what? We should have added an extra training here," or "I wish there was an extra feature in the software here," or "I wish that there was some other ... " and that’s great. Then you go do a little spot check module there, a spot check training here, a spot check feature there, but besides that, guys the core of it's done and you’ve created something that’s amazing that’s tailored to what the people wanted and you've thrown in some extra things that the market has never seen before. Then you've got yourself a sweet product that you got paid to create, and something that they wanted. Does that make sense? Too many times I've created something and it's like an overshoot of what people are expecting. They're like, "Oh my gosh. That was way too deep." That was a problem with my first MLM product that I put out there to the market a year and a half ago. It was too intense. You had to be a funnel freak like myself in order to actually pull it off. I was like, "Uh, crap. I did the overshoot thing." I had to pull it down, and rework the entire thing. I was like, "Gosh dang it." It took me eight months to put it all together, and I was like, "Man, I did it wrong. I shouldn't have done it that way," so this time it’s totally different and it’s awesome. Oh my gosh, it’s so cool. It's a billion times better, which I didn't think was possible at the time, but the market is making it with me and that’s why. There's been a beta group for months and it’s been awesome. So anyways, I’m practicing what I'm preaching. I hope you guys are getting out there. Choose an accountability partner if you want to. I’m excited to do the thousand dollar check thing. We're setting that stuff up right now and I’m getting ready to sprint again, which quite honestly I'm kind of addicted to. If you don't have a massive wall calendar, I do suggest it also. It gives a cool macro view of your day, and then usually the day before each day, the day before I do my micro planning to pull off and do my backwards planning to actually pull off what’s going on there. Anyways, that's more about how launching is done in the ClickFunnels and guru world. Pretty much anyone I've ever seen actually is launching stuff, and especially the internet marketing space, and honestly any space in general where there’s actually hustlers and things like that, that’s how I watch them do it, sitting in the seat that I did at ClickFunnels. All right, guys. Hope you're doing great. I will talk to you later. Go launch stuff.  Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnel for free? Go to salesfunnelbroker.com/freefunnels to download your prebuilt sales funnel today.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Click above to listen in iTunes... I'm A Huge Fan of Learning From Those WhoAre DOING, Rather Than Just Talking.... What's going on, everyone? This is Steve Larsen, and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business, using today's best Internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host, Steve Larsen. How are you guys doing? Hope everyone's doing great. It is barely 5:00 AM here. I set the alarm for 4:00 AM, but I slept in a little bit. Anyway, it's a Saturday, though, and a lot of you guys will be like, "What the heck are you doing up so early, Steven?" Well, number one, my brain works too fast. Sometimes I can't sleep, so I just get up. Number two, the real reason is because today, I'm not sure totally if I'm supposed to talk about this, but I'm actually really, really excited. Today, what's going to happen is one of my buddies ... You guys all know him. I actually interviewed him probably several dozen episodes ago. His name's James Smiley. He's the man. James Smiley was kind enough to send his own videographer, who's totally awesome, up to Boise, and today, Saturday, we are spending the entire day filming Gary V. styled videos, which is kind of cool. I'm getting up early so I can lift, honestly, and so that I can start prepping the different storylines. They want to film at least 12 different storylines, 12 different videos, that they can turn into those fast-paced, cool, Gary V. styled little snippets, those little vignettes that he puts out all the time on Instagram. Quite honestly, I don't really get on Instagram too much, but I am excited to get my own series of videos filmed like that. It's kind of cool. It's very exciting. I'm going through my podcast, and guess what I'm doing? I'm hacking my own self. Which means I'm going through my podcast, looking at all the stats, seeing which ones resonated with people the most. Those are the ones that will be turned into awesome videos. Just so you know, that's the process. They're like, "What's 12 cool things you could talk about?" I think everything that I put out is cool, and that's why I talked about it, but what did everyone else think was cool? So let's go look at the stats. Let's look at what people liked and shared and things like that. So I'm going through my show. I use a software called Libsyn, which I talked about in episode 1661, if you want to learn more about how I podcast. I'm going through all the stats, and I'm looking at basically seeing which 12 are the coolest ones. Then, I've got a whole bunch of thoughts on my own that I'll have to go add, as well. I'm excited, though. I'm supposed to bring a whole bunch of different changes of clothes as we continue to move around Boise to different locations that are undisclosed. I have no idea where we're going today. I have no idea, really, what we're doing. I'm just pumped. I'm excited about it. I'm extremely honored to be able to do it. It's going to be fun. It'll be cool. I'm just kind of swinging with it, honestly. To have 12 different videos and stuff like that ... The thing that I have a hard time with is I am so anti ... Not professionalism. There's certainly an awesome thing that comes with trying to be professional. It's when it makes you put so much starch in your shirt that you can't be your own personality. You know what I mean? Like I'm trying to wake up right now. I'm not going to lie. I probably should not have started podcasting. I don't want to come across in these videos in a way that it's like, "Hey, Steven is getting pre-framed and pitched and framed as if he's this pro guy." I don't look at myself like that. I don't look at myself like that. I don't look at myself as this ... I don't know. It's weird. I feel like drinking your own Kool-Aid can really kill you. You know what I mean? It's something that I've seen many times, especially with where my job has been over the last two years, sitting next to Russell Brunson. It's something that we'll see, not from him, ever, but we'll see other people in different communities and things like that start to drink their own Kool-Aid. The moment you start doing that, you start to try to distance yourself from your own audience. When you start to distance yourself from your own audience, guess what happens? They leave you. Why would I try and act like I'm someone I'm not? Anyway, that's actually my biggest fear with this. I'm excited. It'll be awesome. Hey, the whole purpose of this podcast today, though, is something interesting that was brought up. I was at ClickFunnels' HQ. I don't think anyone really touches the ground there. Everyone just kind of floats and glides around. I can't remember what I was doing. I think I was grabbing a drink from the conference room or something like that or the event room. I was walking back in, and Russell was talking to someone else, too, and he and I ended up walking at the same time back to his office. He goes, "Everyone needs to be more like Steven." I was like, "What are you talking about?" He goes, "You follow ... " What did he say? You follow the biggest pile of cash rule, biggest pile of gold rule. I was like, "What's that, man?" He goes, "It's the biggest pile of gold rule. Whoever has the biggest pile of cash, that's the person you go and follow." I was like, "That's kind of interesting." He was like, "Everyone should be more like that." He's like, "That's super cool that you're ... " He's like, "You're naturally like that, man." It felt a little bit from left field, the comment did, but he must have been talking about it from somebody else. What I did is I went online and ... You guys got to understand that when I met my wife, i was 6% body fat. I was working out at least once a day, a lot of times twice a did. I did a couple three days. It was all self-driven. I really like it. I'm very aggressive as an individual physically. I like to push my body. As I have been married and in school and college and the pressures of everything, I'm not going to lie, I gained a little weight. I want to change that. About six weeks ago, I got on YouTube with the intent of finding a buff dude that I could hire. What I did is I went on YouTube and literally found the most shredded guy I could, the guy who has to walk sideways through doors. You know what I mean? I wanted to find the guy that could kill me in a single flex. Not punch, flex. So I went and I found this guy. He's massive. He won all these fitness competitions. I just messaged him totally out of the blue. I didn't know if he did any coaching at all. I was like, "Hey, man, I really want to get ripped. How can I hire you?" I was like, "I've been disciplined to do it before on my own. I want help with the meal plan. I'd like help with the X, Y, and Z. The lifting part is easy. I want help with the meal plan. Please help me with that." He was like, "Sure, man, sounds good." He's been working with me for the last six weeks. I have no idea where he lives. It's all been remote. I am not, by any means, shredded yet, but my whole goal is to be more buff looking than Russell is by Funnel Hacking Live. So a lot of the office right now is in this competition, trying to get swol. Swol patrol, baby, woo! Anyway, Russell, he was laughing. He was like, "You follow the biggest cash rule. This dude's ripped, so that's why you hired him. You came here, you learned marketing. Biggest pile of cash rule. You follow that all the time. I wish that more people learned that." I was like, that's interesting. I was thinking through just my life. Kind of subconsciously, that's kind of how I've done it for a long time. I explicitly did door-to-door sales because I knew it would be one of the most emotionally challenging sales environments that I could conjure up. That's why I did door-to-door sales. Honestly, I did door-to-door sales voluntarily, knowing that it was going to suck. That's why. I did it for two summers. Then, after that, I guess I didn't get enough of it. I went and did telemarketing, because I knew that I hated talking on the phone. I knew that I would learn how to sell. Those are the reasons why I did it, so that I could get better and put myself in an uncomfortable scenario. Fascinating. I took two or three minutes just to think through the list. I was like, that was kind of like a biggest pile of cash rule. Then, I went to the next one, the next one, the next one. I was trying to speak at different events and things like that, years ago. A lot of you guys may not know this, but I sang for a long time, since fourth grade. I had a lead role in several musicals. I was in the top choirs. I sang in a band. I played drums for, like, six years. What was funny is that when I was doing singing, at first, I was so shy that no one could ever hear me, so I just kept practicing, practicing, practicing until finally ... I mean, I got a lot better. I put myself in really challenging scenarios on purpose. You know what I mean? Stage scenarios. What's funny is how much I'm on stage now, and I had no idea those two should coincide. Army. I legitimately went into the Army because I wanted to get my butt kicked. I didn't need to go into the ... There were other ways, okay? I wanted to do it because I wanted to go into those extreme stressful environments where it's physically demanding, where it's all you can do to just keep it together. You know what I mean? I wanted that, which was so funny. It sounds like a problem, but when Russell pointed it out just a few weeks ago, I was like, huh, maybe he's right. Is this a problem? You know what I mean? He's like, "Think about that. You came to learn marketing here. The buff guy, you went and you hired that guy." I'm leaving my job, not because I have a bigger pile of cash than Russell. Please never think that. I think that everyone already knows that. That goes without saying, probably. Because I think that there's things I need to learn that a job can't teach me. You know what I mean? There's some stress that comes with it. Good stress. I'm not freaking out or anything. I'm actually really, really pumped. It'll be awesome. All I wanted to do is I wanted to help you understand the biggest pile of cash rule, as coined and termed by Mr. Russell Brunson himself. Trademarked, register mark. Put a huge thing of disclaimers in right there. Honestly, I don't know where it stems back from, but definitely early on in my childhood, some things that I started doing ... I think, honestly, in my early teens or mid-teens. I don't know what clicked or what it was, but I kind of liked putting myself in stressful environments on purpose, because of what would happen to myself after I was done with them. Honestly, I may not have even understood that consciously, that that's what I was doing, but I did seek out slightly stressful environments kind of on purpose. Probably first as just kind of an adrenaline high. I was a bit of an adrenaline junkie growing up. I would go long board down ... I was a big long boarder guy. I loved to long board. It's like a skateboard, but it's long. It's long board. I had a speed board, and I would go 45 miles an hour. My brother would clock my in a car behind, barefoot down hills. That's stupid. Who does that crap? That's stupid. I've always been a little bit of an adrenaline junkie, so I don't know if I can blame it on, yeah, I consciously knew that was the biggest pile of cash rule as coined by Russell. That's slightly been the outcome from it, though, is that putting myself in scenarios where not all the pieces are quite figured out, where not everything is quite laid out in front of me, where I can't really see the middle, I just kind of know where the end is and where I'm trying to get. I know that it'll work out on the other side. Long boarding barefoot, that's stupid, okay? Don't do that. That was a dumb example. That was an example of what not to do. I think it comes down to some lessons that Perry Belcher talked about. There's a great course. I just heard that DigitalMarketer ... This is, honestly, the best course that I think DigitalMarketer's come out with. It's a course called secret selling system. It's like 18 hours long, by Perry Belcher. It is fantastic. It is one of the best funnel training courses I've ever listened to ever. A fair warning, though, there's a fair amount of swearing in it. Anyway, I wouldn't listen to it around kids, just to let you know. Perry Belcher's a bit vulgar, if you know anything about him. There's a few different levels. I think he named seven. I'm just going to go through three of them here. Seven different belief phases. These are different phases that an individual has to go through in order to make a sale. You think about what you're doing to yourself, too, as you start to follow, if you want to, the biggest pile of cash rule. I was thinking through that's interesting, because it really is following that same thing. Instead, I'm just selling myself, which is why I go through those scenarios on purpose. Pre-thought out, whatever that term is. One of the very first phases of this is that a person needs to go through and ask themselves, okay, this guy's got this cool product. Is this possible at all? Meaning not for anybody, but can I see this product working at all, for anybody? If the answer to that question is yes, they can kind of move on to the next question, which is if it's possible for other people, in general, is it possible for me? There's a whole bunch of in-between steps. I cannot remember all of them. This is the basic premise, though, and honestly, the same effect comes from these three, in my opinion. These are the three, also. Number one, is this possible at all? Is it possible in general that this product could get the change that this guy says it is? That's the first phase of belief. The second one is is it possible for me? Can I pull this off? Is this something where I could actually go off and be successful with it? Which kind of leads me, honestly, to the third thing. Honestly, the place that you want to stay if you're going to follow the biggest pile of cash rule, meaning whoever has the biggest pile of cash, whether that's money or some kind of result or whatever it is, those are the people you go learn from. If you're going to try and learn funnel building, go find a freaking awesome funnel builder who's built a ton of them. Right? This is Sales Funnel Radio. That's why you're listening to me... I've built a lot of funnels for a lot of people in a lot of scenarios. You're following the biggest pile of cash rule already right now. I've had a ton of you guys reach out and ask me if I'm going to have a mastermind after I leave ClickFunnels or coaching or something like that. I was like, hm, that's interesting. That's probably the market telling me that that's what it wants. I haven't thought of that. Maybe I should do that. Anyway, you want to stay kind of in this third phase if you're going to follow the biggest pile of cash rule. This is something I identified for me, anyways, where if I can get past a belief that ... Let's take this lifting example, this example of me trying to ... I want to go get buff again. I was doing sprint triathlons. Guys, I was killing it. I was the fastest dude out of, like, 50 guys that I would run with. Oh, man, I so miss that. It's such a huge physical rush. I like pushing my body to those uncomfortable places. That's awesome. Maybe it's a little bit of an issue. It goes back to the adrenaline long board barefoot issue, maybe. Let's take this as an example. Is it possible at all? Is there any belief that I have that it is possible for anyone in all of humanity to get ripped and buff? Yeah, I do believe that it's possible. Okay, that lets me go on to the second phase. Obviously, in tandem, think through this, also, with money making. So let's go to the second phase. Is it possible, then, for me? Do I believe that I have the capacity to be able to do this? Yeah. Yeah, I have. Not just because I've done it before and was that way for a while, until I kind of focused on making money, which makes sense. I was trying to follow my fatherly roles and husbandly roles of providing. That leads me to my third phase, the third one here, and this is honestly kind of a personal one. The third one is since it's possible, if this is possible ... How should I say this? Since it's possible, I'll just figure it out and start walking. That's kind of what I'm going to name the phase. Meaning I never, hardly ever, have all of the steps planned out. I have a very rough, 30,000-foot view plan of what I'm actually trying to do. I've noticed that it's the same way with how I build funnels. That's always that way. We never have all the details, all the plan. This is what it's going to look like. This is what it's going to be like. This is what this page is going to say. This is what this email's going to pop ... No. What we do is we set a very rough flag out on a hill. We say, "That's where we're going. Take the hill." We just start walking towards it. As we encounter the hill, there's a random boulder that comes up or there's a cliff that appears and we didn't know it was there. Or there's a huge chasm or a massive river or a rope bridge where it's barely working. You know what I mean? Then, we just deal with that problem at that time only. I think sometimes one of the reasons people will not progress, and something that I see ... There's hundreds of people I've coached through the coaching program now, hundreds that have come to the FAT event, the Funnel Hackathon event. There's hundreds, you guys. One of the things I think people ... There's really two different personality types that I see, as far as it comes to action-taking, happens all the time. The first one is the one where it's like I have got to have everything planned out in front of me so that I know it's safe for me to jump, so that I can handle every single contingency that's ever possible. I'm like, gosh, that contingency right there rue asking me about, the probably of it is so tiny. Are you kidding me? Deal with it when it comes, which is the second personality. The second personality that I see comes through ... It's funny, because when I'm saying it on stage and I'm seeing all these people ask questions and I see them progressing, I can see who's getting it. I can also see who's already implementing it in the event. They haven't waited to leave or go home. They're doing it there. The second personality is the one who goes, "Ah, I get it. I see the vision. Not all the steps. I see the vision. I see where you're trying to take us. Therefore, I will fill in all the gaps that I personally can, because I know that my success is not on your shoulders, Steven." Does that make sense? What I've seen, too, is when someone hasn't taken action but they've got everything filled out ... They've got all the pieces. They've got all these pieces together. They've got all the little parts. A lot of times, what ends up happening is they're looking for another thing that they think they need in order to distract themselves from getting started. They're looking for excuses to not buy into the process. I am begging you to not fall into that trap. If you're going to follow the biggest pile of cash rule, you can't fall into that trap, because you will not have all the answers, and you never will. Entrepreneurship is one big answering game after another. Another question, another question, every day you wake up. Guys, I cannot tell you how many times I sit down for my own personal business, and I'm like, crap, I don't even know what to build next. Or I don't even know what to build next or what's the next step here. No one's giving me a to-do list. No one's giving Russell a to-do list. No one's sitting down and going, "Okay, what do I got to do today? All right, who's got that list for me?" He's sitting down and saying, "Huh, what's hurting right now? Is there something I need to go fix? Is there something we should go increase revenue on or optimize?" Does that make sense? There's no such thing as entrepreneurship where all the answers are given to you, and I am all about entrepreneurship. I know you guys are all in here, too, who are. If you are trying to become one, please understand that it is a biggest pile of cash game. Go learn from the best people. There's a reason Russell has his own inner circle. 100 people come in from pretty much every industry you can imagine, and then he has his own personal growth-styled masterminds, also. Then he goes and he hangs out with these massive guys that are also on his level and even higher so that he can continue to grow. Does that make sense? It's the same thing. It's the exact same thing. You will not have all the answers. You sit there and go, "Yeah, I know. No duh." If you've been waiting to launch something for quite a while, you're not following the rule, then. Does that make sense? It is a game of jumping out of the plane and building the parachute while you fall, not before you jump. Funny enough, the first time I ever built an info product, I did it wrong. I did it so wrong. I did it terribly. I spent eight months building it, building the product. I was convinced that the product was the thing that made the sale. Products rarely make sales. A sales message makes sales. They're not the same thing. It's the whole reason why we'll go out and we sell stuff before we ever make it. Anyway, I'm totally getting on a soap box here, because I'm noticing that a lot of people haven't started because they think that the product needs to be done or has to be perfect. It's not going to be perfect. It's coming from your own head, when the market is the thing that needs to tell you what you should be building. You don't have the creativity inside of you to be successful and make a million dollars. That's why this game is more like a game of detective. It's like a detective game, where you're going to go through and you're going to discover what the market wants. You're going to toss things out there. Nope, that wasn't it. Let's take these three things out. Let's adjust that. Now, let's relaunch. Oh, cool, all but one of them stuck. Okay, let's go back. Relaunch, relaunch, relaunch, relaunch. Interaction, iteration, iteration, iteration. It's part of this biggest pile of cash rule, too, where what you're really trying to do is you're trying to help just get your own self in motion. Action creates action. Motion creates motion. Success creates success. One of the easiest ways to follow the biggest pile of cash rule that I've noticed in my own life is that I try to have personal, small wins every single day. I try to get at least ... Guys, I work full-time for somebody else, and it's way more than full-time. Way more than a 9:00 to 5:00 job. It's fun, because in the last two months here, Russell's like, "Dude, can we just do a normal 9:00 to 5:00 schedule?" I was like, "Yeah, we've never done that. That actually sounds really nice. It's the holidays coming up." I mean, we're just killing ourselves. You know what I mean? You're not going to have any success at all if you have to have all the pieces together. That's basically what I'm trying to say. If you're trying to follow the biggest pile of cash rule, one of the easiest things that you can do is go just try and do three ... That's what I was trying to say before. Sorry, I totally lost my train of thought, because I was thinking through ... I totally have the squirrel brain. Squirrel! Squirrel! Which is nice for brainstorming scenarios, and I'm totally doing it right now. I was trying to wrap up with this, and I got distracted. I'm sorry. This is me being vulnerable and just real. What I was trying to say, though, is one of the easiest ways to follow the biggest pile of cash rule is just try and make three moves a day if you're working for somebody else. It's going to be way more than that for me when I am completely solo January 1st, which I'm very excited about. Just make three moves a day, and that's all I try and do. Sometimes I don't get a full three, and sometimes I just get two. Meaning I try and get two to three big things done ... What's three? I try and get three things done each day that just move the ball forward. I don't even know always where the ball is going. I just try to move the thing. Motion creates motion. Action creates action. I kind of thought that was a cliché, okay, that's nice kind of thing five years ago, and it is so true, though. Just be in motion. Guys, I got an email from someone this morning that was ridiculous. It was so cool. It was an invitation to go hang out with some incredibly huge people that have helped massive celebrities we all know become very successful. I was like, what? What? That's crazy. Why? Motion. Moving. I hate coaching people who are not already in motion. It's one of my things. If I can tell an individual is not already moving, looking for their pile of cash, just moving towards that ... If they're not already actively learning, I hate coaching those individuals. Or they're not actively already trying to make money. Not thinking about it. Not thinking about how nice of a goal it is. Not planning it out. Actually trying to make sales. I hate coaching those kinds of people, because I've got to teach them the biggest pile of cash rule. They've had no practice following it, where you're going out and you're learning from the best people. You're trying. You're already doing it. Nobody's motivating you. You're motivating yourself. Does that make sense? Anyway, I try not to put too many ideas in a single podcast, and I tend to string them all together, so I should probably stop this here, just so you guys know. What I'm trying to say here is now that Russell brought it out and I realize, oh my gosh, I do follow that rule. That is why I'm actually leaving my job. Huh, that's why I called that dude and said, "Hey, make me buff," and why I've been reaching out to all these ... That's fascinating. So follow the pile of biggest cash rule. Who is it that has actually done it? Not talked about it. Not written books about it. Who's actually done it? Who's actually done the thing? Who's actually doing the thing? Who can you follow? Follow those people. Those are the people to go follow, okay? A lot of times, what's funny is the people who have the biggest pile of cash are not the ones that are talking. Sometimes they're the ones who don't want to talk. They don't want to let out their secrets. It's been funny to watch this whole fill your funnel process, because sometimes people don't want to reveal the traffic secrets that they're using, because they're proprietary. They're the ones that are the cutting edge. Usually, the ones that you're hearing in courses are not the ones that are the most cutting edge ones. You know what I mean? That's like hearing the news say, "Hey, this is the best stock to go get right now." It's like, yeah, well, like yesterday. The opportunity's already passed. You know what I mean? Same kind of thing. Sometimes when those biggest pile of cash people come into your life, you've got to find ways to convince them that you are coaching worthy. Just like I just said, I've got things that turn me off as far as someone when they want me to coach them. It's the same thing. You've got to go convince those people that you're coachable, that you're worthy to be coached. It is the most unattractive thing on the planet when someone's asking me to coach them and I can tell they haven't even started. They're waiting for permission to start. Cut that crap out. Just start. No one's going to give you permission or a to-do list, and it's going to be all one massive, big, continuous problem-solving exercise. It's very fun. It's kind of a liberating thing, actually. It's fun to have that kind of control. Anyways, guys, probably said too much there. Just think through that, though. What is the thing you're trying to go for? Find the person with the biggest pile of cash, and keep yourself in the phase where all you need to know is enough, not all of it. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best Internet sales funnel for free? Go to salesfunnelbroke.com/freefunnels to download your pre-built sales funnel today.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Click above to listen in iTunes.. Here's the Pattern I've Noticed 'the Greats' Following... What's going on everyone. This is Steve Larsen, and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Announcer: Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business, using today's best internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host, Steve Larsen. Steve Larsen: Hey, you guys, super excited for this episode here. I've got somewhat of a treat here. This is a little bit different. One of my buddies, Ben Willson, totally the man, been friends forever with him, actually made my first dollar online with him, while I was in college. He's the man. Anyway, he and I chat all the time, super good friends, and he had a question about content creation strategies and how to go about doing it in a way where it doesn't suck up your entire life. What I wanted to do is drop in a Vox conversation that we had about that very topic. So what I'm going to do is I'm actually ... I have the Voxers right here, and I'm just going to drop them in right here, so you guys can hear them. It is a little bit long, but I think the strategies that I say in here should connect a lot of dots for people and help people understand more about how we can produce so much content in such a little amount of time. This is literally how I am doing it. There's more of this that I'm implementing personally, as well, my own processes. Honestly, when you start looking at about how all the gurus actually create so much stuff, most of them are doing variations of this, if not this exact same thing. So let me go ahead and go over to the episode here, and please let me know if you enjoyed this, and give a shout out to Ben Willson for asking the question and sucking this information out of me, because sometimes I don't realize some of the things I'm doing. I'm just doing them. You know what I mean? So this was helpful. Ben Wilson: What am I doing? What am I doing? How should I say this. I spent eight months creating my first info product before I ever sold any of it. You know that I mean? Eight months, and it sucked, and I thought I was doing it the right way, but it was the total wrong way, because I still had not hung around Russell to realize what he actually was doing. Now, though, I know exactly how he does it, which is awesome. The way he pumps out so many freaking products ... because he has a hold. I mean, granted he's got a graphics guy. He's got a video guy. He's got a Facebook guy. He's got this. He's got this, whatever, but he's still the main creative, you know? He is. He's still the main innovator of products there. What I've noticed, watching him, is that ... so I spent eight months creating that first product, and no one bought it for months after it was done. Instead, and this is the scariest thing on the planet, but it is ... How should I say this? Dude, he sells stuff before he ever, ever starts creating it, and it's the way he rolls it out, and he pre-frames it with everybody, so they know that it's not ready. He says, "Hey, look," two weeks from the time that it starts ... I'm sure that, I've talked about this on my podcast before, so you're probably like... That's how, though, like "Hey, it starts in two weeks. Part of the early bird pricing is we're going to give a little price drop as a thank you. It's $9.97 to join." Then one week out, "Hey, it's one week away, $9.97 to join, early bird pricing." Then on the actual day, "Hey, guess what? It's actually, opened today, but we're still accepting the early bird pricing deal," right? Then a week after you've opened the cart. "Hey, good news. You guys don't have to wait like everyone else did. You can get started right now, for just $9.97." Same thing two weeks in. "You don't need to start. There's already two modules that are already done in there for you." But really, what you're doing is, so that's the surface level that everybody sees but what you're actually doing and this is how I build Secrets Masterclass what you're actually doing is you put an ask campaign onto every single module, so you know at least what the models are gonna be but they're not created yet. So on every single module you have an ask campaign. So let's say the first module was about how to drive Facebook ads and module number two is about how to talk to people on the phone, I don't know I'm just making stuff up. Let's say module number three is about whatever. You would go and you would say, "Okay, I'm so excited for this module with you guys." Sorry, "So excited for this module with you guys." Module number one's going to be all about Facebook ads just so I make sure I've got the content correctly, addressing your needs. What is your number one question or challenge about Facebook ads right now? And they're, when they go through and answer it they're giving the freaking content that they're asking you to create. It's funny because I usually go way past what they're expecting, way overboard. I have totally done that on this [inaudible 00:05:17] products thing. 100%, you know what I mean? Because I'm building stuff that they didn't even know existed, which is fine 'cause I'm going to use it in other areas, but I won't probably sell it like this in the future. Anyway, so that's one way as far as rolling out courses and you probably, I mean you probably know that, I'm sure. Here's another way, I'm just going off the top of my head, like here's several ways of repurposing content like an absolute beast. So we'll have, do you know the difference between, this is also one of the major keys, it's the difference between an opportunity switch and an opportunity stack. If you, I know you've read "Extra Secrets" but, when it's an opportunity stack, those are way easier than opportunity switches, with an opportunity stack and we're just doing like one off sales when they're, "Hey we should sell this," but it's not like a continuity, it's not like easily continuity based thing like, Funnel Immersion, do you remember that? I don't know if you ever saw that but Funnel Immersion was like the back archives of all the treatings he had done for his inner circle. So like 300 bucks. It was amazing. And on day two it was like $400 for the same content. On the third day it was $500 for the exact same content because on the fourth day it closed out and you still can't buy it. If you go to Funnelimmersion.com you still can't buy it but what it did is it let us create a product. Sorry. It let us create a product and get paid for the creation of the product. Okay he doesn't like to create content without getting paid for it. So he always sells it first and then he goes out and he creates the content second. So it's the same kind of thing so all he did was he had these pre-created things and all I did was I aggregated them and we sold it, it made 300 grand in like three days it was ridiculous and we closed it out but now what we know is that that offers awesome. So it becomes a very easy upsell in other funnels. So, I can't remember which funnels I'm part of right now, but you can't buy it on the open web, which is awesome because it's let us say in the pitch now, on the first OTO, "Hey this is literally not available on the internet." You know the back archives of X, Y, and Z is $300 and we know it converts well because it sold so well so he'll take these one off products and make them the upsells inside other funnels where it makes sense to have that thing. And I'm trying to think what other ninja strategies or content tips. The repurposing thing that is totally, I'm sure that's kind of self, I'm sure you've done that before too. That's why I like [inaudible 00:08:20] so freaking much, oh my gosh, I just create one podcast episode and it blasts all over the place on youtube and video platforms and also, tons of social medias and the blog and, it just gets repurposed like a beast. It's kind of cool because if you can get your own content strategy down it lets you feel to the rest of the world your like, a hundred guys. When your just like one or two. Here's another cool strategy that I'm actually gonna start implementing it, especially as I go solo. Dude, I know you've noticed content creation takes for freaking ever and it's a huge pain in the butt so I'm gonna start doing what I've seen a lot of other inner circle people do and actually I've actually already been doing it to a smaller degree. And that is a lot of these guys will bash their content in a serious way. Sorry, dude I'm yawning like crazy, I gotta go to sleep soon. [inaudible 00:09:24]at like 2 AM I gotta go to bed now but anyways so what they'll do is this. They will find themselves a graphics guy and like a general social media manager person. Kay, and what they do is and this is what [John Lee Dumas 00:09:44] does, JLD, entrepreneur on fire, I got to listen to him, got to talk with him, he's a cool guy. They will schedule all of their interviews for their podcasts for all of their content creation or every video they're gonna shoot for that, for the next while, you know, three months even and his team gets it transcribed, takes a picture from it to turn it into a meme, they turn it into a podcast, they turn it into a blog post, into an Instagram thing. Anyway they repurpose it into every platform that you can even conceive in a week's time. So first of all it gets passed to this person and they create a meme out of it. And then they hand it off to the next person and they get the next one and they create it out of the meme out of that one and they hand it off to the next person and this next person what they do is, and this is these ridiculous content generating machines that they put together. Yeah, they don't have to spend all the time creating all this stuff. They spend several days at the beginning of each month. John Lee Dumas, I know he does, he told us that he does his interviews the first two days of every month. So they'll only be one hour interviews but they'll be back to back to back to back. He's like they're killer days. They're good days but they're killer. He's like, "I'm totally rocked by the end of it, but then I hand it off to my team they do the editing, then they put it all together, and then they drip it out. Every single day for the next ever." I mean he podcasts literally every day that's like JLD's thing but that's how though, that's how he does it. Stu McLaren, for his membership sites. Dude that dude makes $627,000,000 a year on membership sites that he only actually spends two weeks a year creating. Most people don't know that. Isn't that crazy? So what he does is his membership sites are heavily based on interviewing experts and each month they get a new expert interview, they get a blog post, they get a behind the scenes thing. A lot of cool stuff and the persons paying them $27 a month or something like that and it could be about recipes. Whatever. What he does is he'll fly in twelve different experts and he interviews them all in a single day and he creates all the content and all the models, all the courses, everything over the next week or two and then it's constantly, it's dripped out, so it's evergreen for each person that comes in and he's set for literally a full freaking year and ... it's behind the scenes of all these guys doing all their content in course generating that has been, it really opened my eyes. To think through, like so I'm gonna start doing that because I got a business to freaking run man. But I got to talk to my audience. I try to podcast at least twice a week that's what I want to do though. Dude publishing has changed my life for that one so I can't not publish. Ben Wilson: Not publishing feels like I'm taking away future of thousands of thousands of dollar per day for my self. Because if I publish and I just make a- Steve Larsen: I'll text her to... Ben Wilson: A following out of it like, I think publishing is as powerful of a skill as... because if you can get publishing down, dude some of the worst YouTubers out there have no idea what they're doing at all but they have these gigantic followings. They don't know how to build funnels, they have no idea how to monetize anything, but they get these massive, massive followings, really, really quickly because they figured out how to publish and be an attractive character and tell stories, which is mostly what it is, it's just story telling. And ... anyway that's seriously what that is though. But that's what I've, anyways that's what I've learned. Here's another cool little tidbit, when these guys go and create courses, so they'll go, they'll go usually whatever easiest to create the actual content that's the medium that they'll go for so like, I do podcasting cause it's really freakin' easy for me to repurpose that stuff and... and turns it into a video for me as it's getting publish, which is awesome so I don't have to make a video. So Russel will film an entire module or even an entire course in a single sitting sometimes. He's got so much backlogged content that he doesn't totally need to do that anymore so well I'll just take and pick and grab different things and repurpose from other courses and, you know what I mean like, I do that all the time. That's what Secrets Masterclass is. And then we filmed a single intro video for each module in just a single shot but what these guys will do though for their courses, they call it thud factor. Okay thud factor is if you were to take a book and drop it on a table from a foot high, like what kind of thud does it get so this is an actual thing called thud factor. I think this comes from Danny Kennedy or something like that. But what they do is this, is when they go and create these courses that put things together, it's the same reason ... Anyway let me tell you the thing and then tell you how I'm doing it. Cause I totally have been, which is awesome. But what they'll do is, they'll go film the whole course, they'll take that, they'll get it transcribed and turn it into a workbook, or a news letter or transcriptions, they'll take the videos, they'll put it into a member's area but they'll also take the videos and put 'em into, they'll put it into 12 thumb drives, it could easily fit on one thumb drive but that takes away thud factor. Kay, in the workbook it would make fiscal sense to print double-sided. They don't. They print single-sided because it's thicker and you have more thud factor. So when you get these boxed sets from these people. You open it up and we all consume content in different ways. I never read blogs, I'm shocked when people read mine, I know it's good to have so I do it. Right? Cause there are people that will read it so someone will each out and say, "Hey, I was reading your blog," and I was like, "Wow I forgot I had one." It's all part of the system I put up. And, "This sounds awesome, X, Y, and Z," but like they've never heard my podcast. They're just reading transcriptions from it. Anyways it's fascinating stuff. Russel has all these box sets, all over his book shelves and what they are is their swipe files to him, meaning it's some guy who had awesome thud factor so they went out and it's this right there's a, first there's an actual iPad that has the course pre-loaded on it or you could listen to it on your computer and there's twelve thumb drives with all the courses spread throughout there. Or if you want there's a notepad where all of it has been transcribed and you get a huge massive, three ring binder and it honestly it could have fit on a two inch three-ring binder but it looks so much better it's on a four to six inch reading binder, you know what I mean? And so you get this box that's huge because what they're trying to create inside the person's mind is finality. If there's finality in the brain, right that gives the warm fuzzies to a buyer that they have found a solution, that they've arrived, they come home, that there's no more reason to look anymore cause I found home. So that's how they're doing that. That's just a whole bunch of different content generating strategies man, when it's all said and done it's all about batching it and especially if you're regularly publishing, it's about batching it. If you're course creating it's usually about selling it first so you know it actually sells and then creating one module at a time with them. So that first group that comes in with you is creating a content with you so that everyone that follows up afterwards and is buying afterwards you know that its awesome content because it was basically user created, they just don't know that. Anyways that's pretty much it though. And then they look for ways to duplicate themselves so live QnA calls are amazing, group QnA not one on one. One on one QnA calls to be sold at for a higher ticket price, higher up in the valley ladder. The group coaching QNA calls are awesome because you can record those, get them transcribed, you can give the audio, you can turn it into a video and make a youtube series out of it. You can take that and get it transcribed and put it into a monthly news letter with, "Hey this is the groups'-" dude, tons of people do that kind of stuff and I used to think it was kind of a joke honestly but it is ridiculous how powerful it is. And like there's tons of people who won't ever get on the QnA calls but they will listen to every single replay. You know what I mean? 'Cause that's how they consume content. I don't ever read blogs, I watch youtube videos and I listen to podcasts. That's how I consume content. I don't ever answer my phone and that's ... it's all about this concept that Russel talking long a Vox man sorry about this. I hope this is okay but it all revolves around a concept called conversation domination, I can't remember who first said that but, we wanna dominate every single channel, dominate every single conversation. Gary V taught that back in the 1950s there were like three different channels. NBC, ABC, and whatever alright there weren't that many and the reason Tony Robbins is Tony Robbins is because back when there was only three channels in the TV, he had ads on every single one of them. That's like how he blew up. Right, I mean that's why he's so big. He dominate, I know it wasn't the 50s but 60s or 70s or something like that. That's why he's Tony Robbins because he dominated those channels and so Gary V teaches that the phone is like the TV of the 70s. There's only three or four channels you got YouTube, there's Facebook, Periscope, you know, if anyone gets on it anymore, Instagram. Those are the channels. It's all about conversation domination so you make sure you are auto publishing to every single one of those platforms as frequently as you can because you'll dominate conversation, there's no other room for someone to even think about something else because you are literally dominating all conversation inside of it so that's why Russel publishes so freaking much. It's way more than a single person or follower or lover of ClickFunnels can ever consume and it's actually on purpose. Anyway, I'm probably preaching to the choir on a lot of stuff. I just, I love this topic because, it's a huge deal. It's a big deal. And it blows my freaking mind when somebody does not take publishing seriously because if they actually want to have a successful business, especially in the social media world, and they're not publishing, they're kidding themselves. I kind of scoff at it honestly, it's like okay. Like cool, this is just a wish for you then, it's not a real thing yet. You know what I mean like that's why I wanna, that's the kind of attitude I have towards people when they're like, "Well I don't know that I wanna be publishing," I was like, "Well, get ready to not make money then." You have to and anyway doesn't have to be crazy either, those are, a lot of those are extreme ways, the way I do it is I literally batch, I'll usually record three episodes at a time in my podcast of each one. I go send it, I get it all transcribed on one shot and I send it over to somebody and she turned it into a blog post and she uses this cool tool called SE Oppressor, which mimics Google algorithm so she can see how my blog will rank before we actually publish it, which is kind of cool. It fully works too, it's why Google Click Funnel my stuff starts popping up all over the place. It's totally worked. Just good, that was what I was going for. And then I give her a schedule to release it all on. That's kind of it. But because of... and how she's pushing it out it blasts to like 18 channels or something so. Anyway those are some long freaking Voxes man but anyway helpfully. Steve Larsen: It's Steven holy crap you that, just pieced it together. You just straight pieced it together. So I've heard a lot of the stuff before but in snippets and in little bits and everything like that. What you just packaged in the, those two boxes, that was mind blowing ... I feel like I owe you lots of money for those two Voxes because that was nuts. I actually, I legitimately I think I'm gonna transcribe what you just said and dude straight up, I would, you should easily just make that a podcast, I wouldn't even change it. Dude thank you for seriously taking the time to answer that question. I was literally what I was looking for and to the depth that I needed it 'cause like I said there's a lot of the information that's been said before but you connected the dots to a lot of things as to how you repurpose the contents and then how you go about creating the content and then repurposing it and dude you're a freaking rock star. That was a lot I literally have to listen to 'em again. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Wanna get one of today's best internet sales funnels for free? Go to salesfunnelbroker.com/freefunnels to download your pre-build sales funnel today.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Click above to listen in iTunes... I STOLE from Russell Brunson when I was poor (one of his favorite stories), but here is what I learned from it.... What's going on everyone, this is Steve Larsen, you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels, and now here's your host, Steve Larsen. Steve Larsen: Alright guys hey, real quick I just want to let you know about the time that I stole. Okay, I do not condone this behavior, I have since gone to these people and said sorry, and actually this is one of Russell's favorite stories, 'cause I actually stole from Russell. I stole from Russell when I was in college and we had nothing, we had like hardly any money, and I knew that if I just could get my hands on one of his courses that I would be able to be successful with the thing that I was going forward with. It was true, and I was, and it was great, but I got a copy of his course from a bootlegger and I don't totally know how, I think I was poking around on YouTube trying to find versions of it and things like that. I was like I've just got to, if I could just do this one piece I know I'd be successful with it. I went and I, there was some guy in the description who was telling everybody, hey if you need copies of X, Y and Z go ahead and reach out to me. So I was like sweet, oh awesome, and I feel bad, like don't do this okay. This was a stupid thing, it was a very bad decision and I don't know what else I can say because I mean it's not right and I do take that seriously. You know what's funny is so I got the course and I learned a lot from it, it was great, it was awesome. It was actually Dot Com Secrets X, you know one of the earlier courses. I shouldn't say earlier, I mean he had been having lots of courses out there and stuff. But this one was a three month course, it was awesome, I went through it. It was fantastic, it actually was very life changing for me, it was very life changing. Changed what I was doing, and I mean it was awesome. I was laughing that I ended up getting hired by Russell, and one day I was like I've got to tell Russell this story. For the sake of number one apologizing and you know I obviously offered to pay for it, I offered to pay the price for the course and everything, you know I felt bad. I mean it's wrong, and it's not something that I'm honestly proud of that I did, but I often would sit back ... The reason I bring this up is because I would often sit back and I would think to myself, like why would this marketer, why would this guru, why would this individual not give his course away to me for cheaper? It was a question that would go through my head a lot, not that I was mad, I wasn't mad at all, but I was just like gosh like why can't I get this? I would love to go through this course, I would love to learn what this guys teaching, maybe it could change my life. I knew that I would take it seriously, if I could just have the content, if I could just have the stuff, right? What's funny about the whole thing is that, okay so I ended up going and I got the course and I went through it and I applied it and it was great. A lot of times what would happen was there were these pieces of jealousy that I would kind of go through, this is kind of early on in my endeavors on the Internet anyway. I'd kind of get jealous and a little bit mad and be like come on, like give this to me cheaper, I would love to have this thing. I was excited when I finally got Russell's, but I was ... I just wanted the discount, you know, and you may have gone through this before, I just wanted to know. I just wanted the discount, I just wanted to be able to go through the content. There was, I think I was in the gym, I think so anyways, I'm recalling a lot of memories right here. But I was listening to a podcast of Russell's, okay keep in mind I had just stolen a course from him. I had stolen the course and what I learned from the whole thing was that he basically said that like look I don't discount prices, pretty much ever, because if you can't afford this thing it means you actually need it even more. I know it's kind of a weird way to say that, but think about it this way, if I ... Let's say I was in like high school okay, in a high school when I was going through these different classes, or even in college when I was going through these different classes. Actually college is probably a better example, you don't start at the senior level classes, right? You don't, what happens? You'd go into the senior level classes, obviously there's like some crazy person out there who probably did, and did great at it or whatever. But you don't start at the senior level classes, you start at freshman level, and you start with basic stuff, and you start with foundational things and you hustle through a little bit of Mr Miyagi type of things out there. Like why am I doing this? Paint the fence and the floor, you know stuff like that. It's good that an individual wants to be able to go and get the course, that they'll go and they want to pay coaching, to get coaching from the guy. They want to be able to spend time doing the thing, you know what I mean? What I realized though is that a lot of personal development happens inside of business because prices are set as they are. Meaning, when I couldn't get to Funnel Hacking live, I had to do a ton of stuff, a lot of experimenting, a lot of soul searching. A lot of grinding, a lot of problem solving on my own that I would not have had to have gone through if I had just been able to just buy the tickets outright. I had to get creative, I was trading tickets for funnels. Back and forth, and back and forth. What's funny is when I learned that, when I realized that, that's what was going on, and that was the lesson I realized that I actually fell in love with the fact that I didn't have money for it. Now not the fact that I didn't have money, but I started learning to love the problem. The problem being that I did not have money to get the thing. When I knew that what a guru was offering was a good thing, when I knew that the product they were offering was amazing, when I knew that it would change my life. If I had to work that much harder than the other guy just to have the money to buy it, I knew that I would actually do it, I knew I'd actually apply it. How many times have you bought a course and you've never actually done anything with it? Okay, how many books are sitting on your bookshelf that you've actually never read? It's the exact same thing, and obviously I believe in learning with purpose and you guys all know that. I don't just learn anything for the sake of it, if I need to solve the problem in front of me then I'll go read the related books and take the related courses, but I don't just read just willy-nilly. I don't go anywhere, like whatever. But what I'm saying is I don't discount prices, and it's for that exact same reason, I don't discount prices. Russell didn't discount prices, when I finally left college and I had learned that lesson, and I fell in love with the purification that comes with trying to just solve the problem. I was so enamored by it, I wanted all the other students, and all my friends, and all the teachers I was with to learn the stuff that I had been learning. So I left college and I went and I grabbed basically 30 books, and 30 Dot com Secrets books, 'cause I was not working at ClickFunnels. I started shipping out all these books all over the place, tons of them. I'd ship out books to these friends and all these people kept asking me, like how are you doing what you're doing? Dude are you kidding me that's crazy, how are you doing this? How you are doing this? I kept telling them like, just wait dude I'm sending you something, you got to read it. Okay. What's funny is I sent out 30 of these books and you know how many people actually read the book? None of them. Not a single person. Why? It's 'cause they didn't, there was no actual sacrifice that they gave on their part to actually take part in the course. To take part in the learning, to take part in the development that they were looking for. They had done nothing except think about it, one time. Oh it'd be so nice to have that, they're not in love with the thing, they're in love with the idea of the thing. Does that make sense? So I don't discount prices. Any time anyone of my buddies, or anyone in my past, or even any current customers or people who listen to this podcast, whatever it is. Anytime anyone comes to me and they say, Steven please will you look at my funnel? My answer is yes, here is my coaching link where you can buy my time. Why? It's not to throw the finger at the people who are asking that, it's not to go and rub it in peoples faces. It's because if I actually do it for free I rob them, they won't do anything with it. You know how many times I've done stuff for free for people, I have built so many funnels for free on the hopes and the promises that it would be worth tons in the future. Hey Steven please build this funnel, we got this great opportunity, if you build the funnel we'll give you 50% of the revenue for the rest of your life. That's a dumb deal, that's a bad deal, very stupid deal, right? I'm going go do all the work and then they take half the money for it. First of all it's crazy, second of all when I learned, when I figured out that nobody that I was building these funnels for were actually doing anything with them afterwards, I got ticked. I got so mad, I realized that, that was honestly only like a year and a half ago, a year ago. So I stopped building funnels for free for people, and I stopped giving my products for free, unless it was strategic, like a front end or something like that. I stopped giving me, I stopped giving my stuff for free. I'm unapologetic about it now, and it's like it is this price, number one because it's worth that much, I make great offers. I know there's amazing value in them, but number two I literally know that you will not do a darn thing with it unless I have you give a little sacrifice and put a little skin in the game. You know what's funny about sales funnel broker coaching, it's no different than anything else, right? 80/20 rules still applies, 20% of them do anything, it's true for any event. It's true for ... I had worked so hard to get to Russell's first Funnel Hacking live event, by boot strapping my way there. I took 52 pages of notes at that event, I stayed up, I did everything that I could. I was drinking deeply, if they said we're doing this, I participated, full in both feet in the whole time. I was baffled at how many people didn't even bring their note books home with them. That they had left out on the chairs for all of us, with all the slides and all the speaker notes. Like are you kidding me? Do you not know what they just gave us? But it didn't mean the same thing to those people, they hadn't actually given anything of their self away. What I'm trying to tell you is number one I don't discount on price and you shouldn't either. Unless there's something in there, but usually the first thing people go to, okay lets say that you're going to sell something to me or to a buddy. You go to the buddy and you say, hey here's a thing, and it's a $1000, and someone goes oh will it do this? A lot of times the knee jerk reaction to any rejection is a price decrease. I mean that happens all the time. A price decrease, someone literally decreases the price, immediately as soon as there is an objection to your product. Oh don't worry it's 30% off today. If you're doing that it means your offer isn't good enough yet. If the offer is amazing you don't have to compete on price, it's the exact same thing for what I build, for what Russell builds, for all the things that I put out, for what Russell puts out. I know their good, I know their good and I do not, I am not apologetic and I'm not embarrassed. I had a hard time ... I'm just being open with you guys. I had a hard time charging money for my stuff for a while, and I know it's actually quite a common concern. Where conceptually you understand the marketing stuff, you understand the business, you know the automation pieces but you're not actually doing it 'cause you don't have a product because you're too afraid to charge something. You're too afraid to ask for someones credit card number. I know in a lot of cases I'm preaching to the choir here, like you guys get that, but there's a lot more cases out there than I ever realized until I started coaching people how to do this stuff inside sales funnel broker coaching. I did not realize how big of an issue it was mentally for people to have to overcome that. I know I've talked a little bit in the past about ways to get around that, you know go buy a product for $1000 to give yourself emotional permission to go sell stuff for $1000. If you feel like you can't charge $10,000 for something, you should probably go pay $10,000 for something. There's a lot of ways to get around that emotionally, and get through that barrier but what I'm trying to tell you is like stop, don't apologize for charging people. You actually do a disservice when you give it for free. You do a disservice if you deliver in any other way. Don't be afraid to charge money, and don't be afraid to charge more money than the competitor. Don't be afraid to charge more money than other people around you. If you walk out to ... Let's say you go to a car lot, okay a brand new car lot, brand new Lamborghini car lot and you walk out to the car lot and you say, hey I would like to look at this Lamborghini and they say great come on with me sir. You're walking, and let's say you even wore a suit, because you might go buy a Lamborghini, and you have the cash for it and you're super stoked. You've saved up and it's been on your dream wall, and you know the exact model and color. You know everything about it and you walk up and you see the car and you know it is. It's beautiful, I'm not even that much of a car guy, I'm just saying. You walk up to this car and it's beautiful and you're like, this is the one, I have waited so long for this car, how much is this? The sales guy looks over at you, and the sales guy looks right at you and he starts to smile and he goes, you know what I can tell you really like this car, just for you this brand new Lamborghini, it's only five grand. What would you do? You would sit back and be like, what's the first knee jerk reaction that you would have to that? You would ask what's wrong with it. What's wrong with the car? Why is it only five grand? I'm expecting to pay like a hundred times more than that, I don't know how much a Lamborghini is, I'm not really a car guy like I said. But you'd expect to pay a lot more money, right? A lot more money, it's the same thing with your offers, what ends up happening when somebody goes out and you start price decreasing right out of the gate, it immediately starts to plant these little seeds of doubt inside of the perspective customer. It starts to put inside their head questions like, what's wrong with it? Oh so it is okay, and you need to keep reassuring them. Well does it have these other features? They may not even care, they might not even use them, like the billion settings on your car stereo, how many of them you actually use? Like three, the on button and a few others, you know what I mean? I'm like features don't really sell very well, it's all about benefits, you know what I mean? But that's what I'm trying to say, so I am unapologetic about the pricing that I place there. You know what's funny about that is I typically get a higher quality customer with higher prices. When I was selling a lot of $100 funnels and $100 products and things like that, and since I've taken a lot of them off the market, I don't want to sell that. I know this is stereotypical and it was not true in every case, but $100 product brought a very different customer to me than I wanted to work with. Again it's not at all me being selfish, it is very much me deciding who I want to work with, and realizing that the individual who is scraping to get $100 probably is working on a different problem set in their life than let me start a business. They might be still solving the problems of hey how do I pay bills every month? Or how do I keep a steady job? I'm not trying to judge, I'm not trying, like I get it, it's totally fine. I've been there. You all know I've been there. There was a time like I couldn't afford that stuff, sadly I stole over it, but what I'm trying to tell you though is like there are a hundred reasons. There's tons of reasons why you should never discount price and in fact let the price bring the right customer to you. I'm not telling you not to do this either, but like this is such a powerful concept guys, you could literally take two of the exact same product, charge more, double for one of them and you'll get a higher quality customer, someone who's more status driven. Again, use that for good or bad, you know what I mean? Like use, it for good, but what I'm saying just know that, that's the power of this thing, that status is very much involved in an element of this. Working with someone who's figured out a lot of the basic problem sets of life, self care and things like that. They're going to be more attracted to higher prices, or I'm sorry, they're going to be more attracted to the lower prices. Again, I'm not telling you not to sell low, I'm not telling you not to sell high, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to tell you that you don't need to compete on price. That it is okay to charge higher, that it's okay to unapologetic about it and that you are doing a disservice to somebody else when you do not charge enough money or when you give it to them for free. Just going to wrap the whole thing up here, I ended up telling Russell this whole story of me stealing the thing. He was laughing so hard, he's like, are you kidding me? I was like, I'm sorry man, like I will pay you right now, I have the money obviously and I will. He just started laughing, he's like, nah, that course brought you to me so whatever. So it's all good. I was like alright, as long as you feel like that's okay, but I just need my conscience clear about it 'cause it was wrong and I feel bad and I'm not a thief. Anyway yeah, so charge money and charge good money, and understand that if you feel like you can't charge money it really might be that your offer might not be good enough yet. So go back and look at it, keep tweaking it, keep tweaking it. But have price dropping be like your very last go to thing, when you're actually selling it. Don't decrease price, you decrease bonuses okay? You remove bonuses, you remove certain elements, little goodies and things like that, that you're going to go with it. That way the value that they're getting is less for the money you're charging. It's still worth it, they're just getting less stuff, does that make sense? You'll still get a better customer by keeping the price high and then just tweaking, and removing and playing around with it, and doing scarcity and urgency with bonuses rather than dropping price. Anyway that's it guys, be unapologetic about the price, hope you guys are doing great and I'll talk to you later. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio, please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best Internet sales funnel for free? 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