Funnel Confessions

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 everyone, this is Russell Brunson and welcome back to Marketing in Your Car. Sorry, I just get excited. Anyway, it is crazy here. We had 5 snow days in a row, but today the kids finally, finally gotta go back to school, which is nice, but everything's soaking wet. It's been raining and flooding and our house is flooded. I think we have, ugh, anyway, a lot of damage. So that's kind of a nightmare, but the good news is we just went to the new office and it's getting close to done. We're about 2 weeks away from moving into it. Which is just like the most exciting thing in the world. And as we're sitting here in the office, and I thought about last night. So last night I finished, I finished! What, I finished the Expert Secrets book! Well, at least this round of it. This is the most painful round of edits though. This is one where it's, anyway, took a lot of time. I have one more round of edits after this, but it'll go way faster. So I'm pretty much for all intents and purposes done with the Expert Secrets book. I'm so proud of it. The crazy thing is it's almost, it's like within like 100 words of the DotCom Secrets book, which is weird. Planned, but anyway, it's kinda cool too. So anyway, when I got done with that, it was like 1 in the morning, and I started looking at all the cool projects I have, and so we use Trello, some of you guys know. James Frill got us set up on Trello, so I was thinking about some of the projects, I sat down, I was like, okay, who are all the people involved in getting this project done, what are all the tasks, and so I sat down last night and just busted out a whole bunch of Trello cards, assigning people, getting them doing what they're supposed to be doing, all the pieces, and then it was done, and I went to bed and passed out, and it was awesome. Anyway, and I was thinking about that, versus how some of you all are running your businesses. And I want to just liken this also to the new office. I'm in the new office and the contractor dude is there and he's kind of showing us everything. And what's interesting as I look at this is that the contractor didn't actually do anything really. If you think about it, right? Like he was sitting there and he, He got paid by me. I think they, I don't know how much contractors take, like 10 or 20 or 30% or whatever. So they get paid a bunch of money, right? So then we pay him and he's like, cool. So then he goes, all right, we need a designer. So he hires a designer and he's like, oh, we need someone to do this part. So he hires that, he has somebody do this part and this part. And all that the contractor's really good at doing is just knowing what are all of the pieces that need to go into launching or to like completing a building. And then hopefully he's put in time to find really good subcontractors to do each of those pieces. That's it. He gets paid the lion's share of the project and all he's doing is he's just figured out what are all the pieces that go into building an office or into a house or into a whatever the project is and then who are all the people I need to hire to do those pieces, right? I was thinking about that, like for me with our funnels and stuff, like that's all it is is I, 'cause I've done this so many times, I've done this now, I think I'm on my 13th year a year or so of this whole business. And some people, it's funny, they're like, how come all the things you do are successful? I'm like, the reason why is 'cause I've built up a really good team of people over the last 12 years. And I know that I look at myself almost like the contractor in my business, right? I know all of the pieces that go into us successfully launching something. I don't have to rethink that, I just know it. It's second nature now 'cause I've done it so many times. There was a time and a season in my life where we were literally launching something at least once a month And if that once a month thing would fail, then we'd do one every single week till one didn't fail, 'cause that's how we had to pay payroll. Ugh, it was a nightmare, but we launched things all the time. And so, because of that, I know the process. I know, okay, to get something launched, here's all the things, and like, I know everything inside of my head. And then, because I've been doing it so long, like every single time I'm finding, like initially it was me doing everything, and then I realized, hey, I'm not very good at design, so I hired a designer, and then I realized this, and I hired, and I probably hired 100 designers in the last 12 years, and I know like about 3 or 4 that I really like, and now I just work with those 3 or 4 people. I've had 100 website built, I've hired 100 programmers, probably 1,000 programmers. I've done all these things over the years. But from that I've got my handful of 4 or 5 favorites and so when I know I have a project done, I'm like, okay, boom, I know Rob's gonna do this, so-and-so's gonna do this, so-and-so's gonna do this, boom, boom, boom, boom, I task the whole thing out. Everyone starts working on it and what's cool for me is, as the contractor, this isn't true in all cases, but with the building, the people can't frame the building until the person's finished doing the foundation, right? And there's things that have to go in order. And with what we do in our business, most people can do their thing independent of everyone else, right? The video guy can do videos independent of everybody else, the designers can do that, like the copywriters, like everyone can do things independently. So the goal is like getting everyone to start on all the pieces as soon as humanly possible. So everyone's doing the pieces and they start coming in, and then the last step, which for me is personally like my favorite part, so I do it now, but I could have outsourced this part of it. Then for me it's like, here's all the pieces now, I got all, these are all the things I needed to get this funnel done. I just need to plug them all in and so I, because I love ClickFunnels, I just plug them in and obviously I work with Stephen Larsen on my team to help me and we plug all the pieces in and then it's ready to launch. But if you look at all the projects I have, what's interesting is I've got the next probably 10 funnels completely done. Like front end products are done, back end, everything's done, I just have to like, like all the assets are sitting in Trello boards finished just waiting for me to say okay, I'm ready to launch this one and then I log in, spend a day, plug all the pieces in and boom, it's ready to go. In fact yesterday we were working on the Funnel University newsletter. If you're not a member of Funnel University yet, by the way, you're insane. So go to funnelu.com. But anyway, we were, I gotta, oh, are you kidding me? Road closure. Ah, dang it. Oh, there's some huge potholes up here. Okay, so now I'm, a road closure and I'm going through a neighborhood and I have no idea. Dang, I'm really bad at these kind of things. I'm so bad at directions. I'm just gonna follow the headlights in front of me and pray they're going the same direction I'm going. Anyway, where did I leave off? Yeah, so like yesterday we were talking We were doing January's Funnel University newsletter, and in the newsletter I was showing the Marketing in Your Car funnel we just recently launched, which you guys have all seen, right? And then the strategy behind it, like the Marketing in Your Car funnel was for a couple reasons. Number one is to get you guys all indoctrinated listening to marketingyourcar.com every single day, right? That's goal number one. Number two is get more subscribers. Number three though, and this is actually our core reason, was that we were trying to get people to join Funnel University. You probably saw that in the upsell sequence. And so yesterday in the newsletter I was showing how basically if you look probably the next dozen funnels that we roll out, they will be new cool front ends to help build our culture and get people excited about ClickFunnels, right? So like different swag things, different cool things, but then the upsell sequence is all pushing, upsell sequence is identical, it does not change. And so I literally in 40 minutes, and I recorded the whole process, all the Funnel U members will be able to see it inside of the new forum that we're setting up for you guys. I just took the marketing your car funnel, I cloned it, and then I already had the video done, I already had the graphic, everything was already done weeks ago, months ago actually. I just copy, drag, drop, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, within 45 minutes the new funnel was ready to launch. And it was done, but it came because I knew, whatever, 6 months ago that I wanted to do a project for, it's called Funnel Graffiti, I knew, in fact it's been almost a year because we gave out Funnel Graffiti at the last Funnel Hacking live event, so it's been a year, and then we filmed the videos this summer. But I tasked all that stuff out a long time ago, sitting there done, so as soon as I'm ready to launch it, it was done and so it took 45 minutes now to launch this funnel because I had all those things done. And so that's the power, if all of us as marketers start looking more at our business as like we're contractors as opposed to like the actual subcontractor working and you can subcontract stuff out to yourself, especially stuff you like to do. I'm guessing if you're like me, you like building stuff in ClickFunnels, like subcontract that out to you or to a certified partner or whatever but but look at yourself more as a contractor and become a master understanding what are all the pieces that go into launching a funnel. And the funny thing is the only way to know all the pieces that go into launching a funnel is by actually launching a funnel. In fact, I try to get this through people's minds all the time because everyone thinks that their first funnel's gonna be like the winner, right? And so they create this funnel, they go through all that pain and the heartache and the headaches that go through making your first funnel, and there's a lot, right? You gotta figure out how to write copy and how to edit pages and how to do images and videos orders and products and like, there's so much crap that goes into your first one and it's horrible. And most of the time your first one will fail. You will not make any money. In fact, most of the time you will lose money. It'll be like a bucket of money with a hole in the bottom and the cash will be just pouring out of it. But you have to be okay with that because the only way for you to learn every single step in the process for you is to do it once. And I always tell people like the first funnel, you're gonna spend so much time and effort and it might fail. In fact, it's probably gonna fail. But you gotta be okay with that because it's not about you launching this funnel and making much money. It's about you as a new contractor, new funnel builder, learning the process, learning all the pieces that go into that. 'Cause after you've done it once, then you're like, dang, okay, well now I know I need this, this, this, this, and I hired these people. This guy sucked, this guy was awesome, so I'm not gonna hire him, I'm gonna hire a new person. And you keep doing it over and over again and eventually, after you launch 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 funnels, whatever that is, you will have your dream team of people that are working with you. You'll know exactly who to go to every single time. And I mean, you fast forward 6 months to a year from now, you're gonna be in the same situation where I am, where like I don't fail anymore because I know my team, I know what our market wants, I know who's gonna do each piece of it, and so I can quickly create something and just have it work really, really quickly, okay? So for you guys, that's the goal. I had 2 interviews yesterday from people that were asking about the whole like, you're just one funnel away concept that's the theme of this year's Funnel Hacking Live. Live event. And I wanted, excuse me, during those interviews I explained how I look, you're just one funnel away and you don't know which funnel that is. And like, I wish I could show you guys the landscape of failed funnels that I've had in my 12 years in this business. I've got more failed funnels that I could show you than I guarantee most of you guys have ever even dreamt of attempting. But because of that, that's how I built my team, that's how I figured out what didn't work, that's how I like, I've mastered the process, I know all all the pieces that go into there like the back of my hand. I don't have to think anymore, it just happens. And so today, or excuse me, last night, I was like, hey, here's the project. Where are all the pieces? I tasked them all out. Now everyone's working on it. And I'm not sure when we'll launch that project, but I do know that the second I'm ready for it, all the pieces will be there and I don't have to think about it at that point. I'm digging my well before I'm thirsty. I'm getting all the things in place. And so, think about that, you guys. Like, again, this whole concept of you're one funnel away is so powerful, but you don't know which funnel it's gonna be. And so you've gotta keep building. You've gotta keep walking. You've gotta keep trying. Failing, you gotta keep moving forward. A really cool, I might have shared this with you guys before, so forgive me if I have, but it's worth repeating. Probably almost 10 years ago now, maybe more, I got in this Jay Abraham course and I was listening to it and one of the speakers was Brian Tracy. I'd never heard Brian Tracy speak before. And he was on stage and it was just, I loved what he was saying. And I remember what he talked about, he said that One day he was watching this TV show with a bunch of millionaires. It was like a news talk show or whatever. And there's like 12 millionaires on stage and they were interviewing them, asking a bunch of questions. And then the host asked a question, said, well, how long, like how many times did you guys have to fail on average before you had success? And they didn't know off the top of their heads, so they cut to commercial and during the commercial break they did all the math and figured it out and they came back and this panel of people, they said they figured on average they'd each failed about 12 times before they had success. Brian Tracy said something interesting. He said, do you think that they just tried something and failed, they tried something and failed, and on average the 12th time they got lucky and it finally worked? Or do you think that the first time they did it, maybe they didn't have the resources or the connections or the people or the idea or whatever, but they did it and it failed, and the second one they did it and they failed, and third they did it and they failed, and each time they failed they learned something and they and they figure something out. And literally by the 12th time, like they had failed every way possible. And by the 12th time, they knew how this process worked. There was no way they could fail at that point. It's kinda like Thomas Edison, what'd he say? He said, every time he'd fail with the light bulb, he's like, oh, I figured out another way to not build a light bulb or whatever, right? He had 1,000 ways that he tried that didn't work, but he didn't look at those as failures. He was like, okay, that way didn't work, that way didn't work, cool, this is the way that worked. And we gotta look at things that way as well, you guys. So many of us are getting into this looking for like, hey, I want a million-dollar webinar. Like, dude, that's awesome, but you gotta put in the work, man. Like, let me tell you what, I mean, how many decades of effort, I guess just one, but I mean, for me to be able to do what I do now, where like, we can do a webinar and make half a million bucks, it didn't just come magically. Like, it came on the back of 10 years of failing and failing and trying and failing and building a team and learning and growing and learning and growing and like, and coming to that. Now, obviously we've tried to give you guys a lot of shortcuts. The Perfect Webinar is a shortcut. ClickFunnels is a shortcut. I don't think Facebook's a shortcut. I think Facebook's the greatest gift to marketers right now in the world, and I don't think it'll be here forever, but it's here now and it's amazing. Like, there's all these shortcuts, and so hopefully you guys don't have to spend 10 years, but do know you are gonna have to spend some time, and do know you are gonna fail. But if you keep it in your mind that you're just one funnel away, I don't know if that funnel's today, tomorrow, a month from now, 6 months from now, but if you have you have that in your mind knowing with absolute certainty that one of these funnels is gonna be the one, it's gonna be the freedom maker for you, and you have absolute certainty of it and you just keep building and keep moving forward and keep pushing, I promise you guys, you will hit that, okay? But you have to have absolute certainty that it's gonna happen. One of the interviews yesterday, someone asked me like, how did you, like what was the why behind, you know, what got you into this thing and why you push yourself so hard And I said, you know, when I got started, I was, I was watching these people online who are having success. And back then it was Armand Moore and Alex Mendoza and Marlon Sanders, like my mentors, Mark Joyner. And, and all I know is I looked at these guys and I believed them. I believed that what they were doing was making them money. And because I saw them doing it, I had 100% absolute certainty that it worked and that I can make it work. I didn't know how, but I was positive that I could and it would. It's because of that I didn't stop, 'cause I had perfect faith that it was gonna work, and so I just started running and running and running. I think a lot of problems that some of us have is we don't have faith. Like, I think this could work. I think it's gonna work for me, you know? And because of that, you try and you dabble, you try and you dabble, and you don't quite go all in. But if you know with absolute certainty there's no way this is gonna fail, it's gonna take you a bunch of times, but you know that it's gonna work, like, it'll push you through the hard nights, it'll push you through the failures, it'll push you through the funnel flops. But it'll be worth it. I promise you guys, it's worth it. It's not only worth it for you and for your family, because the money that comes from it is amazing, but it's worth it for the people you are serving with the products and services you're creating. You will touch their lives in a way that doesn't make sense to you now, but when you see it and you see the fruits of that, it's pretty amazing. So I want to leave that with you guys today. I hope that helps. I'm at the office now. I went from the, from the new amazing office to the old crappy office. I'm In the old crappy office. 2 more weeks or so and then we're out of here. Anyway, appreciate you all. Thanks so much for listening. And if you had a good, if you enjoyed this podcast or any of them, please go to iTunes and rate and review us. I'd appreciate that. Please become an affiliate for Marketing Your Car, the free MP3 player, and let people know about it because that'd be cool. So thanks, guys. Appreciate you all. Have an awesome day. Bye everybody. 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.