The #1 Way To Know If You're Going To Succeed Or Fail Before You Even Start

Hey everyone, it's Russell Brunson and welcome to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Tonight I'm going to show you guys the one telltale sign to know if you're going to be successful in business or not. And it works 100% of the time. So the big question is this, how are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital? We're 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 answer. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing Secrets. Hey everyone, this is Russell. So we're on like day four or five of like binge all nighters when my wife and kids are away out of town. Now my wife doesn't get back till a couple more days, but two of my kids, my younger sister are coming back tomorrow, which I'm so excited. They're supposed to come back today and then they didn't. So now gave me one more day to pull an all nighter. So it's about 1 o' clock now. Today we have built and launched 1, 2, 3, 4 funnels. And what's funny is that none of them are new funnels. They're all just rebuilds of existing funnels. And this is hopefully less than 4 y', all, because I hate all my funnels, even though they work pretty good, but they're still not done. But guess what I did. I launched them and I made a bunch of money with them and now I'm fixing them again. And I'm probably going to fix them again later. And I just keep getting better and better and better. But they're never done. So don't be like, oh, my funnel's not ready. I can't make money. Just do it. Just launch it, make money and then fix it along the way. And keep fixing it. And ready, fire, Aim. Clickfunnels gives you that ability to change things and make them better and better. So that's what I do. And that's what you should do too. Alright, so before I pass out because I'm kind of like getting a little loopy, it was fun. Steve and I spent like 30 minutes, I think we were getting tired. And then I gave him an Internet marketing history lesson. According to Russell Brunson, I showed him all my old sites and Wayback Machine. My first product, my second, my first three software products I showed. It was fun. We Filmed most of it, so hopefully it'll show up on Funnel Hacker tv, but who knows? We'll see. While we're talking, it was funny. He was talking about how, like, in the past, how he's had a lot of business partners and things, and how some people basically, like, all the business partners he's had, like, none of them ever became successful. And he was like, kind of only one that came out the end that was. And he was. Him and his wife were discussing, like, why did that happen and why didn't it? And saying that I remembered something and I told him. I'm like, obviously nowadays it's different. People come to our events. Now it's different, like, because we've raised the prices and we've attracted real entrepreneurs and things like that. But the first five or six years of my company, we were selling to beginners, and we were breaking my cardinal rule, which is don't sell the broke people. But we were. So we had these events, people come, and not that they were all broke or anything. There were some amazing people came through, but it was definitely different audience, different crowd. And I was telling them, I said I would walk into our events. We had smaller events, about 40, 50 people. And I welcome everybody and have everyone introduce themselves. And within five seconds of them introducing themselves, I knew with 100% certainty and accuracy who's gonna succeed and who wasn't. It was crazy. And I always felt guilty. Like, do I, like, after they introduced himself, should I tell them, like, hey, there's no way you could ever be successful, like, in this business. You should leave? Or should I, like, let him go through? You know, like, part of. It's like, some people buy because they want success and go buy because they want the entertainment, they want the excitement. They, like, they, like chasing the dream, like, the idea of the dream. And so I feel like that's sometimes more. As valuable. More valuable than what you give them, if that makes sense. Like. Like, I know. What was it? I can't remember who I learned this from or where I heard it. Oh, man, it was really good. But the concept was basically that, like, it was from a TV show, someone shared it. But basically, like, a lot of people, they don't want to take the leap and actually do the work. And it doesn't make sense because those of you who are producers, like, that's what you thrive off, producing and doing and, like, moving forward. But a lot of people, they don't want to take that leap because they had this dream, this vision, what's gonna happen and if they do take a leap, and if it fails, then they lose their dream, right? And so for me, like, I know that this life is short, and for a lot of us, it's just dreaming. There's a lot of things I do that I spend money on that are never gonna be real. But, like, I enjoy it. It gets me dream. It lets me dream. And to think about something gets me excited. That's part of it. So I never told those people when they introduced us, like, there's no way you'll be successful. You should leave. Because, again, I feel like there are other things I don't try to impress. Sometimes for us and everyone here, listening is different. Some of you guys, success is the reason why you do this. And that's your value. That's what you're looking for. And sometimes we try to force our values on the people. I've got a mastermind group, my inner circle. You guys know about that. People make 25 grand a year. And some people come because they want to learn and execute. Other people come because they want to hang out. If I try to push them to learn to execute, it bothers them and they leave because they say they want success, but they don't really want success. They want the networking, they want the people, they want the friendship. They want connection with other people like them. And I totally respect that now. I used to struggle with that when I was first getting started. But people give you money for different reasons, and most times it's not for why you think. So don't push your own beliefs on them because it can screw things up anyways. People come in, and I would know that. And I asked Stephen, I'm like, do you know how I could tell? I'm curious if you would know. And so my question for you is that, like, how did I know? What was the telltale sign that with 100% certainty and accuracy, I knew within a second if people were going to be successful or not in this business. Not in life, they can be successful in other things. But in this business, I'm curious what your thoughts are. So think about it for a second, because I'm going to tell you what the answer is. And I'm a little nervous to tell you because some of you guys are going to be like, crap, does that mean I'm not going to be successful? And I don't think that that means you're not going to be successful, but it does if you don't shift what you're chasing, what you're thinking about, because everyone I know who has been successful. It's been the opposite side. Again. We would come in and after first session, I'd be like, okay, here's our three people are gonna be successful. And everyone else in the room be like, yeah, I don't know how, but I feel that too. And I kind of identified. So this was the difference. Those who never had success, when they introduced themselves and when they talked about, when they thought about it, whenever they presented anything, they were in the business because they wanted to make money. Those are the people that failed. You're listening. You're like, what? Russell, we all want to make money. That's why we got in this business, right? That's why I'm here. That's why I'm starting you, Russell, because you teach people how to make money. And I want some of that, right? You guys remember Wedding Singer? One of my favorite movies of all time, When Adam Sandler, like, when Drew Barrymore like goes to marry. Whatever. So he's all mad. So he goes to the bank and he's trying to get a. Trying to get a loan or try to get a job at a bank to like make money so that she'll like him. And Norm MacDonald or not Norm MacDonald, what's his name? Anyway, he's the banker and he's like, why? He's asking his qualifications. And Adam Sander's like, well, I like money. I'd like some more of it. You got some money. And it's just like this anyway, this funny thing. So I totally slaughtered it, but it's really funny. Go watch Wedding Singer. Anywho, it's really late. All right, so where did I leave off? Alright, so the people that were not successful, the people that wanted to make money, the people that were successful are people that were passionate and excited about the marketing is the key. Isn't that weird? Those who got excited by the marketing were the ones who were successful. It was weird. I remember hanging out with Dagan Smith one time and he told me, he said when he shifted from not being successful to being successful is when he got excited and passionate about the marketing and became obsessed with it. And it's interesting because the business owners that I like to work with, the entrepreneurs, with entrepreneurs running the business. Why? Because they become passionate about the marketing of the thing, whereas bigger businesses, they think they're in the business of selling the thing. Apple, you're not in the business of selling iPhones. You're in the business of. Excuse me, you're not in the iPhone business. You're in the business of selling iPhones, like, that's what Steve Jobs understood. That's why it was a big deal. That's why the keynote speech. That's why all those things happen. Because he knew he was in the business of the selling of the thing, not of the thing. And that's what I found. People introduced themselves. Like, I'm studying Russell. I'm, like, geeking out, reading the books. I love the marketing. I'm so excited. I've got this passion, and I want to sell it. I'm like, boom, that guy's gonna be successful or that girl's gonna be successful. They come in like, hey, yeah, so, you know, I have a job, and I really want to make some extra money and whatever, right? Or, hey, I'm just not happy where I'm at, and I want to make extra money for every time it was, like, money focused, they failed. Every time it was. I've been reading stuff, and I'm excited. So hopefully, because unfortunately, most educators make things really boring, and I feel bad. Through my college and high school careers, most teachers are really boring. And I've tried my best to make marketing exciting because it is exciting. It's exciting for me. I actually started this on Sunday. I recorded. I decided I wanted to start a religious podcast and recorded the first two episodes. And it's hard because, like, I listen to other religious podcasts, and, like, they, like, they bore me. And I'm like, are you, like, how are you guys boring? Do you not understand, like, what is happening? I love religion because, like, the greatest act in the history of the world happened. There was this guy in Jerusalem. It wasn't just a guy, but this thing happened, and it is so exciting. We understand it, what it means. I'm trying to make my podcast as excited because I'm as excited about that as I'm about marketing. My goal is to try to make the marketing exciting for you because I know that that's what gets people into it. It's not the thing. It's being excited about the marketing of the thing. That's the moral of today's lesson for you. If you're struggling, I think better than, like, the best advice I can give you is become obsessed with the marketing. Become obsessed with reading the books and understanding the stuff and how it works. Like, when you come obsessed with the marketing, that's gonna be successful. So don't dabble. Go deep. Get excited. Get obsessed. Hopefully my books will do that. Hope my podcast, hopefully. Fun Hacker tv. That's why we're putting out so much content. Because I want you guys to see how much fun this can be. Like, it's exciting. It's the most exciting thing in the world. Most exciting business in the world, the most exciting time. Like you literally can have your own TV channel on a phone. Like that's insane. Okay, like we're such an exciting time and I want you guys all to be excited. So hopefully I'm exciting enough. With that said, like, I really need to go to bed. Steam needs me to go to bed. It's 108 and like being up at 108 is not that big of a deal except for the fact that it's like five nights in a row or more. So anyway, I'm gonna go. But I appreciate you guys get excited by the marketing and if you do that, it'll all work out, it always does. But you got to be passionate about the marketing. And it's true. Anything in life, right? Like if you read Expert Secrets, you know, we talked about the external and the internal journeys. Those who focus on the external journey, the ones that, that typically fail. It's the internal journey. Making money is external. Understand the marketing, changing people's lives, serving, telling stories, that's the internal. Okay, so those who've read the book, that's a clue, but it's true to everything, right? Weight loss, losing weight. Okay, if your goal is to lose weight, you're probably not going to do it. Just so you know, it's a hint. So what's the opposite of that? What's the internal, what's the internal thing? If you become passionate about that and excited about that, that then you're going to lose weight. If your goal is to pick any market, whatever the external goal is, if that's your real driving passion, you're not going to succeed. Sorry, sorry to break it to you because I wanted to lose weight for a long time. I didn't guess why. Because I'm excited about losing weight. Anyway, there's a hint. Hopefully that helps. Alright, no more hints. I got to go to bed. Thanks guys. Appreciate you and we'll talk to you soon. 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.