Podcast appearances and mentions of james smiley

  • 26PODCASTS
  • 39EPISODES
  • 42mAVG DURATION
  • ?INFREQUENT EPISODES
  • Dec 2, 2020LATEST

POPULARITY

20172018201920202021202220232024


Best podcasts about james smiley

Latest podcast episodes about james smiley

TheInboundSecret
Power, Focus, and Smiles! James Smiley Is here!

TheInboundSecret

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2020 63:39


After $210M in sales, a $350M Silicon Valley SaaS IPO, and countless 7 & 8 figure funnels (including $1.7M webinar featured on Clickfunnels.com), I've learned a lot about scaling companies online (in over 187 different industries). James Smiley has the expertise, Knowledge, and passion to help you grow your business and have true financial freedom. Want to get published and have a chance to appear on the show?

The Marketing Secrets Show
The Atlas Shrugged Interview - Part 5 of 5

The Marketing Secrets Show

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2020 36:24


Welcome to the final segment of this special interview! In this episode you get to hear Russell answer all these interesting questions: Who do you look up to? What is Tony Robbins like? How do you “deal” when things get heavy? What do you sacrifice for success? Is there closure as an entrepreneur? What do you want to be known or remembered for? Russell and Josh chat about all this and much more in the exciting conclusion to this “Atlas Shrugged” interview series. Hit me up on IG! @russellbrunson Text Me! 208-231-3797 Join my newsletter at marketingsecrets.com ---Transcript--- What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson, and I want to welcome you, first off, to the Marketing Secrets podcast; and, second off, to the last part of our five-part Atlas Shrugged interview series. The exciting conclusion. At this time, we'd been going for three-plus hours. I was really, really tired. If I sound like I am kind of out of it, it's because I was probably a little bit out of it. We started the interview at 8:00 or 9:00 at night, so this is probably midnight or so. The night before, I had slept three hours. Or, two nights before, it was three-and-a-half... Three hours and 12 minutes. I remember. I wear an aura ring, so I track my sleep cycle. So, the night before, I slept three hours and 12 minutes. The night before this was, like, five hours. So I was tired. I was worn out. But I still had a lot of fun with it. I think Josh is a great interviewer. And I think that we had a lot of fun talking about all this stuff. So, with that said, you guys, hope you enjoyed this interview series. And, when we come back from the theme song, you have a chance to jump right into the exciting conclusion. Part five of the Atlas Shrugged interview. Josh Forti: So, one of the things you talk about in... Well, actually, expert secrets. But I think they mention it... She kind of mentions it in this book, too... is creating belief by looking up to somebody. And, if you can't see it, if nobody else has done it, then it's hard for people to kind of imagine it and ingrain it. Like, for me, I look up at... I'm like, "Who do I want to be like? What business do I want?" I'm like, "Okay, cool." Like you and your books, I want to be like that type of bit here. And then Katie Richards is another one. Being a powerful person, just in general. Okay, like, these are the people that I look up to, and I'm like, "Okay. That's what I'm going towards." So, for you, who are those people? Like, in your life. That you look up to, and you're like, "Okay, that's it." Because I feel like, the higher you get... And, I mean, you're not all the way up the ladder, right? There's still plenty more. But you're way above where the average person is going to get to. The average person has a lot of people they can look up to. You, there's a lot less options, I feel like. Who are those people that you look up to and go, "Okay, that's who I'm trying to be more like," or, "That's where I learned my lessons from." Russell Brunson: Yeah. There's different parts of my life for different people, too. You know? Josh: Yeah. Russell: I look at the business side, I know the companies I aspire to be like. Salesforce, Shopify, HubSpot. Those are companies that are just like the next tier, but from where we are. That they've crossed the chasm, where we're still trying to figure out how to... That next tier. Right? Josh: Yeah. Russell: I think watching them has been... That's when we said we'd go to DreamForce two years in a row, just because I wanted to... And I talked about it, actually, on my podcast. Because when I was out there, it was like... And you need to see it to understand it. Because I remember, when I was wrestling, my dad, my freshman year, took us to the... I had just started wrestling. He took us to the state tournament. I saw this guy on my team win state. And I was like, "That's what I want." Exactly what it was. That'd be my goal. And you see it to do it. So I think for me, those are kind of the businesses that I look up to. People, I mean, Tony... From an influence... Like, people speaking, Tony still, to me, is like... Who's bigger than him, right? Josh: Right, right. Russell: Or better. And the fact I've had a chance to build a friendship with him is really cool, because it's been interesting to see him not on stage. You know what I mean? Like, everyone has a chance to see him on stage, and he's the best in the world on there. But then you see him offstage, and see who he really is. And it's just cool to see that, I don't know, someone who's been doing this for that long, consistently, who still cares, who's still doing this. He doesn't need money, but he still is doing events almost every day of the year, because he wants that. So I think that- Josh: He can stop. Russell: Yeah. And I get it. I have so much respect for that. So I think that's a big thing. Yeah. Just, different areas of life, there's different people. But- Josh: What's it like- Russell: I've tried harder and harder to get closer and closer to him, because I like seeing... I like understanding them, not just from the outside, but understanding from inside. Because it's just a different perspective that you don't get. You know what I mean? Josh: Yeah. What is it it like? What is Tony like? Russell: Honestly, he's like a little kid. We went to his house, and... I can't talk with details, but he had a slide in his house, and he went down the slide with us, and it just... It was really cool. And we had a chance to go with him and do the meditation thing. And the way he served us, when we were with him at his house, you can tell it's how he wishes he could serve everybody. You know? And that just is hard. Like, you saw him... He's in this room serving us, and he's crying, and you see this emotion. And you're just like, "Oh my gosh," like, "he would do this for everyone if he could." But he can't. So that's why you do these big scale things. But it's the best way he can do that. But I think, if he could, he would do that for every single human being he could. It's just really... I don't know. It's cool. There's been a lot of situations, when I've been around him, where he could have not... He could have easily, like, turned it off. You know, but it's sincere. He doesn't turn it off. You know what I mean? And I try to be that way as much as I can. And hopefully you've seen, now with me and my kids? Josh: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Russell: I try to. And obviously, there's Russell, who's a more introverted, more reserved, and then there’s Russell who’s gonna be like, "Ahh!" But it's still the same... Hopefully. I want to be growing like that. Like, I'd respect him, because he's... In every situation I've seen him, he's always been sincere. Which is not... I can't say that about most people in our industry, and our world. Josh: Yeah. For sure. Russell: Which is unfortunate, because it's just like, "You are..." I remember one time I was in an event, and I heard this guy speak. He was awesome. And he just breaks down crying in the middle of this event, in the middle of the speech. And I was like, "This guy is great." And he got offstage. And he looks at me, and he's like... He said something like, "I pulled out the fake tears again." And I was like, "What?" I remember just feeling like... Ugh. I just felt so sick. How does someone do that and not... He was all proud of it. Like, "Ha," like, "I got them with my..." I just remember feeling so... Just dirty. And I just didn't like that. I was like, "I don't want to be that way. I want to be..." I don't want people saying, like, "Oh, yeah, Russell's different here than here." I don't want people saying that. Josh: Yeah. Like, one consistent person. The same person on and off stage. Russell: Yeah. Josh: There's certain people that... You just know. You meet them, and they're just genuine all the way through. Right? Russell: Mm-hmm Josh: I'm trying to think... Like Catherine Jones, right? For example. She's awesome, right? We had dinner. I had dinner with her, and... Well, God. I had dinner with her, and some friends... Russell: "What am I allowed to say in the podcast?" Josh: Yeah. No, her and some friends, when I was in Utah last. And I've had her as a client. I've watched her speak on stage, in front of... Live. I've had dinner with her. And it's like, it is the same person. Right? Russell: So cool. Josh: And there are people like that. And they're rare. I really do think- Russell: That's what people say. Like, "You never want to meet your mentors, because they're going to disappoint you." Josh: Yeah. Russell: Because of that. Because it's like, "Oh, you put them on this pedestal, and you see them in real life, and you're like... 'Huh. Well. That's disappointing.'" And then it negates all the stuff... That's my biggest thing, is that I don't want somebody who... I gave them something, to help them, and they see me in real life, and it's like, "Oh." It negates- Josh: Yeah! Russell: All you just gave them. Which it does, right? Josh: It really does. Because it takes away the trust factor. Russell: Yeah. And so it's just like... I don't know. Because I think I was nervous meeting Tony the first time. I was like, "What if..." Josh: Yeah, no kidding. Russell: You know? And you see him multiple times, over and over and over, and you're just like, "Cool." It's just neat to see that. Josh: So, what's interesting is, one of my biggest reservations about Tony before... You, and Funnel Hacking Live, was actually the thing that warmed me up to Tony. Because I didn't really know a whole lot... I'd never experienced Tony like I have at Funnel Hacking Live, or anything like that. It's so crazy. You walk into the room when he's talking, and it's like you feel the energy shift. Russell: Nobody on earth has presence like that. Josh: It is insane. Like, everyone tells you about it, but then you don't really believe it until you experience it. And I remember, actually, it was in Orlando. The first time, when he was down there or whatever. And I remember, he came... He was in the room... I was in the room when he entered. And energy, obviously, just like when anybody walks on stage, was quite ramped up. But then he just went into his normal talking. And I remember leaving the room. And, most people, you walk in and you feel it? And I remember opening that door, and shutting it, and like... My whole body shifted. Out of this high energy state, into the low energy state. And I felt like, if I was in that room, I could literally go forever. Right? It was just this nonstop source of energy. But what was interesting about Tony is, Tony doesn't really talk about God. Which is super interesting. Like, I don't know what faith Tony is. And maybe he's talked about it in something about that. And so, for me, one of the biggest struggles that I had... Because, well, growing up, and when I first the house, and when I first got into the entrepreneurship, I, like, really wrestled with God. Right? Especially, you know, going through the death of my brother was actually, ironically, the thing that brought me back to God. But I really, really wrestled with that. And so, for Tony, it was like, he's got all this energy, and he's connecting to this higher source, and he's talking about all these things, but he never... He never ties it to anything. He never gives credit to... Well, in this story I'm telling myself at the time, he's never giving credit to this higher... thing. Like, where does that all come from? And then, the more I got to know Tony... Not personally, but through his work, and through watching his videos, and seeing him at Funnel Hacking Live... I'm like, "I don't know what it is that he believes." I've never sat down... And if I ever get to interview him, I'm absolutely asking him that question. But, whatever that is, I don't think it's possible to be incongruent. Because it's... I don't know! It's not of Earth, almost. It's like you're tapping into something that isn't... In in order to operate at that level, you can't be selfish. Like, you know what I mean? Do you sense that with him at all? Like- Russell: Yeah. And he is, I think... And I'm sure you've seen it before. You talk political, and your audience is cut in half, right? Josh Forti: Yeah. Russell: I think for him, he's traveling such a world-global thing. I mean, Tony is Christian. But it's tough because half the world he speaks to are not Christians. Josh: Right. Russell: And so he... He draws that line, because he doesn't want to alienate people. Because he's like, "I'm here to serve God, and..." Josh: Right. Russell: “God didn’t send me to serve a certain group, it’s to serve everybody.” I think... That's my guess, as to why he doesn't anchor that in as a hard thing. Because his audience is so massive. But he definitely, if you ask him, he definitely knows where it's coming from. You know what I mean? Because, wherever he talks about it, he's... You know, the first time he told me, he's like... It's funny, because I'd experienced this myself, and didn't have words to put to it. Because I come on stage, I have a plan, everything's there. I start talking, and all of the sudden, like, something comes through me? And he's like, "It never comes out the way that I plan, but it always comes out perfect." And he's like, "As long as I follow that, it always just works out perfect." Josh: Yeah. Russell: And I've had so many times where I... Again, I start talking about something, I don't know where I'm going. I'm like, "Why am I talking about this?" And then all of the sudden, it's like, "Oh, wow." And there's somebody... Like, that was the thing that- Josh: Connected it. Russell: Shifted it for them. You know what I mean? And I think the more that you tap into that, the more... Again, it comes back to what I talked about before, like, where you do that... God's giving you this thing, and if you have stewardship over it, and you use it, he'll give it to you more and more. And Tony, now, who's been doing it for 40 years... Josh: It's actually super interesting you say that. So, literally, every Tuesday, I meet with Katie. Right? And we have our one-on-one call, and we talk for an hour. And one of the topics of conversation was, I was like, "Katie..." We were actually talking about getting ready for this interview. I was like, "I don't feel nervous. At all." Right? And I'm like, "And I'm getting so many texts and DMS or whatever, like, 'Oh my gosh, are you nervous? What if you mess up?'” And, so many… So many different things, right? And I'm like, "I don't feel any of that. I feel like this is just like, 'All right, cool. I'm flying out to Russell. We're gonna hang out. It's gonna be great. We're gonna go.'" And I'm like, "So, why is everybody else telling me I should be nervous? Right? Like, why is that a thing?" One of the things that she said was like, "Being who you are, being your person, knowing yourself, and, like, doing this..." But one of the things that we talked about was some of the things that you have to accept by faith. And I was really wrestling with this idea of, like, "Am I supposed to be prepared?" Am I? Russell voxed me and was like, "This is the first interview he's ever prepared for." I'm like, "I just read the book. I don't have any notes prepared for him! I'm just gonna show up and talk, right? That's what I do." And she's like, "But that's your superpower. That-" And sometimes you have to just have faith. And she's like, "You prepare 80% of the way, and leave the 20% up to God." And she's like, "And most people are not going to understand that. And, for a lot of people, that's going to freak it out." But she's like, "How many times have you prepared something 100%, you knew every word you were going to say?" And I'm like, "Very little." She's like, "Well, think back to one of the times that you did." I'm like, "Okay," and she's like, "How'd it go? I was like, "Well, terrible! Literally. It was some of my worst presentations. The most prepared I come, the biggest it'll flop." Right? And she's like, "And the least you prepare sometimes, you just walk in confidently and you do your best, turns out amazing." Yeah. Because that's what Tony's talking about, like, "It just comes over you." It's like, if you have faith that, when you show up and become... You are the best version of yourself. You show up the most prepared you can be. And you just fully embrace that, and have faith in the rest? God, the universe, whatever you want to call it, I feel like it just works the rest of it out. You know what I mean? Russell: Understood. Yeah. That's why, before I do anything, I pray before. I prayed before this call. Or, what's it called? Before this interview, before I step on stage every single time. Because a big part of it's like... Without that, what good are your words? You know what I mean? If you're doing it with the Spirit, with God... Whatever you want to call it, you know? For me, it's the Spirit. If you're with the Spirit, then it'll touch people, in a way that you can't just by your words alone. And so I always ask that, and I look for help. And I remember, I think Steven Larson, the first time he was working for me, we did our first event in the room over here. And I remember, before I would do the events myself, he started working for me. And I was in the back here. And I was saying a prayer, and he walked in. He's like, "Oh, sorry!" He's like, "That's cool." I'm like, "What?" He's like, "You pray before you go out there." I was like, "Oh, yeah. I'm not going out there by myself!" Like, you know? I'm not that good. So, I need help, and it shows up when you... pray. Josh: All right, I have two questions that I want to ask you, before we kind of go to rapid-fire, to kind of bring this to a close. I don't know. We could probably go all night, but... Russell: You just want us to keep going all night? Or you want us to go to bed? Josh: How much longer do we go for? Are you guys liking this? Comment down below. Let us know. Give some feedback. Do you like it? Do you not like it? What are your thoughts? We've been going for about three hours. And I figured, at least, it was going to go at least this long. Russell: I guarantee there's going to be some of you guys who are like, "I agree with everything," to be like, "I agree with half," or to be like, "I don't understand what they're saying. I agree with nothing." So- That's okay. There's nothing... Again, our goal was not to motivate, was not to try to convince you guys of anything. That's not my goal. Our goal was to flesh out these ideas, and hopefully you guys come on the journey, and get some cool ideas from it, and see how perceive life. I think what's fascinating is everybody has such a different perspective on life. And so many times, when we hear somebody else's perspective, we get offended. And it's like, "What if you didn't get offended, and just listened to their perspective?" And maybe you don't listen to everything, but you're like, "Oh. I'm going to take that, and that. Those are two things that were really cool for me." Just don't pay attention to the rest of it. Right? Because I'm sure, if you paid attention to everything that we both said, you probably got offended at least 12 times. But if you're just like, "I'm just going to take the gold that's good for me, and then leave everything else on the side," you got a dozen amazing things that you can use, hopefully. So. Josh: All right. And so my next question is, who are you voting for? No, I'm just kidding. Russell: Ugh. Actually, last year, I don't... Four years ago... So, I'm a big Jack Bauer fan, and I bought "Jack Bauer for president" shirts. And then, that whole day, I was Instagramming and Facebooking, "I'm writing in Jack Bauer! I'm writing in Jack Bauer!" And I would have if he was a real human. But, anyway. Josh: That's funny. Who was I just... Oh, Leah, I was talking to her on the way, as we were driving to the airport. We were talking about Joe Rogan. And, because Joe Rogan is... It's so funny, because people... Like, Trump retweeted one of his tweets. And Joe Rogan's a big liberal, right? Like, he even said he was going to vote for Bernie, before Biden became the nominee. And so I feel like a lot of Trump supporters, are like, "Yeah, Joe Rogan's a Trump fan!" Like, Joe Rogan is not a Trump fan. That's not at all what it is. And so we were like, "Well, who do you think he's going to vote for?" And I was like, "If I was a betting man, I would bet that he votes for Kanye. That he wrote him in." Because he does this three-hour interview. And Kanye answers... If you watch the interview... I mean, I know it's three hours of your time, and you'll probably never get to it. But it is a fascinating interview. And he asked... Because he keeps trying to bring Kanye back to like, "If you were president, what would you do?" Because Kanye is like, "I'm going to be president. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," right? Like, "If I don't win this year, I'm going to for sure win in 2024." Kanye, I love your confidence. But anyway, so, Kanye answers these questions completely differently. And so, anyway. I don't want to run with that. But, my real question for you... So, you can go long on these, or we can go rapid-fire questions on them. Either way. Atlas Shrugged. Got the world on his shoulders. You feel that. How do you deal with that responsibility? Because I'm sure there's been times, I know in my own life, with my three to five little people that I'm managing, and some contractors, I'm like, "Oh my gosh! If I have to take one more thing, I'm just going to explode!" Right? Like, if we don't... So how do you, how do you deal with that pressure, and not... One of the things that I've had to learn how to do is, I don't know if anger is the right word, but deal with not taking out my frustration on somebody else. Right? Like, God bless Leah. She knows me super, super well. And like she knows the moods where it's like, "Don't ask him a question." Like, "Avoid it, and let him cool off," because if you say the wrong thing right now, I'm just going to inadvertently take it out on her. And I've had to learn how to balance that and communicate that. How do you deal with all that pressure, and still... You've got 400 people looking up to you. I know you don't talk to them everyday, but that's a lot. Russell: Yeah. That's just employees. And you have the community, and... Josh: Right. Russell: Yeah, it gets heavy. A lot. And I think it's funny, because, as you read the book, you know, Atlas Shrugged and walked away from the thing... Josh: Right. Russell: And I think for me, I don't want to walk away. You know what I mean? I don't think... That's a big thing. And I think, because the first part is, I was thinking about it, that... Because I'm a big believer that this, for me, is a calling. It's a mantle. This is what I've been called to do at this time in my life. And since, as heavy as it gets... Like, man, think about other people in a different time who had to carry a burden they didn't want to lift, right? There's tons of them. So I think about that a lot. I reached out to other people who were producers, who I know have heavy... You can ask Garrett White. Every time I'm stressing out to the max, I text Garrett, and I'm like, "Hey, man. Life's heavy. Just thinking about you." And he always sends back something about, like, "Dude, do you realize how you've changed my..." just things like that, that just... It's just like, "Okay, it's worth it. Thank you." And then, in Voxer, whenever someone voxes me something, it's like, this success story of, like, "Dude, just so you know, blah, blah, blah." And on Voxer, you can star things. So I have a whole starred menu of all the people that have told me how the fact that I'm carrying this has changed their life. So I'll listen to those, and I'll listen to four or five or six of them. And eventually, when I hear those things, it gets lighter. And so that's a big thing, for me, is just that... Dave, one of my... I'm not sure if Dave's still here or not. But Dave's one of my best friends. Josh: Is he still here? Russell: No. Josh: Dave. Russell: One of my favorite humans. Yeah. And now he's... Anyway. You know, he's carrying a lot of pressure, now, too. Dave... I don't know if you knew this... Dave is the CEO now of ClickFunnels. He's taking over a huge part of my responsibility. And he's carrying out- Josh: Oh, he's into the CEO role? Russell: Yeah. Josh: Or, is he? Or he's moving into it? Russell: He is. Officially, now, yeah. Internally. And he's... Josh: Congratulations, Dave. Russell: And, looking back now, something I should have done five years ago. He's so much better than me at... Than I am. But I see him, I see Todd, I see that people on our team who are carrying weight. And having other people that you're doing this with, besides yourself, helps a lot. So I think that's a big part of it, too, is just... I don't know. If it was just me, like that, eventually I think I'd shrug and walk away. But I know that there's a dozen other people all holding that up as well, and that helps a lot as well, because you know you're not in it alone. I always tell Dave, I'm like, "Man, if I was going to war, I would bring you. Just because I want you in the trenches with me. You know what I mean?" And knowing that I'm not in it alone helps a lot. So I think a lot of times, it's those things. When you're where, when you're doing it by yourself, that's when it gets hard. I try to not... And I think our default human thing is to isolate, and take the pressure and pain. And just for me, as an introvert, I'd rather isolate. But I try, specifically when it gets heavy, just to, like, "Okay, I can't isolate, or I'm going to just get crushed." Josh: Yeah. Russell: And I reach out, and that helps me a lot to be able to sustain stuff. Josh: Next rapid-fire question, if you will. Success takes sacrifice. So, in managing ClickFunnels, obviously you love it. But what things are you not able to do, or do you wish you were able to do more of, that you are not able to because of the role that you play in ClickFunnels? Russell: Yeah. Stuff like this. I feel bad. There's so many people who ask for podcast interviews and things like that. People that I would love to do it with, but just there's not enough time. I miss... When we were first growing ClickFunnels, and starting it, I just remember coming in in the mornings, and being like, "What should we do today?" And thinking about it, and brainstorming. I miss that part. Now you come in, and it's like, "All right, there's 8,000 things you got to do." And it's like, "Okay," and I miss those parts of it. I don't know, I miss... Not being able to turn it off, but I think... I don't know, it would be nice... I think it's Alex Charfen, I'm thinking about. Like, "You don't want to run off into the white wood." There's times where... And this is dorky. This is the cheesiest thing. Remember watching the last... Endgame? Avengers Endgame. Josh: Oh, yeah. Russell: And, at the end, when Iron Man dies, and... What's her name? Pepper Potts. When she's like, "You can rest now." I remember hearing that, and I was just like... I actually started crying. I was just like, "I feel like I want to rest sometime. I don't know how, or when, or-" I desire that. I don't know how, because there's so much stuff and so many things. And I think, I don't know, I long for that moment. Where it's just like, whatever the... Like at the end of the Bootstrap book. I don't know where or when that happens, but- Josh: Right, yeah. Russell: If there's ever a time where it's just like, "Oh. We did it." Like, it's weird, because in wrestling, there was a thing where you get your hand raised, and then you get to rest. Business, I haven't found that. Like, it's just this constant thing. Where you have victories and stuff, but you never... Again, wrestling is like, you'd cut weight a week, you'd train, you'd practice, and you'd go out there, head-to-head. You wrestle. You get a hand-raise, you go out to eat, and you relax. You sleep that weekend. Monday, you get back to work. I don't feel like, in business, there's ever been that. Like, "Ah." Josh: Do you think it exists? Russell: I don't know. I assume when people sell a business there's some of that, but most people I know that have sold a business... It's harder. Because it's like someone else is taking your thing that your identity is tied to. So that scares me too. And so I don't know. That's something, I don't know if it's like... Is it when I die that I'm like, "Ah." Like Iron Man? I don't know... I don't know. Some day. I desire that. I don't know how to get it, but that's something I'm looking at. How do you get that? How do you get that release you get, where you're just like, "Ah, I did a good job." I think Funnel Hacking Live is probably the closest to that? Josh: Yeah. That's what I was thinking. Russell: Right after it ends? But then also, sometimes... Like two years ago, and it's semi-controversial, and I got blown up for, like, three or four days. And I remember I was like, "This sucks!" Like, "I just killed myself, and now I'm defending myself for three days because of some other speaker who said something that I wish they wouldn't have, but they did, and..." And, yeah. Some of the things like that are hard, but, huh. Anyway. Josh: Are we having Funnel Hacking Live this year? Or, next year, I guess? Russell: Some version of it, yeah. We're in a contract battle with Nashville, where we've done it the last two years. I was just to go there again this year. It typically takes us nine months, for Funnel Hacking Live. Obviously, because of everything, we haven't. We're three months out from when it was supposed to be, and there's no way I can fill it in time. Plus, I don't think we were going to come do there. And so we're trying to push that contract for another year, and then doing a hybrid, something in between. So far, we haven't even got the contract, which is... Anyway. So, something will happen. And I'm dying to not announce it yet, because I don't have finality yet. But some version of Funnel Hacking Live- Josh: What? You mean you can't break something right here, live, at- Russell: I've tried my best! To- Josh: 1:00 in the morning, Eastern time? Russell: We'd love to do some kind of hybrid... Something. Essentially, because I spoke at Tony's thing, where he had the big internet… Josh: Yeah. How was that? Russell: It was really cool. And hard. Because, at first, you come out, and you're in this room, and there's faces everywhere, like, "Ah! That's amazing!" But you're speaking at an event. You shift, and you're looking at different people, which is fun. Here, if you look at people, it looks like you're talking like this. So you have to look at the camera. So, you have a million faces everywhere, and you have to look right here? And you can't- Josh: Oh my God! Russell: And everyone's doing weird things, and so it's kind of hard. Because you're like, I have to look here, or else it looks like I'm not connected to you. But there's so much happening that I want to... It was- Josh: Oh. That's crazy. Russell: It was almost... I don't know if "Dizzy" is the right word, but something that we were just like... It was different. It was hard to get used to. But, anyway, he's building a new place that's three times as big. We're just going to have a hybrid, where half is at... half's the stadium. He said something interesting. He's like, "This year is the year of virtual. Next year is the year of hybrid." So I'm trying to figure out our version of that. And I don't know what that is yet. Josh: Hybrid being part live, part... Russell: Yeah. Yeah. Because I never wanted to make Funnel Hacking Live virtual, ever. Because… it’s this thing. But I also want to make it... Yeah, anyway. So, I'm hoping. I'm hoping the next couple weeks have some finality on that contract, so we can start the next... Whatever the process looks like. So it'll be some version of 2021, for sure. Josh: Cool. Russell: Where people who want to travel will be able to travel. Josh: All right. Awesome. Two more questions. Russell: Okay. Josh: One: what is one thing that people don't know about you? What's a Russell Brunson thing that is a pretty defined part of who you are that people don't really know? Russell: I'm public about everything... Josh: Are you, though? Russell: I don't know. That's a good question. Have you learned anything by me since you've been here in our... Josh: Yeah, a couple of things. Russell: Really? Josh: Yeah. A couple of things. Yeah. More from your wife, though. Yeah. She's told... Russell: She's telling you all the good stuff. Josh: Also, your kids are fascinating. Russell: Yeah. Josh: Yeah. I talked to them for probably 10, 15 minutes. Russell: My kids are the coolest. I think my biggest fear in life is that I am not going to be the dad that they need. You know what I mean? I don't know. He's going to be like... I don't know. Being a parent's way harder than I thought I was going to be. I thought I was going to be amazing at it. I'm like, "I can influence thousands of people at once," but the person you care about and love the most? And same to my wife. I think those are my biggest fears. I don't want to mess up the family. And it's weird because, again, it's like all my super powers are like my kryptonite in a family. You know what I mean? Josh: Yeah. Russell: And so I think I struggle with that a lot of times, where it's just like, "Nah, I'm such a good communicator." I think. Communicating messages. And I struggle communicating with people I love the most. So I think that's it, I think. I am scared to death of cats and dogs. I will not touch them. Josh: Really? Russell: Yeah. I won't touch any animal. They're disgusting to me. And I'm allergic to cats, but the way it came about is, when I was in high school, the girl I was dating, she had a cat, and they went out of town. She's like, "You can watch my cat." And I was like, "Okay." So I came in, and the cat's rubbing against me, so I was petting it, because I'm like... I'd never had an animal before, right? And I'm petting it. And my eyes swole shut. For three days. Three days later, they finally opened again, and the white part was all blood-red. And I don't trust animals since then. You can watch me. My in-laws have cats. I walk in the house, and I stand there. I won't sit on the couches, because I'm like... Because I break out an allergies. If like a dog runs up to me, everyone... You'll see I've kind of turned my... Like, "Don't touch me." Anyway, I don't like animals. Unless you can eat them. So there's something people probably don't know about me. Josh: There you go! Who would've guessed, who would've guessed. All right. Last question. Final question. And I asked this to you... I think I have asked this to you before, but now we're here. We're in person. And we're going to talk. I want you to fast-forward to the end of your life, when you are on your deathbed, and I want you to... All your money, and success, and fame, and influence it's all gone. But you've influenced a lot of people. And you get to leave them with a final message that kind of defines... not what you took away from life, but like the message that you feel like you should put on to some... Pass on, for generations to come. What would you want to be defined by? What would you want that message to be, for people to remember you by? Russell: Cool... And I'm hoping... Honestly, my biggest hope. I'm hoping that when we die, we go to our maker. I'm hoping that we get a glimpse of what our life actually did. You know, like the ripple effect? Josh: Fascinating. Russell: You know It's A Wonderful Life? Josh: Yeah. Russell: When he sees what it was like, before and after? I'm hoping all of us get that experience. Because you have no idea what you're actually doing with it. But I'm sure what we're all doing is... Anyway, I'm praying that we get that moment, because that would be... Anyway. I think my message that I- Josh: That would be so cool. Russell: Yeah. Can you imagine that? Josh: Yeah. That'd be wild. Russell: Yeah. Josh: We need to do a podcast just about our faith. That'd be cool. That'll be our next one. Russell: Okay. That'd be fun. Josh: Next one, I'll fly out here for, and we'll just do it, just about- Russell: That'd be fun. Josh: Just about God, and faith. All right. Russell: That'd be fun. But I think for my message, I would leave it as, I think that... Again, just to tie back to what we talked about initially, I think a lot of us start these businesses, or start whatever we're trying to do, whatever we're called to do, you start initially out of greed, right? It's natural, man. We have these desires that make us want to do stuff, right? And I think for me, when I first got started in this business, I just thought it was to make money, and all these kind of things. And I saw, even when it started having an impact, I mean, "This is cool, this is cool." But it wasn't until... I had a coach a few years ago. She's amazing. And I remember she asked me about what I think God thinks about my business. I'm like, "Why would He care about this?" He cares about how I'm living my life, and I'm keeping to the Commandments and stuff, but why would He care about this?" She's like, "Don't you see it?" And I'm like, "See what?" She's like, "You don't see what He's... Who you've become? His hand in your life?" And it never had crossed my mind. And she started helping me understand, like, "This thing that you're doing is not just to make money. This is a calling. This is literal... This is a calling. You were called of God to do this thing, and the ripple effect, and people's lives you're changing... Even though you're helping people to start businesses, build funnels, it seems like it doesn't matter, but it does. Because it frees people, and then they can change people's lives. And the ripple effect is huge." And she helped me understand that day, in such a profound way, that just these things that we're doing, it's a literal calling from God. I think if I was on my deathbed, I would want people to know, like, when you feel that tug, or that nudge, that thing that starts you on this journey, that's not just like, "Oh, it'll be fun. Oh, I'll make some money," or whatever. It's literally God giving you something. This is your stewardship. Do something with it. See what it is. I think, if you realize that... Since I've realized that, it's been different. Now that I know that, it's like, "Okay, I'm going to run as hard as I can. Because this is not just an idea I had. This is a gift." And it's like these tests, like, "What am I going to do with this?" And then when you look at it from that lens, it's like, man, you can do and create... You have more faith in yourself, because it's not yourself, right? I get scared every time I get on stage. I got nervous before this. Like I get... "You're probably confident, because you're on the stage in front of 35,000 people." No! I freak out in front of, like, 20 people! I get so nervous. But I'm like, "I know that I can do it, because this is a calling that was given. And He's not going to give me something that I can't do." And so I think that, if I could help people understand that... I don't know the right way to articulate it, but I think if everybody understood that, how real that actually is, it'd make you run harder, make you work harder, and make you braver, and make you have more courage, more... All the things you need to get that message out. Because you were called. It is a literal calling. And you're probably not worthy of it yet? Like, when you get it, you're not worthy. Like they say, "He qualifies, so he calls," right? You're not qualified right now, but the act of you moving forward is what qualifies you, and what prepares you for the calling. And I think that, if people understood that, man, people would focus so much less on themselves and on their situation and just, like, "All right. Here's the baton. Run." Right? Josh: Yeah. Russell: You're now gonna start running. And you would do it with perfect faith, because you know it's from somebody beside yourself. And I think if people understood that and believed, it would change everything. Josh: Russell. Thank you so much, man. Russell: Yeah, man. Josh: This was so much fun. Russell: It is fun. Josh: I'm so glad we were able to make this happen. Russell: How long do we have to do... Where are we at? Josh: We're at three hours and 18 minutes. Russell: Dang. And we're still here? Josh: Three hours 20 minutes. Yeah. Russell: Dang, a lot of people still here. Josh: Yeah. I've got... Yeah. Quite a bit. Russell: Thanks for having me, man. Thanks for coming all the way out here for this. It was cool. Josh: Yeah. Of course. Yeah. And- Russell: Oh, and we have the comments now. Josh: What do you guys think of the interview? Yes? Good, bad? Thumbs up? Rate it! On a scale from 1 to 10. On a scale from 1 to 10, give us a rating. 1 to 10. Russell: "I used to think Russell was cool, but now I think he's crazy," or, "I used to think Russell was crazy, now I think he's cool." I'm good with all those things. I'm just curious. Josh: Russell, God bless you. God bless your wisdom and mission. Look at this. Thank you so much. This is amazing. Russell: Smileys are here. What's up, Smileys? Josh: Let's go, let's go. What's up, James Smiley? Great stuff. Awesome. I love it, I love it. I could do... A 1000. We got a 1000 out of 10. Russell: Dang! Josh: That's pretty darn good. Russell: It is really good. Josh: 12? 12 out of 10. Russell: Oh, so fun. Josh: Brent? what's up, man? All right, we're going to have to do this again. Sometime when we can sit down and talk about God. That one, we're really gonna have to get prepped for it. Oh, do you know Nick Robbins? Russell: Not off the top of my head. Josh: All right. He's kind of in the ClickFunnels world? He ran an agency, sold it, but still remained a partner, and then got bored, and then came back into it? Anyway. So he and I had, I think, a three-and-a-half-hour conversation about God. So, it's interesting, because he and I actually have a lot of similar beliefs, but he doesn't believe in God. So he's like, "Yeah, I think there's something out there, and it's something intelligent," or whatever. And so we had a... He uses language. And I don't, typically. And so we had all this big, long, huge debate. So, and we've gone there and said that. Russell: That's fun. Josh: Yeah. So. Russell: I think one of the most fascinating conversations I ever had was with Howard Berg, the world's fastest reader? That guy's, like, 30,000... Josh: Yeah. Oh, that's right! He came here, didn't he? Russell: Yeah. A couple of times, since we've hung out. He's read 30,000 books. I was like, "I can ask this guy any question I want." And so I asked him. I was like, "What's your opinion on God?" And I remember he told me, he said... Because, again, religion usually causes fights. Because, like, "Well, I believe-" you know, and it's so cool, because he's like, "Well, most people read one book, and then they base their belief in God on this one book." He's like, "I've read..." I can't remember what it was... "Like, 1,200 books on God, from every perspective." And he's like, "Based on that, this is what I believe." It was just so cool to see that, I think. And I feel like all of us, instead of us being like, "This is my way, this is my way." It's like, just hear... Even if you completely... I completely disagree with so many people's opinion, but I still hear it. Because, again, why do they believe that? There's something. There's a reason why they believe that. I want to understand that. And, anyway. And it's just so interesting. Josh: That's my big thing. My big thing is like... And that's one of the hardest things, for mem is figuring out... My beliefs are always changing. That's probably reason I started the podcast. I just wanted to talk to people. Right? Like, if I'm wrong... I'm so excited whenever someone comes in and is like, "You're wrong, and here's why!" And I'm like- Russell: "Sweet!" Josh: "Oh my gosh! Thank you so much! I know what I'm onto next! Yes!" Right? Where everybody else is like, "I don't want to be wrong. What are they-" I'm like, "If somebody comes in and proves my idea wrong..." Like, my ideas are pretty thought-through. And I'm a really thought-through person. I know why I believe what I believe, not just what I believe. Right? So if somebody can come along and challenge that? That's one of the things that is so attractive to me about Leah. Leah was smart. She challenged even beliefs that she maybe even agreed with. She'd play the devil's advocate, and change, and challenge it. And I'm like, "that's what I like. I want to grow and expand like that." So, anyway. Russell: Yeah. That's awesome. Josh: We'll have to come back and do that, so. All right. Russell. Thank you so much, man. Super, super appreciate it. Guys, as always. Hustle, hustle. God bless. Don't be afraid to think different. And who knows? You might just end up in a chair next to Russell Brunson. So, that'd be awesome. Guys, as always, hustle, hustle. God bless. Don't be afraid to think different. Those of us that think different are going to change the world. By using funnels! And other stuff. Russell: Yeah! Josh: I love you all. And I will see you on the next live stream episode. Take it easy, man. Russell: Bye everybody. Josh: Peace!

The Entrepreneur Accelerator
TEA# 56: The 10 Rules of Freedom With Alex Elliot

The Entrepreneur Accelerator

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2020 59:22


About Alex Elliot:Alex is best known for helping online marketers, and business owners leverage the full power of email marketing to create 'practically passive income' with automated backend sales machines.Alex grew her own online marketing business to just under $1 million in sales in 18 months using a combination of email marketing and organic traffic methods. And now enjoys helping others do the same. She has been a featured speaker in Summits alongside Russell Brunson, John Lee Dumas, Mike Filsaime, Jim Edwards, Perry Marshall, Elena Cardone, Alex Charfen, Kathryn Jones, James Smiley, Blake Nubar, Kolton Krottinger, Kim Dang, and Doug Boughton.  ~You can find Alex Elliot on… Website: https://alexselliot.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alex.elliot.Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/alexselliotallday/Email: support@alexselliot.com =======================================================================To book a power session with Reem, go to:https://calendly.com/reem-kharbat/30min To Join Reem's mentoring program, learn the same exact strategy she used to build her three 7-figure businesses, got featured in Vogue Magazine and Top Media, go to :www.reemkharbat.com Or Book a consultation call to see if you're a fit for this program athttps://calendly.com/reem-kharbat/teal If you enjoyed the episode, if it helped you in any way, or if you had ONE aha moment, please let me know, hit the subscribe button and leave me a review and a comment. Please share it with 3 of your friends in the next 24 hours to get the message out! If you would like to connect with me & become friends :) Check me out at:https://www.facebook.com/reem.kharbatInstagram:https://instagram.com/reem.kharbatLinkedin:https://linkedin.com/reem-kharbatOr visit my website:https://www.reemkharbat.com/home Do you want to launch your own podcast, then you have to check the Podcast Profit Lab Program; it's life-changing!http://bit.ly/3bsS3xa 

Virtually Limitless
James Smiley - The b2b Legend

Virtually Limitless

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 2, 2020 76:14


In this episode of Virtually Limitless Trey Carmichael interviewed the b2b legend James Smiley! James has been recognized as one of the most in-demand B2B digital marketers and under-40 entrepreneurs in the world by Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Clickfunnels Radio, FOX, CNN, and more. He has led $0 to $20M growth for two different companies, been a part of a Silicon Valley SaaS IPO, and co-founded an innovation practice at AT&T overseeing over 400 resellers and 2000 wholesalers. James has been the behind-the-scenes advisor for over 560 executives. His primary focus is on disruptive digital marketing solutions. Past companies that have called on James include Facebook Messenger, AT&T’s Innovation Center, AmazonGo, and Amazon Locker. We dove deep and you definitely want to make sure you tune in! Want to see more of James?

Hindsight HacKing
HH-36 James Smiley - The Million Dollar Journey

Hindsight HacKing

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 27, 2020 62:37


 James grew up in his most impressionable adolescent years in south Seattle's Beacon Hill / Rainer Valley.  At age 13 he ran a paper route and doubled the revenue of it by making an offer to 100% of the homes on his route (basically just knocking on the door of every home and asking if they wanted to buy the paper).  As a teen, James was fired by most of his jobs, was kicked out of high schools, was arrested at the age of 16, was voted high school class clown twice, and dropped out of four colleges.James made his first 6 figures in his first B2B sales job. On day 1 of employment he learned to send "emails" (this was about the year 2000 and open rates were about 99%).  Against the recommendation of other sales reps, instead of making 60-100 cold calls per day to book appointments, James decided to email his 8000 clients (his manager, who is shown in the side image, gave him this customer list but told him to call them and not email them).  That first email to 8000 clients made James' phone ring off the hook for 3 months and needless to say, "selling" become incredibly easy for him due to his ability to leverage technologyAt the age of 35, the death of a close family member create a drastic shift in James' life.  Through prayer and self-reflection, James finally admitted to himself that he wasn't happy working with or for corporations.  And... he realized all the leverage in the world was moving into the hands of entrepreneurs and solopreneurs due to major shifts in technology (namely social media, video, and mobile high-speed internet).  James knew millions of solopreneurs would be coming online over the next few years and virtually all of them would need systems, business processes, coaching, and mentoring in order to survive.James' rise in the solopreneur space was quick as he went from being an absolute no-body in the industry to being one of the most in-demand coaches and mentors in the country.  James' most recent book launched in 2019 (Influence and Income Online) and instantly became an Amazon #1 Best Seller the five biggest entrepreneur categories including Business Consulting, Web Marketing, & Internet Marketing.  James has now coached over 12k entrepreneurs, published over 10k training videos, and has had "viewer-total-watch-time" break the 2.75 million minute mark.His main goal now is to drive entrepreneur enablement around the globe.  James' operations now include a big enablement arm in the Hispanic Community and in India; with plans to equip over 1M entrepreneurs by 2025.https://jamessmiley.org/https://mymentorlab.com/optin

TACTICAL BUSINESSMAN
Living a Conveyor Belt Life | Episode 170

TACTICAL BUSINESSMAN

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2020 103:05


Gerritt interviews James Smiley and discusses success, failures, and living a conveyor belt life. James Smiley is one of the tech industry's top sales executives who got his start at Nextel during the early 2000's.   Do you struggle to find the time to invest in yourself, family, AND your business? It doesn't have to be that way. Find out more at: https://www.thetacticalbusinessman.com -- The Tactical Businessman is a podcast committed to one thing: Empowering people to find the answers they already know exists. Gerritt Bake is a retired SWAT officer and former undercover detective ready to equip you with the tools, tactics, and techniques needed to achieve success in every facet of your life. There is an approach to get what you want out of life...a tactical approach.

The Money Advantage Podcast
Making Money Online Quickly: Keys to Success, with James Smiley

The Money Advantage Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2020 48:00


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErkhA2dRdBs In this episode, we talk with James Smiley about why most entrepreneurs struggle with making money online quickly.If you want to create a brand, become an influencer, and build a self-sustaining business so you can build a life and business you love, tune in now! In this episode, you'll discover: How he went from getting arrested and getting kicked out of school to leading a multi-million dollar companyWhy you don't need a huge list or following to grow your business, and what you do need instead ... and exactly how to build itThe one simple business strategy that will make you stand out, and give you years of leverageHow to become an influencer if you're not already an established thought leader like Tony RobbinsThe top 2 crucial keys to making money online quickly Who Is James Smiley? James Smiley is an expert in making money online quickly whose accomplishments include: James has been recognized as one of the most innovative and in-demand entrepreneurs under 40.He has led $0 to $20M growth for two different companies, been a part of a Silicon Valley SaaS IPO, and consulted for 3 of the Fortune 10.He built countless 7 & 8 figure funnels, including one $1.7M webinar.James has been the behind-the-scenes paid advisor to over 560 executives & entrepreneurs.His primary specialty is helping entrepreneurs with rapid revenue acceleration by leveraging online automation and his proprietary digital marketing systems.James has published 7 books, recorded 1000s of videos and podcasts, trained over 12,000 B2B sales reps, delivered 600+ speeches, and sold over $210M before the age of 35.He played some college football and is a former ESPN Bassmaster pro angler and fished in the Bassmaster National Championship. James Smiley Episode Resources Learn more about how you can improve your results: https://jamessmiley.com. Thanks for Tuning In! Thanks so much for being with us this week. Have some feedback you'd like to share? Please leave a note in the comments section below! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends. Don't forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts to get automatic episode updates for The Money Advantage Podcast! And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get. Please leave a review right now.  Thanks for listening! Success leaves clues.  Model the successful few, not the crowd, and build a life and business you love.

Financial Freedom For Fathers
Are you going to CRUSH your business goals, or keep watching on the sidelines as others zoom past you on the road to success?

Financial Freedom For Fathers

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2020 30:15


It’s time to make a decision...how is your 2020 going to go?Are you going to CRUSH your business goals, or keep watching on the sidelines as others zoom past you on the road to success?I believe in your potential to do great things in the coming year, which is why I'm opening up a limited number of seats at the table to our Business Marketing & Growth Mastermind event!It’s going to be epic! A full day of value-packed learning with your fellow entrepreneurs and business owners from some of the best of the business. You will learn how to:✅ Apply a Value Ladder to your business and build acontinuity program✅ Build a powerful personal brand and grow and monetizeFacebook groups✅ Reach millions of people across the world through yourown branded TV channel on streaming video apps✅ Create a 7-figure funnel for any type of business✅ Make your messaging stand out from the competition✅ Use automation to free up a lot of valuable timeAnd a whole lot more!There is more than a quarter of a BILLION dollars in sales between the speakers.Nearly a BILLION dollars in funded real estate transactions.And that just scratches the surface.Join us in Ft. Worth, TX to learn from some of the best and brightest in the industry including Alan Dean, Blake Nubar, James Smiley, Kim Dang, Melissa Ghrist Ricker Corey Gulick, Akbar Sheikh, Jeromy Kovatana, Jeremy Dean, and Angie Norris.

Virtually Limitless
Interview with James Smiley

Virtually Limitless

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2020 76:37


james smiley
Marketing Nuggets Radio
14 | Using Other People’s Audiences To Fill Your Funnel

Marketing Nuggets Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 31, 2019 13:23


Entrepreneurs just need to be orchestrators, they don’t need to know how to play every instrument. A great example of this is quickly creating a product by compiling information (like Russell Brunson’s 30 Days book). Then reach out to people who already have your customers and ask them to be affiliates for your product. I recently created a book with the help of funnel builders like: James Smiley, Blake Nubar, Kathryn Jones, Josh Forti, Austin Dixon, Akbar Sheikh, Jamie Atkinson, Peter Pru, Daxy Perez, Omar Elattar, Brendan Kelly, and other amazing funnel builders. You can get your copy at http://bit.ly/yourfunnelfiledguide

Become a Fearless Father
This Successful Single Entrepreneur Dad Shares A Ton Of Golden Nuggets - Interview With James Smiley

Become a Fearless Father

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 4, 2019 45:47


Become a fearless father presents: The recording of the interview with Entrepreneurial Dad James Smiley, Founder of Entrepreneur Coaching and Mentoring. 0:00 - What's the key to building a successful business, while staying connected with loved ones? .:.. - Who is James Smiley? In this interview Klaas van Oosterhout had with James Smiley, they talked about: * How To Take Care Of Upcoming Frustration While Around Your Kids; * How To Build A Strong Mindset; * #1 Secret to success in all areas of life; * Attitude; * And much more. Links mentioned by James Smiley: https://www.consultingsecretsbook.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/entrepreneurcoaching https://jamessmiley.org/ Visit us at: https://becomeafearlessfather.com/ https://www.facebook.com/becomeafearlessfather/

Financial Freedom For Fathers
I talk to the KING of B2B digital marketing and passive income expert James Smiley!!$210M in Digital Marketing Sales Before 35 Years Old

Financial Freedom For Fathers

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2019 32:08


Join me as I talk to the KING of B2B digital marketing and passive income expert James Smiley!!- $210M in Digital Marketing Sales Before 35 Years Old- $350M Silicon Valley IPO, With Over 15.5 Million Subscribers- Consulted For 3 Fortune 10 Companies (Facebook, AT&T, Amazon)- 564+ Executives Coached- Trained Over 12,000 B2B Sales Reps- Coached Over 10,000 Solopreneurs- Weekly Social Media Reach - 250,000 Views- Forbes And Yahoo - "Top Under 40 Entrepreneur"- #1 Best Selling Author In All 5 Top Entrepreneur CategoriesPublications such as Yahoo Finance and Fortune 10's such as AT&T, Facebook, and Amazon have rated James as one of the top entrepreneurs under 40.He has led $0 to $20M growth for two different companies, been a part of Silicon Valley SaaS IPO in his 20's, and co-founded an innovation practice at AT&T overseeing 400. resellers and 2000 wholesalersJames has been the behind-the-scenes advisor for over 564 C-level executives and 7-figure entrepreneurs. His primary focus is on rapid revenue growth.James has published 7 books, published over 10,000 videos, and delivered over 600 live speeches.James has also played some college football and is a former Bassmaster pro angler and has fished in the Bassmaster National Championship.James has worked with Robert Herjavec and Kevin Harrington from "Shark Tank."Click below for James' Faceook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/TheRealJamesSmiley?epa=SEARCH_BOXcheck out the mastermind down below www.dfwbusinessmastermind.comJames's Has a great coaching program check it out down belowEntrepreneurCoachingAndMentoring.com.to the most impactful, step-by-step coaching program specifically designed to create 6 and 7 figure Agencies, Consultants, & High Ticket Sellers!mymentorlab.com Financial Freedom For Fathers    https://bit.ly/2Z3mggc

Books, Brands, and Business
BBB3: Interview with James Smiley

Books, Brands, and Business

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 11, 2019 45:24


My guest today is James Smiley. James is a very successful business coach with an impressive list of accomplishments including helping TeleNav IPO, working for AT&T and other huge companies, and working with people like Robert Herjavec and Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank.James recently released a book he co-authored with Steve Larsen and Josh Forti, along with 26 other successful entrepreneurs, called Influence and Income Online. Not only was I one of the co-authors of that book, but my publishing company, JETLAUNCH, was the designer and publisher and helped launch it to an Amazon bestseller in five categories. We even reached 225 overall in the entire Amazon Kindle store, which is pretty awesome. If you want to be part of a tight-knit community of people learning how to make money with their books, join my FB group at jetlaunch.link/group. That’s the best place to ask me questions and get fast answers.For all show notes, links, and transcriptions, just head over to jetlaunch.net/podcast.

Happy Life Studios Podcast
Made In the Shade HL187

Happy Life Studios Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 30, 2019 16:28


Why become UNDONE IN THE SUN when you can have it MADE IN THE SHADE?!? Sometimes the only difference between burn out and chill out is which side of the street you decide to walk down. Thanks again to James Smiley for bringing this episode to us. Check him out at: www.JamesSmiley.com www.Facebook.com/TheRealJamesSmiley www.instagram.com/thejamessmiley/ www.linkedin.com/in/jamessmiley www.youtube.com/channel/UCmF56ot_xR30uyKx0j9XsyQ Then check us out at: www.HappyLife.lol www.Facebook.com/HappyLifeStudios www.Instagram.com/HappyLife_Studios www.Twitter.com/HappyLifStudios www.YouTube.com/StevoHays www.PayPal.me/StevoHays

The Think Different Theory With Josh Forti
123 - Analyzing The Success Of Dan Henry, Steve Larsen, & Rachel Pedersen (With James Smiley)

The Think Different Theory With Josh Forti

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2019 95:13


In this episode, I welcome James Smiley, a leading B2B digital marketing consultant, to talk about what it means to be successful and what it takes to achieve success.We’ll dive into the successes of Dan Henry, Steve Larsen, and Rachel Pederson's to look into how they did it and how we can apply similar principles into our own lives. We’ll also talk about the changes in the economy, automation in the workplace, and so much more.Key Points Discussed:The “presentation of findings” in the dentist industry (03:03)Everybody's an influencer and an expert (10:26)The power of hustle, focus and ultimate sacrifice (21:09)Dan Henry’s “I have to look at you” effect and polarity (25:57)How to know whether you work hard enough (35:01)Building a business is different than building a content based brand (39:56)Automating sales and fulfillment so you can work less in your business (48:07)Every human being should learn how to sell (55:53)Concerns over automation taking over jobs (01:01:13)The amount of money you make equals the size of problem you solve (01:18:45)Additional Resources:Funnel ScriptsInner CircleSelling with Confidencewww.JamesSmiley.comwww.JamesSmiley.orgwww.EntrepreneurCoachingandMentoring.comYou can find the transcripts and more at www.thinkdifferenttheory.com/123--Be sure to follow me on Instagram @joshfortiSubscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or anywhere else you listen to your podcasts.You can find this episode plus all the previous episode here.Be sure to grab a copy of The Mindshift Playbook here.If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

The Solarpreneur
Increase Sales like the PROS (interview with James Smiley)

The Solarpreneur

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2019 67:01


James Smiley is crushing it in the sales world. He is an influencer with a big following for sales people who wanted to crush it in their careers! “Where are the rich people at?” This is the question that lead him to finding and taking the chance for himself. Today, we will learn more about why he became great at what he does. He sold at $17 million at his webinar and he is now training sales people in the B2B world! In this episode, James will drop some bomb truths about getting your prospects accountable. He will also teach you how to make sure that you are clear about what you are talking about. And what to do when your prospect is hanging up! Plus bonus tips on how you can maximize your funnels and understanding the psychology of wants and needs. Have you done any of his tips with your solar sales? What's your favorite part? Let us know! Things mentioned in this episode: Google alerts James Smiley Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessmiley Quotable Quote: You got to be a practitioner at this game and you will be doing great!

The Solarpreneur
Increase Sales like the PROS (interview with James Smiley)

The Solarpreneur

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2019 67:01


James Smiley is crushing it in the sales world. He is an influencer with a big following for sales people who wanted to crush it in their careers! “Where are the rich people at?” This is the question that lead him to finding and taking the chance for himself. Today, we will learn more about why he became great at what he does. He sold at $17 million at his webinar and he is now training sales people in the B2B world! In this episode, James will drop some bomb truths about getting your prospects accountable. He will also teach you how to make sure that you are clear about what you are talking about. And what to do when your prospect is hanging up! Plus bonus tips on how you can maximize your funnels and understanding the psychology of wants and needs. Have you done any of his tips with your solar sales? What's your favorite part? Let us know! Things mentioned in this episode: Google alerts James Smiley Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessmiley Quotable Quote: You got to be a practitioner at this game and you will be doing great!

Sales Funnel Radio
SFR 257: Book Review: Influence And Income Online...

Sales Funnel Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 5, 2019 23:27


Once you know what you sell, your DUTY is to spread your message. This chapter will show you more about my tactics to increase my influence and income online…   I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this publicly….   But before I bootstrapped my way to my first Funneling Live event, I started having conversations with my wife, and all I would focus on was telling her how intimidated I felt...     Nobody knew who I was   I didn't have a list    I’d been doing funnels for other people, but I hadn't learned how to charge yet.    I was still overcoming a lot of money-based objections in my own head.    In all the promos, Russell was saying things like, “You're gonna be around millionaires...”    Immediately, I my mind started thinking, “I Arrgh, 'm outclassed. I can't go perform in this game. There's no way…”   Finally, my wife was like, “Don't tell anybody that you're not a millionaire yet. Who needs to know?”    … and I felt like I had to hide.    BUT LET ME TELL YOU…   First of all, understand, that was the most absolutely wrong mentality that I could have taken, I just didn't know any different.    Second of all, I didn't understand that during those first few years, when I didn’t have influence or income, I was actually in one of the most powerful positions of my entire life. .    INFLUENCE & INCOME ONLINE   Looking around now, I see it a lot of people who (like me) have their own dreams... but as they start to pursue them, they look at the assets, the influence, and the authority of others ahead of them in the game, (and just like I did), they feel:    Disqualified   Unworthy   Outclassed    ...which is one of the reasons I really feel like I understand where the mind of a brand new beginner is -  because I walked the path and it sucks.   I felt VERY outclassed.    But if that’s how you’re feeling at the moment, I want you to understand that…   You don’t need to start with Influence and Income in order to get them.    … I certainly didn’t.   HOWEVER…   The good news is that there are a few simple plays that you can use to help successfully increase both your influence and income where you’re a beginner, or further down the road.   HOW TO BE INFLUENTIAL   So anyway, about eight months ago, I was asked to be a part of this project and because of how long the project took, (I'm not complaining at all, it's just the nature of the project), it took a long time to come to fruition…   … it takes a long time when you're working with the kind of people that are involved in this kind of project.    A lot of the BIG guys have launch calendars with their time planned out for months in advance.   I already have a launch calendar; I know exactly what I'm gonna be promoting in five months from now.    Another Example:   You may not know that the One Funnel Away, 30-Days Book was in the making for like six months, but no one knew…   It’s the same with some other projects that I can't talk to you about… ;-)    But…   The book that I was asked to be a part of, about eight months ago, is called Influence and Income Online…   And the prompt I was given for my chapter was:    What are some of the steps somebody should take to master influence and income online?   I do A LOT of coaching… (the One Funnel Away, Two Comma Club X, OfferLab, and OfferMind)… and *that* question actually comes up frequently.   DO YOU HAVE THIS FALSE BELIEF?   One of the most common false beliefs  out there is that:   “ Stephen, no one will buy from me because I don't have any following. I have no influence or no authority on the internet.”    And I got to tell you, ...that's just a completely false statement.    You have to understand that three and a half/ four years ago, no one knew who I was…   *NOBODY*   I haven’t even graduated from college when I went to that first FHL…    Then I started working for Russell... and still, nobody knew who I was for a little while.    And that's okay - that's a part of the game.    That’s why I tell everyone to ‘freakin’ publish’ - because it gives you instant authority.    So anyway, I wrote this super thick, incredibly juicy chapter to answer the question of how you get influence and income   I write for a lot of books now. I actually love writing.    You guys may not know, but I was actually the head editor of the yearbook in high school, and I got three Colorado State Awards for my layout designs.    I was NOT a writer, but I did a lot of layout design.    I've always liked writing about the topics that I like to write about, but I HATE writing about topics that I don't like.    Which might sound, “ Duh- obvious!” but I didn't do very well with papers in school because I was like, “I freaking hate this.”    But when I'm really passionate about the topic, I actually love to write.  If you’ve read my chapter for the 30-Days Book, I really enjoyed writing that, (and there are others in the works)...    Moving on…. Uh, *AWKWARD MOMENT*...     I can't tell you the other things coming up, but I can tell you about this!    THE INFLUENCE & INCOME ONLINE FORMULA   In Influence and Income Online, 30 Millennial Millionaires were asked to write a chapter … (a.k.a people who have done a million in their business, who are millennials).    Before anyone who's a baby boomer says, “What can you guys teach me?”   … the proof's in the pudding, man.     There is a formula to getting influence on the internet.    ...and that's what I talk about in my chapter:   I geek out about formulas, and it's because I don't like flash in the pan strategies.    About year and a half ago, I was asked to speak at an  event - I'm not throwing rocks, but the whole theme was strategies to help create HUGE authority in business.    And I think I offended a lot of people because I stood up and said:     “Hey, you know what's interesting about getting authority on the internet? It doesn't matter for a long time.    In fact, it has very little to do with your sales - FOREVER.    Don't focus on getting authority upfront, go focus on providing value. Go focus on providing a really cool solution to a problem and authority naturally comes.”   What I go through in my chapter is a formula - a very easy three steps that I just continue to rinse and repeat so that my authority (I feel weird saying that), increases.    I truly believe that if you just want to know the formulas that create influence and income on the internet, it's not that hard.   I call them axioms….    There are three separate axioms you can go through that enable you to harness some influence on the internet.        Some of them you can probably guess, but some of them you won't - so I'm excited about this chapter.    It's a legit book; it's NOT a pamphlet.    I wrote an actual pretty thick chapter there and I think you’ll really find what I put in there to be helpful.    One of the axioms is to publish but besides that…    What else do you do?    How else do you actually use what you have and the assets you've been given to your advantage?   ...what I share with you in that chapter are some of the reasons I've been able to do EVERYTHING I have in the past four short years.    I mean, I've only been gone from my job barely a year -  it's literally NOT even a year and a half yet as I record this.    *That's saying something*    There are hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs who in the middle of their nine to five and doing things on the side…    What is it that's massive eyeball Steve Larsen did and figured out to kind of hack the game?    That's exactly what this chapter teaches you.    I had someone reach out and say, “Stephen, you give so much away in your podcast. Why should I ever buy any of your stuff?”    Well let me be very frank and clear with you; I’m NOT giving it ALL away on the podcast, but I’ve got really good crap, so the little bit that I do give away is still really awesome…   Sooo…   *GO GET THE BOOK*.    “Stephen, are you pressuring us?”        YEAH, YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!    Dang straight, I am... because I know that this chapter can really, really help you implement what I share.    RAIDING THE COOKIE JAR   One of my favorite people to follow is David Goggins...   I LOOOVE David Goggins.    He's very tough to listen to, and he swears like crazy, so if words offend you, don't follow him.    One of the things he talks about in his ideology/ methodology is concept of ‘The Cookie Jar.’    The concept is that ‘anything that I go through in my life that’s tough is actually a cookie for the future.’    So when I'm about to go through something that's very challenging and intense, I will look back and go to my ‘cookie jar…’     You probably don't know, but I get actually really nervous when I'm about to get on stage, (it might shock you and surprise you to hear that).     I love it, it's where I want to be, but I still have a hard time. Steve killed Stephen, but sometimes, I'm just naturally Stephen:    How did I become somebody who's new?    How did I kill the old self and become/ craft and design somebody who's new?    The Three Axioms that I talk about in my chapter are literally the mechanisms that I use that helped me gain influence and then afterwards, income on the internet.    Sometimes you just gotta cut the mental crap and do the thing!   You've got to be willing to do things and NOT get paid for them for a little while, and that's okay.    The MASSIVE payouts come a little bit later.    ...but so many people are like, “Well, how is this gonna help me immediately?”    It may NOT for awhile - *SUCK IT UP*   Keep doing the things, and after a while, it's like that quote from The Titans, “just like Novocaine, works every time, just takes a little time,” whatever the quote is...    So I created a cookie jar, to remind me of the tough things I went through and when I'm about to go do things that are more challenging, I'm like “Oh man, just do it.”   GETTING OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY   In my content and coaching, I talk a lot about:    Strategies   Methodologies   Marketing    Launch campaigns   ...all those are great, but...    If you can't even do the stuff because there’s crap in your head that's holding you back - stop studying strategies.        It's time for you to sit back  and do a little bit of self-work and ask:      “Why am I so freaked out?        Is there some experience that I've had in my history that is keeping me from behaving as one who would get influence naturally?”      There's a lot of you out there that follow me, (and I appreciate you doing that), who are gonna sit back and say, “Stephen I know that strategy, I've heard you say that before...”    But if you’re your wallet's still thin you need to get introspective. This game has very little to do with what's the next method and strategy. I run the same five plays day after day... it's the same thing and it makes money.    But I had to do A LOT of self-work in order to actually qualify to pull off those methods, those frameworks, those patterns; those football plays, as I think of them.    So I'm excited for you guys to get this chapter.    And when you read it, some of you might be temped to discredit it. DON’T!    Instead of saying,“Yeah, right,”  ask:   What if there's a chance that these strategies could actually work for me?    They're NOT hard, but they're scary.    So I challenge you to go learn them, and while you confront them for the first time in your life, here's the challenge…    I want you to sit back and think to yourself, “What’s my knee jerk reaction right now?”    Because if it's anything other than, Whew, let's go get 'em,” what is it? That's important.    It shows you what the hangup is in your brain.    So when you look at these strategies, it's just like three things I just continue to do…    It's like five strategies marketing-wise,( acts of marketing), that I just keep continuing to do and our income is going up 10% a month - which is ridiculous growth.   I just do the same thing over and over again.     Here's a little moment of tough love because I care about you because you have all this negative talk.    It's this negative feedback loop and you're looking for reasons in your history that disqualify you from moving forward.  So go get the book on Amazon, and as you move through the chapter, write dow what comes up for you.   I've noticed that the entrepreneurs that actually make it and succeed in this game are very, very introspective.    It would probably shock most of you to realize that probably only half of the time the people who get up and share at  Russell's Inner Circle are talking about strategies, the rest of the time, we all go through our internal struggles...   We all go through it!    It's the negative crap in the head that we all have to get over   You understand?   HEAD JUNK    This is such a key thing that Russell Brunson actually hired a specific coach to help the inner circle with their own junk in their head.    Seriously, there is a dedicated coach who studied under the foot of Tony Robbins himself, she's amazing. She's super, super good. Her name is Mandy Keene - she’s incredible.    But you understand how big of a deal this is?    Russell's teaching the strategies but he's like, “I need somebody who's gonna come in and help work on their brains.”    He actually hired somebody while I was still working over there.    He hired a specific individual who is a master at helping people overcome the junk in their head.    What does that tell you?    If you've been focusing only and solely on these strategies, that's great to know them, but I was doing that too…    ...and after two years, I was on try number six of 17, I was doing the same thing.    I knew all these strategies, I knew how to run 'em, but the thing I was running into was my mental crap.    I hate saying the phrase mindset because it's such a fluffy, crappy phrase now, and we all use it in such weird ways.    “What's your mindset?”... and it goes to woo-woo land. I hate that crap, but there is something to it.    And if you've not taken a moment to sit back and go, “Okay, what is it that's actually keeping me back, because it's not the strategies?”    It’s no longer, “Oh I hope someone's gonna go make that tool.” That time and season are over.    All the tools, all the strategies, regardless of product, price point, industry, regardless of if you sell on the internet or off the internet, the crap is here:   The systems    The tools   The people   The processes   … all the stuff that you need is here.    I still don't know how to drive Facebook ads. I don't need to know.    I don't need to know how to be a coder.    I don't need to know how to do all the things that my content team does - I don't.    I don't know how to do most of the things that my business does.   … and that's important to realize and understand.    So what is my role?    It comes down to what I talk about in this chapter:   Influence   Income    Do you need influence to have income? No. Does it help? Yes.    Of course, it helps.    So where do you start if you have no influence?    What do you need to be doing if you have influence?   How do you generate income?    That is what my chapter goes through and that's what I'm excited to teach to you guys.    This is very, very important.    You have to understand, from my position, I have a very unique set of eyes. I've coached 25,000 people personally in this game now - that's not a joke..    Why do you think so many washout?    It has nothing to do with the models.    It's got nothing to do with how it should work for me.    “Stephen, my business is different.” NO!    It has everything to do with your ability to actually execute.    And when I say that, there are things that keep you held back…   Are you sprinting at executing the models?    If you're not, that's exactly what I'm talking about...    And if you are executing, there are things you can do to leverage your time, so you're not spending a ton of time gaining more influence.    You still get influence... but not with tons of your own time.    That's the point of the chapter.    And you're not just gonna hear it from me, you're gonna hear it from 29 other amazing gurus, like Josh Forti and James Smiley, who also answer the question:    How do you actually get influence and income online?    So I'm excited for you guys to have it. Swipe up, swipe down, wherever it is, above this video, down below this video, at the end of the video, and go get the chapter.    It's NOT expensive, but the information is very, very amazing.    How many new books do you think I get on a daily basis here?   It's at least three or four books a day. I buy a lot of information.   WHAT’S IT WORTH TO YOU?    This has actually happened multiple times, one of my friends, probably four or five years ago, said, “   “Stephen, how are you doing all of this thing on the internet?”    (This was right about the time I started actually having success for other clients.)    I said, “Dude, you've got to go get this book. It's called Expert Secrets, it's amazing.    And he goes to expertsecrets.com, and he's like, “This looks like it's a scammer man, I don't know. I don't think this is actually gonna be a thing. $7.95, I don't know if I'm willing to pay that for the book.”    And I was like, “What! You know me. What is wrong with you?”    About a month later, he reaches back out and he goes, “Dude, seriously, how are you doing this stuff?”    I said, “Go buy the book.”   He goes, “I went back there, dude. It looks like it's a scammer. I don't know, it's a scamming site. $7.95, I don't think I'm willing to part with that for a book.”    I was like: “You're not willing to risk $7.95 to have passive income that exceeds what your job pays you and all the expenses in your life? Don't buy the book. I disqualify you. Are you kidding me?”   And it ended that way, and he's still never bought the book.    I had other buddies that went and bought it and now they have these businesses that they left their jobs and they do it full-time. Now they've got teams…   So it's just so funny to me…   Buy the freaking book, it's a few bucks -  it's called Influence and Income - I'm excited for you to have the chapter.    Click the link at the end, go to the link that's at the end, swipe up, again get the book - this one's worth your time.    Hey, you want the worst marketing advice on the planet?    “If you build it, they will come.”    Barf! Such a lie.    You still need to get attention, no matter how good your product is, right.    A major benefit of this funnel and offer game is your influence and income will grow over time.    So more time in, more offers, more funnels - they all add to the future success of the product.    But what about in the meantime?    In my personal belief, seeking influence for the sake of it, for the sake of just becoming an authority figure, it's kind of dumb and I make fun of it.    But once you have a product that you know adds value, you owe it to your future customers to create buzz.    If you want to see three simple moves I make over and over and over to increase my personal reach and influence; I just wrote a chapter in a new book on Amazon called Influence and Income.    Literally, go to influenceandincome.online and it'll take you straight there.    Recently a man walked up to me after an event and basically said:  “Stephen, not to make you feel weird but a year ago, if you'd have been a little bit louder with what you really do and found ways to push your message further, I don't think I'd be in the mess I'm in right now.”    OUCH!    Guys, learn how to increase your influence for good and check out my new chapter in the book Influence and Income by literally going to influenceandincome.online now.

Story Therapy | Modern Brand Storytelling and Marketing
Entrepreneur Coaching and Mentoring with James Smiley

Story Therapy | Modern Brand Storytelling and Marketing

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2019 48:01


The one and only James Smiley is featured on the show today!   Learn more about James...   "Most Entrepreneurs Struggle Making Money Online Quickly, That's Why I Give You A Plug-N-Play System And Personalize Coaching, So Revenue Comes In Fast And You Can Live The Life You've Always Wanted.     James has been recognized as one of the most innovative and in-demand entrepreneurs under 40. He has led $0 to $20M growth for two different companies, been a part of a Silicon Valley SaaS IPO, and consulted for 3 of the Fortune 10.     James has been the behind-the-scenes paid advisor to over 560 executives & entrepreneurs. His primary specialty is helping entrepreneurs with rapid revenue acceleration by leveraging online automations and his proprietary digital marketing systems.     James has published 7 books, recorded 1000s of videos and podcasts, trained over 12,000 B2B sales reps, delivered 600+ speeches, and sold over $210M before the age of 35.    He played some college football and is a former ESPN Bassmaster pro angler and fished in the Bassmaster National Championship."   https://jamessmiley.org   Join our community to be the first updated on new content: >> https://www.facebook.com/groups/storysellers  

Healthy Funnel Podcast
#15 - How To Leverage Social Media For Small Business Owners with James Smiley

Healthy Funnel Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 11, 2019 52:49


In this amazing episode, we sat down with Fortune 10 Company Consultant and Entrepreneur, James Smiley. We dive into a lot of goodies in this one. James shares his story of getting into business and lessons learned along with tactical advice for small business owners on how they should be using social media to grow their businesses. From his website, jamessmiley.org, "James has been recognized as one of the most innovative and in-demand entrepreneurs under 40. He has led $0 to $20M growth for two different companies, been a part of a Silicon Valley SaaS IPO, and consulted for 3 of the Fortune 10. James has been the behind-the-scenes advisor to over 550 executives & entrepreneurs. His primary specialty is helping entrepreneurs with rapid revenue acceleration by leveraging online automations and his proprietary digital marketing systems."

Grow Your Non-Profit: Marketing and Technology
How to Get Attention with James Smiley

Grow Your Non-Profit: Marketing and Technology

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2019 45:25


get attention james smiley
Sales Funnel Radio
SFR 204: The Death Of Stephen...

Sales Funnel Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 1, 2019 30:08


  "sales letter" "then vs now" "get out of your own way" the attractive character   Ironically, the only real way to "know thyself", is to continually "sculpt thyself"... ...Don’t worry, I’m still here.   I did kinda die, but only in a metaphorical way so that I could birth my attractive character - and create a then vs now sales letter story to sell my upcoming Mastermind with James Smiley and Rachel Pederson. Here’s how I announced my death on Facebook:   … it was an attention-grabbing way to tell my audience about the Mastermind that’s gonna be happening the day before Funnel Hacking Live on Feb,18th in Nashville, Tennessee.   I didn’t just blast an email out to everybody saying, “Hey, I’ve got this mastermind. You wanna come? Click the link."   ...Because that's the easiest way to promote like an idiot. It’s annoying and not at all entertaining.   Selling is much show business as it is anything else.   When I see somebody promoting their stuff by saying; ”Here's the link, Just buy. Click, click, click, click, click!” I don't want to buy. I HATE that crap. If I don't see that from somebody it makes me wanna buy without even knowing what it is  - because they get it. I get asked all the time, "Stephen, what's the one thing people can focus on to be a good funnel builder?"  My answer is always: “TELL STORIES.” Quite often it doesn’t sink in, and they ask again, "No, no, no. I mean funnel building. I'm talking about ClickFunnels editor stuff!"  I'm like, "Yeah, storytelling..."     I'm telling you right now. the editor is so freaking easy. If you can't sort the editor out, you probably shouldn't be on the internet.The ClickFunnels editor is so simple. That's NOT where people struggle. Take it from the dude who’s coached thousands of people in this. People don't struggle with funnels because of ClickFunnels. People struggle with funnels because they have no idea how to sell and they have no idea what makes a sale happen...HOW TO LOSE A SALE The day after OfferMind, I had a cool opportunity to train the new speaker team for ClickFunnels. The biggest thing I helped them realize was that the thing that will screw your chances of a sale up is believing that the sale depends on how well you know ClickFunnels; what it integrates with and all the features.   The quickest way to NO SALES. If you’re mentioning your product a lot, my guess is that you're focusing on the features of your product. #You’re selling with the wrong script. In fact, you're probably not using a script. People will fight you on features, so instead, you need to cause an emotional epiphany in your potential buyer's brain. So now, I want you to start thinking about what you're doing when you sell... "Do you actually know what causes the sale? And can you craft a sales letter that helps you to close your sale instead of hindering it?"   One thing you’ll notice as I go through my sales letter is how little I actually mention the actual mastermind. I don’t talk about:   Who’s speaking first   How long they're gonna talk   Scheduling   The time of the event   The exact location     ....because the sale always happens without too much focus on the actual product. GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAYIf you guys are ever in a pinch and have to write a script fast, then the script that I followed was the "then vs now theme."  It took me about two hours to write my story - which is pretty standard if you're gonna cover all the stuff...Honestly, there are some things I would change, but it's good enough. And it's good enough because I used the Epiphany Bridge script.   I want you to understand that making money has nothing to do with how well you know the thing you're selling. It has everything to do with the script itself and the emotional connection it creates.   The sales message is where you make the money.   I love the webinar script... I use it for all kinds of selling.   There's a crucial part right at the beginning of the webinar script which I call the two introductions: First of all, we need to introduce the subject, and then you need to introduce yourself as the speaker.   These introductions are NOT always:   At the beginning   Together   In the same order   But, at some point, you have to say:   "Hey, this is who I am."       “This is the topic.”   Every once in a while I've seen scripts where people combine the two introductions - and that’s totally fine.   After you’ve done the two introductions, you can use the “then vs now” method. It's one of my favorite themes inside of any sales script, and it's one of my favorite ways to tell a story. I used a similar strategy to the one I described when I revealed how I win affiliate contests - because, frankly, it works!   My strategy comes in two parts:     I'll write a massive Facebook post - which proves to the Facebook algorithm that it's actually worth something and people are gonna have some opinions - so they'll work a little harder to share it. I make sure I use a cool like feature image (see above).   Then take that post and turn it into an email with the same call to action.  I don't push to Facebook. I just push to the same CTA. ClickFunnels lets you use all kinds of emojis and stuff like that in the emails - so I use those too.   … So now, let me show you how I used the “then vs now script” to write that sales letter for my latest mastermind. HOW TO WRITE A NON SUCKY SALES LETTER So the first thing I need to do: If you're scrolling through Facebook,  you're trying to get a dopamine hit and distract yourself... So I'm gonna do a serious injustice to my cause if I don't let you be distracted. So I'm gonna do my best to grab your attention… (and this works for email subject lines too):     It's the first thing you're gonna see… and then there's skull and crossbones emoji right there, and it says;   ...Right up at the top, it says, "Mastermind." So you click right there, it'll bring you straight there.(We're capping the event at 100 people, just tellin' you. It was half full a few weeks ago - so I don't know if there’ll be any place let now. That's not a scarcity play I'm just lettin’ you know the score…)   ...Now I’m gonna paint some ‘thens’:   I don't know if you know this about me, but this is all true stuff …   I'm just gonna be raw and tell you, I would go home and wonder, "What the heck am I good at?" I've learned that a lot of entrepreneurs actually struggle this same question.   As entrepreneurs, we're often very good at putting teams together and leading and organizing people… but that's a hard talent to leverage in a fifth-grade playground...     It can be challenging growing up.. or even into early adulthood, trying to figure out what the heck you're good at?  So just know, you're not alone. Then, I put a whole bunch of stars in a row - so I can break the pattern: This is literally a then vs now statement: "Stephen WAS all of those things, but Steve is NONE of them."   Next, I go FULL ON in the NOW:     BECOMING AN ATTRACTIVE CHARACTERSteve is a freak of nature who is uncommon amongst uncommon people.   Some people reach out and ask, "Stephen, you're about to go speak on stage, are you nervous?"   Of course, I'm freaking nervous, come on. Yeah, I'll get nervous, of course, I do. You have to understand,  I've created Steve. It's a separate persona that I totally step into. I'm not always in that persona, but I've learned that persona.     The attractive character in my business is me - but it was not a natural attractive character.I'm trying to help you understand that you can craft your own attractive character. The Attractive Character is not something you need to step into the business already knowing. I almost never see that. I see entrepreneurs who:   Still sucks at talking   Do not know how to lead   Have no polarity, and are afraid to show real opinions. I'm showing you how I wrote a then vs now script, but I'm also helping you to understand that you can develop a new you.   BUT WHAT ABOUT THE HATERS?     Steve almost welcomes the haters and their mud so he can laugh in their face, stare in their eyes, and steal their soul. ... that line goes through my head a lot.   Haters used to bother me a lot. I was like  like "Oh crap, another hater I gotta go deal." It's not true at all anymore though.   I love David Goggins. He swears like a freaking animal. If you're offended by swearing, Do not listen to him -  but he talks about that concept a lot.   THE DAY THAT STEVE KILLED STEPHEN I hate pop culture songs that sing about how life’s a pity party: ‘I loved you, and then you changed.’ I'm like that is the stupidest song I've ever heard in my entire life.   Of course, they changed after you fell in love. It's life. If that's not how it's supposed to be -  we'd all still be wearing diapers and drinking out of a bottle.   Most of the time when someone feels a lack of progression in their life it's literally because they‘re doing everything they can to keep themselves from changing because they're afraid of what's gonna happen next. Life is change. Don't fight it....And what's cool is the person who wins is the person who leans into that change and steps forward and says, "You know, what, I'm totally cool. I don't know how to build a funnel. I don't know how to podcast. I don't know how to be the attractive character, but I'm willing to suck.”   ...That’s the person I love to work with.   REAL TALK WITH STEVE LARSEN These were the conversations going on in my head. I think it's stupid we make fun of people that talk to themselves. I talk to myself all the time.     Every time success has required their rebirth.   Let that sink in. It's a true statement, my friends. That's a huge deal. Read it again.   I always thought I'd be coaching people on marketing tactics. We all did when I started the Two Comma Club coaching program as the coach, but I don't get much of a chance to teach marketing because I need to help people rebuild their brain and their relationship with themselves. MAKE IT HARD, COACH   I know 100% that one of the major reasons why I am standing in front of the camera right here filming this for you is because of my mentality. When I walked in to ClickFunnels, was very much like, "Dude, Russell, give me your hardest thing. Your hardest thing. What is your hardest thing today? Give it to me." I remember the first few times, I think it was kind of awkward for him because it's not a normal mentality. Employees do not ask their employers that question. I say, "No, I'm serious man. What's the thing you are least looking forward to today?" And he would look through his list of tasks, and hand me his hardest task that day. ...And that meant the possibility of failure - which that happened a few times. But man, it's like such a better way to approach life. So if you're still working for somebody else, don't be, no pity party. Instead, start asking your employers, "Give me the hardest task you've got." Just for the sake of the growth.   Wanna here the awesome quote I came up with in the shower (total transparency here ;-))   Ironically the only way to know thyself is to sculpt thyself. A lot of you just don't qualify yet to deliver the thing you're trying to do, meaning the market's not gonna believe you. You haven't sculpted enough. You haven't created yourself enough. You need to get real and raw.   ...like I said, this is *Real Talk* with Steve Larsen ;-)   As soon as you get real, and you're willing to take on a new challenge that you don't quite understand how to do. There’s an emboldening that happens inside of your soul. Your mind expands and you become a new you. You become more of who you already are.     It's really cool, I love watching it. It's one of my reasons why I do what I do still.   Here’s what I wrote next… Let me give you an example…   I just got asked to do another project. I'm not allowed to talk about it yet, but I have to admit, I'm a little bit stressed out about it. It's due in three weeks, and I don't actually know how I'm gonna pull it off. But I know I will. I just haven't wrapped my brain around it yet. But when opportunities like that pop-up, I know that they’ll make me grow… so I say “Yes.” Today, a multi-hundred millionaire reached out and asked me to do some stuff. I've been expecting the call, and I've been working the relationship. I knew it was coming up and I knew I needed to say yes. But I'm not gonna lie; I'm not actually equipped to do some of the things that he was asking for  - so I'm building an internal funnel agency to build my own projects. I'm trying to answer the question, "How can I increase my speed right now?" I don't know the answer to that, and I'm okay with that. Welcome to entrepreneurship. Welcome to growth. Welcome to growth that's so customized that it changes you. That's why I love the game so much. I'm going back to the script here… ...And all these people commented #ANewMe. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. EMOTIONAL SELLING ...so did you notice how little I actually talked about the detail of the event itself?   I don’t talk about:   Who’s speaking   Scheduling   The time of the event   The exact location   … I don’t talk about any of that stuff ... That stuff matters like way down the road. Instead, I got raw. I got real. I wrote this from the heart.   I really am the least likely success story. If I’d come from another angle, and said, "Yeah, come learn from me." There’s an audience that appreciates and wants that…   But I’ve found that most people who are just starting out or who haven’t had success in the game yet - don't want that. It actually stresses the crap out of them, freaks them out. And frankly, that's not my personality…   So a 'then vs a now' script based around my personality is a great way to connect emotionally.   I build a story and craft an emotion to help you realize that I'm just a few steps ahead a lot of people on this journey. I understand where people are on the path, and I build that connection and rapport with the script.   There's a lot of angles you can use as stories, and Dot Com Secrets talks a lot about those different angles and stories you can use in your attractive character in your storylines. I am the crusader attractive character type.   If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you gotta go read Dot Com Secrets and  ExpertSecrets to find out what I'm talking about as far as the script writing style. I wouldn’t say I'm like a pro sales letter writer, but I know enough about what makes things sell to let me work quickly and seamlessly this past year. Until Next Time -  Remember, the only real way to know thyself is to continually sculpt thyself. If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot - that's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies also, right? That's also good. But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them, right? That's also what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula. So I created a special Mastermind called an OfferMind to get you on track with the right offer and more importantly the right sales script to get it off the ground and sell it. Wanna come?   They're small groups on purpose so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days. You can hold your spot by going to offermind.com. Again, that's offermind.co  

ClickFunnels Radio
Contributing Your Way Into the Networking Big Leagues - James Smiley - FHR #294

ClickFunnels Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 11, 2018 32:53


Why Dave Decided to talk to James Smiley: James reached out to Dave recently and asked if he could do this second podcast with him because of all the things he’s had the opportunity he’s been accomplishing. The best part about it all is that most of what he wants to talk about is the little things everybody easily forgets that makes the biggest difference. Networking happens to be one of those things. James has found he does better than most people because of the QUALITY of the relationships he builds through something he’s always focused on: contribution. Tips and Tricks for You and Your Business: (2:48) The systems for high leverage (4:10) “Contribute” from James Smiley’s perspective (6:30) The Highest Leverage Move comes from using other people with contribution in mind (10:54) James Funnel Hacked his way onto Russell’s radar. Who’s radar do you want to find yourself on? (12:44) Your webpage should highlight exactly what your dream client is looking for, get those stats on there. (15:02) Selling Kevin Harrington when he only gives you 11 minutes (16:20) Network to Network (19:00) Who’s the gatekeeper to your networking (21:38) Network with those you know you are able to contribute to (24:54) Understand how the person you want to meet with thinks (28:00) The Long-Term Play Quotable Moments: (2:22) “What I’ve noticed through life, whether it’s through working with sales, working with sales teams, or helping solopreneurs is there’s a way to create leverage, extremely high leverage,  and it’s a system.” (6:54) “So you can see, if you don’t start thinking about the word ‘contribute’ but you start thinking about using other people’s platform or money, the whole system doesn’t work.” (13:24) “There’s a lot of little things like that which I started doing. And you know you never really know if anybody is seeing it, but chances are if you’re doing the right thing they’re going to take a peak at you.” (16:10) “‘I’ve seen your videos and I like it’, those little phrases show me that my little personal branding and marketing out there synergized with him. So it allowed the conversation to move forward because he had more trust with me.” (20:57) “You have to be on point, like when they look at your stuff would they think ‘James is one of us’?” (22:48) “Networking to network is incredibly huge, especially if you figure out how do I honestly contribute” (30:07) “If you contribute to people in the right way, the relationships and all the things that happen, you can take over your Dream 100 in a way that you never thought possible.” Other Tidbits: A quote from our dear James Smiley, “IF YOU’RE NOT USING CLICKFUNNELS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?” If your main goal is to make money off of somebody and not improve their lives, business, relationships, health, etc. then they’re going to find out. Once they find out, they’ll find somebody else sooner or later. Tony Robbins, Russell Brunson, James Smiley, and all these other people have 24 hours in their day just like the rest of us. What they’ve done differently though is they’ve found out how to leverage their time to “hockey stick” up. Get the numbers to make yourself “one of us”. You must contribute sincerely for any form of networking to have a lasting effect. Important Links: www.JamesSmiley.comFunnelHackerRadio.com FunnelHackerRadio.com/freetrial FunnelHackerRadio.com/dreamcar ---Transcript--- Speaker 1:     00:00       Welcome to funnel hacker radio podcast, where we go behind the scenes and uncover the tactics and strategies top entrepreneurs are using to make more sales, dominate their markets, and how you can get those same results. Here's your host, Dave Woodward. Everybody. Welcome back to funnel hacker Speaker 2:     00:18       radio. This is going to be a ride of your life guys, because I have the opportunity having the one and only Mr James Smiley back on the show. James, welcome to the show again. Woo. What's up? I am so excited. So for those of you guys don't may not know James Out. We did a podcast a while back and I want to make sure you understand this is a guy who's been around for a long time in this whole digital marketing space. He's done over $210 million dollars in digital marketing. I actually in his early twenties, actually I IPO to SAS company, which is super, super cool. Something I have yet to do and has worked with three of the fortune 10 companies. This guy basically knows what he's talking about and he approached me and said, you know, Dave, we did this awesome podcast awhile back, but I've done all these cool things recently and I want to talk about some of the stuff way back when that everyone's already forgotten about and I thought, I love all the deep dark secrets of things that people have forgotten about. So with all that said, James, take us away and let's just see where this is going to go today. Speaker 3:     01:10       Awesome man. Well, I appreciate you. Appreciate Click funnels. If you're not using click funnels, what are you doing? So, um, we ever since it came out, we've moved everything there and it's just been awesome. Appreciate you, appreciate the community and all you guys and gals out there and everything that's going on in the funnel hacker world. So, um, but yeah, you know, one of the things that I've been sharing with our coaching students, you know, we've been super fortunate or blessed or everyone to call it to. We brought on a hundred and three students since me and you last talked, I think it was an August of last year, around the 2017, um, and we do a 15,000 and $5,000. We did a hundred and three students and one of the biggest things that people have been wanting to know and, and it is like how do I get, how do I, how do. Speaker 3:     02:01       Because like, like in business, you know, you, like you have people who have like regular acceleration, right? They just like if you were to graph it, they have a gradual growth or maybe it's like staggered up and down lows and highs. But then there's like those hockey stick moments, right? Where like somebody goes from where they're at and the hockey stick way up and then they plateau and then the hockey stick again. And so what I've noticed through life, whether it was sells, uh, working my own sales teams, running, running with a big company or helping solo preneurs is um, there's a way to create high leverage, like, like extremely high leverage. Um, and it's a system that I really, to be totally honest, I learned it from chat from Chet Holmes who started the dream 100 stuff. And this was a system that he, uh, talked about in, in a VIP session that I was at a, um, I was at a thing with Tony Robbins in chat. I want to say it was like 2013 or 2004. And um, and I learned this, but he's like, this is so, so good that I don't publish this because people can really take it the wrong way. And so, uh, so I wanted to share, Speaker 2:     03:13       have to understand, we talked a lot about dream 100 and even just don't understand the depth of dream 100. It's so much more than just creating a list and send them out a package. So much deeper than that. And Russell spent a whole bunch of time at our traffic secrets course that we did in October down in Phoenix and just blew everyone's mind. And that's why when you were talking to me about this whole idea of, of it being used for good as well as for evil, it truly, truly is and can be. So with that caveat, I want to make sure you guys understand when we're talking about this, we assume that you guys are gonna use this for good and that you're not going to turn this around and uh, destroy people's lives with it. But with that, I really want to kind of dive in. Jane's really kind of go into this whole idea as far as contributing. I know that was one thing that we were talking about. What exactly does that really, really mean from your eyes? Speaker 3:     04:00       So this was back in a chalkboard day. There wasn't whiteboards. And so, um, uh, Chad had wrote the word contribute. He said everything I'm going to now for the next hours, if you don't understand this word, you're going to screw up everything I'm going to tell you because people are going to realize at some point you're taking advantage of them. And when they realize that everything you just did is going to come crashing down on me and then the rebuild, that reputation could take you years, you know, or you may never be able to recover from that. And so, um, so he really, he sat us down and he said, I want you to think about, do you actually have the best intentions for the other person before you do anything before you contact them for you, follow any of this stuff if you don't, if your main goal is to make money, he goes, I promise you this is not gonna work. Speaker 3:     04:52       And it may work on one person, but he goes, eventually it's gonna catch up with you. And when somebody realizes you're taking advantage of them, it's over. And so he really, Harper was work contribute. And that's where this whole system starts with what I teach our coaching students. I'm glad to share this with everyone out there that like what I'm about to share with you, if you don't have that, that, that mindset of like, I want to do this to help someone else more than helping me. Right? Like if, if I can't find that gratitude, like even in this, you know, like, like I reached out to you, um, and I'm using the same process I'm going to share, you're going to see like I'm using the same process, but in my heart I'm like, if I can't, if I don't have complete gratitude, like in me just being able to network with Dave, help his community, how, you know, like if I can't contribute into your world from a pure perspective than everything that I'm doing is going to come crashing down, you know. Speaker 3:     05:52       And so, um, so that's really where this whole starts out is, you know, really focusing on contributing to people. Okay. So that's kind of, there's really a five step system. Um, and so I can just run through those real quick. Is that the awesome? Yeah. Okay. So number one is contributed. So you got to think about like how you come up with your dream 100 lists, all the standard stuff that Russell talks about in his book and all that stuff. Like, like come up with your dream list. Okay. Then then you think, okay, like how do I carve out a few of these people in like, like the most strategic ones, the ones that I can get the highest leverage move. And so I'm just a side note. A lot of people say, well, what is the highest leverage move means basically highest levers. Move means how do you, how do you use other people's stuff? Speaker 3:     06:33       So I called P. A lot of people are opm, other people's money, opt other people's time. But you've got to think more but more. Okay. You can use other people's data, you can use other people's relationships, you can use other people's platforms, you can use other people's intellectual property. You like infinite, right? Um, and so, so, so you can see how like if you don't start thinking about the word contribute, but then you start thinking, how do I use other people's platform or how to use other people's money. Like the whole system becomes warped, right? It becomes about me, about, you know, um, and, and I'm not actually adding value into the community. And so, um, so like, like the, the way that I've seen people get real hockey stick growth, whether it was a company, a sells startup, whatever is they figure out how do I create the highest leverage move with my time or, or with, uh, with, with, with my investment or with whatever, with whatever the asset is. Speaker 3:     07:36       And so I'm like, if I were to go out today, uh, like you, you and I both know, like, like, uh, me, you, Russell, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tony Robbins, we all have the same amount of time. We all have the same amount of, of like no one had 35 hours today. Everyone had the same, you know, 10, 12, 15 hours to work. Like we all had the same amount of time. The only thing is some people figured out how to create more leverage with their time. Right? And to me that is like the true essence of d, 100. It's like how do you create more leverage with your time? And so typically it's using other people's whatever, right? Other people's time, money, network, email list, facebook page, podcast, a coaching group, whatever. And uh, and then in return, like, you know, like, like you're helping them, they're helping you. Speaker 3:     08:27       Okay. So number one contributed to the number two thing that chat started showing us and I've summarized it up into this is okay. So like if I carve out like 10 people that I want to talk to that I really need to network with. Okay. So like, let me just be totally honest here. Okay. I could say Russel, I could say, um, there's some people on Shark tank that I wanted to get ahold of. There's some people, you know, there's, there's some key individuals, right? So, okay. So the first thing I need to do is actually write out like how can I actually contribute into Russell's world? I literally did this a couple years ago. I was like, okay, like what could I do to be different? Like, how can I contribute to him versus like, you know, every time I see him, like, hey man, I got this thing, I got this idea, you know, and you know what man, like if we just partnered up, I give you 50 slash 50 men, you know, and I'm like, come on now like how many people are or be one of those people who's like, you know what, me and my product is so good. Speaker 3:     09:22       Russell. Like if I just got sales I would be good. It's like you just like, I can't, you know what I mean? Like you can't believe it is. I literally got an email from a guy who's actually has a lot of fame, uh, people would know him and you'll be at funnel hacking live and everything else. And it was interesting because he's like, listen, before I fire up to funnel hacking, live on a fly over to meet with, with Russell and just kind of go through a couple of things with the real fast. I'm like, why? And what is the value? Russ is going to get out of this besides, you are going to come to the office. I mean, it was just interested in like, oh, you know what, it doesn't work that way. Yeah. And so, okay, so contributing number one. Number two is I need to figure out how to summarize data that my d 100 is going to, uh, it'd be impressed by. Speaker 3:     10:13       Okay. So this, this one really shocked me because I was like, why is this so important? Okay. So like one thing that, one of the things I've learned around Internet psychology through the years is numbers tend to mean more than just words. Okay? So it's a reason why people will say like, we've reached x amount of people, right? Instead of saying, uh, you know, like even Louie's started here, it's like, hey, you can say, Hey James Smiley's a good digital marketer or a great digital marketer, but when you say numbers, he's done this amount of sales. He's done this, he's done. You know what I mean? It, it registers in people's mind fast. Okay? So if I'm going to really drive a highest leverage move d, 100 strategy, I need to think about how do I move numbers to the forefront of my marketing so that when I'm going to, she's Russell for an example, when Russell, if he eventually ever looked at my site or sees my webpage or sees my facebook page that he will see a number that means something to him or he'll go, oh, like, like chet used to say, you want them to, you want them to start saying he's one of us. Speaker 3:     11:16       Like, so I love that analogy because I think that's really super critical. It's, I were just talking about our to calm a couple of word winters. We have 411 two Comma Club award winners right now. And so it's nice because it again, it groups you into that. Now you're there. One of us. I love that announced. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. And so, um, so like, so like I started a by the way. So Larson told me to, to talk about this more because I told him how I, how I got to know you guys. And Russell, and he was like, dude, this is one of the smartest 100 strategies ever. He's like, you gotta talk about this more. So, um, so, uh, so because I told him how is using data that I thought Russell would like. So like I'd listen to those podcasts, I'd watched all this stuff and I'm like, okay, he's saying like he wants, this is way back when he's like, I want to be the fastest growing SAS company. Speaker 3:     12:11       So then I started using like language, like, uh, I was a part of iop on one of the fastest growing sas companies in Silicon Valley. Like specifically saying that I feel like if I knew Todd Russell, like somebody saw it, they'd be like, oh, he's one of us like in subliminally. Right? Um, and so, uh, but, uh, but for, for other people that might mean like, like, like in the btby world, like somebody may not be interested in how much revenue you make, they may be interested in how many distributors you have or, or maybe they're more interested how many customers you have or something like that. So like, I try to encourage people, like on your website, have data that summarizes something that you, that your dream client is going to go, wow, this. I'm impressed by this. So I heard Tony Rob Russell say once on his podcast, he said, Tony Robin, he has spoken to 10,000 B, two b sales reps. Speaker 3:     13:03       okay? Somewhere. He said that on a podcast and he was impressed by it. Well, I knew because a corporate recruiter had told me this, I had spoken to 12,000 B, two b sales rep. I was like, yes, I'm going to put this on the front of my homepage if Russell ever received that. James is one of us, you know what I mean? And so, um, there was a lot of like little things like that that I started doing and um, and then so and I didn't know, like you never know, like if somebody really seeing it or not, but, but chances are if you're doing the right things, sooner or later they're going to take a peek at you. Right? And, and if these are the little things that make somebody start calling, oh, maybe, maybe he's like us, you know? Um, okay. So the third thing, Speaker 2:     13:44       I'm going to step back on that because I think that helping people understand that they're one of us is such a huge, a huge thing in networking, um, because you'll talk to people talk about, well there's a level b level c level type of relationships. And uh, again, you were talking about Steve Larsen and his whole big thing is, you know, you can reach one level up as I've heard him referred that a million times and I think it's important that as you get to know what your, what your group or your level is, what does that one level above you, what's that one level below you? And whether it's, again, whether you mentioned as far as revenue or, or contacts or whatever the number is, but realize that everybody has some number. I guess these days, a lot of people, as far as we're dealing with a lot of influencers and their numbers are you. How many youtube followers? Yeah. How many instagram, facebook, whatever. That may be, and those numbers basically say, okay, you're one of us and I think this, oh, critical that, and I appreciate James that you mentioned. It's not just revenue, it's not just these numbers can be anything, but the key here is numbers, numbers or something. People very quickly can just, it's a scale and they say, okay, that's, I'm in that same area. I'm in that you're, you're one of us or you're better me or one lower than me, Speaker 3:     14:52       whatever it might be. They at least know where they fit. And I think that's the big thing with a lot of marketing is people want to know where do I fit in this ecommerce or this whole cosmos here. Yeah. I recently struck a big partnership with Kevin Harrington from Shark tank and I won't talk about the whole details, but one of the things I will say is I knew the specific type of numbers he wanted to see and so I move those to the forefront of my marketing, of my, of my personal branding. And um, so I got on a call with him one day and he's never talked to me before and he goes, James, I've heard a lot about you. And he goes, ah, he goes, but I, I hate to tell you this, I got to cut this call short. He goes, I have 11 minutes, pitch me, go. Speaker 3:     15:35       I was like 15, I have 11. Exactly. He's like, yes, you have 11. Go in. And I was like, okay. So long story short, in 11 minutes I struck a big deal with them in the other people on the phone were like, we never seen nothing like that. Even even, um, uh, Kevin's brother Brian or his son Brian was like, okay, I seen all the pits people pitching. I've never seen minutes. And um, but the reason is because I had him preframe through all this stuff. I'm telling you, like I had preframe because of the data. And he said little phrases. He's like, I've seen some of your stuff. I've seen some of your videos. And I like it. Like those little phrases tell me that my little personal branding and marketing out there, it's synergizing with him and that's how I got on the phone with them. Speaker 3:     16:20       And so it allowed the conversation to move forward because he had, he had a little bit more trust with me because he was kept thinking. I think James is kind of like one of us, you know? Um, okay. And then. So number three is, I'm a check called this something else, can't remember, but I call it network with the network. Okay. So like when I wanted to become friends with Russell, I'm like, man, this is gonna be like, hard to get to know Russel, right? So, um, I was like, okay, like this is a total chet holmes strategy. I'm like, okay, who are all the people around Russell? And remember this is like two or three years ago, okay, who I guarantee you I could get ahold of them. And then so I was listening to the podcast and he's like, Oh yeah, I'm hiring this kid named Steve. Speaker 3:     17:04       I'm like, I bet you I can get ahold of that kid. I'm not kidding you. That's the first thing I thought. I'm like, I guarantee you, I get a hold of that kid. Like he's a Newbie, you know what I mean? So, and then I started looking up and I'm like, this is no joke. I'm like, oh, there's, there's this dave guy. Oh, this is Dave Woodward Guy. There's this guy named todd. There's, um, then I, and then I realized there's John Parks. Um, and then like back then he was talking about certain inner circle people. So he had mentioned I'm a funnel that some guy named Henry had done for him and I had no, he didn't even mention Henry's name, so I like, googled, looked on his friend list, like figuring out who the hell is this Henry Guy because he just talked about Henry Henry must be a friend. Speaker 3:     17:47       And so like what I did was I started figuring out how do I contribute to sincerely until all these people's lives. So, I'm not kidding you like this a little bit embarrassing, but it totally like I had you Larson had all you guys on my list and I was like, okay, how do I like sincerely, like, like add into these people's lives. Okay. And then, um, so when I first told, I told, I told this at the, uh, at a mastermind I was with Steve and I said it from stage one. I said this, Steve Goes, that happened, that really happened. Let me tell you what happened. So I told. So the whole idea here, okay, is that someday, maybe you guys will all be talking to Russell in. Somebody will be like, well we should try to get into btby and then someone will be like, why? I notice James Smiley Guy, but I don't know, like nobody really knows him. And then somebody else in the circle would be like, James James Smiley. Like the guy, you know that guy. Oh yeah, he's totally cool. And then somebody else would be like, James Smiley. And this also like the idea is that like everyone kind of knows james and Russell's like, who the heck is named Smiley God? Why do I not know James Smiley? Speaker 2:     18:58       Seriously? Oh my gosh. I can tell you that networking with a network is probably the most understated issue. And people just don't understand how important that is. I've seen that so often in my gosh, in my own business over the years I've noticed that that has been a huge, huge opportunity for me. A kind of also goes back as far as making sure you understand who the gatekeepers are, that you network with the gatekeepers and that's your, you're nice to the gatekeepers. And it's, it's so funny because uh, I mean literally Russell's my officer like four feet apart. I mean I stepped through the glass and it's, it'll be funny where he'll get the same package I will get and I know exactly what people are like, well, if I can't get to Russ, I'll get to dave first and then I'll use dave to get to Russell. And I like, I know the game, but I think it's cool that people are playing the game because I think that's how it's so critical. More people who know you, who have a point of reference in a frame of reference for you, the easier it is to have those types of conversations when, when again, the name comes up, it's not like it's going to come up all the time, but when it does, you want there to be a positive relationship with that, with your name or whoever else that might be. Speaker 3:     20:04       Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so I, uh, uh, I, I said that from stage one time [inaudible] Larson stopped. Everything goes to, he goes, that literally happened one time. He's like, we were talking about like a new version of the website or something like that. And he's like, that literally happened. He's like, two or three of us knew who you were. And Russell said, who's James? I don't know. Yeah. And, and, and, and so I didn't say any of this, but we all know, like people like Russell use the internet, use their phone like with somewhere within the next 24 hours, the next hour, I guarantee you, he looked up to see who the heck is James. Sure. So, so like every one of the listeners to understand like, this is why having your stuff on point in having data summary, because I mean you don't have like an hour for this guy to look at your stuff and you might have in seconds. Speaker 3:     20:55       So you gotta be on point and so you gotta think like, okay, like what is this person? If they were to look at my stuff for 20 seconds, would they go, James is one of us, you know? And so, um, the, so the, and the whole thing around network when the network is like understanding that first word contribute. So it's like how do I actually add value to Steve? How do I add value to John? And so like, I'm like, I didn't know John at all. But um, so there's two little hacks that I've learned over the years or we're doing this over 10 years with network, with a network. One is finding somebody who is, um, I don't know if it's right to say, but finding someone who's younger is easier to network with in finding someone who's an up and comer is definitely easier like it because not only that, you can contribute into those people's world really, really fast. Speaker 3:     21:45       Like you can tell them stuff, help them, give them encouragement. Um, you know, like, like I've sent, I won't say who, but there's multiple people on that list. I've sent them big deals, I've sent them, you know, I signed a deal and I broke or the services out to them. I like message. I'm like, Hey, um, you know, I got this deal in a, all you need is this, this and this, and I can wire you $8,000 right now. Like what? Like, who is James Smiley? Like I don't even know who this person is, right? But, but now, like I built longterm relationships with those people, um, in like, uh, in, like when you really do that, right? It's almost like this becomes flawless because you become friends with the people who your dream 100 person is friends with, you know what I mean? And um, and so, and it's a really cool thing because you don't have to push your way in, you don't have to try to, you know, insert yourself. Speaker 3:     22:37       Like it just happens kind of organically, you know. Um, and so, so anyway, um, so yeah, so networking with the network is, is, is unbelievably huge, especially if you can figure out like, how do I honestly contribute. Okay. Um, one like 32nd story I'll tell you about something I did with John Mckay was I bought 'em fill your funnel a number of years ago. Okay. And um, you know, like I thought that was a lot until, you know, like, like it was like 30, 3,500 bucks or something like that. And it was like, it was awesome. Right. And so, like here I am in this group and I wasn't going to be totally honest. Okay. I wasn't 100 percent sure how I was going to use that content. But one, okay, there's a couple of things I realized. Number one, John was in there, it was messaging in the group a lot. Speaker 3:     23:25       And so like every time John would say something, I would back them up, you know what I mean? Like, like, uh, and so I was, I kind of became friends with them in there, you know, and then I would post like a testimonial or two of like something cool that I did based on something he said. And so I think just over time, like I don't, I don't, I don't think like me and John are like, know we don't really talk a lot, but I will tell you like the few times we do talk it's like he, I think he's like, he's Kinda cool. Like James is like one of us, you know. And um, and so, but I first met him in this group. So I want to say something like, I bought my way in to a relationship with somebody like that because I figured if I bought my way into this, the people that are in there managing this are probably going to be people who Russell knows. Speaker 3:     24:12       You see what I'm saying? Oh, I totally agree. Like whereas some people they just go into it with the, you know, they don't think about those kinds of. Yeah, you know what I mean? They don't think like, not only that, like you're in a group of couple of hundred people who are, you just spent like $3,000 on something. Like you're in a group of cash buyers. Like why would you complain of 80? Like there's, you can build friendships, relationships, all those kind of things. But um, but anyway, but that's, that's like my, the first time I really interacted with John, I just saw, I was like, how do I contribute? How do I contribute? How do I make this fun? How to make this engaging for him. Okay. And then the fourth one is, this was a little bit psychological, but it's like the most ideal thing is if you can understand how the person thinks, because one thing I did not know is I did not know or even think Russell was an introvert. Speaker 3:     25:05       Never thought that. And um, and so I'm glad. Like I would listen to him and go, man, like this dude's an introvert. Okay. So like if I ever meet him, the last thing I want to do is come up to him like, oh my God. You know what I mean? Like in, in the few times I've seen I'd been around him and seeing people approach him. I'm just sitting there laughing, going, I have no idea. Like they're well meaning good people, but they have no idea. Like, you know, I was at the Mellon texts event, I think, and Russell's crushed it there. And uh, and then he was out in the hallway I think, and there was like 20 people around him in a circle. And so I walked by that day I walked by, um, and uh, and so I'll just Kinda, just for time I'll, I'll put four and five are kind of similar. Speaker 3:     26:00       So a four is like, you want to start mirroring the person. This is a lot of Tony Robbins stuff like marrying the person. So like, um, so one of the things that I did at that event was a, I noticed that you guys would always have a camera person and a lot of times it's you or somebody like holding the b roll camera, right? The vlogging camera will like, I'm message John Before that event. And I said, hey dude, I'm, what camera are you guys using? And he said, I don't know man, let me check it out. Because we were friends. He was like, dude, let me check it out. So he came back and told me the camera you're using so that I told my camera girl, I'm like, hey, they're using this camera, go buy it. And then she was like, Hey, I can get one that's just slightly better. Speaker 3:     26:43       I'm like, that'll be even better. Like the upgraded version that will be better. And then, uh, so we bought the same tripod. It's the same camera. And guess who, the only two people at this event were who had camera people, you and me. And so I did that. So because I knew that I would be in the vicinity of Russell and I wanted to try to get his attention in a non, like, you know what I mean? I wanted to try to get an intention and so I was like talking to Caleb and people like that. And I remember seeing Russell in the corner of his eye look over at us and he's like, I guarantee you he's probably going, who's the other dude with the camera? With a camera person following them around. Like, who the hell does this guy like, I don't know, maybe he knew, maybe he didn't. Speaker 3:     27:29       But um, uh, but I distinctly remember him, like continuing to look over and we would connect a little bit. And then, um, uh, so when he was out in the hallway, uh, I, I saw him and I told him, I camera goes, I was a communications committee. And I was like, Hey, so, so we walked out and uh, and so I'm walking out, my camera person is following me and there's literally 20 people around, Russell and I can just tell he's like, I mean everybody, I'm sure it was like super nice and cool, but he was just drained. He was just like, dude, get me out of here somebody. And so I walked by him and he kind of looks at me out of the corner of his eye and uh, and he just kinda like opened his shoulder just I think he just wanted to see, like if I was going to say it, say what's up or whatever. Speaker 3:     28:14       And uh, and of course, like I'm looking at him, so I reach over and lean in really, really softly. We shake hands in, right when we shake hands, that whole group went dead silent. Oh sure. Everybody was like, what the heck is this guy? Right? Like, Russell just stopped the conversation to have shake somebody's hand. And uh, and I remember shaking his hand in and I said, hey man, I said very soft and comp because I understand his personality. And I'm trying to like mayor his personality or how he thinks and so I was like, hey man, I appreciate you letting Steve Come to my event. He crushed it on stage. Thank you so much for, for letting him do that and I just appreciate you. Basically I just told the guy, thank you, that's all I did, you know, and I just remember him looking at me and he was just like, he just said thank you James. Speaker 3:     29:06       And he's like, thank you for doing that. And it was just like really cool like bonding moment and um, and so, so it was just, it was, it was the coolest thing because like all that work had built up to a, to a handshake, you know what I mean? There's so much value in that and I think so often people are in this game for the short term and it's like, what can you do for me? What can you do for me? What can you, for me? And like that's not how this game works. This is a long longterm play. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate that a ton. Jane's. Yeah. And so I guess I'll, I'll kinda wrap it in this way and saying that, um, you know, you guys featured how you, how we were using click funnels and be to be on the clickfunnels.com home page for a while. Speaker 3:     29:50       I will tell you of 103 students, we had a majority of them, the original, because we survey, a majority of them had said, well, we saw you on the clickfunnels site. We looked you up. So I just want this whole conversation and coming full circle if you contribute to people in the right way, like the relationships and all the things that happen, like you can win over your dream 100 in a way that you never thought possible just by contributing into their world it just by adding value into the world. And so anyway, um, so yeah man, I'm super grateful and thankful for you guys. I mean just to, uh, to share a number like our practice, that coaching practice that's $766,000 and, and, and, and I'll say like all that happened because we, we, we focus on contributing. I love that, you know, so I appreciate you guys man so much. Speaker 3:     30:48       Well James, thank you. And I appreciate you being so kind to contribute to our audience and our community as well. So any other parting words? Um, appreciate you guys, man. Appreciate your audience and everything. I'm a Jane Smiley Dot Tom is the homepage and all that stuff. If you guys want to check out anything but uh, whoever, whoever it is that you, uh, your dream client is, you know, if you got that person, I would just say this to any of your followers. If you have that person or those people at that company and it like it, it's like it doesn't leave you, it doesn't leave your mind. You're like, I got to meet that person. I got to. If I could just get that relationship. To me that's, that's like the confirmation in your heart that you're supposed to build that relationship, right? Like the fact that like, I'm not thinking about that person. I guarantee you no one else is like you. You are the person who was supposed to build that relationship. The fact that it doesn't leave the fact that you wake up, you go to bed, you in meetings, you're daydreaming about that person or that relationship like that is the person that you're supposed to meet and work with and if you focus on contributing, you can get there. Oh, I love it. Well James, thanks again, James Smiley.com. Check them out. Thanks James. We'll talk soon. Appreciate it. Speaker 4:     32:03       Hey everybody. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to podcasts. If you don't mind, could you please share this with others, rate and review this podcast on itunes. It means the world to me where I'm trying to get to as a million downloads here in the next few months and just crush through over $650,000 and I just want to get the next few 100,000 so we can get to a million downloads and see really what I can do to help improve and and get this out to more people. At the same time, if there's a topic, there's something you'd like me to share or someone you'd like me to interview, by all means, just reach out to me on facebook. You can pm me and I'll be more than happy to take any of your feedback as well as if people would like me to interview more than happy to reach out and have that conversation with you. So again, go to Itunes, rate and review this, share this podcast with others and let me know how else I can improve this or what I can do to make this better for you guys. Thanks.

Brand Doctor Podcast
Scaling Your Expertise As a Personal Brand w James Smiley EP 190 - Brand Doctor Podcast Henry Kaminski Jr

Brand Doctor Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2018 44:14


How to scale your expertise as a personal brand has many moving parts. However, with the right strategy, you'll be able to create the influence and impact in your marketplace to become the obvious choice. James Smiley is a walking example of how a personal brand scale their expertise the RIGHT WAY and shares his experiences with us in this episode.*******************************************************************Henry Kaminski Jr. is the founder of Unique Designz by the HMK Group, a full-service graphic design, branding, and marketing company. He is also author of the best seller “Refuse To Give Up.” As a self-taught graphic designer and brand consultant, he’s overcome all the odds to build a wildly successful multi-million-dollar business over the past decade. He has worked with a diverse range of business owners and professionals, including Jon Bon Jovi and Internet marketing expert Russell Brunson who has named Henry the “Million Dollar Designer.” Ultimately, Henry is dedicated to helping small businesses grow and reach their goals through creative design, brand building which will allow entrepreneurs to design the life of their dreams!Where to find Henry:Grab These Digital Resources:https://uniquedesignz.net/digital-resources/Get Your 7 Point Brand Audit Today! https://uniquedesignz.net/bookyourauditDesigns On Demandhttps://uniquedesignz.net/designs-on-demand-program/Here's a personal look at how Henry got started: https://youtu.be/fI3y1NX57EkRefuse To Give Up Mini Documentary:https://youtu.be/L401mm5neJMGrab his book:https://uniquefunneldesigns.com/refuse-to-give-upInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/thebranddr/Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/HenryKaminskiJr/https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBrandDoctorsHangout/ Subscribe to the Brand Doctor Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the%C2%ADbrand%C2%ADdoctor%C2%ADpodcast/id1263945262?mt=2The Brand Doctor Podcast with Henry Kaminski Jrhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-brand-doctor-podcast/

Brand Doctor Podcast
Scaling Your Expertise As a Personal Brand w James Smiley EP 190 - Brand Doctor Podcast Henry Kaminski Jr

Brand Doctor Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2018 44:14


How to scale your expertise as a personal brand has many moving parts. However, with the right strategy, you'll be able to create the influence and impact in your marketplace to become the obvious choice. James Smiley is a walking example of how a personal brand scale their expertise the RIGHT WAY and shares his experiences with us in this episode.*******************************************************************Henry Kaminski Jr. is the founder of Unique Designz by the HMK Group, a full-service graphic design, branding, and marketing company. He is also author of the best seller “Refuse To Give Up.” As a self-taught graphic designer and brand consultant, he’s overcome all the odds to build a wildly successful multi-million-dollar business over the past decade. He has worked with a diverse range of business owners and professionals, including Jon Bon Jovi and Internet marketing expert Russell Brunson who has named Henry the “Million Dollar Designer.” Ultimately, Henry is dedicated to helping small businesses grow and reach their goals through creative design, brand building which will allow entrepreneurs to design the life of their dreams!Where to find Henry:Grab These Digital Resources:https://uniquedesignz.net/digital-resources/Get Your 7 Point Brand Audit Today! https://uniquedesignz.net/bookyourauditDesigns On Demandhttps://uniquedesignz.net/designs-on-demand-program/Here's a personal look at how Henry got started: https://youtu.be/fI3y1NX57EkRefuse To Give Up Mini Documentary:https://youtu.be/L401mm5neJMGrab his book:https://uniquefunneldesigns.com/refuse-to-give-upInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/thebranddr/Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/HenryKaminskiJr/https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBrandDoctorsHangout/ Subscribe to the Brand Doctor Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the%C2%ADbrand%C2%ADdoctor%C2%ADpodcast/id1263945262?mt=2The Brand Doctor Podcast with Henry Kaminski Jrhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-brand-doctor-podcast/

Sales Funnel Radio
SFR 105: The American Morning Routine…

Sales Funnel Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2018 12:46


Check out what 97% of American’s are thinking about before they finish brushing their teeth… What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. 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. Steve Larsen: How's it going everyone? I am sitting here with one of my best friends named Colton Woods. Colton, how're you doing? Colton Woods: Doing good. Steve Larsen: Awesome. Thanks for being on Sales Funnel Radio. Colton Woods: My pleasure. Steve Larsen: Just for real here, though, Colton and I actually ... We created my very first ever successful sales funnel in click funnels was with Colton and it's when...You guys know the story I talk about where when we hid up in the box office seats, we didn't have enough money for click funnels and we hid up there and we planned out the entire business and then during the trial periods since we already planned out the whole business, the whole funnel, all the things and pieces needed with it we clicked the go button on the trial and then during those two weeks we had to go build the whole thing, get customers, and have them pay for the subscription to click funnels before it even started, which is what happened. That was pretty crazy huh? Colton Woods: It was awesome. Steve Larsen: That was fun stuff, so anyway we are actually in Vegas right now and we've been pitching like crazy. It has been a whirlwind of a week I can't believe how fast paced it's been. Got here on Sunday...I just wanted to drop by kind of what's been going on but then also one of my biggest takeaways from this whole week so far. So on Sunday I got here, and I got here Sunday evening, which was when I...I think I talked to you guys last time, I'm doing this off my phone, I don't have all my podcasting equip and that stuff but hopefully that's okay. So Sunday got here, Monday we did a...So I kind of partnered with James Smiley if you guys remember him from the B2B episode where we went through the actual B2B funnels and now he's been using them and crushing them for like five and six figure deals with funnels and things like that. So anyways he and I decided to do a Master Mind together here in Vegas so I flew out here and then on Monday though...The Master Mind was on Tuesday, on Monday though we did a four hour one on one session with a private client, which was a lot of fun, we went deep, deep, deep into their business, the different things and we...It was really fun because we identified really quickly what the major levers were in their business that they were not successfully actually taking advantage of, you know what I mean? The different levers like hey look if you just turn these two points, it looks like that's the only thing you need to worry about and guys that's kind of the fun part about this whole game when you get there. I tell you guys often, I remember very clearly I was riding my bike home, it's Rexburg, Idaho if you've never been there, there's pretty much this constant flow of tumbleweeds year round it's extremely windy, and freezing and I'm glad I'm not there anymore. But as I was riding my bike home from classes one day right, and this thought hit me, how come no one's paying me money? And I just had the sudden realizations like well because you're literally asking for money, literally nowhere, no one can even give you money anyway Steven, what are you mad about? And I realized that I was studying marketing, and I was studying all these things, but I didn't have a business to even apply these things to, and I know some of you might be in that position. Don't get so enamored with the cool marketing tips and tricks and the cutting edge stuff but not even have a business to apply it to. You know what I mean? That's kind of a backwards thing obviously, so anyway I'd start actually building the business if you're in that space first of all and if you are I mean awesome, awesome, but what we do and what we did is just identify, if you were to number one, walk away from your business would it stand on its own? If you can answer that question like, "Yep, it's standing on its own." Awesome, for how long? Cool so you could walk away for long? That kind of gives you an idea of how free you actually are, and start figuring out ways to replace yourself in the actual company. But then the other thing I would do is start sitting back and start realizing what are the two or three levers? Really there's only like one or two, honestly, big levers that if I was just to go focus on just this one thing it would increase the cash in my business exponentially. So that's what we did with this guy on Monday, and he's the man, he actually came to a FHAT event, a Fun Hack-a-Thon event several months ago so it was fun to see him again but we went and we identified...It became very clear as he was speaking what that one lever actually was, and that was one of the most interesting parts and pieces about the whole thing is that it's his business guys but we had to go help him identify what that was. The one lever, the one thing that you should go focus on that really will turn up the cash in your business and help you walk away right? A lot of the times it needs to be pointed out to you, it's not something that you can just like, you know...Usually not always, you're usually so close to the actual product that you just have no idea what to do next, you know what I mean? So anyway, that's what we did on Monday, it was really fun, super deep dive, have a feeling you know we'll keep seeing him and anyway awesome stuff. So Tuesday right, so anyway...Monday night, go back, I have bronchitis, I was like super sick, Colton shows up which was awesome, super fun and the very next day Tuesday is the master mind and we decided to pitch something. So I wrote an entire webinar script from scratch, top to bottom Monday night. So we slept four hours in true funnel hiker fashion, because we were up so late getting this thing done, do the whole thing at launch today we're basically teaching for eight straight hours on stage, it's a small group so I don't know if stage is the correct term for it, it's not like there's a stage, front of the room? It was a small group, but I was dead, oh my gosh we got to the end...Got to the hotel and just crashed, both looked at each other and were like "We don't even want to do anything else." Wednesday though, was the exact same thing so we wrote and entire new script Wednesday morning and started at like eight o'clock, and pitched it at like three o'clock brand new to room... There's only like 30 people in the room, I thought there was going to be honestly I thought there was going to be like 60 or 70 people in the room, there was not, there was maybe 30 people. Really it was like I don't know, twenty-ish that actually got to the actual thing, I was like "Dang it." Man that was solid days work to only pitch 20 people. Anyway, the point is with the whole thing guys if you just hustle and you just set the date, you will find a way to get it done because you have no other option. Just like set the date, be public about it and then you will figure it out, and you'll figure it out well enough of course will it be perfect? No, but all the little things that are in there that, if you get 80% of it right, okay? And people will obsess and they won't actually get started because they think they need to be 100% right, and that's not how it works, just do the 8... It's so 80/20 principal for getting crap done gauge is do the 80% that matters, leave the other 20% who cares? Call it character flaws and use it towards your attractive character's advantage. Okay publish about it, okay? Just get crap done, anyway so we're about to jump on an interview in five minutes. The hotel internet was terrible so we found this cool little satellite place with a little business center with awesome internet, we're about to jump on. I thought I'd just tell you guys what's been going on this week and I wanted to tell you one of the biggest take aways with this whole thing. It's been interesting, I usually am not like this massive networking dude you know? I'm pretty reserved, I kind of...I'm not an introvert but I am so freaking obsessed with working it's kind of an issue, and so sometimes I don't want to go out or meet people or anything. But it's been fun to meet all these people, I got to talk with Seth Green, which was a lot of fun got an invite from him to be on his show and a lot of other people...Anyway it's been a lot of fun guys, lot of different cool interactions, hopefully I'm okay to name drop certain things like that but anyway, it's been fun to go meet these people be hanging around them and I'm trying to do what I invite you guys all to do, which is to continue to reach two levels up, you know what I mean? If you can think through and think, "Okay, my sphere of influence is this amount." And you won't be brand new, and you're like "Okay, that's fine." This is the same way I launched Sales Funnel Radio. On purpose, this was a purposeful thing when I actually started this show, okay and I thought "Okay, this little tiny line represents my sphere of influence." Alright now "Look, that guy over there, he has a little bit more influence than I do, he's got a bigger list, he's got people who follow him, he's got more influence." Okay, and then "Look at that guy, he's got, whoa look at how much more influence he has." And it's like these increasing tiers of influence, and all I did if you go think through it is I thought where I was at the time and I reached two layers of influence up. That's all I did, and I interviewed them and got them on the show. And then when it felt like I got to a different level, I reached two layers up again. Now I'm reaching higher, two layers up again and I invited them to get on the show and invited them to get on the show and this is exactly how... Guys this podcast is going to scream past 100,000 downloads very soon here, and I wanted to do something cool for it soon, I don't know what it is but just do that, okay? So I'm excited because a lot of these connections...That's why I'm telling you this, a lot of these connections we made this week was...I think it's kind of cool because it made me realize also we're still doing that, and we reached two levels up and we did, two levels up, two levels up, and it's not like out of this huge desire to be like "Oh my gosh, I got to be the best, I got to be in front of tons of people, it's all me, me, me." No, but I do want to get my message out to as many people as I can right? And so I need to increase my level of influence, how many people know who you are, right? It's not so much who you know, it's who knows you, you know what I mean? You've heard that term? That's so true, so just reach two levels up, two tiers up. So anyways as we were doing this as we were going through it's been fun to be able to do that and see that, that's what's been going on around us. I just wanted to give you one cool take away also that James Smiley dropped in the middle of the Master Mind and then we got to head out here because there's an interview starting here shortly, it's kind of cool he stood up and he told us a stat. It was a very fascinating stat, and see if it works for you because it was like 97% of Americans do this right now. He said it was a stat he said that, he said that 97% of Americans think about something that they want to buy as part of their morning routine. Isn't that interesting? Are you on their list? That's crazy, 97% of Americans think about something that they want to buy pretty much before they're done brushing their teeth. It literally is part of their morning routine, something that they wish they were buying or something they wish they had. People are buying more than they ever have, people are buying like crazy, it's not a secret and just think through are you constantly in front of them? Are you...Just like I was thinking through on my bike while I was riding home, I was like "Man, I'm not asking for money literally anywhere, from anybody." Think through where you're doing that and start being more craft-fool on where you put those messages in and are you a part of...Are you standing...Because there's an onslaught of buyers you know like "Stephen I'm not making the cash I want to." Are you actually asking for cash? Go through and start asking what those things are and those pieces are and stay in front of people. So anyways, we got to head out here but I just wanted to drop a few little things with what's been going on. It's been a fun, fast, furious week and then instead of doing the webinar on Thursday this week I'm doing it on Saturday and we're driving tons of ads to that and we're finding where all the buyers are, it's been fun guys. There's a lot going on right now and really try to hit the ground running after leaving Click Funnels and it's been working. This is only week three, it feels like it's been several months where I have been hauling so fast and it's been a ton of fun. Anyways guys, talk to you later, go crush it. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnels for free? Go to SalesFunnelBroker.com/freefunnels to download your prebuilt sales funnel today.

Sales Funnel Radio
SFR 94: The "Biggest Pile of Cash" Rule...

Sales Funnel Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 23, 2017 29:51


Click above to listen in iTunes... I'm A Huge Fan of Learning From Those WhoAre DOING, Rather Than Just Talking.... What's going on, everyone? This is Steve Larsen, and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. 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. How are you guys doing? Hope everyone's doing great. It is barely 5:00 AM here. I set the alarm for 4:00 AM, but I slept in a little bit. Anyway, it's a Saturday, though, and a lot of you guys will be like, "What the heck are you doing up so early, Steven?" Well, number one, my brain works too fast. Sometimes I can't sleep, so I just get up. Number two, the real reason is because today, I'm not sure totally if I'm supposed to talk about this, but I'm actually really, really excited. Today, what's going to happen is one of my buddies ... You guys all know him. I actually interviewed him probably several dozen episodes ago. His name's James Smiley. He's the man. James Smiley was kind enough to send his own videographer, who's totally awesome, up to Boise, and today, Saturday, we are spending the entire day filming Gary V. styled videos, which is kind of cool. I'm getting up early so I can lift, honestly, and so that I can start prepping the different storylines. They want to film at least 12 different storylines, 12 different videos, that they can turn into those fast-paced, cool, Gary V. styled little snippets, those little vignettes that he puts out all the time on Instagram. Quite honestly, I don't really get on Instagram too much, but I am excited to get my own series of videos filmed like that. It's kind of cool. It's very exciting. I'm going through my podcast, and guess what I'm doing? I'm hacking my own self. Which means I'm going through my podcast, looking at all the stats, seeing which ones resonated with people the most. Those are the ones that will be turned into awesome videos. Just so you know, that's the process. They're like, "What's 12 cool things you could talk about?" I think everything that I put out is cool, and that's why I talked about it, but what did everyone else think was cool? So let's go look at the stats. Let's look at what people liked and shared and things like that. So I'm going through my show. I use a software called Libsyn, which I talked about in episode 1661, if you want to learn more about how I podcast. I'm going through all the stats, and I'm looking at basically seeing which 12 are the coolest ones. Then, I've got a whole bunch of thoughts on my own that I'll have to go add, as well. I'm excited, though. I'm supposed to bring a whole bunch of different changes of clothes as we continue to move around Boise to different locations that are undisclosed. I have no idea where we're going today. I have no idea, really, what we're doing. I'm just pumped. I'm excited about it. I'm extremely honored to be able to do it. It's going to be fun. It'll be cool. I'm just kind of swinging with it, honestly. To have 12 different videos and stuff like that ... The thing that I have a hard time with is I am so anti ... Not professionalism. There's certainly an awesome thing that comes with trying to be professional. It's when it makes you put so much starch in your shirt that you can't be your own personality. You know what I mean? Like I'm trying to wake up right now. I'm not going to lie. I probably should not have started podcasting. I don't want to come across in these videos in a way that it's like, "Hey, Steven is getting pre-framed and pitched and framed as if he's this pro guy." I don't look at myself like that. I don't look at myself like that. I don't look at myself as this ... I don't know. It's weird. I feel like drinking your own Kool-Aid can really kill you. You know what I mean? It's something that I've seen many times, especially with where my job has been over the last two years, sitting next to Russell Brunson. It's something that we'll see, not from him, ever, but we'll see other people in different communities and things like that start to drink their own Kool-Aid. The moment you start doing that, you start to try to distance yourself from your own audience. When you start to distance yourself from your own audience, guess what happens? They leave you. Why would I try and act like I'm someone I'm not? Anyway, that's actually my biggest fear with this. I'm excited. It'll be awesome. Hey, the whole purpose of this podcast today, though, is something interesting that was brought up. I was at ClickFunnels' HQ. I don't think anyone really touches the ground there. Everyone just kind of floats and glides around. I can't remember what I was doing. I think I was grabbing a drink from the conference room or something like that or the event room. I was walking back in, and Russell was talking to someone else, too, and he and I ended up walking at the same time back to his office. He goes, "Everyone needs to be more like Steven." I was like, "What are you talking about?" He goes, "You follow ... " What did he say? You follow the biggest pile of cash rule, biggest pile of gold rule. I was like, "What's that, man?" He goes, "It's the biggest pile of gold rule. Whoever has the biggest pile of cash, that's the person you go and follow." I was like, "That's kind of interesting." He was like, "Everyone should be more like that." He's like, "That's super cool that you're ... " He's like, "You're naturally like that, man." It felt a little bit from left field, the comment did, but he must have been talking about it from somebody else. What I did is I went online and ... You guys got to understand that when I met my wife, i was 6% body fat. I was working out at least once a day, a lot of times twice a did. I did a couple three days. It was all self-driven. I really like it. I'm very aggressive as an individual physically. I like to push my body. As I have been married and in school and college and the pressures of everything, I'm not going to lie, I gained a little weight. I want to change that. About six weeks ago, I got on YouTube with the intent of finding a buff dude that I could hire. What I did is I went on YouTube and literally found the most shredded guy I could, the guy who has to walk sideways through doors. You know what I mean? I wanted to find the guy that could kill me in a single flex. Not punch, flex. So I went and I found this guy. He's massive. He won all these fitness competitions. I just messaged him totally out of the blue. I didn't know if he did any coaching at all. I was like, "Hey, man, I really want to get ripped. How can I hire you?" I was like, "I've been disciplined to do it before on my own. I want help with the meal plan. I'd like help with the X, Y, and Z. The lifting part is easy. I want help with the meal plan. Please help me with that." He was like, "Sure, man, sounds good." He's been working with me for the last six weeks. I have no idea where he lives. It's all been remote. I am not, by any means, shredded yet, but my whole goal is to be more buff looking than Russell is by Funnel Hacking Live. So a lot of the office right now is in this competition, trying to get swol. Swol patrol, baby, woo! Anyway, Russell, he was laughing. He was like, "You follow the biggest cash rule. This dude's ripped, so that's why you hired him. You came here, you learned marketing. Biggest pile of cash rule. You follow that all the time. I wish that more people learned that." I was like, that's interesting. I was thinking through just my life. Kind of subconsciously, that's kind of how I've done it for a long time. I explicitly did door-to-door sales because I knew it would be one of the most emotionally challenging sales environments that I could conjure up. That's why I did door-to-door sales. Honestly, I did door-to-door sales voluntarily, knowing that it was going to suck. That's why. I did it for two summers. Then, after that, I guess I didn't get enough of it. I went and did telemarketing, because I knew that I hated talking on the phone. I knew that I would learn how to sell. Those are the reasons why I did it, so that I could get better and put myself in an uncomfortable scenario. Fascinating. I took two or three minutes just to think through the list. I was like, that was kind of like a biggest pile of cash rule. Then, I went to the next one, the next one, the next one. I was trying to speak at different events and things like that, years ago. A lot of you guys may not know this, but I sang for a long time, since fourth grade. I had a lead role in several musicals. I was in the top choirs. I sang in a band. I played drums for, like, six years. What was funny is that when I was doing singing, at first, I was so shy that no one could ever hear me, so I just kept practicing, practicing, practicing until finally ... I mean, I got a lot better. I put myself in really challenging scenarios on purpose. You know what I mean? Stage scenarios. What's funny is how much I'm on stage now, and I had no idea those two should coincide. Army. I legitimately went into the Army because I wanted to get my butt kicked. I didn't need to go into the ... There were other ways, okay? I wanted to do it because I wanted to go into those extreme stressful environments where it's physically demanding, where it's all you can do to just keep it together. You know what I mean? I wanted that, which was so funny. It sounds like a problem, but when Russell pointed it out just a few weeks ago, I was like, huh, maybe he's right. Is this a problem? You know what I mean? He's like, "Think about that. You came to learn marketing here. The buff guy, you went and you hired that guy." I'm leaving my job, not because I have a bigger pile of cash than Russell. Please never think that. I think that everyone already knows that. That goes without saying, probably. Because I think that there's things I need to learn that a job can't teach me. You know what I mean? There's some stress that comes with it. Good stress. I'm not freaking out or anything. I'm actually really, really pumped. It'll be awesome. All I wanted to do is I wanted to help you understand the biggest pile of cash rule, as coined and termed by Mr. Russell Brunson himself. Trademarked, register mark. Put a huge thing of disclaimers in right there. Honestly, I don't know where it stems back from, but definitely early on in my childhood, some things that I started doing ... I think, honestly, in my early teens or mid-teens. I don't know what clicked or what it was, but I kind of liked putting myself in stressful environments on purpose, because of what would happen to myself after I was done with them. Honestly, I may not have even understood that consciously, that that's what I was doing, but I did seek out slightly stressful environments kind of on purpose. Probably first as just kind of an adrenaline high. I was a bit of an adrenaline junkie growing up. I would go long board down ... I was a big long boarder guy. I loved to long board. It's like a skateboard, but it's long. It's long board. I had a speed board, and I would go 45 miles an hour. My brother would clock my in a car behind, barefoot down hills. That's stupid. Who does that crap? That's stupid. I've always been a little bit of an adrenaline junkie, so I don't know if I can blame it on, yeah, I consciously knew that was the biggest pile of cash rule as coined by Russell. That's slightly been the outcome from it, though, is that putting myself in scenarios where not all the pieces are quite figured out, where not everything is quite laid out in front of me, where I can't really see the middle, I just kind of know where the end is and where I'm trying to get. I know that it'll work out on the other side. Long boarding barefoot, that's stupid, okay? Don't do that. That was a dumb example. That was an example of what not to do. I think it comes down to some lessons that Perry Belcher talked about. There's a great course. I just heard that DigitalMarketer ... This is, honestly, the best course that I think DigitalMarketer's come out with. It's a course called secret selling system. It's like 18 hours long, by Perry Belcher. It is fantastic. It is one of the best funnel training courses I've ever listened to ever. A fair warning, though, there's a fair amount of swearing in it. Anyway, I wouldn't listen to it around kids, just to let you know. Perry Belcher's a bit vulgar, if you know anything about him. There's a few different levels. I think he named seven. I'm just going to go through three of them here. Seven different belief phases. These are different phases that an individual has to go through in order to make a sale. You think about what you're doing to yourself, too, as you start to follow, if you want to, the biggest pile of cash rule. I was thinking through that's interesting, because it really is following that same thing. Instead, I'm just selling myself, which is why I go through those scenarios on purpose. Pre-thought out, whatever that term is. One of the very first phases of this is that a person needs to go through and ask themselves, okay, this guy's got this cool product. Is this possible at all? Meaning not for anybody, but can I see this product working at all, for anybody? If the answer to that question is yes, they can kind of move on to the next question, which is if it's possible for other people, in general, is it possible for me? There's a whole bunch of in-between steps. I cannot remember all of them. This is the basic premise, though, and honestly, the same effect comes from these three, in my opinion. These are the three, also. Number one, is this possible at all? Is it possible in general that this product could get the change that this guy says it is? That's the first phase of belief. The second one is is it possible for me? Can I pull this off? Is this something where I could actually go off and be successful with it? Which kind of leads me, honestly, to the third thing. Honestly, the place that you want to stay if you're going to follow the biggest pile of cash rule, meaning whoever has the biggest pile of cash, whether that's money or some kind of result or whatever it is, those are the people you go learn from. If you're going to try and learn funnel building, go find a freaking awesome funnel builder who's built a ton of them. Right? This is Sales Funnel Radio. That's why you're listening to me... I've built a lot of funnels for a lot of people in a lot of scenarios. You're following the biggest pile of cash rule already right now. I've had a ton of you guys reach out and ask me if I'm going to have a mastermind after I leave ClickFunnels or coaching or something like that. I was like, hm, that's interesting. That's probably the market telling me that that's what it wants. I haven't thought of that. Maybe I should do that. Anyway, you want to stay kind of in this third phase if you're going to follow the biggest pile of cash rule. This is something I identified for me, anyways, where if I can get past a belief that ... Let's take this lifting example, this example of me trying to ... I want to go get buff again. I was doing sprint triathlons. Guys, I was killing it. I was the fastest dude out of, like, 50 guys that I would run with. Oh, man, I so miss that. It's such a huge physical rush. I like pushing my body to those uncomfortable places. That's awesome. Maybe it's a little bit of an issue. It goes back to the adrenaline long board barefoot issue, maybe. Let's take this as an example. Is it possible at all? Is there any belief that I have that it is possible for anyone in all of humanity to get ripped and buff? Yeah, I do believe that it's possible. Okay, that lets me go on to the second phase. Obviously, in tandem, think through this, also, with money making. So let's go to the second phase. Is it possible, then, for me? Do I believe that I have the capacity to be able to do this? Yeah. Yeah, I have. Not just because I've done it before and was that way for a while, until I kind of focused on making money, which makes sense. I was trying to follow my fatherly roles and husbandly roles of providing. That leads me to my third phase, the third one here, and this is honestly kind of a personal one. The third one is since it's possible, if this is possible ... How should I say this? Since it's possible, I'll just figure it out and start walking. That's kind of what I'm going to name the phase. Meaning I never, hardly ever, have all of the steps planned out. I have a very rough, 30,000-foot view plan of what I'm actually trying to do. I've noticed that it's the same way with how I build funnels. That's always that way. We never have all the details, all the plan. This is what it's going to look like. This is what it's going to be like. This is what this page is going to say. This is what this email's going to pop ... No. What we do is we set a very rough flag out on a hill. We say, "That's where we're going. Take the hill." We just start walking towards it. As we encounter the hill, there's a random boulder that comes up or there's a cliff that appears and we didn't know it was there. Or there's a huge chasm or a massive river or a rope bridge where it's barely working. You know what I mean? Then, we just deal with that problem at that time only. I think sometimes one of the reasons people will not progress, and something that I see ... There's hundreds of people I've coached through the coaching program now, hundreds that have come to the FAT event, the Funnel Hackathon event. There's hundreds, you guys. One of the things I think people ... There's really two different personality types that I see, as far as it comes to action-taking, happens all the time. The first one is the one where it's like I have got to have everything planned out in front of me so that I know it's safe for me to jump, so that I can handle every single contingency that's ever possible. I'm like, gosh, that contingency right there rue asking me about, the probably of it is so tiny. Are you kidding me? Deal with it when it comes, which is the second personality. The second personality that I see comes through ... It's funny, because when I'm saying it on stage and I'm seeing all these people ask questions and I see them progressing, I can see who's getting it. I can also see who's already implementing it in the event. They haven't waited to leave or go home. They're doing it there. The second personality is the one who goes, "Ah, I get it. I see the vision. Not all the steps. I see the vision. I see where you're trying to take us. Therefore, I will fill in all the gaps that I personally can, because I know that my success is not on your shoulders, Steven." Does that make sense? What I've seen, too, is when someone hasn't taken action but they've got everything filled out ... They've got all the pieces. They've got all these pieces together. They've got all the little parts. A lot of times, what ends up happening is they're looking for another thing that they think they need in order to distract themselves from getting started. They're looking for excuses to not buy into the process. I am begging you to not fall into that trap. If you're going to follow the biggest pile of cash rule, you can't fall into that trap, because you will not have all the answers, and you never will. Entrepreneurship is one big answering game after another. Another question, another question, every day you wake up. Guys, I cannot tell you how many times I sit down for my own personal business, and I'm like, crap, I don't even know what to build next. Or I don't even know what to build next or what's the next step here. No one's giving me a to-do list. No one's giving Russell a to-do list. No one's sitting down and going, "Okay, what do I got to do today? All right, who's got that list for me?" He's sitting down and saying, "Huh, what's hurting right now? Is there something I need to go fix? Is there something we should go increase revenue on or optimize?" Does that make sense? There's no such thing as entrepreneurship where all the answers are given to you, and I am all about entrepreneurship. I know you guys are all in here, too, who are. If you are trying to become one, please understand that it is a biggest pile of cash game. Go learn from the best people. There's a reason Russell has his own inner circle. 100 people come in from pretty much every industry you can imagine, and then he has his own personal growth-styled masterminds, also. Then he goes and he hangs out with these massive guys that are also on his level and even higher so that he can continue to grow. Does that make sense? It's the same thing. It's the exact same thing. You will not have all the answers. You sit there and go, "Yeah, I know. No duh." If you've been waiting to launch something for quite a while, you're not following the rule, then. Does that make sense? It is a game of jumping out of the plane and building the parachute while you fall, not before you jump. Funny enough, the first time I ever built an info product, I did it wrong. I did it so wrong. I did it terribly. I spent eight months building it, building the product. I was convinced that the product was the thing that made the sale. Products rarely make sales. A sales message makes sales. They're not the same thing. It's the whole reason why we'll go out and we sell stuff before we ever make it. Anyway, I'm totally getting on a soap box here, because I'm noticing that a lot of people haven't started because they think that the product needs to be done or has to be perfect. It's not going to be perfect. It's coming from your own head, when the market is the thing that needs to tell you what you should be building. You don't have the creativity inside of you to be successful and make a million dollars. That's why this game is more like a game of detective. It's like a detective game, where you're going to go through and you're going to discover what the market wants. You're going to toss things out there. Nope, that wasn't it. Let's take these three things out. Let's adjust that. Now, let's relaunch. Oh, cool, all but one of them stuck. Okay, let's go back. Relaunch, relaunch, relaunch, relaunch. Interaction, iteration, iteration, iteration. It's part of this biggest pile of cash rule, too, where what you're really trying to do is you're trying to help just get your own self in motion. Action creates action. Motion creates motion. Success creates success. One of the easiest ways to follow the biggest pile of cash rule that I've noticed in my own life is that I try to have personal, small wins every single day. I try to get at least ... Guys, I work full-time for somebody else, and it's way more than full-time. Way more than a 9:00 to 5:00 job. It's fun, because in the last two months here, Russell's like, "Dude, can we just do a normal 9:00 to 5:00 schedule?" I was like, "Yeah, we've never done that. That actually sounds really nice. It's the holidays coming up." I mean, we're just killing ourselves. You know what I mean? You're not going to have any success at all if you have to have all the pieces together. That's basically what I'm trying to say. If you're trying to follow the biggest pile of cash rule, one of the easiest things that you can do is go just try and do three ... That's what I was trying to say before. Sorry, I totally lost my train of thought, because I was thinking through ... I totally have the squirrel brain. Squirrel! Squirrel! Which is nice for brainstorming scenarios, and I'm totally doing it right now. I was trying to wrap up with this, and I got distracted. I'm sorry. This is me being vulnerable and just real. What I was trying to say, though, is one of the easiest ways to follow the biggest pile of cash rule is just try and make three moves a day if you're working for somebody else. It's going to be way more than that for me when I am completely solo January 1st, which I'm very excited about. Just make three moves a day, and that's all I try and do. Sometimes I don't get a full three, and sometimes I just get two. Meaning I try and get two to three big things done ... What's three? I try and get three things done each day that just move the ball forward. I don't even know always where the ball is going. I just try to move the thing. Motion creates motion. Action creates action. I kind of thought that was a cliché, okay, that's nice kind of thing five years ago, and it is so true, though. Just be in motion. Guys, I got an email from someone this morning that was ridiculous. It was so cool. It was an invitation to go hang out with some incredibly huge people that have helped massive celebrities we all know become very successful. I was like, what? What? That's crazy. Why? Motion. Moving. I hate coaching people who are not already in motion. It's one of my things. If I can tell an individual is not already moving, looking for their pile of cash, just moving towards that ... If they're not already actively learning, I hate coaching those individuals. Or they're not actively already trying to make money. Not thinking about it. Not thinking about how nice of a goal it is. Not planning it out. Actually trying to make sales. I hate coaching those kinds of people, because I've got to teach them the biggest pile of cash rule. They've had no practice following it, where you're going out and you're learning from the best people. You're trying. You're already doing it. Nobody's motivating you. You're motivating yourself. Does that make sense? Anyway, I try not to put too many ideas in a single podcast, and I tend to string them all together, so I should probably stop this here, just so you guys know. What I'm trying to say here is now that Russell brought it out and I realize, oh my gosh, I do follow that rule. That is why I'm actually leaving my job. Huh, that's why I called that dude and said, "Hey, make me buff," and why I've been reaching out to all these ... That's fascinating. So follow the pile of biggest cash rule. Who is it that has actually done it? Not talked about it. Not written books about it. Who's actually done it? Who's actually done the thing? Who's actually doing the thing? Who can you follow? Follow those people. Those are the people to go follow, okay? A lot of times, what's funny is the people who have the biggest pile of cash are not the ones that are talking. Sometimes they're the ones who don't want to talk. They don't want to let out their secrets. It's been funny to watch this whole fill your funnel process, because sometimes people don't want to reveal the traffic secrets that they're using, because they're proprietary. They're the ones that are the cutting edge. Usually, the ones that you're hearing in courses are not the ones that are the most cutting edge ones. You know what I mean? That's like hearing the news say, "Hey, this is the best stock to go get right now." It's like, yeah, well, like yesterday. The opportunity's already passed. You know what I mean? Same kind of thing. Sometimes when those biggest pile of cash people come into your life, you've got to find ways to convince them that you are coaching worthy. Just like I just said, I've got things that turn me off as far as someone when they want me to coach them. It's the same thing. You've got to go convince those people that you're coachable, that you're worthy to be coached. It is the most unattractive thing on the planet when someone's asking me to coach them and I can tell they haven't even started. They're waiting for permission to start. Cut that crap out. Just start. No one's going to give you permission or a to-do list, and it's going to be all one massive, big, continuous problem-solving exercise. It's very fun. It's kind of a liberating thing, actually. It's fun to have that kind of control. Anyways, guys, probably said too much there. Just think through that, though. What is the thing you're trying to go for? Find the person with the biggest pile of cash, and keep yourself in the phase where all you need to know is enough, not all of it. I'll talk to you guys 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 salesfunnelbroke.com/freefunnels to download your pre-built sales funnel today.

Sales Funnel Radio
SFR 89: What Order To Create Your Value Ladder Products...

Sales Funnel Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2017 21:22


Routinely, these are the most common ways we'll increase the perceived value of our offers... Hey, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larson and you're listening to Sales of Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio where you will learn marketing strategies to grow your on-line business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host, Steve Larson. What's going on everyone? I am a kid at heart. What can I say? I'm going to be that way on purpose till I die. Do not make me into an adult. Hey, all right it's like 10:00. I've got three nights left before I'm going to go fly to Dallas, which I am super excited about. I am going to speak at Danny Vega's and James Smiley's B2B Mastermind, which, I am super excited about. It will be awesome. But I am up tonight and I am thinking through like the different things I am going to give and offer there and I am pumped about it. Ultimately I am going to do the same to you guys ... You know, if you want it. It's almost sad, I am putting the slides together, I'm putting together what I am going to deliver and put up there. It will be a three hour presentation, which I am really excited about, be fun. Anyway, I am thinking through a lot of the different funnels that I have built over the last little while. I am way past 300 funnels built in the last year and half. I have no idea how many it is now. I mean, it's huge. Anyway, I lost count. I know that, like there is one project once that was 82 funnels alone. I mean so honestly it could be in the 400's. I have no idea. I know that it is a crap ton. I was thinking through all the funnels. It was actually a lot of fun. Anyway, I think it was two weeks ago, I built a membership funnel live. A lot of people don't know you can build member areas inside Click Funnels that are amazing and frankly I still think that it's the best even out of Kajabi even out of all the other member area places, I still think that the Click Funnels ones are the best because it is still geared toward you continuing to be able to sell more and more and more. There is a lot of stuff that you can do inside member areas to increase your revenue even inside the member area that I don't know that you can do inside of other places. Anyway, lot of fun stuff. Went great. So I build the member's area live. It was, we had about 35-ish people watch the entire four and half hours while I built it live. And it was really fun because they could get there and they could interact with me. I did that for a live webinar funnel probably about a month ago and I just built out the entire thing live again, which, is a lot of fun. And I am going to do it again. I thought I would invite you guys to come along and join if you want to. It's one of the things that I will be giving and offering over to this mastermind too, in Dallas, which I am really pumped about. The pressure is on though. Man, got three days. It will be awesome. Just want to make it awesome, so ... December 2nd, what I am going to be doing is I am going to be building an application funnel. A high ticket coaching application funnel. Could be a coaching funnel. Could be some kind of application funnel. Could be high ticket product funnel. Could be whatever, whatever it is where someone has got to send or submit in an application. I am going to be building that funnel type. I'll show you three different strategies I have used as well. It has been kind of fun. I launched one of these of my own about a week ago in a different industry and it's going really, really well. I was able to pioneer a few different things that I am going to show you guys and it's working. It's been so cool to see it work. Oh, my gosh. Stuff I've never seen and even know what to do before. Anyway, if you guys want to go and watch it live and participate and things like that. It'll be at SalesFunnelBroker.com/live. SalesFunnelBroker.com/live... That is where you can register. I set it up just like a webinar on Zoom, but you guys can be on there, live with me and actually ask questions as we go through the whole thing and it's a lot of fun. Last group, anyway I know they learned a lot. I learned a lot. It was a lot of fun. I build from literally the ground up. Start from absolutely scratch and just show a lot of my different design principles and strategies. Things that are really fast. I build the whole thing together usually ahead of time. Try to have some assets together so that I'm not just filling in the blanks with dummy texts and things like that. It's great. Anyway, so plan on about four hours if you guys want to come watch, it's Saturday morning usually starting about 8:00 in the morning. 8:00 or 9:00 something like that Mountain Standard Time. You guys can jump on and watch. If you are listening to this episode and it is past December 2nd, for you and I guess for everyone else. I am going to be restructuring Sales Funnel Broker as I've, as I've ... It's great. I've tried to make it as a cool resource, a place that people could just download cool funnels. Some of them for free, some of them for paid. Show some of my other resources I use as I, you know that I used to funnel build with, but I need to revamp it. You know. I launched that before I even started podcasting so, I mean it's been out there for like a year and half. There is a lot of stuff I got to go update. I've got some cool ideas for it. I'm going to be selling some more ... Okay, just think about this for a second. I have built a ton of sales funnels in the last year and a half alright and I built funnels well before working for Russell on WordPress, which is terrible in different ways. On my own with Click Funnels during and it's been awesome. But, there are repeatedly the same funnels that I build over and over and over again that just kill it. Some of them in no matter what industry and some of them in very specific industries. What I was thinking is I've been listing out this huge list of funnels that I build over and over and over again. Why would I not build them from ground up with you guys so you can see how to do it and then at the end I will sell the share funnels as well as the recording with it. As well as, I always make these really in depth PDF maps so you can see what is going on, on each page. Why I do what I do, where it's hooking into. The automation behind it. Is there any third party stuff. Am I hooking stuff up with Zappy or how do I? I mean all the stuff that I am doing. And I want to be able to do and deep dive those things with you guys so that you've got even more power behind you on building these things. Anyway that's what's been going on this last little bit. It's been a whole lot of fun. I have been building. I just built an application style funnel. That one took me a couple of weeks 'cause I had to go film stuff and anyway it's been, but it was a lot of fun. There is a new take on the application itself funnel that I haven't really put out there before and it's been awesome. I kind of made it up. It's been working and it's in a different industry. It's been awesome but, anyway, been cool. Anyway, bit of a plug there... Whatever it's blatant and I hope you guys join. Hey, so, what I want to talk through real quick is the application style funnel. All right and real quick, so I don't know wherever you are or whatever but if you want to draw a value ladder. Right. At the bottom of a value ladder, and if you guys have never drawn before or this is your first time on the episode, or whatever it is at the very bottom of, like, lets, so the very lowest step. Let's say if you drew three steps of some stairs. On the very first step there that's typically where we have like a lot of free shipping stuff there. Free stuff in general. Free, free, free, free, free. Like lots of free stuff. Somewhere, usually between the first and the second stair step, personally that's where I draw. Like I call it the money barrier. When you break the money barrier, that's when you actually start to sift out actual customers versus freeloaders. Okay? It's super important. Something you always want to do. I put out lots of content for free. But eventually I sift you guys out. Who is it that is actually willing to pay to play? Who is actually willing to pay to learn and actually run fast with the people who are sprinting into certain industries. You know what I mean? Like, you've got to do the same thing. Pump tons of free content out there or whatever it is and then eventually you've got to have this barrier where you charge someone some money. Right? Then typically in the middle of the value ladder what I do is have a $1000 to $2000 product. Somewhere in that area. Right? That kind of becomes the core of the business. That's actually where I start. I start. When I start at, I only have you know. I'm doing my best to have one value ladder at a time. I know I did an episode a little while ago on that, but I try and do one value ladder where I start in the middle of the value ladder. I actually don't start at the bottom. I don't start by giving away free plus shipping things or the little tiny front end products or the little tiny. I'll start by giving out free lots of content and publishing. But I actually don't start selling stuff, you know, I start with the $1000 to $2000 range in any business. Because, you know when I am consulting or my own self or whatever it is, because it does not take many $1000 to $2000 sales to make a dent in the wall. It does not take many $1000 to $2000 sales to give you awesome profit to dump back into ads. How many $7 products do you got to sale to actually make a profit? A ton. Right? I would rather the market tell me what to create on those front end products. I don't want to guess. That's super risky. Seen a lot of people waste a lot of time on lower front end products. They don't work. It's a huge shame. I mean cause you just wasted all that time. You know so, what I do is start with the middle of the value ladder and then what I do is I typically also. Number one, start in the middle. Number two I go to a high ticket product in the back end. I don't go to the front end yet. This is the order in which, what should I call it. This is the order to create products on the value ladder. This is the order to do it. That I've seen work the best that I've done many times. Number one I start in the middle. Number two, I go back to the high end stuff. At least $5000. Right? $10,000, $15,000, 25 grand, in that range. You know, at least 5k though. Okay I guarantee, I mean if you've got any value at all you've pumped into the market place you could charge five grand for an event and get a few people to come in. That's actually how Russell started by selling those events. It actually started in events. He did that. He sold an event for $5000 and got two people to pay and was like, "What the heck? That's so cool." Number one, start with the core, number two you do kind of the back end. Number three, that's when I start creating front end products. That's when you start creating your little $7 things. Your $27 things, your $50 your $100 things, maybe even up to $300 things. If you start by, you know it's funny when you read the book Dotcom Secrets a lot of times what it makes you think is that you need to start the creation for your business the order is to create them is that you start with those front end things and that's just not how you do it. If you do it that way you are guessing. It's a lot of volume you've got to go through to actually make that thing convert before you've got to keep tweaking it before it actually. I mean even Russell himself when we launched those when we launched our own funnels. Most of the time round one they are not usually not successful out of the gate. Okay. It's usually when we make the second tweak. The first tweak the second tweak that's when they get wildly profitable. And Russell is Russell Brunson. He's I ... Second to him I have probably built more funnels than anyone I know. Any guru I know. Anyone. Like period, but he's number one though. He's done it, way, more than I have. Does that make sense? Like that's crazy. Even for him. Okay. If you look at how click funnels did stuff as well. Click funnels started by selling $1000 product called Funnel Hacks. Then it went into events and higher ticket things in the background. And then started creating things like Dotcom Secrets and front end things and Funnel Swag and Frontal U and Frontal Graffiti and all these front end products that all lead into the same thing. Does that make sense? For whatever reason it gets like it's sexy in someones head to do it the other way around or we start there. Don't start there. Do that last. Do that last when, when ... 'Cause here's what is going to happen. When, you start selling $1000 product, when, you start selling something that is thousand bucks, right? Or $2000 or whatever it is. The core of your business. I'm not saying it has to be that. But it's got to be enough money where it doesn't take many of them to really make a dent. Right? ... Where, you can dump huge profits back into ads. Right? When you start doing that you are going to get feedback in the form of complaints. It's just part of it. I remember the first time that ever happened for me. I was like why the heck are you complaining about this? "I wish you did X, Y, and Z. I wish you did this. Blah. Wipe my butt." You know and I was like, "Oh, my gosh. Are you serious?" What's going to happen is you are going to start to get feedback in the form of complaints. Now it is your job as the entrepreneur to sift the complaints and you want to sift them into two different groups. You are going to sift the complaints number one into feedback for how to tweak your existing offer. Okay. You might be getting these complaints and you're like, "Crap". Wait they are right. I should change X, Y, and Z. I need to tweak this thing. All right. That is what Russell is doing. That is what he and I are doing. Typically, when we launch something and we've got to tweak it the first round or two we are listening to our customer feedback and we're like "Crap. Let's sift these things. Okay? Let's go and et's tweak the offer. Let's make it even better." Right? The second thing though. The second category you gotta look for is, is when you can sift these customer feedback items and their telling you what to go and create on the front or back end of your value ladder. They are letting you know. The market is telling what it is that you need to go and create. Okay? These front end products are being created by the customer who bought your middle tier product. That make sense? Let me say it again. Your front end products, typically the most successful ones I've ever seen. Typically, the ones, their being created third. The customer is telling you what they want you to create. They don't know they are doing that but that is what their doing. We're taking all those pieces of feedback and we're saying you know what? People wish they had shirts with our logo on it. Let's make Frontal Swag. You know what? People are telling us that they wish that they had something to help them write their copy. Front End Scripts. Right? We didn't start with front end products like that. We started with the mid and I personally do that as well. I start with the middle area of the value ladder at least $1000. When I get that core down when I get it converting. "Psssh." You've got yourself an ATM machine. You've got a cash machine... Then you make an application style form on the back end selling your one-on-one coaching, you're done for your stuff, your implementation styled products. Right? Don't put implementation styled products. Don't put coaching. Don't put one-on-one stuff in the core area. Don't put yourself in the fulfillment of the core of the value area. You put that in the back end. That is why I am going to build an application stype funnel with you guys. That's why I am doing that. If you want to come join me and watch me do it. Right. Get your questions answered then come watch. SalesFunnelBroker.com/live. You can watch the whole thing. I'll do the whole thing. You can watch for free. You know and follow along. You can do whatever you want anyway, but then I am also going to have for sale the actual funnel themselves as well as the training as well as a whole bunch of other stuff. It's just going to be awesome. Action sequences, a whole of bunch of other cool things I am going to toss in there for you. Then what I do is I build front end products. Front end funnels. Front end things that can with the only intent. You're not trying to make money on them. The only intent is to recoup ad costs and get customers for free so that anything they do on the middle of the value ladder and on the back of the value ladder is pure profit. Does that make sense? This is like value ladder strategy and it always irks me just a little bit when I see someone. I'm like no. Don't start with the front end product. I'm not telling you, you can't make money but, you gotta sale a crap load of those things to make a difference in your wallet. I got so animated I just threw my pen. Oh, almost landed in the trash can. Anyway, so hopefully that helps. That is all I am trying to say with this whole thing. I've built a live webinar funnel, live. I built the membership area funnel, live and a lot of cool strategies that showed how to use them in affiliate areas too, which is crazy cool. Then I am going to do an application style funnel as well. All of these are going to be available shortly on SalesFunnelBroker.com. If you want it, go check it out. I've got three requests in a single hour to build someones funnel. There is no way I can handle it out. There is no way I am going to try to. Honestly, it would be a disservice if I did try to. It'd be a disservice to all the people that I said. You know that I would say yes to. The way that I am getting around it is still building the kick butt totally rockin' funnels that I do know how to build but do it live with you guys in a template where can go do the same thing you are trying to do with it. You know what I mean? That's why I am trying to do these things live. For a while, I've got a huge list of funnels guys. You guys have join me for a while. I'm. If you want to keep going back to SalesFunnelBroker.com/live periodically, I'm just going to be building funnels live for quite a while. You guys can still come in. You can still grab them. I am going to be updating a lot of cool stuff and sharing things. It's the latest and greatest. Things that. Stuff that I know no one else is doing. Because we either pioneered it or I made it up or I figured it out or we made it up. Or whatever it is. Anyway, I'm excited. If you want to join you can. Please adhere to funnel strategy that we know works the best. Or I should say value ladder strategy. This is the order to build products on a value ladder. Number one mid tier, not front end. Mid tier, mid product, mid priced at least thousand bucks. Number two, go towards the back of the value ladder. Go at least $5000 on something. Coaching and event. Some kind of done for you application. Some kind of implementation. That is where we do that, higher up on the value ladder not towards the bottom. Number three, then we do the actual market driven front end products. Not from us with the sole intent to recoup ad costs. Anyway, I feel like the last few episodes for me have been a lot of techno babbled styled stuff. But I feel like ... Anyway, I hope you guys feel and sense that I am just trying to drop gold. These are the things that I do. Things that we know. Things that I have been doing for a long time and I just. Anyway, it blows me away when someones like "Oh yeah, I've got all these front end products and they are doing well, but, I'm not making any money." It's like, "Duh." 'Cause you're not supposed to make money with that stuff. That's supposed to give your customers for free. What's your actual business? What's the core? What's the mid tier product? What's the back end? Anyway, so hopefully this has been helpful. Hopefully these episodes have been great. I've kind of done some funnel deep dives lately. I've got some cool plans for this podcast coming as well. I am excited for you guys to be part of it and. Anyway if you've gotten any value at all. I love hearing that. It kind of keeps me going. Keeps me juiced. Because each one of these episodes honestly takes me in full after creating it, after putting it all together about an hour and half to two hours per episode. It's nice to hear ever once in a while, like a little shout out. I love it. Super nice. If you guys want to go to iTunes. Please rate the podcast. Give a rating. A love the written reviews. That helps me like crazy. That helps everyone else trying to find this kind of information as well. Anyway, it has been great. Last little shout out. If you guys want to join with me and dive into this whole thing. Even if you don't have a Click Funnels account, you can still watch. It's just a Zoom link so you can do live Q & A with me with everyone else and we'll build this whole thing together. And it's going to be awesome and I'm going to keep doing that for a while. Mostly 'cause I love building funnels. Some of them are funnels I need to build anyway, personally. I just thought I would include you in the journey. Go to SalesFunnelBroker.com/live and you can check that on out. Anyway you guys are all awesome and I will talk to you later. Bye. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get on of today's best internet sales funnel for free? Go to SalesFunnelBroker.com/freefunnels to download your prebuilt sales funnel today.

Sales Funnel Radio
SFR 88: 11 "Brunson-isms"...

Sales Funnel Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2017 31:12


Heres some of the best business lessons I've learned while sitting next to Russell Brunson for 20 months... Hey, 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. Now, here's your host, Steve Larsen. I'm still such a dork. Hey, I want to, so just real quick, I know I talked about in an episode ago, my voice is just rocked right now. I want you guys to know a really cool success I just had. It's good that we all ... Your successes, too. I want to hear about them. Don't shun your successes. Everyone, you got to go embrace your successes. Here's one of mine. I used to call them brag moments. When I was in the army, we'd be doing push ups. There was a time when I was commanding 150 people, and I was pretty good at push ups. I've got, honestly, longer arms than most people so they were a little bit harder for me, but I wanted to be good at them. I'd be doing these push ups, and I'd look up in the eyes of all the guys looking at me while I was doing it, and I'd be like yelling at them, getting them going. We were all fired up. You know, we were trying to keep each other motivated. It was a lot of fun. I used to have these brag moments to distract them while we were in those painful episodes, right? I would say, "Hey, Johnson. Brag to me, man? What's sweet in your life? What are you doing right now that's just kicking butt? Don't be humble. You tell me what's awesome in your life. What are you doing awesome at?" He would tell me. "Well, I did great at this," or, "There's a test I killed it at at this," or, "I did this over here. I did this." He would tell me that stuff, and it was cool how much confidence that brought the individual. I wasn't planning on saying this at all, but be cognizant of those things. Whenever you have a win, take time to win. You know, I'm not saying you've got to stop your whole operation and throw a party every time, but take time to acknowledge it, and be like, "Yeah, I'm the freaking man." Not in a cocky way, you know, but take pride in what it is your own personal progression. Be in competition with you, and get excited about those successes. Those are the successes to get braggy about. The ones where you're in competition with yourself and go kill it. Anyways, here's a cool one for me. I was asked to speak at a B2B Mastermind last weekend. It was a ton of fun. There was a FHAT event, though, two weeks ago, and I was solely focused on that. By the time the Funnel Hack-a-thon, the FHAT event, was done, I only had one week ... Actually, it was like five days. Only like five days to create an entire three hour presentation. Okay, I've done a lot of four hour presentations without stopping. I've done a lot of 15 hour ones at the FHAT event, too, but three hours, that's still a long time to prepare for, when it's a new material the whole time. You know what I mean? Meaning I had to reorganize and restructure it. I was spending all the evenings, I was thinking through strategy, I was talking to all my buddies, I was trying to figure out all the pieces in place. I was like, "You know, let me know what you think." I was trying to get a heartbeat on the industry, trying to figure out where people are. You know, what are the false beliefs of all the people who are going to be in the room? Literally doing the same strategy of creating a new product that I would anywhere else. I went through, I was like, "What are the false beliefs of the people in the room? What are they going to be thinking? What are they going to falsely believe about my ..." It was cool because I got to pitch. This was my first time ever pitching from stage, so I wanted to do a good job. I went, and I was flying over there, and I've got longer arms than the average bear, like I said before, so anytime I'm trying to do work on a computer in an airplane, it is not easy. My hand is contorted into the weirdest positions just for me to ... It doesn't work. Anyways, it's like a five hour flight with one stop and all that stuff over there. I'm getting stuff done, and it's like 10 o'clock in the evening. Wait, no. When did I land? It was 11. I landed at 11, got to the hotel at midnight, and I'm presenting this thing in eight hours. I was like, "I have barely even started the slides on this thing. I've barely made a dent in them. Oh my gosh. Okay, well, buckle up. When in Rome. Let's just get this done." I sat down in the hotel room, and I just put on tons of awesome music. I was listening to the Foo Fighters, and Muse, and Incubus, and all my favorite bands, and I was jamming out. I was just cranking out these slides, and I was working the formula, and I was putting the pieces together. All the things that we know, do the best. I put those pieces together, and I look up, and it's 3:30 in the morning. I was like, "Crap. I'm only going to sleep a few hours. Ah, whatever, let's make this sweet." Then I went back through, and I was making things, and I was fixing it. I was like, "When in Rome, baby. Let's go, get this done." I went through and I was writing the script, and putting all the pieces together, and about four o'clock ... I only lasted another half hour after that, but about four o'clock, I fell asleep, and I finished, and it reminded me of all these other hack-a-thons that I'd done with Russel, where we're like just dying, but we have a deadline, you know? It's letter gold. Are you going to get it done, or are you not? You know, just do it. Time's not going to wait for you, just get it done. I was like, "All right, well, I'm going to get it done." Anyways, I went to bed at four a.m., and I was on stage talking and teaching at 8:30 a.m. I only slept four hours, got up, didn't eat, didn't nothing else, I just dressed and showered real quick, and I got downstairs, and I started teaching. It was a lot of fun. There is a rush. If you guys have never done a webinar, I beg you to, because it's like the fastest way to cash we've ever seen. Myself, personally, as well as with Russell, and all the two comma club coaching students that I have, but especially though from stage. There is a huge endorphin rush from stage. I love it. I didn't feel like I only slept four hours. I felt like I had a full night's rest. I was on fire. It was awesome. I actually got the recordings back, which is awesome. I was teaching B2B people how to make new opportunities from their offers, and a whole bunch of other stuff, which is really a whole lot of fun. My first session ended, there was a bit of a break, and I hadn't even made order forms yet, so I run to the back with my buddy James Smiley, shout out to you, buddy. Hey, a little side note, actually. You guys know when I did that six part series where I interviewed someone from the six different industries that we know are using click funnels? James Smiley is still the guy who represents the B2B industry for me. He is killing it. He's doing awesome. From that one podcast episode, and the things that he's created from that, only two, three months ago, they've done huge numbers. I'm not allowed to say how much, but a lot of money, and it's been awesome. Very, very proud of what he's created. Super pumped for him. Anyway, he's been a friend to me for a long time. Anyways, he was there. It's his Mastermind. Him and Danny Veiga. They were both there, obviously. I was there with them, and after my first session, I realized that we didn't have order forms done, so James Smiley's running over to the back, and he's writing these order forms, and he's putting those things together. I don't think anyone in there knew. I started feeling like crap, so I took some more caffeine. "Let's take some vitamin C, baby, some caffeine. Let's get this thing rocking." I did my first ever stage pitch. I've taught in the whole perfect webinar format many times, but I take out the last part where there's the actual offer, and this time I didn't stop it. I'm really excited, you guys. I closed 28% of the room on my very first time ever pitching from stage. By comparison to other stage presenters, that's actually quite good. I'm very excited, you guys. That's my brag moment for this episode, and I'm super, super stoked about it. Well, what I wanted to go through real quick with you guys is, there's two different directions I could take this episode. I've pre-written out a lot of stuff, a lot of ideas. There's two different things, okay? Anyway, so what I was going to tell you, though, is that was Friday, and I went to bed at like midnight, and got up early again, and I had a full day of meetings with another group of people that was over there in Dallas, and then I went to bed again at four a.m. that next night. It's Monday, and my throat is on fire. I'm actually going to stop here, shortly. Principle number one, just get it done, just do it, okay? You set the goal. It's like when I would buy tickets to triathlons. The first triathlon I did, I just bought the ticket before I was in shape, because I knew now I had to get in shape. You know, same thing. All right, set the date, start sending traffic to your registration page. Just get it out there, and you will figure out a way because you have to. You hold your own feet to the fire, feel a little pain over it. I dare you to feel a little pain over it, but you'll find out actually really quickly that it's the secret to getting a crap ton of stuff done and actually your goals much faster. I've got to get some water. Just a second. There you go. This is live. Unedited. Raw. Steve Larsen, raw. That means different things in different places. All right. Hey, so what I wanted to go through really quick was, it reminded me of this, is I was thinking through a lot of the lessons I've learned, because I was teaching a lot of cool stuff at the B2B Mastermind, and super stoked I get to speak again in January, probably in February. In March, I will be, as well. I'm kind of off to the races. I'm going to speak a lot next year, so I'm kind of warming up baby. I'm excited. Hopefully I'll sleep more next time... Anyway, guys, as I was starting thinking through the different lessons that I've learned while at ClickFunnels, things that I could share at the B2B Mastermind, I was reminded of a list that I kept for a long time when I first got hired at ClickFunnels. I first thought to myself, "Oh my gosh. I get to sit next to, in my opinion, the most brilliant marketer that is alive, Russell Bronson." I was like, "How on Earth am I going to be able to capitalize on this? You know, how am I going to learn the most? How am I going to take away the most I can from this?" What I did is I keep a list of "Brunson-isms", okay? These are "Brunson-isms." These are 12 "Brunson-isms" that I've kept over the years. Well, I shouldn't say years. It's been almost two years. It feels like years, though, guys. We've been hauling cojones for a long time. I feel like I just have not stopped. I'm in a whirlwind. Anyway, but I call them "Brunson-isms." These are the things that I have written down while sitting next to him. When I say that I don't mean in like the same building, I literally mean arm's length away. As he'll be on coaching calls, as he'll be coaching in a circle, as he'll be talking to someone on a podcast interview, as he'll be launching this or that, or creating this video, or making this podcast episode of this own. You know what I mean? This is just 12, okay? I sifted out a lot of stuff. I didn't want to talk specifically about funnel building strategy. I wanted to talk more about how you act as an individual, as an entrepreneur. Anyways, these are 12 "Brunson-isms." I won't dive too deeply into these, simply because some of these, the lesson just kind of speaks for itself, but guys, one of these lessons alone has changed my life, in my personal business, I mean. Anyways, I'm excited to go through these. I realize it's 12 of them. Usually, it's easier if I say like, the three things, the two things, the one thing, maybe five, but there's 12, okay? I wanted to get them all done in one episode, so that you guys could hear what they are. These are the 12 "Brunson-isms" that have had probably the most impact on my life. My life, not just my business. I sifted out those. This is my life, okay? Number one "Brunson-ism," and these aren't ranked. They're not ranked. I wrote them down. I was actually in a Trello card, and this is just a running thing that I've had for a long time. Number one is don't create stuff. Document and sell instead, okay? Huge lesson. I did a whole episode about this a few episodes ago. It changed everything, okay? Anyway, it's crazy you guys. Review, document, and sell what you're doing instead of take the time to create it... I spent eight months making my first info product, and no one bought it for the first few months because I hadn't spent any time creating any market pressure, creating any interest. I didn't know what I was doing, okay? You can go spend a ton of time figuring out the actual like, "Let me go make the whole thing first." No, no, no. Flip it. Sell it first, then document it and create it as you go. Sorry, document and sell as you go. All right. That's number one. Number two, and I'll do like a review, just I'll read all of them real fast at the end, too. All right, so that's number one. Number two, design doesn't sell stuff. Okay, design doesn't sell stuff. As sad as that is to a lot of designers that are out there. If you look at Frank Kern's funnels, he's got a completely white background, and all he has is a headline, a video, and a button. That's pretty much it... The more I've been doing this game, the more subtle my design's become. I do think that design will help with follow-up sales, but it's still not the thing that sells. If you're getting hung up, like, "What should my funnel look like? What should this look like?" Scrap that attitude... Scrap that mindset, and know instead that it's the copy that sells, it's your offer that sells. Okay, that's it. If you're going to spend a lot of time on the funnel, the place to spend the time most on, after an offer, after all that stuff, is on your video. I don't mean like making it all professional, and stuff like that. I mean the script. I mean actually what are you going to say in that thing, and how are you going to come across as human rather than it being scripted? The actual words on the page, that's what does the converting. As much as we sometimes want to trick ourselves and think that it's the colors, and how good it looks, and things like that. That'll help you for a little bit, but there's no longevity with it. Anyways, that's number two. Design does not sell stuff, copy does. All right, number three. This is a big one. A little bit ago, Russell talked about, we realized that one of the reasons why Russell is where he is is because ... and honestly a lot of the other people that I know who are wealthy that have become wealthy quickly on the internet, is because they stopped selling one to one, okay? Bear with me a little bit, okay? Understand where I'm taking this... I'm not saying not to have call centers or people doing outbound or inbound calls, or taking inbound calls. I'm not saying not to do that stuff. What Russell, as the main entrepreneur, the entrepreneur of the company, has learned to do is sell not one to one, he's learned to sell one to many. Think of the scenarios where that applies most, okay? One to many. One to one, that's when I was like doing door to door sells, right? That's when I was a telemarketer, right? I was good at those things, but it's still only one person hearing the pitch, right? 28% of the people I closed in that room before, let's think through that, though. 28% of the people. That means I've got to talk to a lot of people one on one conversations. I've got to do that pitch a ton of times to really make a dent in my wallet. Well, what Russell's learned to do is get a lot of people in a room, or a lot of people in a webinar, or whatever it is, and pitch one to many. If you can learn to do that, wealth is easier to be yours, okay? All right, that's number three... Number four, this whole thing has been all about movement. There have been many times both personally and with Russell in the office there, where we'll look around, and we'll be like, "I don't know what to do next." Personally, in my own business, I've run into this many times, and you probably have, too, where you're like, "I don't know what to do next. What am I supposed to do next to actually be successful with whatever I'm trying to do?" You've got to come up with that plan. One of the biggest lessons I've learned from Russell is that this is all about movement, all of it. All about movement. Just move, okay? Think about a river, okay? There was this river I was rafting down once. We went on this 36 mile kayak trip, and it was a lot of fun. 36 miles, that's long, it's not like crazy long, but it's pretty long. It wasn't supposed to be that long, because the river was supposed to be moving, but what's funny is like the first 12 miles it was moving. It was fast. It was a lot of fun. Going through, I'm an adventuresome kind of guy. The last 24 miles, though, the river stopped moving. We literally paddled 24 freaking miles. We were so sunburnt, because we were planning to be out there like four hours. We were out there 12 hours. 12 hours, no sunscreen, like none of that stuff. Barely enough water. Actually, we pretty much were all incredibly dehydrated. We were so sunburnt that we couldn't stand for like two weeks. We actually got hurt over it, okay? Eventually, you've got to steer the ship in the right direction, but if the thing isn't moving in the first place, then who cares? If you don't know what to do, just move. Think to yourself, "I don't know. What should I do next? I think that." Like, cool. Move forward. If you really have no idea, just do something, okay? Don't worry about placing your foot in the most perfect place before you start going, or having all the steps planned out. It doesn't work like that. Hardly ever does. Never has for us. Never has for me personally either. Just about movement. Some people are like, "Well, that means you're going to do like 13 things you didn't need to do." It's like, yeah, but I found the three that made a ton of money, and you still haven't done anything yet. Anyway, this is number five. Number five is a big one. One of the first things Russell said to me when I sat down next to him, is he turned around and he looked over at me, and he goes, "Hey Steven, I want you to know why you're here." I was like, "Cool, I would love to know that, too, because you chose me out of a bunch of people. Why am I sitting next to you?" He's like, "Someone told me early on," I don't remember who told him this. He's like, "Someone told me early on, though, that there are starters and there are finishers." He goes, "Steven, I think that you are a finisher. I'm a starter." What's funny is that's true for me as far as funnels go, but it's part of the reasons I'm leaving ClickFunnels, is because I'm actually a starter. I know how to finish, but I'm actually a starter, and I can't not start stuff, and I've been doing that the whole time since I've been there. Anyway, just know, though. Usually, most of us have a predominate side. Are you a starter or are you a finisher? Sometimes one of the reasons people aren't being successful is because they're a finisher and they're trying to do all these starting things. Go find a starter. Attach yourself. Same thing as the opposite. If you know you can start a ton of stuff, but you take forever to finish things, find a finisher and connect yourself to them. Russell told me early on that's one of the reasons he's hired who he has, is because he's like, "I'm a huge ridiculous starter," which is true. You guys will see all the things that he does. He moves fast. He goes to sprints quickly, but he said, "I have tried to hire as many finishers as I possibly can." Anyways, huge sage advice. All right, number six. Russell's a delegation master. One of the "Brunson-isms" that I've learned probably most from him is, I'll make comments like, "Oh man, I wish I knew JavaScript better." Or, "Oh man, I wish I knew CSS better." He'll be like, "Why? We've got a guy for that." I was like, "Yeah, but then I'll be able to do X, Y, Z." He's like, "No, no, no. We have a guy for that." I was like, "Yeah, but I'm interested. It would be cool to know that." He was like, "That doesn't matter, dude. It's not what makes the money." He's done that to me many times. I like video editing. I like sound editing. I geek out over the process. I like geek out over the process of doing the thing that I do. It's a lot of fun. All of the pieces of it, all of the aspects of it, but one of the things he's helped me realize is like, "Man, you just delegate like a beast." That's exactly what he does. He's a visionary, he moves forward, he's a mover, he's a shaker, he figures those things out, and what he's very good at doing is figuring out what he shouldn't be doing. Not what he can't do, but what he shouldn't do. There are many things that he could do that he's not, because he shouldn't be doing those things... He should be focusing on the other parts of the business. Does that make sense? One of the biggest lessons I learned from him. It's not that I didn't know it before, but seeing it in action. It's insane, you guys. It's how he gets so much done. He doesn't do it all on his own. He doesn't try to. Sometimes, a lot of us, especially for brand new, for kind of a solopreneur, I actually have a team. I haven't told you guys much about them. I will interview them shortly. I want you guys to know who they are and how I found them. Specifically how I found them, so that you guys can do and start to replicate yourself as well, but I have my own team for my own stuff. I have for a long time, for this exact same reason. I delegate like a beast... I've got all sorts of stuff going on. I've got software being created, I've got an app being made right now, I've got tons of stuff that I do that I juggle on the side of working at ClickFunnels, which is kind of ridiculous, but it's because of this principle that I can do that. I'm not doing it all on my own, and neither is Russell. Anyways, delegate like a beast, you guys. Okay, next one. Moving on. Selling is all about status. Okay, if I'm trying to sell stuff, you guys got to understand that if you're selling things to people, in the person's mind, this is what's really happening. "If I buy this dude's thing and I fail at it, I'm going to look like an idiot." That's one of the biggest hang ups. That's one of the biggest reasons people don't buy from you. One of the things that he's taught me a lot of is that, "Look, selling's all about status." Okay, that's why there's a guarantee. It has less to do with them being able to recoup their money. It has more to do with them being able to protect their status, so that when they go to their spouse who didn't know they bought the thing, and they go and something breaks, they can say, you're giving them the excuse, you're giving them an out, you're giving them the ability to say something like, "Oh, don't worry. It's under warranty. Total crap. I shouldn't have done that, but I got the money back." It protects their status. It's all about status. You're trying to increase their status and protect them from losing it at the exact same time. Anyway, next thing. Biggest thing I see from Russell, also, he's a huge planner. Big massive wall calendar. Since seeing that, I got one last year, and I just got my one for next year, also. It's for macro level planning. We really don't do that much micro level planning, but we almost always have what we're going to do the next day totally planned out before we get there. Meaning, I know what I'm doing tomorrow. I know what I'm doing the next day. I know what those things are, but we've got a macro level view on these big massive wall calendars. "Okay, we've got this event this day. We've got these things this day. We've got that that day. We've got these pieces here. We've got that there." What's cool about it is that it actually really ... In my juvenile years, I used to think that planning would cause some kind of stress, because I had to think through details that I didn't need to know yet, and there's an element to that, but if I keep it macro, it actually takes more off my head. I actually increase my shelf space, my mental shelf space, when I use a macro level planner. Then I'll have a micro level one on just a legal pad. Russell does the same thing. He actually types it, he prints it, but I like to write mine on a legal pad. Anyway, plan the day the day before. All right, there's a few other delegation points here, so I guess some of these could have been combined. When you hire people, your only focus is to hire those people to do business stuff, to tend to the actual business, so that you can do what your role is. As the entrepreneur, your only role, the only thing you need to worry about is selling. That's it. Stop worrying about your dang logo, okay? I know it's cliché, I say it all the time, but it's true. Stop worrying about your logo. It doesn't matter, okay? For a long time, it does not matter. What you're trying to do, is it's proof of concept that you're looking for. Just sell it. Sell stuff, and know that at the beginning, you know what? You'll probably have some refunds because you didn't sell it right. So what? You're moving. Anyway, so when you hire people, you hire people explicitly to handle business stuff, right, so that you can do your job, which is to sell, sell, sell. Basically, if something doesn't make you money, you shouldn't be doing it, okay? Yeah. Okay, another huge thing that I see Russell do, which you guys actually have also been a part of, you may not have known it though, is that do your best to include your customers in the creation of your business, or at least your product. I mean, how many things does Russell publish? A lot of stuff... How many secrets does he keep? He doesn't keep any secrets. Everything that he tells you is everything that I get, too. Everything that he publishes, all the pieces that are out there, he tells it all. What's funny, is it's contrary to what most people think. "I've got this idea, and if I tell anyone my idea, they're going to steal it." Okay, I've told everyone my ideas for such a long time. I can tell you that's not true. You'll have one percent of people who try to pull it off, but even if they do, they're not going to pull it off the same way you will, so stop hiding your ideas. Start telling them. Get feedback, okay? Include your customers in the creation of your thing. All right, next one is whenever we're about to go on stage ... He taught me this early on, also. I thought I'd pass this on, because this has been a huge piece. Whenever we're about to go on stage ... What's funny is that at first it was just him, and then I've started doing it, too, but now we do it together, especially when we're about to collaborate on stage together. Like at the last FHAT event, I was on stage for a while, he was on stage for a while, and then back and forth, and then for a while also, we were on stage together, which was really awesome. Actually, it was a lot of fun. Anyway, he taught me this. My voice is going, guys. I've got to end this thing quickly. I've been going for 26 minutes, too. I've got to end it soon, anyways. You guys are probably like, "Shut up, Steven." Here's the last one, and then I'll recap real fast. All right, the frame work is what saves you. That's what it is. Now let me explain it. Whenever we're about to go on stage, we drop pictures, okay? You know all those little graphs inside Expert Secrets and DotCom Secrets book? Those were once stage presentation images. Okay, so when we're trying to figure out what to teach, a lot of times what we'll do is we'll use that opportunity to test stuff, to test concepts, to test things that we know we're on the brink of that we haven't quite been able to formulate yet, though. It's not that when we get on stage it's always polished. We obviously present it very polishedly, but if there's a concept, or there's this technique, or there's something like that that we want to make sure that we can test or whatever, we actually will draw it in pictures, which is why we have so many pictures. We draw it on a legal pad or a piece of paper. That's the thing that we take on stage with us. I do the same thing, and then when I'm teaching, and when Russell's teaching, we can just look real fast at that picture, and it represents that entire idea, okay? Rather than write out all these bullet points, which we'll do sometimes, which I'll do sometimes also, but mostly it's just this big, big thing of pictures, because if you can explain something in a hand drawn picture with a stick figure, it means you've probably dumbed itdown enough that anyone can understand it. Not that the people are dumb, but that you've put it and an area, and in a concept, and in a way that can be grasped and digested quickly. Hence lots of pictures formulate cool book, okay, that's the formula. Anyway, so that's actually 11. I thought there were 12. It's actually 11. 11 "Brunson-isms". Number one, document and sell. Document and sell rather than create. Number two, design doesn't sell stuff. Number three, learn to sell one to many instead of one to one. Number four, it's all about movement. Just move. Just do stuff. Number five, are you a starter or a finisher? Whatever your answer is, hire the other. Number six, be a delegation master, okay? Just delegate like crazy, you guys. It's funny because there's a lot of personalities out there that are begging for that kind of thing. They want to be led. They want to know what they're supposed to be doing. So tell them.All right, what is this? Number seven? Selling is all about status. Number eight, plan your day the day before. Number nine, hire people to do the business stuff so you can focus on just selling. If something doesn't have to do with selling, you should not be doing it. What is this? Number 10? Hold on. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Yeah, 10. Include customers in the creation of your thing. Number 11, the frame work of what you create is what saves you. That's what saves you on stage. That's what saves you in tons of areas. Guys, my voice is going like crazy, and it actually is killing, but I hope that that helps. There's an episode I did a little while ago called My Black Book of Business. All I would do is write down business ideas and lessons. I beg you to start tracking those things for yourself. If you keep track ... Just something to writing stuff down that frankly drives me nuts, because sometimes I don't like to write stuff down, but I know if I do, it'll be there. Just write down the thing. Keep a list. I don't care if it's on Trello or whatever it is, but start writing down the lessons you're learning, and they'll stick longer, you can teach them, you'll actually end up doing them, you'll remember them, you'll actually get them digested and start applying this stuff. Anyway, so that's kind of what I've been doing this last little bit, and I just wanted to share that list with you. That's my 11 "Brunson-isms." Remember to have your brag moments. Remember to have your lessons written down. This is a long episode, guys. Sorry about that, but I thought it'd be worth it to go through some of the biggest lessons I've learned from Russell Brunson. Thank you guys. 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 prebuilt sales funnel today.

Sales Funnel Radio
SFR 84: Value Ladders Do's And Don'ts...

Sales Funnel Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2017 21:33


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 Jason Croft Show | What drives your business?
Ep25 James Smiley - How to Take Your Existing Service and Sell to Large Companies

The Jason Croft Show | What drives your business?

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2017 59:43


James Smiley is on the show today.   He has led $0 to $20M growth for two different companies, been a part of a Silicon Valley SaaS IPO, and co-founded an innovation practice at AT&T overseeing over 400 resellers and 2000 wholesalers.  James has been the behind-the-scenes advisor for over 450 C-Level executives, top entrepreneurs, and many different start-ups. His primary focus is on disruptive technology innovation and revenue growth opportunities. Past companies that have called on James include Facebook, AT&T, and Bass Pro Shops.   James has published 7 books, recorded 100s of videos and podcasts, spoken to over 12,000 enterprise sales reps, delivered over 600 speeches, and sold over $210M in corporate products before the age of 35.   He walks us through exactly how to get in front of large companies and sell them your services instead of selling to individuals and small businesses.

ClickFunnels Radio
James Smiley, B2B Funnel Secrets To Closing 5 and 6-Figure Deals

ClickFunnels Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2017 34:04


James Smiley reveals the exact playbook he used to get hired by 48 of the Fortune 500. How he scaled sales of a $350M Silicon Valley SaaS company IPO (TeleNav), and train over 7,000 6-figure B2B sales reps! He talks about the 3 ways he closes deals and how you can too. James also discusses what it really takes to close 5 and 6 Figure deals and how to get paid to pitch the deal. Show Notes Average doesn’t really fit who James Smiley is Developing a belief in yourself to get your product on the shelves and in people’s shopping carts at the checkout line The breakdown of a funnel that pushes a product with a $100k to $1M price tag The funnels that you can make to push a high equity product is so much easier than any of us even consider James Smiley was able to get a man to pay him $5,000 to fly out to see him to push him more product for the client to buy A lesson he was taught at a young age was to put you and the client on the same side of the deal table James interesting experience that taught him how to sell your perspective You need to believe and see that your product will get your client from the Hell they’re currently in without your product to Heaven James breaks down the “Playbook” of pitching products Quotes: “It doesn’t matter what your selling abilities or skills are. What matters is ‘do you have a belief in yourself and in your product?” “It’s the person you become on the route to achieving any goal that makes it all worth it.” “Unless your Tony Robbins or you have some massive established brand that shows your philosophy rocks the world, businesses can’t pay for that. But if you change it into a system, now they can buy it. And this really just changed my whole selling perspective.” Links: JamesSmiley.org FunnelHackerRadio.com FunnelHackerRadio.com/freetrial FunnelHackerRadio.com/dreamcar

Sales Funnel Radio
SFR 68: B2B Funnels?! Special Interview with James Smiley...

Sales Funnel Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2017 66:57


James is not only one of the most well connected individuals I've ever met, he's also got his B2B funnel totally dialed in... Steve Larsen: What's going on, everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to a very special and frankly quite unique episode of Sales Funnel Radio. Speaker: 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. Steve Larsen: All right, you guys. Hey, I'm super excited to welcome you and our special guest today to the show. This is an episode I've never quite done before, and frankly, it's an area that I personally am still learning about sales funnels and I'm really excited to have him here with us today and I think part the curtain, let the veil down, so to speak. Very, very pumped to learn from him. Guys, please help me welcome Mr. James Smiley. How you doing? James Smiley: What's going on, Steve? Steve Larsen: Living the dream, man. James Smiley: Woohoo. Steve Larsen: Living the dream. James Smiley: Thanks so much. This is going to be awesome. Steve Larsen: I'm excited that you're here. Just for everyone else, the first time I ever met James, my life is run off of an app Voxer, and pretty much my life, Russell's life, all of our lives, we live on this app of Voxer, and that's how we talk. I don't think I've ever called Russell on the phone ever. I don't know his number, you know what I mean? We all live on Voxer and I get Voxed a lot, from just lots of people. Sometimes it's about me creating new barriers just so I can have my own headspace, you know? But then also there was this guy who kept asking, he's like, "Hey, do you want" ... From these really big and really popular companies, "Will you build a funnel for these guys?" "Hey, what if you built a funnel for these guys?" They were these huge companies, massive, massive, some of them billion dollar companies, and I was like, "Who is this guy? How is he" ... Number one, "Who is this?" Number two, "That would be cool, but how are you getting these leads? How do you find? That's insane." We have a lot of our own certification partners, ClickFunnels. I have my own clients I've built for, but man, the people that you were talking about, I was like, I mean, "This is insane." Anyway, I don't know if I'm allowed to say any of the names, so that's the reason I'm not, but man, I just got to ask, how do you get into something like B2B funnel building? James Smiley: Yeah, no, thanks, Steve. Super excited to be here hanging out with you guys, and I'll just start by saying massive, massive ClickFunnels fan. Being following you guys since before ClickFunnels. I was actually working at- Steve Larsen: Oh, really? James Smiley: Yeah. I was following Russell from some research that we were doing at a big company that I was consulting with, and we were trying to figure out how big was this internet marketing thing going to be and content ... It was really content and where was content going. It was really cool. It's just been awesome to see everything that's happened and been a massive consumer of everything that you guys do, so thanks for everything you guys are doing. I guess to directly share how can somebody go from being an internet marketer or running an agency, or whatever they do now into getting B2B clients, I think one of the things I try to share with people is you've got to get face to face with these kind of people... I think your chances go up exponentially if you can get face to face with them. One of the things that I've been doing and having a lot of success in the past couple years is running a webinar, mini webinar type of system where you could be running a lead or you could be running a lead ad or a Facebook ad or something, and running that into a small auto-webinar kind of scenario. Believe it or not, even removing the login aspect, we've seen a lot of success. We've gotten a tremendous amount of appointments by sending a LinkedIn ad or a YouTube ad directly to a website, to a ClickFunnels page, where it's auto playing myself or one of our sales reps or whatnot, and then from there, they can just click to book, to book a meeting. Steve Larsen: And that's the main goal? You don't do anything else besides that's just the main goal, the interaction from? James Smiley: Yeah. Something that I've used for a long time, I actually learned this I want to say it was like in 2004 or 5, at a Chet Holmes event. Chet Holmes, Tony Robbins event. I think it was called Ultimate Business Mastery a long time ago. Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: But I learned about the ideal thing to do is to try to broaden and generalize more your message and really hit on something that's new, cutting edge, innovative. Chet taught us year ago to do things like an executive report or an executive summary, and nowadays with technology, it's pretty easy to come up with something innovative. You can look up online really innovative videos and blogs, and what are the trends in such and such technology. And then essentially what we're doing is we're saying, we're running an ad saying, "Mr. or Mrs. executive. Are you prepared for the 2020 blah blah blah revolution?" Or, "Are you prepared for this and this? Join a three minute webinar," whatever you want to call it, "And let me explain it to you." The person there explaining it is my sales rep. Steve Larsen: Interesting. James Smiley: Yeah, and then at the end he or she is saying, "Well, I'd love to follow-up with you. I'd love to give you this $600,000 of research that we've done" or whatever that number is, "Book an appointment right now and I can give you this guide, I can hand you this guide," or whatever. We would always try to get face to face with them if we can. Steve Larsen: So do you run these local just to where you are mostly? Or I mean, you're getting on a plane? You're flying out to them a lot? James Smiley: Yeah. I think it really depends on what kind of business you're running. When I worked for much larger companies, our territory was across the nation, but in more of an agency model I've helped some internet marketers in the space, it's easy to set up a local roadshow or those kind of things through your town or through your city, where you can go and present some information. Really hot things I would think would be for your guys' audience maybe like where is Facebook going to take business in the next three years? And, are the companies in your area prepared for that? You can run a local ad saying, "Hey, I'm booking nine meetings" or, "Six meetings and this is a local tour that we're doing and it's a $3000 event and I'll do it for free, and I'll come to your office, but here's the deal. Number one, the owner has to be there, and then number two, you have to give me X amount of time," or something like that. You put some stipulations on it, but if you can get in front of them, your chances are going to go tremendously. Utilizing the web system and the web tools and the web automation that you guys have set up, and I really like Russell's two step follow-up process that you guys use. I believe for like high ticket sales and stuff. We use a very similar approach. I would say a lot of the times it's one person versus two, but the psychology's actually exactly the same as a two step, so that might help people when they get on the phone with somebody, knowing what to do and where to take it next, but yeah. Steve Larsen: That's amazing. That's really cool. I mean, we're always ... Go ahead. James Smiley: I've done this with as big as companies that are in the government all the way down to when I ... I think I was one of Dan Henry's first 50 or 60 students. Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: When I buy even a course like that, I'll just go implement it right away. I want to know, I want to know everything in the first 10 days or so, so I went out and booked a ton of small appointments and went out there and did it. The same process works whether you're going after a chiropractor or whether you're going after a Fortune 2000 or somebody in the government. Steve Larsen: That's amazing. Because this kind of approach, I mean, the core of what we usually teach is usually, "Hey, let's do a free plus shipping offer. Here's this little $7 thing." That's not really the same approach you're going to use when you go to B2B, but the same principles certainly apply of sales. This is cool... I've never seen this before, that's awesome. I want to ask more about you personally, right after this too, but you're saying funnel wise ... Go ahead. James Smiley: You're right. Like, the psychology is the same, which is when I read the DotCom Secrets book, I was like, "This is right on." Even in my industry, I was like, "I don't know if you guys fully understand like how big it is in my industry." I mean, it's huge. Steve Larsen: It's massive, dude. I read it when I was laying out, holding my M16 out there and I was reading this thing and I was like, "This is changing everything" and all these startups were like, "Shut up Larsen." I was like, "No, I don't think you get it. This book's amazing." Sorry. Just a little testimonial there. James Smiley: And I would say the comprehensiveness of that, I mean it's just scripted out for you. It's the most complete book I've ever seen on this kind of stuff. The other thing I was going to inject, too, Steve, is a lot of people say, "Okay, I can get that meeting. What do I sell them? What do companies want? What are the sweet spots?" I'll share some of the things that we're doing and seen a lot of success with, so we're seeing a lot of success with companies that are five million to about 15 million. Steve Larsen: That's the sweet spot for you, right? With this funnel. James Smiley: It's a sweet spot that it's almost downmarket from where I usually play. I usually play in the 10 to 100 million dollar client range, but I've found the ease of getting into clients that are between five and 15 million is unbelievable. If you look at how many businesses in the last three to five years have gotten into that four, five, six, seven million dollar range, it's astronomical. The small and medium sized business has exploded and so most of these owners have gotten there because of some innovation, some relationship they built, some partnerships, some new technology or new industry that came out, and they almost, when you get with them, they almost don't fully understand how they got there. But they're just happy they did, right? Which anybody would be, and so- Steve Larsen: So like the people that have like, they've figured out enough stuff to get that far but they're ... That's kind of an interesting filter, though, as far as cool clients to have. That's interesting. James Smiley: Yeah. The beauty of these people, these companies, is number one they have money. Number two, they reach a plateau where their main goal of the executive staff, the CFO, these people, is they're just trying to maintain revenue and herd the cats. Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: They don't want revenue drop off, right? I mean, it's a generalization, but I can tell you through Gartner and Forrester and all these market research firms that I've been fortunate enough to see what the data is, these companies that are in this small and medium sized world, they have no real focus on sales anymore because they're just trying to maintain the revenue that they just ramped up in the last one to five years. Steve Larsen: Interesting. James Smiley: So you come in, right? Or any of your followers who have an agency or whatever, and the great questions to ask them is, "How does your pipeline look? How does your sales funnel look? What's your cost per acquisition? What's your cost per lead?" It's astonishing. I would say over 9 out of 10, almost 95% of the time they will not know how to answer that. Steve Larsen: Wow. James Smiley: You talk to a 10 million dollar company, they don't know what their cost to acquire a customer is, what their cost per lead is. Steve Larsen: Wow. Truly is an accident then, which makes you the hero. That's awesome. James Smiley: Yeah, so you come in with that angle and then it's funny, like the main thing we lead with is funnels, right? It's the main thing we lead in. We say, "Are you getting leads online? Are you using online automation? Are you using social media?" 9 out of 10 times, maybe more than that, they're going to say, "No, not really but we've heard about it" or, "We're thinking it." Steve Larsen: "We posted on Facebook once. We have a page we don't do anything with." James Smiley: Yeah, like one of my clients is a big company in California. They're a top tech company, and they were telling me that when I asked them these questions they said, "Well, we have a marketing agency that did our website and then a year ago they said, 'Hey, do you want us to run Facebook ads?'" This is very typical, right? Marketing company- Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: ... they know branding, they don't really know leads, sales, or want to be responsible or on the hook for sales, but they know branding, they know the four Ps of marketing, all that stuff, right? Steve Larsen: Yeah. James Smiley: They watch an Etsy video or YouTube, or took a class, and now they're Facebook ad experts. Here I come into a client, they're spending 5 to $6000 a month on Facebook ads, and all the agency is doing is boosting their posts. Steve Larsen: Like, with no other strategy. James Smiley: I could not believe that. I was like, "You're paying this company thousands of dollars, plus you're earning five grand of your own money, and all they're doing is boosting your post? That's not even an ad. That's not like a real ad." Steve Larsen: No. I could do that, and I don't even know Facebook very well. That's easy. James Smiley: Yeah. They had done this full fledge for about three months. Steve Larsen: Wow. James Smiley: They ramped into it and then they said, "We're all in, five grand a month." I said, "How many sales have you ever made in those three months?" They said, "Zero." I said, "So you've spent over $15,000 in ads and you don't have one trackable sale?" He said, "Yeah." He said, "Can you help us with that?" It's like, once you get in the door, you'd be surprised how many of these big companies are disorganized in that area and they're looking for somebody to help them. Steve Larsen: That's so cool. That's so cool. I mean, right before this we were chatting, and you were talking about, "Hey." I mean, there's this process you go through while you're with them. Do you mind taking us through that, like the outline you have in your head? James Smiley: Yeah. One of the things that I'll train people on is when you're in a meeting, when you get face to face with somebody, there's really three things that you need to know before you close, okay? Here's one thing about closing is if a sale is moving too fast and it's a big sale, something is drastically wrong, okay? Steve Larsen: Which is such the opposite thing you want to know and here. James Smiley: It's almost like the opposite of true internet marketing, where it's like you want speed, you want traction, right? With these big companies, very few times does one person make the decision. Nobody really wants to be on the hook if there's a downside, but everybody wants to wave the flag if there's an upside. When you're coming in, you have to understand that there's going to be ... B2B is more of a chess match and you have to understand how the chess match is played and why people want you in there. Believe it or not, the bigger the company, it's not always about revenue and it's not always about sales... It's usually about the bigger the company, and I'm just saying this so people understand, that most of the time the motivation, the influential factor is going to be somebody wants a promotion, somebody wants to look good, something like that. Steve Larsen: Just to follow-up with that real quick, what's your strategy to make sure you're actually pitching the decision maker, you know what I mean? Because otherwise, I could see you literally pitching everybody, you know what I mean? James Smiley: Yeah. One of the things that I do when we're warming up leads and booking meetings is so number one, we're trying to get a face to face meeting. Number two, if we're going to do an onsite seminar or something like that, we require the business, the decision maker to be there, or we'll say, "Or we'll charge you." Steve Larsen: Interesting. James Smiley: The decision maker has to be there or we'll send you an invoice, and they have to stay the whole time. If you don't set those parameters, 80% of the time you're going to get some marketing manager who's just basically stealing your ideas and going to go tell the boss that now they're smarter. You've got to get the decision maker there when you're presenting and being the guru. Steve Larsen: And you're presenting in their office, with them, as like a roadshow, part of your funnel basically? James Smiley: Yeah, that's been a big thing that we've done the past five, six, seven years. I've done it at a number of different companies, big companies, small startups, all those kind of things, and for my own agency, and it's worked really well. If you can't get into meetings, the next best thing, something that and I'll just throw this out there for your audience as well, just like a backend hack that we're using, is something that works really, really well is to set up your own Meetup.com or network with somebody who runs a Meetup.com. Say, "Hey, I'm an XYZ expert." "I'm a Facebook ad expert," "I'm an online automation expert," and say, "I do this seminar and we've done it, the value of it is thousands of dollars, but I'll do it for your people for free if you can get 10 people or 20 people in the room." Then, so you can use Facebook, you can use all the little event invites apps to get people there. You can use Meetup.com. For a while, we ran our own Meetup.com here when we we're just getting established in Dallas. Here's the thing about B2B that's different, is you only need like one or two or three really good people in the room to make a six figure income. Steve Larsen: Yeah. That's ... Wow, yeah. James Smiley: Yeah. One of the most profitable meetings in the past, or really this year that I did, was with one person. This person was a big business owner, big time networker, multimillionaire, and it was just to him, and I talked to him and wrote all over his whiteboard for an hour and a half, and then he referred me to my biggest client this year, which I mean, getting a five and six figure deal is pretty common in the B2B space. Steve Larsen: Sure, which is just crazy for so many people who are just starting this game. Like, that blows their mind. "One deal, six figures, what?" But that's the kind of stuff that you kept dropping on my Voxer and I was like, "Who is this guy?" James Smiley: Yeah. Really, some of the people that I've been helping is the ideal scenario for somebody like me, is to go there, win that relationship, keep up the corporate relations, and broker out the services on the backend to people. I've got a network of trusted people. If I need email copy, if I need funnels, if I need Facebook ads, you know what I mean?... That's an ideal scenario for somebody like me. I would say when you start out, try to do as much as you can so you learn the process inside and out, but it's amazing how much money you can make versus how much time you put in. I always have people say, they're like, "James, you have four kids, married for 13 years, great marriage, you seem like you" ... I used to be a pro fisherman, pro bass fisherman, so I fish a lot, I have all these fishing pictures, I run an info product for fishing. Steve Larsen: Wow. James Smiley: They're like, "How do you do all this stuff? You have this huge business, and you're speaking at these conferences and stuff." I'm like, it's the B2B space that I play in where I only need less than a handful of clients at a time, and they're going to more than take care of me. I would say something that's really important and I don't want to be one of those people to paint a false reality here. You've got to know how to fire your own client when you're in this game. Steve Larsen: Do you do it a lot? James Smiley: I would say I turn down about 50% of the people who say they want to work with me. Steve Larsen: That makes me feel better because I fire a lot of people. Fire your own customer, yeah, okay. James Smiley: Yeah, it might even be more. Whereas, if I feel like I'm going to get into something and as soon as something goes wrong they're going to blame me, like it could be anything, something in marketing, revenue, CFO doesn't ... Whatever. I'm out of there, you know? Steve Larsen: Totally, yeah. There was a guy, like just recently, and he ran up to me and he's like, "Hey." He's offering me 50-100 grand for me to build a funnel and I was like, "Hey, that's really cool" and it was like a drop in the hat, really easy one that I knew it'd like double sales and all this stuff, but it was simply because ... I said no to him just because I didn't think we'd get along. That sounds ludicrous to people but I don't want to get into this relationship with someone where it's like just hell the whole way, you know? James Smiley: Yeah. Steve Larsen: It's like, "Oh." Yeah, anyway. James Smiley: Yeah. I mean- Steve Larsen: The key is firing more than hiring almost, you know? Just be really picky with those high end ones. That's the biggest thing, [inaudible 00:23:48]. James Smiley: Yeah. Something to piggyback off that, Steve, is you want to make sure you're set up as a corporate entity, a minimum of an LLC. Because you're dealing with big clients and they have lawyers, so- Steve Larsen: Got you. James Smiley: I mean, I've been able to navigate the waters and stay out of any of that, but this is not like working with a three-man show down at the local strip mall area, you know what I mean? Steve Larsen: Sure, yeah. James Smiley: If something goes wrong, the CFO's not going to take the heat. He's going to shift it to somebody else, and so you just need to be prepared for that. Make sure that you don't get into those type of relationships on the frontend, that's the best thing you can do to protect yourself. Steve Larsen: Right, that's interesting. I mean, when you first got started doing this, I'm sure you had your own legal documents and all this stuff. I mean, did you spend a lot ... Probably more time obviously than the average person, just setting up the legal aspects of it? James Smiley: Yeah. I hired a coach to make sure I did everything right. Steve Larsen: Oh, cool. James Smiley: I'm big into coaching, have always been, and so yeah, I hired somebody just to make sure that I had all that buttoned up. It's not as complicated as I thought, but I'd rather be safe than sorry on that end. Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: A lot of these companies, they're legacy business models and legacy leadership styles. They're not going to be all about handshake deals a lot, so you're going to need decent contracts and things like that. Out clauses. You don't ever want to get stuck to where you can't get out. You always want there to be a way for you to step out without any repercussion. That's a big thing, yeah. Steve Larsen: You've gone through and you ... I mean, you showed me how you got the leads. Totally genius funnel, and Meetup.com, ah, I wonder why I've never thought of that before. Like, people go to those. James Smiley: crosstalk... Steve Larsen: Like, that's such a, that's perfect for that industry. Anyway. James Smiley: Yeah. We've ran them, like digital marketing ones, like 5-10 people would show up the first meeting. We ran technology ones, you'll get a ton of people. Meetup.com, there's people there. Once you schedule that, you can rally all your social media channels and get more people there, but yeah, I mean we've ... Let me give people a hack on how where to have this meeting, right? You don't want to have it home or something, and you may not have a place of business. The best places I've found is number one, a really nice local library. Steve Larsen: Really? James Smiley: Yeah. Like, I'm here in Frisco, Texas, just a local library. There's a great meeting space, projectors, all that stuff, and it's free. As long as you're a card carrying member of the library. Steve Larsen: Which takes like five seconds. James Smiley: That's right. Steve Larsen: Yeah... James Smiley: It's funny, this lady actually asked me, "Are you a card carrying member?" I'm like, "Um, that sounds like a little bit more than" ... A card carrying member of the library. Steve Larsen: "Where's the bouncer?" James Smiley: The other really cool place is the Microsoft stores, if you have a Microsoft store in your town or city. They usually have a business center that's attached to it, and you can go in there, and as long as you're not ... I hate to say this, but as long as you're not bringing an Apple computer, and a Windows computer, there are hookups and everything, and just- Steve Larsen: Wow. James Smiley: ... A really cool free innovative space. You just call down there and say, "Hey, I want to book a business meeting." They love it because a bunch of business executives are going to come and be around their technology, so they'll let you come in for free. That's two easy places to have it. The third one is I'll ask somebody, a company, if they want to sponsor the location. That actually works really well, because you'll usually have somebody who wants to show off or maybe wants to create opportunity for themselves, so they'll host it in their own building. Steve Larsen: Wow. James Smiley: That's the third way we've done it and it works out really well. Steve Larsen: Do you end up selling a lot of times the sponsor on your services? I can imagine that they'd get interested, too. That's [crosstalk 00:28:07]. James Smiley: We will sell everybody in the meeting. We'll sell to everybody, yeah. Steve Larsen: Do you mind going into how you run the meeting itself? Like, what do you do in there? "Hey guys, want to build a funnel?" James Smiley: Yeah. Surprisingly when I first downloaded Webinar Secrets and all these online methodologies, it's actually very similar. Steve Larsen: I thought so. I was wondering if it was ... Okay, yeah. Nevermind, go on. James Smiley: Yeah. That's why the more that I've unraveled all the things that you guys are putting out, number one I've personally spent over $10,000 on your guys' stuff. I mean, Steal Your Funnel, Let The Show, everything. Your guys' stuff has been rock solid and I actually consume it, right? Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: As I've been consuming it, I'm like, "This is so unbelievably productive in my area." Like, you could actually take the content of some of these things and just say, "Hey, B2B, fill your funnel. B2B, sales presentations." It would open up the doors tremendously. Steve Larsen: That's all I did in that first info product, actually. I was in college, I read DotCom Secrets, I was obsessed with it, and I held a three hour meeting in a stranger's home with tons of people and I recorded it. It was the same content. They were like, "Brilliant." James Smiley: Yeah. It's amazing, like one of the biggest things that people are going to need when they're starting out is they're going to need credibility. Usually people will give you a shot, you can set up one of these meetings in a couple weeks, and actually have it. Like, in 10 days from now you can have your first meeting and have people there. But you're going to want to make sure you record it, the audio. You can go onto Amazon.com, there's a $20 Bouyer microphone that has a 20 foot extension. You can lapel it up onto yourself, so you can record what you're doing. Number two, you want to get somebody to take some photos so you have photos. All those kind of things help you build credibility, so as you continue to move forward, you can use those photos, use the recording, all those things as promotional items and those kind of things. Steve Larsen: Interesting. James Smiley: Yeah, and then once you get into the meeting, the general structure is in the very beginning I will absolutely try to wow with something big. Like, the biggest headline I can come up with, and so in my career, I was able to grow two zero to 20 million dollar businesses, new lines of business, like from nothing to over 20 million. Steve Larsen: Oh, my gosh. James Smiley: And I did two of those before I was 35. Steve Larsen: Holy crap. James Smiley: Yeah, so that's usually the line I'll start out with. I'll say, "I'm going to tell you the backend secrets of how I grew two zero to 20 million dollar businesses for two different companies, and how I did it before I was 35, and maybe some of that will be helpful for you guys. Would you guys be onboard if I shared that with you?" Steve Larsen: what... James Smiley: Yeah, exactly. Steve Larsen: Cool. James Smiley: That shocks them, and then you go into like the three step process you use is awesome. Then, on the backend, the biggest thing you want to do is push them to one on one meeting. Like, you'll get people just the hot leads are going to walk right up to you, but try to push everybody to a meeting. If you can get 10 people or let's say you only get five people in the room, if you can book half of those people and then close one of them, that could be easily a five figure deal, easily a five figure deal. Steve Larsen: Interesting. James Smiley: So, yeah, I mean and that's just with five, you know? Steve Larsen: Right. James Smiley: But it's surprising. When you think of psychology of what we're doing, the more I read the stuff you guys put out, I'm like, "Wow, this just crystallizes what we've been working on." Like, it streamlined everything we've been doing. Steve Larsen: That's cool. James Smiley: Yeah, it's been really cool. Steve Larsen: You just barely touched on, so you go through, use some of the Perfect Webinar script which we ... Russell's always mentioned he regrets that he called it that because it's used way more places than just a webinar. Then, you're trying to push to a one on one with them which is awesome, booking and closing them. The one part that you kind of mentioned before the call, so I'm like biting at the bit to try ... I want to hear about also, because every single one that you ever talked about with me was like these huge deals with these very well known companies. I'm just not sure if I'm allowed to say the names so I'm not, but like, "Whoa, that's crazy." How do you structure a five and six figure kind of deal? James Smiley: Yeah, good question. I'll just reveal what we do and hopefully that helps your audience. The three things that mentally in my head, when I get to a one on one meeting, whether that's a phone call, but ideally it's face to face, is I'm looking for is there a need? Like, do they really have a need for my results? I'm pushing results, what I've done, and here's a simple hack I've taught new sales reps. I mean, I had a sales rep come in who was a used car salesman, and at AT&T he ended up being one of the top salesmen in the entire country among 10,000 sales reps and he was a used car salesman. I've taught them this strategy of if you don't have a true result, just Google a result in that industry for that type of service or technology. There's stories out there, there's blogs, there's videos, and you want to be able to share some type of result. Like, "People who used this, this is the type of result they're getting." Like if you can't honestly say, "My clients are doing this," or, "Your competitor who works with me is doing this," then at least share something in the industry. It will help you move the conversation forward. You need them to anchor on a result, and I will keep going back to, "So is that the kind of result that you guys want in your business?" Or, somehow I might say, "What would it do for you guys? I mean, I know you guys have a lot going on, but what it would do if you were able to get that kind of result? Do you actually think you could handle that amount of leads or would I absolutely swamp you?" Once I can get them to anchor on a result, I'm trying to see like is there really a need with that, right? Once I've established that, and a lot of times if I don't understand it, I will just ask them. I'll say, "Do you actually need this or do you just think it's cool? Like, do you need that result? Will it actually help your business?" Stakeholder, board members, VC angel investors, will those guys care or how big is this, right? Number one is need. Number two ... Go ahead. Steve Larsen: Yeah, I just wanted to touch on that. Because that's actually a very stark difference between what we do and sounds like B2B funnels. We always tell people what they want. If we try and sell people what they need, most of the time you don't make a lot of money with B2C, you know? In that category. That's interesting. You specifically go for the ... That makes sense, too. These big companies, they've got a bunch of cash, they're trying to figure out how to plug the holes in. That's probably their mindset anyway, that's fascinating. That's a big difference. James Smiley: Yeah no, that's a very good point. I would say one of the things that I've seen a contrast between what the internet marketing world as I understood it and consumed it to be, and B2B, is in B2B there's not as much emotional decisions. People who make emotional decisions do not stay in executive leadership very long. It's like the bigger a company gets, the less agile they get, right? Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: I ran innovation at AT&T, I did some stuff with Facebook. When you deal with these bigger companies they'll talk about ... I ran an innovation center, but I would always say, "What are we innovating?" You know? Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: Because when you're a big company, you can't make as many mistakes because when you make a mistake, that could tank your stock price three bucks, which is billions of dollars. Steve Larsen: Interesting. They're all walking on eggshells all the time, that's interesting. James Smiley: Yeah, so people want sign off, approvals, and all those kind of things, and so it's important to have someone inside the business, ideally the key decision maker, the owner, who's your champion. Very key to have a champion, someone who's willing to champion it internally, in the business, but I would not try to push to one call closes and those kind of things as much, because a lot of times there are influential factors. Like, if a CEO makes a decision and he spends money on you but then this other part of the business is going under, somebody, like the CFO, the board, whatever, could say, "Well, why did you shift money there versus over on this side?" There's a lot of factors that take place, and so, although I am absolutely pushing them to make an emotional decision, so I'm actually trying to push on that want feeling more, but I'm presenting it more as a need is maybe the way I would say that. Steve Larsen: Oh, that's clever. I love that. James Smiley: Number one need, the next thing I'll go to in the meeting is I will ask them directly, "Perfect. I mean, that's cool. I know we can do it. You've got the right person" type of thing, and then I'll say, "So what's your timeline to get this done? When would it be good for you to get this done? When do you want it done?" Once again, if a sale is moving too fast and they're just skipping over this stuff, something's going to fall on the backend, and you're not going to close the sale. You need to establish a need and get common agreement there. Then, you need to establish and get common agreement on a timeline. They may say, "I need all these results in two weeks." You're running LinkedIn or Facebook ads or whatever and you go, "That ain't happening." So, you need to understand the timeline, and that's going to set expectations, right? If you can agreement there, the next question I'll ask is the most important, which is about the money. I'll say, "So, you want these results, we've already talked about how you think you can generate $8000 a month more or $8000 a week more," whatever. Steve Larsen: Wow. James Smiley: "What's your budget to be able to" ... "What are you willing to invest to be able to do that?" I'll tell you, like 90% of the time, somebody's not going to come back and say, "I have $200,000 free cash flow." But you will find out with that question if they don't have a budget. I mean, most of the time, you're going to find out if they don't and that's key, right? Like, if somebody comes back to me and says, "I can probably carve out like 6 to $8000 this year for you," that's not my client, you know? Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: Although it could be a great relationship for a lot of people, it's not my client. Steve Larsen: If they don't have a budget, do you walk then? James Smiley: Yes. Steve Larsen: That's awesome. James Smiley: Yep. I've got a playbook that I'll usually leave with them that during the meeting, I'm kind of like writing a few notes, a few ideas. I'm wowing them with the type of results and if they start asking you, they might start asking you details about, "Well, why are you an expert at this?" I might go into different ways to create audiences and as I'm telling them hacks and things like that, I'll be writing those down. Then, I end up leaving that behind with them, so it's something nice that we leave behind. But typically, the only three things that I need to know is is there a need? Is there a timeline? Is there a budget? That goes for whether I'm working with somebody in the government, so whether I'm working with a Fortune 10 or a new startup or an individual. Steve Larsen: That's amazing. That's amazing. Holy crap. That's really cool. It's neat to see how you pulling off on their ... I mean, I always tell people, "The customer's not always right, the customer's not always right." Whoever said that phrase was just totally wrong and not in business, or read about it in a book or something. It's call to see you sifting and sorting out people like that. James Smiley: Yeah, and there for time, I know we're going to be cutting close here, do you want me to share how to structure the price tag? Steve Larsen: That would be awesome, actually. That's a big question I've got for it, as well, yeah. James Smiley: Yeah, so I've learned this over the years. When I was in my 20s, I would always screw this up. When I got in my late 20s, early 30s, I just started figuring out, now I feel like I've really crystallized this, so what you want to do, especially if you're an individual consultant or running a small agency, is number one, you're going to probably laugh at how similar this is to what you guys do. It's actually the same exact psychology, just a little bit different on how you present it. But the first thing I do is I'll say ... So, if I were working at such and such a company ... So, a live example would be when I was at AT&T, I was in what's called the "high-po" program, the high potential executives program, so I was on a fast track to be an executive in the company. Essentially, around October of this year, I left a couple of years ago, but around October this year there was a high likelihood I would be at a VP or some type of executive or something like that, as long as I was progressing, right? Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: So what I tell them is, that kind of a job ... So I left that and I say, "Now, that's a 300 to $500,000 a year job." That's kind of where I start, you know? It's really important that when you present that figure of what your true full value is, it's important that they believe it, okay? When I was younger, I used to just zoom by it and I was kind of embarrassed. Like, if you can't anchor off of that, because that actually becomes your high price tag, where then you start doing a price drop, right? Similar to what all these guys do, what you guys teach. You want to anchor off of what's your absolute highest value, and be honest. If you're a $80,000 person, say you're 80. If you're a 100, say you're a 100. If you're 50, say you're 50, but so you anchor off that and then so in their mind they're going, "I want that result, but crap, I can't afford that." Then, the next thing you bridge to is you say, "So not only am I at least a 3 to $500,000 employee, but you look at some of my competitors who offer this service," and trust me, there's always going to be someone who's more pricier than you, than me, right? So you say, "Some of competitors and you may know these guys, this guy or this guy, they charge 400 to $600,000 for this service. In fact, just to have this meeting could be $2000." Now, they're going, "Dude, this was a great meeting but I don't have that kind of meeting," but they have to believe that you're worth it or that somebody would actually pay you for that, okay? If they don't believe- Steve Larsen: How are you doing that? Yeah, how are you anchoring that? James Smiley: You set it up in the very beginning. From when you come in, when somebody says ... I was meeting with, a sales meeting with Siemens' CO not that long ago and I don't know the guy. A partner of mine brought me in and he sits me in, I'm the youngest guy in the room and he looks me dead in the eye, shakes my hand with a big old smile, he says, "James, tell me something about yourself." Just right away, no introduction, "Tell me about" ... That's very common, right? Steve Larsen: Sure. James Smiley: The last thing you want to do is go through your resume. They're not actually asking you, "Tell me your resume." The thing you want to say is what are your results. What are the things you've done that are huge, the big headlines. That's where, instead of saying, "Well, when I first got into technology," you're losing the sale already. The first thing you want to say, "Well, what's really cool is I sold this deal and had this partnership and I've been able to help these logos, and I've been in this publication, or I have a book." You want to almost give your sales pitch, like your value proposition to the world, you know? Like what are your big headlines? In the very beginning they're going, "Wow, this person's pretty high level. This person is much more high level than our marketing managers." Steve Larsen: That's interesting. You're not necessarily telling the origin story, but you're telling ... You're in the testimonial phase of what you've done. Okay. I'm just putting it in my head where you're going, okay. James Smiley: Yes. The only thing I teach people to talk about, I've told hundreds of sales reps this, the only thing you want to share is your results. You want to share what you've done, who've you've helped, what their ROI was. Don't talk about, "I've been in the industry for 22 years." No one cares about that stuff because most people have been in the industry for XX amount of years. Steve Larsen: Sure, especially if the CEO, if they're like, "Yeah, I've been here forever." James Smiley: Yeah, yeah. That's not impressive and I would say the same thing in terms of how you fill out your LinkedIn. If you're not established in the industry, don't make your LinkedIn a resume. Make your LinkedIn from top to bottom, all about results. You'll see a significant difference in the type of people that want to engage with you, and so yeah, do you want me to come back to the price tag thing? Steve Larsen: Oh heck yeah, yeah. This is awesome. I'm just trying to keep you going. I don't want to turn it off. This is awesome. James Smiley: Yeah, this is fun. I'm going to anchor on a super high price tag that I'm worth as a full time employee, working at a corporation, working 40 to 60 hours a week, whatever that is, and then I'll bridge it to, "Okay, this is what my competitors are worth and this is what they charge you, and hey, you might even talk to one of these guys, right?" A lot of times they're like, "Yeah, I've heard about them and man, this is way too pricey." Then, I'll start to back it into typically, I would charge $150,000 for something like this. When I present that, I'm saying, I start off with, "In order for me to drive 1.2 million dollars of new sales revenue" or whatever that is, right? I actually try not to lean as much on revenue. I'll lean more towards a different metric. I'll try to anchor on a different metric like, "In order for me to double your leads, in order for me to 4X your leads, or in order for me to take your cost per lead to this number," right? I'll try to stay off of the revenue number now. I learned that when I was really young. I used to just talk about revenue, but it's better to talk about something slightly different, something that's a little bit more easily measurable for something that I can deliver. Then so I'll say, "In order for me to do this, you think about the impact and what that could do to your revenue, how it could double, triple your revenue, how it could make you" ... I won't say this directly but essentially I'll hit on something like, "How it could make you look better to your boss, to your board, how much more money you can get from your VCs," right? I'll hit on that. Then, I'll say, "In order for me to do that, it's a deal at $150,000." Now, I've established like, "Okay, there's a price tag," and now they're like, "Oh crap." The very next thing I step into, and you have to snap to this quick is, "The only thing we need to know together here is do you want this result? I f you want that, I can always find a way to help you pay for it." Once you say that line, now they're like, "Oh cool. Awesome." They're with you, right? Now they're like, "Okay, help me pay for this." That's where you can break it into different structures, where you can do ... If I can, I'll try to do half up front and then take the rest and divide it over six months or 10 months or whatever you want to do. Make sure you have a good contract there, so if they cancel, there's a ... We try to do a 60 day out, so if they want to cancel today, they still have to pay two more months, so we'll include a lot of those clauses in there. They can't just drop us on a dime. We tell them, "Look, you're a big company." Every partnership will end at some point, every one. You're never linked at the hip with a company forever, so the contracts are set up to help you make sure that when those departures happen that everyone's on the same page. What I'll say is, "You don't want me just to leave and all your ads are running and all this stuff, right? The clause is something that makes it a smooth transition for both of us, to make sure that you're covered, that you guys have exposure, those kind of things, added risk, just because maybe I find a better client." I wouldn't say it like that, but you know, whatever... Yeah, and then a lot of people will ask you in the contracting process about, they'll say, "Well, I don't know if I want a commitment. I want it month to month. Do you do month to month?" I will say this, I'll say, "I don't and here's why. One is if there's no commitment, I can drop you like a dime because there's a lot of you. There's only one of me, but there's a lot of you, so you have to- Steve Larsen: Great line. James Smiley: Yeah. So, I may not say that directly, but I'm just trying to be quick here. I'm going to turn the table there and say, "Do you just want me to leave?" That's where they're usually like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. We want some type of commitment. We don't want you to just run off to our competitors," right? Steve Larsen: Yeah. James Smiley: So yeah, that's something I'll do in the contracting process as well, is try to make sure that I'm not just going to get left out in the cold, protecting myself, protecting my revenues so it's more predictable. Most companies are not just going to drop it all upfront unless they're more government related, those kind of things, or if you're backing up on their fiscal year they might just drop some cash like that. But yeah, I mean, most of the time they're going to want some type of structure and so the best is to do half upfront if you can. It's very typical in contracts to see that. The next best would be make them pay some balloon payment upfront, and say, "Guys, you guys know, to set this up, it's a thousand times harder to set it up than to maintain it three months later, so I need to make sure I'm not running on a negative." I always say things, when it comes down to cost, the big thing you want to inject is, "As you can imagine, I've got a million people. I can go down to all your competitors, they would all want to work with me on this. I just need to make sure that I'm paid so that this keeps my attention, so my attention's on it." That's actually true. Steve Larsen: It is, 100%, yeah. James Smiley: It's so true, yeah. Like, when you're getting paid $500 or $1000 a month, you're like, "$1000, I'm trying to get to 12,000," it's so small, right? Steve Larsen: Yeah, it is small. James Smiley: But if somebody's paying you 5000 or 12,000, it's a much bigger deal, right? That's one thing that I'll try to inject, is you're paying to make sure that my attention stays on it. I'll inject that. Another thing, if I'm having problems closing or adjusting price is I will bring up that what you're really getting here, I'll talk about corporate positions, "Is you're getting a marketing manager, you're getting online strategic digital marketing VP, and you're getting a salesperson. Think about if you were to hire those people. Like, just the hiring process would cost you five figures or more, multi five figures, just to hire them," you know? Steve Larsen: Sure, sure. James Smiley: Then you're like, "Then you've got to maintain them, then you've got all the different things that come in with employees." Then I'll even throw it out. I'll say, "Look, if you want me to find you those three people, I know three really good ones. I can help you bring them on." They're looking at that price tag going, "Forget that." Those are some of the things that I do to try to work on price justification but if you can get down to selling them on the result and then you've set them at ease and say, "Look, my only job now is to help you. Let's work together to figure out how to pay for it, right?" They're like, "Yeah, let's have that discussion." Steve Larsen: That is so cool, because then you're not standing in there being the bad guy. Instead of standing forward face to face with them, now you're standing side by side. Oh, my gosh, that's awesome. That's cool. James Smiley: Yeah. It works. Steve Larsen: I mean obviously you're selling throughout. The sale's never going to end, even after you've made the end, the sale continues obviously, but when do you know that you have them? James Smiley: I know I have them when ... That's a great question. To me, I've learned it's more of a gut feel over time. I just get this gut feel like, "This one's going to work" but I think the reality of that is when I've got the decision maker, I've got agreement on time, on need, time, and budget, and the person is like anchoring with me on all the big anchors. The result, my value, my ultimate value. Like, when they're anchoring on those two things and they're sold on it, they're like ... I'm trying to close a $150,000 deal right now, and I've had the CEO tell me multiple times, because I'll throw it out there, I'll say, call him on his cellphone, "Hey man, are we going to sign it?" He's like, "Well," he's like, "Man," he's like, "Yeah, I need to get this done. We need to get this done." I'll say, "The other option, man, honestly, you can hire me out right. I will entertain that. If you want to bring that kind of contract forward." The first thing they do is go, "Dude, I can't afford that." I'm giving them a bargain, right? Steve Larsen: Sure, sure. James Smiley: Yeah, so when I know I've got them there, I've got them. The last thing I'll say is, it's a fine line between ... You want to keep pushing, you want to make them commit to, "Okay, cool, why don't you think about it and let's set up a meeting for Friday where we can finalize this?" You want to give them an end date. That's where the scarcity and all those kind of things come into play, and I will absolutely, 80% of the time they're going to drag their feet. It just happens, right? People don't want to be on the hook for signing a 100,000 or a 200,000 or a $50,000 deal, and there's always a level of unknown any time you sign a deal. It doesn't matter how good you know, what kind of testimony someone has, there's a level of unknown. You're like, "I don't know. I mean, I hope the guy does what he says, but I don't know." There's a level of risk that they're taking on, so that's why they drag their feet and it's important to ... Like, what's that saying in the seven highly habits? It's like, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People," it's like, "It's more important to understand than to be understood." The reason they're dragging their feed, you have to understand that. Most of the time it's because they don't want to be on the hook if something goes wrong. Steve Larsen: Which is why you set the positioning of being next to them, helping them pay for it. I'm assuming that helps like crazy. James Smiley: Yes. It's huge there and then also, as days go by, I'll say, "Hey man, as you know, we have marketing systems, automation out there, 24/7, 365. Just to let you know, I've got to move my business forward like you do every day, and so I've got some more leads in this area. I just want to know, how does it look? What's your level of confidence here that this is going to happen in the next week or two?" Steve Larsen: Oh, good question. James Smiley: You know what I mean? Steve Larsen: Yeah. James Smiley: That's a good gauging question, and so you need to inject, I just love when you guys talk about scarcity. Because I've been doing that my whole life but I've never called it that. It makes it so clear. Like, it's a word that you can always go to at the end of a sale. Like, "What do I need to do to create some scarcity and some urgency in this guy's mind?" You know? Steve Larsen: Right. That's interesting. Scarcity without saying, "Hey, I'm so hard to get a hold of that we should jump into bed together," you know what I mean? James Smiley: Yeah. B2B, most people are going to see through that stuff. You need to be genuine, for sure, yeah. Steve Larsen: That makes sense. Man, oh, my gosh, I wish there was more time. I have to actually leave and actually go build, but I'm blown away. This is insane. This is so cool. I've never had such a clear understanding of how someone actually pulls the funnels off in B2B. I've got another buddy who does them as well, but this is insane, though. You've gone through and just to recap, I always take notes every time I interview somebody, just because I learn so much, man. Especially, holy crap, this has been amazing. So obviously you went through how to structure the five to six figure price point, the price tag, and the deal, with the needs, timeline and, "What's the budget for this?" And actually start getting the money there. I love the process, the actual funnel itself. That's amazing... Every time that we teach somebody, "Hey, if you want to start going," like right now, in Two Comma Club Coaching, there's been a few people who have asked, "Hey, can I sell a $10,000 price point off of a webinar?" Most of the time, we usually say no. Like, by that price tag, you need to start getting them out. You've got to change the selling environment. You need to go and separate them from behind their computer and go get them somewhere. The fact that you say that first of all, the lead's coming through LinkedIn usually, then through some maybe auto-webinar, you're booking a call, and you're pushing them to an event where you're a traveling roadshow so, "Catch me because I'm leaving" kind of thing. Oh, my gosh, that's so cool, because you're changing that selling environment. Anyway, I have so many notes that I'm putting notes on my notes in between lines, so I can't even decipher them all no the spot right now but I will very shortly. Man, this has been fantastic. James Smiley: Yeah. I mean, I appreciated being able to share with you guys. Steve Larsen: Where can people find out about you? James Smiley: Yeah, thanks for that. JamesSmiley.org is the main site to go to. We're going to be doing, there's just been so much demand in the past couple months. Really, I would say last three or four months. I had a big press release and just different things, and I've had a lot of people say, "How do I do that?" We're going to put something together to start coaching people and helping them get into this. I'm really into personalization which is kind of my style, so I'm not going to do a traditional, "Hey," like most people would probably do it. Just, "Buy my online course" or something. We're going to do it a little bit more personal, but because I think if you're going to get into this space, that's where your head needs to start going no matter what. We put together some resources at JamesSmiley.org/sales, and there's a playbook that we've put together. This is a playbook that I used when we IPO'd a company called TeleNav. It was 350 million dollar a year revenue SaaS company. It was one of the most successful GPS technology companies out of Silicon Valley, but when I came in, I was the sixth employee and when I left there was like 400 employees. I ran sales from Los Angeles, all the way to the other side of the country, and so this kind of goes over how did we go about that process and how did we go about closing all those big deals and getting all those big partnerships done. It's really become a playbook for people when they go into a meeting. It tells them how you talk through the price tag, how do you even start generating B2B leads, and another cool thing that we just went ahead and put in this playbook is there's a PowerPoint presentation that's a template. It's like 100 slides. We had a big market research firm put this thing together, and so whenever I need to make a pitch, I'll go in there and grab three or four slides, and the graphics and everything is amazing. We actually paid $7000, we literally paid $7000 to have this thing made about two years ago. I'm just going to give that away in this playbook so you'll know how to generate leads, you'll have a really slick way to do your presentations so you'll look super professional, just slap your own logo and your own feature function benefits, and your results in there, and we'll teach you the system of how to close. One of the biggest things that you guys need is credibility, and if you're not an author, what I'm going to do is I'll include in here as maybe like a bonus, is I'll co-author a book with you, which is very likely to be an Amazon Best Seller. I've got a couple of those. Steve Larsen: Whoa. James Smiley: At least you'll be, you'll get the home study course, you'll get one on one time with me in the mastermind group, and then you'll also be a co-author of a best seller that you can use that as your business card, you know what I mean? Going into businesses- Steve Larsen: Wow. James Smiley: ... saying, "Oh yeah, by the way, here's something I wrote on Facebook ads. Here's something I wrote on online automation," or whatever. I'm hoping that's just a killer value and people would sign up for that, so that's... Steve Larsen: Good. Awesome, man. That's huge. James Smiley: Yeah, so hopefully that adds a ton of value to people who are trying to figure this thing out. It's at JamesSmiley.org/sales. You know what's just funny is like my passion truly is to help people and especially entrepreneurs. Like, that's where I came from, and one of the things that I started telling people last year when they started asking me about this is is, you know, I bet you when people first got into Facebook ads or they first got into whatever, that there was all this unknown, right? Steve Larsen: Right. James Smiley: But then a couple months later they're like, "I got this." That's the same thing here. I mean, once you get your first one or two down, you're going to feel like this is easy. The process becomes a lot easier. Steve Larsen: That's awesome. Well guys, thanks so much for listening, and thanks so much for James as well. The B2B expert, sales rep trainer, script writer, event thrower, sponsor getterer, pro bass fisherman. James Smiley: Woohoo. Steve Larsen: It's been amazing. I really appreciate it, and guys go to JamesSmiley.org/sales and get frankly, one of the coolest things anyone's ever given away on this show. Oh, my gosh, I'm going to go there right now and go opt-in as soon as we're done. Anyways, thanks so much man. James Smiley: Okay. Appreciate you guys, have a great day. 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.  

Happy Life Studios Podcast

This is a special day for us as we celebrate our 50th Happy Life podcast episode. Listen as Christine and I talk about our surprises and successes. How Happy Life started and where it's headed. So come on and celebrate with us. Here are the links we talked about: If you want to join this big happy family/Happy Life movement, just click here. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1sA2dZSuVo216ADZ6KygP_yXJheVpWQXgF-pGw7oBRac/viewform If you want to help us continue to build our Happy Life Studios, click here https://www.gofundme.com/happylifestudios Here is the site of the individual James Smiley who got us started podcasting and who is still helping us multicast and spread this message. We have actually joined his program and highly recommend it. If you have a message you would like to spread, or want to increase your audience, there's no one better, check out https://ultimateinfluencers.com and tell them Happy Life sent you.

happy life james smiley
Upstart Podcast
Upstart Episode 4 KIR Interview Pt. 2

Upstart Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2015 19:16


Part 2 of my interview with James Smiley with Keep It Real Media in Dallas Texas.

Upstart Podcast
Upstart Episode 3 KIR Interview Pt. 1

Upstart Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 30, 2015 19:07


Aaron Janda interviewed by James Smiley with Keep It Real Media out of Dallas Texas. Part 1

Happy Life Studios Podcast
Happy Life Interview with James Smiley HL18

Happy Life Studios Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 4, 2015 30:35


Has the happy life ever felt more like an impossibility rather than a possibility? Sometimes the happy just seems too elusive and I highly doubt I will ever attain, let alone sustain it. There's just too much darkness, too many obstacles and awful circumstances that stand in the way, and bullies away the happy. But life doesn't have to be this way. One can stand up to the bullies and achieve the happy life. This week's podcast is another interview, only this time I'm the one who is being interviewed. Author and entrepreneur, James Smiley, asks me some questions that take me deeper into the Happy Life, explaining what it is and the 3 simple words that will bully the bullies and get us back to the happy that we were created for. www.HappyLife.lol www.Facebook.com/HappyLifeStudios www.Instagram.com/HappyLife_Studios www.Twitter.com/HappyLifStudios www.YouTube.com/StevoHays www.PayPal.me/StevoHays

Jayme Joshua LIVE
Jayme Joshua LIVE with James Smiley

Jayme Joshua LIVE

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2014 28:00


I will be shooting the shit tonight LIVE at 11 on blog talk radio with THE KING OF REAL James Smiley, so check it out, the number to call in to the show and speak to us is (718) 664-6482

live james smiley joshua live
Ultimate Bass Radio
Ulitmate Bass Radio: Oct. 23, 2010

Ultimate Bass Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2010 1:00


Skeet Reese - FLW Outdoors Chris Hoover and James Smiley

bass james smiley