My Epiphany Bridge Origin Story

Welcome to Marketing in Your Car, the podcast for funnel hackers everywhere. You're now part of a small group of underground entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world through the products and the services that we believe in. But because we don't rely on venture capitalists, we don't have financial safety nets. So we have to do things differently. We have to do things smarter. We do that through an art and a science we call funnel hacking. This podcast will give you a glimpse at the daily life of a funnel hacker. So let's get started. Hey everyone, this is Russell Brunson.

Welcome to Marking Your Car. I'm at the office right now and it's been a crazy week. We had our first ever FAD event here in our office the last 3 days, which we were all night every night. It was amazing. But I also haven't talked to you guys in a while and I want to do something really, really quick because one of the big things we talked about at the FAD event was kind of 3 things. Day number 1 was cult building, I mean culture building. Day number 2 then was story. And then day 3 was webinars and webinar hacks and product launch sequences and action sequences and a whole bunch of other ninja amazing stuff. But day 2 was story day, and so we did this cool thing where we talked about the Hero's Journey, a bunch of other things, and I can't give you everything right now, but I want to give you one cool thing. So that is in the book that's coming out soon, To a Funnel Near You. Okay, so after I talked about the Hero's Journey, then I showed how we transitioned that script into the Epiphany Bridge script. And if you look at it, I wish I could show you I wish podcasts could show pictures. Anyway, looking right now, the way the script works is basically there's 8 sections. There's the backstory, then your desires, the wall, the epiphany, the plan, the conflict, achievement, and transformation. So the backstory is, what is your backstory that gives us a vested interest in your journey? And number 2 is your desires. What is it that you want to accomplish? And then inside of that, what were the external struggles you're dealing with, and what are the internal struggles you're dealing with? And from there you hit a wall. So the wall is the problem or the The— it says, what is the wall or problem that you hit within your current opportunity that started you on this new journey? Then you had the epiphany. So what was the epiphany experience and the new opportunity that you discovered? Then there's the plan. What was the plan you created to achieve your desire? Then there's conflict. What was the conflict you experienced along the way? And there's achievement. What was the end result you achieved? And then there's transformation. What was the transformation you experienced? So those are the process of telling a good epiphany bridge story. So anyway, I know it's hard to visualize that, but when you get the Extra Secrets book, you'll see the graphs and the images and it'll be all explained and you'll love it, I promise. But when we were here yesterday, or 2 days ago, or whenever it was, the event, I did an Epiphany Bridge story Facebook Live telling my ClickFunnels story. So I want you guys to hear that story, 'cause it'll go through all these aspects, you'll see them all weaved in, everything from the backstory, the desires, the wall, the epiphany, the plan, the conflict, the achievement, and the transformation. So I'm gonna get the audio and I'll plug it in here so you can listen to the audio of my Epiphany Bridge Piffany Bridge story, which is my ClickFunnels story, the origin story, the origin story about how I got excited about funnels and how ClickFunnels came to be. So I'm gonna play that audio for you right now and you guys will hear my Piffany Bridge story. So let me cut to that right now.

Hey everyone, this is Russell. Hope you guys are all doing awesome. So I'm here right now in a room of I think 48 or 49 amazing entrepreneurs. And you guys all see me good? And we've been talking about storytelling and like how to tell your story and kinda the origin story of where where you got started and what got you into what you're doing. And so I've been challenging all of them to go and do that, and I thought it would be kind of cool if I just told you guys my story. And some of you guys have heard pieces or parts of this, but probably not the whole thing. And so what I'm gonna do is just kind of share with you guys a story about ClickFunnels and why this, for me, became my new opportunity, the thing that I'm so excited about, and why I have so much passion. Some people say, Russell, you've been talking about ClickFunnels every day for the last 2 and a half years. I'm like, I know, 'cause I'm so excited every day. So, some of the backstory if you don't know. So, I got started in this business, I guess it was almost like 13 or 14 years ago now. And when I did, I was a college guy. I was going to Boise State University, which is just down the road from where I'm at right now. And I was like a wrestler, which means I wrestled and I had to go to school. So, I barely graduated. It was like barely. Like, I think my cumulative was a 2.1, which means I got a whole bunch of C's and like one B over like 5 years. So, it was kind of painful. But I graduated, which made my mom happy, which was pretty cool. But during school, as I was wrestling, I started learning about this internet marketing stuff. And you have to remember, this is 12 years ago, pre— you know, it's before Facebook, it's before Instagram, all these kind of things. Like, we had Google, kind of, and in fact, I don't even remember how we were driving traffic. We didn't have website, anything like that. I was using FrontPage. Some of the old-timers remember FrontPage. So I was creating these things in FrontPage, and it was pretty bad. So I was doing that, but I believed that it was possible. I saw people like— some of my mentors were Armand Morin and Alex Mendozian and some of these guys who were making money online. I was like, God, if these guys can do it, like, I'm pretty sure I can do it. So that was my goal I wanted to accomplish. Now, the other side of that I don't really share a lot of times was it wasn't just that I wanted to make money. That was a desire I had, but like the bigger desire is I had just gotten married to my beautiful wife. We're still married today. It's been almost 15 years this year, which is amazing. And I married her, she was working full-time to support me, her jobless wrestling husband. And I don't know about you, but like I was envisioning like when I got married, I'd be like the man, and I would be like the supporter. And it was honestly pretty tough for me, like, that she was supporting me and I didn't have anything to contribute other than like, I'm gonna go to school and wrestle and hopefully— and it was hard for me. And I remember like, I gotta figure out a way to contribute. I don't want her doing everything. And so that was like the real driving factor. Like, if I can— in fact, my goal was if I can make $1,000 a month, that would like match what she was making. We weren't making very much money at the time. And I was like, then like, I feel like I'm contributing as well. And so that was my goal. Like, I need to figure out how to do this. And I tried all sorts of stuff. I was trying eBay, I was trying Craigslist, I was doing stuff. I had like a $20 a month, which was like a big deal for me, I was excited. But none of the things really hit big. And about the time I started learning about information marketing, in fact I was at a post office mailing something I'd bought from eBay in this huge awkward box. I thought it was going to sell huge, and it ended up selling for like $1.50 or something. I lost tons of money. And then I had to post it, and it was a nightmare. I'm sitting in line at the post office next to this dude, who had a big box full of CDs, like thousands of them. I'm like, dude, what are you selling? He's like, well, I have one CD, I sell it and I burn it. And I'm like, so these are your orders for like the month? He's like, no, these are my orders for this week. I'm like, I'm doing the math, how much are you selling for? He's like, $67. I was like, oh my gosh. And I had this like, I need to sell information, like that is the future. So I started trying to figure out information, I started doing stuff. My very first product I ever created was a DVD on how to make potato guns. I'm sure some of you guys have heard this story before. So I started making potato guns. And it was working really, really good, but then what I was doing is I was going to Google and I was buying ads on Google and we were making some money back and forth, but eventually, I probably had, I don't know, 4 or 5 months of success and then Google changed their algorithm and it got really, really hard. And the harder thing for me was like during this time, like, it was me building things in FrontPage and I had to figure out how to like FTP pages and images and then how to go to PayPal and get the order button. It was like, it was super techy and I'm not a techy person at all. But after Google changed their algorithm, we tried some stuff and I remember One of my friends called me, Mike Filsaime, some of you guys may know Mike, and he said, Russell, I figured out how to make this whole internet marketing game work again. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, well, is your potato gun thing still making money? I was like, no, I can't break even, I can't make a profit. He's like, well, I went back to all my sites and I added these things, and he called them OTOs. I was like, what's an OTO? He's like, it's an upsell, a one-time offer. I'm like, oh. So he's like, I added these upsells and people started buying the upsells. And suddenly I'm making 2 or 3 times as much money from everything I sold. Dude, I can actually do that. So I remember jumping online, I was Googling like potato guns, trying to figure out like what would my upsell be, I don't know. All I had was a potato gun DVD, and I met this dude up in northern Idaho who actually made potato guns and drop shipped them. And I was like, dude, if I sell those, will you drop ship them for me? He was like, yeah, I would love to not have to sell these things. And so I partnered with him and I started selling DVDs, and people started buying this upsell. And it was the first time I had made a funnel, and I was like, this is a funnel, like, and that was like this new thing, and I was so excited. And so I had this epiphany like, this is the future. Like, if I can make more funnels, like this funnel's only making me like, I don't know, $20, $30 a day, but what if I had 2 funnels, or 3, or 5, or 10? And so I started going a little bit crazy, and I created funnels in the couponing market, which by the way is a horrible market. People in that market do not like to spend money, so I don't do that one. But I did couponing, we did dating, we did weight loss, we did network marketing, I've done diabetic supplements, we've done, and that's like the ones off the top of my head. I can show you guys, there's like a trail of thousands of offers, some that worked and a lot more that didn't work. But we were doing these things over and over, and my plan was like, if I had 10 of them, they're each making $100 a day, or $20, or $50, or like whatever it is. So I was doing this, and at first it was working, but like, the problem I kept running into was like, front pages for someone like me was hard, and I like, do these pages, and mine looked ugly, other people's like looked awesome. So then I had our designer, he would design these things. So I'm making front pages ugly, I sent him, he designed it, it looked cool, and I put them up. But then it was up and then I couldn't do anything. I couldn't touch it again. Like, I had one shot and then I had to like bug him. So then I hired like a web guy to go and like do edits for me. And then like I was just using PayPal and I couldn't do anything else. And so then someone like invented like a one-click upsell. So I was like, dude, I need that. So I had to hire a programmer to connect that to the next thing. And like it kept getting more and more complicated to the point where like soon I wasn't able to do anything. I'd just look at it and be like, change that. And then they try to change it and they didn't. I'm like, no, like move it over here. And then they put it in the wrong spot and like It would take days, sometimes weeks, going back and forth with the guys in Romania and India and everywhere, trying to get them just to move an image, make it a little bit bigger, or like things that were so common sense, but I couldn't actually do it. It drove me nuts. And about that time, one of my friends and partners, in fact, he may not be in the room right now. Is Todd in here still? Oh, he's already eating lunch, so he's already gone. But Todd was like one of my partners that were doing these things with me, and he saw my frustration. He's like, what if we built something where like— and the joke was like that Russell could actually like edit the website and actually could move things so he could quit bugging us all the time. And I was like, dude, that'd be awesome. He's like, okay, that's what we're gonna create. And that day we sat in front of a whiteboard and started mapping out what would it look like, how would it work. And so we mapped out this vision of what became ClickFunnels. And he went home and actually built it. And then it was funny, him and then another part we brought in was Dylan Jones, they were working, he did the editor. And they would build part of it and they're like, we need to make this so simple Russell can do it. So they'd do it and they're like, hey Russell, test this. And I'd log in and I'm like, how do I do it? And he's like, we're not gonna tell you, you gotta figure it out on your own. Okay, so I'd like do some stuff, and if I could figure it out, then like, good, we got it. If I got stuck, I'm like, I don't know what to do. Then like, hey, we didn't do it intuitively enough. So went back and forth and back and forth for probably 6 or 7 months, and finally it was a point where like I got it. I was like, if I can do this, like, then anyone can. And first it was just a tool for me, like that was really the initial goal of ClickFunnels. Like, I think it was Todd and Dylan were like, this way Russell will quit bugging us and I don't have to design his sites anymore or redo his headers, like all this stuff that was happening. And then after I started using it and I was having success, I was like, we have to make this a tool for everyone. It'll free all entrepreneurs, and like it freed me. And so because of that, I was able to start creating funnels quickly. I went from having 5 or 6 guys, and it would take us on average almost 2 to 3 months every single time to build a funnel, to where I was actually able to do it by myself in like an hour, an hour and a half sometimes, sometimes less, which was cool. And so the cool thing is like I was able to achieve that and have success. We started rolling out funnels like crazy. Some of you guys probably remember seeing a lot of them. I still do a lot of them because they're so much fun to do. But the cooler thing for me was the other side. Like, I was able to make money to support my wife and support my kids. Because I no longer had to spend 3 months doing something, my time to be with my kids is completely freed up. Like, I have a chance, I go home every day and play with my kids. I'm not like stressing out trying to like talk to programmers in India at 3 in the morning and like stressing all this stuff. Like, it just works. And that was really the biggest thing for me. And it's been an amazing thing. In fact, now my kids are using ClickFunnels. They're building stuff in ClickFunnels. It's like, not just, you know, for me it's not just a product, it's a mission. I'm seeing people's lives change. I'm seeing other people who had messages but they couldn't get them out because they couldn't move things around on this stupid page, well now like the power's back in their hand. And that's what fires me up is being able to help entrepreneurs and do that kind of thing. So that's kind of my ClickFunnels story. So if you guys haven't heard it before, I want to share that with you guys and to share why I'm so passionate about this. And you know, for me it's not just, I talk about this all the time, but like, It's not a matter if you're gonna become a ClickFunnels member, it's when, 'cause it's the only way to do what we're talking about. Like, the only alternative is to do what I used to do 10 years ago and hire guys in Romania and India and the Philippines and like have a team of 30 people to be able to move an image. Or you can just use ClickFunnels and it gives you and me, the entrepreneurs, the power back, which is awesome. So, I hope that helps you guys, and I hope you guys see why I'm so passionate about ClickFunnels, and with that said, I'm gonna check out, and if you like this, comment down below. If you have any friends who are like, what is that ClickFunnely thing? Share this to them, tag them down below so they can see why me, why I'm so passionate, and probably why you're so passionate too. So thanks, you guys. Talk to you guys all soon.

Bye. All right, so there's an example of an epiphany bridge origin story.

I hope that was cool for you guys.

Again, I wish I could show you the book today, but it's coming soon, so look for that in the very, very, very, very, very near future. And that's about it for today, you guys. Thanks, everybody, and I'll talk to you guys all again soon.

Thanks so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at our funnel hacking 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.