Leadership & Vision: How to Capture and Cast a Vision That Inspires Growth | #Success - Ep. 13

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I'm Chef Meilin from 88 Club in Los Angeles, and I invite you to visit westhome.com/meilin to learn more and taste a story only West Home Nature Led Australian Wagyu can tell. That's w-e-s-t-h-o-l-m-e.com/meilin. This is the Russell Brunson Show. What's up everybody? Hey guys, this is Russell. Welcome back to the show. Excited to be hanging out with you guys today. And today I wanna talk about a topic I haven't talked a lot about with you guys, which is leadership. And more so than leadership, actually a very specific part of leadership, which is how do you first off, how do you capture a vision, right? And then number 2, after you've captured the vision, how do you actually share that vision with other people, right? To get people to wanna follow you, both like customers but also employees and partners and team members, right? How do you cast a vision in a way that gets people to want to come to you? And this is actually a really interesting question. From one of my friends, it was after Funnel Hacking Live. Obviously if you've been following the ClickFunnels movement for the last decade, we built a huge business and a brand and every single year we do this big event and this was the last one, Funnel Hacking Live 10. And it was a little after I got off stage, I got a message from my buddy and he asked me, I said, how do you do that? He's like, I wanna do that in my business. Our company's growing, things are good, but I wanna figure out how to cast, first off, how to capture that vision, right? What is the vision? How do I find what the vision is for my business? And number 2 is after I have that, how do I get the right people? So that's what I'm gonna talk about today because as you guys know, As you know, without a vision, the people perish, and our job as visionary entrepreneurs is to cast that vision. When you cast the vision, your people will come to you. You probably heard me talk about this before, but a lot of people are scared, like, I don't wanna put myself out there, my vision out there, because people are gonna make fun of me. And the reality is, I promise you, people make fun of me more than probably anybody, right? We spent, just on one event last week, we spent $1 million in ads. My face was everywhere on the whole internet, and guess what? A lot of people don't like seeing my face everywhere all over the internet, and there's all sorts of people talking trash in the comments things like that, right? When you put yourself out there, there's gonna be people who do not like you, and they're gonna be vocal about it, but your job is not to speak to everybody, right? Your job is to talk to the people you've been called to serve, right? And so when you put your vision out there, there'll be people who'll be offended, who'll be annoyed, people who don't care, but when you do it correctly, your people will hear you, right? They're gonna come to you, and you're gonna have a chance to serve them and change their life. We are visionary entrepreneurs, we are the dreamers. One of my favorite quotes is from T.E. Lawrence, he says, "All men dream, but not equally." Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind wake in the day to find that it was in vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they must act out their dreams with open eyes to make it possible. I love that quote, it's like a rallying call. We had that on the back of the t-shirts one year at Funnel Hacking Live, 'cause I love it so much. It's kinda funny, I have an Oura Ring, so I sleep every single night, and it's funny, my wife and I always tease, 'cause my wife, she sleeps so good. Every night, her REM and her deep sleep's like at 25, 30%, and mine always is like, my REM's like at, 3% or 1% or 2%, and it bothers me 'cause she always has these amazing dreams at night, she tells me these dreams, like, that is so cool, I don't remember any of my dreams, but then I found this quote, I tease her, I'm like, well, I'm a dreamer of the day, so that's the difference, like you dream at night, but I dream in the day. But it's such a powerful thing, right? That's our job as visionary entrepreneurs, to be the dreamers of the day. I'm gonna read the quote one more time 'cause it's so powerful, I want you to re-hear it, 'cause some of you guys are gonna wanna roll back on the thing, instead I'm just gonna share it with you, okay? So once again, all men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was in vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams with open eyes to make it possible. Such a powerful thing. Okay, so I'm gonna go through this. I've got a bunch of notes here I'm gonna go through. And there's basically 3 kind of phases I'm gonna walk you through. So the first phase, the first step, whatever you wanna call it, first secret if you're Russell Brunson, oh I am, secret number 1, step number 1, whatever you wanna call it, is actually You have to become a leader. And this is an interesting thing because, I don't know, like I've never really taught leadership before. I don't love reading leadership books even. But the reality is that people want to follow a leader. Like you have to be willing to step up and be that leader. And most people in this world do not wanna be a leader. They are scared to death of leadership, right? And it's interesting, if you've read the book Atlas Shrugged, it's one of my favorite books, but there's a scene in the very beginning where Daphne is on the, she's the head of the railroad, she's on the railroad train and gets stuck and, you know, this train's been stuck for like 20, 30 minutes. She comes out and she's like, why is it not moving? Like, oh, the light turned red. Like, well, like, how do you fix it? Like, well, I wait for them to fix it. Like, well, is there any issue? Like, no, you could go. But you know, and the railroad workers, like, they did not want to take the responsibility on their own shoulders. They refused to do that, right? And finally she's like, I'm Dagny Taggart, I'm the president of the railroad. Like, you're gonna go. And like, so if you go, you'll take, like, if something goes wrong, it'll be on your shoulders, not ours, right? And she's like, yes. And she was willing to step up and take that, right? And take the responsibility if something went wrong. That's what leadership is, right? To be willing to say, this is the direction we're going. If it's not right, I will take extreme ownership over the thing. 'Cause most people will not do that, okay? They're so scared of getting in trouble or breaking something. They don't wanna have the responsibility. They'd rather do nothing. In fact, this is why the whole, I'm not gonna get political 'cause I don't care about politics, But it's like the whole situation we are in as a country is 'cause nobody wants to step up and do the thing and then take accountability whether it fails or successful, right? So if you're gonna be a leader, it's one of the core things, you gotta be willing to be the person who's gonna take extreme ownership. Like just, I'm doing the thing and people look up to that. People are looking for that, they're begging for that. Like they desire that so bad. I think it was J. Abraham who once said, he said, people are walking around with like a cord coming out of their umbilical cord. And he said they're secretly, like they're looking for a leader they can plug into. They're looking for something. So the masses, the most of the people you are trying to lead, they're walking around looking like, I wanna plug into something, I'm looking for that. You're looking for the person who's gonna step up, right? That's what you as a leader have to do, okay? The next thing I have in my notes here is that if you wanna be a leader, you have to bring energy to the table. Now it doesn't mean you have to bring Russell Brunson energy, or GaryVee energy, or Tony Robbins energy. You gotta bring your energy, but at the right level, right? And when you do that, there's a really cool, in fact, it's so funny, when I got in this business, I used to hate when people talked about energy. I'm like, it's so cheesy, it's so, Ugh, I used to hate that, right? But as I've done this more and more, like it is insane how powerful it is. Like the energy you bring to a situation will attract the same type of person, okay? In fact, I bought, I don't know where they're at, I bought some tuning forks. I heard this is a thing. I don't know if it really is or not, but it illustrates my point, so I'm gonna share with you anyway, okay? So when you get two tuning forks, right, two different ones, and you hit one over here, one over here, and they're two different vibrations, but you bring them together, what'll happen is that they sync vibrations, so eventually they're both the exact same vibration. Same vibe, right? And so what you are, the energy you're putting out in the world, you will attract people with the same vibration as that, right? So you gotta put those things out there. So if I come into a room and I'm like, hey guys, what's up? What's gonna happen? Everyone else in the room's gonna lower down to that energy level, right? And so you have to understand, like, you're in charge, like as the leader, is like the energy management of the room. Like when we look at Funnel Hacking Live, we have 5,000 people in the room. Like my number one role is energy management, like getting people's vibration high enough they can learn, they can listen, they can pay attention, right? Same thing at, in my inner circle. I told them, like, we have 2 days, we're sitting in a room talking about our businesses. Like, it's really easy to fall asleep and to doze off, and my job is energy management. I got to raise the vibration of the room and keep it up here. That way we can learn, we can focus, we can grow. Because if it's not, it's going to be off, right? And the same thing is true when you're trying to attract people. Like, they're attracted to your vibration. So if your vibration is like, oh, woe is me, things are sad, you're not going to attract the right people. You can attract other people who are like, oh, life is hard, woe is me. Right, you attract, you don't attract what you want, you attract who you are. This is a Myron Golden quote, right? You don't attract what you want, you attract who you are. Okay, we talk about this like selling, like if you wanna be someone who goes out there and you wanna sell $1,000 courses and you never bought a course, guess what? Okay, you're not gonna attract who you want, you're gonna attract who you are. If you're someone who's too cheap to invest in yourself, guess what? You're not gonna attract the kind of person you want who's gonna invest in themselves. Okay, I remember Dean Graziosi launched a $100,000 mastermind, I literally was the first person to write a check. And he's like, you don't even know what it's about. I'm like, I know, but I know that if I am going to try to ask people for $100,000 in the future for my masterminds, I've gotta be willing to be the person to do that. 'Cause I'm not gonna attract who I want, I'm gonna attract who I am. And I'm the kind of person who will invest $100,000 in my education. When I did my million-dollar seed offer, guess who the very first person to buy it was? It was Myron Golden, why? He told me, he's like, because I wanted to sell a million-dollar offer, and I needed to be the kind of person who spent a million dollars on an offer if I'm gonna be asking somebody. 'Cause I don't attract who I want, I attract who I am, vibration, it is huge. Now it doesn't mean, again, you don't have to have Russell Brunson vibration. It's interesting, I look at successful companies and organizations, and I look at the leader and the team around the leader very similar. Like Jeff Walker's a great example. Jeff's been doing this game for, you know, I mean, back when I got started, he was getting started, so it's been 20+ years he's been doing this game. And if you look at like when my organization and his organization try to work together, it's interesting 'cause like we have different vibrations. I'm like the Russell Brunson let's go vibration, like that's our people and there's that, that's happening. Jeff is very much more conservative, like slower energy, things like that, and the people on his team are that way. Now it doesn't mean that he's right, I'm wrong, it's not. I'm saying you're gonna attract the people that are similar to you. So you look at Jeff's entire team, I remember every conversation I'm like, this is so fascinating, they're all Jeff Walker's energy, that's the energy level that they're all syncing to, right? My people sync to my energy, and so it's just fascinating, so it doesn't mean you have to have the wrong energy, it's just bringing the right energy, like your version of that, your version of high energy, Doesn't have to be Russell Brunson energy, right? Your version of that is gonna attract the right people. So if you wanna be a leader, that's a big key. Next thing about leadership I wanna share is you have to have standards. What are you for and what are you against? What are you not willing to allow happen and what are you willing to allow happen, right? Your people are looking for that. They're watching you. They're seeing like, does Russell bend in this situation? Does he not? What does he do? And you can make mistakes. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've had to apologize to my own team about stupid stuff I've done in the past, right? I apologize to our community. I literally, at Funnel Hacking Live, I've apologized again to our community for stupid things I did. Like, it doesn't mean you have to be perfect, but you have standards, right? You set a standard and you stick to it, and people relate to that. And again, sometimes they're gonna hate you for your standards, okay? But other people are gonna be attracted to you because of those standards, right? Like, that is the key, what you're trying to do. In fact, I found a— this is something I've had multiple people on my team tell me. This is why to this day they've stuck with me, even though, you know, through ups and downs the last couple years. September 11th, 2021, I made this post, and what happened to set this whole thing off— this is during the whole Pandemic, all the things, I'm sure you remember. But there was a time in that season when we literally had people coming to our office asking how many employees we had and then trying to force us to force our people to do things, which I am not okay with. I'm okay with everyone, like, I'm— people choosing what they want to do, totally cool with that. I think everyone should have freedom of choice. But for me to force something, I do not agree with. And that night I posted this, and I'm just going to read it because This was like me setting a standard for myself and my team. And again, I have people to this day who are like, because of that post is why I am here and I'm not going anywhere, 'cause I saw your standards and I aligned with that and I wanna be part of that. So this is what I wrote. I said, what happens when you take away freedoms from prime movers, AKA entrepreneurs? For anyone wondering how this plays out, read Atlas Shrugged. When the government comes in and takes away freedoms and makes it so that the prime movers don't wanna produce anymore, Well, the ending isn't good for anyone. There's 3 statues that I had commissioned that will be standing in my office soon. The first represents Atlas, my entrepreneurs holding the weight of the world on their shoulders. This is a responsibility we happily bear. The second statue is Atlas shrugging, and the third is him walking away from it all. We are quickly seeing the government overstepping their reach and taking away our freedoms. I don't get political ever online. I don't care if you're on the left or on the right. I don't care if you get the jab or not. As long as your choices don't affect my ability to produce, I'm fine letting you do you. As Voltaire said, "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." But when you try to take away my freedoms, this affects everything. For the record, I won't take away my employees' freedoms. If it means I have to pay fines to protect them, I will. If it gets worse, perhaps that'll be the point that I shrug and I walk away. I hope not. I love what I do. I love producing. I love my life. Our estimates now show that ClickFunnels has conservatively created close to a million jobs and counting. When entrepreneurs start to shrug and walk away, we are all in trouble. Fight for everyone's rights, even if you disagree with what they want to do with those rights. Okay, boom, set the standard. This is what I believe, right? For you, does your team know the standards? Like, if they put those things out there, you need to be willing to put those things out there because people will be attracted to that. It's interesting, in a day and an age where us as humans are more and more soft, it's interesting, like, you don't attract people with that. You attract people with standards. And the higher you set your standards, the higher those people will come to you as well. Cut. This episode is brought to you by Indeed. Stop waiting around for the perfect candidate. Instead, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs to find the right people with the right skills fast. It's a simple way to make sure your listing is the first candidate to see. According to Indeed data, Sponsored Jobs have 4 times more applicants than non-sponsored jobs. So go build your dream team today with Indeed. Get a $75 Sponsored Job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Nespresso. Introducing VertuoUp, the latest in a long line of innovation from Nespresso. It's innovation you can touch, sense, and taste in every single cup. With a 3-second start, easy open lever, and dedicated brew over ice button, it's even easier to enjoy your coffee your way. Sip for yourself. Shop Virtuo Up exclusively at nespresso.com. Next part of leadership, you've got to be in the trenches with your team. I think the reason why my team will produce so hard and they work so hard is they know that I am producing hard, I'm working hard. They know that I'm here late nights, I'm here early mornings, I'm killing myself on the weekends. I'm like stressed and anxiety, all the things, and they see me doing it, and because of that, they're willing to as well. With something really cool happened, um, Bill Allen became our CEO for for the Prime Mover side of our business, our info coaching side of the business, and Funnel Hacking Live, we'd done last day, it's crazy, everyone's like, you know, our team's stressed out to the max, and we're ready to go and, you know, go leave and go party and go whatever, get out of Vegas and go do whatever, right? And Miles and Clayton, who run our events, they were trying to leave and they went down, and if you guys have Funnel Hacking Live, we have these big glow sticks, we have like 5,000 times 2, so 10,000 of these glow sticks, everyone's whacking around when Tony Robbins is on stage, it was really, really fun, right? And the hotel said they refused to clean it up. Even if we paid a fine, they refused to. So Miles and Clayton are out there by themselves cleaning this whole thing up. And Bill called Miles, like, hey, just wanna come hang out and go enjoy Vegas. He's like, oh, I can't because we gotta go clean up these things. Now, what some types of leaders do is just like, oh, well, okay, let me know when you're done, we'll see you, right? But Bill, who's again the CEO of the company, he's got his own successful company, He, of all the people, he shouldn't have been down there. But Bill stopped everything, grabbed his kid, started running down the hall, grabbed the rest of the team, as many people as he could, went down there and was down there cleaning the entire thing with everybody, right? Guess what? Miles, Clayton, our team, like they will go, they will do whatever Bill says at this point, right? 'Cause he lives in the trenches with them. Wasn't just like him trying to lead from afar and like whatever. It's like he was down there doing it. Like that's what people need to see, is they wanna see., right? And then the last thing, this is actually Tony Robbins' thing. I heard him at my very first UPW I ever went to, he shared this. And it had such a profound impact on me. Every time I think about leadership, this is the quote that like pops back in my head. So this is one of Tony's frameworks, he calls it the 3 mandates of leadership. And the first mandate is when something happens, you have to see it as it is, not worse than it is, okay? What most people do, what the 99% of the people out there who are looking for leadership, they're gonna see something like, oh, this is way worse than it is. Like, no, you have to understand, like leaders, They see things as they are, not worse than they are, right? So that's the big thing. You have to be able to say, this is what it is, it's not worse than this, this is what it is, right? That's step number 1. Step number 2, after you've done that, then you need to see it better than it is. Okay, this is where vision comes from, okay? Okay, I saw it as it is, not worse, okay? Worse is the opposite of vision, okay? I see it as it is, now I see it better than it is. Now that's vision, okay? This is good, but there's great over here. And then the last step in Tony's 3 steps is, then you make it the way you see it. That's the job now, to go out there and to move heaven and earth and do everything you need to do to be able to go and actually create that thing and make it happen. So those are the 3 mandates of leadership. So powerful, again, number 1 is see it as it is, not worse than it is. Number 2, see it better than it is. And number 3, make it the way you see it. That's what leadership, that's what vision, that's what all those things are. So that's the first thing I wanna kinda caveat this entire, this show is just like leadership because I don't ever talk about it but those are the, and again, there's been books written. I've got a book right here from, John C. Maxwell about leadership, right? You know, like, there's been millions of books written on it, so like, this is not a, you know, all things, but these are the things that, for me, that I feel are the most important. It's the things that have had the biggest impact. A lot of things weren't things I was thinking about, I just did it, and then I see what happens on the other side, I'm like, oh wow. And I see other people's teams and other companies, it's like, that's why those people aren't having the success, right? 'Cause the leader's not leading. And when the leader is willing to lead, that's when everything changes. 'Kay, and if you've been a leader in the past and you've forgotten yourself, that's a big step too. Like come back and like remember who you are. At Funnel Hacking Live this year I did a presentation at the very end, it was called One Funnel Away Evolution, it was like part 2 of my One Funnel Away pitch from, I did an event, or I did a presentation in 2017 talking about One Funnel Away, and this was part 2. And in there I talked about how over the last couple years how like I forgot who I was, right? It happens to all of us, all leaders, you forget who you are. And I was lucky enough to have somebody who is a leader who had set aside high standards, Andy Ellyot. I went out to his office and like, at the presentation I talked about that, how that like helped, like Andy helped me to remember who I was. After I remember like, oh yeah, I'm Russell Brunson. I'm gonna step back in this calling. Like, it's been crazy ever since then, like the shift I've seen in myself. And you've probably seen it, you've probably felt it if you've been following me for a long time, right? And so, yeah, leadership is such an important part of the game. Alright, so number 1 is you being the leader. Step number 2, okay, I got 3 steps here. So step number 2 is how do you then capture the vision? And my friend that Voxed me asked that, he's like, are you just sitting around like thinking about things, or like how do you find that? And so, it's such a good question, and it's a hard one to answer. It took me a while to think through this, like how do I see the visions I see? Like what does that look like? The first one, the first note that I have here is like, that I think there's like, who is it that inspires me? I need the inspiration. You don't just come up with a vision just out of thin air, right? It's like you're looking at inspiration in a lot of different places. Like one of my buddies, Dan Usher on my team, who does a lot of our film stuff, he spends, I don't know, half his, I'm probably exaggerating, he spends so much of his time actually watching film and studying inspiration, getting ideas from other people, and then from there is where his creativity and his vision comes, right? It's not just like looking at a blank slate, Okay, like brain, be creative, come something. It's like, no, like you gotta look at a lot of inspiration, right? A lot of people like hear me talk about funnel hacking, look at one thing, they copy. It's like, no, that's not funnel hacking. It's funny, I can look at like everyone doing what you want to do. What are they doing? Why does it inspire you? Like, and from there, what you do is you get influences from 4 or 5 things, and then you remix them, and then boom, you create something that's your own. I remember I asked Dan about that. I'm like, how do you create your— he creates these things for us called After Movies, like So Funnel Hacking Live happens and they take all the footage and they build these, it's like a trailer for the event that just happened, right? It's an after movie. And that's what he told me, he's like, I look for inspiration from 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 different places, right? From there I'll find 3 or 4 things that really inspire me, I take those ideas, I remix them, and then from there, boom, I create my own thing, right? And I started thinking about that with me, it's like very similar, I'm looking at a lot of things. I think about just pre-ClickFunnels. I remember going to ClickBank's offices, like ClickBank is here in Boise, Idaho as well. I remember walking in, I saw their office and they had like this international team, they had clocks on the wall, all this stuff, and I was like, God, I wish I had a business like this that actually mattered, right? Clients and clocks and like all, it was such a cool thing. And I remember going to, I flew out to my friend Andrew Fox, who is in the, he's in Ireland, and we went on his yacht. I remember being on the yacht that night, and then that was the same time that the movie Social Network came out. I remember going, like leaving the yacht, went to the Social Network and watched that. I remember seeing that, and there's that scene when Zuckerberg was like, And he's talking to the Napster guy, what's his name? Anyway, and he's like, you know what's cool? A million dollars isn't cool, you know what's cool? Is a billion dollars. I remember thinking like, God, I want a billion dollar idea, right? And then like, and I'm looking at businesses and brands and companies, I saw like what Ryan Dyson and Perry Belcher were doing with Traffic Conversion, I saw, and from these things I saw Dan Kennedy, I saw Tony Robbins, I saw all these different things, and from that I was like, okay, I like pieces from all these, like I love Traffic Conversion, I love Ryan and Perry teaching, I love Tony Robbins 'cause he's jumping around and energy. I love the personal development stuff. I love Dan Kennedy 'cause of the learning. I'm like, how do I take those and create my version of it, right? Boom, insert Funnel Hacking Live. What's Funnel Hacking Live, right? It's like the, it's the education from trafficking, it's like the story, the education and stories from Trafficking Version. It's the content from Dan Kennedy and it's the energy from Tony Robbins. Boom, boom, boom, remix Funnel Hacking Live. This is my version because I love Tony's stuff but I wanted more tactics. I wanted more energy, I love Dice's stuff, I wanted more people from the community, and from there is how we remix Funnel Hacking Live. ClickFunnels, I was like, we're using this software and this software, all these different things to build our stuff, and it's like, remixing, boom, this is our version. So what inspires you? Looking at that, spending time with it, like really, a vision doesn't come from a new thing, it's coming from a remix of stuff that's good. I take 3 or 4 really good things and from that I can create something that's great. So that's the first thing to think about. Number 2 is like, what is your art? People get inspired by art. I don't know how to explain that better than it's like, for me my art was funnel building. It still is funnel building, and that's the thing that I love. So it's like, I'm looking at these different inspirations through the lens of like, what is your art? What's my art? Right, so for me it's like, Dan Kennedy, Tony, they're teaching their things, but my art's different, right? And so I'm figuring out the art that I had, and then from there, from there I start kind of mixing my things together. Next thing about capturing vision is initially, the vision's not gonna be clear at the beginning, and that's okay. I think a lot of times we're waiting for this thing to appear, like wait, as soon as I get the vision, then I'm gonna move. And I don't think it works that way. I think that, and you think about it, faith doesn't work that way. Like, how does faith work? Like, faith is all about like, you see a glimpse of like some way that you feel like you need to go, the call to contribution. I feel like I need to go that way, right? But then the path is completely foggy and overgrown and you can't see it at all, right? The vision's not clear. But in the pursuit of the vision, you start moving towards the direction, right? You get into momentum. Then like the pathway starts getting clear. I was thinking about this, like stepping into the fog, right? You can't see anything, you sit in the fog, and so you just step down, boom, like the fog parts a little bit and you can see a little bit forward. You take the next step, boom, and it keeps parting and parting. And if you keep going, moving forward in faith, then it shows up, right? And I think, I don't know, I believe that God gives us these ideas and he's like, he plants these little ideas in our head, right? And we have the idea and he's like, is Russell gonna be a good steward of this idea? Let's see. You know, plant this idea and then like see what he's gonna do, right? And then if I do nothing with it, he's like, hey, Russell's not a good steward of ideas. That's it. There's no good vision there, right? He's like, I'm gonna give him a little bit of vision. I'm gonna give him this thing called ZipRender. I'm gonna give him this thing called, uh, ArticleSpider. I'm gonna give him— I think these are my first ideas, right? And I like, okay, and I take the idea, I do something with it, and God's like, wow, okay, he's a good steward of this idea. Let me give him another idea and another idea, until eventually he's like, hey, ClickFunnels. And then even as I clicked on it, I didn't know where it was going to go. She's like, here's the first part, right? I'm going to tell you just enough so you, so you're excited that you're going to take the next step of faith and the next step of faith, next step of faith. So that's how God's dealing with us. I'm sharing that because for step 3, it's going to be how you're going to deal with your people as well. Okay, because if— yeah, so the vision is always clear. We all have that dream trip we've been wishing we could go on, but too often life, or usually price, gets in the way. That's why Priceline is here to help you turn your dream trip into reality. With up to 60% off hotels and up to 50% off flights, you can book everything you need for your next adventure. Don't just dream about that next trip. Book it with Priceline. Download the Priceline app or visit priceline.com and book your next trip today. Go to your happy price. Priceline. A good example, more recent for me in my life, is these old books, right? Like, it's such a weird thing. Like, you know, I bought a first edition Book of Mormon 7 or 8 years ago, and that was like a one-time thing. And then I bought a bunch more like 4 years later. And then I started like, Just like piece by piece I got excited and like there's something where I got excited about old books, I got excited about Napoleon Hill, I got excited about this and like, and I didn't know where it was going. I felt like there was something, I'm like somehow this is gonna be, this is gonna change the world somehow. I don't know how yet or where or when, but I feel like this is something. So I just kept pursuing the thing, right? And opportunities come to me, things would show up, and a lot of people thought I was crazy, a lot of people thought I was insane, people thought, in fact people were like, should we, do we need to call somebody to like, having an intervention with Russell, and I was like, I wish I could explain to you guys my vision, but it's not clear enough for me to explain. But I know there's something, and I'm moving towards it because I move in faith. That's what I've been doing my whole last 20 years, and people thought I was crazy every step along the way. People thought I was crazy starting an online business. They thought I was crazy building a software company. They thought I was, everything we've done, people thought I was crazy. And every once in a while I forget that, 'cause the people in my immediate, around my world, like, oh, this is awesome. The funnel hackers, the prime movers, like my people, like they're all excited, right? But I always remember this, like when I go to a bank and I ask for money. So for example, I'm building this crazy library, right, with all these old books, and I go to the bank, I'm like, hey, I need like a $15, $20 million loan. They're like, why? I'm like, I'm building a big building, there's gonna be naked statues of Atlas in the middle of them, then there's gonna be books there, and there's gonna be an event center, and people are gonna come, and they're gonna look at my books, and then we're gonna do events, and we're gonna record the events, and it's gonna be awesome. And they're like, what? Like, that's not, like none of that makes any sense. I'm like, no, it makes total sense. Like, people aren't gonna fly here to go look at your old books. I'm like, no, they will. They're like, no, there's no precedent for that. They're like, that's not a real thing. Like, this is all in your head, it's not real. I'm like, I have a really good track record. Like, look at ClickFunnels. Here's this big business, $100 million plus a year. Like, this is a brand I built. Like, trust me, this is another thing that's gonna work. They're like, it doesn't make any sense. Even ClickFunnels, because it's software and there's no tangible assets, it'd be easier for me to borrow money from a bank if I was a chiropractor or a dentist with assets, 'cause like, oh well, you fail, I can repossess your assets. With ClickFunnels, I can repossess code? It's so hard, so every time I think that I'm inside my world, I'm like, oh, everything I'm saying makes total sense, 'cause all of you guys get excited, my team gets excited, and then when I go to a bank, it's like, Oh no, I forget, like, what I'm doing is not normal. I forget that sometimes. In fact, I have a quote right here. This is such a good quote. It says, the reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. Okay, I think when you look at this, like, your vision, like, you become an unreasonable man, right? This is what people are looking for. Like, when you're trying to capture something, like, I'm not looking for logic. Oh, this makes a lot of sense. I'm gonna build this, we're gonna do this. Like, it's the unreasonable idea. Like, that's the interesting vision, right? That's the thing people plug into. That's what they're like, wow, this is different. This is not what I've seen before, right? And so I think a lot of times it's that. It's like putting out ideas that are just, they don't make any sense. And people are like, I don't really know what he's doing, but man, and there's something exciting about that. I wanna be part, I wanna plug into I want to plug into that thing, right? So again, the quote one more time, it's so good. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. Such a cool thing, such a cool thing. Okay, before I jump into step number 3, I got a really quick ad read for you guys from the greatest company in the world. It's called ClickFunnels. Now obviously, if you want to sell your stuff online, you're going to need a good funnel. But if you want a great funnel, then you're going to need to use ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels is the number one funnel builder in the world, helping more first-time entrepreneurs to leave their 9-to-5 and to launch their dreams than any other company in the world. ClickFunnels was built for the dreamer and the doer, and you can get a free 14-day trial by clicking on the link in the description or going to clickfunnels.com/podcast right now. ClickFunnels, because you're one funnel away from changing the world. Okay, let's move on to step number 3. How do you cast the vision? And how do you cast the vision in a way that's going to attract A-players to come to you, right? From customers, but then also employees, partners, things like that. And so there's a couple things. Number one is you have to live this, right? I wasn't trying to attract people into ClickFunnels. I was just obsessed with my art, I was obsessed, I was doing it, and like people saw how excited I was, right? I was living it every single day, and people were like, I wanna be part of that, right? Like that's such a big part of it, is like you've gotta live your mission, you gotta live the thing. Right? Some people just, I don't know, they're creating it, they're trying to create this vision over here for something that they're not actually obsessed with. They're not living it, right? Like you've gotta be the one living this where people are like, wow, whatever that guy's drinking, I need some of that. Like that's a big part of it, right? That's one of the things you gotta do. The next thing I had here is you've gotta create a really great opportunity for those people, for the A-players. Like what's the opportunity for them, right? Everybody's looking for an opportunity. They're trying to figure things out. And good people, the A players, they have a lot of opportunities. So what's the opportunity for them? Why should they step into your world? What does that look like? Number one is they gotta feel part of the vision. So I start sharing the vision, and they're like, oh, that's cool, I wanna be part of that. That's the first part. Then next is how do you create an opportunity for them? A really good example is Dave Woodward. Dave was someone who, me and him, I met him initially probably 10 years before ClickFunnels. And I cast a lot of visions with him, I tried to do things, I pitched him on a lot of things, and a lot of it he's like, ah, it's cool, it's cool, but like, it wasn't the right thing, and I was okay with that, and he was okay with that, and then eventually I remember when ClickFunnels came around, we were probably, I don't know, 5 or 6 months old, and he knew how passionate I was about it, 'cause like, he saw me glowing up and fired up, right? He started coming to the events, and he came to when I spoke at Traffic and Conversion, and he saw me living it, saw how exciting it is, He came to me after, he's like, I wanna plug into that, like I feel the energy of this, it feels bigger than like, than just a software company, this feels like something, like I wanna be part of it, like what does that look like? And I didn't know, but I was like, dude, if you wanna come be part of this, like we'll figure out an opportunity, we'll figure out a way where this will be very, like this will be amazing for you, right? And so we started trying to figure out that opportunity for him. And again, at first I didn't know what it was. Same thing with Todd Dickerson, when I plugged in Todd, like he didn't come initially for like, here's how much money you're gonna make, here's the salary, here's the paycheck, right? He came 'cause he's like, There's something here, like we can do something. Like, he's like, my skill set with your skills, like we can do something really, really cool, right? And Todd works, as you've probably heard the story, we worked for free for a year before he ever asked. In fact, he never asked for him before. Like, I find the smartest, like I should pay you something so you don't leave, right? Um, and then, but then inside of that, it's like we're creating a world where they can thrive, right? How do you create an environment where the A players can, can like long term, like I can, I can plant my flag here because there's opportunity, like I could build a business, I could get equity, I could get profit share, I could, like, whatever, like, the, the thing that they desire. Like, how do you build that opportunity for them as well, right? That's a big part. And the last thing I kind of had here was just understanding that the same way that when God's, like, revealing the vision to you, he doesn't show you everything up front. And the same thing is true, um, when I share my vision with people. Um, I can't— if I were to share, if I were to share with my team everything that's in my head it would overwhelm them, it would stress them out. There are a few people I can pitch and catch with 100%, but there's not a lot, right? And I know that, and so I share with them what they need to understand for the next step of the vision, right? I remember Hermosi spoke at Funnel Hacking Live 5 or 6 or something, and he was doing a sales presentation. The thing he said was so cool. He's like, the problem most salespeople have is that they're selling the trip, not the destination, right? Let's say you're going to Hawaii, you're selling a trip to Hawaii, you sell the palm trees and the coconuts and the beach, and that's what you're selling, right? You're not selling, alright, you're gonna go on an Uber to the airport, then you're gonna sit on a plane for 22 hours, then you're gonna, all the little things, that's what most people are doing, right? So I'm casting a vision, I'm not casting like, alright, you're gonna jump in an Uber, then from there you're gonna do this, and you're gonna do, like you don't sell that, right? I sell them like, this is what Hawaii looks like. I've seen it, it is beautiful. You guys are gonna wanna come to Hawaii, I promise you, it's amazing. Right? And they're like, okay, like that's the vision you're selling them on, right? But you don't tell them all the other pieces because that'll overwhelm and stress people out, right? But after they're sold on the vision, right, and they're part of it, they plugged in and they understand it, then you can start revealing, okay, here's the path, here's the things we got to do. But they got to be bought in first. If they're not bought into the strategy, the vision, the thing first, they're not going to be willing to put in the effort it takes, right? Think about this, I think about this all the time, like had I have known what it was going to take In fact, I would say probably once a month I get somebody who comes to me like, hey Russell, I've got a billion-dollar idea, like I wanna share with you, like you're gonna make so much money. I was like, no. They're like, why not? Like, I have a billion-dollar idea, I do not want another one. I know what the destination is to build a billion-dollar thing, and I have been on that path, I've been doing it for the last decade, I have no desire to do it again, okay, 'cause I know what it's like. So when people pitch me on a billion-dollar idea, I'm like, that's the last thing in the world I want right now is another billion-dollar idea. 'Cause I know what it's like. They always say the reason why we're successful entrepreneurs when we're younger is 'cause we don't know any better. We don't know all the pitfalls and the stress and the ups and the downs and all the things that are gonna happen for us to be successful. We don't know about those things. And so, but we see a vision, like I wanna do this thing, and so you go down and you're willing to do the things. You're willing to go through the pain. You're willing to go through all the steps in the trip, in the travel, because you're trying to get to that destination. And so for you, it's the same thing, understanding like, if you try to spew out like, okay, this is what it's gonna take and we're gonna have to kill ourselves and da da da, like, you don't tell people that up front, 'cause that's not how you sell them, right? You sell them the vision. Here's the destination, here's where we're gonna go. It's gonna be hard, but together if we combine our forces, this is what's possible, this is what we can do, right? They get bought into the vision, and then they don't care about like, the rest of it, right? You know, like after we bought into the ClickFunnels vision, we started running and we were doing the thing, I can't tell you the, I wish someday, I'm gonna write a book. I bought bootstrap.com a long time ago specifically for the purpose of writing a book to tell the ClickFunnels story someday. So someday you guys will hear the story. But it has not been sunshine and roses. Building a billion-dollar brand, no, it is not. The things that I deal with on a weekly basis are things that would have crushed me had I had to deal with one of those things a year ago, right? Things I deal with hourly, daily, like how much you have to increase your capacity to handle a thing is so much, right? And anyway, so someday I'll tell the full story, but just understanding that like the job of yours is to cast the vision and then people start running, then what will happen is that your capacity will increase, right? The trials and the headaches we had year one of ClickFunnels are things that like, now I solve in a text message, like boom, it's done, right? And they're like week-long, you know, month-long stress, anxiety, right? And the things I'm dealing with now I never could handle back then. And so that's what happened to you. Like, you're sharing the vision, people come on board, and then they're going to go through with you, right? And it's going to break them, but it's going to increase their capacity. And break and increase the capacity. And along the way, you're going to lose people. There's people like, I can't do this anymore, I'm out, I cannot handle the heat, I can't handle the pressure. And that's okay, right? People are going to leave, they're going to they were part of your vision for a while, but now they're not, that's okay, right? But there's gonna be people who keep going, and they're gonna go through this refiner's fire with you, right? Breaking down and increasing capacity, breaking down, increasing capacity. And you look at them a decade later when they're still with you, right? Those are your A-players. Those are the ones. But it's because they, they bought into the vision initially. So those are some of the things. Again, I don't think it's a complete answer. I don't think it's the best answer, but it's the best answer I have. To kind of recap the, the things that I talked about, right? Number 1, was you have to step back up and become a leader, right? You do that by the energy, the vibration you bring, right? By raising your standards, letting people know about those standards, living in the trenches with your team, and then understanding the 3 mandates of leadership. See it as it is, not worse than it is. See it better than it is and make it the way you see it, okay? Step number 2, we talked about how to capture it through figuring out like the inspirations, looking at those things, right? What's your art? Being the unreasonable person and understand the vision's not gonna be clear,, but your job is to go out there and keep stepping forward and going through it, right? And the last step was then how to cast it, right? Living it every single day, creating opportunities for the A-players, and then selling people on the vision or the destination, not on all the steps inside the trip. We do those things, that's the things that I've done successfully over the years to build up ClickFunnels, the brand, the people, the team, and I'm going through the process again right now. Like we're in the middle of casting new vision, and there's a lot of pain with that going through it. But also a lot of excitement, and it's really, really cool. So for those of you guys who have a funnel, I want you to understand, if you have a funnel but it's not converting, the problem 99% of the time is your funnel's good but you suck at selling. And if you wanna learn how to sell so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket to our next Selling Online event by clicking on the link in the description or going to sellingonline.com/podcast right now. Alright, with that said, you guys, I hope that helps you guys to figure out how to capture and cast the vision as a leader. Hopefully it helped you to have a vision so your people will not perish, and hopefully it helped to change your business and your life. If you enjoyed this episode, please let me know. Please share with other people. It'd mean the world to me. If you're on YouTube, make sure you like, subscribe, comment down below. I read all the comments, which is really fun. And if you listen to the podcast, please go leave me a review. It'd mean the world to me. I appreciate you guys. Thanks so much for listening. And I'm gonna end this one where we started with one of my favorite quotes from T.E. Lawrence. All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day, they are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams with open eyes to make it possible. Thanks so much, you guys. I appreciate you. Become a dreamer of the day.