How To Ethically Smash Your Competition

So the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, were spending money from our own pockets? How do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world and yet still remain profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Russell Brunson, and welcome to Marketing Secrets. What's up, everybody? Hey, this is Russell. Welcome to Marketing Secrets. Today I got a really cool episode for you guys, I think, hopefully. And it's something that there's a lot of things that we're doing that people can see and they're aware of, and there's things that are happening that people aren't aware of. And so I just want to lift the curtain a little bit so you guys can get some ideas. Part of the time, you're selling to try to sell your products and services. You're selling why it's good and why it's amazing. Stuff like that. And it's funny, actually on Facebook, I saw an interesting thread the other day. Someone like, should I attack my competitors or should I not talk about them at all? And it's one of those things that it's interesting watching the whole conversation because some people are like, don't address your customers. If you have the best product. Don't talk about them. And all these different things and strategies. And obviously, you guys know that I talk about my competitors, and we tease them and we poke at them, and we have fun with it. In fact, earlier today, Steven may or may not have launched a new video game where you could actually compete against. Well, you have to defeat confusionsoft to be able to fight against Loki pages and the Drip Armies. And it's pretty awesome. So why don't we do stuff like that? So it's interesting. First off, it's funny. And so that helps me get through the day because there's a lot of stuff we gotta do, so might as well make the day fun. But second off, you look at, like, marketing as a whole, like, marketing strategy, right? Because this is a big deal. But if you think about it, like, and there's been a bunch of books written on this, and so if you want to study deeper, you should, because it's interesting. But I think Differentiate or Die is one of the books that talked about this, I believe. And anyway. But what they talked about is, like, in your marketplace, that number two always needs to attack number one, right? So Coke always attack, or excuse me, Pepsi always Attacks Coke. But number one, cannot acknowledge number two, Roasted Jacks up the whole thing. So Coke never talks about how they beat Pepsi. You notice that? But Pepsi's always talking about Coke. Okay, Mac versus PC. When they first came out, okay, Mac was number two, and they were attacking PC, tacking PC, all the funny commercials we all remember. And as soon as they surpassed them, you know, those commercials disappeared and we stopped talking about it. So there's something about that. Like, if you're trying, maybe it's because the athlete in me, like, I'm a big believer. Like, if. If I'm gonna beat somebody, I need to find that person, identify him, and, like, let the world know. Like, this is who we're going after. This is who we're gonna beat. And after we pass and then we start talking about it. So we don't really talk about Loki pages very often anymore because we flew past them, as you guys know. But Futuresoft's obviously the next target that we're trying to get bigger than. We have more customers than right now. I think the revenues are higher because they charge more for their confusing software. But that's another story. So that's, like, the thing. And so for me, I don't mind acknowledging number one, because we are gaining on them. And that's the plan. That's how it works. And so I don't have any problem. I don't think it's just how business is done. It's how sports are done. It's how athletics are done. In fact, if you guys want something fun, so scroll down the feedback before we change the name of this to Marketing secrets. When it was marketing your car, I did a whole episode on athletes and competition. And anyway, it was pretty funny, I thought, so you guys should go listen to that one. But talk about the fact that in this business world, who are you competing against? These people you're competing against. I talk about how I was a wrestler growing up, so my whole life was competition. It was like, who's the person ahead of me? And then, like, literally my junior year, my first match, I lost the kid who was returning state champ. So I knew that's who it is. And then I studied everything he did for the next entire season. We practiced against him, got better and better and better, and actually made him the state finals. And I beat him, right? Like. And, like, that's the athletic mentality. We're all about competition. And then in the business world, though, like, half people in the business don't have athletic background. Like, they. They were in band or choir and things like that, which there's nothing wrong with that. But when you're in the choir, there's no competition. Like, you're just kind of hanging out, singing with each other. Maybe there's competition to be first seat, second seat a little bit, but it's different, right? And so a lot of times, like, we get in this playground and we're now competing in business, and you've got people that, excuse me, were banned and they were in choir, all sorts of things. And you got some, like me, whose entire life was about finding your competitor and destroying him publicly in front of everybody. So you get your hand raised and everybody cheers for you. So it's like, that's who. Like, you have to be aware, like, that's you're competing against. So you can't be all mad like, oh, they're calling me out by name. Oh, they're competing with me. It's like, dude, you're competing against a wrestler whose whole entire life that's all he's cared about. Like, of course that's gonna be my goal. That's how I'm gonna go. And anyway, there's a whole podcast about it you should listen to if you scroll down to the itunes feed. But anyway, so there's some background kind of what we're talking about. But what I wanted to talk to you guys about is this concept that we call seeds of Doubt. Okay, and so what are Seeds of Doubt? These are things that if you watch what I do, you'll see me placing all the time these little seeds of doubt, the competitors. I know a lot of times I'm going to talk about something, and I know that somebody is using confusionsoft or they're using leadpage or whatever that thing is, right? They're using something else. And I'm coming in and looking at me and they're like, you know, we have all our stuff over here. I can't shift over. And so I understand that. So instead of me just, like, trying to convince them in a hard sell them, I'm going to place a whole bunch of seeds of doubt so that from that time, from that moment forward, for the rest of their waking hours, and hopefully they're sleeping hours, too. If I do it right, they're going to be thinking about that thing, that seed of doubt about the thing that they're using. And it's always kind of running their head like, oh, what if, what if, what if? If you were at Funnel Hacking Live, I did the whole presentation. In fact, if you go to follow followupfunnels.com, you can see that presentation, but I talked about action, where we're going and things, stuff like that. And throughout that presentation, I'm placing a whole bunch of seeds in doubt of our competitors. Like, I talk about if you're using email marketing, I talk about how many times I got shut down by aweber, eye contact, mailchimp, infusion, stuff. Like, all those things. And even, like, you love those systems also now you're like, wow, Russell's been shut down nine times by AWeber, 11 times. All these different things I got shut down by. And now there's a seed of doubt. You're like, everything's good. But like, what if they did shut me down? Oh, man. Now that seed of doubt is there. Now you're paranoid. And so then the whole time you're using your thing, you're like, what if I get shut down? What if I get shut down? Most of you guys probably will eventually. So, like, it's not that I'm doing this, like, maliciously. Like, it's the truth. It's truth happened to me over and over and over again. But I'm placing that seed of doubt so that people are aware of it. Right. I just purchased a product from somebody who was using an infusion soft order form. I filled my whole credit card information and took me seven steps. Seven steps after the credit card was in seven clicks. Sorry, seven clicks to give them the money. I wanted them to take my money. It took seven more clicks to actually give them money. Okay, I was annoyed by that, but instead of just being annoyed by it, I want to talk about it. I'm talking about it right now, by the way. I. I'm talking about it through different platforms. I'm on. I just mentioned, like, I try to buy this thing for someone using infusionsoft order form. Seven clicks. Like, I would normal. Most people would have left if I didn't want the products, but I would have left. And like, you're like, every click in your sales process, you lose a percentage of people, right? So my whole mind is always like, how do we shorten the distance? I want to make sure that there's as few clicks possible to get somebody from where they're starting to where I want them to end. Because the more every click, you lose somebody. But just after between me getting the credit card, typing in it, and submitting, there's seven clicks. Okay, so that's what you're getting when you're using infusionsoft, Right? So I said I placed a seat of doubt. Cause now you're like, well, how many clicks are my order form crap? Well, that's like the standard. Like, you have to admit, if I'm using that system, like, huh? And then you start wondering, like, this whole time, like, what if I'm. What if I'm losing sales and money? And like, that thought will keep pecking away at your mind and keep thinking and keep sitting there and see that. And eventually it'll sprout the point. You're like, I'm losing a lot of money. It's time to make the shift. It's time to do the right thing. And that's my whole goal. Because I know that not everyone's gonna sign up today, but they're gonna sign up eventually. I always tell people it's not a matter of if you're gonna become a member of ClickFunnels, it's when. So my goal is like, if it's not right now, I need to place the seeds of doubt so that throughout your system, you're always thinking about, like, me coming and doing that thing and when's it gonna happen and how's it gonna happen and things like that. So that's kind of the concept of Seeds of Doubt. So as you're doing your marketing, it's not just like, I know some of you guys are like, russell, where do I place my seat of doubt? It's like, no, it's not like, it's like you're sprinkling that in as you're doing stuff, as you're doing Snapchat or Instagram, as your podcast or your videos or your whatever it is. Like, wherever you're at, you're just sprinkling those seeds of doubt against your competitors and making those things known so people are aware of, like, wow, I didn't realize that that was even a thing. I want to make sure those things are out there and that people are aware of them. So that's kind of the concept. And it's a really good thing. In fact, in wrestling, we would do the same kind of things with our opponents, right? We go to a tournament and. And like, during weigh ins, you'd see who you'd see who were in your weight class and stuff. And it's always kind of like a mental game because you're just like, oh my gosh, that guy looks bigger than me. All these kind of things. It's like, how do you place Seeds of Doubt? A lot of it has to do with your confidence sometimes, like, how you shake the person's hand, like, all those kind of things. Because in sports, in business and most things, honestly, it's a lot less of, like, the physical and a lot more of the mental. It's funny, when I started doing Jiu Jitsu, I'm not a Jiu Jitsu guy, I'm a wrestler, but I started doing Jiu Jitsu, and it was funny because I think it's my second or my third tournament I went to. I went out and I'm up a weight class because I was kind of overweight at the time. So I'm up at, like, almost heavyweight. So you guys are big dudes that I'm going against. And most of them in Jiu Jitsu for a couple years, like, they're blue belts, and I think it's brown after that and whatever. And I'm just. I just came in. I don't have any belt at all. I just do new no geese. You don't actually have a belt. So I came out there, and as soon as I went out there, I was like, these guys are going to kill me. I don't know what I'm doing. But I was like. Because of that, like, I have to place seeds of doubt in their mind that they are going to be able to beat me fast. Otherwise I'm going to be choked out and tapped out really, really quick. So what I did is my very first match, because everyone's like, your weight class. Like, everyone's sitting close to each other in the mat. So I came out and I'm like, okay, I'm a Jiu Jitsu guy, but I'm a wrestler. I gotta, like. I gotta scare this first guy. So I came out instead of, like, coming in and doing, like, the Jiu Jitsu thing where they. I came out like a wrestler and came running out and started bound on his head. Boom, boom, boom. Push him, push him. Knock the dude over. And the guy falls out of bounds. And he gets up and you see, like, I placed the seed of doubt and his eyes were just like, oh, crap, he walks back in the circle. At that point, it was like everything shifted. His whole countenance, he was, like, nervous and awkward and, like, I thought he was easy. It was like wrestling like a little soft puppy. It was so easy after that, right? What was cool is that all the other guys sitting on the mat, they saw that as well. And they were looking in and they're like, oh, my gosh. When I did, I wrestled and I rolled with. That's what they call them, Jiu Jitsu. And I rolled with the other guys. I came out there and it was funny. As soon as I came out there, I could see it in their eyes. And all of them started backing up and they were just like. Because they didn't want me to rush. They didn't want that pressure that I was bringing. And you could see in their eyes. And then I spurred me more, but that seated out was set. And it was just like all these guys who were bigger, stronger, faster and better at jiu jitsu, who probably should have beat me if they would have had the mental belief that they could. They didn't because they had the seated out. And they were like, I don't know what to do. And that's like, that's all it takes. So hope that helps you guys. It's kind of fun. Think about how you can do that in your communication with your audience and I hope that helps. And that's all I got for you guys today. Thanks so much for everything you guys. And tonight we're actually launching Funnel Hacker tv, the TV show and all. So if you go to Funnelhacker tv you can see the behind the scenes show. We've got eight episodes of that right now. And tonight we're having the first full, I'm not sure what you're calling it yet, full documentary or whatever. And then some other cool thing when you go to that, go to funnelhacker tv, check that out and then you'll notice at the top there's some cool tabs. One takes you to Marketing Secrets, which is this podcast and one that takes you to the blog. And anyway, I'll share with you guys the strategy behind that in the near future. But I think it's pretty cool. So that's all I got you guys. Thanks so much for everything and we'll talk to you soon. Bye. Want more Marketing Secrets? If so, then go get your copies of my two best selling books. Book number one is called Expert Secrets and you can get a free copy@expertsecrets.com. book number two is called Dotcom Secrets and you can get your free copy@dotcomsecrets.com Inside these two books you'll find my top 35 secrets that we've used to become the fastest growing non VC backed SaaS startup company in the world.