How Your Posturing Is Probably Screwing You Up

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, so this is Russell, and I wanna welcome you guys to Marking Your Car. I'm really excited. It's been a little while since I've done one, and that's because we've been trying to get a new intro for forever, so this episode's not going live till the new intro's live. So we tried to hire a company, we tried to hire another company, we tried another company. Nobody can do it. Like, I just, like, you guys that we're hiring are like professional podcast intro maker people. You think that they would be good at making an intro, so, anyway, we're coming back to Adarian Wilson to do our own. So I'm gonna do it this morning. My brother will get this one and he'll get the intro. He's gonna make it 'cause he's magic and when this goes live, we'll have the new intro. So hopefully you guys just heard the new intro. Hopefully it was cool. Did you like it? I don't even know what it is yet but I'm guessing it was amazing otherwise we wouldn't have pushed it live. So cross my fingers that it was amazing. With that said, I've been missing you guys. It's been a while. I've been driving to the office like wishing I could talk but I was like, I'm waiting for the new intro, waiting for the new intro. So now we hang out again. So I apologize for my slackerness but The good news is, because of my slackerness, Stu McLaren told me he started listening to some past back archive issues and got some good nuggets. So maybe you guys should all just start over at the very beginning. Anyway, we have the new pre-load MP3 player coming soon. Just waiting on China. Apparently China takes week-long holidays, the whole country, and so they're in the middle of a holiday. They were supposed to ship it all before the holiday, but they didn't. So now we're hoping that they ship it soon. That'll be coming very, very soon and yeah. Anyway, today I wanna talk to you guys about something that's very, very, very, very important, okay? And it's all about positioning. Now this is not the kind of positioning that normally we talk about, which is like how to find your positioning and how to like put yourself in the right spot and elevate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? What I'm talking about is the opposite, the negative side of positioning. So recently, I'm not gonna name names, but some people I've been working with who have been insanely concerned about their positioning on everything and like annoyingly so. And because of that, they have become completely irrelevant. They are— I'm trying to make sure I say this without alienating or anyone thinking they know who I'm talking about. So it could be anyone, but this person, we'll just say this person, is so concerned about positioning that they won't do anything awesome anymore because they're afraid that if they do something awesome and it fails, it'll lower their what? Their positioning, their status. And so they've positioned themselves in this spot and they've told them— they've drunk in their own Kool-Aid where they think that they are the most amazing person on earth. And because of that, and because they're so concerned about positioning that they won't take risks or gamble or anything, and they become completely irrelevant because of that. And you know, this whole business is hard to stay relevant, especially when you're an expert or guru or whatever you want to call yourself and you're out there and you're trying to to keep top of mind and market share and keep people aware. And so it's been interesting and so it's made me think a lot about my positioning and making sure that I don't position myself in a way where I become irrelevant because I'm— because I've— because of how— it's so hard to tell you guys stories about the stories because then it would make even more sense, but it's more so kind of a warning because I've seen it happen And then last week, multiple times, which is just interesting. It's kind of all been top of mind with me because I've seen it happen a couple times in the last week or so. And so if you guys want to think about— and this goes back to like the whole attractive character and how you position yourself and things like that— but I would definitely pick, pick a positioning standpoint that allows you to risk, where if you fail, it does not lower your status. Like for me, I've kind of put myself in a cool situation where like I tell you guys everything. Like when I fail, I'm like, hey, I failed again, wow. And it doesn't lower my status 'cause I haven't positioned myself as the infallible person who never screws up. I've positioned myself as someone who screws up all the time. But because of that, because of all the failures and the mistakes and the issues and the problems, that's how I've learned, how I've grown. I share with you guys the pros, the cons, the ups, the downs. And that's what Marking Your Car initially was is let me give you guys a glimpse at what we're doing. And I'm not gonna just sugarcoat it about it and show you guys all the ups. I mean, I've had many episodes where I've talked about the downs. I've had episodes where I've been in depression and I've told you, I mean, my depression usually lasts for a couple hours, but I share those things with you guys because it's real and it's not fake and it's what's actually gonna serve you the best. Whereas if I position myself as this infallible being who never screws up, man, I'd be scared to try anything or test anything or risk anything or be in the public spotlight because of that. And very, very quickly I would become irrelevant. And that's what's happened to the person is, persons plural or singular, It's up to you to think. That's happened to them though because they don't want to screw things up. So because of that, they've become irrelevant. In their mind, they don't know that they're irrelevant. But if you were to survey the market and ask people who should care who they are, I believe that they're kind of gone. So I just want to warn you guys about that. Do not be so— we talk about this in the DotCom Secrets book a little bit when we talk about the attractive character. We talk about without your character flaws, people can't relate to you. To you. But because of, sometimes because of our positioning and our status, we're so scared to share our character flaws that we just freeze. 'Cause we don't share anything then, then we're scared to fail because then people will see our character flaws and like, man, it causes so many issues. But you think about any good comic book character, like what makes them interesting? It's the character flaws, right? Superman's super boring until kryptonite's introduced. Now it's like, oh sweet, now he can die. Like imagine if it was Batman versus Superman and the whole movie's like, this big huge climax and then Batman and Superman step out there and Superman like does the Superman flying punch and Batman's dead in 5 seconds. You're like, "Huh, well, wow, that was boring." Like if it wasn't for kryptonite, that whole movie was super boring and uninteresting. I mean Superman as a character would be uninteresting if it wasn't for kryptonite. Okay, Batman's the same way. Like what makes Batman interesting? It's the fact that holy cow, he's got family, he's got these other people he loves who who could be injured, right? We watched Spider-Man with the kids the first time, right? Spider-Man's this amazing being who can just do everything, but if it wasn't for the fact that he's got MJ and his, his uncle and aunt, like, if it wasn't for them and that character— not the character flaw, but the weaknesses— they're not interesting characters. So understand that, you guys, like, by positioning yourself as an infallible person, not only does it make you way less money and way less interesting to people, it also is going to make you very irrelevant very, very quickly. Okay. Have fun with yourself. Have fun with what you share with people. Let people know that you're messed up because you are. I am. We all are. That's the whole point of this human experience. We come down here and we come into these worlds and all of us have different upbringings, right? But what happens? Some of us have a mom and a dad. Some of us just have a mom or just a dad or just— I mean, we all come in different weird situations, right? And then we go through this life and we have all sorts of weird things and some of these are messed up. Some of us get screwed up early in our life. I've had friends who by the time they're 5 years old, people that things happen to them that would mess you up for the rest of your life. Like, I don't know how they've survived and how they've thrived through those problems. It doesn't make sense to me. But for all this, for people to come out and act like you're, you know, positioning yourself as this person who doesn't ever fail, man, like it makes you unrelatable. Like the people I know who are doing the best today and today it's more important than ever before because it wasn't so important even 5 or 6 years ago. But with the advent of social media and with all all these things. I was telling someone today, like when I'm doing a webinar, I see people Googling my name and Facebooking me. And like when I share testimonials, people are private messaging my testimonials to see if I'm legit, right? Like people are fact-checking you as you go. And so you can try to be all perfect and all annoying and stuff like that, or you can just tell the truth. Like just be you, who cares? Like I don't, ah, it drives me crazy. Why won't people just be themselves? Like you are good enough as you are. People will love you as you are. Okay, just be yourself and just share like the truth. Ben Settle, he was cracking me up. He was making fun of like life coaches that teach people like how to be authentic, right? That's like a big theme right now is like teaching people how to be authentic. And he was making fun of them like, why would you pay someone $10,000 to teach you how to be authentic? Just be yourself. And it's so true. But for some reason, like we're so screwed up, like we're so afraid of people seeing past our shell that we put up all these barriers. And like, that's what like— like, it's the— it's causing the problem that you're trying to solve. I got— I was just watching two nights ago, I was watching The Prophet. It was the season— it was the episode where the cleaning lady— and the cleaning lady is like putting on this false facade like, oh, everything's, you know, and That was her— she was trying to do that so people wouldn't judge her so she could be successful. But because she did that, she was not successful. Therefore, people were judging her. It's like the walls that we put up are the things— the walls we put up so we can get what we want are the things that are keeping us from getting what we want. It's ridiculous. If we would just all— I was gonna say grow up, but it's the opposite. Go back to being kids where you're vulnerable and and you don't care about what people think, go back to that time, that state, and holy crap, guess what happens? The things you're trying to get to happen right now. It's really, really weird. The shells you're putting up, you guys, this posturing, this stature, this whatever you want to call it, that is what's keeping you from your dreams. And so don't do what Ben Settles was suggesting. Don't go pay $10,000 to have someone teach you how to be authentic. Just be authentic. Put yourself— it's scary. Like, "Hey Russell, you totally screwed up again." Like, that's scary to put out there. But guess what? I do. And guess what happens the next day? Nothing. I wake up, everything's still good. Some people think I'm annoying and they walk away, and I'm grateful for that. And some people relate to me and they get benefit and value because of that, and they walk towards me. And that's the key, you guys. So there you go. Fix your positioning and posturing. Be authentic. Whatever you want to say, quit putting up those walls. Just, I dare you guys, tell a story to your— however you publish stuff, if it's through writing or blogging or posting, or— and if you don't, even if you don't have a way to publish it yet, go find someone you love and you care about and just be vulnerable. Like, tell them the truth about how you feel. And if you're pissed, tell them you're pissed. If you're sad, tell them you're sad. If you're angry, tell them you're angry. Like, just let the walls come down and just Just try it. It's so scary at first, but guess what's gonna happen? Only good stuff. Alright, I'm at the office. I'm gonna go have some fun, you guys. Appreciate you all. Hope you enjoyed smarking in your car, and I'll talk to you guys all again soon. Thanks so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at our funnel hacking project. 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.