Overcoming Challenges and Staying Resilient with Andy Elliott

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What's up everybody, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. I've got a really fun, special episode for you guys today. I had a chance, man, last month to go fly out to Arizona and to go visit someone who's now become a really close friend, someone I really look up to and someone who I had, anyway, just a great time hanging out with. His name's Andy Elliot. Some of you guys have probably heard of him. The first time I heard of Andy, I saw a viral video that he had put out about if someone works for him and they don't have a six-pack, then they get fired., and had like 30 million views or something like that. I think I started following him initially from that. And then fast forward to a couple months later, I was speaking at an event in Salt Lake, and I think he was speaking as well, but it was interesting 'cause like, we got there and in the audience, and like running around the room, there was an entire army of people. They had these shirts that said Elliott Army, and they were his team, his crew, and they're running around, it was just like, anyway, just this whole group of people, I was like, oh, that's the dude from the ads, I'm like, there's his whole team, and it was just, It was cool watching this process and I was like, okay, that guy, there's something about this guy. So I started following him a little closer and started watching what he was doing and fast forward like 3 months later, I just hit him up on social. I was like, hey man, love what you're doing and just love to connect and yeah, get to know each other. And then he messaged me back a few minutes later and we started texting and what's interesting, fascinating story is that he, man, when Dean, Tony, and I first launched the very first mastermind product, he was working as a used car salesman at the time. He saw the webinar, bought the product, and then changed, basically started this business and started this brand and he's gone from not having a business to in 3 years, this year they did over 9 figures. And just to put that in perspective, the number of companies that I know in the info product space that do 9 figures a year, you can count 'em on 2 hands and have some extra fingers left over. There's not very many. And for him to come out of nowhere and in 3 years to be accomplishing that was crazy. And anyway, we kinda hit it off and then last month I flew down there Some of you guys who follow me on Instagram, you probably saw, like, I showed up, we show up in his Jeep and his entire team, 80 sales guys come out and they start rocking the Jeep. They pull me out, they start throwing me in the air. And then they walk over and there's 3 dudes there who strip down out of their clothes and they're wearing wrestling singlets, they roll out a wrestling mat. We end up wrestling out there. I'm wearing like a Louis Vuitton shirt, like my street clothes, and we're wrestling like in the Arizona sun. So by the way, I end up getting blisters on every one of my toes. Anyway, but I wrestle them all. I'm wrestling these guys, look up, there's drones in the air flying. I'm like, this is intense. And then the next 8 hours I was at their office was just like one of the most intense experiences of my life. I actually remember getting back to the airport that night and I was just sitting there like buzzing. I was just like, oh my gosh, I'm not used to that much stimulus for that long. And that's like the world that those guys live in. It was really fun, it was really fascinating. So, I had a good time hanging out with those guys. And before I left, we had a chance to do a really cool podcast interview and it aired. Couple weeks ago on their YouTube channel and it was awesome, really good feedback and everything. So I wanna share with you guys for a couple reasons. Number one, to help you to get to know Andy and his wife and just kind of what they're doing. Hopefully you guys go and follow them and someone who's really, really inspiring. But we also had a really cool conversation about a lot of things I don't normally talk about and so I thought it'd be really cool to share it here with you guys on the podcast. So that's kind of the setup for today's episode. Again, it's the podcast interview from Andy Elliott's office, him and his wife hanging out, talking shop about a bunch of really cool things. I hope you guys love this episode. If you do, make sure you go follow Andy on social. See if you can find the video about the six-pack abs. Go do some sit-ups and then, like I said, plug into what he's doing. It's really fun to watch him and his team as they are growing this company to huge levels. So, hope you enjoy this episode. I know I really had a lot of fun with it and thank you, Andy, for having me out at the Lion's Den. In the last decade, I went from being a startup entrepreneur to selling over a billion dollars in my own products and services online. This show's gonna show you how to start, grow, and scale a business online. My name is Russell Brunson, and welcome to the Marketing Secrets Podcast.

Hey guys, welcome to the One Percenter Podcast. Andy Elliott, Jacqueline Elliott. Jacqueline Elliott. Jacqueline, the cartel leader Elliott. That's right. And we got the man, the myth, the legend, Russell Brunson right here, okay guys? So number one—

Is it really Russell Brunson?

It's me, I'm Ru.

Yeah, it's really Russell Brunson, and guys listen, so number one, the last 4 or 5 years since I started my entrepreneur journey, His course, The Broker Blueprint 2019, with him, Dean, and Tony Robbins. First course I ever bought, spent 3 grand, and here we are a few years later, 9-figure business. I want, I want everybody to know this, all right? Self-development changed my life. It is the secret, right? It's not about what you try to achieve, it's about who you become that determines what you achieve. And I think there's a lot of people that want to win that are watching this. I promise you today I'll bring more value, Russell will bring more value, and Jacklyn will bring more value to you than we brought on any YouTube video since I've ever posted. I'm going to tell you why. I'm going to tell you why. Number one, because I had a talk with Russell this morning. He flew out from Boise, Idaho, which is where he lives, left his wife, left his kids to come out here. He's met our team. We worked out this morning. He's been out to dinner at our house last night.

He got quite the greet.

He wrestled my team today. We wrestled.

Literally wrestled. They're all in their singlets out there on the asphalt.

Yeah, you'll see. We had a killer day. But the coolest thing is that I want to go to a conversation I had with him in the gym, right? And we were talking about self-development. He's like, hey man, I want to create a self-development museum for, I don't know if you call it prime leaders?

Prime movers.

Prime movers, yeah, prime movers. People that are going to move this next generation that are going to really truly lead people. And the only way you can do that is to lead yourself. The first law in leadership is self-leadership, and then you can lead others, right? Yeah. And so I want to talk about self-development. How does anyone right now, right, um, go if they're not who they want to become, if they don't have the results that they want, if they don't have the lifestyle that they want to live, but they know they're capable more? Where, where do you begin? Yeah, yeah. And I began with my wife, she said, hey, buy the course. And I was scared, it was $3,000. I had no idea what sat on the other side. Matter of fact, I'll even say another thing, and because I wanna make sure I get this out there to relate with anyone, on my 29th day, I'd watched the course 10 times. I'd learned a lot. I was a new person. I asked Jacqueline if I could get my money back because that's how limited my thinking was.

You had a 30-day money-back guarantee on the 29th day.

You're like, ready to cancel all?

That's crazy. No, but I wanna tell you why, 'cause this is important, because a lot of people, they see like, oh, these guys got these big businesses, they're killers, they're doing badass stuff, and they don't understand that we were all once not that person. Right. Right, like I just need everybody to know that who you become determines the information, the experiences of the people that you're with, and the information really, and the people. And I learned from you guys all this stuff But I had this scarcity mindset that there wasn't, like maybe I needed this back. And by the way, if you don't give, you're never gonna get. I think the secret to life is giving. If you right now don't feel fulfilled, go give something to somebody, you'll feel amazing. I was gonna take back what you guys had given me. My wife, she said something really good. This is why you gotta have a good running mate. You gotta have a good partner. Now we're all together, we're family, we're brothers, we're gonna grow. She said, is that what you want? Is that how you want your customers to treat you? Your future customers when you build your business? So she's like, if you're not willing to invest in yourself, then no one's willing to invest in you. And if you're going to invest when these people, and then when they give their word and do a good job, you're going to go take back the money? She goes, that's the karma. It's a reality that you're going to have for the rest of your life.

So you don't attract who you want, you attract who you are. So if you are the person who refunds, you're the person who cancels, like that's exactly the client you attract.

Exactly. She made me break that weakness, and I, I obviously didn't cancel it because I do whatever she says, you know. Best decision of my life. That was a pivotal day that could have ruined my whole life, and because I stuck through it and I had the abundance mindset, I knew it was going to pay off. Self-development changed my life. So what I want to talk to you about today, obviously, uh, you built ClickFunnels. Everybody in the world knows ClickFunnels. If you don't know who Russell Brunson is right now, Russell Brunson on Instagram, right? I mean, he's got a million plus followers, but he's built a massive company, okay, that's taken over the world. It's called ClickFunnels. If anybody's going to start their own business, you're gonna sell a product in any way, shape, or form, you're going to use his product ClickFunnels because it is the best. Hey guys, what's going on? It's Andy. A lot of you leave comments telling me that you need help. Do me a favor, I'm gonna tell you the best way to get a hold of me. Shoot me a text message right now, 918- 210-0254. 918-210-0254. I'll help you with whatever you need. I got your back for life. Let's get back to the video. But I wanna talk about like your self-development journey, 'cause you know, you're a wrestler, you wrestled, I heard you downstairs talking about the day that you had your hand raised in a match, the way that it felt to win. Everybody hates losing. And there's a lot of people right now that are winning and kicking ass, and there's a lot of people right now that want to win and kick ass and they don't know what to do. So I wanna talk about our self-development journey. Right? Maybe talk a little bit about mine. Jacqueline can talk a little about hers, but I wanna talk about yours because you, you really intrigued me with being like, you said, I'm a collector of books. Like I try to get my hands on everything. You start and you start talking about like Earl Nightingale and a lot of these guys back from the old days and getting their manuscripts and they wrote their books. And I'm like, dude, whoa. No, but I was like, dude, like you're a real student of the game. Yeah. Like you're a real student. And so talk to everybody, talk to me and my wife, talk to, you know, our audience about like about your journey in self-development and ways that you've been able to educate yourself to build such a great life?

Yeah, I think for me it started initially in growing up in sports because that's like the first time I'd done something. Prior to me being a wrestler, I was just a kid who'd go to school, come home, watch TV, you know, that was all I would do. And then my dad got me involved in wrestling and it was the first time that like I had something, something to, to, to do and to be excited by. And I remember the very first time, I was in 9th grade and I made the JV team. And I remember going to weigh-ins and I get in the weigh-ins and I jump on the scale, I make my weight, next kid gets on the scale, the kid I'm gonna be wrestling. And the guy comes out and he's got a mustache. And I still to this day cannot grow a mustache. Like I have no facial hair. And I remember sitting there, I'm a 9th grade kid, I'm like, this is a grown man with a mustache, he's gonna destroy me. And he weighs in And I remember getting there and going up, you know, my wrestling was in the basement of our high school and then the mats were up in the gym. So we go up to the match and we go out there, we shake hands, we start wrestling and I'm going out there and we're flurrying this huge thing and I don't remember what happened. I just remember we got done, we stand up and I don't know if I won or if I lost and the ref raised my hand and I looked up and, you know, it was JVs so there was like 3 people in the stands. My dad was one of them. He's jumping around and I was like, this is the greatest feeling I've ever felt in my life. Like, I want this as often as possible. And then I became obsessed. And so that was the first time I ever had something that was like, all right, this is, there was like Russell before that moment and Russell after. That was the transition point. And I just became obsessed. And so, and I didn't know back then about personal growth. I didn't know like you could go study or read things. But I had really good coaches around me who instilled a lot of those elements. And then later when I got into business, the first thing that I leveraged like my wrestling career, like what I learned, the skill sets of wrestling into business, And those things started helping and then—

What were some of those things? Just a couple.

I think the biggest one for me is, and I coach a lot of entrepreneurs right now, and the biggest thing I see with entrepreneurs is like, especially those who never competed in anything in their life, like they have so much fear that if they fail they're gonna become a failure that they don't try. So they sit in this like learning loop where they're learning and they're reading books and watching podcasts and they don't do the thing 'cause they're so scared. And for me it was like, in wrestling, I lost all the time. We'd watch, my junior year I remember the very first match of the season I was like telling everybody, I'm gonna be state champ, it's gonna be amazing. First match of the season I go out there against the kid who was the returning state finalist. He beats me in front of everybody. I remember going to school the next day, everyone was like, I thought you were gonna be state champ, you lost to this kid. And I was just like, it was really hard for me. But my dad, luckily my dad, he filmed the match and he started like watching like what I did and where I was out of position, what the other kid was doing. And so every single morning I'd wake up, my dad would get me On the carpet, you know, I didn't want to be there. He's like, okay, we're gonna drill the move. And we drill this move and drill the move. And then after practice, we get done with practice, I see my dad coming in the wrestling room, I'm like, oh man. And we drill it again and drill that for 4 months. And 4 months later, I end up meeting that kid in the state finals and I end up beating him. And I learned, it was like, okay, if I fail, I'm not a failure. Failure's like the most data-rich source we have. It's like, it shows us everything and then we can go out there and we can do things. So for me, when I started creating businesses, I create something, put it out there, And I didn't know if it was gonna work or not, but I put out as quick as I could, and then I would just watch and see what happened. And then I'd see the failures come back and say, oh, let's tweak that, let's change that. And it's like, that's one of the hardest things though to instill in people that have never done that. They're so afraid of like losing their dream, they just dream out and don't ever do anything. And so for me, that was like one of the biggest aspects I brought into entrepreneurship and business for me was really understanding that.

Yeah, that'll save a lot of people's lives. Yeah. Make a lot of people make a move when they've been overthinking it. Yeah.

Right? Yeah, it's like worst case, yeah. And the thing is, especially online, like you put out something and it fails, like no one really knows. I've had people like, oh, I saw that offer, that was amazing. And I'm like, yeah, you did. And they're like, all right, they'll tell me like, I bought that offer. I'm like, oh, you're one of like 3 people. I didn't tell them that, but they have no idea. Like it didn't work. Like it completely bombed. No one else knows other than you.

Yeah.

It's just like, it's just testing things all the time.

Yeah, you judge yourself more than anybody.

Yeah. For sure.

Yeah, it's interesting.

So, yeah, I think sport, sports taught you to lose, you know, and then even like Jackie, she comes from a failed entrepreneur family, right? So like her dad failing a lot in front of her face, you know, like made her just be a risk taker.

Yeah. I wasn't afraid of failure because I could just fail and then nothing happens. Like you just start over.

Yeah. I came from a dad that, that worked at the same job for 30 years. So my goal was to like get a job and don't ever lose it. Yeah, right. Her job was like, dude, if this don't work, we're starting over.

Yes, exactly.

So we're gonna completely the opposite.

Interesting. So we have to break— well, some people right now, they need to break the way they were programmed.

Yeah, generational curses.

Yeah.

Do you think that you would have been where you are today without your dad like really pushing you to recognize failure and getting better through it?

Or—

I don't think so. That was a big— because like my— the instinct for all of us humans is not to go and like and to look at things and, you know, look at your failures and figure things out. He was the one that was just always kept doing that. And like, again, my junior year, that's what happened. And I remember when I beat the kid in the finals, I was like, such a, like, I remember driving home, I was like, this is crazy. I could do anything I want. I just gotta try something and fail, figure out where I fail and then just fix it and then do it again and do it again. And that was the key for me, you know, it was interesting.

So getting out of sports, you go through college, wrestle, getting out, starting your own businesses young.

Like, how did you—

like, tell us, talk to us how you studied and learned and what made you like attracted to that business.

Like, did you— did somebody else teach you that, or how did you come across?

So what happened, I told you, is my wife's, uh, 5 years old, 5 and a half years older than me. So we got married, she was working supporting me, I was still wrestling. I always had this like, I want to be the man, I want to support her, but she was supporting me, which I'm grateful for. But, um, but I was going to school full-time, I was wrestling full-time, so I had to figure out some way to make money. So I did what most people do, which went to Google and how to make money, you know, start searching. And there's tons of, anyway, for like a year I was just trying all sorts of things that didn't work. And then eventually I found some people who were doing really cool things. They were making these little niche products and they were selling them. And so at the time, my buddy and I, it was spring break, I remember we spent the entire spring break making potato guns. And I was just like, our wives were both working supporting us, and we were just like, let's make potato guns while they're at work. So we made all these potato guns, we were searching the plans online, and figured things out, and so, and that was like just a fun week we did that, went out and shot 'em that weekend, and then I remember afterwards, I was back in school the next Monday, and I was like, I wonder if anyone else besides us were searching for how to make a potato gun. And so I went online, and there's some sites you can use, back then it was called Overture, but you type in a keyword, show you how many people per month were searching for it. So I just typed in potato gun, and there's like 18,000 people a month searching for potato gun, like 12,000 for potato gun plans, all these different things. I was like— and there's nobody selling anything.

You got addicted to the data.

Yeah, I was like, no one's selling. It's like, this could be— maybe that's my thing.

Yeah.

So I called my buddy back up and I was like, hey man, we're gonna make a DVD, teach people how to make potato guns. He was like, what? He thought it was so weird. I was like, please, like, it'll be awesome. He's like, I don't care, I have nothing else to to do. So we borrowed a video camera from somebody and first thing we did, we drove up to Home Depot and he pulled out the video camera and recorded. So I was like, okay, next to all the sprinkler pipes, like these are the sprinkler pipes, this is the PSI you need. So all the stuff we learned the weekend before, we were making them, we just regurgitated and we took that. So we showed them how to buy the pipes and the barbecue igniters and just all the things you need to make a potato gun. And then we drove to Colette, my wife's work, she worked at this like motor shop. So we went in the back of the motor shop And we filmed us cutting the pipes and gluing them together and all that kind of stuff. And then we snuck into the university, 'cause they had, into one of the classrooms with the big whiteboards, we snuck in there and then my buddy filmed me and we were trying to act like we were so smart. We had all the formulas, like the barrel to chamber volume ratio is, and I'm writing it out on the board. Just filmed us making this, teaching people how to make a potato gun. And so that was the first product. We took that, I made a DVD, we burned it, and I put up a website and we started selling it. Selling it, and that was the first thing people started buying. And I was like, this is the greatest thing in the world. Someone bought something I created, and they paid me like $20 or $30 for this DVD. We'd ship it out to them, and that's kind of how the whole thing started for me.

That's funny, we started the same way with the DVDs.

I had a DVD burner.

Did you have the one on top and the 10 underneath thing for the first one?

We probably had the same one, and they can't burn them after you make them.

They can't copy them. They couldn't copy them. That's so cool. You're not going to pirate my DVD.

You can tell we're all around the same age.

That's awesome. I'm 44. 44.

Yeah.

42.

42. But yeah, I would burn the DVDs.

That's awesome.

And then the stickers, you put the stickers and put them on top of it. Oh yeah.

You would buy them.

Jackie was so good at all that.

And then I got the one that can etch actually the DVD.

Oh really?

I was really high tech.

I never had it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's awesome. I love it. You're jealous to this day.

To this day. But that's how it started. And then I shared the story with you guys this morning, but then I remember like I was trying to figure out how to sell these things online. And so I went to this seminar and I remember there was a speaker got up and he was like, I don't remember what he was talking about, but he was like, I tested a red headline versus a blue headline and increased my conversions by whatever percent. And I was like, huh. And it was the first time, because prior to that I didn't like studying or learning or reading or any, like I want to make money, but the rest of it I wasn't into. I remember he said that, so I went back to my website and I changed the headline or whatever, and sure enough, I had like a 50% increase in sales. And I was like, I just gave myself a 50% raise from one little idea. And then, like, a light bulb went off. I was like, I wonder if there's any other ideas. So I went to another seminar and I sat there for 3 days. I remember like day 2 and a half, someone said something. I was like, that's the thing. I went back, I applied it, and then I made more money. I was like, this is crazy. I learn something, I apply it, I make money. And then I was like, I wonder if there's anything good I'm good in books. So I found a book, I read it, and like 100 pages, and I'm like, there's an idea. Took it, applied it, made more money. I was like, this is insane. And so I became obsessed with that, just like scouring info anywhere, just looking for the nugget I could apply to what I had and see if I get myself a raise. And so I had this mantra, I was like, how do I get myself a raise every day? Every day, how do I get some race today?

So I'm scouring, see if I find a thing. Make the team.

How do I get myself a raise? TMR, Russell Brunson.

Just one thing. Just one thing you can pick from everybody. I love that you said that. One thing that I can learn from every single person I encounter that I can apply. Well, I mean, that, that right there will make you rich. You have a lot of people that go to seminars and go to places. If they just did that one thing, got one thing from every event that they went to, should they—

they'd all be rich. But I love that he said it because when you word it, how can I get myself a raise every day? Exactly. It makes every day for you to be aware of the—

it's true—

of the place where can you And you also mentioned another thing that you did, you multiplied it into like money. If I had a job, how many hours would I have done? And that was really cool that you did that as well. Like you picked that one thing, you said, if I translate it to a normal job, it would take me this amount of hours and I just changed the color on this website and they just gave me that much.

Yeah. Any other professions don't have to go back to school for 5 years to get double their, you know, whatever.

Exactly. Or wait in line for a rank.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, to move up.

Yeah, that's how you get there.

Entrepreneurship, you can just learn.

Yeah, instant upgrade, instant upgrade, just keep going.

Yeah, and people don't like that because they think that it's like fake. It's not fake, it's called self-development. Yeah, it's just real as it gets.

Yeah, it's crazy because like you can get— there's so much, especially nowadays, like so much. I mean, just this podcast is free, right? Like it's insane. Back then it was harder, but it's like there's so much stuff. And I think the biggest problem is people listen, they don't apply. It's like I'm actively listening with intent to, to like, not on every— I'm not going to apply everything. I'm looking for like, what's the thing that like, that's a needle mover, right? Oh yeah, that's the thing. If I grab that, like, I met the whole day today with you guys, like, I'm looking at all these things. I'm like, I've had 4 or 5 things. I'm like, that's like those 4 or 5 things.

You got 4 or 5, not just one.

Yeah, you guys have a lot of cool stuff happening.

So that's awesome.

I love that. I'm an overachiever now.

That's good. You've made a good teacher and a very good student. A lot of people are always just like, hey, I've They get that I've arrived mentality. Obviously you do very well for yourself, but you're always constantly looking at how to get better. And I think that's what keeps people excelling, which is really, really cool.

I heard someone one time talk about, they called it a teachability index. I don't know if he made it up or whatever, but he was like, when you're young, your teachability index is really high. Like everyone said something like the excited is that then the worst thing happens is like you go through school and then you graduate, someone gives you a degree and you're like, oh, I'm smart. And then your teachability index drops to zero. Yeah. That's, And the rest of people's lives, they stop there. I remember you said that, I was like, okay, how do I, I need to keep that, whatever that index, that window open. Because I look at, I mean, I love my kids. I got 18-year-old kids now. Like when I was 18, I thought I knew everything. Like, I look at them now, I'm like, I love them, but they don't know anything. You know what I mean? Like they haven't experienced it. And it's like, that's where most people, like 18, they graduate high school, they stop learning. Or maybe it's 22 and they graduate college, but then it's done. It's like, how do we keep that open? Because there's so much growth. And then you see the people who are, who are the hyperachievers. It's not that they're smarter or better, they just like are open, like listening and paying attention versus like, I know this thing, you know.

That's— they haven't arrived yet.

Yeah, that's good. This episode is brought to you by Venmo. With the Venmo debit card, a taco in one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking your rewards. Nice! Get up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash on your favorite brands when you pay with your Venmo debit card. Pick a bundle with your go-tos and start earning cash back. Do more Stash, get more cash. Visit venmo.com to learn more. Venmo Stash Bundle terms and exclusions apply. See terms at venmo.me/stashterms. Max $100 cash back per month.

Yeah, it's super dangerous to ever think that, you know, you've made it. And then people that aren't working very hard think they're working too hard, and people that are working too hard don't think they're working hard at all. You know, people that aren't that smart think that they're the smartest, and people that are super smart They actually are just looking every day for new information because they don't think they know enough.

Well, that's how fulfillment comes. Fulfillment comes from stretching yourself, getting new goals and setting different things and reaching things that you didn't know you were capable of.

Do you ever feel like you're just afraid somebody knows something you don't know and you just have to know it?

Oh, for sure.

Yeah. Like every time I, I have so many books. Okay.

So Andy and I, we don't fight very often, but when we fight over books, like you took my book. I'm not done with that. Like, hey, Quit stealing that. Like, let me finish it. It was like, it's the craziest thing.

She'll ask me, she's like, where's the book I was reading? I'm like, babe, I, uh, she's like, where's the book, honey?

He'll go, you need me to make the bed? And I'd find him like making the bed but hiding. You're reading my book. It's the funniest thing.

Well, listen, because I'll go to the seminar and I'll like drop something out of a book she was reading.

She was like, dude, how did you know that?

You're not allowed to read any of the books.

I'm not allowed to tell him what I'm going to talk about ever.

He's gonna rip you off because—

yeah, exactly. I told you I have photographic memory, so I remember everything you say. I'll never forget anything. So whatever she tells me, I'll remember it word for word, every story exactly the same way I was told it or read it. Crazy. And then I'll tell it. So before she'll go speak, she's like, I'm not— I'm like, what are you gonna talk about? She's like, no way. No, because you're going out before me. Yeah.

And I'll go back out like he said it.

If I go before him and It's a different story.

I won't even talk about what I was going to talk about. I'll just talk about what she's going to talk about. Exactly.

Yeah, two presentations just in case.

And anyways, but no, self-development's the way. So you started learning obviously ClickFunnels, you started learning internet marketing, right? How to get people to make decisions without really a sales coach necessarily involved face-to-face, right? Like people like to buy online, people go on Amazon all the time. But if somebody's got a product and nobody's saying yes to it and it's available for sale, that's a problem.

Yeah.

Then you're going to go hire a massive sales team, right? Um, and that's very expensive and it's hard and it's human capital.

Yeah.

What you've done is insane with your sales team. Like, it's interesting because, um, I'm definitely more introverted than you guys, and so— but I didn't use that as a crippling thing. I was like, okay, I don't feel as comfortable selling one-to-one. Like, how do I sell one-to-many? Like, what's that look like? And it's different.

That's how you scale too, sell one to a million.

Yeah. The funny thing, right, how many salespeople would Who works for ClickFunnels? I'm like, there's just one, it's me. Like, I do it all. But I do one-to-many, right? We do a webinar every single week where I have, you know, 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 people on a webinar, do one presentation, and I'm probably not as good as closing one-on-one on the phone, but I got 5,000 people, so I don't have to be. You know, if I close 1,000 of 5,000, like, it's a big payday, and I can do that every single week.

Okay, so let's go there for a minute.

Yeah.

Okay, you're extremely good at communicating, right? You're an introvert, so you weren't always that way, right? How'd you learn how to communicate? Because being one-to-many, you have to communicate your product very well, right? Let's talk about—

you have to understand, because like when you're talking one-to-one with someone, you can ask some questions, find out what their concerns are, and then you can resolve them. Whereas when I'm speaking to 1,000 or 5,000 people, I don't have that ability.

It's like, how do I— let's talk about that. What does your sales process kind of look like, um, when there's no back-and-forth dialogue?

Yeah, right. So yeah, I'll explain how it looks. So for me, it's like when I'm creating a sales presentation, it's typically 90 minutes long. That's the framework. There's 60 minutes where I am teaching and there's 30 minutes where I'm selling. And so during that 60 minutes, so I have to go and figure out what all their false beliefs are and I have to reprogram those false beliefs in someone's head, right? That's the whole key. And so the way I structure it is pretty simple. Like, um, the entire hour-long presentation is about, um, convincing that that the framework that I'm introducing to is the best way for them to get the result they want, right? So you look at like somebody comes into your world, there's a result they want. They want to make more money, they want to lose weight, they want to do whatever. And I'm coming saying like, I have a map. I've gone to this place before and I've got a map. And then they, we have to understand in the market there's 100 people. There's, think about the weight loss market. There's like, there's the keto map and the paleo map and the so many weight loss, there's a million maps. So my goal is I had my whole presentation is to convince them that the map that I have to the result they want trumps all the rest of them. Like, that's the entire goal. I'm not trying to— most people that make presentations to the masses, they're trying to convince people about 5 or 6 different things, and it's not that. My only goal is I convince you of one thing. So like, when I talk about ClickFunnels, you know, someone wants ClickFunnels or a funnel because they want to grow their company. So there's a lot of ways you can grow a company. You can build a sales team, you drive more traffic. So I have to convince them all the ways they could possibly get that result, that the funnel is the most important thing. So that's the number one, is that's the framework. And so when I start my presentation, first thing I have to, I have to tell the backstory about how I discovered this framework because that syncs with them. So I'm like, you know, I was just like you. I tried this, I tried this, I tried this, and none of those things were working for me, whatever. And then here's how I discovered the framework. So if it's backstory— so for me, if you watch my presentation, I tell the potato gun story because I started potato gun and then, uh, stopped converting because Google Ads got too expensive. So then I had an upsell and that became funnel. So I tell the potato gun story and I show that so that I tell the backstory. This is how I discovered, uh, what a funnel is. And I use this in all these other markets. I did it in speed reading, I did it in dating, I did it in couponing, I did it like all these other markets. And, and then I have clients that if this is— so I show all the proof that my framework works everywhere.

Yeah.

And then I'm like, so that's what I'm gonna teach you guys today. So that's like the first, you know, 20 minutes of the presentation. They're sucked in, they're like, this is great. Like, they know I believe it, but they saw the result. They saw that I got a new map to that result and they're like freaked out about that. So that's the intro. And then from there I transition to like, I'm gonna go and start teaching the framework. And so I teach it though, it's a little different. The first thing I do, and so there's kind of 3 sections. This is the first section of the actual content part of the presentation. First section is I'm gonna teach them the framework. So I'm gonna tell them like how I discovered, you know, how I kind of explain that framework again and then Step 2 then is I teach them the strategy. Like, here's the overarching strategy, what the framework is. And the third thing, this is where most people make mistakes, I do not teach the tactics. The tactics are the thing they're buying in the future. So I don't talk, I don't share the tactics, and then from there, then I share success stories of people who have used the framework. And so that's number 1. So by the time that section is done, I want them to be like, oh my gosh, like, I get it, I see the strategy, it makes total sense, like, I will, like, I believe that this is the the right map. And so at that point, a percentage of you, I'd say 50% of the audience is ready to buy right then, but the other 50%, like, they start kind of freaking out. So then the next part of the presentation is what people do after they hear the presentation about the map that you have, then the first thing that they're afraid of is like, well, that's cool that that map, you know, Russell can do a funnel, but I can't 'cause I'm not technical, or, you know, Andy can do that, but I can't 'cause of this. And so they start looking at themselves like they're not able to do it. So the next 15 minutes of the presentation is all about showing them that it's actually possible for them. So in ClickFunnels, I'm showing a demo. Like, let me show you, I just go like this and I drag and drop and it's so simple, right? Or I'm showing like, if it's sales, I'd be like showing like, here's 5 people I took off the street that were really bad at it and like, here's the script they follow, the thing, and this is how it works. And the goal is for them to be like, oh my gosh, like, I could actually do that. So you think about the presentation so far, I explained the framework, they're pumped about it, I walk them through the I walk them through it, they're like, okay, I do believe this will work.

It's applicable.

I actually believe I can do it. And then the third piece, and this is the last 15 minutes of the content, is their brain's looking for some other out. So usually they're trying to blame some external force. So the first is like, no, it's me, I can't do it. And they're like, I can do it, but— My wife.

Yeah, 100%.

I don't have time. And so then the third thing I'm teaching is I'm taking that false belief, I gotta tell the story that's gonna rewrite that false belief. So in my world, it's always traffic. Like, I believe funnel's the best thing in the world, I believe I can actually do it now, I don't know how to drive traffic. So I gotta show them like how simple it is to get traffic. In the weight loss market, it's usually like, here's the diet. It's like, I believe I can actually live this way, but my spouse buys cookies every single day and I'm like, my kids are always eating ice cream, like it's not gonna work. So I gotta address that. And if I can convince them the framework's the right framework, this is the map they need, they could actually do it, there's no external forces holding them, then they're in. And then after that hour's done, now I transition to the pitch. And that's what I do. And so it's simple, but it's, But it's understanding psychology, that's what we have to break. It's breaking all those false beliefs. If we can do that, then at the end of it, they're just waiting like—

How long did it take you to figure that out? Like it seems like it's something that you're constantly evolving at, right? But how long did it take you to figure that part out?

It took me a lot. So my background is after the potato gun thing, I went to seminar and I remember this is back when they used to do seminars like multi-speaker And every speaker would speak and sell. I didn't know that's how it worked. So I went to this first seminar. I'm like this young kid in college. I had glasses and a shaved head. And I'm sitting there like taking notes. And the first speaker gets up and he talks for 90 minutes. And he pitches something. And I'm like so confused. And everyone's jumping up running to the back of the room. And I was like, what's happening? I think it was a $2,000 thing he sold. And they're running to the back room. I remember looking back and I was doing the math. I was like, 2, 4, 6, 8. I'm like, that guy made $60,000 in 90 minutes. I was like, what in the world? Next guy gets up to speak, he starts speaking, he sells a $5,000 thing, and people start running to the back. Same thing, I'm looking back, 5, 10, 15, 20. I was like, he made $120,000 in 90 minutes. And so the next speaker, and I was like, I was like, I'm scared enough to talking to people, but this is a skill set. If there's a human being who puts his pants on the same way I do, who can stand on stage and in 90 minutes make $100,000, like I have to learn the skill, right? Whatever it takes. And so that became like, this is the skills that I have to learn.

What did you study to help with that?

So initially, I did what a lot of people do. I was like, oh, I can do this. And so I got invited to speak at an event. I remember getting there and I did my first presentation. And then I remember thinking like, oh, these speakers don't know what they're talking about. I taught the best stuff. I'm like, I'm gonna blow their minds. And then I remember I did my pitch at the end and I was like, I'm not gonna insult you guys like the other speakers are. This is the price. That's what it is. Go buy it in the back of the room. And then nobody moved. It was just like that awkward crickets. I was like, I'm standing on stage, you know, and there's people, nobody's moving. And I think normally they turn on music at the end. The guy didn't turn music on because he didn't know what was happening. And I stood there like, so kind of awkwardly walked off stage. It was so embarrassing. I remember, I remember like I walked off and I ran to my hotel room and I was there for 2 more days for the event. I stayed in the hotel room. I sat there eating. I remember ordering room service. First time in my life I ordered room service. For 2 days I ordered coconut shrimp and Häagen-Dazs ice cream watching movies. I was like, I'm never gonna speak again. This was the worst thing ever. I was like, I'm never gonna do this again.

You said nobody moved in the music.

It was the worst. It was like, especially as an introvert, I was like, now what do I do? How do I get off the stage, out of this room?

Without anybody seeing me.

No one's clapping, they're all just sitting there looking at me. It was bad. And so I swore I would never do it again. And then a couple months later I went to another event and I saw it happening again. I was like, there's gotta be a way. I started finding the people who were good at speaking. I was like, how are you, like, what am I doing wrong? And they're like, oh, you think this is about teaching. It's not. This is about breaking their false beliefs. Like, you come in and show them all this stuff. It's like, you can't serve someone in 60 minutes. Like, you cannot give them the tactics they need to be successful. That's not your job. Your job is to prove that they can actually do it and then take that conversation separately. We can actually work with them. And they told me that. And so I started I started trying to understand that and then I made my next presentation and I remember I asked a bunch of speakers, I got feedback and I did a presentation. That time I remember I sold 6 people at $1,000. I was like, 6 grand, like okay, this is working. Start somewhere, yeah. And then for the next 3 or 4 years I was on the road once a month speaking at some event and I would always go the day before and I'd listen to every single speaker and I'd just sit there and watch them. I was like, what do they do? How are they doing it? I watched how some speakers were really good at NLP and they would use commands. Some people are very hypnotic, they use hypnotic language. I saw some people have the anchor stage in the back of the room and all these things. I was just taking notes on everyone that would model them. And I would do my presentation again and all of a sudden I would make more money. And then every time I would give a presentation I would save the PowerPoint slide, I would put the new date on it, and then I would make tweaks. I would do it again, do it again. And so it was like 4 or 5 years of doing that a couple times a month and it just kept getting better and better and better. And then 2008 hit and live events disappeared. Like they were just gone overnight. And so I was like, well, I guess I'm retired as a speaker 'cause it was over. But then people were doing teleseminars. Were you guys around during teleseminars? It's just pre-webinars. It's like you promote a phone number and everyone would call in and they'd listen in. And you had no idea how many people were listening. You just knew that I told them the call starts at 9 and hopefully they're there. So you do this, you talk for an hour to yourself hoping that someone's there and then you'd sell them something and you just look to see if anyone bought. And I was like, oh, somebody bought. And people would buy. And so I started doing those and it was really weird 'cause you never see anybody. And so it's like I got really good at pretending like I'm standing in front of an audience even though it's me on my phone in my house. Just 'cause like, and I got really good at that and then eventually it morphed to webinars. And then we did webinars for a long time and just kept getting better and better. And when events started coming back it was cool because all the old dudes who I was learning from had all retired when events ended. And then like they started coming back again and I was like, I'm the only one that knows this stuff. I have a skill set. This is crazy. And I started going to events, started speaking, and then I remember I went to Grant Cardone's, his first 10X, maybe second one. He didn't know who I was, and I got on stage, and all the speakers were selling, and it was just a nightmare. No one's closing anybody, it was embarrassing. So I got up there, and I did it my way, and I remember, 'cause I asked Grant, I'm like, I need tables with papers people can fill out the forms. He's like, you don't need any tables. So I had Alex and Leila Hermosi had a box of order forms, on one door and Dave Woodward, my partner, had a box of order forms. They had a handful of pens. I did my pitch and we freaking closed half of that room. People were running, they were handing out pens and throwing them. Grant came over afterwards and he was like, I've never seen that in my entire life. I was like, I know, no one knows how to do this anymore. It's a dead art. A year later, took me to the Big 10X and we did $3.2 million in sales in 90 minutes, set a world record. Now we've trained people in every market you can dream of, like how to do pitch and it works everywhere. It's flawless. We call it the Perfect Webinar because it's perfect. It's just, it's a script. It's awesome. The psychology behind it is just, it's really simple.

I love what you said about killing their limiting beliefs, right? You said like step 1 is you first of all, you have to attack everything in their life that they believe is real that's not real.

They have so much resistance coming into it. I'm sure same thing as you're doing on the phone, right? Like there's a reason why they're not doing I'm doing this and it's like something, you have to rewrite that belief. And so it's me, I have to tell a story in a way where my story trumps the story they're already telling themselves. They already have stories, it's been in there for years. I gotta tell a story that trumps it. Like I think about this, we wrote a pitch for the network marketing industry one time and like the story of the people who hate network marketing is like, I tried before, I called my friends and family and my mom and dad and they all hate me. So they had this story of like, no, you lose all your friends if you're network marketing. Wrote in the presentation, wrote a pitch about how like, how the guy who was doing this, he built this huge network marketing company, never talked to one of his friends. It was all generated leads online. And I showed like, like, no, you don't actually talk to people. Like, these people actually will fill out a form, raise their hand saying they're interested in information, and they call them and they sign them up. And like, as soon as I tell that story, they're like, oh, that story disappears. Like, there's a better way. I didn't realize that's the thing. And also now they're open. Yeah. But until I show that story, they're not going to be open because they're fighting me about—

Yeah, talking to people who are requesting information isn't a problem.

Oh, so yeah, they're raising their hand.

They're raising their hand, but wearing their family out. Yeah.

So every time I'm doing a presentation, that's the question. Like, what's the false belief they have? And what's the story behind it? Why do they believe that? Okay, what story do I have that can trump that story and break the false belief and rewrite it with the new belief they need?

It's crazy. It's cool shit.

Thanks.

And then here we are.

Common ground right there.

Yeah. Yeah, and you've— You've got 5 kids. Yeah. You're married. Yeah. Right?

For 22 years. 22 years.

Yep. 22.

Going strong.

That's good. You graduated in your 18, 17?

From high school?

Yeah.

Yeah.

17, 18.

And then you went to college.

You went on a mission after college or after high school?

So, I went to, so I graduated high school and then wrestled 1 year at Brigham Young University and then went on my mission for 2 years in New Jersey. And then BYU dropped the wrestling program. I was gone, so I came back, went to Boise State, and finished my career there.

Yeah, I love that. So you were in door-to-door sales?

Yeah, door-to-door sales, selling religion.

I tell a lot of people all the time, like, sales is so good for you. Yeah, it's so good. A lot of people see you as a businessman today, and they know you work with technology and all kinds of stuff. You're a great sales guy. That's what you are. You're a great sales guy. Yeah.

And And he never gave up.

Yeah, and I think that, you know, when you went to be a missionary, right, in New Jersey, you know, you're selling a very hard product. You're selling religion. You're telling people to give up everything in their life.

I was telling you last night, the pitch was like, you have to give up alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, all premarital and extramarital sex, and 10% of your income for the rest of your life. In exchange, you may get salvation if you don't mess up. Like, that's the pitch. Like, That's the hardest thing in the world to sell. That's why you look at like the greatest salespeople are all Mormon missionaries. Like they're selling Cutco knives, they're selling pest control, all this stuff so easy next to what we cut our teeth on.

And I see that. I see these guys making $1 million, $2 million, $3 million a year. And a lot of them, they learned it in their missionary and a lot of them went overseas.

They became resilient. They're used to getting the door slammed in their face.

They even had to learn a new language.

And then selling in a different language.

Yeah, but you said you went to Jersey, New Jersey.

It's a whole different language there.

Well, I mean, you went from people being super loving, everybody waving at you, to being like throwing the finger at you.

Flipping you off, yeah, it was a whole new world. And it comes back to the whole failure thing though too, right? The first couple days I'm out there, people slam the door, I'm like, oh my gosh, they hate me. And eventually I realized, they don't hate me, they hate the message. This has nothing to do with me, and I was able to disconnect myself from that. A lot of times people struggle with sales because they get in the fear of like, oh, if they reject me, they're rejecting me. It's like, no, they're just rejecting the offer, the message, not you. And then when you can disconnect from that, then at least for me, it became fun. Like, we're knocking on, you know, thousands of doors every single day, and it's like it became a game. Like, who can we start a conversation? Who can let us in the door? Who can we actually help and serve in it? You know, but when you can disconnect yourself from the outcome, it makes it way better.

You didn't take it personally, and it became a numbers game then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. So, some skills that you would tell, right, like that you think are super important for anybody to be successful. You know, this is like, this is like value city today. Like, what are some skills that you think someone needs to know? I mean, like clearly mastering a stranger. Yeah. Right. Being able to say hello, say hi to people. You're an introvert, yet you're knocking on people's doors, right? Yep. So like, I think mastering a stranger would be one. What are some What other ones you can think of?

I think, like, so we do our big event every year and we have 5,000 people at it and every time I'm about to go on stage, I get the nerves, anxiety, all kind of stuff, right? I remember I was like, every time, and it's like, eventually I thought I would grow out of that, right? I get so nervous, so nervous, and I remember before I went out, one of my friends, Annie Grace, she's like the number one person on the planet helping people overcome an alcohol addiction. She's insane. Her mind is just so cool. But she told me right before, she saw me how nervous I was, and she's like, how you feeling? I'm like, I'm nervous. And she's like, do you realize that inside of your body, the chemicals and the feeling, everything that's released when you're nervous is identical to when you're excited? There's no difference. The only difference is the meaning you're attaching to it, from excited to nervous. And so she's like, next time, instead of saying I'm nervous, say I'm excited. And so I started doing that. It was crazy. Like, literally, I feel feels exactly the same. I was like, I'm excited, I'm excited, and then you get more excited, you're just like, that's crazy. So I think that as a skill set, like I'm nervous about calling, I'm excited about this call, like just the meaning you attach.

Mind control on your own thoughts.

It shifts everything, yeah. It's so simple, it's basic thought control.

The positive outlook on it.

Yeah, I think that's such a big skill set. I think fear is what keeps most people from doing everything. Like every single day we have these two options, there's faith and fear, faith and fear, and they're always just like this tug of war against ourselves. And some days we give into fear, sometimes we give into faith. And it's just like, the more times you can overcome fear and go into faith, like, that's how you level up every single day. But it's so— that's the battle, right?

What are some things you think you need to stay away from? If you want to make it, stay away from these things. Yeah. Like, some things that— some decisions you've made by maybe doing them wrong and then learning, like, don't do that. Trust me, I did it. Or like just to say, "Hey, I didn't do it, but I watched a lot of people do it." What are some things?

I think the biggest one, I see this all the time, is just what you put in your body. Like alcohol, smoking, drugs, even like little ones, even like caffeine. All those things we put in our bodies, they give us an effect. Like, you become dependent upon it and it's like, it's crazy. I don't know, I've met so many insanely talented talented people who drugs and alcohol takes away these things. And then like, sometimes like, oh, I smoke weed, I get more creative. I'm like, yeah, but you lose your desire, you lose your edge. And like, maybe you feel more creative, but now you lose— like, it's just like those things always take more than they ever give. Um, the most successful people are the ones who are— that I've ever seen— the ones who don't do that, especially long term. Um, so I'm a big believer in that. I try to protect myself, my mind, from those kind of things. Um, I think The biggest problem people have, one of the biggest problems is people are skeptical. I've never in my life met someone who's skeptical and successful. They don't go hand in hand, you know what I mean?

They're not risk takers.

Yeah, so it's like, people are like, oh, I'm skeptical about this. I'm like, I know exactly where you function your entire life because, yeah, people who are skeptical are never successful. So it's like, yeah, sometimes you'll get burned, but I'd rather get burned one time out of 10 and actually progress moving forward versus the opposite side where you never move because you're so afraid of it. Fear of faith. It's like, ah, I'm going to do my best, make the best decisions, and I mess up a lot. I'm sure you guys do too, right? Yes. You bring on the wrong partner or the wrong person or whatever. But the fear of not doing it is almost worse.

It's true. It is worse. It is worse, for sure. Doing nothing is a lot worse. Yeah. We're very similar in our journeys. I think the more you talk, it's crazy how, you know, we identify so much with what you're saying. It's just crazy. It's awesome.

Um, what about God? I say about God, like, that's an important piece, right, for you? Let's talk about that for a minute. Yes, because I think that's important to share with people because that's a foundation in our life, and I know it's a big part of yours.

A lot of people hide that, and I don't think that to you I think it's so important, and to us it is as well. So it's like, why not?

Yeah, let's talk about it.

Yeah, so for me, it's interesting. I had a really good coach, luckily, who pointed this out to me, but my whole life I thought there's like, here's me, like Russell doing his business, his mission, whatever you call it, and then there's like Russell who's spiritual, and like these are two different worlds. Like, they did not— they're different things, different parts of my life. And once I had this coach, and it was interesting because she was talking to me. She's like, you don't see it, do you? Like, see what? She's like, you don't really— like, you don't see that like what you're doing here is 100% connected with what your spiritual mission is. Like, it's the same thing. Yeah. I was like, what are you talking about? I help people build funnels. She's like, no, no, no. She's like, you help people make money. I'm like, yeah, make money. She's like, you're saying like when people make money, then they're able to like not have the stress, anxiety of like trying to survive, and then they can grow, they can help people, they can serve, they can do things. She's like, it's like what you were doing is something God wants you to do because releasing people so they can be the people they're called to be. And that was the first time I ever connected those two things together. And the more I thought about it, I was like, what I realized and what I believe deep in my heart is like every single person who comes to this planet is called to serve a group of people. And based on our circumstances, our trials, our errors, our mistakes, all that kind of stuff, it's like there's a group of people who are specifically called that we are supposed to be serving.

Right?

And so for me, it's like, I know who my people are. They are, I call them my funnel hackers. But they're my people, that's who I've been called to serve. And I think everyone's got that. And most people don't ever pursue that, but we all have that calling. And scripture says many are called, but few are chosen, right? Like, why are they not chosen? It's 'cause they're not willing to step into that. I think we all feel that, we feel that pull, and most people don't follow. So for me, like, I'm a strong believer now to my core that like, God, like, this is a calling from God, that these people I've been called to serve. And then what's interesting inside of that is, is, and this is the thing a lot of people who try to serve people, they struggle with, is like, "I'm trying to serve people, but some people aren't listening, or they're angry, or they're mean to me, or they talk trash." There's all that kind of thing. And I remember I was struggling with that too one day, and I was reading the scriptures. Christ was talking, and he said that, he said, "My sheep will hear my voice, and will be one fold with one shepherd." And I remember thinking that, I was like, think about with Christianity, Christ was there, he put his words out into the world, and his people found him, and they followed him, right? And that's been happening for years. For us, it's the same thing. It's an eternal principle. We put our words out there, and then our sheep will find us. People we can call discernible will find us, if we're willing to put our words out there. Which is why podcasting, video, all this stuff is actually really, really important, because it's you being able to gather your sheep. And it doesn't mean that you're going to gather everyone. Like, there's people that are not my sheep. You go into Google and go 5 or 6 pages down, those people are not my sheep. They hate me. They don't like— there's people that don't like me. I understand that. I'm okay with that. But like, my sheep, like, they hear my voice. And so it's like, all I gotta do is I gotta keep putting my message up, putting it out there, putting it out there, and my people will come to me. I think that's the biggest thing. So for me, it's like, like, what we're all doing is bigger than I think any of us actually realize. So it's like, but yeah, and so like, my biggest fear now is like, I don't want to someday, you know, when I return back to God, he's like, dude, like, you could have done so much more. Like, There's these people, you're super out there and you quit or you stop doing it. Right. I ask all the time, like, why are you still doing this, Russell? Like, you've been doing this, you know, I'm 22 years in this business now. Like, you don't need it for the money. I'm like, yeah, it's, it's this like constant for me. It's just like, yeah, I have a calling. I got to figure out how to serve them.

So that's— I love, I love how he, how he says that though. It's like, you know, we talk about being one-dimensional and really focusing on business. Like it's in everything. It's in It's in your belief in God, but it's also in your marriage. You don't— we don't separate any of that. We are who we are and we grow everything at the same time, you know, with our people and everything. So it's really all one unit. It's all one unit. And that's how you really have sustainable growth, because we've made money, lost money, we weren't on the same page. And then, you know, things happen. But I mean, you don't have— we don't have actor switches where we're like, hey, we're going to show up to work and we're going to act this way and then turn it off and be different. No, if you really love what you do, and you really believe that you're fulfilling a calling from God and you're helping people, I mean, you're gonna share it with everybody. Yeah. And it's pretty awesome that you do that.

So I think that's cool watching you guys. Like, I've never seen anyone do as well as you guys with like putting your family and your kids and the company. Like, just me coming here, I was like, this is like all your kids.

It's insane.

Like, they are our kids.

It's awesome.

Um, it's really magical. It's created—

well, we always say like, if you can't find it, build it.

Yeah, yeah.

Build it. Yeah, like, like, you can build it. You can do whatever you want if you can think about it. Like, we're visionaries. I mean, everybody's a visionary, but like you said, most people see a dream and they don't do anything with it, so they just hold on to that dream and then they don't do nothing. Then one day they're going to regret. And, uh, me and Jackie, you know, you can think about what you've been through and think, what were the good and then what was the bad? And then we thought, man, how do me and her function the best? Out of love. And love is Christ-like, but love love. Like, it's all love. Like, me and her, we have— we feel no stress when we're left. When me and her are close, we have no worries. Like, dude, when we're separated and then there's a problem, it's like it eats us alive and makes us sick, and it becomes a bigger problem as well.

It's like you're, you're talking about the people that don't like you or whatever it is. We focus on those people. We're not doing enough to actually change. So it's like we're talking about stress. Like, I used to stress out about a lot of silly little things until I got a lot of stuff to do and then those things were nothing. You just become adaptable. So it's all about—

Plus when we stay close, I mean like, so our team, the more, the closer that we all are, the more powerful we are, right? And I think that's the key, man. I think like building your unit, building your people you're going to do life with. And I collect people. So people may say, well, that's weird. No, no, it's actually I'm not worried because like I know who I need around me. I know that I need— look, one friend in my life right now is dying out, and I don't mean like physically dying. I mean they're giving up, they're stopping, they quit believing, they don't want it as much. I don't know, they're full. Did I wake up— I go to bed, you know, exhausted. I wake up starving. I mean, I'm, I'm ready. I want to empty my tank every day. I don't want to waste any time. If God hasn't made me sick, if I'm healthy and I'm alive I think it's disrespectful to sick people for me not to give it everything that I have.

And that's how you have your purpose too. Like you fulfill, that's how you find fulfillment and purpose in life.

Yeah, so you gotta get around people that are psycho, you know, like we were talking about psycho competitors all day. Like psycho, you know, like people who really wanna live their life and who really wanna make it count. By the way, this intensity, it's not always in business. Like when you're seeing everybody up here, like we're intense in our marriage, We're intense with our kids, you know, we're intense with staying in love, we're intense with like the fitness side, we're intense with taking care of our customers, we're intense with like self-development, self-improvement, you know, growing, we're intense with being financially free, we're intense, you know, being mentally free, you know, we're intense taking care of our friends, you know, we're intense.

We keep it new, you know, it's like we always talk about what creates burnout. Well, what creates burnout? What did you want to do? What did you want to prove when you first got you got that job or that career, you started your business, you wanted to prove that you belong, that you were going to outwork everybody. When you got with your wife, you wanted her to look up to you, you wanted her to admire, you wanted to prove yourself. All these different things, you know, when you became a new dad, what did you do? You wanted to be the best dad in the world. All these different things. People lose their purpose when they quit trying to prove themselves. So we're constantly trying to stretch ourselves.

It's a great—

I love seeing And that's what we do. We can't let— we can't get burned out because we don't let the newness wear off.

So that's, that's, that's day one, baby.

Stay one every day. Get married every day.

Yeah, it's day one and it's your last day. Yeah, like I was telling everybody, I was in Boise, right? And which is where you're from, and you were flying here, I was flying there, right?

That's so funny.

Yeah, and I was, I was telling— is CBH Homes or something like that?

What?

Yeah, and they're 70-80% women. Oh really? Yeah, it's like a full all like female alpha team. And I said, ladies, let's just pretend that it was your last year you were going to live and you knew it. What would change? What relationships? How would you work? How would you take care of yourself? How would you want to go out if everybody was going to remember you and this is your last year? You know, would you lay low or would you go hard as hell so everybody could be remembered, you know, of how much you cared, how much you gave, you know, your vision, your thought, you spoke your mind, you changed people's lives. I'm like, come on, that's how we gotta play. 'Cause the truth of it is, is that, look, dude, it could be our last day. You know, we could shoot this podcast and I go drop you off at the airport and die on the way back. I don't know, it could happen. We see it happen all the time, like shit happens. So it's like, dude, I just don't want to be that person that's disrespectful of the fact that we're still healthy, we can give all we got. And if you're supposed to be dead, you'd already be dead. But if you're alive, somebody's watching this right now and they're like, oh, I don't feel worthy. Dude, listen, you wouldn't be here if somebody didn't have something big in store for you. Now the devil is trying to kill, steal, destroy, and crash everything in your life. And God's like, come on, wake up, go find yourself a buddy. And that's when it says like iron sharpens iron. Like you came down here, us getting together, you know, you meet my wife. I mean, every time, everything from us, you know, from eating dinner last night to working out this morning in the gym to being here to going to lunch, she's been with me the whole way. Dude, you can choose to do it however. How many guys do you go and you see and you meet them or you get together, but you don't see their wives a lot? It's like, dude, like we're gonna roll till we die. Like we can do anything the way we want it. We can create whatever life we want. I was going on a private jet one time where this guy's like, hey, I want you to go on this private jet. There's this big $100 million deal. I want you to be a part of it. And I was like, cool, man, let's go. Let's do this. I was like, yeah. And then he's like, okay, awesome. I was like, yeah, remember, gotta add my wife. Jacqueline will be there with me. And he's like, oh yeah, it's just guys. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, hey, we love the wives, that's cool. I'm like, well, this ain't my wife. This is my everything. She rolls or I don't roll. And she was there. And, uh, and he's like, yeah, but I was like, dude, there's no buts. If she ain't there, I ain't there. And, and he's like, no, we made it. And we're like, nah, we don't want to go now. Because like, I can feel—

but then he met me later and he loved me.

So yeah, yeah.

But, but my point is, is that, is that people don't understand that you can have what they've never seen.

Okay.

And I think that that's the cool thing. Like, you built ClickFunnels, right? No one saw it. You saw it, you created it, you found the right people, right? You found the people that could help you build it. You know, you love those people, you take care of those people, you want to spend more time with those people. And but sometimes people got to go too. I think only some, some people are on with you for a season of our life. There's a guy I started our company with when we first started it, and I'm saying like, it's totally cool, people change over time. Look, you can't make people good people. People got to want to be good people. There was a guy who was an alcoholic, he drank all the time, he almost got a divorce, he His kids hated him, and we turned him around, got him to stop drinking, made them fall in love with each other, got him to be a great dad. And then at the end of the day, he just wants to go back to his whole life, lost his whole purpose. But my point is, when that happens, you know what you do? You go find the, the person that's supposed to be.

You're not going to change how you are with the rest of the people that are around you.

Oh, that's a fact.

A lot of people get scarred and they don't let those cars— those scars, you know, heal. They, they're they, you know, it's like your failure you're talking about. Like, when— if you would have failed and you wouldn't have kept chasing what you were after, you wouldn't be here today. You know, you need to keep going and you need to keep proving that. And we— the team doesn't deserve it. We have to show them massive amounts of love. So what do we do? We go harder. We show them more love.

Dude, I love it. Shit don't go as planned.

Means you're alive. You get hurt. That means you're alive. That means you have a heart. That means that God gave it to you so he can use it.

Well, also, like, you got to look at— like, you always got to have this mentality. And I think, you know, we've been talking about self-development the whole time, like things that we've learned, things that we've studied. But like also I think to, to end like on this, on a good note, like, um, or on, on this note, like you gotta find the good in everything. Mm-hmm.

Right. For sure.

Like you gotta find the good in it, you know? Right. Like, you know, I'm always like, where's the good in this? And when that, I'm just giving an example, the young lady that we went to lunch with, right. That you met, she's super cool, right?

Yeah.

She's awesome. When that guy left, she showed up. Twice as much. We made $1 million after that happened, additional per month. Right out the gate. Hey, no, no, no. It was time to roll. It just shows you when someone rolls, right, someone else is coming in. You know what I'm saying? So instead of me saying, oh man, that sucks, it's like, man, God's got something better for us. That's what I'm saying. God's got something better for us. You know, and, or maybe not there's something better, but maybe, you know, there's like, this needs to happen now.

Yeah, but how many people get turned off with the idea of, you know, going and chasing their full potential or doing something big because they have a bad experience? Like, that's just the thing that the whole lesson of this is you just got to keep going. If you, if you feel called to do something, you can't let those things stop you. You have to just keep, keep running with them.

Don't quit. Eventually get what they want. Yeah, right?

Yeah, I thought it was a lot like— I thought about like just even the ideas. Like, I feel like God gives us ideas or gives us something, right? And he's like testing to be like, I wonder if Russell's gonna be a good steward of this idea, right? So if he's like, give me a potato gun idea, like, and then I did it, he's like, oh, he did something with it. Like, let me give him another one, a little better. And give me the next one and the next one. And eventually through that process, I became worthy of like, oh, here's ClickFunnels. You know what I mean? But he's trying to see, because how many times do you see someone do something like, I had that idea too. It's like, oh crap, I didn't do anything with it.

That guy did. That's good.

So I always think about that as like, I feel like God's given us ideas to see like, are we going to be a good steward of that? So for me, it's always like the same thing. Like something shows up, like I'm going to do it. I got to do it because otherwise someone else is going to do it. And then I proved I wasn't a good steward. The next idea is not going to come. Next one's not going to come. I want to make sure I'm a good steward so the next one will keep showing up in front of me.

Anyway, that's so good.

Yeah, you sometimes make an idea, I'm like, I don't want to do that one. I'm like, all right, here we go, right?

Yeah, a lot of, a lot of times, I mean, it's timing too, you know, when, when you do do things. I mean, I wrote something about that a while ago, like we get so many opportunities that come our way because, I mean, we live in the United States. I mean, you, you have so many opportunities and we don't take action. We just kind of just let them fly by, you know, and then you become, you know, kind of scarred to that. Like, you don't take action because you be— you be— you're not open to it. You don't—

you're not—

your eyes aren't in tune with that. So the fact that you decided to be, you know, that, that means that you were in tune with that. So in turn, you get a lot of opportunities to do different things, which is really cool.

Especially like you said, when you're— when you're an action taker, everything goes back to you've taken action to everything in your life, and that's why you got what you got. Yeah, I'm saying, yeah, because you execute.

It's like people that, you know, are learn, you know, how to achieve success. You know, they can go broke and then they'll make it up again. Like, and then people that really weren't meant to be successful, you take it away and then they stay broke, you know. So if you really know how to do it, you can rebuild your wealth over and over and over. It doesn't matter what obstacle you run across. It doesn't matter what the economy does. It doesn't matter how many COVIDs hit. It doesn't matter. You're going to rebuild every single time.

Yeah. And I think a lot of the times too, and we'll say one last thing, when you were, when you were had these ideas, potato gun, this, that, this.

I remember when those— oh my gosh, I remember that.

But, you know, how many times do you have an idea and people like say, like, that's stupid, right? All the time. Yeah, all the time. And so at the end of the day, I think like on your entrepreneurship journey is that when you're pursuing something like understand it's just part of the game that most people in your life aren't going to support you.

Okay.

Like you have to understand that, right? And as long as you know that it's gonna work, nobody knows what's in you. They don't know your heart, they don't know your brain, they don't know you, they're not you. So they can't physically know that you're capable of pulling this off even though no one else is capable of pulling it off.

You had your dad support you, you know, obviously during your wrestling career and all that. Like, did you have a lot of people tell you you were stupid for starting, you know, ClickFunnels? 'Cause we had a lot of people telling us we were stupid when we started our business.

We quit our job.

Yeah.

And they said, dude, you're dumb.

Yeah. I think for me, every step of the, every step has been that way. It's like, why do you do this? Why do you do this? In fact, even we met, you mentioned earlier, like I've been buying these old books and collecting them. And, um, you know, I think I told you about like 18,000 books in the last 3 years, these old first edition books. My whole team's like, what is he doing? And they're like, you're crazy. Like some of, one of my guys is like, do we need to hire a shrink? Like these books keep showing up. And I was like, I was like, do you not trust me at this point? Like, I have an idea, I have a vision, something's amazing. Like, what's the vision? I'm like, I can't explain it. I can see it, but I don't know how to explain it. But like, I know where I'm going. And then it was like 2 years later, I was like ready just to explain the mission and my team's like, I think he's lost his mind. So they set the cameras and I did a pitch for it on the camera and it got done. One of the guys was crying, the other guy had chills. He's like, oh my gosh, like, I had no idea that's what you were doing. I was like, no one did. Like, I didn't even know. But like, that's the, like, I don't always know, like, I don't know the end of it, I just know what direction. It's like, that's the direction I'm going.

Again, the idea of show up.

Show up, show up, show up, and eventually it becomes clear. But faith, that's how faith works, right? You don't know the path, or it's not faith. Like, oh, there's a path, it's not faith. That's knowledge. So faith is like, I feel like I'm called to go that direction. I don't know what's over there. Bunch of fog in between here and now, I'm gonna take a step. And then you take that step and the fog clears a little bit. You're like, okay, take another step. And that's what faith is, right? And so for me, it's like, It's that way with all these ideas. Like even ClickFunnels, it was like, you know, when we started it was like, I don't know if people are gonna buy this thing. And then we spent 8 months trying it and then launched it and no one was buying it. We tried the next thing and I was like, we went this direction for a reason. There's gotta be something here. Hopefully, 'cause we're pretty deep into it now, you know. And then sure enough, eventually if you just keep pursuing it, it's like, oh, it all starts making sense. It's badass.

I love it.

That's good. You have a good support system along with it.

That's great. Amazing wife and kids and then really good partners and people around us that, yeah, it's nice because they let me do stuff that's crazy, doesn't make sense to them a lot of times, but they trust me now at this point where it's like, you know, which helps. That's hard initially, you know, before you've had success, it's hard because people don't trust you. You have to prove yourself. So you just got to kind of do it and you got to be your biggest cheerleader, biggest believer first. And I think it's not giving up. It's like, for me, it's like I know this works. I know it's going to work. I know it's going to work. I remember thinking about when I was first starting my business, I was in college and I was watching other people doing it. I'm like, they can't be that much smarter than me. Like, even if I did half what they were doing or a tenth of what they were doing, it would still be amazing. They can't be that much smarter. So I kept trying and trying and eventually it was like, oh, it works, you know? And then they all become, you know, the same people that are teasing you one day, the next day they're asking for a job or they're telling other people how they met you one day, how they used to I know, you know, so that's it.

Yeah, I bought your training course. Now we're wrestling. Yeah, you know, hanging out.

I know, I know. He's not a wrestler though.

No, I'll wrestle. I'm just not any good at it. I, look, I, I, I know this. I know what I'm good at. I only take bets I know I can win.

He does that.

He's really good at that. I only take bets I can know I can win. So if I'm like, I'm, if, you know, like number one, I fought a lot as a kid, but I damn sure wasn't an MMA fighter. Okay, and we're in an era right now where there's a lot of MMA fighters, so I'm not trying to fight anybody. Yeah, so, but I'm really good at selling, so I like selling. I'm really good at communicating, so I like communicating.

You're also good at triggering people.

Yeah, I'm good at triggering people. I like doing certain things. Wrestling. I mean, I wrestled as a kid, but I didn't wrestle wrestle. You guys wrestled every day. I'm not gonna wrestle somebody that wrestles every day. I'm gonna lose. There's no way. And that's, I'm gonna do what I'm good at.

Now tickle Andy Elliott and he will kill you. Kill. Like, he's not— yeah, if you tickle me, you tickle him, he gets violent.

I have some superpower violence that comes over me.

He is one that you can't just be like, hey, boom. I'm like, okay, we're not doing that again. Like, yeah, note to self, don't tickle him. We've never gotten violent, but he will get violent if you tickle him. Don't tickle him.

Yeah, so, but so I think I like to take bets I know I can win, you know what I mean? Yeah. And I think entrepreneurship is a bet that everyone can take. Even an entrepreneur is awesome, right? You can blow someone else's business up and be massive. Actually, I think that's the best way. And then being an entrepreneur, if you want to really be the massive risk taker, just know you're just going to have to not quit. You know what I mean? I think anybody that's smart, 99% of the people should be an entrepreneur for an entrepreneur and just become great. Just become the greatest son of a bitch in that company. Become a really good leader.

Even if you want to be an entrepreneur eventually, I think it's the best way to start. Like, I wish— had I understood that, I would have gone and interned for somebody and like done that for a while.

You know, I tell people I would work 2 years for free. Yeah, I would have loved to found someone that I looked up to and worked for them for 2 years for free, and that would have put me 20 years ahead of everyone else, right? You know what I'm saying? You know, because you can't— you can't get close to people like that, but for free, and if you're a good dude, maybe it's— maybe it'll work.

But that's actually my business partner Todd. So when he— when I first met him, he came starting programming for a year. He worked for free, didn't ask me for money once. Wow. And then, um, eventually we started paying a little bit because we didn't have much money at the time. And then 2 years later, we had a day for ClickFunnels. He's like, I don't want to be an employee and be your partner. And I was like, all right, let's do it. And the rest is history, you know.

He gave first, dude.

I couldn't afford him when he first came in, and so he didn't charge me anything.

Just that right there That's the lesson of the whole podcast. He gave value, he proved his worth, and then you always say you'll never out-earn, you know, your value, right? So, you know, you got to build your value up if you want to make more money. You increase your value, right? And he obviously increased his value big time with you, and you're like, dude, I owe you, you know what I'm saying? And I want you because you saw his heart too, you know what I mean? And most people, they want the money before they want to do the work. It's pretty rare that people actually put the work in first before they want the money. And our whole team moved across the country not knowing what they were going to get paid. No, they didn't even ask. Yeah, but they didn't even ask. I mean, all of our guys were like, we were, I was like, hey, you know, I'd like to bring you on the team. They're like, done. I'm packing my shit.

That's why we pay so much.

I'm breaking my lease, selling my house, shipping my cars.

For not asking.

Yeah. And they all moved and they got here and they worked the the first month, they didn't even ask. Jackie gave him a check and they go, dude, I didn't even know we were gonna get a check. Jackie's like, well, of course you're gonna get a check. And they're like, well, I didn't even really care. I just want to be here. I want to help people. Yeah, I swear, every one of their stories. So, um, guys, so entrepreneurship, right? Study. Leaders are readers, right? You're a hell of a reader. Um, you know, study people that are, you know, alive, still kicking ass, and study people from 100 years ago. Um, study everyone, right? The world's your library. If you know what you're looking for, it'll give you what you're looking for, right? If you want to be great, study the greats. And then right now, I think everybody's asleep. So I think while everybody's asleep, um, it could be your time to really rise up. And, you know, 2 years of hardcore studying, recreating yourself, building a new identity, creating a new work ethic, taking good care of yourself. First thing you started with was like, eat good food, you know, don't do drugs, you know. You know, and if you're drinking alcohol and all that shit, just self-correct. Just get rid of all the trash. If you want a great life, now's the time to pursue it. And I think right now, I think the market will really pay. If you ever want to be a killer, right now's the time. I think it'll pay you more money than you ever imagined in your life. But you got to be the best. In order to be the best, you got to out-self-develop everybody. So Russell, we appreciate you, bro.

Seriously, man. Thank you. Appreciate you.

Thank you, guys. We love you. See you in the next podcast. Make sure you go follow him on Instagram, and he's— as he's crushing ClickFunnels, he's about to release some crazy shit. We'll see you guys in the future, and let's kill it.