Secret #60: What We Learned From Our First $100,000,000 In Sales...

What's up, everybody?

This is Russell Brunson. Welcome to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Today's a special episode. We're here above the ice. That's right here. There's hockey happening down there. We're in our partner planning meeting right here. All of the co founding partners of Clickfunnels hanging out, plotting world nomination. And the theme of today's event and the theme of this podcast is this. It comes from social network. Millions dollars isn't cool. You know what is cool? A billion dollars. So the big question is, how are entrepreneurs like us, who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, who are 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. All right, everybody, so welcome back. We're excited to have you guys here. So we've been here locked up in this awesome office for the last day and a half, planning world domination, how to make ClickFunnels better for you as a user, how to get more of you as users so we can serve more people, more audiences and more entrepreneurs. And it's been really fun. And we've been going around plotting and scheming and planning and creating and doing and a whole bunch of really fun stuff. So I thought we'd take a quick like 10 minute break here and I thought it'd be fun because we actually had a call yesterday with I guess not really competitors. Cool company that, like, what they're doing with potentially interested in like maybe buying them or whatever. It was funny because they've been watching what we're doing, obviously, and he was like, oh yeah, so he has what, $10 million a year of revenue? We're like, no. So in case you guys are wondering, we passed the $10 million revenue year one. We're year three. So what I want to do is I wanted, I thought it'd be kind of fun to look at this like a little like A month ago, two months ago, we passed $100 million. We went from zero to a hundred million dollars in about three years. And I wanted to say, like, what was the biggest aha that each of us individually got from that we've learned in that process. So you guys get my ideas from everybody inside the team here. So just a really quick intro, everybody, and I'll share my aha and we'll Move on. So I'm Russell. I'm the nerd who is like the dancing monkey who gets talk about click funnels all day long.

Woo.

That's what I do here. This is Todd Dickerson.

Hey guys.

He is the genius that built all the original click funnels. And look at that beard, it's so manly. Over here is Dave. There's all the business development stuff. He's got the retro click funnel shirt on, rocking it. Then over here is John. Here's all of our ads and if you see us every day on every platform, it's because of that guy. So blame him. And over here is Brent. Co Peters. What's up? I'm just in your face and I can't see. And Brett here, he does all our operations stuff and he's going to be transitioning over a bunch of our new stuff that we can't talk about live publicly yet. It's going to be cool. And this is Ryan.

What's going on, Ryan?

Ryan is the genius who is always.

Coding all the time.

All right. So I thought it would be fun because you get different people's perspectives because obviously we're all in different parts of the company lifting different parts and doing different things. So I thought it'd be interesting to hear everybody's ideas. So I'll start with mine. So I think the biggest takeaway I shared this last night with these guys is as I was growing my business initially, the first eight or nine years I was very like, I don't know what the right word is, like scarcity, mindset or whatever. Whereas I am Russell, I am the leader, I own the company and like all these things and it's. And I had, I think I had one or two deals with partners that went sour and it was like. Because I was like, I will never have a partner. I will only be me. And it's funny, like with that mindset and that attitude, we were able to get to like this level and we kind of capped out there. And I'm lucky for me, Todd came in, Trojan horsed his way in where he basically worked for free for an entire year, which was awesome. And then worked together for a couple years. I don't even know how many years was it ahead of time, two or three years? Yeah, a couple years at least before that. And then when we had the idea for click Funnels and we were sitting in an office in Boise, we bought the domain, we were going to call it something different. And then we finally found click Funnels about the domain and then whole Week we were mapping out on the whiteboard everything.

And.

And the end of the week, and this is, like, to kind of take you back. Like, this is on the back end of, like, we had 100 employees. Whole thing collapsed. We had to fire 80 people. I had to go from a 20,000 square foot building to a 2,000. We could barely afford the rent. Like, it was, like, the most humbling, painful time of my life, Right? And I think that the Lord, or whoever, whatever you want to call it, humbled me to a spot where I was willing to say yes to this. And I am so eternally grateful. I did. But at the end that week, Todd's like, okay, I'm gonna go back to Atlanta. I'm gonna build. I'm gonna build this thing, this clickfunnels thing. He's like, but I don't want to do it as an employee. They want to do it as a partner. And the Russell, two or three years earlier than that would have been like, nope, this is the Russell show. I need to be. I need to be the. You know, and I would have done something stupid like that. But luckily, I was a point where I was sufficiently humble, and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do that. And I'm so grateful that I did, because then toddlers built click funnels.

Like, holy crap.

Seriously, it's insane. And then after that, that's when we brought in these other guys as partners as well, and they're all rockstar people. It wasn't just like, I'm gonna give you a base salary. It was like, hey, come in. Become, like, a partner in this thing. And for me, it's like, as you find the right people and incentivize them. Like, if I was ever build a company again, I would never build a company where Russell's the thing. I would. And we went and watched Justice League last night, so maybe this is because it's in my head. Justice League, Avengers, whatever. Like, all I. Yeah, Batman. Like, I would literally, if I ever build a company again, the initial thought will be, I'm gonna build my Avengers team, my Justice League. Like, okay, I'm Batman. There's Iron Man. We've got. You know, everyone's got their spot. And I would.

Who's Aquaman?

Yeah, Ryan's Wonder Woman. I just want to look like Aquaman. That dude is ripped. But if I ever start a company again, the first thought will not be, what products should I sell. It's gonna be, what team should we assemble? And then I would carve out where everyone's roles are gonna be. I'm not gonna be CEO next time. So any of you guys can pick that. Like, I'm done after this. But we each pick our different roles. And then from there, collectively, we'd be like, what should we create? What should we build? Who should we serve? And then we'd go from that. So my biggest takeaway from the lap, from going from zero to a hundred million dollars, is definitely like, give up control. Build your Avenger team ahead of time. Because Russell Brunson could have never gotten here. It took these guys and the teams we built underneath that. So, anyway, there's my number one. So I'm handing it on to Todd now to share the biggest thing he's learned going zero to $100 million.

So what's funny is that I was actually thinking about saying very similar things.

Right?

Like, one of the biggest things is the team.

Right.

Like seeing how to build a team around you and actually do things as a team as opposed to by yourself independently. That's how I've always done things in the past is on my own, more or less in the same type scenario. But I think something else that stands out to me is having someone that is obsessive about the product itself. So we always talk about how marketing is the big thing, and it is. But if you're focused on the marketing, you still need someone on your team that is obsessed with the actual product and making sure you're delivering the best possible thing to people. So when you sell it to them, they actually like it and they come back and they want more. And they do.

Yeah.

Anyway, so that's my other big epiphany, I think, that I've had over the.

Past, especially in our world. Our world. Like, everyone's obsessed with the marketing, rightfully so. A lot of times you can do the marketing and the product. If you're doing both, it's really, really hard. Yeah, because, like, I tried to build software companies in the past. I was like, the marketing guy. Plus, I was, like, trying to convince the developers how to do it. Whereas, like, with this, like, you were able to run with the product and I could just, like, sell it.

Yeah, absolutely. So that's why I think that's worked as a great partnership. Like, Russell focuses on the marketing, and I focus on the product. And I think having that really makes a difference. Pass it on to Dave here.

Hey there. So we talk about this all the time, and I cannot express the importance of it. And that's the dream. 100. As I take a look back on everything that's happened as far as first of all having an amazing product and then amazing leaders. And Todd and Russell, I mean, the two of them are like amazing together. I think that the part for me is I look at everything that we built over the last three years now is the importance of the Dream 100. And originally was Dream 100. Just as far as affiliates and even most recently when we did the book launch, what I really learned a lot from that was the importance of understanding it's a dream 100 per platform as well. So as far as your influencers, where are they at? Are they on YouTube? Are they on Facebook? Are they on Twitter? Are they in Instagram? Wherever they might be? And then even most recently, as far as a new dream 100, as far as higher end partners that you really want to end up working with long term. And so for me, I think the most important thing is when you start looking at building something is really identifying your dream 100 and then being very, very consistent in continuing to mail out every single month to them. And that establishes, builds that relationship with them. They get used to seeing you. It's been fascinating for me as we've gone out and we travel and go to these different places and people will remember the boxes and things that have been sent and they're like, oh, how do I get on that list? And if they're asking to be on the list, I don't need them on the list, basically.

But.

But the reality, yeah, it basically says it actually works. So I would say in building a hundred million dollar company or any size company, I would definitely say Dream 100 is one of the most important things. John, up to you.

All right, so really interesting journey we've been on. It's been so much fun. So, yeah, one of the things that I've learned, which is just huge, is prioritizing your time and your tasks. I mean, especially when, you know, we're all Internet entrepreneurs, we're on the computer and it's so easy. Computer is gateway to anything, right? So a huge thing for me is to before even like opening up the computer, like physically write down or use your phone or use something else that's not your computer to like structure out. I mean, we all do this, Russell does this, I do this. We structure out like what we're gonna do, right? Like what are the next things I need to do? Because if you can get that like basically spiritually created, if you can get that like thought through before you actually begin, then then it changes Everything. I mean, then you're actually. You're getting through stuff instead of just, like, fumbling along. I mean, it's so easy because we're all bombarded with a million different things. We could be paying attention to a million different things, only some of which are really gonna move the needle, Right? And the other thing is, especially as you. As you grow your team, as you. As you get more people working with you, it's about. So, like, I build out that list, and then the next thing I ask myself as I go through that list is like, okay, who can do this? Okay, who can I get to do this? Who can I get to do this? And that specific question as I go through the list is, who can I get to do this? That allows me to go through and delegate as much as possible to team members. And so then I become more of a leader, right, because it's so easy just to be like, oh, I can just do it all. Well, yeah, you can do it all, probably, but maybe you shouldn't be doing it all. You know, it's something to think through. So build up that list. Really think through it before you start to take action in the day, prioritize it, and then go through and just glean through the list and be like, okay, who can I get to do these things? Assuming you'll be doing none of them, of course, there will be a handful of them that you end up doing. But that way, that's just a mindset that will help you get things delegated properly. Here you go, Brent.

Awesome. Hey, everybody. There you are. Hey, everybody. It's good to get to connect with you. I just want to express how much we appreciate you. Everybody who follows us, who obviously dedicated listeners of Russell's program. It's funny, more and more is as we travel with Russell, even locally here in the Boise area, he's getting, like. People recognize him all over the place. Like, they see. They see the Jeep, or they're seeing him in the hallway, the hotel, like, hey, I'm your neighbor. And, you know, just these. These red albertsons. It's just like, this guy's. Yeah, it's just. It's just funny. And anyways, a couple of things. I've had the privilege of working with Russell for over 11 years, and the one thing I think that you just cannot replace or that is absolutely needed is hard work. You have to be dedicated in getting into this business and be willing just to sacrifice what you need to sacrifice to get going. Another thing that I think we've learned through this journey is stay nimble and small as much as you can. Don't go out and try to lease some big office space until you've got sales coming in, consistent sales and you know that your business is in good shape that way. Another thing that we, a mantra we've kind of followed here in our company is we've been slow to hire and quick to fire building a team. And Russell just has done a tremendous job of just obviously we've got great partners here and then that has extended to our team members and again, we love all of our team members. We are essentially a great family of like minded individuals who are focused on a goal and the leadership in this company has helped us all work to achieve that goal. So that's been awesome as well. So stay small as long as you can't be nimble, be humble. But get, you know, you gotta work hard and once you do those things, don't sweat over the small things. I mean, I think I'm just, we've had different variations of employee handbook and I'm just finally getting it out here probably in the next few weeks. And we've been like business for three years, so don't stress about those things. And we were at somewhere, we were at an event in Denver a few weeks ago related to customer support. And that's very normal for small startups. I mean, that's very normal. Those things just come. But don't worry about those little details, they work themselves out. But work hard and you'll achieve that success. So I will hand this over to my buddy Ryan. There you go, buddy.

So I love talking about this topic and I think it's best summarized as worse is better. You can do a lot more than you think. Gary Vee told us that when we met with him. On the social media side, we're like, we already do everything. We already do a ton. We're on everything. He's like, you can do more. And I think this is true in everything we do in engineering, everything we do when it comes to product. You've heard it in every single answer from everybody to some degree. But I think the killer underlying subtext to all that is that constraints are not a limiting factor. They force you to focus. The focus forces you to prioritize. And that forces you to do the one thing every day that's the most valuable so that you can compete with somebody who's got $40 million in funding and you've got three guys in an office trying to figure it out because it makes you laser focus on like the thing you have to do every single day. That's what enables you to compete at a higher level. That's what enables, and I believe the most important thing we've done in our culture is force everybody from, you know, hiring decisions to business processes. Don't worry about the handbook. Don't, you know, don't over complicate this, simplify this. Because those constraints are what make us as powerful as we are and what enable us to be a hundred million dollar company with 100 people to grow to a billion dollars with fewer resources and a fraction of the budget and everything else. Everyone else is competing with us. They have no idea how we do it. They're all like, wait, how many engineers do you have? How do you do this? How big are you? It blows their mind. And I think that's the thing they miss, is that those constraints are what enable us to do it. That's our weaknesses are our strengths and people see them backwards and we see it the opposite. And that's why everyone's so blown away and why nobody gets it. And I think that's our secret sauce in many ways. So I love that. That's our thing. That's what I learned. That blew my mind.

That's awesome. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. It was fun hanging out and we just wanted to thank you guys so much for allowing us to serve you and serve your audience. We love what we do. We're obsessed with it, we're passionate. We've been up for the last two days going crazy trying to figure out ways to do it better. And you know, for us, a lot of people say you guys made 100 million. That's crazy. It's like, that's like step number one for us. We're just getting started. Wait till you see what's gonna be coming out in our next 12 months and beyond. We love you guys. We appreciate you. We're so grateful for the ability and the right and the gift we have to be able to serve you guys in what you guys do. So thanks again so much for everything and talk to you guys soon. Bye. Everybody 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 and 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.