The Strategy That Made Each Of Our Leads Worth 15X

Welcome to Marketing 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.

What's up everybody? This is Russell. I'm out just taking the garbage out on Sunday night. And it's a beautiful night, a little chilly, but look it out. There's this really cool ski hill called Bogus Basin here in Idaho. And where my house is at, when I'm taking the garbage out, I can go out and there's, I can see the mountain and the mountain's all dark, but then like where the ski hill is, it's all lit up and looks insanely cool. So it's kind of fun right now. But I had a quick message for you guys because I just want to make sure everyone's paying attention. Because I feel like sometimes you can like show people gold, like, hey, here's gold, you want some? And like the smart people see that and they're like, oh sweet, and they take it. And there's other people that say, that's not real gold, dude, I didn't want gold, I wanted platinum, or like I came for diamonds, why are you trying to give me gold? I'm like, dude, there's gold, like you can sell it and then buy platinum or diamonds. Anyway, so let me explain this metaphor. So funnel hacking, Going live last week, insane, right? For those of you there, you know, you experienced it. It was just amazing. And we're starting planning next year's and I think I finally figured out a way, took me like 3 days, but I think I figured out a way to make it even better than last time, which I'm not sure yet, but I'm excited to try. So that's gonna be the time. I got a year to plan it, so that's gonna be sweet. But it was an awesome event. And of the 3 days, day 1 was probably my favorite day because of I think what I gotta share got me most excited. Like I shared the first section in the book, which is like how to build a mass movement. Went into all the strategy and then the tactics behind how to do that. I wanted to break those out 'cause there's two different things, strategy and tactics. Then I had a chance to go into story. We talked about epiphany bridge stories. I showed the strategy and then the tactics behind that. And then Brandon and Kalen spoke first day. Jim Edwards spoke the first day. Like just, it was awesome. All days were good, but first day was like, I was most excited about what I taught this first day, right? Anyway, so that was good, I thought. For those of you there, it was good, right? Pretty amazing. And it's basically like a year, more than a year, but like deep year of my thought, like what I've been trying to really show and teach and coach everybody through. And what the new book's gonna be really going deep into. So it was also a big preface for the Expert Secrets book, which is coming out April 18th. So anyway, Yeah, so most people were there and they got that and they went and ran away with it. But then one of my buddies, so one of my friends showed me the other day some posts that one of the guys that was at the event posted in his private members area. Now I know who this guy is. I've been watching him for a while and he's doing some cool things. But his business isn't that big yet. He's just kind of, anyway, I won't make fun of him publicly. I might later, but we'll, We'll stop for now. So anyways, so in his members group he went and posted, he said, day one of Funnel Hacking Live was stupid, it was, not a single tactic was taught, blah blah blah, like dropped like 5 or 6 F-bombs in this thing and I was just like, so I'm glad I didn't see the event 'cause I would've like called the dude out on stage and embarrassed him in front of everybody, which would've been amazing, I kinda wish I had that now. But instead I saw it like 2 days ago, so, and I was like, what? Like, day one? And it's funny, it was day 2 he came up to me afterwards and was like, I'm joining your inner circle, man, this changed my life, and did the whole thing. So like by, you know, by the afternoon day 2 he had a change of heart, but after day 1 he was frustrated apparently 'cause I didn't teach enough tactics. And I was like, so a couple things. First off, what you must understand is that tactics are good. Tactics are like the tricks you use to do things. But tactics in and of themselves are not that powerful. In fact, I think, and funny, when I first met like Jay Abraham and Rich Sheffron and guys like this, they used to talk about this and talk about how strategy is more important than tactics. And I used to think that they were, not smart because I'm like, no, these tactics, these tricks, these tools, these things are the secret, right? And as I've gotten older in my old age and I've shifted from being stuck at $2 or $3 million a year to shifting to $30 million a year and beyond and hopefully this year we'll hit $80, $90 million in mass growth, bigger than anyone that I know of in our industry. The big differentiation, is that the right word, that took me from $2 or $3 million a year to 10 times that, it wasn't like the next tactic tactic. It was the strategies, understand the strategy behind it. And so as I'm on stage teaching how to build a mass movement, like I'm talking about this strategy of like, this is how you build a mass movement, this is how you get people to follow you, this is how I went from $3 million to 2 years later, $30 million in a year. Like the difference was not a magic tactic. And I showed tactics, I showed the different tactics, but it was a core strategy. Like you understand the strategy, there's a lot of tactics you use inside of it, but Understanding the strategy is the key. And so we're showing the strategy to everybody, and I'm just hoping that you guys weren't like this dude and you weren't looking at that gold and be like, yeah, but I came here for diamonds. Like, dude, you kidding me? Like, take the gold that I gave you and go sell it and buy some diamonds if that's what you really want, right? Don't miss out on the lesson because you came thinking you were looking for something else. Like, if there's someone showing you something, don't be like— because I, I was the same way, so I'm throwing myself in is being guilty with this too. Like when I first talked to Shephard and Abraham and those guys who were, you know, were way ahead of me strategically thinking, I used to make fun of them thinking they were dumb and like, just like this guy was doing for me. And it's like, no, like when I understood it and I respected and understood like I gotta figure out this strategy, the tactics are always there and the tactics will fit inside of any strategy, but like the strategy is the key. That's what expands your growth. And then come on now, Pivoting Bridge stories, Heroes to Journeys, it's all tactical, come on now. Anyway, so I'll leave that there. But what I wanna talk about is I was kinda thinking through this, is I wanna kinda tie in the tactic and the strategy and all this kinda stuff, right? Like when I got started, whenever it was, 12, 14, probably 14 years ago, whenever, my first mentor was Mark Joyner. He always told me, okay, you gotta build a list, you gotta build a list, which is a strategy, right? And I'm like, okay. And at the time, there were a whole bunch of different strategies people were chasing. There was AdSense stuff, there was Google AdWords, there was arbitrage, there were all these different ways to make money. And Mark was my first mentor, and luckily I listened to him despite the shiny objects flying around me like crazy. And so I stuck to building lists, building lists, building lists like he told me to. And I did that, and it was funny, a couple years later, Mike Filsaime came out with a stat. He kinda coined this originally, and I've heard a lot of people say it since, but the first time I heard it was from Mike. He said that you should average $1 per month per name on your email list. I was like, okay, that's kind of a cool metric. I started looking back at what I was doing, and it was interesting how close my business at that point had followed that. I had 1,000 people on my list, I was making about $1,000 a month. When I had 10,000 on my list, I was making 10 grand a month. When I had 100,000 on my list, I was making 100 grand a month. It was kind of eerie, is that a word? Eerie how close that number stayed. And so for me, I started focusing, okay, the strategy's building a list, like what are the tactics to build lists? I kept focusing on tactic, tactic, tactic to build a list. And my list kept growing and my income would grow with it, but I didn't have like the huge shifts, right? And when we started shifting, I was telling this, Last week, I can't remember if I told you this or not, Dean Graziosi did his big book launch and he invited the top 10 or 15 affiliates to his office. So I flew down there on Thursday and hung out with some of the, it was amazing. It was an amazing group and like, anyway, I could go on for days about all the different people and what I learned. I got some just amazing stuff that I will show you guys in the next few months. If you're watching me, you'll see some stuff I learned from that group. But what was interesting is when I got there to talk, they wanted me to talk for like 30 minutes on whatever I thought was the biggest, most impactful thing in the business over the last 12 months. And what did I share with them? I shared building a culture. I talked about the 3 things, thing I talked about first session of our group. I talked about charismatic leader, future-based cause, and then new opportunity, which is the key. That's the core strategy. And what's interesting is, I wasn't planning on talking this, but when I got up on stage, I don't know if you've done this, when you get on stage, just things pop in your head sometimes. So I'm in front of this group and the first thing that popped in my head was this send out cards event I went to like, I don't know, 7 or 8, 9 years ago. And I remember going to this event all excited to learn network marketing and like see how these guys do everything and I was confused when I got there, to be honest. Like nobody taught anything. I remember like, The first day they gave awards to almost everyone in the group, and then they had people win cars, they had recognition, and they told stories, and people crying about sending cards changed their lives. It was so confusing to me. I remember afterwards sitting there talking to David Fry. He probably doesn't remember this, but it was a huge impact on me. I was like, dude, nobody taught anything. And he said, he's like, you know what the craziest thing is, Russell? I'm like, what? He's like, they're a software company. Like that's it, they're a software company, but what have they done different? Like what was the strategy, okay? There's the tactics, how to build a software company. What was the strategy? He didn't say that, but I was kinda like, what's the strategy, right? And we started talking, he said, he said, you're like, this is like, they're a software company, but look what they've built around it. It's a movement, there's people. This is like, this is like a way of life for people now. And you think about sending out cards, like, I love the guys that own that, like, it's a cool company, but like, their software's not that good. There are thousands of better card editors out there. But they built a movement of people, and that's why that company did so well, right? And so I was launching ClickFunnels, like, that kept ringing through my head from David Frey, like, they're just a software company. I'm like, I'm building a software company. So I could've gone like, what's the tactic? I'm gonna build a software company. It's like, no, step back. What is, what's the strategy? Like, how did these guys do it? They didn't say, let's build a software company. How do we, That wasn't what they were doing, they were building, they were looking at the strategy of it. And so as we launched ClickFunnels, I knew we're going to compete against Infusionsoft and LeadPages and all these crappy software products. I'm like, I don't want this to become a battle of who's got what feature. I wanna build a movement, I want people, I wanna build the best software in the world. And luckily I've got the partners that are able to do that, which is insanely cool. But I was like, even if our software sucked, I still gotta out-market everybody else. I want them to follow us because we're a movement, not because we're a software company. And if you were at Funnel Hacking Live, you remember Ryan Montgomery, our CTO, he got there, he said, hey guys, we're not a technology company, we're a marketing company. And we're building technology, you know, the technology behind it to make us be able to market, which then gives you guys the ability to market. And that's the big differentiator, that's why we're chasing these SaaS companies who are fighting us on features and we're thrashing them because We're building a movement, and that's the strategy. And so I started looking at that, and I've looked at our numbers over the last 2 years, and it's funny is, you know, for 8 years of my business, our metrics were $1 per name per month on our list. I look at our numbers now, and I gotta do the math real quick in my head, but we are closer to probably $14 or $15. Yeah, probably $14 to $15 per name per month on our email list. So we 15x'd it. Same people, same list building tactics to get people in, but the strategy shifted. What happened when we shifted the strategy? 15x. Instead of $1 per name per month on our email list, we make $15 per name per month on our email address by shifting the strategy, which the strategy was how do we build a movement. We're not a software company. We're building a movement, right? I wanted people coming through ClickFunnels like they came to send out cards on stage, crying because they sent a card and it changed someone's life. I didn't want them coming talking about how much money they made, right? Like, that's the difference. And so anyway, I just wanna share it 'cause I know sometimes we get caught up in like, what's the new tactic? You know, some of my close friends are running an event this weekend coming up. And the difference, like you go to that event and what do they do? There's all these people on stage sharing little tactics and some people love that, but that's not what wins wars. Tactics are like, tactics are the gun and the shotgun and the rifle that you go and you're out there, but if you got a bad strategy, you're gonna lose. And so take a step back, look at the strategy and understand that. Hopefully this helps you guys understand the difference between tactics and strategies and how the strategies or the tactics are good, but you switch to strategy and get that correct, it's 15x growth. Going from $3 million to $30 million in 24 months. What's the difference? It's not changing my tactics. The tactics were all the same. It was the strategy behind it. And I hope that you guys get that. So with that said, my fingers are freezing. I should've worn gloves out here. I'm going back inside. Appreciate you all. Tomorrow I'm gonna go finish, Friday I spent the whole day recording the audiobook version of the Expert Secrets book, and tomorrow I'm gonna finish the last third. So my drive out there, I've got a message I wanna share with you guys, but I'll save that for tomorrow. Thanks everybody, have a great night, and we'll talk to you guys 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.