My Backwards Strategy For Truly Understanding If A Funnel Is Going To Work

Welcome to Marketing in Your Car, the podcast for funnel hackers everywhere. You're now part of a small group of underground entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world through the products and the services that we believe in. But because we don't rely on venture capitalists, we don't have financial safety nets. So we have to do things differently. We have to do things smarter. We do that through an art and a science we call funnel hacking. This podcast will give you a glimpse at the daily life of a funnel hacker. So let's get started. Good morning everybody. Guess what today is? Today is moving day. I am so excited. Today is the day we are finally moving into our new office, which probably for you guys is like, who cares Russell, it's not a big deal. But this is a big deal for a lot of reasons. Number 1, we're moving to a new office and anytime there's change, like a pattern interrupt of your day, it's like a good opportunity and good chance just to radically shift everything about yourself. And so like I'm excited 'cause this is like a new, beginning, it's like a new birth, it's like a, I don't even know, but it's pretty cool. So, number 1. Number 2, I've had a lot of offices in my day since we started this whole internet marketing game, and all of them have been rented from people. This office I bought, so I own it. Well, not yet, I guess I got like 1,000 more payments, but someday I'll own it. But what's cool about it is it's our own, and then we bought this building, and then it was horrible inside, so we gutted the whole thing out and rebuilt it to be exactly what we want and how we want it. And so like, I'm sure you guys will see if you guys follow me on Facebook or anywhere else, we'll do some videos and kind of showing the whole thing, but it's so cool. Like on the outside we got a big old sign that says ClickFunnels, then inside you walk in, the sign's not there yet, but the sign should be there by tomorrow I think. Big old sign that says ClickFunnels, and then there's the TV that like, when we're doing events and stuff, we're gonna have like videos or audios like looping like what's happening. And then on the right-hand side when you walk in, there's this huge seminar room that'll hold up to, I mean we could have about 100 people in there, but comfortably it's about 70. 70 or so people that it's set up for and it's big and basically we're gonna do workshops there and so we were trying to do, actually so let me step back. I'm driving right now to downtown Boise because we got a certified partner event so I'm gonna be hanging out with 40 or 50 of our certified partners today while everybody else is moving stuff. So our goal was to get it done like last weekend so we could do the first certified partner event in there but we didn't quite make it. I guess technically we could've but it would've been weird today 'cause everyone would've been moving and then they would've all been there and it would've been just, You know, you first move into your house, you don't want guests coming right away, 'cause you don't even know where you're gonna sleep yet. So that's kinda how it is. And so anyway, but next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we have our first ever F.H.A.T. event. And F.H.A.T. is F.H.A.T., stands for Funnel Hackathon. So Funnel Hackathon, I think I mentioned this before, but it's this new, I'm really excited, it's a new type of event we're gonna try to do in our office. And if it works good, we'll probably do them throughout the year and start bringing people to them. But I'm doing a test run with our Inner Circle members. So that's happening next week. So we're getting everything set up and ready and prepared prepared for the first ever FAD event, which is exciting. But yeah, so that's gonna be happening at the workshop room in there. And then we've got like a big old kitchen. I think the kitchen can hold like 38, I think it was 38 chairs I counted. 38 people can eat at the same time, which is crazy. I guess it's a lot for the normal days, but I guess when we have events there, it's probably a little more. People can eat in the conference room as well. So we got places for people to eat, which is cool. Also, we always rent these kitchens and stuff to like film different products. Like we did a Wake Shake video, We'd rent this person's kitchen. We'd done other ones. So I wanted a kitchen that was nice enough we could actually film in it. So we got a nice backdrop, nice countertop. So it's set up where you can actually film in it. That's one of the cool things about this office. Our old office, if you guys ever saw it on videos, it's totally embarrassing. It was like so trashy and like, yeah, it's like, and I'm not like the cleanest person ever, especially when I'm in the zone, like working and creating. I got stuff everywhere. And so anyway, but it always looked ugly. It's kind of embarrassing. And there was nowhere to film videos. So I always had to go somewhere Our new office, we've got probably like, I don't know, 15 or 20 spots that we've created specifically like to look cool, to be awesome on video, which is gonna be really, really cool. So you should see a lot more new cool video stuff coming from us, and when we're streaming stuff, it won't look as lame, it'll actually look awesome. So I'm excited for that on top of everything else, and so cool, we have our own little recording studio. It's gonna have like all like soundproofing, that egg foam stuff so that like there's no, you know, echoes or reverbs. You can record webinars or audiobooks books or whatever in there, podcasts, which is gonna be really, really cool. I don't know, just tons of cool stuff's happening. So I, as you can tell, am very excited for today and the move is happening. But first I gotta get downtown Boise through all this traffic and go give a presentation to our certified partners, then I can come back and have some fun. Also, the new office has got a lot of bookshelf space, but not as much as the old office. So, some of you guys knew this if you watched me on Snapchat, it was kind of a sad day in my life, but we went through and threw away, man, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marketing editing courses, things that were no longer really relevant or I knew I'd never listen to or things like that. And so because I threw away most of my courses and I put the courses that are still relevant, we burned them all onto audiobook files so now they're all on my phone and my laptop and everywhere else but they're no longer on the bookshelf. So now it's just gonna be books there. So today we're bringing all the books over, I'm gonna organize all those, get them up on the wall and hopefully there'll be some room for new books 'cause I love books. Books are the coolest. And speaking of books, Saturday I finished it. I finished the last edits I got the last everything. I sent it to, I printed, actually printed out 5 or 6 physical copies of the book, handed them out to 5 of my friends, one for me, and they're all doing a really quick read through to see any last misspellings or typos or anything. But after that, it's done. And it was the weirdest thing. So Saturday I went in, I spent about 2 hours kind of doing the last, last, last thing, making sure everything was in there, making sure all the images were correct, making sure all that kind of stuff. And I remember like, when I got done and I was like, I'm done. I think I Snapchatted, I was like, I'm done. But it was the weird— like, I literally felt like I had this like 300-pound kid sitting on my shoulders and then he like fell off and I was like, I feel so light. It was, it was really interesting. I felt so light and fluffy and good. And like, so it's nice to have that, that the big old gorilla off my back, um, because that's been like one of those things that that needed to be done. In fact, my initial due date from the publisher was December 1st, and then I missed that date. And then it was like December 31st, I missed that date. And then it was like, we had to move our launch date. So we moved our launch date for the book to April 18th. And it was basically like, okay, if you don't get this book launched, or if you don't have this by the end of January, it's physically impossible to have it done by your launch date. So I was like, okay. So that's where we're at. So the last 2 months was like a nightmare. But now it's done, and like, and books, I don't know, If you've ever written a book, it's so much more permanent. I can, I'm not, what's the right word? I wasn't gonna say cheat my way through writing a song. I can like freestyle my way through PowerPoint slides and presentations and sales videos, all those other things. They don't have to be perfect or finite. I've done them enough that I don't need them to be perfect, but a book has to be perfect 'cause they don't have you being able to cover up the mistakes through a good story or through whatever, right? It is what it is. It's a standalone. You can't touch it when it's done, so there you go. But I'm excited, this book's gonna be so, so, so, so cool. Alright, so with that said, so I'm driving down to a Certified Partners event, so I thought a good thing to talk about today would be the other side of the funnel business. So I know we talk a lot about our own funnels and how you're one funnel away and that part of it, but I thought it'd be fun to talk about what our Certified Partners talk about. And if you're not a Certified Partner yet but you'd like to be, you should become one. I think everybody, whether you, you wanna sell funnels or not, should go through the Certified Partner training. It'll help you become a better funnel builder, it'll help you for yourself, it'll help you for, if you did have clients, whatever that is, but I think it's good. So if you are interested in going through, go to cfcertified.com. So CF, ClickFunnels, cfcertified.com, and there's a webinar there where I kinda explain how the whole thing works, but I just think everybody should go through it, it's worth it. So the groups are coming in today, so the way it works is you sign up for it, and it's like a, I think it's 12 modules, but you have to complete the first 8 before you're able to come to the certification event. So the certification events we do every quarter, and they're here in Boise, so anyone who's got the first 8 modules done are allowed to come to it. And certified event, we actually bring in a bunch of business owners and you have a chance to go and build funnels for them. And then there's a contest at the end and whoever builds the best funnel wins a prize, and it's really, really cool, but it kind of gets you the ability to do the whole thing from a client, right? Which is like taking the intake and finding what they want, What do you want? And then like, from there, figuring out the strategy, and then from the strategy, figuring out how to build it, and like, going through the whole process, and we typically make people stay up all night, like it's an all-nighter type thing where people work hard to get these funnels done, and it just trains you and teaches you how to like, how to actually get the project done, which is cool. But it's interesting that even if, you know, even if you're not doing these for other clients, you're doing them for yourself, like the process is still the same. A lot of people like, they start the funnel by jumping to ClickFunnels and start building, which is cool, but there's stuff you gotta be thinking through ahead of time that if you were working with a client you would. You'd be thinking like, okay, what's the goals, what's the strategy? Here's like all the funnel types we have, what should I do, what should I not do? And it gives you a chance to really think through it at a different level. And so it's kinda cool, but it's been fun watching our certified partners. Like some of these guys are making crazy, crazy amounts of money. And it's interesting when it comes down to what you're doing is you're taking a business owner off the street, on the street, right? And this business in the past probably has a website, they've probably got all these things they've been doing that none of them are making them actually any money. And you're saying, look, the old things you have don't work. There's a new way, a better way to do it, and it's through this process of what we call a funnel. And if you think about funnels, this was so interesting to me, is most businesses have a funnel. Yesterday at church I was talking to a guy who just moved in, he's a chiropractor, and he was asking me about what I do, funnels, and he's like, so it's kind of like a website. I'm like, well, I guess that's like, you know, if I'm like a basketball player, like, oh, you're kind of like Michael Jordan. Like, well, technically he's a lot better than me, but yeah, I'll take that, I guess. So I'm like, yeah, it's kind of like a website, but it's like, it's a process we take someone through. Like, a website's just like dead thing that's just kind of like, you know, I'm like, how much money did your website make you guys last year? Like, we don't know. Like, exactly, nobody knows because it doesn't do anything. You guys think it's useful and it's not. It's just But I'm like, if you shift it a little bit, you shift your thinking and you're like, look, websites are dead, this is the new future, the new opportunity is these things called funnels. And then you start looking at like, what's the, and in fact this is like what I do with any client I'm working with that's like an offline, especially like offline clients, like, okay, well what's the funnel you take people through right now? They're like, well, I don't know what that means. I'm like, okay, how do you get clients right now? And they're like, okay, well, first thing I do is I do this, then I do this, then I do this, then I do this, and so like, I'll draw out like a picture of a funnel. I'm like, oh, there, you just, that's what you did. Okay, so we know that that model works, and I'm not gonna try to reinvent the wheel. Like, how do we replicate that? Okay, if you're doing this, this, and this, how do we replicate that online? Like, let's look at that because the funnel you have is working now, right? My chiropractic buddy, like when he first started, when he started his practice, he struggled forever to get leads and then like the first thing I think that really took off for him is he put a, what do they call them, fishbowls in like a restaurant and it was like people put their business cards in to win a free lunch and he'd call them up and then he's like, congratulations, you won a free lunch to everybody who dropped a card in, right? The way it works is I get to come to your office for free, I'll bring lunch, but I get to give you a 30-minute presentation. Then he'd show up to lunch, feed everybody, give them a 30-minute presentation, do a pitch, close a bunch of people, and rinse and repeat. That was his funnel that he was bringing people in. It's like, hey, that works. Like, okay, so now we know that that model works, how do we replicate that online? Okay, well, you need to get lunch appointments for people locally that you can give them free lunch and whatever. So let's make that same offer, let's make a fishbowl funnel, right? Where it's like, hey, put your name and email address in here and you can win a chance to get me to bring lunch, and then go buy Facebook ads Facebook ads to that fishbowl funnel, get their contact, call them up and be like, congratulations, you won! And then go do the same thing, right? People keep thinking it's like this magic trick, it's not. It's just looking at the customer process. I've talked about this before with you guys. I don't know if it was like episode 1 or 250, so I apologize, they kind of blur together, but I remember reading the book The E-Myth the first time, he was talking about how every business has a system, and if you don't have a system, it means you do, but it's just a really bad system probably, right? Talking about how like, what's the system for a retail business when a customer comes in through the door? Like, what do they say? What do they say first? What do they say second? Like, looking at that process. I remember reading that book 10 years ago and thinking about the stores I go into and like, how am I being, like, what's the funnel people are taking me through when I walk into a store? And it's funny, like, my favorite store to this day is GNC, but I rarely go, even though I see a GNC, like, I'll like avoid it like the plague, 'cause I know that their system sucks when people walk in. I walk in, the first thing's like, hey, what can I help you with? And I'm like, duh, I just walked in, I wanna look at the bottles and read the back. And they always ask me that, and so I always say what everybody says, like, oh no thanks, I'm just looking. And then they, you know, and it's like, and then it ruins that first interaction. And it's like having a sales funnel where like the headline is like, hey, what can I help you with today? And you're like, I don't know, I just landed on your landing page, like, I don't know, I'm gonna leave, you're freaking me out. And then they leave, right? Like that's the equivalent of it. And so it's like, okay, well, how do we make this process right? Okay, well if I was a GNC dude, I'd come in and be like, hey, welcome to GNC, looks like you're looking for some cool supplements. Have you tried the new whatever power bars? I can give you a free sample if you wanna try 'em 'cause they are freaking amazing. And I'd be like, heck yeah man, I'll try a power bar. I'd eat it and be like, dude, that is amazing. What's the secret? He's like, oh well there's this kind of protein instead of this and this is the big thing behind it. And then I'd be like, so are you looking for proteins or what kind of supplements are you typically looking for? And then boom, he's opened up his question. First off, you built rapport. Second off, you open up a question. I'd be like, well man, I take all sorts of supplements. He's like, sweet, let's get a cart out, let's make a shopping list. And I'd be like, alright. And then I'd spend like $800 with him. Instead of the opposite where I'm like, oh, I'm just looking, and then I'm awkwardly like looking around and you can tell they're like looking at you like every time you're looking at something. Hey, so do you have any questions about supplements? Like, no, I'm just looking. And then like walk to the next section. Oh, do you have any questions about those? Like, no, I'm, duh, I'll kill you. Like that's what normally happens when I go to GNC, right? And so like, if I was a consultant for GNC, I'd be looking at that funnel, that process, every single interaction, like what's weird, what's not weird, what's awesome, you know, I'd be looking at all those kind of things and then figure out how to tweak it and make it so that it was smoother. And same thing is true with like websites and funnels, like for like 5 years I used to do all the Glazer Kennedy website reviews and I'd go to someone's website and every single time it was like this brick wall where it's like, uh, can I help you with that? I'm like, And there'll be 8,000 links on their page. I'm like, okay guys, like, I've been reviewing these things for 5 years. How are all your pages still horrific? Like, when someone comes to your page, like, that's why we have a headline. And like, what am I gonna say in my headline that gets them to want to give me their email? You're like, you gotta think through the process. Like, that's, like, that's the key. It's not, okay, I'm gonna use a book funnel for this one. I'm gonna use a blah blah blah. It's like, no, think through the process. Like, if you were coming here for the first time, what would What would be the path? Like what would they say to you that would not shut you down but would open you up? And that's what I'm thinking. Like when I build my own funnels, that's all I'm thinking about. Someone's coming here, like what's happening? Like where am I feeling resistance? Where am I feeling good? Where am I, what's creating curiosity so I wanna proceed through this process? What's like giving me too much and I wanna step back? Where am I being annoying? Where am I helping? You know, like that's what I'm looking at when I'm building a funnel. And like that's what you should be doing if you're working for other people. Is looking at that process and that's what you're thinking through. And if it's for yourself, it's the same thing. I had a friend that said that every month you should secret shop yourself. And I haven't really done that, but I think it's smart. Secret shop yourself and see what resistance people are, you're hitting into. In fact, Dean Graziosi, I think it was, told me that when he had his big seminar business, they were doing like $200 million a year, he hired a bunch of people whose full-time job was just to go and consume everything. So they went to live event, they signed up, they went to the next thing, and then they, just do the whole thing and spend all the money to go through everything in the process and then come back and be like, what things were awesome, what things were horrible? And so what he found from secret shopping himself was that people signed up for the event, they're all excited, and then they didn't hear from people on average about 6 days after the event. He said that that was what bothered him, is like it took 6 days to hear back. And they're like, wow, we need to get back to people immediately. So they shifted the whole business to where as soon as someone signed up for the event, the next day they got an email And when they did that, their cancellation rate dropped in like half, like crazy. And so it's like coming back to the process, like the funnel is just the process, right? The system that you're taking somebody through. And the magic of online funnels is the fact that we can perfect that. You know, with offline funnels, you gotta train the sales dude, you gotta train the person at every single store and every single GNC to not be an idiot and ask a good question instead of a bad question. And then when they wanna slip back to their bad questions, it's hard, like it's hard, right? But the cool thing about the funnel is that you can tweak that and perfect it, and then everybody comes through the same path path. And what's cool, just think about GNC. If they were to go to every one of their stores around the whole country and make that one shift, what would that do for their revenue? I mean, if they were able to instantly get every single person to follow the same script, I mean, I would not be shocked if it doubled their revenue. That may seem like crazy, but let's just, I don't think that's possible, I don't think that's that hard. But the hard part is getting 10,000 reps to actually do it and to do it right and do it correctly. That's the opportunity that they've gotta figure out, which is not that easy. Whereas with the funnel, like, there's one point that everybody's coming through, therefore you tweak it in one spot and it works across everything. And it's not hard to double a company's business when you fix that piece. And that's the opportunity, guys. That's what Certified Partner Program's all about. That's what these funnels are all about for yourself and for other people, like, is that you're just perfecting the message at each step along the funnel. And when you do that, it's like, what they say, like the small hinges that swing big doors, or the butterfly effect, whatever you wanna call it, like those little tiny tweaks can have dramatic impacts on everything else you do inside your business. So, I think it's pretty exciting. I geek out on this stuff, as you can probably tell, but it's just all about thinking through it, like how would you feel if you were going through this process? Where would your resistance come from? What would you be excited by? And the more you think about that, and then watch as other people go through and then watch what they're doing and make the tweaks and the changes based on that, the more success you'll have in your funnels. Hope that helps everybody. I'm almost at the Certified Partner event, so if you're there today, I'll see you guys. If you're not there yet, it means it's time to get certified. You or someone on your team should be certified. Everybody should have one in their office, so go to cfcertified.com, go get certified, and I will see you guys here in a little bit. Thanks everybody. Thanks so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at our funnel hacking projects. You can also watch the Funnel Hacker online reality show and watch us build and launch funnels live at www.funnelhacker.tv. If you'd like to come hang out with your fellow funnel hackers, come join our Facebook group at www.projectclickfunnels.com. Oh yeah, and don't forget, you can get a free MP3 player with the first 257 episodes preloaded at marketinginyourcar.com. Join us next time, and remember, you're just one funnel away from your dreams.