Leveling Up and Leaving the Old Version of Yourself Behind | #Success - Ep. 100

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. Do you have a funnel but it's not converting? The problem 99.9% of the time is that your funnel is good, but you suck at selling. If you wanna learn how to sell so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket to my next Selling Online event by going to sellingonline.com/podcast. That's sellingonline.com/podcast. What's up everybody, this is Russell. Welcome back to the show. All right, I wanna share with you guys something really, really cool. As you know, we're getting closer and closer to the rebrand of my podcast. Bootstrap Secrets is coming soon to a funnel near you. It's gonna be awesome. But in the interim, I'm giving you guys some presentations that you probably have never heard before, haven't seen before. So this next one's actually, we do a mastermind about once a quarter out here for our 2 Comma Club X and our Prime Mover members, and it's really powerful. It's a small group of, you know, hundreds of entrepreneurs that come and hang out. And at the last one, I wasn't there for the whole event, but they wanted me to come in the very beginning and like, and talk to everyone, just like, figure out how to get everyone to level up and have more success despite their failures and things holding them back. Anyway, it was interesting, I remember that morning I was driving downtown Boise, getting prepped, trying to think through, what's the best thing I can give everybody? And I had a pad of paper next to me, I was sketching out a couple ideas and some doodles, doing Russell stuff, and I got there, and again, it was probably one of the presentations I felt the least prepared for, which a lot of times is where the magic comes. I had a lot of ideas but didn't know exactly how to land it until they called my name and I came on stage and I started going, and after, it was done, I got texts from a bunch of people in the group just thanking me for that, saying that was the thing they needed that shifted everything for them. So this is one I hope you can listen to. Hopefully you can listen to it often. I would bookmark it. I don't know if you can bookmark things in podcasts, but listen to it once a week. Listen to it when you're struggling. Listen to it when you're trying to figure out how to get out of a, you know, how to get to the next version of you and who you want to become and things like that. And so anyway, I hope you enjoy this one. This is one that, yeah, I think is really powerful and really important and something that's probably gonna change your life. So hope you enjoy this episode from my friend, Mr. Russell Brunson. This is the Russell Brunson Show. Yeah, like Brent said, super excited to be here. I was not supposed to be here because my daughter is going to college, breaking my heart, leaving me, and we're supposed to leave today, but then it got bumped and we're leaving tomorrow. So I'll— is that me or is that like an airplane flying into our building? It's an airplane? Okay, everyone duck and cover if you hear it again. Anyway, yeah, so tomorrow we're driving her up and dropping her off, which is like heartbreaking and exciting for her. But because of that, I gotta hang out with you guys today, which is so fun. So thank you for letting me come and spend a little time with you guys. I'm excited. They put together a really, really cool event for you guys over the next 2 days, all about taking what you guys are learning, having success with it, and how do we grow it, how do we scale it, how do we kind of take it to the next level. So I was thinking about that over the last couple days, like, what can I share that's different? Like, we have amazing trainers talking about a lot of things from copywriting to traffic to split testing to value ladders, like all these other pieces you guys go deep on. I was like, what can I bring different and unique today just to kind of kick off the event and kind of start everything? And so I just got back 2 days ago from an Alaskan cruise. It was my parents' 50th anniversary and they took us all, all their kids and their spouses up to this Alaskan cruise. I've been up there for the last 5 days, or 7 days, and just thinking about what can I share, what can I share? And so I have an idea, I haven't prepared this or practiced this, so I have no idea, it could go off the rails, but I was thinking about like, as you're scaling, there's two different things. Like, there's the technical part of like, how do you scale, but then there's also like the psychological things that you have to go through as an entrepreneur as you are scaling, because it shifts and it's different along the way. And so that's what I wanna talk about a little bit today, 'cause hopefully it'll help you on that side of it as you're learning the actual techniques and tactics on how to actually scale. How do we fix ourselves so that we can physically do it? And I started thinking about this in my life, different times where I've tried to go to different levels, right? And the first time that I can recognize this was in my wrestling career. So in high school, I was a wrestler and I remember when I first got into wrestling, I was like this— I always joke, before I started wrestling, all I would do, I would go to school every day and I'd come home and then I'd sit down and I would eat Cheerios and watch cartoons after school until dinnertime, then I would eat dinner and then do homework and go to bed. That was my life. Forever. That was like the ordinary world that I lived in every single day. And then my dad, who was a wrestler, found out one of our neighbors was wrestling. He's like, Russell, I'm taking you to wrestling practice. It's like, why? That sounds horrible. He's like, no, you're gonna wrestle like I wrestled. I'm like, I didn't— I was like, I don't want to. But he kind of did the whole thing and pulled me along, and I went to wrestling, and I started doing it. And the first year, like, I just showed up and kind of did the things, 8th grade year. And I wasn't great, but I had some matches and kind of had some fun with it. I was like, okay, this isn't that bad. And then my 9th grade year, that's when I started getting more serious into it. And a whole bunch of things happened along the journey. Like I remember I came into the wrestling room with all the high school kids and they were all big and scary. And I was like this huge intimidating thing, like how am I supposed to compete with these guys? And I remember during the first round of wrestle-offs, I was wrestling a kid who was, he had been JV like the year before. I think he was a junior or senior. And like I was so scared and I beat him in the wrestle-offs. I mean, I gotta be JV. So I remember going home like, Dad, I beat the guy. I gotta be JV wrestler. And so, so the next dual meet, I was gonna be like wrestling on the mats, like where everyone could actually watch you. And some of you guys may have heard me tell this story before, but I remember I got out there, and we had weigh-ins ahead of time. Anyone here wrestlers in the room, by the way? Okay, so a couple of you guys have cut weight before. So first time I ever cut weight, I'm 9th grade. I didn't know how to cut weight. I'm just trying my best, you know, and then I get to the thing, and there's this— everyone lines up in the locker room, And they've got a scale out there, and then they have you all strip down to your tighty whities and get on the scale. And I'm just like, 9th grade kid, never been stripped to my tighty whities ever. I'm scared to death, I'm like, ugh, you know, but everyone's doing it. I was like, ugh, so strip down to tighty whities, I get there, I get on the scale, and luckily I make weight, and then I get off, and the next guy gets up in his tighty whities, and it's this dude with a mustache. And he's just like staring at me, I'm like, what? And you have to understand, to this day I still cannot grow a mustache, right? Like this is, I've not hit that part of puberty yet. And I'm watching this kid, with a mustache, and I get off the scale, get my clothes back on, I'm like, I'm dead. This guy's got a mustache, this is gonna, like, he's gonna destroy me. And then I remember calling my dad, I'm like, Dad, I'm so scared. And so JV wrestled before the varsity, so I remember getting there, we're warming up, and you look in the stands, there's like 4 parents in the stands, nobody else shows up for the JV matches. So I see my mom and my dad, and it's my turn to go out there, I shake the mustachioed guy's hand, and we start wrestling, and I don't know what I'm doing, and we're wrestling, we're scrambling, the match ends, I don't know what happens, We shake hands and the ref raises my hand. And I was like, I look over and I see the mustache guy, like his head down, I was like, I beat the guy, like freaked out, look at my dad, my dad's jumping up and down, and I was like, and like that day is like when I became a wrestler. It's like, this is the best feeling I've ever felt in my entire life, I want this experience over and over and over again. I became obsessed with it, right? And I went on this journey. And so from 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, I won a state title, my senior year I took 2nd place in the country, and like, I like got the skill sets, right? And then anything, any journey you go on in life is all about skill acquisition, right? What are the skills I have to learn? And you go through this journey, right? You start learning skill sets. And so I get done with high school, I go to my senior year, I go to the high school nationals, I go to this tournament where basically you have to be a state champion to go to this tournament. So every state champion from around the country is there. In my weight class, there was like 60-something state champions and huge bracket. And I'm on one side, everyone else on the side, and we go through the thing and we're all sent down, and I end up taking second place in the nation. And so in my mind, I'm like, I am one of the greatest wrestlers who's ever lived. This is amazing. Like, I'm thinking I'm good, right? I get a college scholarship, and so I show up to BYU. I get my scholarship, I show up to BYU, very first day, and in my head I'm like, took second place in the nation, all these chumps are gonna lose to me, it's gonna be really easy. And I go out there the very first day, and I start wrestling with like the third and fourth string guys, and I got beat so bad, so consistently, day after day after day. And it was humiliating. I was just like, So how many of you guys ever experienced being re-humbled in your life when you started a new journey, right? Yeah, that's exactly what it was. I went through this process and I was just getting killed every single day after day after day. And I was like, I thought I was good at wrestling. Like this guy's fourth string and he just tech-falled me in the first period. Like every single day, day after, it was just like humiliating. And it was weird because like I'd gotten to a certain level and as I was going to the next level, I realized that like none of the things I learned were working here. And so finally I had some really good coaches come back like, hey, your stance, you're out of position. Like you're standing too tall, your elbows are out. I was like, what are you talking about? They never affected me. I was in high school, it didn't bother me. I was able to beat most of the people at that level, it didn't bother me. But they said, no, you're out of position. So I had to learn how to do different stance. I learned how to have my elbows different. I had to learn how to shoot. Like everything that I thought I knew was wrong. And I had to go relearn everything, relearn all the skill sets to get into college. And so I spent that first like 3 or 4 months from school starting until Christmas break like relearning how to wrestle. And it was humiliating, it was hard, it was painful. And I remember going home for Christmas break And I went back and my high school had a practice. I went to go wrestle with all my old buddies who were still competing. And I was just like broken. I'm like, "I suck at wrestling. Like, I'm the worst ever." And I remember going to high school and I started wrestling all my buddies and they seemed so easy. It was like playing with babies. I was like, "This is so—" And then my coach who would always beat me up, he's like, "I want to wrestle you." So, we started wrestling. The first time ever I'd ever like scored on my coach. I was like, "Oh, my gosh. I got better." I had no idea, right? And all of a sudden, I went through that and then the next 4 or 5 years of my college, like, I was at a different tier, right? I got better and better over time. But it was interesting that I went from one tier tier to the next, like I had to like almost forget everything I learned and rebuild to be able to do the next tier and the next level, right? It was so fascinating. And then I got into business, it was very similar, right? Like when I got into business, I had no skill sets at all, so I'm like, I'm gonna learn a skill set. So I went and I learned the skill set, started learning how to sell stuff online, like I started having some success and it was like this became the new plateau, this became my new ordinary world, is having some success. And then I remember seeing John Rhys who made $1 million in a day, I was like, That's the journey I wanna go on. I wanna figure out how to do that. Like what skills do I have to learn to be able to make $1 million in a year, right? And what's interesting is like all the things I was doing to make some money was different than what I had to do to get to $1 million a year. It was a different skill set. So all this stuff I thought I understood, I had to flush it away, I had to get rid of it for me to go and learn how to actually build a company that can make $1 million a year. And it took me, I think, 2 and a half years before I was able to make $1 million in a calendar year. And when I did that, I was like, I'm the greatest man, I'm a genius, I'm so smart, like I figured out how to make $1 million, right? I was so excited, and I was like, the next thing I'm gonna figure out, I can make it to $10 million. And I tried, and I tried, and I realized after 3 or 4 or 5 years of failing to get $10 million, I was like, the skill set that got me to $1 million is not the skill set that gets me to $10. It's completely different. It was like going from high school wrestling to college wrestling. It was a completely different thing, different game, different everything, right? And so I started figuring out like, how do I go to $10 million? I started studying different things and learning different things. I realized for me to get $10 million, like, everything I learned to get to $1 million was not gonna work to get me to $10 million. I had to learn different skill sets, different things, different— like everything had to be different. It took me years to understand that. When I did that, I understood then it's like I learned the new skill sets and then getting $10 million was really easy. I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is amazing. Now how do I get from $10 to $100?" And guess what? Same level up. Everything that I used to get to $10 million did not work when I was trying to get to $100 million. It's like I had to go relearn this whole process. And so I was thinking about that like in context for all of you guys here but just like for all of us in any area of our life, right? You think about this like we all We all come in and we get good at something, right? This becomes like who we are, and then we get called on this adventure to do something bigger. And by just the nature of like, you're getting called to do something bigger, like none of us are qualified to do the next thing. We think we are, like, oh, I can do that, it'll be easy. But then you go on the journey, you find out really quickly, you're not actually qualified to do the thing. And if you were qualified to do the thing, then what's the point of even doing it? Like you could just, it's like me right now going back and winning high school state title, like, Yeah, I could do it. It'd be really easy. But like, what's the point of that? It's not a good goal, right? The goal is like the next thing. And by default, if you're picking a good goal and it's something that's gonna stretch you, you're not qualified. You don't have the skill sets. In fact, most of the times, the skill sets you have at this other level will actually hold you back from getting to the next level. Okay? And so as you guys are trying to talk about like, how do we grow and how do we scale? Like, what's that journey look like? A lot of it's gonna be you understanding that what got you to where you are today is probably holding you back from what's gonna get you to the next level. And that's what we gotta start thinking about as you're going through this like skill acquisition, like what are the new skill sets I have to learn and master to get to the next tier and the next level, okay? I, as you know, am a geek with the hero's journey. How many guys love learning about hero's journey or talking about it or something? All right, I got half a clap there, thank you guys. It's funny 'cause like I never heard about it and I bumped into it right before we started writing Expert Secrets and I freaked out and I talked about it. And then after I started hearing everybody talk about it, I was like, was I just never aware of it prior, or did people not talk about it, I don't know. But for me, I love it, and I love it so many areas of life, and I was thinking about that specifically for this topic today. So if you think about the hero's journey, right, here is, here's the hero's journey, right? And all the heroes you guys know, they start in an ordinary world, so OW, this is the ordinary world. And the ordinary world is basically, it's your current skill set, your current level of like what you're good at doing, right? If you think about like how all skills are about training your subconscious mind, like it is your subconscious floor, like this is who you are, who you've become in your life up to this point, right? So before I started wrestling, everything I learned up to my life got me to this, and this was like, this was the, this was my base, like my subconscious, like that was the floor, that's like the ordinary world I lived in, right? And then I got called in this adventure, like I wanna become a wrestler, I wanna do something different, and I decided to go on this really cool journey, right? I leave that ordinary world, and I have to go learn a new skill set, right? And you learn a new skill set, you go through the process, you get better and better and better. And what happens over time is you figure out like, this was your— How do I illustrate this? You have like this subconscious floor of what your current skill set gives you, right? And you have this goal and this is your subconscious ceiling. Like, this is what I'm trying to get to. I'm trying to get this new ceiling, right? This new level. And so you go through the skill sets, you're learning, you're practicing. And eventually you get there where no longer is your skill sets down here, your skill sets here. And this becomes like your new subconscious thing, right? If you study the hero's journey, what's fascinating, at the end of the hero's journey, what the hero does is he returns back to the ordinary world with the elixir, with the thing, right? He returns back and brings back to the ordinary world the thing he discovered, right? That's what happens every hero's journey. And same thing happens for us. Like when I was a wrestler, I left on this, I had this ordinary world, I left on this journey, and eventually I became at this level, right? And then what's interesting if you look at this, This now becomes your subconscious floor, right? What was your ceiling now becomes your floor. And all of a sudden, you get called on this next thing you want to do. I want to go from a million to 10. I want to go from 10 to 100. I want to do whatever the next thing is, right? And all of a sudden, this now, which was your subconscious thing that you were hoping to someday be able to achieve, this now becomes your subconscious floor. This is your new ordinary world, right? And now you got to leave on a new adventure. And this is why most people don't go from level 1 to level 2. Okay? Because they go through this like, "I've already figured out, I already did the thing. I became a state champ. I became second place nation. I already figured this stuff out. Like, I'm good enough. I should be able to do it." And because of the past things, they're not willing to burn down the skill sets they learned to get the new skill sets to get them to the next level. Okay? They're so obsessed with the ego and the tying to the thing that they accomplished in the past. And that's the hardest thing. I was looking at my own personal life as I was reflecting this last week on. I'm like, the reason why I've been struggling in a lot of areas is because for me to get to my next level, I have to stop doing and change and burn down a lot of stuff that got me to where I am today. I was like, why is this so hard for me? I was like, oh my gosh, it's my ego. Our egos are so obsessed with like the thing, like this is the thing we dreamt about that we wanted for so long. Like if I could just become a state champ, if I could just make a million dollars, if I could just like— that became the thing and then you got it, you're so proud, the ego's there, it's like, I figured this out, I'm a genius, I'm the smartest man alive, right? And all of a sudden it's like, you gotta go on this new thing. It's the equivalent of walking, for me, walking into practice at BYU my very first day. And these guys aren't that good, just destroy me. And the ego gets destroyed. It's so much easier just to live in the glory days, right? And come back like, oh, that sucked. I'm gonna go back here and I'm gonna hang out. I wanna hang out back here in the ordinary world where I feel comfortable, right? But that's the problem with growth. Like if you stay in your ordinary world forever, you never get to the next level. And so the thing that you thought was this amazing thing, you've accomplished it, that now has become your ordinary world. And now it's time to leave again. And go on your next journey and your next adventure. It means you have to give up your ego, you have to be willing to change things, willing to understand the skill sets that got me here are probably not skill sets that are gonna take me to the next level. And so what's cool about this room, by the way, is there's people here at different levels. Some of you guys are at the beginning of this whole thing, you just learned about this, you're excited, you're figuring things out. Inside of ClickFunnels, we try to get people these milestones for you to work towards. Like the first milestone here is like create a webinar and get it to make $10,000, right? And that seems, when you hear the first time, it seems really, really small, but that's honestly what I think is the hardest step in the hero's journey over and over and over again. Because the very first time, like you had to figure out so many things, like how do I create an offer that people actually want? Then how do I make the product? And then from there, how do I write copy? And how do I get people to register? And then how do I actually perform the webinar? And how do I tweak it? How do I like, And how do I drive traffic? And like, there's so many things for the very first one. Like, it's the hardest of all, right? You go through the whole process, you make your first $10,000, you go through that, and then you're going to get an award. You guys have seen the award. I think we got, I think, 8 or 10 people in the room who've qualified since last meeting. We're going to get pictures here in a minute with this award. Like, you got the very first thing, right? And it's like, you got that, you figured out first skill set. That's the hardest one. And that's okay. What's the next here? What's the next level? Okay, next level now, we're going to go a little deeper. How do we get to the million dollars, right? Different skill set. 'Kay, it all builds upon the last skill set. Like everything I just did to get a webinar to make you guys $10,000 is great, but now it's like, now how do we get you to a million dollars? Okay, we have to learn different things. 'Kay, we have to learn, 'cause what happens, what you'll notice is like, a lot of people, the very first time they do a webinar, they make the first $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, it's like they're doing it to an audience that's warm, right? People who know them, they like them, they trust them, it's a little easier. And then we start driving traffic, People start showing up who don't know who you are. Guess what? It's a little bit different. You got to be a little bit better. You have to learn how to communicate differently. You have to learn how to get somebody who doesn't know who you are, who doesn't understand the value you bring, who has no relationship. How do I convince that person that I can change their life? You have to have a different skill set, right? You have to get better at it. How do I get people to actually show up? Different skill set. How do I buy cold ads, cold traffic? How am I consistent? How do I— And so there's different skill sets now to get you to the million. And then when you get to the million, then Then the next conversation, and that's what's fun, when people get to the million dollars, that's when we invite them to Inner Circle. And Inner Circle is similar to this, room's a little bit bigger than this, not much, and those conversations are less about like, what's the offer, how do we sell stuff, and those conversations are like, alright, if we're gonna scale from a million to 10, what does that look like? It's like, oh, at this point, I need teams, I need structure, I need operations, like, those are the conversations we have in those rooms, because it's a little bit different, right? Most of you guys at this point probably aren't at the spot where you're trying to figure out, I gotta have 10 people to build this, I'm like juggling a million things, I'm drowning, right? You're gonna get to there and that's when the next phase is like, okay, cool, you master the skill set to make a million bucks. Next skill set we gotta master, you guys, is operations and structure and how do you make sure the business is gonna run and how do you start scaling and growing, right? And that gets you usually from a million to 10 million. And 10 million, that's when people join the Atlas Group and it's a whole new conversation in Atlas. In Atlas conversation, everyone's like, man, I'm doing all this stuff, I'm stressed out, my warm audience isn't buying anymore, and it's like, how do we scale? How do we grow even bigger? How do we function with the dysfunction of entrepreneurs where we are trying to change the world and change all these people's lives, and our own lives are falling apart? And it's like, it shifts again, and like, it's just crazy what happens every single step and every single tier. And so what I wanted to lead with today is just talking about that, is just thinking about where you guys are in this, okay? And all of you guys here are different tiers, different levels, but as you're thinking about this, just realizing that like, you're in an ordinary world, okay? And it could be the very first for some of you guys, But maybe it's here, maybe it's the third, whatever it is. And the thing that's gonna keep you from getting to where you wanna go is probably the ego about the thing you already can't accomplish before you got here. Okay? I'm saying this to you, but I'm saying it to me. This was my big epiphany this week where I'm sitting in Alaska cruise with my wife and I don't have the ability to work or to type or do anything. I'm just like sitting there with my brain. I was just like, oh my gosh, my own ego is keeping me from the next adventure, the next thing I'm supposed to accomplish. I was like, I bet that's where a lot of other people are struggling with. I forget about that sometimes. I've been on a 10-year journey for my last hero's journey, right? It's been insane and fun and hectic and crazy and all sorts of stuff, right? But now I'm like sitting in this spot for the last 2 or 3 years where I'm like, I'm not growing the way I want to, and I'm like feeling that, just like, God, I wanna contribute more, I wanna create more, I want something and I can't figure that out. And I was like, oh my gosh, it's 'cause my ego's obsessed with what I accomplished in the past. And it's great, and we should be happy, and like you should be like so grateful for the things, the things that used to be your dreams, but that eventually understand that becomes your new ordinary world. Right, if you want the next tier, next level, it's like, okay, the subcon— like, this is my subconscious is now, like, I can do this in my sleep now, perfect. If I wanna get to the next level now, I gotta be willing to say I accomplished in the past, I'm gonna put it behind me, and now I gotta figure out the new skill sets. What are the people doing that are this thing? What things do I have to believe or understand or do to be able to be successful like those people? Okay, and so while you're in this room, again, you're gonna have people speaking with you, but also a lot of times in these rooms networking, getting to know people, I recommend finding someone who's one tier below you and share with you the things that you're doing that got you to this level. There's so much value in that. Then the other way is also find people who are tier or two above you and start networking them and finding out from them. As you start doing that, this is how this group grows. This is how you guys start having more success because you start understanding those pieces. When I first got into this business, I started, it was after John Reese did the Million Dollar Day and everyone in our industry was just freaking out. We all wanted to do it. I started going to events. It was cool, it was like, in these events, because all of us had seen it, all these guys kept talking about it, and all of us were trying to figure out how did John do that? How do we reverse engineer that? And so we're all networking and talking, and like, we met in rooms like this, and then we went back home, and back then we all got on AOL Messenger, which was pre-Skype, and then eventually we all migrated over to Skype, and Skype, you see Skype shut down last month? I was just like, I still had like 10 people I literally talked to every day on Skype from way back in like, when I first started this whole business, and like they're just gone. I don't even know how to contact them anymore. Like Skype just disappeared. I'm like, how do I? Anyway, but like understand like part of this room is like in here, but a lot of it's like finding a couple people you connect with afterwards who are all striving towards the same goals, right? Because you're gonna learn different pieces in different spots, different places, and all you guys have different skill sets, and like the networking part of it is the key. What happens after we leave this room, right? Our job is to give you guys ideas, stimulate thoughts and conversations,, and your job is take that in the network, network inside the group when you go back home, then start implementing those things and start plugging them in, and that's how you start growing to the next level, and everyone starts growing together. The first time I really saw this inside of our community is when we first launched the Inner Circle, man, wait, it was, the Inner Circle launched about the same time ClickFunnels launched, it was a decade ago, and back then it was the only coaching program, well, that's not true, we had two, one called Ignite that was $10,000, and one called Inner Circle was $25,000, those were the two programs, initially, right? And we started growing the first group. The only qualification to get in the circle back then was if you could spend $25,000, you were in, congratulations. If you couldn't, then you were in Ignite, you only spent $10,000. Nowadays, we like, you have to have at least $1 million to be in the inner circle. Back then, it wasn't that way. It was just whoever was able to pay came in. And it was really interesting watching that group. I know Stacy and Paul were in that group. You guys came in probably 2, a year or 2 into, yeah, 2017 they came in. And it was interesting 'cause like when that group started, everyone came in and everyone was at different levels and ClickFunnels had been running for 3 or 4 years so my business was the biggest and it was, it's always like a hard thing about that 'cause at first I'm like trying to share all these different things but a lot of times people like look at me and like, oh well you got ClickFunnels so it's easy, mine's different. And so it was weird at first, the first year or so it was kinda hard 'cause I'm trying to coach everyone And everyone's at different levels and they're kind of struggling. And it wasn't until I started seeing a couple of our people have a lot of success. The very first group, the first people that started having like really good success in our group was Brandon and Kaelin Pollan. And they launched a company called Tool Time Trainer. Do you guys remember Tool Time Trainer? None of you guys do. And then one of our inner circle meetings just like this, I was talking about building a culture that you could grow people around. And Kaelin was like in the plane flying home, she's like, I can't build a cult around Tool Time Trainer, 'cause her maiden name was Tulle, T-U-E-L-L-E. She's like, I gotta change everything. She's like, if I'm gonna build a movement, I'm gonna call it LadyBoss Weight Loss, and they bought ladyboss.com and they launched this whole thing, right? And they started growing, and I remember they were the very first people in our group to do $1 million a month. I remember they did $1 million a month and then they posted in the Facebook group, they were on a cruise ship, they're like, we just passed $1 million, everyone in our circle's freaking out. But what's cool is that everyone in the group is like, One of our peers is a million dollars. This is insane. As soon as they saw that they did it, then everyone's like, I think I could actually do it. And then they all started competing with each other. They started networking, talking, hanging out. Dave Lindemom, you guys know Dave? Dave, when he was Inner Circle back in the day, he— How many of you guys have done a call with Dave? And you guys been around him? Okay, so you guys— Is he here? Oh, I was like, is Dave here? He's a little crazy if you haven't met him. But he literally, when he joined, he's like, I'm going to call every single person in Inner Circle and just get everything from them. So he literally called all 100 people and like just did that and like took everybody's superpowers and kept adding to his business and it blew up, right? But what's cool is like the next meeting he came back and all of a sudden we had like 4 or 5 different businesses who all done over $100,000 that month. And I was like, oh my gosh, right? And then the next month, the 4 or 5 businesses did $100,000, we came back for the next meeting, everyone was like, everyone saw that $100,000 was like, that was the new, that was like the new standard everyone had. And so then everyone started doing it and by within Within 2 or 3 meetings, everyone was doing at least $100 grand a month, and there are people now doing half a million dollars a month, right? And then Brad and Kalen got there, started growing, and they kept doing that, and it started leapfrogging, and I watched as like all of the people in the room, like, it was like, what's the quote, like, rising tide raises all ships. Like everyone started growing together, and it was the coolest dynamic, and we ran that for 4 or 5 years, and then I took a break for a couple years before we brought it back, but that was the first time I ever saw that dynamic, okay? And so my goal, I think all of our goals in this room, for you guys to feel that same kind of thing, Spend time networking, getting to know each other, because if you start doing that, everybody will start growing together. If you leverage this network for that. If you don't, you can come hang out, have some fun, see some people, but the magic is what happens when you leave this event afterwards, right? One of my things my dad used to always, in fact, I remember the first time he told me this, my junior year in high school, I won the state title, and then at the end of the season they do like a banquet for all the wrestling team, you know? And they give awards out. So my dad gave my award, and I remember he said something that It still stuck to me, this little 5-minute presentation he gave. He said something, he said, if you look at like a champion, he's like, if you look at in the wrestling room, for example, he's like, everyone comes in, we're in the wrestling room the same hours every single day, same coaching staff, same moves, same everything. He's like, so why is it some people like become champions, some people don't, right? Everything's the same, right? He said the difference, he's like, the people who become champions are those who are willing to put in the extra 20% that nobody else is. They're the ones who stay after practice late, they're the ones who come in early, those are the ones who at nighttime aren't doing their homework, instead they're focusing on the moves, right? I struggled in school, but I got the moves down. And I thought about that, and then I got into business, I remember like that life lesson I learned from my dad was the same thing, I was like okay, everyone now is trying to learn business, we're all like studying stuff together, I'm like, I gotta do what nobody else is willing to do. And me, very introverted Russell, who hates talking to people face to face, and my biggest fear on this planet is phone calls. Like, there's nothing scarier to me than, like, when the phone rings, I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, so I don't answer the phone unless it's my wife. That's it. Because everybody else, if they're calling me, I'm just like, I don't know what I'm walking into. This could be a trap. They're gonna try to sell me something. I don't know how to say no on the phone. Like, and so I like, I just avoid, I hate phone calls, right? And I was like, if I'm gonna be successful, like, I have to do what other people aren't willing to do. And so that's when I was like, I'd go to these events and I remember I was like, The first group of events I went to were like Armand Mohren, he has this big seminar. I'd go to these events and it was so intimidating and scary. All these business people in suit and ties and they're all like professional, I'm this little dorky kid walking around, my shit buzzed, my head shaved, I had glasses on, I'm just like this awkward kid and everyone's going to the bar and drinking. I've never been to a bar before, I'm like scared to death. I walk in a bar, I'm gonna get drunk somehow, like I don't know what's gonna, I'm so scared of everything. Like this is 21-year-old Russell, scared to death of everything, right? And I was like, okay, I gotta get out of my comfort zone. Like I have to be willing to do uncomfortable things if I'm gonna get to the level that I wanna do. And so, I remember the very first time I went down to the bar and I was like so scared, 'cause I was like, I don't want people to see me in the bar, people are gonna think I'm drinking, and again, I've never drunk, I've never drank in my entire life, and I didn't want, I was just very scared of that. So I went in there and the bartender or whatever came up to me like, you want a drink? I was like, do you guys serve milk? And he's like, what? I'm like, do you have milk? He's like, yeah. I'm like, can you get me a milk? He's like, You seriously want a milk? I was like, yeah, 'cause like if you give me a Sprite, people are gonna think it's vodka or something, I don't know, I don't want anyone to think, so they gave me milk, so I literally was like holding a milk as I'm like networking with these people and everyone's like, are you drinking a milk? I'm like, yeah, I'm a Mormon, I don't drink. And they're like, huh. And like everyone started getting to know me as the kid that would walk around drinking the milk at these bars. And I got to know all these different people, right? And then they'd get more and more drunk, and the more drunk they got, the more they started sharing. And I'm like, they're telling me everything, I'm the only sober person in the room, like, I'm getting so much value out of this situation, right? And I got to know their names and phone numbers, and then I would add them to Yahoo Messenger, eventually Skype, and start talking to them, and introverted Russell could like chat with them through Skype, it wasn't awkward for me, right? But that's how I started doing these things, right? And then like everyone else would, again, I just became obsessed with this. I'm like, if I'm gonna be successful, I gotta do 20%, the 20% that champions do that nobody else is willing to do. I gotta do that every day in the business. And so, and at the same time I was going to college, I was doing all that stuff, but it was like that obsession is what fueled me help me figure out and be successful. And so those are some of the things just I want you guys thinking through as you're looking through here. Because we're gonna give you all the tactics and techniques to go from there to here, the different levels that you want to get here inside your business. But I think a big part of it is understanding that like the bottleneck in your growth is not gonna be the tactics or the skill sets, it's gonna be like in your brain. It's gonna be your ability to let go of the past, let go of the glory days, let go of the successes you had in the past, Humble yourself enough to be like, okay, for me to get to the next level, I have to relearn this stuff. I got to figure this out. I got to learn how to do it differently. Right? And it's tough, 'cause I think about like in high school, I took second place in the nation. Like I was really, really good. There's one guy that beat me in the nation. Everyone else I beat, right? And I'm going in there, and I'm going to college, and the coach is like, you're standing too tall. I'm like, what are you talking about? I've been doing this for the last 5 years. I beat everybody in the country this way. He's like, you're standing too tall. Your elbows are out, like all these different things. And it was so frustrating, 'cause I'm like, fine. I'm like, no, you don't understand. I'm a really, really, really good wrestler. It's like, "Yeah, but you're losing everything. If you want to become great, you have to give up all the crap you're doing right now and relearn the sport." I have to humble myself. It was hard, okay? Right now, again, in my business, like I'm coming back to that humbling ground. Like how do I get to the next level, okay? And there's a lot of different humbling. Sometimes it's humbling yourself just in a community like this. It's humbling to your spouse, to your kids. Sometimes it's humbling yourself to God. For me, I had a really profound experience, man, 2 months ago, 3 months ago, after a really stressful day where at the end of it I just felt hopeless. I'm like, I don't know how to like, what do I do? How many of you guys ever felt that experience before? And I was just like, I don't, I'm out of ideas. Like, I've tried everything. Like, I've got a basket of tricks that I use. I've tried every single one of them 100 times. Nothing's working anymore. I don't know how to like throw my hands up. And it was a Wednesday night, I remember, because my wife That night I got home, and normally I sit there, I talk to my wife, whatever. She was going to this church activity, so she left. I was by myself, and what did I want to do? I wanted to numb myself. I wanted to turn on YouTube and watch stupid videos to numb my brain out. That's like my default, I wanted to go. And I was about to do that, and I was like, if I numb myself out right now, I'm never gonna solve this problem. And so I turned my phone off, I put it away, I sat on the couch, I said a prayer. I was like, I'm gonna sit here until I figure out the next step. I sat there, I was like, I'm just gonna sit here for 4 days if it takes, I'm gonna sit here for a month, whatever it takes, I'm gonna sit here till I figure it out. I sat there and within 15 minutes, literally, like for me, revelation from God comes in ideas. And it was just like, there's an idea. I was like, oh my gosh. Like me doing what I know how to do over and over and over and over again was not the answer. Me getting to my next level was me humbling myself sitting down and waiting for an answer. And like the answer was not something I would come up with. It's not like, oh, here's like, this is the Russell playbook, we're gonna do blah. It's something completely different. I sat there, I was like, oh my gosh, like that's it. That's the next step. And I started running. That's the key. When you get the insight, you get the idea, you get the thing planted, step next step, you got to run with it. God gives a lot of people ideas and he looks for who's gonna be the ones who take those ideas and actually do something with them. And those who do something with them, it gives you more, it gives you more. And so for me, that's what it took, was me actually humbling myself to get the next idea. Now I don't know, this could be a wild goose chase I'm going on, it could be something that crashed and burned, I don't know. But you're all gonna see it on a grand scale when I launch it here in a couple months. But it's fun and it's exciting again, it's just like, it's me relearning this stuff and re-understanding and me understanding like, what got me here is not gonna probably be the thing that gets me to the next level. I gotta come back and humble myself and learn from people again and study and go to seminars and like, go as an attending, go listen, go like pay attention, go network with other people. And so for me, that's what I'm personally doing to try to be able to get to my next level. And so I wanted to impart that to you guys because that's what I'm sure a lot of you guys may be stuck on inside of your journey. So is that helpful for anybody somewhere inside here? Yeah? Cool. Cool. I'm grateful you guys are here. I love this stuff. My life was changed in rooms just like this around people just like you guys. Entrepreneurs who are trying to figure things out and trying to change their world and change the world of the people they've been called to serve. And just grateful you guys are willing to come make this trip out to Boise. I know it's in the middle of nowhere. It's hard to get here. It's the only place on the planet you can't get a direct flight to, I know. But grateful for you guys coming here.