Affiliate Expert: Why SMART Businesses Are Moving Away from Ads - Junior Anthony

One funnel made me my first million dollars. We're just paying off our affiliates. That's the power of having an affiliate army.

Our guest today, Junior Anthony, actually climbed the entire Russell Brunson and ClickFunnels value ladder all the way to the highest coaching program, Atlas.

He started with no audience, no connections, no shortcuts, just mac and cheese at Panera.

We had $10 to my name and I bought this Baja mac and cheese. Tell her she gives me back a dollar. I sat with this dollar thinking, wow, going back from this guy that was homeless that had nothing, nada, zilch, your brain gets rewired to believe like, yo, anything is actually possible. 300 people could make $1 million following this software. Like, I would have to be able to do this as well. Now my new mantra was, this is ClickFunnels.

5 2 Comma Club Award winner and 2 CCX Award winner, all through affiliate marketing. Junior Anthony. Welcome back to another episode of ClickFunnels Radio. My name is Chris Cameron, and joined with me as usual is Mr. Dante Torelli. We are live from the Atlanta office, actually Canton here, and we've got one of our affiliates that is always like top 10, top 3, like always in the race when we do these contests, right? We do a bunch of launches. Um, every contest I can remember, Junior, you've been at the top of the leaderboard, but it wasn't always that way. It's funny, we'd kind of do these briefs. We've done, I know, I've known you for a long time. But reading some of the struggle that you went through to get to where we are, literally, like, you've been through hell to get to this heaven. I mean, you heard at the beginning, like, 2 Comma Club C Award or 2 Comma Club X Award and like $10 million, but you were homeless in New York before this all happened. Tell us where this all started. I even remember there's a point where you spent like your last $8 on macaroni and cheese. I want to go back to like that time of your life.

Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me. Um, it's, it's, it's crazy being able to sit here and being able to reminisce. Most, um, you know, and I, I always, you know, attribute these moments to like something that my grandmother would say: God gives its, you know, hardest battles, you know, to the strongest soldiers. And I feel like, you know, my entire life I've had a lot of struggles um, from, you know, growing up without parents. My mother lived in another country.

Grandma raised you?

Grandma raised me. My father was in jail. Funny story, I got kidnapped by my mom that I didn't know was my mom.

What?

Crazy. But anyways, um, we're just gonna brush past that, you know. So, um, pretty much, um, I, I was trying to figure out this online marketing thing And I just said, you know what, I'm just gonna go all in. I'm gonna not have, you know, excuses, and I'm gonna just risk my life, uh, to be able to have, you know, success online and, and not have to work a job anymore and actually, you know, commit to something, truly commit to something. Because I've said that I had commitments in the past, but when one thing goes wrong, what would I normally do? I'll just go run back to whatever I was doing before and just it and, you know, make some excuse for why I couldn't actually see something through. Yeah. And this one specific time, um, you know, I was pretty much struggling for, um, some time, and I had an ex-girlfriend and she wanted, uh, the guy to take her out and pay for, you know, uh, the date. So we went to Panera Bread, um, had $10 to my name. $10. And we normally would get a Baja mac and cheese. They charged like $8 and some change. And, you know, the teller gave me back a dollar. And I can say with, like, especially looking back now, I can say if my life didn't go the way it was, I'd have probably committed suicide. Like, it was something I actually contemplated.

Like, did him handing you that $1 Was that hard? Um, because you got to be thinking like, this is, this is it.

Yeah, it was, it was, it was hard. It was, it was a lady actually. Um, she gave me back the dollar and I, I was like, there's like, be like, we can talk about it, but if you've never been in that position, it's, it's hard to, to kind of like, um, like quantify it, right? So like, for me, I'm thinking, wow, like like, I have not done anything with my life. I'm a mess. I'm, you know, I'm a liability at this point. Like, that's all I'm thinking about, assets and liabilities. I'm a liability. And for me, I was thinking like, you know, if I were to die, like, the people that I care about, especially my grandmother, like, she'll be sad, right? But, and this was my justification, eventually she'd kind of forget about it. She'd get over it and she'd move on with life. Um, and I know it's such a jaded, uh, conversation or jaded idea or thought process, but I just felt like I was such a burden on her. And I loved her. Like, she's the one who took care of me when, you know, so I just felt like just me being alive and me being in this earth, like, I was hurting her. More than, you know, the, the temporary— like, let's just say if I were to die or anything like that, like, that'll hurt a bit, like, initially, but over time should feel better.

You're going through this whole thought process in your head. Yeah. Trying to justify.

Yeah. I'm talking, thinking about jumping on train tracks, uh, taking pain meds. I'm thinking all these, these different things.

Like, anytime, anytime that somebody's like mentions that or something, like friends, family should be asking, like, do you have a plan? And like really trying to figure out if you're serious. And it sounds like you had a plan. This was a serious, not just looking for attention thing.

Yeah, I mean, uh, so there's a difference. When someone's looking for attention, they'll talk about it. When they're not looking for attention, they're not gonna talk about— they're just gonna just do it. And one day they're gonna be there, and next they're not.

Yeah.

And you know And so there's a positive to this story, right? Yeah. And this is the positive, the message that I discovered from this. Normally what happens is like when you're pushed to like that end, right? The universe, God, whatever you want to call it, would always find a way to intervene and save you.

Mm-hmm.

And I think that most people never push themselves to that level. Where they're all in, where they're at absolute rock bottom. Like, most people would quit and find shelter or sanctuary somewhere else or with another form of thing or whatever, and they never get to that place where they would have to make, you know, a decision like that. And, um, literally with me and that dollar in my hand, I, I called this guy that turned out to be my first ever client. And I've been trying to speak to him for months. And he hired me on the spot.

Hmm.

That's how I got my start. Yeah.

And what did he hire you for?

Uh, digital marketing services. Wow. Here's a better question. Did I know anything about digital marketing? That was where I was going. No.

So, so hold on. So you take an ex-girlfriend out to lunch. You wanna get her something to eat so you guys can have a great time together.

Yeah.

You spend your last—

Emphasis on the "great time," Todd.

Emphasis on the "great time." You spend 9 of your $10 to get her a mac and cheese.

Right.

You're going through this internal crisis, a real crisis, like having real thoughts about your life and what's going on, to then picking up a phone calling a guy you've been trying to call for months who hires you for digital marketing services, of which you had zero skills.

Dude, I'm going to, like, say it this way. I didn't know what the difference between domain and hosting was at that time. Yeah, like, it's crazy. I just seen a webinar. So pretty much how this entire thing came about—

because I want to know how you even got to like, oh, I'm at rock bottom, digital marketing is the answer.

Yeah, dude, it was just an ad from, from Dan Henry.

No kidding.

Like, I, I always attribute, you know, my, my, like, that part of my journey to Dan Henry. Like, um, I love the guy. He's, for me, people hate his ass. I think he's the most funnest freaking hilarious guy in the world. I love Dan Henry. Um, so I seen a webinar from Dan Henry where he's like pitching this idea. You get 5 clients that can pay you $5,000 a month you make $25,000 a month as an agency model. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm like, I'm going to be rich, right? Right. You get what I'm saying? Like, I'm— Yeah.

You're like, this is math I can do and I can do that and I'm going to do the thing.

Yeah, but I didn't understand the webinar. I didn't understand the pitch at the end. I just thought I was being motivated and pumped up and I'm just like, yeah, let's, let's go, let's do this.

Yeah.

Until he got to the stack and I'm like, oh, I ain't got $1,000.

That's what his offer was.

His offer is $997. Yeah.

Did you buy it?

Of course not. I didn't have no money.

No money.

Zero.

Zilch.

Nada. Nothing.

Yeah, the $1 change.

Well, no, so this was all before all of that. This is what brought me to that conclusion of doing that. So what I ended up doing was, um, I had— I used to work construction prior, so I had, um, found like, I don't know how or whatever, I'd gotten laid off and they sent me randomly in the mail a like $600, $700 vacation check. So randomly they just sent that to me. And this was around the time when I had seen the webinar. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna go to Miami because I look homeless as crap. And ain't no one in New York is gonna hire me 'cause I look like a bum. But I was just like, you know, no one's gonna hire me. Like, look at me, I look like a vagrant. I'm one of those homeless people. Yeah, right. Who's gonna like have me come into their office or whatever and work for them? So my thought process was this: if I travel to Miami, I don't actually have to see anybody. I just, you know, tell them, hey, I live in New York, you want to have me fly out to the office, do anything, you have to pay for my flight, you have to pay for this hotel, all this stuff. And at that point, it's a free trip. I dress up, I look nice, and You know, I'm set. So I travel all the way to Miami with this vacation check, couldn't afford a hotel because I had no credit cards.

You land not knowing where you're gonna sleep that night.

Yeah, no, I had to get a motel. In fact, my ex-girlfriend, um, she picked me up and she dropped me to like this motel where I could actually pay cash. It's like, what, $33 a night?

Yeah, yeah.

Um, And, um, there's a strip called Biscayne Boulevard. I walked maybe the 2 miles down Biscayne Boulevard calling every single business, every storefront that I seen.

For marketing, it's like you want to just help them with their marketing?

Yeah, I didn't know anything, just cold calling. Yeah, but again, I didn't know anything about marketing, right? But the thing for me, this was my thought process, right? I can't afford what Dan Henry has to offer, okay? And it doesn't make sense me learning how to do something when I don't already have like something in place. So my thought process was, all right, I'll sell a client first. I have that client first. Now I have to learn how to do this marketing thing.

Yeah.

So like that was my thought process. So when I got to Miami, I'm like calling everyone.

And, uh, just walking down the strip, calling businesses you walk right by.

Call, like, probably see the sign, look up the number, call them.

Dude, literally that. Not, not even just the sign of the business, like, even like those billboards. Yeah, like every, every— like, I made like probably 200 phone calls walking down the road, walking down the strip. And, you know, and at first, and I'll be honest, it's super embarrassing. Like, we have the pride, we have our ego, we have, you know, the anxiety and all those things. And I remember the time when I realized I don't even care anymore. Like, I'm just gonna do this thing because why not?

You didn't care about what any of those things, what people might say about you?

At first I did, but then what I did was this. I walked into a Chevy dealership. At the time, my dream car was like a Corvette. Like, I would have done anything for a Corvette. And I walked into this dealership And like, the people in the— mind you, I look like crazy, right? Uh, these people are in front like, hey, how can I help you? And I'm like, I'm here to speak to the manager. Mind you, there's hot girls in the reception desk and all this. Just like, here to speak to the manager, straight face, right?

I'm all business.

Yeah, yeah, pretty— I'm all business, right? So mind you, like, these cars are worth way more than me. So I'm like go. I go speak to the manager. The manager goes, oh yeah, we don't need your services. Okay, got you. Can I speak to the supervisor?

Really? Just not taking no.

I'm like, nah, bro, no. I'm here already. Like, you're gonna have to hire me.

Like, well, this is like a dealership that probably has like 5 or 6 dealerships. He probably can't even make the decision.

He can't. This is a whole Chevy dealership, right?

Yeah.

So I'm talking like like one of the biggest dealerships in, in North Miami. So he goes like— and now he's talking to me like, like, like you've already told him, hey, I'll help you with your marketing. Yeah, again, don't even know what that means, right? So, so then he goes, um, he goes like, you know, um, we don't handle these things in-house. Like, this is a Chevrolet issue, right? Like marketing and stuff like that. This is like, you know, they handle that. We're just kind of like a franchise in a sense.

Got it.

So I'm like, all right. But then after I did that, I'm like, dude, I can do anything. Like, that was so embarrassing, but crap, I lived. I survived it. Yeah.

So the answer was still no.

Oh yeah, it was not. Yeah, it was, it was a big no. Yeah, yeah.

But you're like, okay, yeah, one down.

Yeah. But you know, I kept calling, kept calling, kept calling. Um, one of my first clients actually— so I'm going back to that Panera Bread story. Yeah. Uh, that client that actually hired me, he was, um, from that trip in Miami.

Really?

Really?

Yeah. It took me months to close him though.

That's serious prospecting.

Yeah. I mean, he would literally ignore my calls, like, um, not pick up. Hey, I'm busy. It was always something when it came to him.

What made him say yes?

All right, so that day in Panera Bread, um, when I called him, like, like, it was so crazy because you know what I did? But I actually mapped out his schedule so I knew which was the best days. Every day that I actually got him, I had like a book check mark. I got him on the phone this day. Okay, this time I call— I used to call him like every hour, and every, every hour he doesn't pick up. Like, I can't call this hour. So I'd start calling on like varying hours just to figure out what's the best hours.

Wow.

This day, I remember it very clearly, Wednesday 5:30 PM.

That's when he's available.

That's when he was available. And that was my first time calling him at that one time. So, um, no, I'm sorry, my second time calling at 5:30, but it's my first time on a Wednesday. So, um, I call him and he's just like, um, dude, who the hell are you? I'm like, yeah, I was that guy that, that was, you know, at your office, but you were running to, to leave, you know. I was coming to meet you. Right? Because remember, that was the whole plan. I'm happy I didn't get to meet you, but I'm like trying to convince him, like, I was ready to meet you, you just didn't want to meet me. He goes, yeah, I understand that, I know all of this, but like, you can just— like, I don't even— what company do you work for? I work for myself. Yeah, how do I know that you're legit? Like, you can be one of those people that can take my money and just run away. And immediately— and this goes back to sales, right? Immediately we want to get defensive. We want to feel insulted. We want to feel, oh, this person is judging me or whatever the case.

Yeah. How dare you attack my character?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But then it's just like everyone lives their own lives and we can't feel insulted by anyone's like, you know, viewpoint or journey because everyone has a different, you know, outcome or experience. And I was learning something from sales from Grant Cardone actually. And I was just like, you know what, John? His name was John. You know what, John? You're right. I could take your money and you would never see me again. Right? And I laughed, right? I laughed on the phone with him and I could hear his wheels turning in his head. Like, did he just say this to me? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. And then I'm like, I'm like, so here what? Let's make a deal. 'Pay me half up front now and half after I do a great job for you. Mhm. How does that sound?' And then another thing I learned from Grant was just to shut up.

Shut up, right? Yep. Don't talk yourself out of it.

Yeah. And I did. Longest, probably 30 seconds of my life.

30 seconds is long silence on the phone.

I'm like— and then he goes, 'All right, how much?' And where do I send the money? I'm like, uh, 500? Uh, so you could give me $300 up front, right? Where do I send it? I don't have a bank account. Venmo? Yeah, right. So, so I'm like, I'm getting this. So I'm looking at my phone and I see the $300 just got sent. So I'm like, all right, we gonna set a call up. My first ever dollar online was this $300.

What are you— Is that in Panera?

In Panera. Uh, maybe 3 minutes after collecting the last dollar.

Really?

Yeah.

This is crazy.

Mmhmm. Wow, so you get that dollar in your pocket—

Went through this dark depression period.

Which you've been going through, right? So it was really just like it all kinda just came to the front.

Yeah.

In that moment, and then you call the guy and you get your first cash.

Yeah.

What do you feel like in that? Dude, you gotta feel like a rock star.

I did. In fact, you know what the first thing I went to do with that $200?

What?

Went and got my lady a drink. I was still trying to get laid. Yeah, yeah.

Trying to finish the date.

Yeah, you know what I'm saying?

So, Venmo's instant.

Yeah, instant. So, went back to the teller. Yo, my lady needs a drink.

Right.

And that was that. So, um, but again, still no skill, no talent, no—

what did he hire you for? What was the deliverable?

Again, I didn't know.

Marketing.

Marketing.

I'm gonna do a great job.

That's awesome. All right, so now, so now here's the other problem, right?

Yeah.

To work with Dan Henry was $997. I only got $300 at this point, $297, right? Because it's $3 for the drink, right? So I'm like, all right, crap, what am I gonna do? And I did what most people, they're, they're so afraid of doing, which is, um, OPM, right? Borrowing other people's money. Because the reality is, if I sat down and I tried to, to figure out the money situation myself, I would have spent the money on whatever the case was and eventually not have the money.

Sure.

You know what I'm saying? So I end up making a few phone calls and Um, someone lent me— someone stupid lent me $1,000. And, uh, you know, and I say that because at that time, um, I was not trustworthy.

Sure.

I didn't deserve anyone's $1,000. I didn't deserve anything from anybody. I was a horrible person.

You wouldn't have bet on yourself.

Yeah, I wouldn't. Yeah, I— me looking at myself right now, I would have said, dude, screw you. I'm not giving you anything, right?

Right.

Just because I knew how I was living and the things that I did with my life. right? And the things that I did with my time as well.

Sure.

So like, I wouldn't have given me all that money, but that person did, and I'm so super grateful for it. And, um, I took that $1,000, um, I had to travel for that $1,000, by the way. I got it. So now I have $1,297 to my name, literally in a matter of 2 days. I went from—

that's an interesting number. Did you go buy the course?

Okay, so I tried buying it, but I couldn't. Yeah, I tried, but I couldn't find it.

What do you mean?

So you know how like sometimes you see ads and then sometimes you don't see ads on Instagram or whatever? Yeah, yeah. So, so think I'm like scrolling, trying to go through Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and I can't find the offer. I can't find the ad. So I'm like, oh my gosh. But I kept bumping into this ad. By this guy Billy Jean.

Billy Jean.

And he did a really good job at retargeting me.

Okay.

It's like I was watching one video and then all of a sudden I'm like, yeah dude, I'm not buying this. $1,297. Like, I, I can't— like, I only have $1,297, right? So I can't— I can't buy this. Then he had it.

And I get this from Dan for $997.

Yeah, yeah, pretty much leftover. Yeah. And that $300 for me was, was totally— was, was more weed. All right, so I'm just like, dude, like, I'm not, I'm not doing that. So then, like, I seen another ad where he's like in the desert and he pulls out a whiteboard and now he's sketching a bunch of things. I'm like watching it again, I'm like, I can't do this, but dang, because I know myself again, right? Going back to knowing myself, like, I knew that if, like, because at this time, like, I was high, I had a little bit of weed left over, so I knew if I came down, I would have to go buy more weed.

No kidding.

And then at that point, then I'll take the same amount of money and, and buy the weed, and then I wouldn't be able to buy the either options.

Yeah, just go away.

Yeah, the $12.97 option is gone, right? And I might even mess around and spend more than the 12— the, the thing, and I wouldn't be able to buy Dan Henry's version either. Yep, right. So for me, it's just like I had to make a decision now, not later, not when, you know, when I feel like this or when I feel more confident. Like, I had to do it now. And I pulled the trigger, bought, uh, Billy Jean's course for $1,297, every single penny that I had, everything. I had this amazing momentum, feeling incredible, on top of the world. Like that, that, where, you know, whether people say you take one step forward and then sometimes one step back. Yeah, this was that moment for me. I'm just like, dude, I just had everything and I'm back to square one.

This is, this is so interesting though, because I think this happens more often than not where, you know, you talk about God and you talk about opportunity and rock bottom. Sometimes it ends up being the last minute and the last dollar that you get taken to. and then progress starts to happen. Sometimes that's the test. And in this case, you said, okay, well, I've been at rock bottom before. I've got this $1,297. Let's see where this goes.

Yeah. And it's pretty much betting on yourself. 100%, right? Being able to say— because the thing is, is this: if you don't believe in what you're doing to the extent that you're willing to risk every single dollar, then do you actually believe? In what you're doing, right? Right. And most people say, hey, yeah, I'm gonna commit, I'm committed to this thing. But are you really? Would you really actually bet everything that you own on, you know, that direction?

Yeah, this is like a burn the boats thing, right? Like a Tony Robbins thing. Like, you want to take the island, you have to burn the boats.

But most people—

no backup plan—

to do it. Yeah, sure, right? Most people aren't willing to do it. So, but, um, like, that's how I got started with the whole, you know, digital marketing thing. That, that was how I learned about it. And then funny story is that's how— that's what linked me to ClickFunnels.

Sure.

Because, you know, when I, when I started learning and I started incorporating things, I realized I was getting really bad leads.

Mm.

And then I just had this brilliant idea. Well, what if I have a talking face of myself, like telling the offer and like, you know, making sure I'm qualifying everyone before they, you know, give the opt-in form for setting the appointment. And I just thought, well, I don't have a www. Like, yeah, that's what I called it before, by the way. Yeah, a www, right?

Because I didn't have a World Wide Web.

Yeah, I didn't know any better, right? So I'm like on, on Google searching, what is the thing that comes after www, right? And then they're like not giving me clear answers. So then, like, I've been hearing like terms like, you know, hosting and domains and all this stuff. So I went to YouTube YouTube because someone's gonna have a video, right? Because again, I ain't the smartest book in the library, right? And I'll say that. So I'm like, all right, someone's gonna have this in video form where I can just watch it and I can comprehend it from watching someone probably, uh, like explain it. So I type it in, uh, what is the difference between domain and hosting YouTube? First video that comes up is an ad by ClickFunnels. I'm seeing all these people having these Two Comma Club Awards walking around on stage, and Russell Brunson's just like, yeah, everyone here's, um, we just have 300 people collect their $1 million award from the Two Comma Club Award, and I'm like, through 300, that's like an army. You ever seen that movie, uh, 300? Like, this is Sparta, right? So I'm freaking out. I'm just like, dude, there's, there's, there's no— like, I would have to be mentally defective for me to not be able to, to earn 300, uh, or for 300 people.

They can do it.

Yeah, like 300 people could make a million dollars following this software. Like, I would have to be able to do this as well. So then now my new mantra was, this is ClickFunnels, right? Because I'm just like, I'm all in, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid, I'm bought in, right? Totally. But here's a reality though, right? I was sold on ClickFunnels, like this is the way, this is the path. But then that human part of our brain, and Russell talks about it all the time, that human part of our brain where we're just so fear-based, like, I just thought, there, this, this, this seems too good to be true, right? It had to be too good to be true. No one's making a million dollars. Like, a million dollars is like, like this dream. Like, you dream of winning the lottery and making a million dollars, right?

That's not real. You have to be somebody's son to make a million dollars.

Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

I just went from zero to $1,200, it changed my life. I'm not making a million dollars though. Yeah, yeah.

So, so pretty much that. And then You know, I did what most people would do, which is like, go on like the reviews and, you know, try to like talk themselves out of a decision. Because, you know, when I went in and I seen the price, I'm like, I don't know about this.

Yeah, yeah.

Right. And I went on reviews, I seen all the negative reviews, you know, like pyramid scheme, Russell did this back in the days. Oh, ClickFunnels, it's a clunky software. No one is building an actual business on ClickFunnels. Like, like things don't work and blah, blah, blah. So I'm seeing all this and I'm just like, ah, damn it.

Hmm.

No, it's like you found something and then it's just like, dang, like I thought I found a way out.

Popped your balloon.

Yeah. Like, you know, and then, you know, like I sat down with that for maybe like 30 seconds to 2 minutes. And then I then thought to myself, like, do those people that's sitting down writing reviews, do they have the life that I want? Who do I want to be? Do I want to be one of those people?

Do I want to be a keyboard warrior? Yeah, or like a 2 Comma Club Award winner.

Exactly right. And that's the exact same thought. So I sat down, I said, I can watch these people's experiences and I can go with how they feel and all those things, or I can sit down and I can say, well, there's these other people over here that had the success, and I can just choose, right? Because life is a lot of choices. I can choose to believe that I can actually accomplish this thing. And I think I made the right decision.

The vehicle that you used to do this, right, was mostly affiliate marketing.

Yeah.

So it's funny that you bring up this 300 thing because you make a comparison often of mercenaries versus like army and like people who are loyal, etc. How did you build like your affiliate army?

So we built the Affiliate Army by accident, honestly. And I think every successful entrepreneur probably built what they've built by accident. Like, we look at Russell Brunson, right? ClickFunnels may have been, you know, the idea that he wanted to go with, but ClickFunnels wasn't— it was an accident, right? They were trying to build it on a, like, another I think Ruby on Rails or whatever.

Yep.

And Todd was just like, dude, like, if we're gonna do this, let's build this, you know, this way. So it's just like accidental things. Hey, yeah, I'm not going to be your employee. I'm going to be like— I want— if I'm gonna do this, I want to partner.

Yeah.

All right. So like these things just like accidentally kind of just happen. Like it doesn't happen because I'm willing it to happen or I want it to happen. So, um, pretty much what happened was I found myself in this, uh, Facebook group because I was helping out another friend figuring out like how to use upsells and stuff like that on ClickFunnels. Nice. Um, and all my clients, by the way, I was having them, you know, get their ClickFunnels account, and I was, you know, pretty much collecting the affiliate commissions for signing them up.

Gotcha.

So my job was to help them like utilize ClickFunnels. So I found myself in this Facebook group and I was helping everyone, like, you know, just random because I'm bored, being in COVID, whatever. I'm helping them build like their, you know, their Facebook ads and this thing and that thing. They're like complaining about all these weird simple things that really require very, very minimal effort to fix. and I get this weird message the day earlier. Yeah, I got this weird message, long, long message. I'm like, yeah, I'll read this later because I'm not reading like an entire novel at this point.

Yeah.

And then one of the girls that I helped prior the day before, she comes back to me and she's just like, dude, what do I do next? You just helped me make $2,000 with Blake Newbar.

Like, oh, there you go.

I'm listening to everything that you say from this moment forward. And I'm like, Well, what about the other 50 other people that I was helping that is coming back and talking to me about the same exact issues that they had the day before? How are you making $2,000 and everyone else is, you know, $2,000 in 24 hours and everyone else is coming back with the same questions?

Hmm.

So then I realized there's a saying, right? People don't value free. Anytime you offer something for free, people just treat it as if it's not really anything of value. So when I went to bed, I read this message from this guy. He goes, oh, I only had like, you know, $2 in my bank account, $2, $3 in my Bank of America bank account. Typhoon came in and wiped out everything. My family's in the Philippines. I have, you know, this many children. My birthday is in like 3, 4 more days. If you can just help me make $100. Like it'll mean everything to me. And I'm like, I'm not in the business of like, you know, helping people make $100. Like, that's not, you know, my business model.

What's your business model? What are you—

my business model back then was the marketing.

Yeah.

So I'm like, that's not really my business model, right? And I prayed on it. And, you know, I woke up in the next morning, I was just like All right, this is what I'm gonna do. And I just pretty much said, hey dude, this is a way that you can make money. And we have the people coming in, we just, you know, sell the exact same things that we're teaching, we package it, sell it, you go out there as an affiliate, you sell it, you collect the commission. In 2 days he was able to make $400. So that exceeded his wish for his birthday.

Absolutely.

Yeah. And that's how this whole thing started.

You said, I've got something here now.

Yeah.

Is showing people how to do what you were doing, promoting other people's products.

Yeah.

Were you then an affiliate of other people's products? Like, maybe like Newbar at that time?

Yeah, no. So, um, pretty much one of the things that I, I do, I, I, for myself, I promote just Russell. So I don't promote like all these other different offers. And it's one of the things that, you know, I, I tell a lot of affiliates starting out, like You need to focus on just one thing, right? One offer, one product, one system, one, one coach, one mentor, one, one guide, right? I mean, because then it's like you have like this Frankenstein thing where nothing actually, you know, aligns and fits. And I kind of like, I kind of liken this to this, right? It's like learn like language, right? Like imagine if you're trying to learn 4 different languages at the same time, trying to learn English, Spanish, Cantonese. Right? Yeah, yeah. You're going to work hard, right? But at the end of the day, are you going to actually learn how to do that thing or speak that language? Right.

Great example.

Yeah. You're not going to learn how to do it. Right. But most people are trying to promote this product and then promote this product at the same time and then learn how to promote this product. And they don't understand that every business is different. Right? Like, I speak to countless of people. They have 5, 6 businesses. And they're like super excited. Yeah, I'm super busy, it's 5, 6 businesses. How much you make a year? I make 106 figures every year. Yeah, what's up? Like, yeah dude, I, I do one thing and I make more than that in a month.

Well, and what I've noticed too is you're the guy too that is always like at these leaderboards. I remember 2.0, let's go back a couple years, right? I was handling the partnerships and everything. You and I are talking, Turner's in there, and we're like, Junior's not promoting. We're like, dude, Junior's not in this. But at the same time, you still like finished, I don't know, like 4th or 5th or something in this contest.

Yeah, um, well, I ended up going up to, um, I believe 9th, but that's because I was traveling that day, so it like freaking sucked. But, um, no, dude, super interesting is, um I actually wasn't really promoting it. I came to the ClickFunnels office for, you know, Russell had like a little gathering. We had a bunch of meetings, Inner Circle, all this stuff back to back, like 2 weeks straight. And I had a few friends that actually came in and I'm seeing them like, you know, promoting. And one of my friends, I was just like, dude, like, I'm not a sore loser. Like, I'm going to just buy from you because, like, the offer is pretty cool and at least my friend is going to win. Right? And he had like, you know, a bunch of sales at this time. So I'm like, I'll just buy from you. I bought from him, but then I don't know what it was.

It was Doug.

Doug. Doug.

All right.

So I'm just like, I don't know what happened, but when I came to the event, I was just like, I'm seeing everyone talking about us. I'm like kind of getting a little bit excited and pumped up. I'm like, hey. And then you guys are like, yeah, it ends in 2 days.

Yep.

I'm like, oh, I don't even have links. I was like, what? So you guys helped me get all my links together. So I ended up booking a flight to fly back to Orlando because I was just like, yeah, I'm going to do a presentation and I'm going to sell the crap out of ClickFunnels 2.0 and I'm going to, I'm going to win this thing.

Like, I remember getting a message and you're just like, just running cards, just running cards. And like, we're seeing you within like 24 hours, man, ticking up on this leaderboard more. More and more and more. It was wild. It's like a pressure cooker.

Yeah, but that—

I feel like that's when you perform.

Yeah, um, when there's a lot of pressure. Yeah, when my back's against the wall.

Oh, we've already seen it twice, right? Where you need the money for, you know, the, the, the Dan Henry thing and Billie Jean.

Yeah, well, I just feel like— and again, this goes back to knowing yourself, knowing who you are— I feel like for myself, I just work a lot better when, um, when, when I have, you know, my back against the wall. So have you ever watched this movie? Which you probably did. You know, the Batman movie with, with Bane, and he goes, the thing in the dark. Ah, you were—

I was born in it.

Yeah, dude, that was so good. That was so good, dude. You got to do it one more time.

I was born in the darkness.

He was. Yeah. So pretty much that. Dude, that was— that's it. So pretty much it's the same exact thing, right? Like Bane is saying like, uh, Batman, you were raised in the dark, but I was born in it. Right, right. For me, like a lot of people, like their, their pressure and stuff like that, they don't understand what it feels like to be born in that, right? Again, I didn't have the support of a regular household. Yeah, I came from having a lot of pressure, right? Growing up in every type of way possible.

But you're talking 24 hours of concentrated effort since you've built this list. You've built the army.

Yeah.

That has huge results.

Yeah.

Winning contests. And I, I don't even remember what that number was specifically for that one, but that was probably over $100 grand too.

Yeah, it was $150,000.

I think a lot of people don't know, dude, you went from being homeless in New York. You went from probably living in more limiting beliefs than I've lived in in my entire life. And you've been able to traverse that. And smash it. Dude, you've been, you've been featured in Forbes.

Yeah.

You're like, you're no slouch. You're a stud. You're a stud. So I love hearing you talk about KPIs. When you teach about these KPIs and you show people the actual thing, there's so many vanity metrics, are there not? Like if we wanna lie to ourselves, man, I can show, I can show you a spreadsheet of vanity metrics to show you how how great your business is and how smart you are that mean absolutely nothing. But you don't live by those. You live by real KPIs that people can check every single day, that they can look at every single day, and they can grow their business and make the right decisions for their business and where they're at and what needs to be done right now for them to achieve their goals. So I'd love to talk some KPIs with you.

Yeah, dude, absolutely. I think that that's something that most affiliates, most people, even business owners or, or even affiliates, like, they're not thinking about KPIs. So for instance, the first KPI is prospecting, right? Um, prospecting is, is really interesting because if you do prospecting wrong, like, everything else, like, doesn't really matter, right? Everything. A lot of us, we can go in our phones right now, right? You can pull out your phones and you can go on your Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and you will go into your spam area or wherever and you'll see a bunch of people, hey, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

DMs.

DMs. Like a bunch of just DMs that just means absolutely nothing to you, right? And most people, I know for myself, I don't know about you guys, like I'll see these things and I ignore. Like my ignore game is crazy, right? So like I would ignore, ghost, whatever the case is. Like there's no contact. And this is something that I, I preach a lot. Like, this is something that's— that I call the shotgun approach. Like, you're just— yeah, yeah, yeah, you're just spreading your message to as many people as possible, but it never actually connects with people. So we've came up with this term called sniping, which is like just being intentional like a sniper. Like, you're, you're aiming down, you're finding— yeah. Right. And it's not targeted as, you know, oh, this is my, this is my audience. So my audience are all in this one grand big bucket. No, this is, you know, who I want to reach out to. This is my person.

Yeah.

Single target.

One target. Yeah. And actually like becoming very, very aware of who that person is. So imagine you're trying to sell a doctor on Snapchat or TikTok. Mm-hmm. I'm trying to sell medical devices on TikTok. Yeah.

Maybe they're LinkedIn or something instead, right?

Well, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, obviously. Mm-hmm. Right. But that's what most people are doing in affiliate marketing. They're just, just trying to spread a message without understanding, hey, this is who I'm speaking to. Yeah.

This is how I like this platform. I use TikTok all the time and they just go on that.

Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. And it's also, it's not even just the way that they're, or where they're targeting. It's also how they're communicating. Like, all right, hey bro, I got this medical device for you. You gotta check it out. It's fricking awesome. It's lit. It's lit.

You're hey bro and a doctor.

Bro. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Right? Like they're gonna sit down and be like, what? Who is this? Block, delete.

Yeah, that doctor's ignore game is strong too.

Yeah, right? Pretty much, right? So every approach is going to be different, right? I can sit down and the gym owner, I can say, you know, something that, that's more, you know, like, uh, because gyms are really tribal, you know, if you've ever noticed, like gyms, they're, they're very, they're, they're, they're like their own tribe. And if I understand how I could speak that tribe language, like I can target any gym owner. Yep. You get what I'm saying?

Yep.

So like, like even just like that with prospecting. So understand that prospecting is the first thing. Now, the second thing is, is going to be, you know, the conversations.

So what exactly is prospecting? Is that my first initial outreach?

Yeah. So it's the first initial outreach. And I'll give you an example if you want. Cool. All right. So let's just say this gym owner, right? This gym owner— and this is going to go back to what I'm saying about sniping, right? To snipe someone, you actually have to know who you're talking to. To.

Yep.

Right. What you're talking to them about and understand like, hey, my job here is to build a relationship. Right. Which is going to bring us to the next thing. Right. Because people don't care about what you know, people care about how much you actually care. Like you have to show people you care.

Absolutely.

So if I were to reach out to this gym owner, I would say something like, hey, bro, listen, I was just checking out your content from 2 years ago and I absolutely freaking agree with everything that you said. You know, the industry is absolute crap right now. People are taking all these horrible nutritional things or pills and stuff like that, and they're completely ruining their entire bodily functions. I think you should check out this podcast from this person. I think you'd really like it and you'll find value in it. Boom, sent. A gym owner is going to be like, it's— for one, he's going to feel validated. Oh damn, you see my content from 2 years ago? Damn, I like this guy. Yeah, right, immediately, right? And I'll probably go in, I'll find his post, I'll like it, comment it, I'll probably share it on all that stuff, put it on my page, you know, like I would make him actually— like, I'll make this person actually feel like, oh, seen, right? Like, hey, you're, you're seen, I, I see you.

Yep.

Right? And then, you know, of course, like the conversation flow, like, would he respond? Absolutely, right? Absolutely. And then that's going to bring us to, you know, the KPI number 2, which is the conversations.

With that though, do you, do you dictate, do you say, hey, this affiliate, okay, you should be reaching out to X amount a day or a week or a month? Do you do that?

Uh, no, not, not directly with my team. Because for me it's just like—

but you're teaching them that they need to track it. They got to figure out what is going to work for them.

Yeah.

You mentioned earlier like a reverse engineering thing. Maybe we start from the back.

Yeah.

When we were talking offline is like, then I can know what we need to put into maybe the prospecting number and so on.

Yeah. And that's absolutely right. Like we just let them choose what they want to earn.

Okay. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? And I think that for, for me, like that's the freedom Freedom, right? That's the— I get to choose how much I make versus someone else telling me how much to make.

Yeah.

And it's just numbers, right? And, and that's the thing that I love about this KPI. It's not emotional, right? It's, it's, it's math.

Yeah.

And if you understand the math, like, you can dictate what your month is going to look like. You can dictate what your, your year is going to look like.

It's all just data. It's all just finding out what's working, what isn't working.

It's numbers, right? And it's also things that you can actually improve on and, you know, iterate on and make better if they're not that good.

Yeah.

So those numbers can always increase.

So second one, he says follow up.

No, second one is conversation.

Oh, conversations. Okay. And then we get to follow up. Got it.

So conversations is pretty much going back to what I said. People don't care about what you know. They do. They care about, you know, you showing that they care, right? Like you have to show people that you actually care about them. Right? That's the only thing. Russell Brunson, I believe he was the one who told me that we don't live in an age of products anymore, right? People aren't buying products, people are buying people.

That's real, right?

And I feel like a lot of people, we forget that, and we're just trying to sell a product, sell a product, sell a product, sell a product without letting someone know.

It's transactional, just like boom, boom, boom.

It's transactional. But then here's the thing, like of you guys, I know for myself, right? I've bought things that I don't even want, just because the person selling it to me, I like them. Right? So people buy people, not products.

Right.

And I feel like most affiliates, most people, most business owners, they get that wrong. And they just, they're just so focused on, you know, the product versus focusing a little bit of the attention on, you know, the, the relationship that they can build with, you know, customers.

And that's where this conversation is key.

Yeah, conversation is key. So for me, right, I say sales is sex.

Okay.

And conversations, right? Like a lot of people, they would have like these boring conversations like, hey, Dante, how's the weather? But is that going to get you anywhere? Right? Like, let's just say if you're dating someone and the intention is, hey, sex at the end of the day, are you going to lead with, hey, how's the weather? No, right? That's, it's gonna get dry, it's gonna get boring, it's gonna get dull. Like, no one's gonna keep having that conversation. They're gonna ghost you eventually. Yeah, right. And that's the same exact thing with conversations.

You need a lot of attraction.

Yeah, you need to make sure that your conversations— pretty much, actually, right? You need to make sure that your conversations are, are exciting, right? Energetic, fun, right?

And one thing relevant to them too. Relevant.

Yeah, yeah. So we always tell our affiliates, like, make sure, like, like, your conversations have an end, right? You have an end to the conversation so that you can pick that back up, right? And that, in that way, then you're building anticipation. Like, so it could be something like, hey, I'm doing this, you know, this thing, and, you know, I really enjoy having this conversation with you. Let's pick this back up tomorrow or in 2 days when I'm done with this. So we're building anticipation. So now my customer is thinking about me. You get what I'm saying? Without it being weird, creepy, or like pressured or forced or anything like that.

They're waiting for that next time. The anticipation.

I know, right? And that's the point. So then, you know, that helps with, you know, the conversation or even that with the follow-up process afterwards. Third KPI. Sorry, third KPI, follow-up. Like, it's so interesting. I remember this one time I had like one of our affiliates that I was helping and I was controlling her screen And you want to hear like how simple my follow-up message was to a customer that she hadn't spoken to in like 6, 7, 8 months? And every time she tried to message that person, the person would not respond. You know what my message was?

What?

Do you still hate me?

And it worked.

She responded like literally by the time I press enter, I'm seeing the dot, you know, on Facebook, you see that? I'm seeing the response coming back in. No, I don't hate you. Why do you say that? I was just busy. This thing happened to me in my life. And now I have this new customer that just reignited herself explaining why she was ghosting for the past. And she's just like, oh no, I'm— she bought like within the next 2 days, right? All from just a follow-up. But you don't even have to go that far. You can, you know, send like, you know, resources or just something like letting someone know that you're you're thinking of them, right? That's for me, like, that's what follow-up is about.

Do you use different follow-ups for different people? Like, or do you have kind of like a canned approach? Like, okay, here's the ones that work.

Yeah. So, uh, so pretty much like the script, right? No. Um, again, going back to the idea of like sniping, everyone is completely intentional. So this is where the creativity comes with, right? Like, I would use, you know, this message to this one person. But then, um, like another person, right, I would have a completely different approach.

Sure. Okay.

Like I had, um, I had another customer that literally didn't buy for like 3 months and she was like all over the place. And I was helping one of our affiliates, um, this was actually recently, and I was just like, um, dude, let me be your accountability partner because I need, I need accountability. Like that was my message. And she was just like, yeah, I'll be your accountability partner. I was like, I need help with this, this. I'm typing for the affiliate. I need help with this, this. So I outlined everything that I needed help with. And she's like, okay, great. I need help with this, this, this, this, this, right? So now I know exactly what she needs. She just sold herself without even— you get what I'm saying? But, but, and that's what I'm saying, like, it can't be like a scripted thing. Like, if you're You know, like for me, follow-up could be like the most fun thing. It can be the most creative thing that you do. You just have to have fun with it and find different angles that you can weave.

Well, if you're not having fun with something, you're not gonna do it.

And that's the thing, right? Most people think that making money has to be this boring grind, dull grind thing. And you know, the reality is that's a limiting belief that most of us, myself included, grew up with as a child. Like these are the things, money doesn't grow on trees. So it's just like having fun, because the more fun that you have, the more energy that you're able to push out there. And the more energy that you're able to push out there, the more people feel those things. And then, you know, the last but not least, it's the fourth KPI. It's sales, um, conversions. Conversions, actually, you know, getting the deal to the finish line. Um, this is the one where I feel like most people, you know, they mess up on, where they're just beating around the bush, right?

But this is, this is transactions without trying to be like transactional. Like, I think there has to be a really good way to go about it. And it starts at the very beginning with the prospecting and the how you target. And then, you know, the conversations, the follow-up. And if all that's done right, the sale comes naturally. There you go.

But then also it's, you know, you have to also make sure that, um, the value for whatever you're offering, 100% is worth more than the money or the money that they're paying for it.

Oh yeah.

Because if it's a mishmash, mix match and you know, it's not going to—

Yeah. Total value must absolutely exceed the money charged.

And which is why I love ClickFunnels, right? Because as an affiliate to promote ClickFunnels, the value in ClickFunnels is just so high for what they're paying. That's just like, dude, for you not to be able to make money promoting ClickFunnels, like you actually like legit have to just not try. Like, you get what I'm saying? Like, you just have to actually just not try.

There's a lot of power in just taking action because you will learn from taking that action. If you don't, you're going to hypothesize about this and never do anything. I mean, do something.

Yeah. And that's the thing, right? Like, even if we sit down and we think about something that I said earlier, right? Like when I first started, I wanted to get started with, with ClickFunnels, I sat down and I watched all the negative reviews, right? And I was creating this whole negative scenario in my head about what was going to happen even before I did anything. Right. And that's where I feel like, you know, most people are stuck at. They're just thinking, hey, I want to do this, but I don't know where to start. Start somewhere. Yeah, doesn't matter where you start. Click.

There you go.

Keep clicking. Yeah. And eventually you'll, you'll figure the things out.

These KPIs are really interesting to me though, but the reason we have KPIs is so we can get this data and we can like dissect it. So do you have like a gold standard? I'll give you an example. Like Russell in DotCom Secrets, he's got like, hey, if you're going to do a webinar, you should have this many people show up. You should have this much close rate. Do you give people and say, hey, this is what you should maybe shoot for eventually, and then they can reverse engineer. Maybe it's not like, okay, you got to do 300 prospects a day, but do you give like some guidelines on these KPIs, like how many you should get to get the next one and so on?

Yeah. So I give them guidelines, but I don't give them an exact amount of, of, okay, you have to do this because again, I want them to feel autonomous. I want them to have a sense of autonomy in their business where it's not where, hey, this is my boss and he's telling me that I have to do this, right? It's like, hey, no, I want to do this because my wife needs this and I can do this with this. You know what I'm saying? So, um, like, that's what we do. But like, if I had to set, uh, like a set number, I would say 300 a day, um, as far as prospecting.

For you?

Yeah.

But you're insane.

Yeah. Is that a you number or is that a number?

Yeah, yeah.

Um, yeah, I feel like I'm super intense. It's for all, all across the board.

Targeted too.

Yeah, targeted. Because what's the point of doing it and then not being intentional, right?

If you get— yeah, 300 a day prospecting, okay, we're gonna shoot that out there. How many conversations should that lead to?

So you would have to think some, um, half of them would probably end up in the spam folder, probably. And you know, maybe another half you know, open. So I would say about half of that. So 150.

So then when you— would you call it a conversation? Is that when they respond?

Yeah, they respond. Just simple. Okay, cool.

So now we're 150. Done right, how many people then will continue through the follow-up phase?

Well, so the follow-up phase is a little bit weird because you don't want all 150 people there. You just want a fraction of those people. So they could be 25%, it could be 30%, it could even be 50%. 100% because you have to understand, like, not everyone was made for your offer, right? Not everyone was made for the thing that you're purchasing. And this could be, you know, location, geographical issues. This could be financial issues. This could be a mentality issue, right? Right. Most people don't talk about a mentality issue. Like, the worst customers that I've ever had weren't people that were financially restrained or geolog— geography, geography whatever word— geologically, geologically, geographically— strange, right? Um, they were the ones that were just like mentally like not there and worst customers ever.

So I think, I think what I'm gleaning from this is the numbers. As long as you get these numbers and keep track, those numbers will tell you what you need to be doing.

Yeah.

If you need to increase this, or if I get 300 and 150 like have a conversation with me, maybe my conversations are really bad if I only have 10% and they are responding to the follow-up.

Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. So now this tells us, this gives us the right metric. Okay, great. If I only have 10 people out of the 150 people that I conversated with, only 10 of them responded. I'm horrible at having conversations. Like, people are not wanting to talk to me, right? So now, like, now I know. Okay, great. I now need to build more rapport with said person. I need to make more of a connection with said person. I need to, you know, I need to be more human. I need to be less transactional. Because the reality is humans are social creatures, whether we want to admit it or not, whether you want to say that we're introverts or extroverts or whatever the crap averts, right? Like, We're social creatures. We're not creatures that were meant to be confined or consolidated. Yeah, right. And with that being said, everyone on this planet Earth, we're all looking for, for love and connection. Like, that is one thing that regardless of where you're twisting, turning, or anything, I'm looking for love and connection. Dante, you're looking for love and connection. Chris, you're looking for love. The people watching this right now is all looking for love and connection. So if you can share that with your customers without being sleazy and sketchy and like an outright horrible human being, if you can convey that to your customers, like the follow-up is going to happen regardless because you're just, you're like a friend. If your friend texts you, it's like, hey dude, what's up? What are you doing this afternoon? You want to hop on a quick meeting or you want to meet me for a bike ride? Like, if you don't have anything urgent you're doing, yeah dude, let's go.

I, I saw a reel and it was like, hey listen, if you're an adult and you want to have relationships, you 100% have to initiate. Yeah, it's like you sitting around and being like, well, my mom doesn't call me anymore. Like, dude, you gotta call your mom. Yeah, you're the one who has to initiate all this. And that's exactly what we're describing here, pretty much.

Pretty literally that. Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

Now, I also want to point out, this can happen very rapidly. Let's go back to this moment where now you found ClickFunnels.

Okay.

To the point where you made— and I think now you have 5 Two Comma Clubs and a Two Comma Club X award.

Yeah.

But from ClickFunnels, like, subscribe to Two Comma Club, any idea how long that took?

Uh, 9 months.

9 months, give or take. Yeah, this is, this is, this is wild though.

I—

the reason that I say that is because it's belief. Do we think that everybody's going to do this in 9 months? No. But if you're committed and you're actually going to put in the work to do this, there's always going to be that group of people that, that are just going to be on the reviews. There's action takers and then there's keyboard warriors.

Well, okay, can I, can I just like— I'll be the, the, I guess, the devil advocate here.

Okay.

All right. I'm not sure if I used that one correct, right? But, um, it wasn't all like rainbows and butterflies, right? Because, you know, you know, you'd hear Russell say, you're just one funnel away, right? And, uh, the realistic thing is that you're not just one funnel away, right? And that's where I, uh, kind of had my hang up on, right? I was like sitting down like, oh, I just do one funnel.

Oh, and then 12, it could be 100, but it could be the next one.

Well, that's the thing, right? So for me, I was just like, I just, I did my first funnel, it didn't work, it bombed. And then remember I told you guys earlier, I was looking at all those reviews. I sat down and I went back, oh man, those reviews were probably right. And I think that's the most dangerous thing, right? Once you have something negative in your head, you're always going to try to default back to that negative to just, you know, kind of like to prove yourself kind of right or in whatever sense, you know?

—Or give yourself an excuse.

—Or give yourself an excuse. That's even better, right? Because we do that all the time, right? So I sat down, I was just like, oh man, this sucks, this sucks, damn. But then I sat down and I said, you know, like, there has to be a way. Like, these people, there's all these people making this. Like, there has to be a way, there has to be a way. And I convinced myself that there was a way until, great, I was one final ohe. Right, right. And I did take one funnel that made me— one funnel, not 5, not 10, one funnel.

Just had to be the right one.

Made me my first million dollars. Amazing. So when he says one funnel away, like, now I'm just like, yeah, really is just one funnel away. Love it, right? He never said, hey, you're first funnel away. Yeah, he said, no, you're one funnel away. And that's, that's an accurate absolutely accurate.

Won't be your first. Maybe. Maybe.

I mean, it could be your first, right? It can be a first. But then, you know, there's so many different things that goes into it. There's so many things that you have to learn and improve on. And that's why I love the fact that Russell has, you know, the One Funnel Away Challenge, because he helps— from what I experienced back then, like, it helps you understand the entire importance or how, you know, funnels are built and entirety. Like, so yeah, for me it's just like, dude— and that's why, like, I'm not sure if you guys actually see these stats, but I went through every single step inside of the Value Ladder. Yeah, 100%. You guys seen that?

Yeah, you started at the click. Yeah.

And then next step was, um, so I ended up buying something that Russell no longer, um, has. And every time I see him, I'm like, dude, can you bring this back? And he brings it back back for like a little bit and then he gets rid of it. And then what was it? It's called the Funnel Immersion. Funnel Immersion events.

Oh, I remember those.

Yeah, yeah. So it's like black box. This is like Fat Robbie. I'm not sure if you guys know Fat Robbie.

Yeah, yeah, that goes way back. It goes way back. Robbie now.

Yeah, Skinny Robbie now, right? This is like Fat Robbie. There's like all these different things that like for me was gold where I just learned so much about just funnels and building and all these things. Um, so I bought Funnel Immersion, Funnel Hacking Live. Um, before I bought Funnel Hacking Live, 2CCX, right? Um, $25 grand, never showed up to that. I went— I remember my first time at Funnel Hacking Live, Coach Vince comes up, he's like, hey, you're the Junior Anthony. Um, we had so many meetings scheduled, you just never showed up. I'm like, oh, cool. Yeah, I guess. Sure. And you are? Yeah, I'm Coach Vince. You like, we have meetings and how is your progress? How are you doing? I'm like, oh yeah, I'm, I'm gonna get a 2 comma combo, get my third one today, right? And then he's just like, wait, what? And he, he, he introduced me to Robbie. You, you know Robbie. Robbie's like, what, Junior, you're, you're, you're, you're a stud, dude, right?

That is one of the That was the best Robbie impersonation I've ever seen.

Oh, I have practiced. Oh yeah, for sure.

That was better than my Bane, dude.

Yeah, I think it was probably on point. Okay, cool. It was pretty, pretty same, same. All right, right. And then that's how I got into, you know, Inner Circle. Russell Brunson brought it back, and then I was in Inner Circle. And Inner Circle, by the way— and I'm not here trying to just promote Inner Circle. Yeah, sure, but sharing your experience. Can I, can I, can I— like, if I had to, it was probably one of best investments that I've made in my business. Um, we were undercharging a lot, you know, before, um, Inner Circle. Um, because of Inner Circle, I met Robbie, um, and Bart Miller, who forced me, uh, to sell at an event where I made $100,000 in like 10 minutes. So like, again, going back from— yeah, dude, like going back from— and like cash pocket, like mines, no commissions, no nothing. Like going Going back from this guy that was homeless, that had nothing, nada, zilch, crap, to now just making $100,000 in 10 minutes just because, just because. It's like, you know, so your brain gets rewired to believe like, yo, anything is actually possible if you just take action on it. Like, anything, there's no limitations. And, you know, that was one of my first experiences with Inner Circle and just the strategy, the people in the room, uh, just everything that you'd get from Inner Circle. And then of course, you know, um, I just always wanted to be an Atlas, like just the top of the top. Yeah, that was, that was like, you know, um, like the people in Atlas, I just felt like they had access to, to more things, which we know we did. Um, it's just like a lot different. Being able to like be in a smaller room and, you know, you know, communicate in a more direct way, you know, with Russell or with, you know, the certain people in the room. Because it's, it's different being able to speak with, um, in a room of 100 people versus speaking in a room with only 10 people, for sure. You know what I'm saying? Like, the bond that I have with people in Atlas is like 10 times better than the bond that I had with people in Inner Circle. And you know, for me, well, there's a—

that's a different level that you're paying to play. Yeah. All of a sudden now you're at the level of these business owners that are growing and scaling at a totally different level. Um, and, and that's just what you've bought into, right? It's not just the access to Russell, that's a community.

Yeah. Like one of, one of the guys that actually— it's crazy, like I, I've built a really good relationship with one of the, uh, one of the the members of Atlas. This guy makes $70 million a year, and I'm like, breaking ceilings, man. $70 million, his profit's about 50% of that. And I'm like, me thinking that I'm doing something with my life, and it's just like, yeah, dude, you're— there's different levels always, right? How adorable.

Oh my gosh, Junior, you are You are absolutely the man. Like, I can't wait to have you at Funnel Hacking Live, like, cheering this on one more time. Yeah, dude. It's, it's absolutely amazing. Um, we do a thing though before we wrap. Yeah. Rapid fire questions. Okay. So we're gonna jump into that segment, but that segment is brought to you by funnelhackinglive.com. So go to funnelhackinglive.com/cfr and get your ticket. Come see us in September. In Las Vegas at the Fountain Blue. It's back. It's all about AI, all the things that are relevant, all the things that you've been worrying about constantly. We're gonna cover and get you so you're actually implementing AI in a way that works for you. So once again, funnelhackinglive.com/cfr. Are we ready for rapid fire, Dante?

We are ready.

Let's do it. Here we go. Okay.

Rapid fire. What's the biggest lie about affiliate marketing that you hear?

The biggest lie about affiliate marketing, in my opinion, is going to be you need to promote a bunch of different products to be able to make money. I suggest just one product. Find one product that you love, one product that's going to help you get to whichever goal that you want, and then focus on that.

If somebody is trying to pick a product, what's more important? Should they pick a product they're passionate about or something that they're knowledgeable about?

People are gonna hate me for this. Um, don't turn your passion into a job. Whatever you're knowledgeable on, that's where you, you put your attention on. That's where you actually focus on, because your knowledge, you know, you'll grow those things.

And keep your passions for passion projects, like make your passion be success.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then of course, you know, And I'm not saying not to enjoy your passions, right? Enjoy your passions for free though, right? Don't try to sell your passion. Don't make it— don't, don't— what is the word? Don't contaminate it. Don't contaminate your passion with money. I like that.

I like that a lot. If you lost everything and you woke up tomorrow, what's the first thing you would do?

A team. I would work on building a team. Yeah, and it's really different because most people say, well, message my email list, or I'll do this, or I'll do that. I would just have a team. And the reason why I'm saying a team is because you can accomplish so much more with a group of people, right, um, than you can do by yourself. If you want to go, you know, fast, do it by yourself. But if you want to go far, do it together. Yeah.

Uh, Junior, Why do affiliate contests bring out the best of you?

I think it's just the pressure, dude. Um, again, I think that I'm just— I just feel like I just work so well with my back against the wall, uh, just because, again, it's just how I was raised. I've always had pressure. Um, you know, even when I used to be homeless, there's a time when I got snowed in on my car and I thought I was gonna die. And like, even going through that experience, like it made me more serious about what I was doing with my time or what I was doing with my life.

Yeah. You got something to lose. A little something on the line. Yeah. Yes, sir. Okay. Last one. You've talked quite a bit about how you just, you gotta be crazy. You gotta be not trying to not make money with ClickFunnels on the affiliate program. Why do you think ClickFunnels has so many successful affiliates where other platforms and programs just don't?

Um, because the product just sells itself. Like, it's not hard. Like, again, like I said, you literally have to not try to sell ClickFunnels to not sell ClickFunnels. Like, you have to actually give effort on that. You can literally have success as an affiliate by literally just doing this one thing. Oh, tell me. Right? Okay, great. You sign someone up for ClickFunnels. Right? You now collect commissions. Yep. And that same exact person that you taught how to, you know, that, that you're getting commissions from, you help that person make their first commission as well, their first sale.

I think, I think that's what it's all about. We hit this over and over and over on ClickFunnels Radio, is this impact over income. And you're a great example of that, man. And that makes the world a better place. And that's what we find over over on ClickFunnels Radio is this impact. But before we go, if somebody wants to know what you're doing, find you online, where do they go?

Oh, that's simple. Junior Anthony Live on all my socials. That's Junior spelled out, Anthony spelled out, and Live. Because guess what? We're live. Love it.

Thanks again, Junior. See you guys next time.