Behind The Scenes Of Funnel Hacking Live 2017 (Part 1)

Welcome to Marketing in Your Car, the podcast for funnel hackers everywhere. You're now part of a small group of underground entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world through the products and the services that we believe in. But because we don't rely on venture capitalists, we don't have financial safety nets, so we have to do things differently. We have to do things smarter. We do that through an art and a science we call funnel hacking. This podcast will give you a glimpse at the daily life of a funnel hacker. So let's get started. Hey everybody, this is Russell Brunson. I want to welcome you to Marketing in Your Car. But today's actually a special episode because first off, I'm not in my car, I'm in the conference room. And second off, I got this brand new little microphone that plugs into the bottom of my phone. People have been asking me for ever since I started this podcast, like, what microphone do you use on your phone? And I was just telling them I just use the microphone on my phone, which is true until today. There's this really cool thing and it's— I don't know the brand or the style, I have no idea, but I'm testing it out, so if it continues to be good, I'll let you guys know. But it's so cool. It plugs in the bottom of your iPhone and it's got this big huge thing on it, and I'm excited. I'm trying it out. So hopefully this episode goes well, and if so, then I'll let you guys know more about this thing, 'cause it's pretty awesome. So what I wanna do is I wanted to give a recap of Funnel Hacking Live. I know that 1,500 of you guys were already there and experienced it and went crazy with us. And for everyone else who wasn't, I wanna kinda catch you guys up on what was happening and why it was amazing and why you should be at next year's event. If you missed this one for some insane reason, because there's no logical reason to miss it, only insane ones. And so if you had an insane reason, I want to give you guys some, some cool kind of behind-the-scenes what was happening. So this year's event, this is the third year we've done it. First year was in Vegas, we had about 600 people come. Second year, last year, was in San Diego, and we had, I think, 1,300 people come. And it's funny, you have to like sign the contract for next year's event before the event, because then you have to like 'Cause if you're gonna sell tickets to the event, you have to know like, here's the venue and the dates and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? So last year we're like, let's make it a little bit bigger, let's do 1,500 people. And then we ended up selling out 3 months early. And so we probably should've done bigger. So actually next year's event, we've gotten a little bit bigger place, hoping that, you know, we're able to fill it. Now just so you guys are fully aware, like nothing on earth stresses me out more than events. Filling events, it's like the hardest sell, 'cause you're not just selling like, hey, you should come to an event, 'cause that's an easy sell. But the hard sell's like, all the other sales that someone has to make in their mind. Like, okay, I gotta ask for work off, I gotta talk to my spouse, I gotta pay for flights, I gotta pay for hotels, I gotta, you know, all these other things. So it's not just like a simple sell, like I wanna, you know, usually when you sell something you create desire and then people want it and then you sell it. This is harder 'cause even if I create desire for it, you still have to go and close yourself on all the other logistics that are pain. So events are scary. In fact, the last time I did an event before Funnel Hacking Live, which I swore I would never do an event after, I think we sold like 300 or 400 tickets. And we got there only— and it was like, I think, $100 tickets. So I assumed that like $100 commitment was enough to get people to show up. I was wrong. We ended up having only about 100 that showed up, and it was so embarrassing for me. And I remember having all these empty seats. I was like, I will never do an event again. And then fast forward a couple years, about the time this podcast was starting, I probably talked about it. There's this new company we were working on called Rippln, and they did their initial kickoff, and there's like 1,200 people. And then we ended up getting like 1.5 million people to sign up. Over the next 60 days or so, and then there's an event on the back side of it. And so I thought there's going to be like 30,000 people at this event, like I was all excited for it. But at the time, the company hadn't launched the actual thing that we built the hype for, and there was a lot— a huge loss of momentum. And the event, I think we had 1,000 tickets sold, and I showed up and we were getting ready to open the doors and went in the hallway, and there's only about 200 people out there, and we're like, oh crap. So The guy Brian who ran the company, he was like, oh crap, like, let's pull chairs out. So we sat there right for that and pulled 800 chairs out of the room. And then we had this huge empty room and then 200 seats in the front and we brought people in and we just went over 3 days and it was like, for me, like I was emotionally scarred. I was like, I don't know what's happening, but this is not a good sign. And then sure enough, the company crashed afterwards. And you know, a lot of wasted energy and time and money on my side that didn't ever materialize, but learned a lot of good lessons. That's the point, right? Anyway, and so because of those experiences, like I had this fear of events, I never wanted to do one. And so in the first Funnel Hacking Live, after we launched ClickFunnels, people kept saying like, we should do, like people started doing meetups and I'm like, gah, like we should facilitate this. And so we decided to do the first one and we were gonna sell 600 seats and I was so scared, like panicking about like, what if we only sell 100 and we have room for 600? And anyway, so we finally, we did it. We launched it and we sold out. That one I think we sold out like 2 weeks early, so it wasn't huge, but we did. And we did the event, and I remember even like the day of the show, I was— I had so much fear and anxiety, like, what if people don't show up? And I remember even like before the event started, like, hiding in the back and like peeking through, and I was like, oh good, there's like— the seats are full, like, thank heavens. And, and then I was able to— we did the event and it turned out amazing. And then last year, same thing, we had 1,300 seats sold, and, uh, I remember The night before we had pre-registration, we only had like 200 people pre-register. And I was like, oh my gosh, nobody's coming. This is it. Like, this is my greatest fear recognized once again. And I'm freaking out. And then we went out there and the next morning tons of people registered and we ended up having the entire thing was filled, all 1,300 seats. And then we did the event. It was awesome. And so this time I had the same thing and it wasn't— I wasn't quite as— I had two successful events now. I wasn't quite as scared. But I still, you know, I still get nervous. So the event happened and, you know, we— this time we usually events like on a weekend, but to get the hotel space and everything, we had to do it like on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So we all flew in Sunday night, which was nice. We got in there and had time to kind of just relax. And then Monday, um, uh, my wife and I got up and we went shopping to go buy clothes and my team was doing everything. Like, God, my team is amazing. Um, they're stuffing binders and getting things ready and just all that kind of stuff. So it was kind of nice. Like they were taking care of that and I was able to go and spend time with Colette and just, um, get ready for the event and shop and get just kind of mentally get prepared for this, for this thing. And then that night we had a big VIP dinner for our inner circle members as well as our certified partners who have actually finished certification. It would be dinner with them and it was, it was really, really cool. Now a couple of things, this will be kind of one of my themes of this podcast. It's interesting and I'm going to be vulnerable and let you guys know all my fears and my things and in hopes, not that you judge me like, man, Russell's a really, Russell's a wuss. I want you to be like, wow, if Russell can do it, I can do it. Like, that's more of the goal with this. But I love being on stage. Like, I feel comfortable in front of 1,500 people talking, and like, I feel really good there. I get really, really scared one-on-one or even in groups. So even our Inner Circle dinner, like, you know, there's 150 or so people, maybe 200 people, I can't remember. It was kind of a smaller thing, but super tons of anxiety being in that room and talking to people. And Throughout the event, people come talk to me one-on-one. Like, I really struggle. I feel bad. I had my coaching call with Tara Williams this morning, and we were kind of talking about this, and I was just like, man, like, it's funny how comfortable I feel up in front of a stage and how scared and nervous and awkward I feel one-on-one. And I feel bad about it. I think a lot of times, like, for anyone who did have one-on-one interaction with me, I apologize if I'm super awkward because it's just— I don't know why, but I feel nervous. Like, I get really nervous there, and I struggle. Which is why I try to like hide as much as I can. But I know that I try to be out there and take pictures of everyone as well, but it's just, it's really, I struggle with that part of it. So anyway, so we did the dinner that night. It was really fun. And Bart Miller, who are Inner Circle members, who's transitioning into becoming a fashion coordinator, who he designed all my clothes for the week, and he did it same with Alex Hormozi, a bunch of other Inner Circle members. So he was there and had me dressed up all nice and I was trying to, you know, so I was nervous. Wasn't comfortable in my clothes completely. And then in this room with these people I admire, I just didn't— I want to make sure they had such a good experience. I was just, you know, gets you nervous, at least for me. But what's cool, then if I had a chance to give a little quick speech and it was just, it was amazing looking at that room and looking, and I knew most of the people in that room, all the inner circle members I know really intimately and I know their businesses and I know oftentimes I know their fears, I know their hopes, their desires, their dreams, like their passion, like all those things. I'm aware of those things. So it's kind of cool to look out there and to realize and look at those guys and like, man, like the ripple effect. I'm using that funny because the Ripple, and that was our big pitch there, but the ripple effect of each of these people is amazing. And I kind of talked about that, like, like how cool it is. And for me and for us as a company, like that we get to be a little piece in that journey is like, just for me, like such an honor. And I get a lot of credit for those things. And it's like, no, it's not me. It's you guys. We provided a tool, we've provided some training, but it's you guys taking that, that leap of faith to go and do it. Because, you know, the tools and training are there for everybody. Most people don't do it. And the reason why is there's so much fear and anxiety and things that happen. And just seeing this room of people who were doing the— taking those leaps, and it was just, it was awesome. So that was the first night. And then went to bed that night and I could not sleep. Like, I really needed to because I hadn't slept, you know, much earlier. And I was up being up like 2:00 or 2:30 before I finally passed out. And next day started and it was insane. We got there, people were packed. Devon Brown, who's the best MC on earth was emceeing it, getting people's energy, had everyone dancing. It was just so exciting. And then we brought the certified partners on stage, but everyone could see like, here's the people that are certified, here's people to hire if you need help with funnels. And if you're not, you know, if you want to become certified, you want this to be your career, go ask someone from our team because you could be certified. This could be your new— excuse me— your new career, just like these guys. Then we had most of our ClickFunnels team come on stage so everyone could see like who was actually behind the event. And then after that, I had a chance to get up, and it was cool because These events are always fun for me. It's like I get to share like what I'm thinking about and geeking out at the time. And it's usually stuff I've shared in the Inner Circle. I've shared some of it on the podcast, but it's never been formally like presented. And so this is the first time I had a chance to formally present the first section of the doc of the new Expert Secrets book, which is creating a mass movement. And it was so much fun to like share that and like walk through the models and show people that. And I think a lot of, I don't know, I felt like it was for a lot of people like just such a new exciting thing to see and like realize that, hey, We're not just selling things. Like, you are creating a movement. Um, what's interesting, one, one thing that kind of made me sad about the event, and I know frustrated some people, in the initial sales letter we had a little section saying I was gonna talk about supplement funnels, and I didn't, uh, because just how things shift as you start growing the event and the speakers, and like some things have to get cut, some things don't. And just, and that was one that they got cut. And someone came up to me afterwards and was like, you know, I came all the way from Australia because I wanted to learn about supplement funnels. And I was like, I'm like, well, I'm not specifically talking about supplement funnels, but this stuff is the same. It doesn't matter. We are building a new supplement line right now, and like the difference between like the first supplement funnel was all like a media-based thing where we just like had a really good funnel and we drove traffic, but we didn't build a culture. We didn't build a following. And that's why, you know, it grew and then it went away and it was kind of over. And I was like, you know, the new supplement stuff we're doing, like this building a mass movement is the same, like all these, principles we're talking about are the same. It doesn't matter if you're selling supplement. And I was trying to explain to her, and I don't think she believed me, or I don't know, but she was frustrated, kind of walked away. And I was like, like, this is the key to all business. This is the key to everything you're doing, is this. Like, it doesn't matter what you're selling, this is still like, this is the, the foundation of how you position an offer and how you treat your customers and how you get them to buy over and over and over again. So I was excited to finally share that and was just like, oh, so cool. Then we had a break, and after that, then Todd Brown came up. And Todd, um, Todd is, I would say if you look at like who are the two guys out there in the market right now teaching funnels the most, it's like me and Todd, right? And Todd looks, Todd's, he's a lot smarter than me, like a lot more analytical I think at stuff, and he has a chance to hang out with some amazing marketers, and so I love his perspectives. He came in here talking about the big idea, and like how do you create the big idea behind the marketing campaigns that get people to buy your thing? And it was fun just to see how he breaks things down, how he looks at things, and It's definitely different than I look at things, but I appreciate it so much and like the way that he, the way he views things, I respect him a lot. And it was awesome having him up there and kind of sharing his perspective on that because I think a lot of people are getting good at building funnels, but they're missing my first presentation, which is like creating the mass movement and like the positioning of things and that kind of stuff. And then Todd is like figuring out the big idea. So that was the next cool thing and people love that. Then from there we went and broke to lunch, which I feel like eating is such a waste at these events. It's like we've got 2 hours we gotta block out for lunch so people can go and eat, and I'm like, but like nobody needs that. Like we need to be like sitting in a room like talking. So anyway, we let people eat because I think people need that. Humans have to eat every once in a while. But yeah, went to lunch, and for most of these meals, like we bought lunches and dinners and stuff like that for most all the stuff because I wanted— I don't want people have to leave, and just kind of a nice touch I think to help provide those for people. So we fed a lot of people. Somebody— I can't remember if we fed people that lunch or not, but whatever. Then after I came back, and this is where I had a chance to go into story, which is next link, the epiphany bridges, which I've shared a lot of pieces of that with you. But another cool thing for me is Dagan Smith, who's one of my favorite people in the world, one of my mentors, peers, friends, whatever you want to say. And I actually had him come to the event because I wanted him to see a lot of this stuff that I was talking about stuff I initially learned from him and like stuff that we talked about that inspired ideas and maybe test things and try things. And so I had him there and it was cool because I got to give this cool presentation on story and I get to give him credit for being there. In fact, the Expert Secrets book, like, is that most of it is dedicated to him because it was the foundation for so much of this, of this cool thing that became. And so it was fun for me to have him in the room to hear that. I was a little nervous, honestly, because I'm like, you know, Dagan, like, I learned tons of these things from you, but this is kind of where I've taken it. And it was fun to kind of share that. So I shared story and epiphany bridges and how all those things work together and talked about the hero's two journeys. And anyway, all this stuff is from the Expert Secrets book, which you guys are gonna love. Then I got done and I was able to bring up Brandon and Kaelin Polin, who last year, they were last year's Funnel Hacking event. I met them in person there. Then they joined the inner circle and I had a chance to be around them and experience them and their business over the last year and I wanted them to be at the event, so they spoke. And talking about social webinars and telling their story, which is just super cool. Their whole thing was like, hashtag do whatever Russell says, and hashtag I wanna give, or I think their ending was like, give Russell all your money and he'll turn it into more money or something, which I appreciate. But it was cool to hear their whole story and like, you know, I think what Brandon and Katelyn, outside of like, and they're crazy talented as a whole anyway, but showing like, when they got in a year ago, or 2 years ago when they first got started, they didn't have a ton of money, so they were going in and they invested in the Funnel Hacks course, the $1,000 course a lot of you guys already have, and they said that we went through and we pushed play, we watched for 30 seconds, we paused it, and we went and implemented that, and we pushed play again, and for 3 weeks they went through the entire course, like 30-second chunks, they heard it, they stopped, they implemented it. And what's funny is he told me afterwards that a bunch of people came up and were like, what was the course you went through, Russell? I wanna go through the same thing the same way. And he told them, and they're like, oh, I've owned that for like a year and a half. And he's like, yeah, the difference is that they implemented it. And so like that's the key is like they're the most amazing implementers in the world. And just, anyway, their presentation was amazing. Then we had a break and after that then Jim Edwards came up, my co-host with FunnelFridays.com, and he gave us a presentation on copy blocks which was amazing. I think that hopefully for most people it was like liberating too, like showing like, wow, this is, I don't have to be a creative writer, I just have to understand how blocks work in copy and how funnel scripts works and all that kind of stuff. And Jim made it really fun. He did a great job. Uh, he made the, the whole session was really fun and exciting and people loved it. And then when Jim got done, then Stu McLaren came up. And Stu is one of the greatest human beings literally to be birthed on this earth. I don't know if I can say that strongly enough. I just— amazing human being. He came talking about membership funnels, which was awesome, and showing the pre-launch process and how he launched, you know, his programs. It was cool seeing, um, his pre-launch stuff, or his— how he launches. Like 90% of all this pre-launch stuff that most people like me don't even think about. And it was like, here's the videos we launched ahead of time on Facebook and YouTube that got views. And from here we moved to here and showed the whole process, which was cool. And from here we launched this funnel that made, I think it was like $3.3 million, and it was cool to show that. Then afterwards, uh, I had a chance to come up with, uh, Todd and Dylan, and, uh, and we did a special presentation about World Tea Trade, and we talked about coming to Kenya, and we showed a video of me in Kenya, uh, from last year, and then this time we said, look, if you guys want, we're going to— if you guys will pay for a classroom, you can actually come to Kenya with us and do a special mastermind. And we had 11 spots that were open, and that night we sold all 11 of those spots. And I think we had 7 or 8 people on a waiting list, which is crazy. Plus we raised a bunch of money. When all was said and done, by the last day we had raised between the money— it was almost— it was just shy of a quarter million dollars that we had raised for World Tea Trade from the event. Which was insane. Like, the— what a quarter million dollars will do in Kenya is the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars here in America. And there's so many people and kids and, and communities' lives will be affected because of that. And I just— everyone was so grateful or gracious and, and giving, which was awesome. And then after that, we ran down and we did our roundtables, which had a bunch of people, roundtables, and anyone come and ask questions. And it went really, really well. We had a big buffet down there. Everyone's eating, partying, asking questions. It was good. I think next year we're going to tweak that a little bit though. There's some pros and cons. The pros is that everyone who got at a roundtable, it was really, really powerful. Those who didn't though, they were kind of like, like it was just, it was, it was hard. I don't know if we need to get microphones or something, have people rotate from table to table. Some people like perch at a table and just sit there for the entire 2 or 3 hours and other people couldn't get in. So we're going to figure out how to make the roundtables a little better, but I think it was, it was really, really cool for everyone to have a chance to come in and just talk directly to all the speakers, minor circle members and things like that. And it was, it was awesome. So that was day number 1, and then I slept really good that night, which was awesome. Thanks so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at our funnel hacking projects. You can also watch the Funnel Hacker online reality show and watch us build and launch funnels live at www.funnelhacker.tv. If you'd like to come hang out with your fellow funnel hackers, come join our Facebook group at www.projectclickfunnels.com. Oh yeah, and don't forget. You can get a free MP3 player with the first 257 episodes preloaded at marketinginyourcar.com. Join us next time and remember, you're just one funnel away from your dreams.