Seeking Clarity… How to Prosper in 2021 - Randy Garn - CFR #507

Welcome to Click Funnels Radio, where we go behind the scenes and uncover the tactics and strategies top entrepreneurs are using to make more sales dominate their markets and how you can get those same results. Here is your host, Dave Woodward. Hey, everybody. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have my dear friend Randy Garnt on the show. Randy, welcome to the show today.

Dave, good to be here, man. I think last time, I don't think it was the last time we saw each other, but I remember you said, randy, let's go for a ride. We're at traffic and conversion summit. And you said, come on. You pulled up a Ferrari. Do you remember this?

I do.

You pulled up a car and we jumped in and we took that thing for a spin and came back. Honestly, that. That's what I love about you. You're never boring and never predictable. That is Dave to a D right there.

I think Char still owes you one of those Ferraris, as I recall.

She does.

Well, as you guys can tell, we're gonna have a ton of fun. Randy is one of those guys who you literally, you cannot meet and not be happier and better afterwards. I mean, he's literally, honestly my favorite person in the entire world to spend time with. He's always a ton of fun. For those of you guys who don't know Randy, he and his buddy Ethan will, years ago had a company called Prosper. We're gonna talk about that. And a book they're coming out. New York Times best selling book. They're relaunching 10 years later. We'll talk about that in just a minute.

But.

But he's also managing partner at High Performance Institute, Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award winner, partners with Brendan Burchard and High Performance Institute. And I think the part I enjoy most about Randy is his whole focus is on growing people and growing businesses. And I don't know of anybody who digs a well deeper than you do, Randy. I mean, seriously, you have such a vast network of people who literally are just excited to be with you at all times. So I am just honored to be able to have you on our podcast and introduce you our ClickFunnels family and just really share the wealth and the knowledge of Randy Garn to the entire world. So thank you again, David.

It's super fun. I mean, what a year we've had. And, you know, I know you don't want to timestamp these, but, man, it has been one of the most growth years that I've ever had in my life in a very very positive way in, in a strength way, in a battle way. It's like these are the times where you find out what you're really made of.

Oh, I totally agree. In fact, you and I were just talking offline about this idea as far as journaling. This episode will be coming out literally the very beginning of January 2021. So we've got a year looking back on 2020. We're going to talk a lot about the insights there. For those of you guys who aren't familiar with this book, it's Prosper. P R O S P E R. Go check it out on Amazon. There's going to be a 10 year anniversary coming out of January 12, 2021, and we're super excited to talk a lot about that. But with that, Randy, before we go into that, I love this idea as far as journaling and you were talking about this scaling clarity. If you don't mind, just before we talk about Prosper, let's talk a little about this whole idea as far as scaling clarity.

Yeah. So one of the things that we're taking High Performance Institute is that my father was a high school football coach. I love coaching and mentoring humans. And when I met Brendan Burchard Over 18 years ago, he just became one of my best friends in the whole world. And now we are really taking high performing habits and High Performance Institute to the whole entire corporate world and to small businesses, large businesses, and just helping them with productivity and effectiveness and how to generate energy, the number one habit of high performers. I am going to give you a little secret out of the six to seek clarity. One of the things that I've done well my whole life was actually writing in a journal. But I'm telling you, Dave, this year I have dedicated myself to being very diligent and I have a strategy around journaling now. And you kind of, kind of find out what works best for you. Some people are night people, some people are morning people. But dude, this one trick that I'm going to share with everybody on ClickFunnels podcast with you has amplified my productivity off the charts, is I journal every single day. I take about 20 minutes at night right before I go to bed and I list down. I make sure that I have created my whole next day and I do everything that I can to live in the present. I watch out. I create a whole strategy for the year. In fact, I'm going to be doing this this weekend is that I will journal and I will say, what am I supposed to do? What's the most Effective things that I need to do tomorrow. And then I live that day. And then that night again, I say, then I'll read, then I'll look at it again, I say, like, did I do what I say I was going to do? Did I accomplish the things I set out that I was going to accomplish? And my dad always said, you do what you did, not what you could have, should or would have you do what you did. And so it's a literally. It's literally I'm like my own freaking coach. I'm like, all right, I committed to this. Did I do it? And so that is one thing. The other thing. The reason why I do it at night, Dave, is I used to have a hard time sleeping because you and I were doers, man. We want to help each other. We want to help everybody. We can come in contact with everybody. But the reason why I journaled at night, I used to do it in the mornings, but I switched that this year is because I get all of the acid out of my stomach and all of the things that I worry about or think about, like, oh, I can't wait to do that in the morning. I literally. I go to sleep and I sleep well, and I get hit the ground running. I know exactly what I'm doing for the whole entire day till sunup to sundown.

I love that. I love that idea. As far as scaling clarity, I think that I've been hit and miss on journaling. I used to be really, really good at it. Went through a couple trials and stopped doing it, but I need to get back into it. So I appreciate that. I'm actually going to start doing that this year. That's one of the things I want to focus on, for sure. Thank you.

Yeah, I think if you do that, you'll actually. There's just something that happens. Some people type, some people write you. And I talked a little bit about doing even a video journal, and I'm actually doing some of that. But I do. There's tons of studies and there's a lot of books we use High Performance Journal. There's a High Performance Planner. There's other journals. But I would just simply say, get consistent at it, manifest what you want to do, and then check in on yourself every single night. I mean, it is a. It's a complete pleat. Productivity enhancer.

I love it. And I think for those of you guys who are watching, listening to this video or listening to this audio, I think for me, the main thing is if you want to really prosper in 2021. The best way, best way I've known is, is really getting as clear as possible. And so this idea as far as scaling clarity the night before is something people talk a ton about. And I know that everyone always says, well, what's your morning routine? I've always learned that your best morning routine starts the night before. And if you can start getting everything done the night before, it's again, kind of go back to your idea as far as sleep. I mean, you get a good night's rest, your next day is so, so much better. So I love that idea. We're going to be focusing on that a ton.

Well, and I think too, you know, and another thing that I always say, that if you don't have your own goals, somebody else will use you for theirs.

Totally agree with you on that.

So if you don't have your own goals for that next day, you'll get a text, you'll get an email, and you'll be off to somebody else's races. And I love it. I always say people send you emails to put you on their to do list.

That's right.

So it's like, dude, I check, I really, I check myself before I wreck myself. But in having clarity on where I'm driving my own ship, I won't be sitting in the back seat of somebody else's car.

Oh man, such sage advice. I can tell you that too often people are afraid to make those kind of decisions and then all of a sudden they find themselves sitting in someone else's backseat of someone else's car and they're going, where are we going? Why am I here? What's the purpose here? So I appreciate that a ton, Randy, thank you. I really want to talk about this whole idea now of scaling clarity and how to really prosper in 2021. I know you guys have this amazing book that's coming out. 10 year anniversary, new York times bestseller, Wall street best seller. You and ethan wrote again 2011.

So what?

Exactly. I love the subtitle of the book. So if you don't mind just kind of telling me what the book is subtitle, let's dive into this book.

Well, it's actually called prosper, create the life you really want. And it's this whole thing about, you know, creating your own life. At the end of the day, our biggest regrets will be did I live the life that I knew I should have? And you know, for me, people are always more important than things. But we actually talk about the first chapter of, you know, and I mean, we Just had the solstice. There's a real thing in here called the Polaris Point. And do you know what the Polaris Point is?

I don't.

Your Polaris Point is actually your true north. And we talk a lot about are you doing those things that you were created to do? Are you living the life that is a life of fulfillment, of joy, of happiness? I really do think a lot of times people get frustrated, anxiety, depression, it's because they don't know their true north. They don't seek clarity enough to know where they should be going and what they can create. And Ethan and I wrote this because we all went through the. Well, you and I did. We went through the 2008, 9, 10 years, and we wrote this book after that because everybody's like, 2008 was a complete, another crazy just year with the whole financial markets falling out. And so a lot of people had huge fear. Is the end near? I mean, I can say a lot of the stuff we're talking about now and Ethan and I realized too is like, dude, if we're waiting for the cavalry to come save us, they're not coming. So it really comes down to, are you spending enough time planning your life out, ensuring that you're on your own, Polaris Point and your true north? Because a Polaris point is that immovable star in the heavens. And that's what you want to get to. And so if you create that and you know exactly what you were created to do, then you can go accomplish that and knock it out of the park. And a good example of that is a lot of people, a good example that I'll tell you, we, we have a really, really good friend that actually was a very, very successful corporate attorney in la. I mean, a lot of the stars, he was their attorney from Michael Jackson on down. I'm not talking highly successful. And at the end of the day, it's like, you know what? I wish I was like this other guy that does car detailing and his kids are involved with him and he makes a lot less than me. But my family's falling apart, my kids don't have a relationship with me. I'm at my work all the time. I didn't actually even want to be an attorney. I did it for the money. I've been miserable the last 20 years. And so I think understanding the balance, what we want to help people understand is actually the balance between money, happiness and sustainability. And so that's a big part of that is money. All of us going to earn an income. But Are you chasing income or are you chasing things that matter? And significance. If you have a choice to chase significance or in financial, choose significance all the time because the money will come. And you and I both know that. But I'm talking TO like those 20 year olds, those 30 year olds that are just like, I just need to grind. I just need to hustle. I just need to make as much as I can and then I'll do what I want to do. No, I mean you need to live. You need to figure out what you were created to do and, and then go out and build that. That's what you need to do.

I love that. I can tell you that. You basically just kind of said my story from my 20s and 30s because I was out there trying to figure this whole thing out, just go get, go make the money type of deal. And I remember having then gone through, made a bunch of money and then lost it in that whole 2008, 2011. It's really where I started going, wait a second here, money's going to come, money's going to go. And that's really what kind of changed my direction as far as what I was doing. Do you have any advice for people who are trying to figure out what that Polaris star is for them?

Yeah, I think, I mean, I think a lot of it has to do with you really, really writing again, writing things out. And I would write out what your top strengths are. You know, what are the things that you do naturally that you love more than anything in the entire world? Like, I love, I actually love giving. I love to give, to give. I love to build deep relationships and I love to create value for other people. And so I'm not, I'm actually, if I were to be a doctor, I actually think I would love that. But I actually love entrepreneurship so much that I didn't want to go to law school. I actually went to med school. I actually did medicine and did a ton of, ton of credits. And then all of a sudden I took business. I took a business class and I'm like, dude, I love this. And then I actually know that about you.

I was accepted to medical school as well and then bailed out a week before I was supposed to go.

That's, I mean, and I took a ton of credits. I mean, it was, it's crazy. And then Ethan and I ended up, I ended up running. You know, we ended up going to the same school together and we met and we actually started our business together in college. We started Prosper when we were juniors in college and won the business entrepreneur program. And then we ran that company for 15 years after that together. And so, you know, I always said that if somebody else can do it, I can do it. But I knew that I loved entrepreneurship, and I knew that I love human development, and I knew that I loved coaching, and I knew that that's what I wanted to do.

And.

And I was just blessed enough to be able to figure that out early. And I see too many people now. And we did. We spend a lot of time. Here's what my advice would be. Get a clean piece of paper and write down your life strategy on one page. I always say that if you don't have your strategy on one page, you don't have a strategy. Yeah. And I'd say, what are the big things that. Irreducible things to you that matter most? And then I would write out three to five big, huge goals that you want to accomplish in your life. And so what are the big four to five things? I always say you can't. And this comes from a lot from Tyler Norton, is you can't actually do more than five big strategic initiatives. And what are those? And what do you really. What do you really. What do you really love doing? And so that's how you can start that process of putting your strategy on one page.

I love that. If you don't mind, would you mind sharing what was one of your five?

Yeah, I mean, honestly, one of my five was to be the very, very best at how do we build the. I mean, I really like, how do we drive value for everybody that we meet. My biggest one was, like, relationships. I want. It's not who knows you, it's who knows you and what they say about you that matters most. And it's not who you know, it's what they think about you. And it's just like, hey, you got to talk to Randy. He can help you. Or, hey, talk to Randy. I got. I mean, you know me. I got so many people coming to me now. Now it's. I was like, I want to build a massive network of the top performers in the world. That was one of my strategies.

Well, I. You've done that. And I. Again, for those people who don't know Randy, I don't know anybody's Rolodex who is bigger than Randy's. But most importantly, it's not just having a big Rolodex of people. You know, it's, as you said, it's who. Who knows you and what they say about you. You will Never find anybody who ever talks negatively or bad about Randy Garn. I've never heard anyone who says, I've never heard anything negative about you. And it's just amazing to me because you provide so much value to everybody you touch and come into contact with. And I think it's these days, especially with how people talk a lot about, oh, be totally transparent. No one's more transparent and really has people's genuine interest at best, at heart like you do. And I, again, that does not surprise me. That was one of your things years ago because you've exemplified that a ton. So thank you for doing that.

Well, I appreciate that and I feel the same about you, Dave and Russell and Dickerson, what you guys have built, that just Todd is amazing as well. It's just fun to see your growth. I remember, I mean, Russell back in the day when he was just starting clickfunnels and to see your success. And that's the other thing too, is that you want to relish and you want to be pumped up for your friends that are having massive success. And we need to do that more in life. We need to just pump each other up and master the art of helping, being champions for each other. You know, I always say that our tables are. Our lives are set by other people setting the table for us.

Oh, I love that. Never heard that before.

Yeah, it's like if you go try to do a sell. Here's the other thing as part of relationships that are. They're powerful, is that it's much better for me saying, like, you've got to talk to Dave. He is amazing. You got to talk with click funnels. There's no better product than it is to have you or Russell go say, dude, our products the best. This is how it is. There's that that happens when you actually give to give. Those type of things start to happen. And Brandon Steiner, who's a really good friend of mine, always said, randy, one thing I've learned in my life is do as much as you can for as many people as you can, as often as you can, and expect nothing in return. Again, do as much as you can for as many people as you can, as often as you can, and expect nothing in return. And he said, then watch what will happen and watch the joy that will come into your life. I love that I can't write fast enough.

Thank you very much for sharing that. I think, again, I've seen you exemplify that a ton. I remember, I think it was probably, gosh, Randy, now It's probably been four, almost five years ago when you came to ClickFunnels office. And at the time, we literally, for those of you, I mean, we were in a shoebox office. It was an insurance agent's office. I remember as you came in and just the excitement and the enthusiasm that you had for what we were building, and we were literally just buried. I don't even think we'd cross through 10,000 customers at the time. But I think it was what you just mentioned as far as doing as much as you can for as many people as you can, as often as you can without expecting anything in return. Because I remember as you came in, you left, and I just felt lifted. And I felt like, man, we actually could do. You kind of cast a vision. I had already had a vision of where I thought we could go, and your vision was even bigger. And it was that kind of stuff that I think too often. Again, it doesn't have to be gifts. I think those words of advice were just huge for me. So I, again, I totally appreciate that.

Well, you know, it was fun. And honestly, that's the thing that I love about entrepreneurship, is that I came. I mean, it was like 7 o' clock at night.

It was.

And do you remember, like, I was there speaking at a business conference, and you guys had the whole office filled and you and Russ are like, do we have goals we got to hit? We got stuff we got to do. I mean, that's the kind of fire in the belly that I want people to have in their life. I mean, that's really it. I mean, that's one of the. One of the high performing goals is how do you generate energy? That's number two. And entrepreneurs have a very, very awesome way to break the standard norm to innovate, to ideate, and to have amazing energy that people want to follow, you know, and you have that. That's why people follow you guys, is that you. You cast a belief in what you're going to do and you have a belief. And I always say it's just as easy to think big as it is to think small.

Totally true.

You know what I'm saying?

I totally do.

I mean, who thought like a couple because I'm from Idaho as well, but who thought some guys from Idaho are gonna build this massive company that's transforming the lives of thousands and thousands, if not millions of people with the services that are happening and so that momentum, that generating energy will propel you in even greater success.

Well, with that being said, because I, Russell and I literally Were talking about this last week, this idea as far as energy and as a company grows. In fact, it was three. Todd, Russell and I, we were down in Todd's lake house, and the three of us were sitting there thinking, gosh, you remember back how it was when we were a startup and everybody was so energetic. And then all of a sudden, now you grow and you're at 350 employees and you're like, how do we get that same startup culture? How do you keep that energy level? And we've had to do a couple things in the last couple weeks to adjust to reinstill that. But I would love. You've had the opportunity of being around so many different startups and so many businesses and understanding the impact of that energy on the company culture. Any ideas or advice you have for our audience, I would love for you to share. Just about. How do you generate that kind of energy?

Yeah. And it is so, you know, you got to seek clarity. You got to. You got to generate energy. And the third one is, this is so important for every company. And I got three more. But the other one is to raise necessity. You got to raise necessity with your company. It's just what happens are, you know, you and me. I was built with like, dude, I'm never satisfied. I want to keep growing.

I want to keep.

Even though. I mean, even if we've hit 100 million in revenue or 200 million or. Or 4 billion or whatever, what can we do better? What can we do next? And a lot of people are just like, I'm good. Yeah, I'm good. But there is a. It's actually a habit that you are not born with. You have to, like, it's a muscle, and it is to raise necessity. I love that. So the whole company, you have to raise necessity and set vision for, okay, what is next? And keep the excitement going all the time. As, like I said, never be boring, never be predictable. And you've got to keep innovating. And if you keep doing that, then you can raise that necessity. But part of raising necessity is understanding the why for everyone as well. And I use this example. And I use this example quite a bit. If I'm. If I get thrown in a cage with a lion, okay, there's me and a lion, and we're right. And that lion's right in front of me. Is my necessity raised.

Absolutely.

Absolutely. And it's hungry and it's growling at me. And then I've got a chair and a whip and I'm like, back, back, back. But then the camera pans and you see that the reason why I have so much energy is because my family and my wife and kids are behind me. You know why? That's your why. So you've got to raise necessity and part of that is finding out and that we do this a lot with high performance, institute with companies and helping them get that high performance culture is you got to find out what that why is. And there's the collective why, there's the collective goal. But what is it that raises your necessity, Dave? What's the irreducible to you? What's the most important thing in your life?

For me, it's my family. I mean what it really comes down to is my family. But I could say second to that honestly are the small to middle sized business entrepreneurs that we serve. I feel a moral obligation to provide a tool and a software that allows them to get their message out to the world. I believe that every single one of us gets tapped on the shoulder and you get the opportunity to decide how you're going to respond to that. And I want to make sure that we've got all the tools and everything a person would need to be able to take whatever that message is and get it out. I don't care if it's a physical product, information product, you're generating leads to sell something else. To me that every single time I look at clickfunnels, to me it's literally 130,000 small to middle sized businesses out there. And I just know that we have to provide and we've got to provide the solution for them. So I mean those are the faces.

I see and that honestly and every single one of your employees should care about that small business owner and that their necessity is helping them. You know, and I remember visiting Tony Hsieh and he passed away. You know, he passed away earlier. I remember going out to Zappos and seeing the intensity that he had towards the customer and you guys, I mean I'm aligned completely with you and Russell on helping the entrepreneur and who's going to be that next, who's going to be the next Facebook? Who's going to be or who's going to be that next company that's producing $30 million that's supporting millions of families and thousands of families jobs. That's the heartbeat of America. That literally is what gets me fired up. And one of my big circles is how do we transform businesses? And that is one of my strategies is how do we help that small to medium sized business to create jobs and job Creation and success. And you guys have done that. And watching you and Todd and Russell and what you guys have done over the last, I mean, how many years has it been now? Six years. Six years?

Yeah, Six years.

And look at what you've done. I mean you look back and you're like, oh my gosh, I remember visiting you guys and you really are. That's, that's, that's the energy that you need to have in your entire company is like, do we want to change, transform the lives of millions of small business owners? And you know what? You guys are doing it and it's so fun to watch.

Well, Randy, I can't thank you enough. I absolutely love just the opportunity spending time. Usually we meet at events and we haven't had those times and so this has just been priceless for me. I can't thank you enough. I want to make sure people have the opportunity going out and getting the Prosper book. So go to Amazon and look at Prosper again January 12th. By the time this gets out there, you'll have the opportunity going and buying it again. Highly, highly recommend that you get a copy of it. It's been basically relaunched for what people need right now coming to the end of COVID of 2020. But realize Covid is still going to keep going and the impact of this is going to be felt for years to come. And I really want to make sure that you guys understand what Randy's teaching. He only went through four of the six and to get the rest, get the book, follow him. What's the best place to follow you at?

Yeah, I mean I'm just, you can just go to, you can go to randyandygarden, you know, dot com and see it there. You can go to High Performance Institute. There is a really fun assessment that you can take on. There's 36 questions on our high performance assessment to find out what are the. Where are the places that you need to either tweak or change in your life to hit optimal performance. And so we could send that, that that link is on highperformanceinstitute.com or you could send it out as well.

Oh my gosh. I appreciate that a ton. So for those of you guys who are listening again, please go check out randygarden.com and check out get your book at Prosper. I've got like 20 minutes left of Randy's time and I'm going to use that personally so you guys don't get to listen to the rest of this. But I just want to thank you Randy so much everyone. I wish you all the best in 2021 again. Go check out randygarn.com and get your book at Prosper from Amazon. Love it.