The Other Side of Who Built ClickFunnels - Todd Dickerson - CFR #542

Welcome back to the third episode in a series of three episodes. I had the opportunity of recording with Todd Dickerson. Todd is our co founder. He is the number one tech genius behind ClickFunnels. Without him, we wouldn't have it. And so I thought, why not actually have him tell his side of the story of how Clickfunnels was actually created? You're gonna love this one. 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 here is your host, Dave Woodward. Well, I want to jump to one more subject real quick here. I would love your side of how Clickfunnels got started. Everyone's heard Russell's side and I'd love to know from your side.

Yeah, absolutely. So again, it's hard to decide when to start other than at some point, Russell and I had built about 15 different businesses. I think that meeting that you were talking about that we met at, that was part of one of those things. I built a bunch of different funnels. Like we partnered on a bunch of things. We've done a bunch of like, smaller businesses. We had everything from drop shipping dogs, we had fitness, we had supplements for neuropathy. We had all kinds of different businesses we had built over the past. Over a couple of years there it was probably a couple years. And at one point we had a automated webinar platform that I had built. And it was a good platform. We were having good success. It actually did some cool stuff that even today no platform does. But we had done it where it was like very hands on and it was like we had to custom build every landing page that people opted into. And it was great once we built it, but we were charging people like 10, 20 grand to build a webinar. It didn't scale. So I was going out to Boise and I was planning on helping Russell come up with a way that we were going to update this and make it more sustainable and make it something that more people could use and could scale better. And when I'm flying out there, it I read a news headline that leadpages and I'll go ahead and say their name. They had raised $5 million in VC funding, which was unheard of in our Internet marketing world. Like, no one I knew from any of these events had raised any VC money. Nobody was doing this. And this guy was selling to our market and kind of breaking a little bit outside of our direct Internet marketing market. And he had raised $5 million in VC funding. And I knew the product well and, and I, I was just kind of thinking to myself, not to be cocky, but I'm like, we could build that, this, the core value of this thing this week, right? Like this editor thing he's got like, I guarantee you it'll take me like a week to build. Like, you know, it's. It was way more basic than what he has now or clickfunnels as. But at the time I was like, the thing they have, I can, like, we can do that this week. So I'm like, I land and I'm like telling Russell and I'm like, man, this is crazy. I'm like, I cannot believe they raised this much funding. And I'm sitting here working on the automated webinar thing. Like, we were just like, oh yeah, that's crazy. I think we skip part of this sometimes when we talk about this. But I went back to working on the automated webinar software and I'm like, man, the part that is never going to scale for us is we got to custom build all these landing pages for people, right? The landing pages, webinar room, like the headers, the footers, the text. We need to custom. This isn't going to scale. I might use one of these little drop in editor things. They all suck. We just need to build our own. If we had that editor that I was just talking about in this automated webinar platform, it would be amazing and we could actually like scale this thing. So we start talking about. I'm like, let's do it. Like, that's like they raised 5 million bucks. There's clearly value here. We know that this is the thing we need to build, but if we're going to do it like is just like an autoimmune webinar thing. Like, maybe it's not a big enough scope. Like it doesn't actually have a wide enough audience. And that's another thing that comes into play here. But we were like, what's the widest scope? It's landing pages and funnels. Like, this is the thing we're doing. We're building this for all these businesses. This is what we're teaching everyone. Why don't we build the tool? And you know, Russell basically at the time was like, you know, I. People like, we can't do this. People have already tried to do it. I've tried to do it. I spent a quarter of a million dollars, I had 10 engineers work on this thing. We never shipped. And I'm like, yeah, but I think I can do it. And he's like, no, you don't understand. Like this, Like, I've tried doing this. Like, we've already tried it. It's just too much like, you know, I don't have the funds to do it. I'm like, well, let's partner on it. This is paraphrasing, but somewhere I was like, well, let's partner on it. I'll build it, you sell it, right? Like, no big deal. So we basically decided that time that I would go back and build this thing. And we broke it off and instead of it being just an automated webinar in our platform, it became clickfunnels. So instead of doing landing pages and automated webinars, we decided to do all of it and actually be the tool that everyone could use to run their online business completely, as opposed to just doing little pieces of it that the, you know, competition was trying to do. You know, there was another I. There was another backing to this, which was the marketing automation side of things that I kind of skipped over. But like, when I first met Russell, I. In person at least, like, I'd already done some work with him. I'm like, hey man, this is a thing that we need to build this marketing automation thing. Like, it's going to do marketing automation. It's going to do analytics and recording. It's going to be able to automate all your business stuff. At the time, like, there was no. Nobody in the industry was doing this other than maybe Infusionsoft who was charging like $5,000 onboarding. Like, there was no ActiveCampaign drip convert kit, like click Funnels, follow up funnels. Like, there's none of that. Nobody was doing this. And I'm like, this is the next big thing. And he's like, oh man, that's awesome. But I have no idea how to sell that. That is really confusing and complicated. And my, like, I don't. I don't know, man. So when we came up with ClickFunnels, he's like, this is the thing. This is the front end thing. This is the thing that will get everyone into our world that we can explain funnels to them and then help them actually do the power tools, right? The things that will exponentially grow their businesses. And that's where, you know, follow up funnels and action etics and workflows and all these things that have like, sprung off since then, they were actually all originally part of the plan. It just took time to manifest and build. So, yeah, that was like, that was the 10,000 foot view, I guess, of how we ended up starting it.

I love it. Well, the last question I have for you, which I think is we have been really fortunate to take a look at you and Russell, our other partners, and that is the importance of having a very, very supportive spouse. And I know for me, I would not be anywhere I am in my life if it wasn't for Carrie. I know that you and Ashley have an amazing relationship. I'm kind of curious as far as how, how have you seen, what advice from your own experience would you give.

To others who are trying to figure this whole part out? Yeah, I mean, it's tough, right? Like I won't, I won't glaze over it. Like it's not easy having a family and trying to like spend having two first priorities, right? Like your business always ends up being up there competing for first priority all the time, whether it's in your time or your focus or your attention, right. Whether you're at home playing with your kids and think about your business or you're being called into a meeting or a phone call or an emergency or something at the same time. So I think part of it is making sure your spouse is on board or your partner's on board right out the gate, right? Like they need to understand that like, yeah, this thing is going to take a while. It's not going to be easy. You know, it may not even work, right? Like, you know, it's not that the first things I did ever worked. I've been trying to find something to have success on for 25 years. Probably like however many years. Maybe fourth grade, maybe that was the beginning. You know, I've been trying to find something to like, to do this and it took a long time. And you know, you build on successes and you learn from your failures, but you need a partner, a spouse that actually is on board at least understands at some level what they're getting into. It's not, it's not that they're going to ever understand fully what they're getting into. No matter how bad you tell them it's going to be, they're never actually going to understand it. So they'll be like, yeah, babe, I support you, it's fine. Like it's fine. And then when you know you have to work at midnight or your wife needs to go to the hospital and you're like, I'm in the middle of this launch again. Like, okay, hold on guys, I gotta, I gotta go. Like, that's a whole other story. I can Tell you sometime. But, like, you know, like, it's a big commitment. You know, it's another. It's another marriage, right? Like, that you gotta compete with for attention. And you need a. You need a spouse that's supportive. But not just supportive in the sense of like, oh, I guess I'll just take whatever the guy throws at me. You also, she also has to be able to, to like, help bring you down to earth sometimes, right? Where it's like, sometimes you are just working too hard. Like, sometimes you actually do need to take a break and if you don't, you're going to break. Or if you take a break, maybe the answer is magically going to come to you once you stop focusing on it so much. And this time and time again, I'm like, no, no, no. I just got to power through. I got to power through and I got to figure this thing out. I'm sitting in front of the computer all day for 12 hours, can't get the solution to it. I finally give up and I'm like, pass out from exhaustion and I wake up and I'm like, oh, the answer's this, right? Like, and sometimes you need that reminder and you know, your spouse, your partner is a good source for those reminders to take a break sometimes and to, to come back down to earth and, you know, not get a big head either once you do have success. Because that's, you know, can be easy to do too. Especially if you're any type of celebrity or influencer or whatever else. You have everyone all day long telling you how great you are or everyone telling you how horrible you are. One or the other. Right. So you need someone that is there when you get home from work to just say, hey, honey, love you. Take out the trash. Right? Like so. Yeah.

So you and Ashley have been together 16 years?

17 years. Yeah. Coming up on 17. Yeah.

17 years now. So prior to Clickfunnels, you're basically living the four hour workweek. Life was pretty.

Pretty.

I shouldn't say easy, but it was. You weren't working as hard as you were when you started clickfunnels.

How was that? You know, like, I'm curious how that.

Conversation was between you and Ashley.

That I'm gonna stop doing four hour work week. Yeah, yeah, dude, like four hour work week. There's a whole story behind that. But I mean, the gist of it is, it is real. Like, you can do it. I don't care what people say. I know, like, I have buddies in the industry who are like, it's B.S. no one can do a four hour workweek and have any level of success. I'm like, guys, I did it for like two years. Like, you absolutely can. Maybe you can't if you can't program, I don't know. I don't have that. You know, I built the thing myself. I did the thing, you know, maybe, whatever. Like, I, I figured out ways to automate things that I could actually, like, not work all the time. Right? So, you know, I don't remember her actually having a problem with it though. And I think part of it was that she saw that, like, I was bored. Like, you want to know why I know everything about supplements and vaccinations and all this stuff? Because I had like two years where I worked four hours a week, right? Like, I could like, dive deep into it. I'm like talking to my pediatrician and how do you, how do you know that? Right? Like, like, I'm like, you know, you're not. You didn't reference this study. This study was done. Like, she's like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like, you know, like, I got a lot more free time, I guess, than you do. So. So, like, I think there was that aspect of like, she's like, we need, you need to find the next thing. Right? Like, we were fine. We were, we were doing, you know, making well above the average income. And I was making more than I would have working at a. As an engineer somewhere. But I had my businesses on autopilot. I was kind of learning marketing and finding tricks and doing cool stuff on the side, which actually, in retrospect, did give me a lot of time to learn. But I basically didn't feel like what I was doing had that much meaning, I guess. Right. So it was like, this is great. I'm making some money. I'm getting to spend time with my family. But I feel like I could be doing more, but I could be helping more people, making a bigger difference, getting to another level. I just also had much higher aspirations. I've always. This may not be a healthy filter, just putting it out there, but I've always had this never settle attitude. And again, might not be healthy as a filter, but I am convinced that most people's surroundings are because of the level they decided to settle at. It has to do with that a lot. I know, I understand hardship, but a lot of the stuff still comes in and it has to do with that. And I just wasn't at that level. I was like, maybe if I multiplied times 10 and then did a four hour workweek, I'd be fine. Like, but right now, I'm not good with this. This isn't what I want. So when Russell had reached out, that's why I was literally living that four hour workweek lifestyle and was like, ooh, I can work for free. Like, why not? Like, I'll work for free and partner with this guy and, like, maybe we'll have some success. Maybe we'll come up with something cool. And, you know, I followed my gut and followed my instinct on it and it worked out.

I love it. Well, you have an amazing family. I can't thank you enough as a friend, as a business partner, and the world can't thank you enough for creating clickfunnels. We're so, so appreciative, and I look forward to connecting again real soon. But any other parting words for our audience?

Oh, no, man, this has been great. Thank you so much, Dave. And I guess we'll pick it up next time and maybe, maybe we'll do it again soon.

Sounds awesome, but we'll talk soon.

Thanks, man. Bye.

Well, I hope you absolutely loved all the value of that podcast. Speaking of value, right now, one of the things we're really trying to do is over deliver. And the thing we've seen that has probably created the greatest opportunity for us to over deliver to all of you and that is our One Funnel Away Challenge. In fact, you can actually see it@clickfunnelsradio.com OFA Again, clickfunnelsradio.com OFA if you've gone through the One Funnel Away challenge in the past, this is something totally new. We started the One Funnel Away Challenge back in 2018, and it is now two and a half years later. We decided to completely redo it. Everything brand new, Simplifying the process, making it just as easy as possible for you to get results quick. Just spend 30 minutes every single day and what you're going to get is Russell teaching you exactly what you need to do to get your funnel up and running in the next 30 days. So go to clickfunnelsradio.com OFA and get all the details there. Thanks so much and we'll talk to you soon.