You Paid $100K For What?

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

So let's get started. Hey everyone, this is Russell Brunson and welcome. I guess today it's marketing in your hotel room. So if there's a weird echo, that is why. I think yesterday I did one from my house too. So we're not even in the car anymore. We should change the title of this thing if we're gonna keep this pattern down. No, just kidding. But I'm here tonight because I am actually in Scottsdale, Arizona. And I've had a bunch of people asking me, first off, why I'm here. But second off, more specifically, like, why am I here? Because I recently joined— so I was part of— I mean, I've been in mastermind groups a lot for the last, man, almost 10 years now. Initially, I joined Bill Glazer's back when my business was floundering, and I didn't realize how much it cost to join a mastermind group. All I knew was I had gotten some CDs in the mail that were Dan Kennedy talking about his Platinum Group, and I listened to him and it was like the most amazing conversation I've ever heard. And I was like, holy cow, I want to be in that room. So I called up GKIC, the company at the time, and I said, hey, I need to be in Dan's Platinum Group. I heard about it, I want to be in it. And they're like, sorry, it sold out for like 3 years. I was like, no, I need to be in. They're like, sorry. And keep going back and forth. And finally, after I bugged them enough, I had a friend who worked on the inside who got me in. And they said, okay, you're accepted, fine, here, send the money. And They sent me the order form and I didn't realize it. I thought maybe it was like $5,000 or something, but it was like $25,000. I was like, "Gah." And so I didn't have that money, but I didn't want to tell them after I had bragged how cool I was to get into the group that I couldn't afford it, so I just did it. And I jumped right in and went to my first event. And I thought it was Dan Kennedy's mastermind group. I got there and Dan Kennedy was nowhere to be seen. There's this old guy in the back who later became one of my, I mean, my first real mentor. His name is Bill Glazer and someone I love and respect, I mean, a ton. He's like my marketing dad and he was in this room and I didn't know what to expect and I sat down and it was my first mastermind and the experience, first it confused me, then it transformed me. And the next 6 years I was in that mastermind group and went from having a tiny business to making $1 million a year to making $10 million a year to losing it all to growing it back up and kind of this huge cycle of my life and it was awesome. Bill sold the company and I decided not to keep going to it. So then I was looking for other mastermind groups and I joined a couple other ones and I won't mention their names 'cause none of them were that awesome. Like I plugged in and there were pieces that were good or there were people that were good, but it was just like, it was never home for me. And so I tried a couple times and just didn't have any luck. And finally that's when I was like, you know what, if I'm gonna do this, I need to create it. I kind of am like, I don't think there's anyone that's created what I wanted. So that's when I created my inner circle, which has become amazing. And as you know, last month I, or this month, this month, we did 8 days of meetings. I have 100 people in the inner circle and we have 4 groups of 25 and it's just amazing. I facilitate mine very similar to how Bill Glazer used to facilitate his, although at this meeting, the last meeting we had, Garrett White came and added some really cool things we're gonna start adding to our meetings. So it was really awesome and so like it's been really good but at the same time it's hard because like when you're, when it's your event you're like You have to be on the whole time and you don't get to sit back and just, you know, just be there. And so I kind of missed that and I was hoping and looking and I joined a couple of programs. In fact, I even, and I'll say this now because I joined Joe Polish's 25K group and if I'm completely honest, like, the networking was amazing. I would say networking is second to none, but I wasn't, but it didn't get what I was, what I would, when I go to mastermind for is different and the networking is good, that's not why I'm there, I'm there I'm trying to learn at a different plane, a different level, different vibration, whatever you want to call it, like learning from a different level. And I just, I never got that in 25K. And so I wasn't planning on renewing. And then when I was there, they offered this $100,000 thing. So I thought about it for 5 seconds, then I said I'm in. And a couple reasons why. And so I want to share them with you because hopefully it'll help you guys understand why I'm here. And hopefully it'll give you guys permission to invest back into yourselves. So, um, so the first reason is, uh, Joe Polish is running it with Dean Grassiosi, who— Dean is, uh, you know, has been on more successful infomercials, or has done more successful infomercials than anyone I've ever met. And he's done them in with books in the financial space, which is— hey, by the way, I have a book coming out in the financials— well, it's in the how-to-make-money space, but similar. And part of me wants an infomercial or a radio deal, and he's been crazy successful infomercials and radio and events and a whole bunch of things. That is an avenue of business I've been part of that gets me excited. Second, Joe Polish is one of the best networking connectors I've ever met in my life, and I didn't want to— like, I wasn't planning on rejoining 25K because I didn't get what I was looking for out of it, but I didn't want to lose that relationship with Joe because there's a lot of value there, and he's just super cool and like super connected like to everybody on planet Earth. So I was like, you know what, I don't want to lose that relationship, and this gives me ability to have that at a higher level. And third thing is that, you know, ever since me and other people have $25,000 groups, a lot of people have them, a lot of people can get into them. But, um, I think Joe's— I know some other people have done it, but one of the first ones that's done a $100K group, and I thought, you know, the people that ascend up to $100K is typically different caliber people. Those who can write a check for $100,000, a different caliber person. So it's going to give me ability to be in a room with people at a higher level and hopefully plug in. And I'll find out in the next 2 days what we get, but hopefully just have some different ideas and different things that are thinking different level than I typically do. And that's what I'm really excited for, is that piece of it. And then, um, and then I think what the reasons— oh, I know the last one. And the last one is one that hopefully will be good for you guys. So The last one is because I thought about doing a $100K group before. I don't know if I will or I won't, I have no idea, but I thought about it, but I was like, I can't ask somebody to give me $100,000 if I haven't given somebody $100,000. Like there's something about that. After Bill Glazer took my $25,000 happily, I decided I wanted a mastermind group. I sent an email while I was at the first mastermind group and I got like 30 applications and I launched my first mastermind. Because I had spent $25,000, I felt like I had permission to do that. Justin and Tara Williams, when they joined my inner circle the first time, they had a $2,000 product. And I think the very first meeting, if I remember right, we were all like, you should launch a $25,000 program. And I think it was partly because they had done it, they paid $25,000. Second off, they, you know, got permission from all of us and they went and did it. And I think they said, if I can remember the numbers, I think it was like 18 people paid them $25K off the first like little promotion. They didn't have sales team in place, they just like sent some emails and took credit cards, which is nuts. Like anyway, it's so cool, but it gave them, I think part of that's part of what gave them permission. And so, you know, I think it's funny how sometimes we're not congruent with ourselves, right? Like we wanna ask people to buy stuff, but then we don't buy things, right? I have friends who pirate everything, right? They don't pay for videos or movies or games or anything. And so they're basically stealing everything and then they're trying to go out and sell people their products. And there's just like, there's some kind of incongruency there where I don't, I don't think it's possible. I mean, I'm sure it's possible for some people, but I had a friend, there's this, there's this pirating website, I don't know what they're called, but where you can get like basically every internet marketing course known to man is on it and You have a secret login and then you can like download them and kind of like Napster used to be back in the day, but it's like an internet marketing Napster and every product ever is on there, right? I had a friend that was a member of that site. He was downloading everybody's products and courses and going through them and, uh, and he told me that for like 5 or 6 years he never made money online despite the fact that he had every course known to man. He said then one day he woke up and he realized that if I'm going to ask people for money but I'm not willing to pay money then I'm a bad person and I'm not going to be successful. So I said, I canceled my membership to that account, I deleted my account, whatever it was, and then I started buying people's things. And just by the nature of me no longer stealing and me actually investing in, in things, people were more willing to invest in me. And so then I grew a company, grew a business because of it. And so another big part for me is just that, is to be able to invest in my this so that If I ever ask someone for $100,000, I'm not going to be like, oh, like freaking out because I don't know, like, was it worth it for me? Okay, let me create something that'll be worth it for them. And so, yeah, that's a couple of reasons. So that is why I joined the 100K group. That's why I'm here. I'm going to be here for the next 2 days and I'm excited to kind of see what I get, what I learn. And if I get any big ahas or takeaways, I'll come back and report to you guys and share with you the good stuff. But it'll be just, it's also good to just kind of step away. I've been so much in the heat of business for a long time, it'll be nice to sit back and just be able to think. Yeah, so that is what's happening, that's why I'm in Scottsdale, and that's why I invest that much money, and hopefully the fruits of this will be good. I'm gonna be speaking tomorrow to the group, actually tomorrow, about some funnel, some Ninja Funnel stuff. Which will be really, really cool. But my real goal with this, some of you guys know ClickFunnels, we just passed 23,000 active customers. Maybe more than that now. We're trying to get to 30,000 by the end of the year, which we're getting close. We're pressing a little bit. We got a big campaign in December. I think with those things we should hit it. And then next year we're trying to get to 100,000. So it's a more than 3x leap, which companies don't do that, especially not with VC capital. Yeah, we did it. We set the goal to be, They call it the BHAG, Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Anyway, so we set the big goal and that's what we're trying to do next year. So it's like, if I'm gonna do that, I gotta think differently, I gotta look at things differently. And we have a strategy going into it. And so some of the people in this room I think are gonna be key to that strategy actually working. So we'll find out and I will know soon. But anyway, that's the game plan. So I appreciate you guys. I'm gonna go to bed 'cause it's gonna be a busy day tomorrow and I need to get some rest. Appreciate you all, thanks for listening. And now it's time for you to go join 100K group or 25K group or 10K, whatever it is for you, 'cause that investment will somehow magically give you the ability to let people invest in you too. I don't know how it works, but it does. So there you go. All right guys, appreciate y'all, have a good night. I'll talk to you guys all mañana, bye.

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