Why Growth & Contribution Are Vital To Success w/ Russell Brunson

I think that all of us have to be be okay with the worst case scenario. That is the, the thing that causes the most fears. Like we know back in back of my, like this worst case scenario. And we're like too scared to look at this. Like, I'm not gonna look at it. Like, you have to become completely okay with the worst case scenario or else you are never gonna be able to move forward.

Wow.

Sit down. Like, what's the worst case scenario? I lose my house. I would lose my. And like write those things down and look at that. Like, okay. I have to be okay with that.

Own your future because if you don't, someone else will. Welcome back to the own your future podcast. I am so, so stoked for today's guest. I have to say and I hope you really hear this. We are about to talk to one of the greatest marketers alive. And I mean that and I don't say that lightly, but that's, it's not just that he's a great marketer, he is a great friend. He's an incredible father, an amazing husband to his beautiful wife Colette. He is the co founder of ClickFunnels, a company that I love and we still utilize six books, New York Times best selling author, collects books, doing some cool stuff with Napoleon Hill, even a book that was never published. I'm beyond jealous and I'm so glad. Today we're going to be chatting about the journey of marketing, where we are, where we're going, what he wishes he would have done sooner and maybe some of the stuff he's doing right now to be cutting edge. Without further ado, my dear friend, Mr. Russell Brunson. What's up man?

Hey, man. So good to be seeing you and hanging out and we haven't talked like this in a long time.

I know. And we're just gonna, let's just have a great conversation on camera today.

Listen in on normal talks we used to have all the time.

So I know we gotta, we gotta, we definitely gotta fix that. I'm glad we had the chance to hang out in Florida for a few days with Tony and a bunch of really cool people. And I think what I'd love to cover today, Russell, is I'd love to talk to you. We have some questions that are first time we've ever done it. We had so many great questions that come in from our tribe, our followers to ask you. So I want to go through some of those today. Like what would you do if you were starting over? What did you learn in the Last five years. How's marketing different now than it was a decade ago? A lot of cool stuff.

Yeah.

I want to tell you before we get started, though, it was really cool watching your journey of taking your family to Africa and watching you guys, you know, help contribute and give back and then take a journey with your family. We have children somewhat the same age, so I know what it's like to have 16, 17 year old, 14 year old, and little ones and trying to bring them all together. It was a beautiful journey. I'm so glad you documented it. And you were saying Jerusalem was really fantastic for you as well.

Yeah, it was such a cool experience because we were gone for three weeks, which is, you know, for kids that's like an eternity away from their friends and everybody. And we spent, you know, 10 days in Kenya serving and. Which was so good for my kids because my kids, you know how it is. Like, they've got things pretty good here and they had a chance to go and see what, like, what people somewhere else live, how, how, you know, what's pot, you know, what it's like over there. Yet you see these kids who seem like they have nothing, but they're so happy, whereas my kids have everything and, you know, they're around everyone who's sad and depressed and bored and all these things, and it was. It was a cool thing for them to see this time in their life. And then from there, like I said, we went to Jerusalem and got to go see this area which is, you know, the holiest place in the world for so many people. And. And it was cool for them to understand, like, this diversity of religion. Like, here's what all the. The Jewish people believe in, the Christians and the Muslims, and, like, they're all here in the same spot, all, you know, fighting over this one area that they believe is so important. And, like, they got a seat on be in the middle of, like, we had an Airbnb that was like three minutes walking distance from the Wailing Wall, so we had to go there. No, it was just like, it was the coolest, most magical experience, I think was so good for my kids to. To understand that and be able to. To love and respect, like, all these different people, religious backgrounds. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was. It was. It was magical. It was my favorite trips I've ever.

Been on, so I'm so glad to hear it. Listen, I know the work you do when no one's watching. I think we've been friends for over a decade now, Russell, and watching your journey has been it's been really amazing to watch. I see your dedication to your craft, your commitment to your family, commitment to all the things you do. When you do stuff, you go all in. And you know what I love about it? You love it, like, the joy you have on this journey. The joy you have on this journey is unbelievable. I've gotten to spend. I don't know, how many weeks have we spent together through the years? Right? Once a year, we're together for four or five days. We've been doing that for a really long time. And this man, truly, when you see this guy smile on Instagram or his ads that you see all over that, I love when you see that smile right there. If you're watching on YouTube, that is the most genuine, real thing behind the scenes. And we could talk about a lot of stuff. We could talk about the dinner we had, and Russell gets excited. We could talk about the trip we had. You talk about besides his wife and his family, you talk about marketing. This guy smiles, gets so excited, can't sit down, pace is all over. So I'm excited to bring that joy and some great information here today. You know, this wasn't a part of my question, but contribution is a big part of your life. How has contribution helped you work harder, be a better man? Is there something that you would love to put a little plug on contributing? Maybe you wish you would have done it sooner. How do you look at it?

Yeah. Yeah. It's funny, actually, the first time I went to UPW with Tony, he talked about the six human needs, right? He talked about four needs of the body, of the personality, and the two needs of the spirit, which were growth and contribution. And like, that. Like, there's something about that. When he said growth, contribution, these are two needs of the spirit that got me, like, just the wheels of Ed spinning. And I realized that, like, for most of us, like, we go through a phase of growth, right? Where, like, we're growing, we're learning, and, like, you're. You're trying to become better, and you go through this phase and eventually you get the spot where, like, you can't keep growing. Like, you hit you, like you. You cap out or whatever it's called. Like, you can't keep growing until you shift to contribution. And that's like the next phase of growth, which is like, giving back and giving to other people. And. And so for me, I was like most people, like, I loved growing. I was pursuing. I had my goals, my dreams, and I got to a spot where I just kind of like, I was just like, I don't know, stagnant and just felt less fulfilled. And that's when I started doing these things. I initially. I never thought I would care much about contribution. And I got tricked into initially. Castu McClare, and he's a friend of both of ours, was like, hey, you should contribute to my thing in Kenya. And I was like, okay, I'll contribute. I just don't want to, like, as long as I don't have to. Like, I'll give you money to go do your thing, you know? And then one time he invited me to go to Kenya. I was like, no, I'm not going to go. And then he. I remember I didn't go that trip. And they made a video of. Of him with the kids in this classroom I'd build. And I remember he sent this. He sent me this video while they were in Kenya. And I'm at church, and I go in the bathroom real quick to see the video. I start watching it, and there's little kids, big eyes, and they're. They're. They're saying. And they're brokening. There's like, thank you, Russell. Thank you, Colette. Like, for our school. And I. I'm bawling my eyes out. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And so the next. The next year, we went on a trip out there to go see the kids and experience it. I think for me, that's when my heart started. Like, oh, wow. Like, I didn't realize, like, that feeling, like, what that feels like. And then. And as you know, you get a little addicted to it. You want to do more of it. And so we started weaving that into, like, the foundation of clickfunnels. Like, every. Every time somebody builds a funnel inside of clickfunnels, we donate a dollar to Village Impact, which builds schools in Kenya. And then, you know, we've raised money for the last three or four years in a row for Operation Underground Railroad, which saves children from slavery. And like, like. And, like, that becomes the more fun part, right? And now it's fun. Like, you know, at our big event, we have the 2 comma Club Award, where people, they make a million dollars in funnel, they get this big award. And two years ago, we introduced what we called the Too Hard Award for anyone who donated over a million dollars. And the very first year, the only people who did it was Alex, Layla Hermozi. They got the first Too Hard Award. And everyone else saw that, and it was crazy because also my entire community, they stopped caring about making a Million dollars. And how they all set this new goal. I want to give a million dollars. And so next year, I think we had four people who gave away a million dollars on stage. And this year, I think we got even more. And, like, I know it's been fun, like, trying to get our entire community into that. And it's. It's. It's magical, man. The shifting to contribution is the next level of growth. And it's. I don't think, at least for me so far, there's not a ceiling on that. Like, I topped out on the growth, right? I was like, I can't get any more. And then this is something just seems, like, never ending. So it's been. It's awesome, man. And the faster you transition to it, the faster you can. You can feel that joy that it brings.

You know, I. I'm glad I asked you that question, because I know how passionate you are, and I've watched you grow in giving. Right. And it's a good inspiration because then we see each other doing it. Right? I remember Operation Underground Railroad. It was you and Tony. You did that documentary with them, and then Tony had his birthday party. Did you go to that? I forget if you. Yep.

We were there, like, the day before COVID hit. It was insane.

It was literally the day before my wife was pregnant, and I got so immersed that day and watched that, I was in tears the whole time. They were like, anybody want to donate 5,000? I'm like, 500 grand. I'll give a half a million. Like. Like, take it all. But we went back. The reason. I'll share that, and we'll get to some marketing questions here. I know people are dying to hear your marketing brain, and so am I, Russell. But. But I have to say, and. And I don't throw that out. Donating half a million, like, it was easy. I dreamed I could donate $5,000 someday, right at one point in my life. But I remember that night, my wife was seven months pregnant. Covid was coming. We went back to the hotel that night, and my wife and I sat on the floor. She was getting comfortable because she was getting ready. Maybe she was eight months pregnant, actually. And we were sitting on the floor talking, and we were both in tears on how excited we were that we were able to do that, right? And it doesn't matter. And I love what Tony says. We're both quoting Tony here. But he said, if you won't give 10 cents out of a dollar, you won't give, you know, 100 grand out of a million. So train yourself now to give and contribute, because it does shift things. I know my life exponentially grew because of it, so maybe that's a little encouragement today that we can share and give. You know, we're at a time in life where things are so divisive and we're so divided, but one thing we have in common is empathy and compassion and caring and things like that help bring the world together.

It's actually one of, like, the marketing. You know, my podcast called the Marketing Secrets Pod? It's like, one of the marketing secrets that nobody will believe. Like, do you remember when we flew out to Florida and we're at this. This marketing event, Me and you were speaking at it, and the guy kept asking you, like, dean, all right, so what's the secret to your biggest launch? And you're like, I really care about the people. We serve them hard. He's like, no, but, like, what's the marketing strategy? What's the. And you're like, we just. You know, we're trying to do the right thing. And, like, he didn't understand. He missed it. He's, like, looking for some hack or something. And it's like, look, when you start, like, getting obsessed with contribution, like, you have to work harder on the marketing to get more money to contribute more. And, like, it's this weird backwards hack that, like, it doesn't seem like it's like, a Facebook algorithm secret we can share with you, yet. It's like this weird thing that'll. That'll elevate your vision and your. Your drive and all those things that actually make everything else grow.

So, you know, and, I mean, listen, I know we're going down this rabbit hole a little bit, but we talk about all the time. You. You really need to. I always think of it as like a lighthouse. A lighthouse is a guide, right? You know, ships either steered away from it or that's how they found shore, right? I always think we have a lighthouse or we have this compelling future we're running towards. And if you don't. If you don't. When you get to the lighthouse, when you get to your compelling future, if you don't run it out 100 yards and drop it off and then come back and stare at it. If you don't have the next thing to chase, you lose that smile, you lose that joy. It just becomes the thing. You do it. It becomes numbing. And one of the things I love about contribution is there's always someone else who could use some help, right? We had. We had donated A bunch this year. And we built, like, four schools in Africa, too. That's probably because of you and Stu, but we built some schools. And this year we did that event with Matthew McConaughey, right? And it was fun. And he calls me up and invites me to this fundraiser he's doing in Austin, Texas. And I fly down and I find out he's got all these things going on, and one of them was for kids. And it's just an unbelievable thing that he's done. And he creates these homes close to high schools for kids that don't have a safe place and they don't have anybody to look up to. So he has these homes that he locates near schools, and he puts facilitators in there so somebody after school has a safe place to go talk to somebody about something aspiring, like, God, in my heart, it's like, okay, go more, right? And. And I remember saying to my wife, I. I got to do more. Like, literally, we're there, and I'm blessed for all the success we've had. But I remember sitting with him like, babe, I gotta. I gotta work harder. Like, there's more people that need us. So thank you for sharing that, because I think maybe someone could take away today with. Maybe you just need a bigger why. And if you're. And if it's your heart attached to helping your family or helping others or helping your church, helping people in need, God, the more we can have leverage. I guess that's why in marketing secrets, your podcast, which is awesome, is if you want leverage, find the things that ignite your soul on a deeper level. Yeah. All right, so we had some great questions come in, so we'll shift a little bit. This is. I call it the own your future podcast, because I. I love that we did that launch this year, but we did it, like, four years ago. And it's like, if you don't own your future, someone else will. I know you and I are always fighting to make sure we can own time with our kids and own our calendar and own time with our wives and own the things we like. And I'm. I'm beyond grateful. For those of you listening, you've made this the top podcast in its category in the world. So thank you.

Congratulation.

Subscribe. Thank you. Subscribe. Share. Get someone else to listen. But here. Here's the questions. One of the top questions that came in and said, if you were starting over, Russell, what would you do differently to get your first sale or start building an audience? That there was probably Hundreds of questions that come in. My team narrowed it down, but people, we have a lot of followers that. I always say this. I, I love helping ignite people to get in this industry of selling what they know, selling a course, a program, a coaching program. And then I love that a lot of them end up going to you. As they evolve and scale, Tony and I really work hard to get a lot of people into their first sale to make them see this is real, that they can do this. So we have a lot of people, especially we just got done with our own your future challenge. We have tens of thousands of people that'll. That'll hear this, that I think are on their way into this business. So sorry to pre frame. I wanted to give you a little context right when sometimes I talk to your people, they' in the business, it's how to go a lot faster. And we have some of those listening, of course, but we have a lot of people that are ready to go. And if Russell was starting over, is there any advice you could give? It's a big question, wide question. I know.

Yeah, there's so many ways we can go with that. And it's actually really fun for me right now because I'm. I'm in the middle of, you know, a little bit about this, but I'm launching a new business. And it's. First time I launched a new business is clickfunnel. So it's been 10 years. And so I'm actually going to. Through this or my. Okay, if I'm doing this, like, what is the. Like, what's the order of things that I do and what, what am I doing first and second and third without cheating, you know, because obviously we can be like, oh, I'm just going to challenge and launch. But I'm like, no. Like, I want to do this in a way where like, anybody could follow the same process. I'm very. I've been going slow and methodical through it and actually documenting it so that people can see like, oh, and Russell, you know, is actually doing this. What is the first steps? And it's interesting because there's this weird, like, chicken and the egg part that happens at very beginning that people struggle with, right? Where it's like, okay, I'm gonna go create a product and sell it. It's like, who I sell to. Well, I don't have any people yet, so I'm gonna. And you create an audience first. But then how do you monetize the audience? You don't have people. And it's like this weird.

Yep.

This weird ground in the middle. Right. And so I started looking like, hey, if I was to really do this from scratch, like what would be my very first thing? And it was like my very first thing I would do is I would try to like, I would try to start gathering an audience, like that's number one, and building pressure so that when I do have something to sell, like it's gonna be easy sell. I've seen some people who, they'll create a product or course and they go to sell it and Jonah buys it and then they get discouraged and then they leave. And it's like there's this thing in marketing where it' building pressure and excitement and then releasing it. Building pressure and releasing it. And you know, with clickfunnels, I've been doing that for a decade now where it's like we build it and like every month we do something to build the pressure and excitement and then release it. And so the same thing be true. This is like the very first step I would do is I would start an email newsletter. And, and it's not like the email newsletters that most people are doing. Like I'm, I'm transitioning and upgrading the way that I'm doing mine. In fact, I don't know if you talked to Perry Belcher lately. Perry's launched 19 email newsletters, 19 different industries. And he's using AI to write all these long form amazing newsletters. And I talked to him, I was like, that's like the thing that I'm missing my businesses is like I send out emails to my list, but I'm not like building a value based newsletter. And I look at Sampar, recently built up a newsletter and sold it for like 24, $25 million or something. A bunch of other people are doing similar things. Cody Sanchez, who's a friend of both of ours, she, she has her email newsletter and she only sells sponsorship to herself. And I think year this last year in her selling sponsorships to herself, she made $20 million by selling her own products in her newsletter. And I was like, I think that's what people are missing is that they're building a product, trying to make money or they're building audience. There's like this thing in the middle. That's actually the most important part. And if you read my book Traffic Secrets, which you wrote, the Forward Force, thank you for that. I talk about like there's all sorts of traffic, but like the most important traffic is traffic you own. It's the traffic you can take it and you can send it wherever you want, right? Because if you have traffic on Facebook, if Facebook decides they don't like you, you don't get that traffic anymore, right? If you have traffic on Instagram or these other places. But if you, if you own, the traffic is most important. So for me, what I would do is I would first off, I would create an email newsletter. And not just like, join my list so I can send you promotions, but like, this is my email newsletter. So the new business I'm launching is in the personal development space. And so my, my email newsletter is called the Secrets of success newsletter. And the goal is every single day you're going to breakthrough in two minutes or less. And so when you subscribe to it every day you get email and it's going to give you one breakthrough. Like just a quick, like, oh, like that was the hit. I needed to like break through the day to be able to take it forward. And so it's like this, this newsletter, it's got like, here's. Here's a breakthrough. Here's a couple links to cool podcasts and just kind of curating my favorite things in the personal development. Every single day. I hear some cool people, like, check out, you know, Trent Shelton, Facebook Live. Go listen this one. And Dean's doing this over here and Tony's doing this, like just curating the coolest stuff's happening and trying to give people a breakthrough every day. And so that's the email newsletter that I'm going to be pros now. I'm going to go on Instagram and talk about in Facebook and do different things with the goal to get people on this newsletter that has its own value and building this good relationship with people. And I'm doing that before I launch a product, before I launch a course so I can start getting some people. And it might only be 100 people I get on that list, maybe 500 or a thousand. But now when my product comes out or my, my next idea or whatever it is, now I have that audience I can send an email to and immediately start generating sales. Or I have a friend who's been running a newsletter for the last year in the personal development space, and he hasn't sold any yet, but he just got point. I think he's got about 5,000 subscribers now. It took him a year to get there, and now he got his first advertiser. He's paying him $5,000 a month to advertise. Now he's making five grand a month just selling advertising in this Newsletter. He just write about his personal development, stuff he's passionate about anyway, for free, sending people for free. And he gets paid from an advertiser and that could be the first sale. So there's a lot of ways to monetize it and eventually you could sell it, but like, it becomes the focus point. When I got started in this business, man, 20 years ago, my first mentor's name was Mark, Mark Joyner. I remember Mark told me, he's like, focus on building email. It's like, that's the, that's the thing that will. It's still 20 years later, still the thing. But he's like, that's the thing that'll like that, that'll like. It's the stability in your business, right? Like, there's always like the shiny object to come and go. But like, when all said and done, and you know this, I know this, and I want to make sure everyone else knows. Like, the thing that matters the most is your email newsletter. Because if Facebook shuts you down, Instagram, TikTok, whatever, like, but if you still have that, like, you're still in business. Like, my email newsletter during up times and down times has helped me survive this business. And so I think that I would make extreme focus on that. And then what I would do is I would make, you know, every business have what we call KPIs key performance indicators. And every day, like the number one KPI, the most important thing you look at is how many people join my list today. If you ask yourself that question every single day, you'll start figuring out how to get more people to join it. I remember I had a friend, Dagan Smith, a couple years ago. This is before ClickFunnel, so over 10 years ago. But he was focused on building a list. And I remember he asked me one time, he's like, how many people have joined your list today? And I never thought about that. And I remember logging into my account, I looked at the stats and was like, three. And I was like, how many people joined your list today? He showed me his and it was like a thousand. I'm like, every a thousand. Like, how did you do that? He's like, I just focused on it. And I was like, but like, what's the trick? What's the hack? He's like, I just focused on it. My brain started figuring out like, okay, I'm gonna go to a podcast room, I'm doing a Facebook, I'm do these things with the goal of getting people on email list. And so I, I shipped that my mind and I had my assistant, assistant at the time I said every morning, email me how many people joined our list yesterday? So I can see that every single day I just get that email. And just seeing that email every day with a number like 20, 23, I'm like, oh, I gotta fix that. And like my brain started thinking eventually at a point where it was a hundred, then 250, 350, 500, until I got a point where I was doing over a thousand new opt ins a day to my list. And like that became the focal point that my list started growing dramatically. So for beginners, like I can't tell you like it is the most important thing. It's the way to get started. It's the way to like to give yourself longevity in this business. It's the reason why I've been around now for two decades to do this because I've had times where the economy was great. I've had times economy was bad. I had times where you know, people are buying my things. I've had times when I lost my merchant accounts. Like I've had all the different things and the email list is what gave me stability through all of it. So that's where I would focus that for somebody.

So such great, such a great answer. With that said, when you say an email newsletter, I think some people, especially if they're new, thinking of a physical 10 page newsletter that used to come in the mail 25 years ago and now is a newsletter. Explain what a newsletter could be because there's lots of variations. Your newsletter could be different than mine. It's just kind of the theme of it. So what could a newsletter look like in today's world?

Yeah, it's kind of fun because it's not, it's. I've been subscribing to, I've been going deep down the rabbles. I've been subscribing to like thousands of them. It's like every morning and I look at the ones that I read a lot and the ones I read a lot are fun because usually it's like the email comes in and it's, it's like hey, today's newsletter, we've covered these five things and again we just. If you're on the clickfunnels list, we just launched this thing. Email. Email newsletter number eight went out today. So we're sending out one every single day as well. Or not every day, Once a week. So once a week we're sending out email newsletter and when you log into it at the beginning like it's section. So it's like hey, in fact already hey, Happy Monday. We're closing fast in fhl. Things are getting busy but we still thought some time to give some gold nuggets for you. Here's what you're going to discover and then it's like today you're going to discover and there's five bullet points. Boom, boom, boom. Five things you can talk about in this newsletter. So trying to hook them because for someone listening like you may be interested in like the fifth thing or the third thing and if I've just got one long email, you're never gonna get to it. So I got hooked in the very beginning. Here's what you'll discover. Here's the five points and down there's like little mini articles and some of them are like, are like hey, in the Facebook group so and so is talking about this. Like go check it out. Some of them are like here's a cool article of this book I read. Here's some cool things. Some were using AI because Perry belt. So you're using AI where it's like hey, give me seven really cool landing page tricks tips to increase conversion AI pops. They're like, oh, this is really good. And post that in there right? By finding four or five just things to stimulate the excitement for them to open the newsletter and read it, they get one nugget out of the newsletter once they're more likely to keep opening and keep opening it. Then inside of there we embed little mini sponsored ads to our products or you know, our trial or my free book or whatever those things are. But now it's like we're actually giving content every single newsletter and it's just, it's a fun thing. So I would recommend going subscribing to a bunch of like Cody Sanchez is one of my favorites. If you go to contrarian, if you google contrarian thinking Cody Sanchez, you'll find it opt in a newsletter and she's one of the best. Once a week you get newsletter. It's just like gold. It's fun to read. You know there's a bunch of them out there but like if you just go subscribe you'll see kind of the, the cadence of them and then that's what we're modeling ours off of. And so far it's been working crazy. In fact, our last email newsletter was crazy. We had, you know, our typical open rate. I don't know what it is but we had 470000 people open our Last email newsletter, and it's going up each time because they're like, this is really good. And they're looking forward to it. I'm like, in the past, like, every time you send an email, like, the open rates decline because it's like, oh, they're selling another thing, they're promoting another thing, and they're pushing me another challenge and whatever. Where now it's like, oh, this is just cool stuff for free. And it's like, the open rate's getting bigger and we see people actually like, sharing the emails, which is crazy. Like, they're forwarding them and sharing them, which is really cool. That never happened in our old email stuff. We were doing one thing Perry Belcher's doing that's really cool is he'll ask a question in the beginning and then he'll answer at the end. And so then you got to read the whole thing, which pushes them through the whole email. Putting in your favorite quotes. Like, people love quotes. It's weaving all these things in to making something where it's fun to read and people look forward to it once a week.

I love that. And I want to go deeper on if the economy takes a chance, takes a shift. I love thinking through the lens of preparation versus reaction. I hope things are great for 10 years, but I think there's some things we could do to prepare rather than the react. But before we finish the newsletter, such powerful content, such powerful idea. I think Brendan said something. Our mutual friend Brendan Bouchard said something one time. People. Some people are just scared of failure. That's true. But some people don't admit that they're afraid to start small. And I love that thought process because you just said something. I don't want to game the system in your new company. If I get 5 and then 10 and then 25, how would you share? Because you've worked with so many new people and new entrepreneurs your whole life too. How do you share to get over the fear of starting small? You know, someone was in another business or they're in a career that they're the go to, they're the expert. Now they're coming over in this new field. It's like, oh, my God, I'm going to sell this my information. And how. And what's a funnel? And. And what if they say no and I gotta ask for the money? Oh, and I gotta get a following. What do you. What do you help people? How do you help people get over the fear of starting small?

Yeah, I think so. I'm an athlete. So I had a chance to, you know, in wrestling, I would go step out on the wrestling mat, and I'm wearing a singlet, which is embarrassing. Anyway, you shake hands and you wrestle, and at the end, like, you think you're hand raised or you don't, and it's like, very intimidating, very embarrassing, Right. I think that what people think is that, like, starting online is gonna be the same thing. Everyone's gonna see me, and if I mess up, they're all gonna know. But the coolest thing about the Internet is when you mess up, nobody actually knows, so no one can see it. I've had people come up to me like, oh, man, I saw that campaign you did. Was so cool. I was like, that thing bombed. Like, it was like the worst thing we ever did. We lost $100,000. Like, it didn't even work. But nobody knows. They just saw it and like, oh, that's a cool thing you did. I think that's the biggest thing you have to understand is that nobody sees behind the scenes what's actually working or not working, and they have no idea. So you just put it out there. If it doesn't work, they just change it and they don't know. Like, it's. It's a lot more, you know, behind the scenes than you'd ever think. And so I think that'd be a big part of it. The second thing is, like, you gotta be, like, willing to be consistent with it. That's the only way you fail is if you stop, right? It's being consistent with it. And I remember in Traffic Secrets, I quoted. I quoted something from Nathan Barry, who's. He owns a company called ConvertKit, which is actually a really great. Sending out email newsletters. But he talked about, like, when he got started, someone made him a. Told him he needed to write a thousand words a day for a year, and if he did that, he would be financially free. So he started writing a thousand words a day, right? And he started doing that. And when he got done, I think after he did spend a year doing this, he wrote. He wrote an article. It was so cool. He said. He said that you have to be what he said you have to. You have to be consistent enough or long enough that your audience can find you. And he started talking about. In this article about thinking about good TV shows. Like, nowadays, like, you don't go and watch a new TV show and the very first episode comes out, right? Everyone kind of waits and like, you wait for. For season three or four, if everyone's still talking about, like, okay, this is worth it. Then you go back and you'll go binge, watch all of them and catch up. And so the same thing is true right now. There's so much content being published out there that, like, the people who are consistent are the ones who win. He said you got to. The two things happen when you're consistent is first off, as you keep doing it, you'll start to find your voice. Like, you'll become better and better at talking about the thing, and you actually get better. But second off is if you do it long enough, that gives your audience time to actually find you. And so, And I remember when I started thinking about this, when I launched my first podcast, which was. It was called the marketing your car podcast. I would record myself driving every single day in the car.

And.

And for the first, like, 40 or 50 episodes, like, I was really, really bad, but I also had no subscribers. And so nobody actually heard the really, really bad ones. But it gave me a chance to find out, like, how I talk and how I tell my stories and, like, how I'm going to, like, make this my own. And so by the time, like, I started figuring out is when people finding it, and then it's like, at that point, they're like, oh, this guy's really good. But I wasn't for the first 40 or 50 episodes. Right. But I think that's the biggest key is just, like, at first you're gonna be upset because no one's paying attention, but also it's like, no one's paying attention. So it's okay to, like, not be that good. And you keep doing it and doing it, and if you do that long enough, then your audience have a chance to find you, and you have a chance to find your voice, and that intersection hits. That's when you know, that's when this whole thing will take off for you. But it takes time. You know, both you and I did this for a long time before we had success, but it was because we're willing to be consistent with it. So I think if people, like, say, okay, I'm going to be consistent. I'm going to do this. I'm going to write a newsletter once a. You know, once a week for a year. And I'm going to go and, you know, talk, do Facebook Lives or Instagram or whatever, some kind of publishing external, get people to join my newsletter, you know, three or four or five times a week for a year. If you do that in a year from now, like, man, you will be able to to present or speak however you want to do it, your audience have a chance to find you. And then at that point, it becomes a lot easier.

Such good advice. And if you think about it, the next year is gonna go by in a snap. Right. If you have kids, your child's three, then they're nine, and then they're 14, and then they're going off to college.

Or starting their senior year. Yeah.

It's crazy. Yeah. It's like, how did that happen? Right? And I think, I love that Bill Gates used to say it. I know Tony says a lot of people say we all overestimate what we can do in a year or six months. And we underestimate what we can do over the next five or ten years. Years. And that consistency, you know, are there some people who come out of the gate and hit home runs? Of course. But it's way less than anybody thinks. It's a point of. Half a point of 1% of the. Of the lucky gone viral on your first thing. Mostly when you look behind the curtain, you look at all the people we get to hang out with. Some once a year, we get together with a lot of people in our space. Man, they put in a decade behind the scenes. Everybody thinks overnight success, 10 years worth of. Worth of consistency. So I. I find that so empowering. And I love the thought of the newsletter. And do not be afraid to start small. You know, I love talking to somebody like Trent. You mentioned him before. He's a dear friend of ours. Trenton said the first year of him making videos, it was his mom and his aunt. And every time he'd see his mom on there, he'd be like, oh, I thought I had one person that liked my video. Just one. And now you could go online and find videos which 200 million people watched one of his videos. He just kept doing it. And the cool part about doing it is you said something. I want to add one more piece to it. You find your voice, but as you find your voice, guess what happens? People who want to hear that exact voice find you. So you don't. I'm not talking to Russell's crowd. He's not talking to mine. Even though we have similarities and overlaps and a lot of what we do, there's some people that want to listen to Russell. I learn from him or from Tony or from anybody in our space. So the more you do it, the more you get comfortable, the more people go that. That aligns with me. And that's where growth really happens all.

The time, too, where people Are like, oh, like, what if people are mad at me or they make fun of me or they hate me or whatever or like, and all that kind of stuff. And you have to understand, it's like when you go out as you as like, like the true. You like going out there being yourself, being your own personality. Yes. You're going to get people that do not like you. There's tons of people who hate Russell Brunson. They think he's annoying, he talks too fast, he. He sells too much, he's too high, whatever it is. Like, there's people that hate me, but the upside, there's people that love me. And like, again, maybe it's because I was spent a month in, you know, a week in Jerusalem. I was reading the New Testament with our kids while we're out there. And like, Christ said something so powerful and talk about himself, right? Like, the person like many of us believe is the greatest has ever been on this planet, right? Like, and he was rejected. He was. He was crucified. Like, it was. And he said something was so powerful. He said that. He said, my sheep will hear my voice. We'll become one fold and one shepherd. So he's like, I'm gonna go out there and talk about my thing. He's like, not everyone's gonna like me. In fact, they're gonna eventually kill me, but my sheep are gonna hear my voice. When I heard that, start thinking about myself. Like, it's the same thing for you. Like, your sheep, your people are gonna hear your voice. And so you gotta go out there and be loud about and just do it. And like, yeah, the ones who aren't your herd are gonna leave. They're gonna reject you, they're gonna make fun of you. But your people are gonna hear. Hear your voice and they're gonna come to you and you have a chance to serve them and change their life. And like, that's what makes it all worth it. Is your sheet that people are supposed to hear your voice. And so you got to be able to. Willing to put it out there, knowing that there's gonna be other people who don't like you gonna hate you. You know, you go five or six pages down and Google deep, you can find there's a lot of people don't like Russell. That's okay because there's people that have changed their life. And like, that's the thing that actually matters. So anyway, just I have to tell.

You, you know, we have a mutual friend, Alex Hermosi, right. And when Alex sold his first Company. He asked if he could have a day with me. I'm like, absolutely. So he flew in, and I have a house, like, two hours from here, up in the mountains. We went up in the mountains, and we spent a day together. And he. And if you know Alex's personality, when he does something, he goes all in. There's no. There's no dabbling. And he said, I want to go all in and build this, but I got to put myself out there. And he said, if I put myself out there, it's like, I don't know. And it just happened the day before he came. The day he was there, someone had parked, found my house, and jumped over my gate and ran to my front door. It looked like it was some scary thing. They just tacked a really beautiful note to my front door, right? But Alex knew, and he's like, could.

Have been a bomb.

I can't do that, Right? It was just a sweet letter. It wasn't anything wrong. But he's like, I don't think I could put myself out there. He's like, then you have people criticize you. And I just said, if that's the price I have to pay to positively impact people around the world and positively impact my family, that's a price I'm willing to pay. And however I told him that day, he went, well, gosh darn it, it's worth it to me, too. And I watched him. You ever see an interview he shares that day? And he's like, I wasn't going to do it. I sat down with Dean. He said, it's the price of admission, and it's worth it for the impact you can make. And you watch that guy, he tore up social media. In a year. He went from zero to hero, like a million followers. And. And did people along the way, probably not like the way, you know, has his mustache and his beard and he's in tank tops and Crocs and socks and flip flops. But the people that needed him got an amazing version of him, right? And I just think you have to. You have to think to yourself, is the juice worth the squeeze? And in my opinion, it absolutely is. Because, listen, there are people that. As you're listening right now, there are people right now waiting for you to speak up because they need your voice, they need your message. They need what? You know, real quick, I want to ask you. And I know, you know, this is shifting a little bit. You know, we went three years of saying, winter is coming, recession is coming, inflation is here, and people are Hurting. Right. There's definitely. Inflation has caused prices to go up. Well, wages haven't matched. Kind of in a recession, kind of not. People are unsure. But I just, I geeked out this weekend of looking at patterns and I spent two days with Tony and we talked about where the world could go in an amazing place over the next decade and where the world could go in a not so amazing place. And the conversation we had was not to be a conspiracy theorist or not to be negative and not to say, but we would rather prepare for the downside than have to react to it and prepare if it doesn't. Do you ever think about that? And if, and if things do go in more of a recession, like, if things do get harder, what's some of the things that you fall back on or what's some advice you would give people in that preparation verse reacting?

Yeah, I would say a couple. A couple things. Number one is like, I think that all of us have to be good be okay with the worst case scenario. That is the, the thing that causes the most fears. Like, we know back in the back of my, like, this worst case scenario. And we're like, too scared to look at. It's like, I'm not gonna look at it. And so, like, we just have this constant fear. When I consult people who are like, on the brink of bankruptcy or things can fall apart and they always want, like, russell, give me some secrets. I can fix everything. Like, what I always have to do is to stop and like, look at that thing. I'm like, you have to become completely okay with the worst case scenario or else you're never gonna be able to move forward.

Wow.

And sit down. Like, what's the worst case scenario? I would lose my house. I would lose my. And like, write those things down and look at that. Like, okay, I have to be okay with that. And if you are, it's like, oh. And usually it's not that big of a deal. We look back, like, I lose my house. I would have to like, what's worst case scenario? I'd have to downsize. I'd have to like, it's like, okay, is that not bad? Like, you move to a smaller house. Like, who cares? Like, oh, you go through bankruptcy. Like, that's the reason why the founding fathers gave us this gift is go through bankruptcy. It's happened to the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. You're going to be like. And like, oh, that's true. And like, since you're okay with that, it's like, oh, it's not that big a deal, and then you can actually move forward. That's the first thing. Second thing is, I try to. Like, I had this conversation with my team every time it gets hectic or stressful or, like, we're stressing about the big event or the challenge or something messed up or, you know, we're not profitable this month or whatever. Like, and, like, I was dropping, like, real quick. I just want you guys to realize, like, none of this actually matters. This is all just a game to entertain ourselves. While we're sitting around waiting to die. I'm like, the only things that actually matter, like, relationship with my wife, relationship with my kids, like, relationship with God, like, that stuff matters. All the rest of this doesn't matter. Like, this is just, like, to entertain ourselves, and you realize, like, this is just the game, and if I lose it all, like, it doesn't really matter. Like, that helps put things in perspective of, like, whoa, maybe I should go home and go spend time with my wife or my kids and be like, I need to go to the soccer game or, I need to go to the thing, like, because that's the only thing that actually matters. Everything else is just a distraction to entertain us. That's the way I look at it. So this is a really fun entertainment. Like, going to movies, only a million times better. But, like, worst case scenario, like, everything goes crazy. We lose our house. Lose everything. Like, cool. We're gonna go live in a trailer house with my kids, and we're gonna goof off and go fishing on the weekends. And, like, but it's gonna be okay. Like, who cares, right, if there's a war? Like, people have gone through wars over time. Like, it's gonna be okay. Like, you know, I look at the. The worst times of, like, you know, the plagues, or you look at the World War I, World War II, and all. Like, it's been happening for. Since the beginning of time. Like, and we're gonna go through it. It's just like, all right, well, just, like, I don't know. Find the things that make you really happy, Things that actually matter as long as you have those around you. Like, cool. Like, just focus on that. Don't lose those pieces. Those are things.

Yeah. I am so glad I asked you that. It's such an incredible answer, Russell. Seriously. I knew you'd have a good twist on it, because I heard a lot of this talk when Covid first happened, and then there was also this abundance of cash everywhere. And then people were like, oh, no, I think. Think we'll Be okay. And then inflation started going. I'm like, oh, I think it's bad. And then people kind of got used to the inflation. Not that they like it. And I'm surely, I know there's some people listening right now that are hurting. You're not liking. I'm not saying you are, but I just started hearing whispers again. Like, no, it was holding off because there's going to be a Great depression and a war. And like I'm hearing it and I get, I'm getting feedback in like through social media, like, Dean, what do we do if there's a war? What do we do if there's a depression? And, and what amazing advice. I love the two things. If you heard Russell, worst case scenario is usually still okay. And the lessons you learned in the worst case scenario. Right. And secondly, I love that it's just a game, like really. And if you look at it that way, some people have survived through the most stressful things in life by looking at that way. So thank you for that great feedback. Tell me what you got going on. What's, what's coming up for Russell Brunson right now.

Oh man. You know a little bit about this, but probably most people don't. I. I've been the last man two years collecting old books, old first edition books and from a lot of different like time periods. But my favorite time period, there's this, there's a window of time from like 1850 to 1950 or so. And it was, there's different eras of time that happened.

Right?

There's like the Renaissance period and there's the, the Stoic era and things like that. But there was this time, 1850, there was the first time where like I feel like country America was in a spot where like there was freedom for the first time and there's other things happening around the world. It was like this weird spot where people had a chance to not stress about all these things and dictators telling them what to do and stuff where it's like we have actual freedom. And they. People started realizing like, if I, if I think about something, I can change my mind. I can actually, I can shift my, my circumstances, my life, my. Everything is based off of thinking. And this arrow was called, it was actually called the New Thought movement. And during that time there are all these books that were written and magazines came out and like it was this big idea that you could think and you could change life. You could, you could think and grow rich. You could think and like as a man thinketh and all these things. And so like there's this period of time where it was such a new concept, new idea. So I've, I've been buying all these old books during that window of time and like, and reading them and like being fascinated by what they were discovering and how they were applying these things. It was just. Anyway, so that's been my, my passion that I've been geeking out about. And I'm about a month or so away from launching like our first membership site that's actually tied to this stuff. And it' it's the new business I was talking about earlier. But I'm excited because it's like, you know, prior to ClickFunnels, I had a dozen businesses I was running and then I shut them all down to build clickfunnels. It's been a decade on that and I love it. I'm not leaving clickfunnels. I'm still the CEO. I'm still acting, I'm still every day. But I was like, I miss like playing this game. Like I get to talk about I could do masterminds where I share ideas for everybody. Like I want to play this game again. And so I carved out this little piece of the Internet for myself and I'm building this little business and doing it just like the way that everyone else. From the beginning, I'm launching an email newsletter and then from there I'm creating a membership site and then from there I'm going to create an offer that gets people in the membership site and I'm going to do a challenge and a webinar and like, and it's not something that needs to be this billion dollar company. It's just something fun I want to do to like, to like be in the game again and keep playing it. Like I miss playing the game. And so that's been the fun thing I'm doing. So these books from this era, most of the copyrights expired or I've gotten the rights from the original families from the Napoleon Hill Foundation. I built a great relationship with them. They've been giving me all these unpublished books and manuscripts. And so in this membership site we're republishing all these things and I'm hoping it'll get people re like just stimulated like the fact that we can think and we can change our life. I feel like, you know, there was a time when there was all these deep thinkers and during the, you know, late 1800s, early 1900s, where they're thinking this of their discovery, they found about the subconscious mind and how it works how you can manipulate it and change things and like, and then like you fast forward now or now it's like everybody in the world's a self help guru. Every, you know, you open up Instagram, you scroll through, there's 8,000 quotes and everyone's like liking quotes and stuff. But no one's getting deep to like, how do we actually like implement this stuff? And I want to bring that back.

We have so many distractions that I think we, we go wide, not deep. I love that distinction. You know, the first time you shared me what you're doing with the books and buying the books was like two years ago. We were on a plane, you and I were flying to Florida.

I was the first people ever told about it. I was like, yeah.

By the time I got, by the time I got on the ground, I'm like, I need to buy old books. Like, I was so stoked. I couldn't wait for you to build this business. So I can't wait for it to come out. Please let me know when you do. I'd love to support you and tell everybody about it because it's going to be unbelievable when Russell does something he doesn't dabble. Amazing to see that. Tell me about funnel hacking live. I know that's coming up here soon.

Yeah, we're like less than two weeks away from it. So right now, next two weeks I'm just working on presentations, but I'm excited. We got 5,000 or so people coming live to Orlando and it's gonna be fun. We're going into, deep into marketing and traffic and sales and persuasion and, and mindset. And this is gonna be the first time I've had like, I don't. I'm not a personal development speaker. Right. I'm a marketing guy, but I'm actually from all stuff I've been spending the last 18 months on or almost two years on now I'm giving my first keynote which is all gonna be like, I love it. I've learned from these old book and it's kind of fun. I'm like, I'm like, there's all these, like, we know, like everyone knows who, like, you know, you know in the Stoic era, you knew Aristotle and Socrates and you know, like, or you know, you know Marcus Aurelius, you know, the Stoic philosopher. Like no one knows the new thought philosophers. And like there's so many of them that have been lost to time already. It's like I'm going to be sharing like, here's these people here's what I learned from it. Here's how they all fits. And so I, I'm, I'm. Anyway, I spent all night last night today working that presentation. When we get off to him to spend the rest of the day on, like, I'm just having so much fun like, like figuring out how to share this with entrepreneurs because I feel like the more entrepreneurs have these, these skill sets and these, this way to think about things differently, the more they're going to be an impact. More people. So anyway, I'm pumped for. It's gonna be an amazing lineup this year. It's gonna be a lot of fun. This is fun. I can live.

Nine.

I can't believe.

Is it really nine? It's number nine.

Crazy.

Is there still room for people to.

Get a ticket depending on when this goes live? So it's coming. Like I said, we're less than two weeks away. So if there are tickets left, they'll be@funnelhackinglive.com and if you can get out there, man, I'd recommend. It's gonna be, it's gonna be a crazy show. We've got, we've got Andy Grammers coming doing a private concert for everyone and we've got. Jocko's gonna come and talk about extreme ownership with everybody and it's, it's gonna be a good time.

You always put on an incredible show. So if you have the opportunity to get to Florida, I would say grab a ticket. We'll put this. We're filming with. This was scheduled for a couple weeks and that I will bump it up. I'll make sure this goes out, you know, soon. So you'll, so you'll have a couple weeks to go grab a ticket. Funnelhackinglive.com Last thing I like to ask this only because I usually ask it sooner, but we've had such a good conversation. When you see somebody like you, Russell, you, you have the greatest smile. You always have lots of energy. Your company, your company's doing amazing. You're impacting people all around the world. They get to see you travel, if you watch you on social. It's fantastic. Listen to your podcast. Incredible. Go to Funnel, Hacking live, all those things. But is there still something in the invisible or something that you had to fight for years? That invisible self doubt or that invisible voice or the fear. Is there still something you have to shift or worry about when no one's watching?

Yeah, it's interesting. Like I, you know this, like, you see me in private circumstances like always. People seem like, oh, I'm the guy that's a little bit, like, in my real world. I'm very introverted, and I get shy and awkward around people. It's funny because, like, even though I go to church, I. I don't talk to many people there. And then I've heard church, like, follows me. So they see me on stage. Like, they see Big Russell and they see me, like, like, that's the same you. Like, yeah, just. And so, like, it's interesting because, like, for me, I've done podcasts on this where I talk about all the fact that, like, I'm. I'm in an introvert, extroverts calling. And so for me, like, that's a. That's a real thing. It's hard for me, like. Like, I love the creation of it. Then, like, to go on stage or to go share something or to go do a face. Like, those things still intimidate me, and people don't believe it because, like, oh, you look like you're so good at it. It's like, like, no, like, I have the anxiety and, like, the same things you guys are feeling. Like people. Every time I'm backstage before I go on stage, I get so nervous, and people like, you still get nervous. I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, this is not, like, I don't know, maybe. Maybe Tony Robbins walk.

Same here.

She's like, oh, but. But for me, like, it's. It's like. Like, it takes a lot for me to get out of. And so a lot of the. The work I do is on that, like, for myself, like, trying to, like, okay, you're gonna be in front of 5, 000 people. You've got 11 presentations. Like, you gotta, like, you know, and so, I don't know. I think a lot of people are waiting for that to go away so they can go. They can serve people. And you have to understand, like, at least for me, like, I've had to do it in spite of that and through that. But I think when you do it that way, man, it's so much more fulfilling. She's like, man, that was not easy. But I. But I did it, and I'm gonna keep doing it. I feel like the. The day that I'm not nervous or not, like, it won't be worth it anymore. Like, there's something about that anticipation, excitement, and nerves and fear and then, like, conquering that, and you're like, oh, I did. Like, that's the. That's the big win. So if you're waiting for the Day that you're gonna, like, feel comfortable. It's probably not gonna come, at least as it for me yet such good feedback.

You know, I, I'm. I'm guilty of the same thing. I'm still nervous every time. I mean, even the last big event we did with McConaughey, we had two and a half million people registered. We had. If you saw, we had 600,000 people live just on YouTube at the same time. And I'm standing. It was in this room, he. And I'm standing there getting ready to go out, and I literally thought I was gonna vomit. I'm like, what if I screw this? Like, I'm not in your head. I'm like, are you. Maybe you're not that good. Maybe, like all these weird thoughts come in your head or maybe what you thought they were going to, like, they're going to be like, no, that was the dumbest thing. Go back to your old stuff. It's like. It's like going to a concert. They don't want to hear the new songs, play the old song. Right? All these things are going in my head, like 12ft from right here. And I just. I walked out ready to vomit. And everybody's like, oh, my God, you were so cool and collective. You're a natural, I think. A natural. Oh, my God, I'm so far from a natural. And it's funny you say that when I go to my son or daughter's, my older ones, when I go to, like, a kid's function, I don't know how to communicate with the other parents. I still. I'm such an introvert. And I know you are, too, that great share because it really shows people that, you know, we all have our stuff in the Invisible. It's just the fact is, do we keep getting back up and going after it? The last thing I'll share on that is I was fortunate enough to have dinner with Michael Jordan about seven years ago now. And anyway, we're having such a cool conversation and he brought his chair and moved around and sat next to me. Coolest experience in my life. Because there was some boring people at the table. Maybe I'm saying I'm not boring, but maybe I was less boring than some of the other people at the table. And they're really good people. That sounds rude if you hear this in his. Anyway, long story short, he comes, sits next to him next to me, and there was a million things he could talk about. And he. He talked about when he played Utah and how he was so sick he ate pizza in the middle of the night because he was starving. And he thinks they brought him bad pizza on purpose because they wanted him to lose. He doesn't know if it was the pizza or a flu, but he threw up all night, had a fever, was sick, and he played and he was telling me the story and he was so proud of the fact that he played sick with all of his accomplishments, that really stood out. And I remember leaving that day and I said, I thought I heard it before. I'm not sure if I did. But since that day, I always thought winners do it with a headache. Like, I'm scared. I'm an introvert. But I'm still going to walk out in that stage, go live. People in my family might think I'm nuts for trying to do my own thing, but I'm still going to go live, right? Put myself out there, write a book, put my name on it. Oh, my God. People are going to say, are you really? I'm going to do it anyway. It's like those that succeed have a bigger purpose, a bigger why than. Than the negative side. Russell, it's amazing watching your growth. I'm. I love being your friend. I love watching the father you are, the husband you are, the example you set, the contribution to the world. You're one of the best marketers out there. Keep doing what you're doing. We'll keep supporting you best we can. Appreciate you so much.

Appreciate Dean, you're awesome.

And everybody, thank you for tuning in to the Own youn Future podcast. If you know somebody who needs it, why not forward it to them right now? If you're not subscribed, make sure to do that. Leave a comment and we'll see you next time. Weekend.