Podcasts about if russell

This is one of the reasons I pursue this game so hard. Check out the other options you have to this funnel game…   Today, I'm gonna teach you The Wealth Formula, and why I'm so jazzed about this Funnel Game.   I'm really pumped to share this with you.   I ran through The Wealth Formula at my exclusive OfferMind event, so you’re gonna get a sneak peek behind closed doors...   Right now, I'm doing the One Funnel Away Challenge which is specifically targeted at people who are people new to funnels.   The Wealth Formula is my answer when someone says, "Stephen, this is really cool, but it seems like a lotta work. There's gotta be another way?  How long does it take the average person to be successful with this?"   ...I hate that question, it drives me nuts. I’m like, “Well, how bad do you wanna make a million bucks?” What Yield Will You Learn To Earn?   One of the benefits hanging out with the amazing people at ClickFunnels was that I got some cool insights into the books and courses they rated. I got to see who the gurus learned from...   If a guy who runs a hundred million dollar company thinks something’s cool… then I should probably think that's cool too, right!   Ya know what I mean?   If I hear, “Hey, I really learned a lot from this...” I'm like, "What was the name of that again?"  I'm gonna look it up and buy it.   I bought so many books when I worked at ClickFunnels... because I was just like, “If Russell thinks that's amazing, I need to make sure I have that info for the future.”   I’d be sitting feet away from people like Tony Robbins or  Robert Kiyosaki, and if they said, "I read this great book recently... " I’d be like, Boom! BUY IT.   The Wealth Formula was one of the things I heard about, for the first time, while I was at ClickFunnels... and it was life-changing for me.   I already believed in funnels, but this was amazing.   Capitalist Pig, Baby!   At OfferMind I did a presentation called: “What Yield Will You Learn To Earn?”   I walked through how much money you can typically expect to get from different kinds of investment vehicles…   I know there are people out there making MORE money from some of the ways that I  talk about, but I'm talking about the 80 percent majority.   I don't wanna learn stuff where I have to learn exceptions to the rule in order to make cash. I'm interested in the rule.     … the cash causing models.   If I do  X, Y, and Z, will I get this amount of money? I'm looking for the 80 percent rule. The default that makes the cash most of the time.   Let me show you how the Wealth Formula plays out…   THE WEALTH FORMULA   QUESTION #1: Figure out how much money you're willing to put away into an investment account every month for the rest of your life? You don’t touch it, it’s just meant for investments. Write that amount down.     For this example, I'm gonna use $165...   Can you put $165 in an account every month?   If you're like "Hey, I can't do that right now." That's okay, you're solving the problem ahead of time... and that's cool. QUESTION #2: How long will you leave it there?   Okay, let's say 25 years.   For 25 years, you're not gonna touch that money. It's not meant for income. QUESTION #3: What yield will you get? What yield you’ll get depends on the investment vehicle you choose? … And that's one of the things I wanna talk about here. QUESTION #4: What’s the total amount of money you want?   Let's say, a million dollars… that’s a nice round number ;-) So now, I wanna run through a few examples with you… because if you knew how to earn a higher yield... what would that mean for you?  CLUE: *IT’S HUGE*     RETURN ON INVESTMENT…   WEALTH SCENARIO #1:   So let's say you take $165 every single month at a yield of zero percent (and just put it under your mattress) for 25 years.   How much money would you have?   After 25 years, you’d have $49,500.   I know you mathematicians are freaking out over the fact that it's zero percent, just get past that... you’d have $49,500...   Could you live off of that if you retired? Probably not, right?   You’d get creative real fast…   WEALTH SCENARIO #2:   Let's say you take $165, and you want to learn to earn 3 percent for 25 years.   Q: Where can you guarantee to learn to earn 3 percent?     A: Some savings accounts… I'm talking guaranteed, you understand? There are some savings accounts out there right now, not many anymore, but there are some that'll give you 3 percent if you just leave it alone.     Q: What would the total be after 25 years? After 25 years, the total would be $73,775 (I left out the cents).   Let’s keep going…   WEALTH SCENARIO #3:   $165 per month at 6 percent for 25 years…   Q: What's an investment vehicle that’ll guarantee you that return on your money for 25 years?   A: A Certificate of Deposit (CD) from a bank. You can totally get six percent from a CD. You loan the bank your money for 25 years, and you get back six percent back after that.     … 25 years at 6 percent equals $114,000. WEALTH SCENARIO #4:   Let's say you learn to earn seven percent…   Q: What investment vehicle would allow you to earn 7 percent over 25 years?     A: Last year the average mutual fund made seven percent from a 401k... ain't that crazy? Yeugh. That sucks! How much is inflation?   Do you think the value of money's gonna go up or down?  DOWN, right! It's on the way down… Not only can China buy us now, I think Canada could too. The dollar's going down baby. They're the one that made the American flag for three dollars and sent it over.   So…   If you put $165 per month in a 401K at 7 percent,  after 25 years you’d have…   ...$134,000.   WEALTH SCENARIO #5:   Okay, let's say you take $165, and you want learn to earn ten percent...   Q: What’s a guaranteed way to earn ten percent for 25 years?   A:  A Mutual Fund will do that. Again, NOT a lot of them offer that much anymore, but if you can find one, it’s pretty much a guaranteed return, right?     I'm looking for very sustainable, secure things that you can put your money into.   If put your $165 per month into a mutual fund offering 10 percent, after 25 years, that's gonna turn into $220,000.   Right next one…   WEALTH SCENARIO #6:   $165 per month at 16 percent for 25 years...   Q: What will get me a 16 percent return? Options start to get a little bit lower, right?   A:The empanada food franchise that we created at college came in at 16 percent.   At the end of that semester, we had to do a full financial P&L statement…   I was so embarrassed at my numbers. I stood up and said: "We only got 16 percent returns, but at least we learned a lot."   The professor said: You got 16 percent?" I was like, "Yeah, I'm sorry. I know... I tried really hard. It sucks! Fire me, please." He said: "That's amazing in the food business! That's not easy." He was the CMO of Denny's...   My knee jerk reaction was to yell out, "That Sucks! I'm never going into the food business, ever... “   ...It's not like that returns guaranteed, and it's not nearly as passive as some of those other models we’ve talked about! 16 percent over 25 years would yield….   ...$654,000. WEALTH SCENARIO #7:   Q: What investment vehicle will yield 20 percent returns on your monthly investment of $165 over 25 years?   Q: Tax Lien Properties are hyper guaranteed by the government.   You could take $165 every single month, package it up, and once a year go down to the courthouse steps and buy as many tax lien properties as possible, and the government says, "I guarantee you 18 percent ...  or even a 36 percent return."   Did you know you could do that? Interesting, right?     Over 25 years, that would turn into 1.4 million dollars.   Congratulations, I made you a millionaire! Is that cool? ...it's freaking pennies, let's keep going…   WEALTH SCENARIO #8:   $165 every single month for 25 years at a return of 25 percent.   Q: What vehicle would give you that kind of return?   A: Fix and Flips will definitely do that, right?     I've got great friends that do this. They'll try and flip hundreds of houses in a year. Obviously there are variants, but 25 percent is a totally realistic number. It's kinda low, but it’s a realistic...   Let's keep going...   WEALTH SCENARIO #9:   Let's say I put a dollar a month into something every month for 25 years, and I get a hundred percent return...   What would my return be after 25 years?   It's freaking huge = 375 million dollars!   Now I know you guys are gonna laugh at this... but it's to illustrate a point…   Q: What vehicle could give you that return on investment?   A: Sales Funnels!   I've never had such insane, consistent returns in anything like the funnel game... Let me show you how this works …   HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS   There was a guy who came to Russell for a funnel. He taught you how to kill people. He was teaching self defense. Not like karate, “I'm gonna use this move, that move…” It was the dirty foul play, let's just make you live kinda stuff.   We hung out in Russell's garage on his wrestling mat for two days. I had to mimic poking Russell's eye out with my thumb, and all this crazy crap.   These guys were amazing at what they did. They taught us all about biology and the way the body really is: “Hit that organ. Then boom! It's done.”   I was like, “Holy crap, I love you, Russell. This is really heavy. Oh man.”   We weren't allowed to talk to each other. We were each others test dummies for two days. It was effective, but it was heavy.   We built this awesome funnel for him, and John starts driving traffic and we’re putting $1 in and he was getting a $1.30 back out.   But he was pissed. He was so mad at us.   I was like, "What is wrong with you?"   It would go up to $1.40, $1.50, then back down to $1.30… back and forth… He was asking us, "What's going on? This is crazy."   We were like, “What is wrong with you? We’d be throwing a party right now!”   They were putting a dollar in, and getting $1.50 back out, plus some customers and people on their list.   Just upsell something... and that's a million dollar scenario.   Even if you’re just breaking even, you're getting customers for free. That’s a million dollar scenario... even if you suck.   INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT   My whole goal is to put a dollar in and get two dollars back out… c'mon let’s keep em going.   When I launched ads for Secret MLM Hacks, I put $4,000 in ads. That week, $8,000 came back out.   Then I put that $8,000 back in, and $16,000 came back out. I was like, "This is sick, let's do it again."   The next week I grabbed that $16,000 and $32,000 came back out. I was like "Oh, my gosh! This is starting to get big. Phew!"   I didn't take profit (That’s very key, don't take profit for a while), then I took that $32,000, and put it back into ads, and that month, “Crap! Only $48,000 came back out.” Darn it!   $4,000 turned into $48,000… Does that sound good to you?   Find an investment vehicle that does anything like what funnels can do? *That's my point*   There’s no better investment opportunity, no better vehicle for making it rain in your life than learning this sales funnel game.   NO COUPONS!   When someone comes to me and says, "Oh, I could save you a couple of percentage points on your house." I don't freaking care!   I am focused on how to make money, not save it. I'm not a coupon cutter. ...And I want you to have that same mentality too!   My mom is amazing… she'd walk into a grocery stores and we'd get two grocery store, grocery carts full of food, and they'd give her $400 at the same time. It was like, “I dunno how you deal with coupons?” but she figured out a way to do it. It was nuts.   BUT…   If you take the same amount of effort and just figure out how to play a piece of this funnel game the return on investment can be huge.   It's not like school….   You don't need to get an A in funnel building to make a lot of money. You can get an F, and put a dollar in and still get a dollar fifty back out.   That’s a fifty percent return. You see what I'm saying with this? This is where Papa Larsen comes out a little bit…   Okay, check this out… When I first launched I put a dollar in, and got four back out for a while.   ...Then ad fatigue starts, and that's totally normal,  and now, “Oh crap, I'm  putting a dollar in and only getting two dollars back out. Oh dang it.”   That's awesome!   What's the move at that point?   You call your ads person and say, "TURN IT UP!" Borrow if you need to and dump that cash in! Does this make sense?   This is how I've done it.   Maybe you broke even, or lose money the first few times you do it. Sweet! Who cares?   I've never taken a loan. I've never put a dollar of my own into my ads...   This is what I do instead:   Build up the audience   Sell the audience   They guide me in the creation of the thing I sell to them   They give me the cash   I take that cash and I dump it immediately back into ads; Boom back in. Boom back in. Boom back in   … those numbers start to get real big real fast after the fifth or sixth time. How much did it cost me to build that audience? Nothing, because I'm publishing on a podcast. I've never put a dollar of my own into my business. Ever!   THAT is why you learn to be a funnel builder. Welcome to the greatest game ever!   The numbers are easy to work, and you can suck at it and still make a lot of money…   But too many people are like, “I can't launch yet it needs to be perfect.” Oh man!   If I put a dollar in, I get 50 percent return back out. That's super realistic returns right there... and that's how a lot of people do it.   All these people that make a million dollars in three or four months, and get the actual Two Comma Club Award, this is how they do it! They just know the numbers.   I'm NOT even thinking about the fact that I might have an upsell, I'm just thinking on that funnel...   You go and add another funnel, and “Bam!” Way more money.   Who was it that said, “A well-executed idea is worth ten lifetimes of hard work.”?  I think it was J. Abraham... on a beach!   Anyway, $1.00 in, $1.50 back out for 25 years...   If you just did that... and you sucked... No upsells or anything else…   That's five million dollars.   Does it install hope in the noggin?   You can afford to suck at it the game for a while, but most people aren't willing to do that... or to get help when they need it.   ...don’t let that be you!   You can be real bad at the game and still make it rain   Mmm…. Oh, that's good one. It's gonna be on a T-shirt soon ;-)   Boom! Until Next Time…   Hey, I know this game can take a few tries to get the money flowing, especially the first time, right? And that can suck.   I also know from experience how frustrating it can be to know your business is just a few tweaks away from your next big payday, but you don't know what tweaks to make. I've felt completely paralyzed by that in the past, and it sucks.   I've been blessed to work with thousands of new and successful businesses over the last three years, and two things have really shocked me.   #1: I began noticing the pattern to success is vastly the same, but everyone's spot on the path is obviously different.   #2: I've been shocked and overwhelmed by the number of people asking for my help, my systems, and funnels in their business.   Well, until now I've never had a system or product in my own business to help you build yours. Now, I'm finally able to be public about all this.   If you'd like my help to build your offer or sales message funnel and even your content machine, go to myofferlab.com.    The path to online and offline success is 80 percent the same regardless of the product, price point or industry, and it works if you're new, or are already a killer in business.   You can get more details on how to get my personal attention and frameworks in your own business by going to myofferlab.com   In-person classes are limited to 60 people each, and frankly, I can only do about two of these a year. Get more details, and even jump on the phone with us for free at myofferlab.com

I just realized I have TWO FULL Value Ladders running right now... NO NO! What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio, oh yeah. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business, using today's best internet sales funnels, and now, here's your host, Steve Larsen. Hey guys, hope you're doing fantastic, hope you're having a great week, great day wherever you are. Thanks so much for tuning in, really appreciate it. This podcast I believe just passed 70,000 downloads. 70,000 downloads, that's crazy, never in my life, I first started this only a year ago, did I think I'd have that many downloads, that's amazing. Anyway, thanks so much for being a listener, thanks so much for being a subscriber and tuning on into this. 70,000 downloads that's awesome guys, and I really appreciate it, appreciate the support and hopefully you are getting some nuggets and things you can use inside of your sales funnels, both online and offline to increase your revenue. There's these sayings that I continue to put out in my head, these sayings that repeat in my head over and over again, and one of them that I say in my head all the time is like, I believe, one of my ism's is that I believe very much that one of the purposes of entrepreneurship ... One of the purposes of business in general is to pump as much value into the marketplace as you possibly can. Now I realize a lot of people will disagree with me on that, I'm not saying that it's not to make money, it is. It is to turn dollars, sales keeps the economy going. Make money, charge money, you know what I mean? Don't be afraid to sell, but you do that by pumping value into the marketplace. So anyways I just hope that my little ism there, like pump value into the market, pump value into the market. Like that's my thing, and hopefully this podcast has been helpful in some aspect to you, in some way. I would love if you wouldn't mind, I got on iTunes a little bit ago, and there's several reviews on there. Those are awesome, those are fun to read. If you wouldn't mind I would love to have a review in iTunes of this podcast, that'd be really fun. So anyway, don't feel pressured, but man I would love that, it'd mean a lot... Hey I'm really pumped, I love speaking on stage. I was on stage a lot growing up, I actually sang in a band, I played drums for four years, the full kit. I played piano for about six years, I sang, whether it was in choirs or in musicals or something like that, a lot of you guys probably don't know that about me. I sang a lot, ever since fourth grade, and I had the lead in several things growing up and anyway, really, really enjoyed it. I have the privilege of getting on stage yet again, several more times. I'm excited, I just got asked to go speak at James Smiley's B2B event, very excited about. If you guys don't remember him, he was on an episode probably about 10 episodes ago, he was talking about his B2B funnels and from that one podcast, I don't know how much it was he made, but it was a lot, which is very exciting. I had no idea, and from that one episode all this stuff has stemmed out, and I just really appreciate him as a friend and buddy. They ended up asking me to go over and speak at his event here in Dallas next month. So I'm really, really pumped to go do that. Then I'll be speaking at another one in January, called Authority Maker, that'll be exciting as well, that ones in Vegas. So anyways, I'm pumped and there's actually several more already lined up next year. I love talking, I love speaking from stage, luckily feedback has been that not bad to listen to either, which is kind of nice. But hey I have been revisiting my Value Ladder, and it was a few days ago, I sat down at my white boards here. I stood and I was jamming to music, I was in state, I was in flow, and I was really excited and I realized that I have two value ladders. If Russell saw that he would slap me, because it means I have two different businesses. Anyway I sat down, I started mapping through my Value Ladders, you know so I was putting the first thing in there. Right, Sales Funnel Radio, the next thing on there, and the next thing on there, and the next thing on there, and there's all these other things and I started putting them on. I was like those don't fit in that business, like what on earth? I went and I was like, wait those all create their own Value Ladder in a different Value Ladder, it's their own business. For those of you guys who don't know what a Value Ladder is, all we do is we start with cheap and or free things up front, and they give a lot of value to the customer or the person who's visiting. Then all we do is as a business we try to age and ascend customers. So as we give away that first thing, and we try and solve legitimate problems for the person, that lets us create a relationship with them. Well that means that I can now start charging money and the more value I'm bringing to that person, the more money I can start to charge them. So there's multiple steps in that Value Ladder, and the farther up the Value Ladder that you move, you get into areas like done for your products. Implementation and coaching products, the products that are more high tier, high ticket, more time intensive for the entrepreneurs personal time, and you obviously charge more for things like that. Usually when someone has not, does not feel like they can ... Usually when someone doesn't feel like they can charge enough money, it's usually because they're actually not pumping enough value in there. Or the person hasn't felt enough value come from the entrepreneur yet. So there's this weird awkward feeling that comes from it. So it doesn't necessarily matter where someone comes in, what level they come in to your Value Ladder with, but it's important to be purposeful about it. So think through, like what's your Value Ladder. I encourage you after this episode to go write that down, what are the free things, what are the free pieces of bait. What are the free things that people should be paying for, that you've got out there, right kind of your region of things, or things that help identify hyper buyers and things like that. Usually there's a whole funnel dedicate to just that front end product. Okay now what's the next thing? Is it a 47 dollar thing? 297 dollar thing? 497 dollar thing? 1000 dollar, 2000, you know what I mean? There's usually standard kind of price points throughout, that can be a whole episode. But anyway, think about what your actual Value Ladder is, and be purposeful about it, and don't get dissuaded from it. I don't know about you guys but I repeatedly suffer from shiny object syndrome, or at least I did for a long time. There's so many cool things out there, that I could be doing, that you could be doing. That ClickFunnels and Russell could be doing, I mean opportunities ... You know what's funny, I was actually talking to Russell about this the other day, and I was saying dude how funny is it that when you're in college, the mentality of every person in college typically, stereotypically, is oh my gosh I just hope that I get a good job. Please just get me a good job, I have to have a good job. You know hopefully there's at least one person out there that can give me the opportunity to have a good job, and I'll just work till I die there. I was like dude how funny is it that, that's the mentality in college, yet for an entrepreneur it's the exact opposite. It's like oh what opportunity should I chose? There's too much crap going on, there's too many things that I could go do. We were just laughing about how funny that is. If you're not feeling that yet in your life, my guess is that you've not been pumping enough value, you've not been solving enough legitimate problems out there for people. Solve legitimate problems, and you'll be pumping value out there. Opportunities will come knocking at your door like more than you can handle, and just trust me on that, go test me on that, tell me how it goes. I dare you to go give something away for free that you should have charged for, if you have nothing for free to actually give away, and watch what happens. I was watching, I was listening to Dayna Derek's on stage the other day, it was awesome, and he was like hey yeah, this book of mine, you know he's selling it for a lot of money, he's like I realized it was in a separate Value Ladder. So all I did, I just took this book that was a lot of money and I just made it for one of my free things in the front, and it brought in all these extra customers and now it's reinforcing my one Value Ladder. I was like hey that's really cool, it's sweet, it's a cool approach to it. He's like yeah now I just have tons of cool front ends, lots of cool front ends, but it still supports the core Value Ladder, the core business. I'm not chasing new shiny objects all over the place anymore. I was like, that's interesting, that's cool. It's been interesting because Russell went back and he started looking at his Value Ladder, he's like hey now this is our business and this is all we do. We're getting more focus there, and I realized like crap I have two separate Value Ladders, and they're similar enough that I feel like I can't get rid of them but they are as different enough that I feel like they're not the same thing. I don't have the answer, I actually it's kind of been the thing that I've been going through right now, is trying to figure out how to split the two. I don't really know yet where that split is, and I've committed to both, and I'm not telling you what the other one is yet, I will at some point here shortly. So you guys can go check it out, because it's killing it, the first funnel, the first page has got a 68 percent optime rate. There's been like 400 people that have hit the page, 68 percent, it's ridiculous. Tons of other ... So anyway, I'm testing it right now, I'm making it all awesome. It's this little side fun thing I've been doing on my own and it's killing it, and I'm so excited. Anyway I'm going to go turn ads onto it here shortly, and it's not hot traffic, it's not ... This is warm traffic, but still 68 percent optime rate, I'm like what the heck, so exciting. Anyway, but my encouragement to you though is to not have too many Value Ladders, and in fact just have one. So what's the core of your business? Typically the core of the business, this is what we teach in Secrets Master Class from the 2 Comma Club coaching. What we teach, what I teach is that really the middle of the Value Ladder, mid tier right, somewhere around 1000 dollars, could be more 2000, 25 hundred, five grand. Could be a little bit less, maybe down to like 500 bucks, usually not a whole lot less than that, usually, there's exceptions. But the core of your business, what is it?.. I hope that you have one, that something that is kind of mid tier right there. Why? Because it doesn't take a lot of mid tier Value Ladder level products to change your business. It doesn't, because they're higher ticket, you don't have to sell as many of them to help your wallet. How many smaller, free plus shipping seven dollar books do you have to sell to actually make a dent in your wallet and actually see? A lot, right? A ton, so they're great for front ends, but that's why we don't want to try and make money off of them, they're just to bring people in. We'll make money on that middle value ladder area, and then we'll double our business with a high ticket thing in the back. Do that to each Value Ladder, do that to each funnel, do that to each, and that's the formula right there. There's a whole bunch of other things you can do with it, and it's a lot of fun, it's a lot of deep strategy depending on what industry you're in that we could go through right now. But I'm trying to not go too deep ... Its fun though, I really, really enjoy it, and the only thing I'm trying to say is that if you feel like you've been spinning your wheels ... 'Cause I remember feeling that way, I felt that way for a long time, years, and the problem was that I didn't have one Value Ladder. I had tons, I was going to do ... There was a piece of real estate that I had a contract on, it was 3.5 million dollar piece of commercial real estate. I was flipping the contract, and that was one deal with one dude, and then I was writing, I can't even remember what else I was doing. I was like totally unrelated businesses, I can't even remember now that was probably like about five years ago. Holy crap that was five years ago, I don't remember every else that was going on, what I do remember is that there was a lot of things I was doing, but none of them to the full extent. I was spread too thin, and it's because I didn't have one Value Ladder. That's why I was laughing so hard when I sat down here the other day and I started looking at it, I was like crap I have two freaking Value Ladders. So my answer to it right now has been that I'm just not even working on one of them, and I'm only working on the other. I'm not touching the other, I'm not doing anything with it at all. Soon I'll reveal to you guys everything of what all those things are, so you can check them out, you can see what I'm talking about. See examples of the stuff that I know is converting, it's been fun, 'cause I've been able to test stuff before you guys will ever see it. So I can you actually numbers, which is exciting too, which I think you guys will enjoy. Anyway that's the whole point of this, it's fun for me to listen to Russell as he coaches his inner circle, one of the biggest things that he yells at them for is when he can tell they have more than one business. He can tell ... You're just not going to do more than one business very well, you're not. That's the thing I was kicking myself for, I was like crap. This other one snuck in so well I didn't even notice it, you know. That was just this little side hobby turned into this actual thing, and I was like oh crap, I have to actually support this thing now, like dang this is working. Oh gosh it's working, wait a second I already have a second business here now, oh, oh. So I've been trying to figure out what to do with it, again don't totally have the answer, I'm just only working on one at a time I guess. So I won't even touch the second for months, but it's going well. I'll tell you ... Again I know it's kind of, I'm being elusive but that's okay. Anyway guys go back restructure the business, think through what your front end free things are and what's cool about this is that you can have tons of cool free front end things. You know that part of the fun of it, when you know your Value Ladders converting, you know and you got a mid tier thing that's converting that well, and you've got a high ticket thing that's converting really well. I mean you get to go create all the cool front end products and multiple layers of it, as much as you want. As long as it's all part of the same business, all fueling the same part of the core. That's so fun, but the moment you take your focus and you shift over to, which is the medicine I'm trying to take right now too, and I'm like crap. Shiny objects, I just want to do this one thing. I'm trying not to take on a third that I really want to go do, but I shouldn't do it. Every time you go do that though you spread yourself too thin, and it takes a lot of mental mojo just to get a single funnel up, and I think everyone on this podcast probably knows that. So if you go do that and you're skipping from understanding one market and one person really well, and you're trying to skip over to a different profile, and understand that person really, really well. It's the whole reason why when I was ... I built a lot of funnels for my own clients for a while, I don't currently do that right now. I wouldn't take on more than one, because I couldn't handle more than one, because I had to understand so deeply just that one customer, right, for that one business, for that one Value Ladder. So that I could make the copy, I could make the sales letters, I could put the funnel together. I could make the follow up sequences, I could make the higher ticket thing and the front ... I mean there's so much that goes into it, right? Some guys making his whole career out of it, you think I can go do three or four of these at the same time? There's no way, that's why I was like, I got to just one of these things at a time. It's the same ... I'm trying to take my own medicine. I feel like I'm preaching to the choir now, you guys probably already know that, but I encourage you to go back and really think through what your Value Ladder actually is. Let's say you don't have the back end yet, ask your market. Let's say you don't know what the front end is, ask your market. I encourage you to not start by creating a front end product, and if you already have, that's fine. I encourage you to start with a mid tier product, thousand bucks. Why? 'Cause you only need a few of them to really break even, right? It's way harder to throw everything up against the wall and hope that something works when it's a free plus shipping offer, it's like oh. I know for E-comm people they might not like to hear that, well you can start with something that's even higher. You know, make an offer out of it, package a few things together and sell it in a package, as an offer. Or sell more higher ticket items at first, that'll at least get the cash flow going as you figure out how and what to sell. What are you selling? How do you sell it? You figure out those things the core of the business right there in the middle of that Value Ladder, boom, I guarantee you, you're going to start getting feedback. As you start getting feedback, guess what happens? Patterns will start to emerge, oh you know what everyone's asking for this one thing, that would be a really cool free plus shipping front end. Or a really cool free download front end, or a really cool 17 dollar physical thing front end. Does that make sense? Let the market tell you what front end to make, it's way less risky. Then guess what, a lot of people after they're consuming your core product, your 1000 dollar thing, around that area. Guess what's going to happen? A lot of them are going to go, oh my gosh I wish I had more Steve in my life, oh my gosh I wish I had more of you, your business, whatever it is. They're telling you what back end thing to go create. It's way easier to do this game when you take a lot of the guess work out of it, let the market tell you. You only have to kind of guess once, you're not really guessing 'cause you're going to run an ask campaign for that mid tier product. They're telling you everything to make, the market will tell. That's the whole point I'm trying to make with this, have one Value Ladder, let the market tell you what those front and back end products are, and create a new niche based off of the core product, that mid tier product. Anyway, I chattered a lot with this, and it did get a little bit techy, but I hope that, that helped. I hope that it simplifies a lot in your head, for years my head was spinning. I could do this, I could do this, I could do this. No, no, cut away everything else, cut away, cut away. Don't worry about those things, what's the one mid tier product, the 1000 dollar thing that you could go create right now, and actually go sell it? If it doesn't sell doesn't sell round one, tweak it. Figure out how to sell it, what are you selling, how does it sell? The core of the product, and then the market will start to tell you what to do in those back end and the front end products. The market will tell you what they don't like with your core thing. The market will tell you, it's all about iterations, just keep it going. Launch, figure out what's broken, go back fix it, and relaunch. Boom, boom, boom, that's how we do it. That's how I do it, that's how Russell does it, it's how ClickFunnels does it. It's how every person I've ever seen be successful in this stuff, all of the hundreds of people who've come through the 2 Comma Coaching Program. All the people in the Secrets Master Class that I've coached, that's how it happens. I feel like there's this paralysis that starts to happen, oh I better have the back end before I launch the front end. Like no, just launch the freaking, do the core, go launch the core. Oh I got to have this and this in place, no you don't. No, you don't, half the time we don't have the actual product built yet when we sell it. Like what? Oh my gosh, what? Well we're trying to see if the thing is right, if it sells, then we'll go build it real fast. Does that make sense? Take the pressure off, go figure out the one funnel, it'll simplify everything in your head. Go figure out the one Value Ladder, it'll simplify everything in your head. Have fun with the thing, gosh it's so much fun, if I'm not having fun with it I usually suck at it. Anyways guys thanks so much, hope this has been helpful, thanks for tuning in to this episode. I'm very, very excited for everything that's coming up, both in the internet marketing world. Whatever's going on in your life I hope that it's going awesome too, and if it's not go orchestrate it that way as well as your business. I'll talk to you later, bye. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio, please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnel for free? Go to Salesfunnelbroker.com/freefunnels to download your pre built sales funnel today.  

The gift I got today, that I want to share with you so you can keep moving forward. On today’s special 257th episode Russell talks about how money doesn’t buy happiness, but how you can achieve happiness by helping and serving others, as well as by improving your inner self. Here are some cool things to listen for in this episode: Why working towards wealth shouldn’t be your focus because in the end it doesn’t matter. Why serving other people’s needs will help you with your own needs and in turn help you achieve true happiness. And why focusing on your contribution and growth can help you actually become something and why that’s more important than wealth. So listen below to find out why money doesn’t equal happiness. ---Transcript--- Hey Everyone this is Russell Brunson. Welcome to episode 257, a very special episode of Marketing in Your Car. Alright everybody, I’m excited today and you may be thinking, Russell why is today so special? Well It’s special for a few reasons. First off, this is episode 257, that just sounds cool. Second off, right now, a little later on today we are taking these first 250 episodes and we’re putting them onto MP3 players that we will be giving away for free plus shipping, I think I talked about this a couple of months ago, but we’re going to do it. This is the last episode that will be on the MP3 player. So for those of you guys that are listening on the MP3 player, you made it to the end, congratulations! For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, give me about a week or two, we still gotta get them back from China, but when you go to marketinginyourcar.com, you’ll be able to get a free MP3 player with the first 257 episodes preloaded, which will be kind of cool. And my brother, actually edited out the intro song on most of them so you don’t have to hear the intro song 8 thousand times either, so that’s kind of cool too. So that way you can go and you can geek out. You can binge listen to everything while you’re everywhere and you’ll have your own personal MP3 player with the first 257 episodes, so I’m excited. That’s number one. So then with that said, I gotta think about something cool to say, because this is going to be the last episode that those that are on the MP3 player got. I can’t just end on a thought, it’s gotta end on something cool. So then I had all sorts of stress and pressure. I’m like, well crap. What am I going to talk about? Then it came to me, so I actually just drove back, this is my second drive to the office, I’m driving back home and back to the office because I wanted to get my notepad. This morning I had one of my coaching sessions with Tara, and it was interesting. Tara is my woo woo coach, you guys probably heard me talk about her a couple of times, super cool. They’re also in my Inner Circle and just some of my favorite people in the world. The coaching’s been really cool because its kind been coaching things but kind of you don’t know where it going to go and it goes different directions and every time there is something really valuable that comes out the other side of it. And this time it kind of answered a question that I don’t think it’s a verbal question I have had. Or I’m asking this question I’m asking out loud consciously. But subconsciously I think that probably all of us have this thought as we’re doing what we do in our lives and businesses. The thought is does any of this even matter? I am fully aware that someday I’m going to be dead and it could be today, that car just drove past, boom, could hit me. I could be doing my podcast and driving and I get hit by a car and it’s over. And I am fully aware of that. When I die, guess what I get to take with me. Nothing. It’s done. My cool car, my cool house, none of my……it’s gone instantly. So I get that, I believe that, I understand that. So it’s like, why do we even care? It’s interesting when my Grandpa passed away, probably a year and a half, 2 years ago now. I thought it was so weird, after he died they brought all my uncles together, basically they handed out his possessions he had left in life. There was a gun and a couple of things and that was it and I’m like, “Wow. My grandpa lived a full life. He was amazing.”  By the time you get to the end you give away all your stuff, you got rid of them. It’s like, “Here are the 4 or 5 things I have left.” And you divvy them out and it’s done. Man that’s going to happen to me. The reality is none of this money stuff matters, even a little bit. Other than it helps make your life a little more comfortable here, but it doesn’t matter, it’s stupid, it’s ridiculous. My mission of helping entrepreneurs to share their message so they can make more money, and we talk about money a lot because that’s how we keep score. But does it even matter? When all is said and done, am I just kind of spinning my wheels? I think I subconsciously have that thought, maybe I should just shut down shop and focus on other places I can contribute. Does this contribution actually help, help people make money? You know what I mean? So there’s the question that I didn’t consciously ask, but from today’s coaching session kind of came out of it. And if you could see my notepad, I actually grabbed my notes. This is the first Marketing In Your Car I’m actually teaching from a notepad, so that’s how prepared…….I have these little circles with arrows that go around in a bigger circle, I think there’s 4 circles and the top circle I wrote, “Triggers Fears” and so what does that mean? What I probably do for a lot of you guys, I’m guessing, hopefully I get you guys excited and help you see the vision of what can be and where you could go. But I’m sure with that comes a lot of fears. Like, oh wow, he wants me to do a podcast, or he wants me to go spend money on ads. He wants me to do a webinar every single week. Every week he wants……all these fears come up, right. And then I’m trying to be a good role model, so I’m doing these things that I’m telling people to do and I’m actively, consistently doing them over and over again trying to be, I hate saying this, sounds stupid, but being the model. Here’s something….I gotta try and practice what I preach so people can see that and hopefully say, “If Russell can do it, I can do it.” That’s something Liz told me after she started having success, she said, “If Russell can do it, I can do it.” And I hope people feel that way. I want to be this thing, but a lot of what I’m telling people to do and teaching and coaching on there’s fear associated with it, right? If there weren’t fears, you would have already done it, but for some reason there’s these fears. And most of the time, most of the coaching and consulting I do is stuff people know. Sometimes there’s tactiful things that we bring to the table and they’re different. But most of the time, you kind of know the path, but there’s fears and concerns and false beliefs and things that keep you from that. So I’m coming in and I’m like a wrecking ball. Busting through these things and probably causing a lot of fears for you guys. So that’s the first step in my little mission here. The second step is come back after you fall through with tools. So it’s like, we got a new webinar movie, go! I’m freaked out! Don’t worry, here’s the tools to actually make that possible. These are the tools and the training and the coaching and consistent repetition of this stuff. If you listen to my message, if you listen to all 257 episodes, you probably noticed there’s a lot of patterns and a lot of repetition and a lot of things we come back to that are essential. So after we get the fears, after we set off the triggers that cause the fears, then my next step is I’m delivering the tools and the things to make it possible. And then those people, unfortunately not everyone, but the people who step into those fears and accept them and then go after the tools to fight it, eventually when they follow that process they get to a spot where they get money or security in their life. So it’s interesting because that’s typically the driving force for change. You go through this process, you have these fears, you learn these tools and then during this process you start becoming and that’s the word I want to stress. You start becoming something. You figure out what people need, you figure out how you can serve them at the highest level. You figure out your voice. You start learning it and developing as a human and as a person and you become something different, something more, hopefully. So when that happens, the way the world or the universe or whatever call it, rewards you for that sacrifice and that effort. And really it’s the transformation from growth to contribution. In fact, I have this as the overarching theme for the next Funnel Hacking Live, is like that transition from growth to contribution. There’s a point in our life where we’re growing and learning and studying and it’s all a growth phase for yourself. Because you can’t…..if you’re not prepared you can’t go out there and serve. So there’s a growth phase we all have to go through. But if you keep growing forever, you keep learning and growing and you keep that to yourself, you can’t keep progressing. The only way, there’s a point where you can’t progress in life through more personal development, or more growth, it’s impossible. There comes a point where the only way you can actually grow in life is by transitioning from growth to contribution, and then your growth comes through the contribution. My company grows now….me as a person grow as I help and serve other people and contribute to them and as they have success, that’s what brings me joy, which is kind of cool. There’s the religious tangent here that I probably won’t’ go too deep into because I know every time I talk about religion I get a couple funny stares, but for the Mormon’s who are out there listening. There’s a scripture that we believe in Moses 1:39 it says, “Behold this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortal and eternal life of man.” That’s God’s mission too. It’s not to make him more glorious or better. He grows in glory by contribution, by helping us to achieve our full potential. So it’s kind of this really cool thing. So back to this, so through that process of becoming who you’re supposed to be through the personal development, the growth and going through the tools and all these things, at the end you become something and have the ability to start contributing and helping and serving other people. And when you start contributing, the first thing that starts coming back to you, because it’s the way this world judges monetary value is money, you start making money. At first it’s exciting and then it gets really exciting and then one day you wake up and you realize that it doesn’t matter. A lot of people, they start this journey because they think that when I have money I’ll be happy. How many of you guys have thought that? If I just had money, if I had security, then I’d be happy. And the weirdest thing happens when you get money and financial security, you find how it does not bring happiness. So I hate to ruin the surprise for you guys. It doesn’t. It brings temporary pleasure, kind of like eating ice cream. It’s like, “Oh that was good, that was really good.” And fifteen minutes later you are like, ”What was I thinking? That was not worth what I feel like now.” That’s how money is, its temporary pleasure. So we mistake that sometimes for happiness, but it doesn’t. It leaves you empty just like that ice cream, you’re empty. Maybe you’re kind of full, but you feel empty inside and you’re like, “Man, I could have not eaten that and felt really good, but I didn’t.” That’s kind of how money, you’ll find out, money isn’t the best………it’s not the best servant. It’s like Ice cream. So they get money and after you get money you realize, “Well, I’m still not truly happy.” Then, and this is the key, then you start focusing more on the contribution and you start trying to make the changes inward in yourself. Because you realize true happiness doesn’t come through wealth, it comes through serving other people, it comes through the actual things I need to change about my life. It has to do with cutting out addictions, with serving people, all these weird religious things we learn about in church. I’ll leave that one there. But it’s interesting. But the problem is that most people never get to fixing themselves and the internal struggles and problems they have and really get out there and contribute because they are so stressed out about the financial problems. I remember growing up, and I don’t remember where in school I learned this, I think its like the Mazlov hierarchy needs or something like that. That’s like 8th grade coming back, so I could be completely off, but I think that’s what it was. And in that there’s the need for hunger, and until that need is met, you can’t do anything else. When you get your hunger met, then you’re like okay I need love. When love’s met, then you need shelter, whatever those things are. There’s all these hierarchy of needs, and the problem is….it’s almost like this is. The real needs are internal problems we have with ourselves that we need to fix, change, grow and develop, but it’s hard to get to that higher need. It’s hard to really care about where you’re living if you’re hungry. As far as Mazlov’s hierarchy. So I feel like, my mission, if we call it that. The reason why it doesn’t matter is because I’m trying to get people to a state where they get through these needs so they can get to a spot where they can focus on their own personal growth and the contribution to help other people. And so if we can get you financially secure and in a place where you’re in a spot of abundance, or whatever you want to call it, now you’ve got the ability to really focus on the inward things that you need to work on in yourself, first off. And second off, really start focusing more on the growth and contribution. So that was cool, like when I saw it today I sketched it out and I had this little thing in my notes with the circles of trigger and fears over tools, over security, over to inward change and then back to growth and contribution. For me, that validated the fact that what I’m doing is important beyond just I’m helping people make money. Because like I said, in the end that doesn’t matter. So for you, I hope you kind of think about that for yourself. The people that you’re serving, and I know that you guys are serving them all at different capacities. Some of you guys are helping save people’s marriages. Some of you guys are helping people with their physical bodies, their health and nutrition. Some of you guys are helping by creating products and services. All of our businesses are here to serve people. That’s why we develop them, that’s why they’re here. So I hope that just thinking through this for your own business, your own life it helps you to kind of think through that and figure out how can I serve people at a higher level? How can I focus on the things that I know are holding me back? I know what holds me back. I know what my pet issues are. The little things that I know, man if I could get rid of these 3 or 4 things I could serve more people, I could feel better about myself. I could be a better dad, a better father, a better husband. I know what those things are and I think you probably do too, deep down. So let’s focus on building the business. You can get your footings underneath you. You can have that stability and you can focus on other things because I don’t want you miss those. I don’t want you to miss out on what life can be because you’re stressing out so much about the financial side of it. The tools are there, the keys are there. We share, everyday on this podcast, we share through Facebook Live, through training, through podcasts, through blogging. We’re giving and sharing as much as we can. We also do it through our training programs, through our coaching, through our software, through our mastermind groups and wherever you’re able to plug in. Plug in and take what you can from that and apply it. Right now, we just recently opened up the Inner Circle, we had a couple spots open up. A bunch of people messaged me, “I can’t afford it, I’m never going to be successful now because I can’t get into your inner circle.” I’m like no, plug in where you’re at. We have stuff at all levels. I’m not holding things back. The reason why my book name is Dot Com Secrets is because I’m the worst secret keeper on planet earth. People always ask me, “Russell, can you keep a secret?” I’m like, “No!” I’m like the worst secret keeper ever. You tell me anything, I’m sharing with the world. I wrote a book called Dot Com Secrets that told everything I ever knew. I am the worst secret keeper ever. But if you’re okay with that, to share with me, I’m going to try to help, and see if whatever you shared with me will help other people. I’m horrible at secrets. I’m not holding back on you guys. There’s nothing that I’m giving that I’m like, “Not going to tell them this piece, they gotta upgrade to get that.” Every level that you plug into, I’m giving you everything. I’m giving you my all. So understand that. If you can’t afford a coaching program yet, then go get the books. If you can’t afford the books yet, get on the podcast, it’s free. If you don’t have a phone to listen to a podcast, go to the library and listen to it. Whatever you need to do, but plug in at whatever level you can and if I’m doing my job right and I’m doing my best, we can ascend you up to the next level. To where you can then afford the next thing to help get you to the next level and keep moving up. And it’s not so much that we want or need more money, but it’s level commitment that comes with that, that helps hold you accountable to actually implementing and following through. Some of these fears and these pains that when you’ve got some money on the line it makes it a lot easier to break through and actually achieve those things that you want in life. So that’s why those things are there. Plug in wherever you can, and we’re going to continue to give and serve and hopefully get you to where you want to be so you can become who you want to be. And if I can do that for at least one of you guys in this podcast, this business, then everything we’re doing is worth it. So I appreciate you guys listening in. For those that are on the MP3 player, I hope you enjoyed this. Go back now to marketinginyourcar.com and make sure you’re subscribed so you can listen to all future episodes. For those of you guys who are on iTunes right now or whatever, listening to this. Make sure you get the MP3 player so you can go back and have an immersed weak and pound through the first 257 episodes and geek out with us. And hopefully we can help serve you guys as much as we can. With that said, I appreciate you all. Thank you so much for everything, and I will talk to you guys all again soon.

If you’d never gravitated towards the profession you chose for your career, would you be the same person? Are you defined by your career choice? If Russell and Jelly had never gotten into IT, they both agree their career paths would be vastly different, but as to themselves, they’re completely at odds.

I imagine the guys who first faced Bill Russell felt like I did when I had to guard Antoine Carr in high school. I “held” Carr to 32 points. But no dunks! Russell's opponents in college and the NBA rarely fared any better. Sports talk is full of hyperbole, but in Russell's case most of it is true. In his time, he was far and away the best player to ever step on the court and, for most of his career, he completely owned every court he stepped on. He was so dominant that they changed the rules so less gifted players would have a chance. Bill Russell, however, was not only a surpassingly great basketball player, he was also an African American star in an era in which being an African American star (or just being an African American) was very complicated. Today we are used to seeing outstandingly successful blacks in all (or almost all) spheres of life. In the mid-1950s that just wasn't true. The American ruling elite was lily white, and that's the way most white Americans thought it should be. Bill Russell (and Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson, Willie Mays, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, among others) were anomalies: they were black, but they were both extraordinarily accomplished and remarkably famous. They couldn't just be athletes; they had to be symbols of some promising (or frightening) new world as well. That's quite a burden to bear. In King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (University of California Press, 2010), Aram Goudsouzian has done a great service by detailing the ways Russell bore this weight, and the ways in which he fought to throw it off. Aram makes clear that Russell was a conflicted soul. He lacked self-confidence, but he was brusk and even arrogant. He was friendly and gregarious to some, but often simply rude to others. He was hot tempered, but he affected a cool, distant demeanor. He believed he was a man of principle (and convinced others he was), but he periodically abandoned his family for a playboy lifestyle. If Russell couldn't be honest about himself, he insisted on being honest about everything and everyone around him. He meant what he said and said what he meant–about race, about sports, about anything that bothered him. He was a sort of athletic Socrates, always questioning and never fully accepting the way things were. And, like Socrates, Russell was willing to suffer for his beliefs. As Aram points out, he did in many ways. But in the process he gained the respect of almost everyone he encountered. He was a hard man to like, but he was an easy man to admire. I should add that if you like white-hot game narratives, this book is full of them. Remember this?: “Greer is putting the ball in play. He gets it out deep and Havlicek steals it! Over to Sam Jones… Havlicek stole the ball! It's all over… It's all-l-l-l over!” Johnny Most, RIP. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Facebook if you haven't already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

I imagine the guys who first faced Bill Russell felt like I did when I had to guard Antoine Carr in high school. I “held” Carr to 32 points. But no dunks! Russell’s opponents in college and the NBA rarely fared any better. Sports talk is full of hyperbole, but in Russell’s case most of it is true. In his time, he was far and away the best player to ever step on the court and, for most of his career, he completely owned every court he stepped on. He was so dominant that they changed the rules so less gifted players would have a chance. Bill Russell, however, was not only a surpassingly great basketball player, he was also an African American star in an era in which being an African American star (or just being an African American) was very complicated. Today we are used to seeing outstandingly successful blacks in all (or almost all) spheres of life. In the mid-1950s that just wasn’t true. The American ruling elite was lily white, and that’s the way most white Americans thought it should be. Bill Russell (and Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson, Willie Mays, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, among others) were anomalies: they were black, but they were both extraordinarily accomplished and remarkably famous. They couldn’t just be athletes; they had to be symbols of some promising (or frightening) new world as well. That’s quite a burden to bear. In King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (University of California Press, 2010), Aram Goudsouzian has done a great service by detailing the ways Russell bore this weight, and the ways in which he fought to throw it off. Aram makes clear that Russell was a conflicted soul. He lacked self-confidence, but he was brusk and even arrogant. He was friendly and gregarious to some, but often simply rude to others. He was hot tempered, but he affected a cool, distant demeanor. He believed he was a man of principle (and convinced others he was), but he periodically abandoned his family for a playboy lifestyle. If Russell couldn’t be honest about himself, he insisted on being honest about everything and everyone around him. He meant what he said and said what he meant–about race, about sports, about anything that bothered him. He was a sort of athletic Socrates, always questioning and never fully accepting the way things were. And, like Socrates, Russell was willing to suffer for his beliefs. As Aram points out, he did in many ways. But in the process he gained the respect of almost everyone he encountered. He was a hard man to like, but he was an easy man to admire. I should add that if you like white-hot game narratives, this book is full of them. Remember this?: “Greer is putting the ball in play. He gets it out deep and Havlicek steals it! Over to Sam Jones… Havlicek stole the ball! It’s all over… It’s all-l-l-l over!” Johnny Most, RIP. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Facebook if you haven’t already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I imagine the guys who first faced Bill Russell felt like I did when I had to guard Antoine Carr in high school. I “held” Carr to 32 points. But no dunks! Russell’s opponents in college and the NBA rarely fared any better. Sports talk is full of hyperbole, but in Russell’s case most of it is true. In his time, he was far and away the best player to ever step on the court and, for most of his career, he completely owned every court he stepped on. He was so dominant that they changed the rules so less gifted players would have a chance. Bill Russell, however, was not only a surpassingly great basketball player, he was also an African American star in an era in which being an African American star (or just being an African American) was very complicated. Today we are used to seeing outstandingly successful blacks in all (or almost all) spheres of life. In the mid-1950s that just wasn’t true. The American ruling elite was lily white, and that’s the way most white Americans thought it should be. Bill Russell (and Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson, Willie Mays, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, among others) were anomalies: they were black, but they were both extraordinarily accomplished and remarkably famous. They couldn’t just be athletes; they had to be symbols of some promising (or frightening) new world as well. That’s quite a burden to bear. In King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (University of California Press, 2010), Aram Goudsouzian has done a great service by detailing the ways Russell bore this weight, and the ways in which he fought to throw it off. Aram makes clear that Russell was a conflicted soul. He lacked self-confidence, but he was brusk and even arrogant. He was friendly and gregarious to some, but often simply rude to others. He was hot tempered, but he affected a cool, distant demeanor. He believed he was a man of principle (and convinced others he was), but he periodically abandoned his family for a playboy lifestyle. If Russell couldn’t be honest about himself, he insisted on being honest about everything and everyone around him. He meant what he said and said what he meant–about race, about sports, about anything that bothered him. He was a sort of athletic Socrates, always questioning and never fully accepting the way things were. And, like Socrates, Russell was willing to suffer for his beliefs. As Aram points out, he did in many ways. But in the process he gained the respect of almost everyone he encountered. He was a hard man to like, but he was an easy man to admire. I should add that if you like white-hot game narratives, this book is full of them. Remember this?: “Greer is putting the ball in play. He gets it out deep and Havlicek steals it! Over to Sam Jones… Havlicek stole the ball! It’s all over… It’s all-l-l-l over!” Johnny Most, RIP. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Facebook if you haven’t already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I imagine the guys who first faced Bill Russell felt like I did when I had to guard Antoine Carr in high school. I “held” Carr to 32 points. But no dunks! Russell’s opponents in college and the NBA rarely fared any better. Sports talk is full of hyperbole, but in Russell’s case most of it is true. In his time, he was far and away the best player to ever step on the court and, for most of his career, he completely owned every court he stepped on. He was so dominant that they changed the rules so less gifted players would have a chance. Bill Russell, however, was not only a surpassingly great basketball player, he was also an African American star in an era in which being an African American star (or just being an African American) was very complicated. Today we are used to seeing outstandingly successful blacks in all (or almost all) spheres of life. In the mid-1950s that just wasn’t true. The American ruling elite was lily white, and that’s the way most white Americans thought it should be. Bill Russell (and Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson, Willie Mays, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, among others) were anomalies: they were black, but they were both extraordinarily accomplished and remarkably famous. They couldn’t just be athletes; they had to be symbols of some promising (or frightening) new world as well. That’s quite a burden to bear. In King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (University of California Press, 2010), Aram Goudsouzian has done a great service by detailing the ways Russell bore this weight, and the ways in which he fought to throw it off. Aram makes clear that Russell was a conflicted soul. He lacked self-confidence, but he was brusk and even arrogant. He was friendly and gregarious to some, but often simply rude to others. He was hot tempered, but he affected a cool, distant demeanor. He believed he was a man of principle (and convinced others he was), but he periodically abandoned his family for a playboy lifestyle. If Russell couldn’t be honest about himself, he insisted on being honest about everything and everyone around him. He meant what he said and said what he meant–about race, about sports, about anything that bothered him. He was a sort of athletic Socrates, always questioning and never fully accepting the way things were. And, like Socrates, Russell was willing to suffer for his beliefs. As Aram points out, he did in many ways. But in the process he gained the respect of almost everyone he encountered. He was a hard man to like, but he was an easy man to admire. I should add that if you like white-hot game narratives, this book is full of them. Remember this?: “Greer is putting the ball in play. He gets it out deep and Havlicek steals it! Over to Sam Jones… Havlicek stole the ball! It’s all over… It’s all-l-l-l over!” Johnny Most, RIP. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Facebook if you haven’t already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rupert did not seem to hesitate to align with Russell. Do you think he might only play the hero when it is convenient for him? How will Jerri fair in the end game? Can you see any scenario where she or Colby could win? If Russell faced off with Colby for the final and lost, would it be justified? Do you think Parvati's concern about not taking any heroes to the final tribal council is valid? Here is the merged tribe after episode 13. Yin Yang Colby, Jerri, Parvati, Russell, and Sandra Jo Ann thinks Colby will go next. Stacy thinks it will be Parvati. Who is your pick for the next one to be voted out? Who do you think will win it all? We've got several ways you can reach us. You can call and leave a voicemail at 206-350-1547. You can record an audio comment and attach it or just type up a quick text message and send it to us via email at joannandstacyshow@gmail.com. Lastly, there's a link for comments on the web page here. You can click that link and post your thoughts out there for everyone to see. Note: The final Listener Feedback for the season is due by 5pm PDT on Thursday, May 20th. We prefer to receive audio by Wednesday since it takes longer to prepare. You get 3 minutes. Make it count by sharing your unique perspectives on the finale and renunion. The new version of Ancient Voices for this season is available in iTunes! 00:00 Date 00:04 Ancient Voices 20 by Russ Landau 00:35 Introductions 37:40 NToS 40:57 JSFL Update 44:19 Ancient Voices 20 by Russ Landau Links for Today's Show Paul's Visual Roster for Heroes vs. Villains Survivor Fans Podcast Fans group on Facebook JSFL Contact Info: Voicemail: 206-350-1547 Email: joannandstacyshow@gmail.com Survivor Fans Podcast P.O. Box 2811 Orangevale, CA 95662 Enjoy, Jo Ann and Stacy