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For the entire transcript of the interview, please click here. Steve J. Larsen is a renowned entrepreneur and marketing strategist, best known for his expertise in creating high-converting sales funnels. He gained prominence as the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels, where he honed his skills by constructing over 500 sales funnels. After leaving ClickFunnels, Larsen quickly made his mark by building his own million-dollar company within just 13 months. He shares his knowledge through his podcast, Sales Funnel Radio, and educates others via courses like Secret MLM Hacks, OfferMind, and OfferLab. His success story is a testament to his innovative approach to online marketing and sales strategies. What You'll Learn In this episode, Steve shares common misconceptions and emphasizes the distinction between marketing and sales functions within a funnel. He argues that while sales funnels are powerful tools for conversion, they primarily serve a sales function rather than marketing. He also shares his idea of success. Success is deeply personal and encompasses both internal contentment and external accomplishments. Things We Discussed Importance of Sales Story and Offer: Larsen underscores the significance of having a compelling sales story and offers that prompt further engagement. He argues that success hinges on these elements rather than intricate funnel mechanics. Connect with Steve Larsen Personal Website Facebook Instagram Sales Funnel Radio Podcast LinkedIn Youtube Connect with Jason Tonioli Website Facebook YouTube Instagram Spotify Pandora Amazon Music Apple Music
“If you're still doing the same thing in 20 years, I'm gonna kill you.” Although those weren't his original words (he got them from the movie The Good Will Hunting), my business coach of three years, Brian, made me think hard about what I really wanted to do. For the past few years, it has always been funnel, funnel, and funnel. Hence, the birth of Sales Funnel Radio. But now, I'm already entertaining the thought and feeling of "Where do I go next?". ‘Coz, no matter how much I'm invested in funnel land, I know it won't be where I will build my kingdom. No doubt... I'm honored to have produced over 350 episodes for this amazing Sales Funnel space. But here's my vision of the future of this show though... Key Takeaways: Intro (00:00) Saying yes too much isn't a blessing (01:11) A lesson from The Good Will Hunting (04:19) Where can I build my next castle? (08:25) Owning the thought leader in me (10:39) Surround yourself with this kind of people (13:34) My future plans (14:29) Is this the end of Sales Funnel Radio? (16:48) The Capitalist Pig brand (20:02) What's in the Capitalist Pig Newsletter? (24:24) Additional Resources - Connect with me here - Interview me on your show --- Download Season 1 episodes here -- Sales Funnels Radio is a podcast for all passionate digital marketing pros looking to up their game and stay ahead. Follow us on your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss an episode!
I love the Linchpin model. In fact, I have changed everything in my business to it. And yours truly even got to write the foreword on Russell Brunson's upcoming book about the said business model. But I haven't seen anyone turn their event funnel into this Linchpin model yet. So while I was on an airplane to Miami, with some caffeine and dubstep, I had another epiphany that blew my mind. I created a fantastic new event funnel type using the Linchpin model! And I can't wait to share it with you. Here's how it goes… Key Takeaways: The new Linchpin model (01:25) How to do a Linchpin-style event funnel (02:21) My plans for Offer Launch and Offer Mind (07:51) The reason why I've slowed down (10:17) Blackout speaking explained (11:38) The future of Sales Funnel Radio (12:34) Additional Resources - Connect with me here - Interview me on your show --- Download Season 1 episodes here -- Sales Funnels Radio is a podcast for all passionate digital marketing pros looking to up their game and stay ahead. Follow us on your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss an episode!
In this week's episode of Sales Funnel Radio, I have finally invited my business partner, Raleigh Williams, to talk about our latest mergers and acquisitions deal. Raleigh started as an M&A lawyer in New York and in Dallas - working for private equity firms, public companies, and big firms. Overseeing purchases and sales agreements for like $20 billion dollars plus deals, and getting paid a number that is way much smaller than what he deserved, made him realize to walk away from his lucrative job. He has gone on doing his own business acquisitions. And now, we're combining his M&A knowledge and my sales funnel expertise to value and acquire businesses and help them optimize through marketing. Join us in this special episode as we talk about how we're using sales funnel in business acquisitions, the criteria we're looking for in an M&A, and our business plans. Key Takeaways From small business consulting to mergers & acquisitions (01:02) Meet Raleigh Williams (01:47) Turning passion business into a sellable asset (04:02) Traditional M&As vs. funnel-driven M&As (08:50) When you buy out a business built around a person (11:27) The numbers behind our latest business acquisition (14:59) Misconception on M&As (20:35) What to look for in a business when doing an M&A (22:05) How we plan to keep this business going (24:33) Additional Resources - Connect with me here - Interview me on your show - Check out our latest business venture here - Connect with Raleigh Williams here --- Download Season 1 episodes here -- Sales Funnels Radio is a podcast for all passionate digital marketing pros looking to up their game and stay ahead.
Joining David on this seventh episode, we have Internet Marketer, Voice of Sales Funnel Radio & Russell Brunson's Offer Creation Specialist, Steve Larson. After two years of working as the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels, Steve left to start his own company and branch off on his own. In this process, Steve has received A Two Comma Club Award and his business surpassed $1 million just 13 months later! Make sure to check out Sales Funnel Radio, there you will hear Steve share his best practices, teach the finer points of marketing, offer creation and “funnelology”.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: [00:01:09] Steve's Drive & Passion[00:02:43] Was Steve Afraid Russell Would Fire Him?[00:09:16] Four Chemicals in the Brain that Cause Addiction[00:13:02] Steve's Mission[00:25:43] If Steve Could Achieve Anything, What Would it Be?Connect with Steve Larson:1. Follow Steve on Facebook, LinkedIn & Instagram2. Find Steve on his website3. Check out Sales Funnel Radio on YouTube4. Be sure to check out The One Funnel Away Challenge hereConnect with David AsarnowFind David on his websiteFind David on his Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook
Purpose Chasers Podcast| Author| Transformational Life & Business Coach| Keynote Speaker|
Did you know that there is a major difference between sales funnels and marketing your product? Although both work well in tandem with each other, sales funnels only capture the effectiveness of marketing. However, when implemented in the right way, sales funnels and marketing can increase your revenue with effective strategy and firm foundations. Our guest this week shares how he found freedom from learning from his past marketing failures. This week, I am speaking with Steve Larsen, Master Offer Crafter, Sales Funnel Creator, and host of Sales Funnel Radio to discuss the different levels of marketing and why sales funnels are only part of the equation. Steve shares his past experience of being the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels and how it led to receiving the Two Comma Club Award after reaching $1 million only 13 months later. Through his podcast, Steve shares his best practices, teaches the finer points of marketing, offer creation, and “funnelology”. We discuss the biggest mistake most people make when launching a new product or service and what we can learn from Hollywood's effective marketing and promotional strategies. If you're looking for a quick, bite sized but epic conversation around the levels of marketing, then this episode is for you! Topics Discussed: Why you need to create hype around launching a new product What hollywood can teach us about funnels and marketing The difference between failure and freedom Switching the narrative around selling products and providing a solution Recognizing how relationships create more success than solopreneurship Gain access to resources and/or work with Mark or his marketing team direct visit: www.markcrandall.net Connect with Steve Larsen Website: https://stevejlarsen.com --- Quotes: Steve Larsen “One of the biggest things that I had to learn was the difference between a sales funnel builder and a marketer. I thought they were the same thing but they are not. You are just one funnel away from success, but you just have no idea which one it is.” “Funnels are very powerful but they're not marketing. Funnels capture the effects of marketing.” “No matter the product, online or offline, the biggest mistake people make is that the first time they ever mention the fact that they have a product the day it's available. There is no hype or suspense built around it.” “It's no longer what I sell, it's who do I want to sell to and what are they struggling with? The market will tell you what they want you to sell them.” “I've never seen anyone make a million dollars on their own. The faster someone can get past the allure and sexiness of getting past a solopreneur, you go faster together.” “Your first hire should also be a revenue generating role somehow. It helps that you're not the only revenue driver starting out the gate.”
Today, I want to REVEAL one of the biggest lessons I have learned in my entrepreneurship journey. This was something that derailed and prevented me from getting to $10 million faster than I should have. And since Season 2 of Sales Funnel Radio is about documenting my journey to $100 million, this is what will get me there.
Steve J Larsen is the CEO of Pursuit of Profit and is the "Secretary of Capitalism." For two years, Steve was the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels for Russell Brunson, making a name for himself in the internet marketing world. Eventually, Steve left to start his own company. Just thirteen months later, he went on to score his own Two Comma Club Award when his business crossed $1 million. Seven months later he earned his next $1 million, followed by another million in one day. He has four highly successful podcasts, including Sales Funnel Radio and Launch for Profit, which teach the finer points of marketing, offer creation, and—most importantly—internet cashflow strategies. Steve is passionate about improving the economic confidence of entrepreneurs within capitalism. Steve and his team do their part by helping entrepreneurs design and launch wildly lucrative offers online. Website: capitalismswag.com Instagram: @stevelarsenhq _____________________________ In this episode: 3:34: The first time he asked his father for money, and why he said, “Son, no.” 5:56: What keeps him nervous, and how he copes 8:20: Helping people stop their self-imposed limiting beliefs that hold them back 13:50: A key ingredient to success 18:30: Launch imperfectly, and keep swinging!! 21:55: How he is able to magnify his own uniqueness, and how we can start to be more of ourselves _____________________________ Steve’s 3 keys to success: 1. Listening 2. Do things that suck 3. Rest _____________________________ Want to try out my 1-1-1 Monday morning Newsletter? - 1 Motivational Quote - 1 Inspiring Video - 1 Badass Workout Go to: https://www.nickcarrier.com/111-newsletter _____________________________ Learn more about the program at: https://www.nickcarrier.com/10weekprograms Follow Nick on Instagram: @carrier_bestyou
Talking about my tooth issues and some important marketing and mindset lessons from Steve J Larsen of Sales Funnel Radio
For two years, Steve Larsen was the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels for Russell Brunson, and put over 500 sales funnels under his belt. Eventually he left ClickFunnels as an employee. From scratch, he crossed $1 million just 13 months later. His podcast, Sales Funnel Radio, was created to teach the finer points of “offer-ology”. You will discover: -How To Create Bonuses For Affiliate Products To Stand Out From The Crowd, -Steve Larsen's Best Traffic Source, -How Steve Would Start An Affiliate Business From Scratch With The Knowledge He Has Now, -The Best Way To Start As An Affiliate If You Don't Have An Email List
Did you know that there is a major difference between sales funnels and marketing your product? Although both work well in tandem with each other, sales funnels only capture the effectiveness of marketing. However, when implemented in the right way, sales funnels and marketing can increase your revenue with an effective strategy and firm foundations. Our guest this week shares how he found freedom from leaning from his past marketing failures. This week, I am speaking with Steve Larsen, Master Offer Crafter, Sales Funnel Creator, and host of Sales Funnel Radio to discuss the different levels of marketing and why sales funnels are only part of the equation. Steve shares his past experience of being the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels and how it led to receiving the Two Comma Club Award after reaching $1 million only 13 months later. Through his podcast, Steve shares his best practices, teaches the finer points of marketing, offer creation, and “funnelology”. We discuss the biggest mistake most people make when launching a new product or service and what we can learn from Hollywood’s effective marketing and promotional strategies. If you’re looking for a quick, bite-sized but epic conversation around the levels of marketing, then this episode is for you! Topics Discussed: Why you need to create hype around launching a new product What Hollywood can teach us about funnels and marketing The difference between failure and freedom Switching the narrative around selling products and providing a solution Recognizing how relationships create more success than solopreneurship Learn More About Start to Finish Marketing Visit: www.starttofinishmarketing.com Connect with Steve Larsen Website: https://stevejlarsen.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevelarsenhq/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/256704244873735/ Additional Resources YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGsttHfZhio&feature=youtu.be Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sales-funnel-radio/id1149660508?mt=2
In this episode, Steve Larson reveals his core offer creation strategy and explains why defining your core offer is key to achieving massive success in your business. (Enjoying this episode? - Enter To Win Podcast Launch Raffle Prizes!... Contest Ends August 31): https://launch.growingentrepreneur.com▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬❓ WHO IS IT?...
Steve J. Larsen, past employee at ClickFunnels and now 2CC winning CEO talks about why funnelhackers are broke (and how to actually profit as a funnelhacker). Stephen Larsen is the 'prolific' creator of Secret MLM Hacks, Sales Funnel Radio, OfferMind, OfferLab, One Funnel Away Stories, Launch for Profit and many more products and podcasts...
Hi everyone, welcome back to Sales Funnel Radio! Today we have a BIG announcement coming up, something I’m very excited about! It’s a new project that I think you’ll love if you are looking to take your marketing game to the next level. We’ll go more in-depth in this episode, so please buckle up for the big launch and tune in to hear more!
For two years, Steve Larsen was the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels for Russell Brunson, and put over 500 sales funnels under his belt (but honestly, lost track a while ago). Eventually he left ClickFunnels as an employee to get his own Two Comma Club Award and his business crossed $1 million 13 months later. His podcast, Sales Funnel Radio, was created to share best practices, teach the finer points of marketing, offer creation, and “funnelology”. Steve’s approach to offers are so attractive that fans body-check their own Grandmas just to buy! Long walks on the beach aren’t his thing but he loves slappin’ five. Steve is the founder of Pursuit of Profit, playing off the concept of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." His mission is to empower his customers to pursue profit as a means of prosperity and purpose. Steve feels his mission is to help people economically so they can help themselves spiritually. Check out Steve's new show "Launch for Profit." https://launchforprofit.com/ Get more tips and tools for creating your intentional family culture by signing up for your FREE membership to the Family Success Toolbox at homeandfamilyculture.com
Steve is a successful marketer and buisiness owner. I personally have learned a lot from Steve from his YouTube Channel and Podcast called "Sales Funnel Radio". ★★★Contact Steve here: https://stevejlarsen.com/ ★★★ ____________________________★★★Contact Me★★★ joy@marketingwizardsonline.com★★★The Challenge that started it ALL for me. The OFA Challenge! To join the next OFA challenge with all my bonuses★★★ (Get your digital marketing degree in 30 days - everything you ever need to know)____________________________★★★Watch my videos on YouTube★★★https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtXK9m_13QA2a04dbNuOR5w?view_as=subscriber★★★Subscribe To My Podcast★★★https://www.unleashyourfocus.com/podcast-and-vloghttps://www.joynicholson.com/homewww.marketingwizardsonlineofa.club ***
Guest for Steve Larsen: Guest's Website: Sales Funnel Radio Follow him on:Facebook, Instagram,Linkedin and YoutubeAdditional Tools from the Episode:Traffic Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Filling Your Websites and Funnels with Your Dream - Russell BrunsonScientific Advertising (Paperback) - Claude HopkinsThe 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content - Timothy FerrissWillpower Doesn't Work - Benjamin Hardy Man's Search for Meaning (Paperback) - Viktor FranklFreedom App- Block Websites, Apps, and the Internet
Joining David on this seventh episode, we have Internet Marketer, Voice of Sales Funnel Radio & Russell Brunson’s Offer Creation Specialist, Steve Larson. After two years of working as the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels, Steve left to start his own company and branch off on his own. In this process, Steve has received A Two Comma Club Award and his business surpassed $1 million just 13 months later! Make sure to check out Sales Funnel Radio, there you will hear Steve share his best practices, teach the finer points of marketing, offer creation and “funnelology”.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: [00:01:09] Steve’s Drive & Passion[00:02:43] Was Steve Afraid Russell Would Fire Him?[00:09:16] Four Chemicals in the Brain that Cause Addiction[00:13:02] Steve’s Mission[00:25:43] If Steve Could Achieve Anything, What Would it Be?Connect with Steve Larson:1. Follow Steve on Facebook, LinkedIn & Instagram2. Find Steve on his website3. Check out Sales Funnel Radio on YouTube4. Be sure to check out The One Funnel Away Challenge hereConnect with David Asarnow1. Find David on his website2. Find David on his Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn & FacebookAbout Get Naked PodcastWelcome to the Get Naked In Business video podcast. So the big question is… how do entrepreneurs like us, who built our businesses from the ground up, who spend our own capital, who want to make a huge impact on this world, how do we do all that and create a great income? My mission for this podcast is to interview amazing entrepreneurs who are willing to get naked in front of the mirror, jump up and down, and let the real, raw insights all hang out. Insights to help accelerate your business growth. My name is David Asarnow and welcome to Get Naked In Business. I’m glad you're here… now it's time to get naked! GetNakedInBusiness.com
In this episode, I sit down with the Capitalist Pig himself, Mr. Steve Larsen, and we unveil all the secrets.Steve is one of my closest friends in business, and someone I have immense amounts of respect for.We talk insider stories of Steve's plans, how we overcame what was holding us back, how I dream 100ed Steve Larsen, and how I'm dream 100ing Russell Brunson.Like this episode? Subscribe and share it with a friend!You can find the transcripts and more at www.thinkdifferenttheory.com/27--Be sure to follow me on Instagram @joshfortiSubscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or anywhere else you listen to your podcasts.
Today I had the pleasure of talking with Steve Larsen. For two years, Steve Larsen was the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels for Russell Brunson, and put over 500 sales funnels under his belt (but honestly, lost track a while ago). Eventually he left ClickFunnels as an employee to get his own Two Comma Club Award and his business crossed $1 million 13 months later. His podcast, Sales Funnel Radio, was created to share best practices, teach the finer points of marketing, offer creation, and “funnelology”. Steve’s approach to offers are so attractive that fans body-check their own Grandmas just to buy! Long walks on the beach isn't his thing but he loves slappin’ five. This episode, Steve will be sharing his favorite episode (so far) on Sales Funnel Radio, the terms of his development with connection to publishing, and the biggest failure that he came across. Steve will be discussing strategies about having a new publishing. Enjoy! ----- Find Steve on LinkedIn -- https://www.linkedin.com/in/larsenstephen Find Steve on Instagram -- https://www.instagram.com/stevelarsenhq/ Find Steve on Youtube -- http://salesfunnelradio.tv/ Find Steve on Site -- https://stevejlarsen.com/ “I haven’t slowed down enough, to get things in place that would actually make me go faster… Without putting more input in.” Steve Larsen Want to learn how to start your own podcast? I created a free training to get you started Inside My Facebook Group! --> www.joinpodcasting101.com Want To Get The Exact Funnel That Made Me $12,410 In 7 Days, By Attracting 200 New DREAM Customers Into My Facebook Group → www.thepodcastjunkie.com/cls-funnel Shoot me a message on Instagram & I’ll Give you a shout out --> www.Instagram.com/jamieatkinson P.S Don't forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review if you enjoyed the show!
It's quite common for your career journey to start one way and then go a completely different directions like Stephen! In this episode, Stephen shares with us about his career journey from his humble beginnings of being just married, broke and almost unable to feed his family, to landing a job as the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels for Russell Brunson, and eventually burning bridges to start his own business which crossed $1 million in the first 13 months. Incredible! He shares the big thing that allowed him to succeed when it seemed like everything was against him, and he is an inspiring example of how be resilient in the face of career hurdles and overcome them time and time again. His podcast, Sales Funnel Radio, was created to share best practices, teach the finer points of marketing, offer creation, and “funnelology”. Connect with Stephen Larsen here: https://stevejlarsen.com/ Do you want to advance and get ahead in your career? Join my Free 4-Day Career Training Series and learn the tools necessary to break through the glass ceiling of your career: https://careerrevisionist.com/training Show notes and free resources: https://CareerRevisionist.com/episode72
Become a fearless father presents: The live interview with Entrepreneurial Dad Steve Larsen, founder of the Sales Funnel Radio. 0:00 - Is there such a thing as balance? .:.. - Who is Steve Larsen? In this interview Klaas van Oosterhout with Steve Larsen, they talk about: * Balance between life and work; * By your child's first car?; * How to build a successful business; * Keys to bringing the BOOM, every time; * And much more. Links to contact with Steve Larsen: https://stevejlarsen.com/ https://www.facebook.com/salesfunnelradio/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/thescienceofsellingonline/ Visit us at https://www.facebook.com/becomeafearlessfather/
This episode talks about my takeaways from one of the episodes of Sales Funnel Radio, Stephen Larsen's podcast, where he interviewed Myron Golden, businessman and author of Trash Man to Cash Man.
I was blessed to have the opportunity to get coached one-on-one by the phenomenally successful Steven Larsen, founder of Offermind and many multi-million dollar funnels, as well as the popular podcast Sales Funnel Radio. He is also the former funnel builder for Russell Brunson, owner of Clickfunnels. Today I’ll be sharing the experience I had with him, and what he taught me about SUCCESS....
He’s invited by some of the world's top salesmen to help them sell more. He’s incredible...and amazing at it - I’ve learned SO much from him. Every time he speaks, I take out a pen and paper... (Hint, hint...cue, cue...to everybody here!) Please take out a piece of paper and take notes! This is a man who’s likely to make MORE money arrive in your pocket just by listening to him... ;-) Mr. Myron Golden. Myron: Hey, Steve. How are you doing, man? Steve: Fantastic. Thanks for being on here, man. Myron: Absolutely my pleasure to be on Sales Funnel Radio, talking to one of my favorite trainers...teachers… ‘OfferMinds…’ Ooh, did you see what I did there?! ;-) Steve: That's good! Honestly, thanks so much for taking the time. The feeling is mutual. I have notebooks upon notebooks from your things. Every time you come speak...or anytime I’m at Inner Circle or one of Russell's events, I’d fill a WHOLE legal pad. And thinking… "Oh, man, that was amazing." "No, that was better than the last." "Oh, my gosh, they're getting better…” Myron: You're kind, thank you. Steve: You are just an incredible salesperson. You have so much skill and so much knowledge... I've watched you unplanned… (...and I know you've done this multiple times!) ….get up and pitch someone's product better than they pitch it to an audience that doesn't know you… AND you'll make MORE sales than the actual owner of the product! How do you do that?! I know that's a huge question, but that's amazing… HAVING NO INHIBITIONS Myron: First of all, how I do that in particular, is how I sell. First and foremost, I have to believe in the thing that I'm selling. If I believe in the thing that I'm selling, then it's easy for me to sell it. What I mean by that is... Most salespeople don't even realize that they haven't gotten out of their own way yet. Most people who sell things, whether they sell cars, or sell shoes, or sell online courses… or whatever... … they believe that selling is doing something ‘TO’ people not doing something *FOR* them. So first and foremost, I look at selling as a service. I look at it as something that I do *FOR* people’ that makes their lives better. It makes the world a better place because people like me are selling. So I don't have ANY inhibitions. For example...a pitcher will have pain in his shoulder, and he can't throw the ball as fast, or a golfer will have pain in his back and he can't swing. Because subconsciously, his body knows that, “This movement is gonna hurt me or hurt someone.” Right? When we are incongruent or when we have incongruence about selling in general, that makes it hard for us to sell things. I think the thing that I have going for me when it comes to selling is that I have *NO* incongruence in me whatsoever. If I feel like a product isn’t good, then I wouldn't sell it to somebody in the first place! Does that make sense? Steve: Yeah, that makes sense. Myron: I get out of my own way. Steve: And I mean, you've done that multiple times. I saw you do that at Dream 100 Con. I mean, you're the guy that Russell Brunson asks to come re-pitch ClickFunnels' amazing offer after he's pitched! Myron: Yeah. Steve: It's impressive. Myron: I'm honored. I'm honored by Russell. I appreciate him more than I can say... I've got so much belief in what he offers, that selling a Russell Brunson coaching program is easy for me to sell. (...even though he doesn't consider himself a guru, okay? I'm gonna call him my bounce-back guru.) Because I went out, made a fortune and had a lot of great things happen in my life. And then… I went through seven years of life devastation. Like every year, major tragedy after major tragedy, of some kind, happened in my life. ...from 2007 through 2013. I signed up for another coaching program in 2014 and I just didn't like that kind of work. I don't believe that the key to success is to find something you're passionate about and the money will follow.’’ I DON’T believe that's true. Steve: I don't either. Myron: But I do believe that… If the work that you’re doing doesn’t match the person that you are, you will never create wealth or massive world change in that arena - because your ‘doing’ has to match your ‘being’. Right? The coaching program was great; they had a lot of people making A LOT of money...it just wasn't the kind of work that suited me. After that in 2015, I joined Russell's Inner Circle and my life has been on an upward trajectory financially, ever since then. Selling a Russell Brunson coaching program? That's like the easiest thing in the world for me to sell! Because he is the one person who I can point at and say, incontrovertibly, has helped more people to become millionaires in a shorter period of time than ANY other human being I've ever known of. Steve: Yeah, not even just “known of”. I've never heard of anyone doing that! Myron: Exactly. And he's not an MLM guy. He's just a guy who teaches you frameworks that work. So standing up and selling his product is easy because… I wasn't selling the product I was selling the payoff ...and I know what the payoff is because I get paid from that payoff all the time! So that's why, if I can look at something and it makes sense, then it's easy for me to see how it makes sense... ...then it's easy for me to say HOW it makes sense in a way that's easy for people to receive. Steve: It's powerful stuff! And you know what's funny? I feel like there's a lot of people who are jumping in entrepreneurship… (which is great!) ….but they do it under this notion that it's NOT sales, it's “entrepreneurship”. But like, “ Eh, entrepreneurship IS sales. It's a sales role." Myron: Yeah, exactly. Steve: And if you're lying to yourself about that, you're already a bad entrepreneur! To be an entrepreneur is to be a salesperson. Myron: Exactly. Steve: How can people be better? How can they get rid of the inhibitions around selling? Myron: Let's start with this. So as you just said… The reason that people say, “I'm an entrepreneur, I'm not a salesman," (What does that even mean?) ...that is because they think there's something inherently wrong with sales! But I'm gonna fix that right now. BLOOD & SALES …. the people reading right now - they can agree or disagree. If you disagree ...here's what I'm gonna say to you… ”You've been wrong before… congratulations, it's happening again!” So I happen to have some money in my pocket…. ….if you take some money out of your pocket, any amount of money… and you look at that money - just check it out - and you’ll realize that: All of the money that you have... All of the money you will ever have... To do the things… You desire to do for yourself... For the people that you love... The causes that you care about... The only reason it's possible for me, you, or anyone else to ever have money is because somebody somewhere sold something to someone for a profit. PERIOD. (I wasn’t gonna go here, but I will…) Money is like blood, right? Money is like blood, in that, money is stored in a bank. Where's blood stored? Steve: In your body. Myron: Well, no, it's stored in a blood bank. Money is stored in a money bank, right? Steve: Oh, I get what you're saying. Myron: Blood is stored in a blood bank. Blood has to be in circulation in order to give life to your body and money has to be in circulation in order to give life to the economy. Steve: I love that. Myron: Right? So money is very much like blood. Blood carries oxygen to every part of your body. Money doesn't really carry oxygen, but it does help you breathe. … because when you don't have any money, you feel like you can't breathe. Steve: That's true. Myron: Right? But also… Money is a mass noun, just like blood is a mass noun. Yesterday, I went and got some blood drawn - I didn't go get ‘A blood’ drawn, I got SOME blood drawn. … even though it's singular, it's a mass noun. So you have to put “some” (which is plural) in front of a singular word. You'd never say "I gave A blood," because that doesn't make any sense. I gave SOME blood. Well, guess what? When it comes to money, you wouldn't say, "I gave A money..." It's SOME money. Money and blood are both mass nouns. Money and blood are both fungible. Q: Now, what does fungible mean? Well, you drove my car when you were in Tampa. Steve: Yeah, great car, beautiful car. Myron: With my name on the floor mat. Steve: On the floor mats right there, that was...wooooo! Myron: I drive a Bentley Continental GT. If I let Steve borrow my car, when he brings my car back, my car is NOT fungible. It's a car, but he can't bring me back a Volkswagen Jetta and say, "Here Myron, here's a car." You have to bring back the same car! ...or at least the same kind of car in, at least the same kind of condition. (Preferably my car, right?) So if somebody borrows a car, a car is NOT fungible. If somebody borrows my golf clubs... (… I wouldn't let somebody borrow my golf clubs 'cause those are my babies!) But if I did, it's like, "No, you can't bring me back some other golf clubs." "Well, they're golf clubs! What difference does it make?" No! Golf clubs are NOT fungible. If you give blood at a blood bank and then get in a car accident, you need to go get some blood… they don't have to search through millions of pints of blood to find the exact blood you gave! Steve: "Oh, here are your cells!" Myron: Exactly. They just have to find the same blood type. It's like with money. Money is fungible. If you loan me $5, you don't care if I pay you back the same bill. Or if you owe me $50 then you don't care if I pay you back a $50 bill. Or two $20s and a $10 or five $10s or 10 $5s. You don't care. Q: Why? A: Because money is fungible. As long as it's the same currency type (#American dollars), you don't care. You don't wanna loan me $50 in American dollars and I give you back Costa Rican dollars. That wouldn't work. So… Money and blood are very much alike. So here's what you gotta realize. The only reason any of us EVER have any money in our pocket to do… The things we wanna do The things we desire for ourselves The things we desire for people we love or the causes that we care about … is because somebody somewhere sold something to someone for a profit. Here's what that means: Just like money is the blood, it keeps the economy alive, money is the lifeblood of the economy. Salespeople are the heart of the economy that keeps the blood flowing. If you are in sales, free yourself from the idea…from this ridiculous Hollywood notion that selling is somehow doing evil in the world. Hollywood does way more evil in the world than salespeople! The government tries to demonize business and salesmen and entrepreneurs while they do WAY more evil in the world. Here's what you gotta realize... Being a person who is in sales (a salesman or saleswoman) is one of the most noble, honorable positions and vocations in the world. You make the world go ‘round. Once you realize how essential salespeople are in the world and how much joy they bring into the world? Salespeople bring joy into the world! Remember how good you felt last time somebody sold you a new car? Or somebody sold you a new house? You felt great! Why? Because they sold you something that made your life better. Salespeople bring more joy into the world than almost any other profession. So once you wrap your mind around what selling really is… … that FREES you up from all those internal conflicts and incongruencies that create the cognitive dissonance that restrict you from going out and making your offers boldly. Steve: I 100% believe that. Myron: That was a long answer. Steve: But it's an amazing answer. It drives me crazy…. "Money's evil." Money is NOT evil, money is an amplifier. I feel like (most of the time) when someone is NOT good at sales, usually they need to redefine their relationship with money. They have so many *false beliefs* around money. Myron: Absolutely. Steve: Do you find that to be true? Myron: Absolutely. I'm gonna say, money IS an amplifier, but I'm gonna add a caveat. Because money IS an amplifier… If you're bad, money will make you a worse person, or give you the opportunity to do more evil in the world. If you're a good person, money will give you the opportunity to do more good in the world HOWEVER… Money itself is NOT bad, nor is it neutral. Money itself is good. Money is a good thing. Steve: Right. Myron: How can you say money is a good thing? Q: What is the substance that represents wealth around the world since the beginning of time? What's that substance? Steve: Gold. Myron: Gold, that's right. Steve: Yeah. Myron: Gold is the substance that represents wealth. The first time gold is mentioned in Scripture is in the Garden of Eden. Here's what God said, "And there was gold in that land, and the gold of that land is good." Now, wait a minute, wait a minute! Help me understand something here. The Garden of Eden is a place where all the food is free. The Garden of Eden is a place where there were only two people who ever lived there, Adam and Eve, (last I checked, they were married to each other). There were no stores, there was nothing for sale, and yet God put gold in the Garden of Eden and then, He made sure He told us it was good. Money is good. It's not neutral. It's not bad. It is inherently good. You can do bad things with money, but it’s inherently good. A car is inherently good - it's not bad to not have to walk everywhere you go! It's good to be able to get places faster and it gives you the ability to save time and put more experiences in your life. But people have run over people intentionally with cars! You can do something bad with something that's good but it doesn't make the good thing bad - it just means that a person did a bad thing with it. Steve: And the person did it, NOT the car, or the gold, or the object! Myron: You know how you talk about the Capitalist Pig it really irritates people? THIS MAY OFFEND YOUI'm gonna say something that really irritates people. Steve: Yeah. Myron: I'm not attempting intentionally to offend anybody (that's not my intention) but if they get offended…. they should probably grow up a little bit! So the government talks about gun violence, right? Steve: Yeah. Myron: Oh, there's no such thing as gun violence. I know, I just lost a bunch of people....but I lost the ones I wanted to lose. Steve: Sure. Myron: Okay? There's no such thing as gun violence. I have a whole bunch of guns, not one of them is violent. (I know I just lost a bunch of people… but I lost the ones I wanted to lose) Steve: Me too. It's so funny, they're just sitting there and they never harmed anyone. Myron: They don't do anything to anybody. They just mind their own business! In fact, they don't even mind their own business ...because they don't do anything. They just sit there until I go to the range and I practice. There's no such thing as gun violence, it's people violence and some of those people use guns. Nobody talks about... Steve: Car violence. Myron: Car violence. Nobody talks about fist violence. It's stupid, it's like saying, "My stupid pencil failed that test." *Your pencil didn't take the test* Steve: I'm gonna use that one! I wish I would have known that when I was in elementary school, hah. “My pencil's broken!” Myron: "My pencil...I can't believe this... What kind of pencil is this?!” Steve: So we've gone through and said, “Okay, in order to get better at sales, you really need to embody…” Myron: You have to fall in love with it. Steve: Sales are incredible. Myron: You have to fall in love with it. I love sales and salespeople. Pray for salespeople every night when you go to bed. Thank God for them every morning when you wake up. Stop being, "I can't believe that person tried to sell me something." When somebody tries to sell something to you, get excited about it and watch their process and see what you can learn. Instead of , "I can't stand these stupid infomercials. I can't stand these stupid commercials….” I like infomercials… I really love them! Steve: Me too! I watch them for fun. Myron: Goodness, they're so entertaining! I'm like, "Ooh, that is such a great idea!" Steve: Oh man! So we’re saying … THE STRUGGLE IS NOT REAL! Number one: You can't even learn any of the skills or real tactics that you teach if you can't even accept the fact that… Sales ARE good. That money IS good. Myron: Absolutely, absolutely! And that you are doing good in the world when you sell things to people. Do you understand that people only buy something because they value the thing they're buying more than they value the money? It's kind of amazing when you think about it. Steve: Yeah, money is GOOD. Sales are GOOD. I'm writing down some of the notes here... What else would somebody need to do? I mean these are all major foundational pieces before you even get into tactics… (or even things that you'll be speaking at OfferMind about) So what else can somebody do to just increase their sales? They're like, "Hey, I've got those things, I know sales are GOOD. I know money is GOOD." What would be the next step? Myron: Realize that the struggle is not real, it's imagined. “But sales are SO hard!” No, no, no, no, that's just a story you tell yourself. Sales are NOT hard, you're just NOT good at it. I love what Jim Rohn said his mentor told him. He said, "Mr. Rohn, Mr. Rohn. Don't wish it were easier. Wish you were better." Steve: Ohhhhh...there's some zing on that! Myron: That's juicy, ain't it? Steve: It's a little sting, there. A little spicy. Myron: Yeah, he was like, "Sales is hard." No, no, no, no. It ain't the problem. Sales are not hard. Sales are really, really easy! You just don't know how to do it. Jim Rohn said his mentor, Mr. Earl Shoaff asked him, “So how much money do you make?" He said, “Well, I don't make that much. I'm broke.” His mentor said, “How is it that you, being 26 years old and a healthy American male...and you're broke?” He said, “Well, I can't help it. This is the job I have. This is all they pay.” His mentor said, “Well, now Mr. Rohn that's not true. Let me ask you a question. Are there people who work for your company that get paid more than you get paid?" He said, "Yes." His mentor said, "Well then, that's not all they pay. That's just all they pay YOU." And I said, "That is so good!" Steve: I totally I can hear his voice as you say that. You do it well! Myron: That's all they pay *YOU* So what we have to realize is… Mr. Rohn said, "It's too expensive." "No, Mr. Rohn. The problem is not that it's too expensive. The problem is that you can't afford it." We always wanna blame it on something outside of ourselves. We always wanna relieve ourselves from the responsibility to do the thing, but the reality is... the reality is that sales ISN’T hard… “…I just haven't learned how to do it yet!” I'm gonna tell you something, Steve. I have NOT always been good at sales. When I got started in sales in 1985 selling insurance and investments through a company called AL Williams, I was not even good enough to be bad yet. I was so bad, I was worse than bad! I got started in October of 1985 and I did not make my first sale until April of 1987. I was working and doing presentations... and I was woefully awful. See, here's what happens. Most people are not willing to be bad long enough to get good. I was making offers and doing presentations from October of 1985 to April of 1987. (By the way, if you're counting that's 18 months before I made a single, solitary sale.) Shortly after I made that first sale, I became the top salesperson in our office month after month after month after month. Some of you will say, "Well, Myron. How did you do that? What was it that changed for you, that took you from not being able to make the sale, to being the top salesperson in your office?" *EASY* I ran out of all the ways that wouldn't work. Steve: Mat time! Myron: The only thing I had left? The ways that it WOULD work. It's so amazing, Steve. People resist the only activity that can help them get better at the thing they are desiring to do. They'll create all kinds of creative avoidance around not doing the one thing, i.e., Making offers Doing presentations. DON’T HIDE I'm gonna tell you something, I've got a young lady who's in one of my high-end coaching programs. Her name's Eileen, I think you met her. This particular coaching program is $40,000 and they have to put at least half down and then they get on weekly bank drafts, right? So she's like, "Myron, I really wanna get in this and I don't have the money. I don't know what to do." First of all, she came to me and she didn't hide from me. She came to me and said, "I don't have the money. I don't know what to do. What should I do?" I'm like, "This person's gonna be awesome." … because when they didn't have the answer, they knew there was an answer… ... and so they ASKED for the answer instead of avoiding the place where they could get the answer. Steve: Yes. I'm a student of exceptions. If you don't have the means, or you don't have whatever... JUST FIND ANOTHER WAY. It doesn't mean that you're blocked! You keep moving! Myron: Yeah, exactly. Here's what I told her: "Eileen, you already have a $4000 offer. Raise the price to six and make more offers. In fact, take the people who are in your current database right now and give them a date at which you're gonna raise your price to $6000 and give them an opportunity to get it now for only $4000. Raise your prices." I said, "Then the second thing you wanna do, raise your prices and make more offers." Now, here's what make more offers means to me: *Collapsed timeframe*. Take the number of offers you would do in the next year and do that in the next month! Take the number of offers you'd do in the next month and do that in the next week! Take the number of offers you'd do in the next seven days and do that many offers today! You will have the money in less than 30 days. She called me a week later, "Myron, I have the money." Steve: That's SO cool. Myron: It’s something as simple as “make more offers”. I can tell you story after story. That's not unusual, but it is unusual to find people who are willing... To make an offer! Adjust the offer and then make that offer to another person when somebody says no to their offer Make that offer just the way it is to 10 more people just to see if the problem is the offer... OR if it’s just the way they're offering it. Steve: Right, right. Myron: Most people won't allow themselves to stay in the game long enough to figure out how to win the game. Steve: You know, it's funny. I went back and I recounted how many tries it took me... and it was 33 failures over six years! It was painful... Myron: Well, why didn't you quit? Steve: Right? Yeah, I know. Someone was like, "Why did you think you could keep going like that?" I was like… I realized that failure is largely made up. You just learn. Everything is progression. It's not win-lose, it's just progression. Man, I had a lot of garbage in my own head around the beliefs in money that I had to overcome. Myron: Absolutely. Steve: Before I could even sell what I was making in the first place. ALL WORK *WORKS* Myron: Absolutely. What's really interesting that a lot of people don't realize? They'll say, "But Steve, it's not working! But Myron, it's not working!" I say, "Okay, first of all, let me help you understand something. All work WORKS." Steve: I'm gonna put that on my ceiling! Myron: All work works. There's no such thing as, "I did that thing, and it didn't work." Oh, it worked. "No, no, but I made the offer and nobody bought." It still worked. "Well, if I made the offer and nobody bought, how can you say it worked?" See, work is a two-sided coin. Q: What are the two sides of the coin? There's the work I do on it There's work it does on me. When the work I do on it doesn't do what I thought it would do...then the work it does on me ALWAYS does what it's supposed to do! I know all work works. So when I'm working on something that seems like it's NOT working, it's still working on me. It's so interesting, we were talking about how you had six years... six years you tried all these different things and none of them "worked." You had six years of failure, about 30-some odd failures but here's what we as human beings fail to realize. Repetitive use of a limited ability will always produce an increased capacity. What do I mean? If I wanna get in shape and started doing push-ups, and I wanna do 30 push-ups, but I can only do five, here's what happens initially after I do five. The next day I can only do three, right? Because push-ups, in the beginning, don't make you stronger at first, they make you weaker because of fatigue. So people think when they become fatigued from the activity that they wanna get good at, they think that means it's NOT working. But you have to do it over and over again. Repetitive use of a limited ability will ALWAYS produce an increased capacity. Unless you do the activity repetitively, it cannot increase your capacity to do that thing. Eventually, if you do five push-ups today, and three tomorrow, and then five the next day, and then three the next day, and five the next day... all of a sudden, you get down one time and then it’s 21. Where did that come from? Repetitive use of a limited ability will ALWAYS produce an increased capacity. Over that year and a half when I was making presentations and nobody bought, what I didn't realize I was learning two very valuable lessons. I was learning how to NOT work for money. I was learning how to hone my message and how to adjust my approach and then go back and do it again. And that's what I mean when I say I literally became the top seller. Went from a year and a half no sales...to making a sale...to top salesperson. “How did you do that?” I ran out of all the ways that wouldn't work. The only thing I had left were ways that would work. Steve: I totally get it. It's kind of the same thing for me... after a while, I was like, "I don't know how else to be bad, or make it not produce cash.” Myron: Exactly. Steve: So just so everyone else can see, I've taken so many notes that I even turned the page… ….now I'm going down this side of the page with notes! I have so many notes and what's funny is that I've listened to you speak so many times... Every time I hear you speak, more and more comes out! I have a greater understanding of why I behave the way I do. Not just, "How do I sell more?" It's, "How do I actually behave better?" It's really fascinating and I want to thank you for that. Myron: Absolutely, my pleasure bro. Steve: So you're gonna be teaching a lot of stuff at OfferMind and you're gonna come speak... Myron: Yes. Steve: And at the point where you're gonna come speak, people should have a great idea of what their offer actually is. The core offer, what they should be doing. Horse blinders on about everything else and just hyper-focused on that one core offer…which is what I'll be doing on the first day. But you're gonna come in and teach them how to offer the offer. Myron: How to offer the offer in a way that people expect it. So many people make the mistake of thinking that the offer is their person. What do I mean by that? What they'll do is say, "Well you'll get so many hours of my time." I say, "How many hours of your time?” What I want less than hours of your time is for you to have hours of my time! Steve: Right. Myron: Okay? So they'll sell their person. They'll sell their pieces, "Well, this has got five books, 17 videos and 47 audios." Well, nobody cares about the pieces. Steve: No, I don't want that. Myron: Nobody cares about the pieces. They'll sell their process. It's fine to teach people the process after they've taken advantage of your offer, but don't sell them the process! If you sell them the process then they're not gonna buy it. I'm gonna teach you how to offer the offer... Q: ...and so how do you offer the offer? When you're selling to somebody you don’t sell them the process, you only sell them the payoff. You don't sell them your person, you don't sell them the pieces, you don't sell them the process. Q: What do you sell them? You sell them the payoff and you use a concept that I call Emotional Cooperation. After you use Emotional Cooperation… (and I'll teach you what that means when I get there - at OfferMind…) ...then you use what I call Logical Justification. When you combine Emotional Cooperation with Logical Justification, you become what I call a Psychological Artist. You can hang pictures in people's minds for them to refer to that help them see your offer in a more favorable light. OFFERMIND???Steve: That is powerful stuff and I’m taking notes like CRAZY. If anyone's watching or listening to this now, and they're like, "Will OfferMind be worth it?" ...first of all, if you're NOT convinced by now… I don't know what to tell you! What would you say to somebody who's like, "You know what, I don't know if I should show up to OfferMind?" Myron: What does that mean? Steve: Right. Myron: No, no, I know what you mean. I'm like, "I don't know if I should show up for OfferMind?" Some of the greatest marketing and sales minds in the world alive today are gonna be there teaching you how to get BETTER at creating offers, and offering those offers… ...if you don't know if you should be there…? Perhaps we should come get your family and take them to safety!?! It's that kind of deal. THE TWO THINGS...One of my old mentors, Charlie "Tremendous" Jones... I love that man and he was so amazing. He changed my life in so many ways. Steve: Oh, I didn't know he was! Oh, that's cool. Wow. Myron: Oh yeah, I knew Charlie. Steve: Oh, that's amazing. Myron: Yeah, I knew Charlie. Steve: Cool. Myron: He lived in the same town as me. I used to go visit him. Steve: That's amazing. Myron: Like, I would go hang out with him. Charlie used to say: Your life would be the same 10 years from now as it is today, except for two things, the books you read and the people you meet. When he said, "The people you meet", he is talking about the people you associate with. I have found that NOTHING in this world ... in this life...changes your life for the better like going to live events. Live events are my vibe. I get to meet people and interact with people. If I had never gone to Funnel Hacking Live, I wouldn't even know you and we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. Steve: No, definitely not. Myron: When you were at Funnel Hacking Live in San Diego, 2016 and I was at Funnel Hacking Live 2016... I don't even know if I remember meeting you. Do you remember meeting me? Steve: No. Myron: Probably not. No. Steve: No, no. Myron: Probably not, right? We were both there, just as attendees. And now you're having your event, and I'm coming to speak at your event! You learn from me, I learn from you. We make each other's lives better and we help each other's students, it's like... ...does it get any better than that?! Steve: I don't know?! Myron: You will meet joint venture partners and they can open doors for you that you can't open for yourself just by going to live events in general... But OfferMind! Like really?!! I mean where will an assembly (other than at Funnel Hacking Live) of this level of marketing and sales genius be converged in ONE place at the same time other than OfferMind? If you're not there ...where else would you be?! Steve: I don't know? I've asked the same question. I'm like, “I don't know why you wouldn't show up to this, it's pretty ridiculous…” Myron: Your life will change. I love what JR Ridinger used to say, he is a guy who is the president of a network marketing company I used to be a part of. He said, "You can change your life in two days." How long is OfferMind? Two days or three days? Two days? Steve: Two days. Myron: You can change your life in two days. You can get more accomplished in two days than you get accomplished in a whole year by being smart enough to get yourself to that next event. Steve: There’s something about it... Myron: It collapses timeframes It gives you a synergy It gives you a level of focus that you can't get...that's diffused when you're out here doing your own thing in the workaday world. When you come into a space where there are that many people focused on sales, focused on marketing, focused on offer creation, dude, it changes everything. Steve: Yeah. Myron: Yeah, I'm speaking at OfferMind. But I'm not just going to OfferMind 'cause I'm speaking, I'd be going to OfferMind if I wasn't speaking. Steve: Yeah. Myron: Let's not get it twisted, ladies and gentleman. Steve needs to go to events, I need to go to events, Russell needs to go to events. The teacher who has stopped learning has lost his right to teach. Steve: Okay, amen. I think about like wings on a plane. I tell everyone, if you're being coached by someone who's not also being coached, stop listening to them! They're not practicing the very thing they're teaching you. Myron: Absolutely. Steve: Get away from them. Myron: Absolutely. Steve: Oh man. Myron: Don't get stuck like Chuck in a pick-up truck. Steve: Well hey thanks so much for being on here, thanks for being in Sales Funnel Radio. I'm just incredibly excited to have you on. Myron: Me too. Steve: Guys, go to OfferMind.com and grab your ticket. By the time while I'm saying this right now, we're pretty much out of VIP seating - stuff is filling up very quickly. Go get your ticket and we'll see you September 2nd and 3rd! You’ll get to listen to Mr. Myron Golden teach you how to offer the offer that I'm gonna teach you how to build on day one. Myron: May I borrow one of your words? Steve: Yes. Myron: BOOM! Steve: BOOM! BOOM! If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, 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 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? There are 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.com.
I help talented coaches attract premium clients at premium prices, so they can quickly and reliably build a 6-figure business doing what they love. Visit https://www.WilliamWinterton.com to see my exact process! Today I had the AMAZING honor and privilege of talking with Steve Larsen. For two years, Steve was the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels for Russell Brunson, and put over 500 sales funnels under his belt (but honestly, lost track a while ago). Eventually, he left ClickFunnels as an employee to get his own 2 Comma Club Award and his business crossed $1 million 13 months later. His podcast, Sales Funnel Radio, was created to share best practices, teach the finer points of marketing and “funnelology”. In today’s conversation, Steve shares a little of his backstory and how he eventually (by default) became the lead coach/trainer at a multi-million dollar company. He then goes into detail about how to create an offer that is PROVEN to attract clients. It’s a strategy that he has used with hundreds of clients, time and time again and he lays it out so cleanly, the AH-HA moments start exploding one after another after another! If you want to learn more about Stephen (including why he’s wearing that tee-shirt) check out this link: https://www.stevejlarsen.com Connect with WilliamFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/william.winterton.7LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-winterton/TRANSCRIPT: William Winterton Alright, I'm here on Coaching Success Radio. And I'm super stoked, because today I've got Steve Larson on, and I get a big show at the beginning here to kind of explain who he is. I would love to hear from you, man, who is Stephen Larsen, Stephen Larsen Someone who is still developing himself. (laughs) No… it's been fun. I first started out I was kind of an entrepreneur by not by choice, you know what I mean? I don't think many people, many kids grew up thinking like, you know, when I grow up, I'm going to be an entrepreneur, like it's just not a normal thing. But turns out, it's incredibly fun. And something that I was kind of thrown into when I found out I couldn't feed my lady, right, I can feed my new brain and stuff kind of hit the fan. And it was really rough for a long time. And I went through I recounted recently. It was my first 17 tries, didn't really work very well. And I went from everything from like, selling stocks and options, the real estate and diamonds and ebooks and daughter of sales. And I mean, I did a lot of stuff. And then I found out this thing called funnels, right, this funnel world was amazing. And it was about try number 17. And it was another 16 or 17 they weren't all failures, but it was like none of them were like the screaming successes, you know, it wasn't for another 16 or 17 to one was like, Whoa, holy cow, you know. So anyway, I've left my job as a ClickFunnels funnel builder and been doing on my own. And it's been awesome. William Winterton I think people anybody who's not aware, Sales Funnel Radio is a phenomenal resource. And it's just, you're basically telling your life through this podcast, right? Stephen LarsenYeah. William WintertonDocumenting your journey. So what I'd love to get into- because of a lot of our audience, we're talking to coaches, people who are just starting out in the coaching world, or people who are coaches and trying to figure out how this game works and how to actually make money in this. You'd kind of became a coach and that really wasn't your intention… I don't think in the beginning, but you somehow got handed this thing I think by Russell, probably, like, I need you to coach, all these people. And you had no idea the magnitude that's going to get to. Talk us through that story a little bit. Stephen Larsen But yeah, totally. So it actually was I've only been working for Russell for about almost two years. And it was probably six months in, we were at his old office, and we're sitting there and, you know, we sat literally back to back almost can see his face in the reflection of my monitors, you know, which freaked me out for a while I was like, Dude, don't say anything stupid. This is amazing, you know. And after a little while, though, he was on with his inner circle, he gets off, and he muted and he turned his camera off that is kind of like, here's a full day coaching and relax for a second I go, dude,, you're saying the same thing, basically, to every single person. And he was like, I was like, kind of funny to get is kind of funny. And he's like everything from a supplement to a makeup business to it's like crazy. E-com to info business to retail to it was like, I was like you're saying the same thing? And I was like, What if we created something between you and then so that you can take them from, you know, here and up instead of all the way from the ground all the way up. So what I did is I started going through like 12 years of his content and took me six months to organize it. And I said from this minute and second to this minute. Second, you're talking about this. But really, you should know these things before you know that and it was like this huge trail and it took a long time. And anyway, I begged to be we put into this members area, we made an event around it. And I begged to be the guy to go on stage and Russell couldn't. And they're like, oh, okay, we'll see. I don't know, but like, I wanted it real bad. And I begged and I, you know, played the game how I needed to and made sure I like getting my myself in there. And I had to be the guy to teach when Russell can get on stage. And that's when Steve was born. Right? That's when Steve Larson was born, I started finding my voice. And we all thought that I was going to be teaching and like, we thought I'd be teaching marketing. I was not planning on being a coach, I had no interest in being a coach. Nothing against it. It's just I was like, I'm really into funnels, you know, and I go and I'm standing on the stage and I start realizing that I'm teaching these models that work. But once they understand it, the real work begins because now they're going to start working to execute the model. That's where they need the coaching. And we all thought I'd be doing this like marketing stuff. And it wasn't I ended up helping them get through their own garbage. So they can even execute the model in the first place. And then, later on, it was the One Funnel Away challenge and Russell's like, dude, your DNA is built for this, you yell at people without them knowing you're yelling at them. And I was like, well, then one foot away started. And that's kind of how it happened. And that's the biggest thing I've realized as coaches. It's, it's, I mean, yes, we teach him like these cash models, but that's not why they fail. doesn't work for me. Yeah, but that's not why it's not gonna work for you. It's not gonna work for you. Because, you know, like, you haven't worked through enough of your garbage, Steven, execute that model. That's kind of what happened. William Winterton Yeah, so no, like, it's totally a very unconventional approach. Because a lot of people that I'm talking with I work with, they go through and have a ton of training, they learn to become a life coach or health coach or fitness coach, and they go through the halls coaching training. At the end of the day, your main goal is to get somebody from here to here, and you're just you've got a kind of a very unconventional approach to that in terms of like, Look, you know, I'm not taking it I've actually enjoyed listening to kind of you don't you don't take anybody's crap, like, yell at people very nicely, but like, I'm not dealing with it. So it's, it's a thing where you're now it kind of leads me to like the authority of offer creation. That's kind of where you've landed, man, you got to be the coach. Right? You still coaching though, but your main, kind of where you're, your sleepless landings at offer creation? talk about that a little bit? I know, that's kind of where your passion is. So Stephen Larsen Yeah, you know, everything, everything. can't sell anything without an offer. Right? So how do you craft that without, so it can be attractive and something that people get psyched about when they see it. And there's a lot that goes into that is, the better people can understand. This is true for coaches as well, you know, the better you can understand behavioral psychology, like why we make the decisions we do, the better coach you'll be. And the better marketer you actually end up being that actually, coaches and marketers are very similar with skill sets, in my opinion. So what's interesting is, like, as I go to these offer creation methods. I mean, they've worked for hundreds and thousands of people and so many people made a million dollars off the moon so so like, Man, I'm not gonna lie. Like the reason, I started yelling was out of pure frustration after a while. It wasn't like a stick. It was, and I'm getting a little impatient with this person who keeps asking, but will it work it for me and I have responded for 15 minutes, say, Yes, just do it. But I'm in a unique scenario, what? You found a way to negate 100,000-year-old brain like you have one to it works also. And so I started coming up with these rules for coaching. Right, like, I will put in as much as you put in, I will, and a lot of it came from Sean Stephenson actually. I was listening to him at the first phone hacking lab I went to and he was teaching the Coast Guard mantra. And he's like, you're right. And I know you I'm sure you've heard it right there. They go out and helicopter and there's a ship sinking and as more bodies in the water than his room and helicopter gut-wrenching decisions, who do you save, and he's like, you save those as swimming towards you. Right. And for a long time, I felt responsible for every single person that was coming in. And when I heard that, I was like, oh, man, I gotta stop. And so putting the ball back in their court. Look, here's your host. I'm teaching you how to make the money that way. But be prepared, because you're gonna have a lot of obstacles, you know, was a Robert Kiyosaki. And he's like, the moment you start down any journey, you're going to have these character flaws explode in your face, and you got to address them before we can move on. So it's funny because I love teaching the offer creation. But when I do, I mean only keeps in a few of the models right now. But it's just because I teach him and then I observe the behavior of the individual. And you go back and like Oh, man. Anyway, I love offer creation. It's amazing. It's the core and the heart of why we market but I've really, can you William Winterton Would you mind? I'm going to jump in here real quick. Can you Would you mind kind of walking us through offer creation of a very amazing term… it's very broad, somebody who doesn't understand it fully. We talked about having to build your offer, we talked about having to have your ideal client stuff, can you give us kind of a little snippet of a, you know, like Steve Larsen genius in that. Stephen Larsen Hopefully his genius Oh, man. Let me get some paper here. So we have to understand is like, so many times people… I feel like the way people made offers even five years ago was they would just start bundling stuff. And they'd be like, well, let's put this product in this product and this product and this product… and a lot of people would start assembling these offers, were the products inside the offer was just tons of stuff, right? It just stuff stuff, stuff, stuff. And a lot of it wasn't even related. So what I do, that's made it so unique is it's a combination of so marketing is just changing people's beliefs. So that they go buy something, right? That they're already in motion to buy. That's all marketing is. It's not logos and slogans, it's not cute little as nothing that business cards, I hate business cards. It's just, it's just changing beliefs with the intent of a sale. So what's interesting about my offer creation method is that it kind of incorporates that, and addresses the product of the same time. Anyway, so what I do, first of all, is I imagine my, my customer, and I'm like, let's think about this customer here, this customer, they're already momentum towards something, and they're already feeling pain. A lot of old-school copywriting courses would teach things like, you need to go and talk about the issues that your customer has, that they don't know they have so that you can then bring your solution. And there's some truth to that. But they already have problems though. And I want to sell somebody who is consciously aware of the problem that they have so that I don't have to create it, it actually kills half of the work that was taught like in the previous 10 years around copywriting, it shortcuts it like crazy, you don't need to do that. Just go and figure out. So my dream customer is somebody who is already a few things, they're already in pain, and they're conscious of that pain. They're already spending money that has been one of the most powerful criteria is ever, they're already aware of other solutions that are out there. And they've actually tried them. So huge. They already are consciously seeking another option. Right. And these are like, this is like a lot of things that I go and I think through before I even think about an offer, like sales message, offer funnel that comes like step 99. To be honest, what I do first is get ridiculous clarity on the who. And once I know the who this parts really fun and it's really at the foundation of how I create the offer. Every single customer that's out there has all these best problems, right? Or things they need solving. All I'm going to do is I'm going to start listing out problems. Now it's a gift. You know, like when you go to like, I say get Click Funnels. Okay, how many things did you have to solve in order to actually use Click Funnels? Right, like, I gotta learn how to write copy, right? I had to do that, you know, I remember the froze like, man, I can make a sales video, what kind of camera you know, or I gotta do this so that all these problems start popping up in order for you to actually have success. Right? And every single solution that you sell, somebody actually causes more problems. And that's, it's crazy to realize that and it's actually a gift to entrepreneurs. So all I do is I think through all these problems that this customer currently has and what they're wanting, and then I rank the problems is actually I do it. I called this called the core problem planner. That's what I call me. And, and I'm like, Oh, you know what, because not all problems pay me the same, I could solve the problem how to put groceries into a bag at the end of the checkout line. But that's not a very valuable problem to solve. Right? Right, I'm going to solve a problem that's a combination of super valuable for them, but also expensive and valuable for me so that I can get paid a lot. So engineering, this offer to create a lot of cash before, like before even think about the offer is I want to know at the heart of what I'm solving it's reason click falls can charge what they do. They solve an issue that is highly valuable. That and legitimately for both sides. And so at the beginning, before even think about a solution, I just want to know what problem I'm going to dedicate my entire business to solve. That is how I figured out the foundation of my offer. Now all I do is think about my one solutions, one solution that I call the core solution, one core solution. And this is this part super fun and easy as well. So I think about one core solution. And then I start thinking about like, well, what are the follow-up problems that that solution creates, such as Click Funnels crap, now I needed to figure out what a sales letter is. Right? Then all I do is I think through little tiny mini solutions for all the following problems I can think of. And that becomes my offer, that becomes the stack slide as we call it. And that's it. And now it's coming and problem derives rather than what should I go create, which is what college taught me. So backward. I'm not the one buying it. Who cares? Right? William Winterton Yeah, you're not your ideal client at all? Stephen Larsen No, yeah. So that's how we bed. So very fast. William Winterton That's how we got. And that's great. And I think that's the thing we get so wrapped up in and I talked to coaches all day long. And they're their biggest thought, at least a lot of them are, I've got to get more training, I've got to learn how to do this better. I've got to become a better coach, I've got to do all this stuff. And it's like they learned they learned they learned that perpetually schooling and learning. And it's awesome because they're continually you know that they're feeding that right? When it comes out to, you know, creating something, the number of times I see people who are like, Hey, I'm a life coach and a health coach. And that's what they say you're like, Yeah, but what do you Who do you serve? What's your Fix? Right? Yeah. So so what you just laid out and how people are realizing this, this is what you're laying out is is so key to actually making your coaching business work. Yeah, get offered place, you're just another face in the crowd Really? Stephen Larsen So true. Before even thinking about what you do, I was thinking about who you want to serve. In fact, that's where I got stuck for years as I was like, what products I sell, what should I sell? What should I sell? And it was like something I kind of whipped myself with for years. It wasn't until I switched it that actually started making money. I mean, it was that stark of a switch. And instead of saying, What do I sell, it's, who do I sell? And when I got clear on that, what to sell was actually chosen by the who knows, like, Oh, that's way easier. I don't have to be this prolific, creative genius, and make something that no one has ever seen, like college and mainstream entrepreneurship teaches. That's false. And others like us, we just have to the game ever. William Winterton Nice. Hey, Steve, I would keep you on here for another hour too, because I just feel like I just suck value out of you all day long. I have to respect your time. I know you got like a minute left probably the most. Is there anything that I have not asked you that would just be for a coach who is maybe not brand new, but maybe has been stuck? Maybe they've been going for a couple of years? And they're just stuck? Is there something you would just throw at them for? Can you also lose a little bit? Stephen Larsen Yeah, hundred percent what I realized my role is and kind of for some of it offends some people, man, I'm not trying to offend anybody. I just this is what I learned was that you know, I was in high school, I was 35% body fat. I had a double chin working on a triple, right. I was a big boy. I was getting picked on. I got straight D's I pretty much I got mercy graduated from high school, I went to college I got kicked out because I got pretty much straight F's. And I to wait for years to go back to reapply. I was told that I probably have ADHD, which that's not confirmed that I don't really care anymore. But whatever. Like I had a near clinical fear of speaking to adults, especially I would see an adult down the hall and I would walk the other way physically freaked me out. I had some real issues. And I would call myself like the least likely success story. So what the thing I had to realize is that funny enough when that counselor that was going to he's like you probably have ADHD, it became another whip. Oh, man, you're I don't qualify anymore. Like, I can't be I already knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I can't be an entrepreneur anymore because of Look at all this evidence. Look, I got kicked out. Look I got right. And it wasn't until I realized that. That man, those are gifts. Like every single thing in my life that has been bad. I've had to face and until I actually consciously faced it, it became a strength. And now Funny enough, one of the things I'm known for, and I'm like, What? So what's funny, this is what I realized my role as a coach is it's just this and I know why people ask what they do now, right? They my role of a coach is to teach these cash models, right? This is what they want. This is what they want what they need, is this, right? And they're going to go through some serious crap along the way. And they need to realize that the obstacle is the way Ryan Holliday quote and actually keep a coin on my desk that says the obstacles away as a reminder, I ended up learning how to learn four years later went back to college almost got straight A's the whole time, right little coin obstacles the way. And on the back says the impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way and I freakin' love this right. And I went I lost tons of weight and started competing in sprint triathlons and placing in them. I learned how to speak you wouldn't know that I was afraid of speaking now. Right? It was by me. Like they want whatever you're coaching them for. But what they need is to realize that all this crap in their life, all these reasons why they feel like they're unqualified, or the very reason they'll be followed in the future. But most of them don't get it. And so what happens is, while I'm in the middle of my coaching, and I'm teaching this, but I'm starting to observe this, they start doing some of these things. Oh, Stephen. I just don't have the time right now. You know, I just wish that I or Stephen, you know, I so wish right now, like, I can't do this because of this, right? And they want me to say yes. And the moment I say yes, I release them, I release them. And it's why I started yelling. Because they would look at me. And they'd be like, well, Stephen, what this. So this only works for those will be like three weeks into the one phone away challenge. So you're saying this, this only works than for the scenarios, right? What is wrong with you, right? I've gone over this time and time again, talk asked me to let you go cuz I'm not going to, which means you are going to let you go. So you face you in the mirror next time. And that's what's so funny. And people would like to poop their pants half of them will leave. But we're left with these people who are ready to actually face the crap in their life obstacles the way and realize that, and the funnel we launched last week, I'm still using the same principles that I learned six years ago, has nothing to do with the model anymore. It has everything to do with how far I'm willing to grow and face my obstacles and find the next one to find the next one and read it develop me keep the goal what it is and break me on the goal. Don't change the goal, break me on it and keep building me on it. And I keep killing all these nasty character flaws that I didn't know I had. And that's what people run into. And so when you're coaching somebody, whatever it is, that's what I'm watching for, as I'm watching for this logical release that they want me to give so I can justify them bowing out and I'm like not going to do it. Not going to do it. I'm going to make you feel the heat. Right. And anyway, but that's what I remember the obstacles away. William Winterton That's awesome, man. Awesome. See you guys been a pleasure. Thanks so much for jumping on. And hey, I'd love to have you back at some point. Whenever your schedule freezes up for the next you know, 35 days. Stephen Larsen You're the man Dude, this has been awesome. Love to be on the show. William Winterton Thanks so much.
A marketing campaign is nothing more than orchestrated noise around your product. Here's an example of how to keep a campaign going when everything is going well… A campaign is about creating orchestrated noise … that's my definition, but really that's all a campaign is. Running Facebook ads, that's NOT really a campaign. It can be part of a campaign, but it’s NOT a campaign on its own… Marketing campaigns are a dying art… which means MOST people are leaving money on the table. Think about this... We're no longer just in the information age, we're in the attention age where the loudest, not the best, is more likely to get paid. HOW TO TURBOCHARGE YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGN Recently, one of my good friends, Josh Forti, did a cool launch, and he had me come on to promo this product. After our interview was done for the launch, he asked if he could get on my Facebook page to chit chat about the interview and do a little MORE promo around it. I swear one of the major reasons that people don’t do very well in this game is simply because they don't know how to do the second step that Josh took… ...which is why I thought it'd be cool to share the interview with you… I chopped it in different places and such, but you’ll see Josh ask some very general questions… Then kind of after each of my answers, he'd go back to, "Hey, we covered that in the playbook, click here." That skill is a very learnable thing, and it’s one of the easiest ways to get better results in your marketing campaigns… Because, here’s the thing… I see people with a... Great Product Excellent Funnel Good Launch ... but then they don't follow through all the way, and it cuts their launches down. Campaigns are broken up into a lot of parts. I plan and put all the pieces together, and then, I ask... How am I gonna get tension? How am I gonna leverage the followings of other people to get attention? Once it's in the middle of a launch, how do I keep the momentum going? Once it's done, how do I keep that pressure moving as well? And, so I thought this interview with Josh was a great example of how to keep the pressure moving... So, when you launch your product, or whenever you're putting your stuff out; *REMEMBER* it's NOT just about the product or the funnel… It's about the noise. So you need to ask, “How am I creating that noise?” The success of your product is just as dependent on the noise you orchestrate as the product and the offer and the sales message itself. If no one knows about your offer, you're NOT making any money anyway. If you can't get anyone to even go look at your sales message, your product is already dead... so why did you make it? So I'm just giving this to you as an idea, so you can see like, "Oh, man, I should go do that." A follow-up interview whenever you interview somebody for a product you're putting out is NOT abnormal at all. Let’s cut over right now… JOSH FORTI’S MASTER MOVE Steve: On the other side of this wall here, there’s a whiteboard and I call it my "questions whiteboard." I believe that questions invite revelation, and that's good and bad... So… I have to focus on answering rich people questions instead of poor people questions. Because whatever I ask, I will likely answer. The purpose of the board is NOT for me to answer the questions. The purpose of the board is me to figure out which question to focus on answering. ...because I shouldn't try and answer EVERYTHING. It's funny you asked that; I don't know why, but it happens in the morning…. I'm getting ready in the morning and my brain turns on, and I'm like, "Whoa, what about this idea?” Man, I'm not going to lie, I've run out in a towel before to write stuff down... like, “That's such a sick idea! Oh my gosh! I should try to answer that…” And I put it on my questions board... and I write, and write, and write… I have a BIG list of unanswered questions that I want to pursue. It's NOT that I'll sit down always and be like, "I have to answer this now," and just dive into my books… But, on interviews, because it's on my mind, I'll continue to clarify the answer to that question… I'll be like, "I think it's this." One of my favorite things is to go back and listen to those interviews and hear myself, and be like, "...that was probably the coolest I've ever explained an answer to the question on my whiteboard.” And so I go back a lot, and it's one of the coolest ways I figure out like, “Okay, that made sense, that didn't make sense. This was helpful, that was confusing.” And it's only honed me in what I do more and more. FINDING WHAT RESONATED? Josh: It's interesting how much you can learn about certain things that you say when there are clips of the crowd, (and they get the back angle)... ... and you watch everybody's heads go down and start writing all at once. And you're like, "Oh my gosh, they all really liked that point." And so it's ALWAYS interesting for me to kinda go back and listen to old interviews, speeches, or things that I've done... that got A LOT of really good engagement... ‘Cuz I feel like you can learn so much about what people really like, what resonated and what didn't resonate. Steve: Well, it's funny 'cuz the market literally votes, (they don't know they're doing that a lot of times), and it's NOT just with products, but even with content, (you know that)… It's cool to see that reaction when you say something and you know it's right, you know it's helpful… ... but you said it differently that time, and suddenly it’s the click… and you're like, "Oh, that's what you mean!" And then you see all the heads go down, and you're like, “Okay, note to self, say it that way next time because it's more impactful than last time.” ARE YOU ASKING POOR PERSON’S QUESTIONS? Josh: I believe that the key to thinking different… The key to getting, basically, anything that you want out of life is asking the right questions. If you know how to ask good questions, you can ultimately go out and find answers, have a good perspective, and get what you want out of life. But how did *you* learn, like... How does one go and actually learn good questions? How do you determine what questions you're actually gonna ask, and what's worthwhile to go study or not? Steve: One of the biggest filters I run things through is, does that sound like a rich person question or a broke person question? Josh: Hmm. Steve: A lot of times, people try to answer broke people questions just out of habit. For example: I don't clip coupons. I'm not against coupon-clipping. Well, actually I am… ;-) One of the issues is… If I spend my time and my attention and my focus on how to save money, I will find out how to do it… ...but I also didn't learn how to make MORE money! I'd rather learn how to make more money and who cares how much something costs at that point? The one thing everybody has when they start this game is a buttload of questions. … and it makes sense why they would. Just EVERYONE has tons and tons of questions. Josh: Right. Steve: That's natural… but, like start writing them down. I challenge everybody to do that… And… Before you seek to answer the question, seek if it's worth answering at all. Josh: Yeah. That's huge. Steve: It will pay you in time or money. Josh: I love that. One of the things you said is interesting because we mention it in The Mindshift Playbook, is the habit thing… You said, ‘Often times we just do it out of habit,’ right? Steve: You know what's funny, I'll go teach these models, “Hey, this is a cash flow model. This is a cash flow model. This is a cash flow model…” And what's funny is, the very first reaction people have is, “Is that gonna work for me? Am I in the right spot to do this?” And I'm like, “Oh, my gosh, are you kidding?” ... it ticks me off so bad. Josh: It’s like, “Does ClickFunnels work for -----?” Steve: You know what? Of the hundred thousand monthly subscribers, you're right, you're the one it's NOT gonna work for. It's like, “Come on! Just do it." People set a goal, "I'm going to go do this, and I'm going to use ClickFunnels to do whatever,” and they don't allow *themselves* to break on the goal. That's the key… You have to break *you* on the goal instead of change the goal. Robert Kiyosaki says that as well… As you start moving towards any goal, you’ll have these character flaws that explode in your face. I was probably, you could say… Addicted to video games in high school. I was very overweight. I got kicked out of college. I barely graduated high school. I couldn't speak. I had major anxiety issues. I am literally the opposite of everything that I was back then because I started realizing that, I needed to allow myself to feel some pain on the way to the goal. Pain does not mean bad, and pain does NOT mean the wrong choice. Most of the time, pain means growth. Josh: Yeah. FAIL FAST Steve: When you realize, “Oh my gosh, failure is really kind of a made-up principle. It's not even a principle, it's made up... As I start to feel that pain, I start to feel the progression of moving towards things. I went back and counted how many times it actually took me to make one of these funnel things work, and it was actually 17 funnel tries and 17 before that… It was actually my 34th thing that actually blew up (from age 20 until now). Josh: That's crazy. Steve: That's A LOT of freaking failures. ...and most of the time, people aren't going to be able to go through that. About 1/3 into those tries, I became cognizant that… I was changing at a speed faster than any personal development course could ever hope to give me. Josh: Ever! And you mentioned that in the interview too. You say like, Entrepreneurship is the best personal development course you NEVER signed up for. I mean, like it just is, and I 100% agree with that. ...and it's interesting what you say about pain and struggle. I think the one thing that we both agree upon is that the struggle is there for a reason. The struggle is a good thing. The struggle is absolutely needed to develop you into who it is that you say. So it's interesting that like, they're saying it, you're saying it. Like, it's there… I think in today's society, we're just trained to want to avoid struggle. Everything is convenient. Everything is now. Everything is easy. Like, “Avoid this!” (Thank you, marketers, right?), but like, you know what I mean? I feel like we're trained as a society to avoid struggle, which I think is why it's so hard for so many people. Steve: Yeah. And, you know, I think a lot of it, (and I'm never gonna be the one that just like slams and bad mouths school and all that stuff)... ... but you think about it, you get punished for doing something wrong in school. But like, man… I do stuff wrong, all the time, in business, and that's actually the thing that accelerates me. Josh: Right Steve: “You can't do that here, or you can't do that here.” Or… “What if I fail?” *Plan on it* And then you just move forward. Josh: Write it in. Steve: I find that failing ends up being an accelerant to everything else that you do I've gone through that many failures, and because it sucked for so long, it's NOT that hard to make cash now. I'm like, “Okay, well, I solved that problem.” And what I've learned is that while I teach these models, and then people feel this first sense of personal development requirement that comes like… “Oh, man, I don't actually qualify to be running my dream in the first place.” ...as they start moving, they start to gain this self-confidence. And then, they move faster and faster and faster… I almost want them to hit some major speed bump quickly and then see if they can pick themselves back up. That kind of person, I love working with them. Josh: Yeah, because people don't know how to fail. Sorry. Go ahead. DO YOU QUALIFY? Steve: I was chatting with Russell about this a little while ago… I was like, "Dude, when I met you and started working for you in the same room, you were totally a different person a year and a half later by the time I left." The Russell Brunson of 3 or 4 years ago, could NOT handle what he's doing right now. But too many times we're like, “I want my dream with the million-dollar business now.” Man, *You don't qualify* You've gotta get some personal development going down! Josh: What would your advice to me be, if I were to go down that route and be like, "Yeah, I'm gonna open up a talk show where we bring on interesting guests. Maybe we talk politics. Maybe we talk about business. Maybe we talk, whatever.” What's your advice to me when it comes to doing those interviews or creating concepts around that? Steve: Okay, so I'll tell you one of the reasons why Sales Funnel Radio has been so successful and “The Capitalist Pig” is such a big deal to people… It's because it actively throws rocks around mainstream ideas that others believe. So, I was in the Army, (and y'all know that if you’re on here, right?) I was in the Army, I enlisted and I went to become an ammunition specialist, (which I didn't know at the time meant "fancy warehouse guy." ) I was like, “Crap, I wish I would have chosen something a little different." Anyway, a little bit through that, I was like, "I'm going to go be an officer." So, in the middle of my officer trainer, one of the things that they do is they make you study wars, battles, lots of strategy and movements... things like that. So you study these HUGE battles, and it's a ton of fun. I really enjoyed it. The guy who was teaching us was ridiculously smart. He's a historian that they brought in just for officer training. It was a whole semester of just studying wars. What's interesting is that he taught us that wars are started over usually pretty much always out of rights... States' right Human rights ... that's what wars start over. The Civil War was NOT started because of slavery. We did NOT leave Europe because of religious oppression, but that's how we romanticize the past… What's funny is that in the middle of a war, a lot of times, a social issue will piggyback on the war. So slavery becomes part of the Civil War, (like right towards the last hour)... And that's when Lincoln said, "Hey, The Emancipation Proclamation, let's go dump it in there." The same thing with like leaving Europe, as Americans, we're gonna go in and you know what… ‘it's about religious freedom now.” It was NOT at first. We were Britains! And the reason I bring this up is that from a marketing standpoint, when it comes to the way I treat a message, (this is not something I normally would talk about either), but … I look to piggyback a message on the back of a social issue. (Not a human rights issue... because then you're seen as political) But when it comes to really disruptive messages in the marketplace, Socialism right now is getting a lot of attention… So one of the easiest ways for me to get a lot of attention on a show is to become the anti-something major in a social issue that's currently got momentum. It takes a lifetime to create momentum, but I don't have to do that if I piggyback on a social issue that I'm passionate about in the opposite way. Josh: That's super good advice. Steve: Yeah, I would figure out what big things to talk about. I find that themed shows always do better than a general, let's just... Josh: Let's just talk. Steve: Yeah. So I would find something that you find and throw rocks at it like that, and then it's very natural to find those people who are for or against to hear both sides. You'll get as many people who listen to you and love you, as hate your guts. Josh: Yeah, well, I think this entrepreneurship like micro-influencer game has prepared me for the hate. Holy cow, dude! Steve: Yeah, it only gets louder. Josh: Aww, man, I tell you what! But I've learned to tune it out. Steve: Well, thanks for listening and thanks for jumping on here. Josh: Absolutely, man. Thanks so much. WHOA! If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, 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 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? There are 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.com.
In this interview, I get to chat with the winner of my 3-day design challenge, Sal Peer... AND review his funnel. He did an epic job in this challenge… Here’s the backstory… Recently, I reached out to a bunch of designers and said, “Hey, I really need to create some Facebook profile frames…” You know when there are these massive events or movements where people put frames over the top of their Facebook profiles... I thought, “Why don't I do that for my groups!” So I reached out to all these designers and asked, “Hey, could you design some FB frames?” In full disclosure, when those designs came back, I did NOT like any of them. So I thought why not ask my actual audience design the frames instead, so I reached out … And it was *INCREDIBLE* We ran a 3-Day Design Challenge, and the prize was that I'd critique the winner's stuff on an episode of Sales Funnel Radio… ... thus, here we are! INTRODUCING SAL PEER I'm with the incredible Sal Peer, and I'm very excited that you’re here. Super excited that you won, (by A LOT). Thank you! You're clearly a very talented designer. It's been awesome having you on here. You run a company called Funnel Chefs. Anyway, I just want to thank you for being on here; welcome to the show. Sal: Thank you so much for having me, it's a real honor. I've been following your stuff. Amazing! Just the amount and your presentation. Like, literally, in the last year, it's just gotten better. Like, you've gotten better and I see it. Steve: Thanks, man. Sal: So it's amazing to be here with you. The Design Challenge was so much fun. It was a challenge to design five frames with no direction. You're like, “Just do it, I trust you. Just do what you can. If you win, you win.” I'm like, “Holy shit, there's no direction here.” So I dug into all your stuff. I went into the MLM Hacks Groups, the Sales Funnel Radio... I went into EVERYTHING, and I was like, “Okay, what is he talking about?” And then, I was like, “Oh the cube. He's talking about putting stuff together correctly.” I was like, “Well, why don't we get a Rubik's cube and kinda put the frame around that... ...and whoever's in there has kind of figured out the Rubik's cube for OfferMind and Sales Funnel Radio.” ...it was a lot of fun, man. Steve: Dude you're so cool. It was funny because I remember we were scrolling through all of them, (and thank you, first of all, to everyone who did do it - it was great). Sal: There was some awesome stuff on there, by the way. Steve: Really cool stuff on there. But there were ones that really caught my eye, and I was like, “Who? Oh Sal, Sal, Sal, Sal, Sal, Sal….” Sal: I hacked it though! I've got to say, I hacked it. Steve: Good. Sal: I submitted my first drafts, which I never submit. I was like: “Oh, let's just stick that out there, and create some traction, I'll see what people are doing, and then I'll come over the top like a minute before the competition ends and just be like, BOOM!” That was so much fun. Steve: That's funny because I've noticed a lot of the best people on Freelancer, (where I go run contests on there a lot), do the same thing. They just toss something out and then they see, “Yeah!” Sal: Yeah, because you want to see, “Oh, wow, he liked this one so how do I make that better?” … that's what we look for, and the branding. I really wanted the branding to be strong. When somebody puts it on the frame, they recognize the colors, they recognize the kind of thing - that was very important. Steve: So the intent was for my social agents and our community ambassadors to be able to have those frames on their profile, so then people knew, “Hey, this is legit.” Sal: Yeah, it gives them status too. It's a really solid idea. Steve: Yeah, it's been awesome. How did you become a designer? Sal: So it's funny, let's just go back to like four or five years ago. I was out of work. I was living retired or my mom would say, “retarded life,” and I was just hanging out… Then, my wife got pregnant and we bought a house... and I had no money left. I had eight and a half grand, (which is three months of paying the mortgage, but NOT the bills, the hospital bills, the insurance, the cars - all the stuff). I was like, “I got to do something,” and I didn't know what to do. And it's like you said… You test your market by presenting offers and seeing who reacts to it, and I did, basically, the same thing. I owned computer stores a long time ago, and I started them with classified sections, so I was like: “Why don't we just put out a bunch of ads and see if there's a market?” My wife and I were talking, and I decided, “Well, I don't want to do that because it will get me traveling everywhere and I want to kind of stay put and maybe do one or two events a year.” And so she's like, “Well why don't you do marketing? You know websites, you know marketing. You did it for your computer stores in '98. You get this stuff.” And I was like, “Well, I don't know…” I don't know if there's a market? I don't know where I'm gonna get clients from? I don't know…? It's gonna cost me three grand in Google ads... or 30 grand in Google ads to get clients! And all these excuses just start piling up. Then I'm like, “Alright, well let's do all the Google testing because I need to know Google back in and out.” So I got eight certifications from Google and I went and opened up a marketing agency by putting FREE classifieds out EVERYWHERE - even long ones. I got the real estate ones, (where they have the lawn thing), and stuck that in the ground. I got fined by the city, by the way - so I'm NOT recommending to do that, but it worked. That weekend, (the ad was $197 for a basic website, five pages, and then, I up-charged throughout), I sold like six of them. I was like, “Dude, I made $1200 bucks this weekend.” I was like, “Hmm, there's something here…” SELLING CANDY I look at myself as an Entrepreneur, and I've been at this working for myself since I was like five. My dad was a tour guide and I sold candy that I would get as a kickback, (from places he would take tourists), back to the tourists on the bus to make money. So entrepreneurship was kind of in my genes. I just saw a huge opportunity and I was like, “Yeah, I got to get into it.” I was watching Russell's stuff and I was like, “Oh, I don't know, it's another marketing guy with the same old stuff.” I worked with Mike Long... Frank Kern was part of a project that we launched a while back, and I was like, “Oh, well you know what, I gotta do it.” A bunch of my marketing buddies started coming in. I was, “I'm gonna pick up the book...” And then, I just said, “You know what, the book is so good. It's like ‘Inception’ for real!” … there are ONLY a few books in my life that did that, and it got me integrated into this. My mom was an interior designer, so I have taste. Sometimes, “Yeah you can do stuff on Canva or stuff, but it's the creation and the creative that goes behind it (before it gets touched up), that's the gold. That's what makes everything else work. Steve: That's so awesome, man. Sal: Because basic Photoshop skills are easy. Steve: It's super cool, yeah. Sal: But coming up with creatives, (just like you come up with offers), it's difficult. You're like, “Well, why do you need that? Well, we have to do all this research first,” and stuff like that - so it's been amazing. Steve: That's so awesome, man... and again, thank you, you clearly won. And guys, just so you know… My offer to whoever won was to go through their funnel. And so which funnel do I get to go through? Sal: So, obviously, I've been following you closely for a while now and I built this funnel with you in the OFA Challenge... Steve: Sweet. Sal: If you guys haven't taken his OFA and haven't signed up through his affiliate link, do it because the bonuses are AMAZING. Steve: Thanks, man. Sal: So that's how I built it. It's actually converting on the front end really well - it's like 37% conversion on the front end. Steve: That's awesome. Sal: And then once they're in, maybe my email follow up isn't on point or maybe the sales page isn't on point... because it's NOT converting there. That's the problem. So it could be the offer? I'm open to EVERYTHING. Literally, because I've listened to you, I went and recorded this live - I streamed it live and then I turned it into a masterclass. Steve: Sweet. That's awesome. That's super cool. I'm really excited about it... and we'll cut over now, and I'll start diving through your pages man. This is awesome, and again thanks for putting all the effort in to do the design... because I know it's a lot of work. It's a ton of work. Design is its own beast. I mean, holy smokes! So it's A LOT on your end as well, so it means a ton... And where can everyone go to learn more from you? Sal: To get a free discovery call with me, go to cfchefsal.com. That's cfchefsal.com SAL’S FUNNEL REVIEW This is the funnel Sal built during the One Funnel Way Challenge - the One Funnel Way Coach, I’m excited go through to see what he created... The purpose of that challenge is to get your first funnel out the door. So if you've NOT had the chance to go through the One Funnel Way Challenge, ofasignup.com is where you can go sign up for the challenge and get a whole bunch of extra stuff that I give you - which is super awesome. If we had a live audience right now, I'd say let's give Sal a round of applause… ...because what he's doing right now, (letting me go critique his baby), that's kind of a freaky thing in and of itself. Usually, I do these sessions with people one-on-one or privately, not on a big old radio show. So anyway, let's go to this next piece right here… So I'm gonna walk through Sal’s Funnel, but before I do, I just want to tell to go over to YouTube, so you can watch me do the review, (I cover a ton of stuff)... I'm a really visual learner and a very visual teacher. I'm actually gonna share my screen and walk through some stats that I'm seeing, and I want to share some of the epiphanies that I'm having... Well, in order to do that, it's gonna be really easier if you watch. So, head over to YouTube and you’ll learn: Why even Russell Brunson's guessing without the 1000/1000 Rule... How to find out where your funnel is clogged... How to avoid a mismatch in messaging that can destroy your sales... The *OBJECTIONS* you unconsciously create in your customer's minds that prevent them clicking your button... How to get sales psychology on your side and sell MORE... Why Urgency and Scarcity matter... A simple tweak that makes your sales page waaay sexier… easy way to create *ULTRA* clarity that gets your customer’s brain ready for the sale... Where in your funnel you need to have an offer… What % of story you need to add to your funnel to make your customers care… The details I’d LEAVE OFF an order page... Why you should NEVER rent a Cadillac Escalade in a big city … and how Enterprise got it right! The ONE principle that will make all of your funnels convert waaay better... … and a TON more *TRUTH NUKES* that’ll help your funnel to convert #GetRichGiveBack . The most common question I get is, “Steve, will you look at my funnel?” Of course! If you want me to do this kind of review on a funnel of yours, go to coachmesteve.com. It's the notification list that I have, so whenever I do have an opening, I just drop an email straight to that list… I'm just like, “Hey, here you go, first come, first served. Here's the time I have and here's a little order page so you can grab some of my time.” So if you want to be notified the next time I have an opening, just go to coachmesteve.com, and I can dive through your funnel, your offer, and your message with you. Whether you want me to coach you, give some handholding and guidance during your funnel build… Or simply, review the one you have… Head over to coachmesteve.com, and book your session now.
In today’s show Jean-Francois is joined once again by the "Master Offer Crafter" himself, part of the top-3 Funnel Builder Experts on planet Earth; Steve Larsen. For 2 years, Steve was the Lead Funnel Builder at ClickFunnels for Russell Brunson, and put over 500 sales funnels under his belt. Eventually he left to get his own "2 Comma Club Award" and crossed $1 million 13 months later. His podcast, Sales Funnel Radio, was created to share best practices, teach the finer points of marketing, offer creation, and “funnelology”. After today’s episode on how to build a funnel for affiliate marketing has sunk in, you’ll be able to create your own "2 Comma" funnel! Show Highlights: Preparation steps to build a successful funnel for affiliate marketing (1:35) What types of funnel is best to promote an affiliate marketing offer (3:53) How to set ourselves apart from leaders (6:03) What's the best way to position our "own products" Vs. affiliate marketing offers (7:33) Creating a promotion and wrapping additional and unique set of services; coaching or tools around an Affiliate Marketing offer is the best way to ensure a successful funnel. On the other hand, having a predefine and well-planned preparation process will enable you to have a clear vision and you will not be "shooting in the dark" :-). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The List Building Anonymous Podcast is all about showing you exactly how to build a profitable online business through Jean-Francois’s unique 12 step program. It’s the only podcast that delivers A to Z strategies directly from the trenches without the added ‘fluff’.
Alex Charfen is one of the very select few coaches I continually plug into... I have wanted to get this individual on here for quite some time, and Alex Charfen has been one of the reasons why my stuff is blowing up so much. I have learned that I need to listen to less people, and I'm very, very picky on those that I choose to dive deeply with… So for marketing and sales, I've really dove deep with Russell, (obviously) and you all know that. For systems and business systems, I've dove very deeply with Alex Charfen... he's the other coach that I pay a lot to and listen to as well. ...and I have other various ones that are very carefully selected... and I don't listen to ANYBODY else! I'm extremely careful about the content that I consume - so that I can spend most of my time just moving, rather than gathering MORE information… ... which I don't think many of us need more of. So anyway, I'm excited for you guys to understand more of why Alex Charfen, for me, has been so key… So I asked him to come on the show and to teach a little bit more about the systems that all businesses need, regardless of whatever you're in. A lot of these are the systems that a brand new entrepreneur needs when they finally get that revenue coming in. ...and then there are systems that he creates for those who have an existing business and are ready to scale. Alex answers the questions… How do you know if you should be scaling or not? What are the five reasons why most companies fail to scale? If you guys like this interview, please reach out to him, (he did not need to do this) and say “Thank You!” At the very end, we have a special little thing for you, and so we're excited! Boom, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen, welcome back to Sales Funnel Radio - we're really excited to have you guys here. I'm with one of my good friends, who's become an amazing friend and definitely a mentor... I would call and consider him a brother as well. I want to introduce everybody to Alex Charfen. Before I really bring Alex on, I just want you all to understand, Alex Charfen was one of the guys that helped me understand why I am who I am... and that, it’s okay… and helped me lean into that. I talk to you a lot about leaning into your obstacles, leaning into those things that have been crappy in your life… … because they end up becoming your superpower. You all know my story of going to the first Funnel Hacking Live, Alex Charfen was one of the first speakers, and I took so many notes… I ran back home, I showed my wife and she goes "That's why you act the way you do?" And I was like "YES, it's because of this guy!” He had a crazy deep gravelly voice and I loved it. He was the man!" ...and I'm so excited to bring him on the show here: Guys, please welcome Alex Charfen, “How you doing, man?” ALEX: Steve, it is so good to be here with you, man. Thank you, and I echo your sentiments completely, and I consider you a brother as well, man. STEVE: Oh thank you so much, thank you so much. You know it was like two weeks ago; me and my wife were chatting about your material and going on through it, and she goes "Oh yeah, I have to remember this is how your brain kind of works." I was like, "Really naturally, yeah! You should really know that" so we'll go back through your stuff. You know, I've got that Capitalist Pig shirt that I wear all the time, but I really want one that just says, "Charfen will explain," or something like that, you know what I mean? That should be the next shirt… So much of what I do in this world just is NOT explainable without you. ALEX: Yeah, it's unique, you know, Stephen… I think when you characterize it that way, so much of what you do is different than what anybody in the world would ever expect... and that's what I've found from the day I met you. I think I walked up to you and said something like: "Hey man, I think we should talk. You're a really unique entrepreneur and I don't think you understand just how unique." STEVE: I remember you said that. ALEX: Or something like that. STEVE: Yeah I remember, and I felt like, you know in the Matrix when he's talking to that lady with the spoon bend... I felt like I was talking to her, and I was like: "What does he see in me? What are you looking at?" You know, and "Please dissect me!" So anyway, I really am pumped for you to be here and just massive incredible love. You have to understand, your name; it's NOT just a noun, it’s a verb in my vocabulary. People are like "How did you do that?” "I just Charfenized it, baby!" I say ‘Charfenation’ all the time. I was hanging out with the other ‘Charfenites.’ I'm going over the ‘Charfenation.’ "How did you do that?" “Oh, I ‘Charfenized’ it, baby!” Anyways, you're very much a verb in my vocabulary, and with my family... so it's really quite an honor to have you on, it really is. ALEX: Thank you Stephen, it's an honor to be here man, this is awesome. STEVE: This is really cool. Well hey, I wanna just start right out and just, I wanted to ask… My audience has heard a lot about you. I've talked about you a lot because there’s so much that ‘veI learned. Just recently, I was going through some of my old notes, from two years ago, from one of your events, and I was like "Gosh, you're so right, this is so cool!" It really has created additional leverage for what I'm trying to do. It works, it's real, and I want everyone to listen to this and listen to what Alex has to say here. Understand that *this* is how I've been doing what I’m doing. I learned marketing and a lot of sales from Russell... but how to have a life, systemize, and make my business an asset from Alex Charfen. So, anyway, could you just tell us how you got into this? 'Cause I know you weren't always… I mean I call it entrepreneurial optimization, I mean it's really what you do - it's not just the systems, but like: I'm wearing glasses now I'm drinking more water than I ever have in my life I'm doing all sorts of stuff I never would do, because of you How did you get into this? ALEX: - You know Stephen, I think if the question is, "How did I become an entrepreneur?” I didn't find entrepreneurship, it found me. This was really the only thing I ever felt comfortable doing in my life. Ever since I was a little kid, I was always the kid that was different than everybody else, crazy socially awkward, like what you see today… I don't try to be socially awkward, it's just natural. I was always different than the other kids I didn't really get along I had trouble in school All the systems in the world told me I was broken. … and then, when I was eight years old, my family went through kind of a financial downturn; my father lost a company. He didn't go bankrupt, but he went really close, and to make money for the family we were selling stuff in a swap meet on the weekends. I remember going to the swap meet for the first time and standing behind a folding card table, and a woman walked up, and I sold her a pen that had an LCD clock in it… (Like that was big time for 1981 or whatever or '78 or '79, or whatever it was). Stephen I can remember thinking at that moment, "Holy crap, I'm good at this. This is something I'm NOT terrible at." … because up until that point, I really hadn't found anything where it was like, "Hey, that was good." It was always’ "Almost got it, kid. You don't suck as bad as you did yesterday." I was the kid who consistently got *MOST IMPROVED* all the time, 'cause it's the award you give to ‘the kid who sucked the worst!’ And when that woman walked up, it was like "Hey, this is something I can do over and over again." And the more that I worked with my Dad, and the more that I experienced business, I loved it. The world is so random, but when you get into the world of business there are rules. …. there's an outcome. People are in it together, and you actually have to work together to accomplish and achieve. … if everybody cares about the outcome, it'll happen. And so *this* is where I feel comfortable. You know, it's funny, when I was a kid I used to create businesses, create business plans, write out time cards and all this other stuff, and as an adult, I thought that was like ‘the weirdest thing.’ I would reflect back and think like, "Man, I was such a weird kid." Now, that's exactly what my daughters do. My daughter this morning was at the kitchen table for three hours writing out a schematic for a water park she wants to build one day. STEVE: Wow! ALEX: And you are who you are, and I think, from the very beginning, this is who I've been. STEVE: That's amazing, and when did you decide to make a business around this and go actually help other entrepreneurs, like myself, who need these systems? ALEX: Well, the business that I have today, we started… So let me give you a little brief history. So in my twenties, I was a consultant, and you know, a lot of people ask about that. I did some consulting at a very high level at the Fortune 500 level... I built a very large business that almost killed me. And so I can tell the story really good... I can give you all the highlights and make it sound great: $250,000,000 company I've worked with Fuji and TDK and Memorex and Logitech, and all international business. Or I can tell you the other side of that coin… I had a $250,000,000 company I made less than $2,000,000 a year my margins were razor thin I had a bleeding ulcer I was probably over 300 pounds STEVE: Wow. ALEX: And so when I got out of that business, I wanted to do something completely different. So in my early thirties, I got into real estate, and we were taken out by the real estate market in 2007. Cadey and I introduced our first information product, and that's how we got into this world. We created a product called the Certified Distressed Property Expert Designation. In 2007 we were bankrupt, we introduced our product at the end of the year: In 2008 we did $500,000 in sales The next year we did $7,000,000 The next year we did $10,000,000 Over the course of the life of that product, we did about $70,000,000 We went from bankruptcy to liquid millionaires in a year. In 2013, the US Treasury came to our office and did a broadcast with us, where they said that, according to their research… Our company had pulled forward the foreclosure crisis five to seven years ….so it was intense. STEVE: Oh, yeah... ALEX: Really intense! And what happened was, right around 2011… A lot of our clients who were buying our product wanted help growing their business; so I took all of the stuff that I used to use as a consultant; the systems and structure Cadey and I used to run our business, and we started training it. And so since 2011, we've been training it in classes/ courses. In 2017, we started the products that we have today. So now we have : An entry-level coaching program called Billionaire Code Accelerator - for people who are doing over 300k a year A high-level coaching program called The Billionaire Code Grow and Scale - for people doing over 3,000,000 a year. STEVE: That's awesome! That's so cool. ALEX: Yeah it is the most fun I've ever had, Stephen… It's like every day, I wake up and here's what I get to do: I get to play in this playground with game-changing entrepreneurs that are starting businesses that are doing things that are just unreal. ...and our systems, our structures are kind of the backbone for how they're doing things. So on a daily basis, me and everyone on my team, wake up knowing that we are helping the game-changers change the world, and we recruit people who want to do that… We recruit for people who are passionate about our mission… Everyone on my team feels like their life's mission is being fulfilled through being in this business right now. It's the greatest thing I've ever done. STEVE: That's incredible, and I can tell everyone else who's listening and watching this now, it's exactly as he says it. I think I've been to three of your events now, and they have just been life-changing. I go through and it gives structure to the idea, but then, also, how I behave against the idea. So I can actually go in and breathe; I can live. I watched my Dad create this awesome company when I was a young boy, but it took him too. But everyone does that, it's super natural - so you to go in and… Remove the entrepreneur Create systems Create processes and procedures, and people that actually push forward their vision even further. ... it's incredible. I know it's not magical, but it feels magical, to me! I'm like "Oh my gosh!" I've actually had a tab open with your course open for like the last month and I'll just dive into another video, and I'm like "Oh my gosh! Back to the drawing board, that was so good!" And I go back to it again and again and again... it's just always up, everybody who's listening to me, it's always up. That's really what's teaching me how to run a company, rather than ‘me’ being the company, and I've loved that. *Just so powerful* I wanted to ask you kind of a key question here, and it's a question that I get asked a lot... People come through my programs, I'll help them make money. They go and make a lot of cash, and it's awesome... but then after that, like what do you do? What are the first systems that you find that new entrepreneurs with a sizeable amount of cash should actually go create first? What are those first few moves? ALEX: You know I think I definitely want to share a couple of systems Stephen, but first, I want to just share a thought process. ..and this is a tough thought process for most entrepreneurs to take on, and it's interesting 'cause I've watched you go through this shift too, right? ' Cause at the beginning, (and I just want everyone to know)... When I met Stephen Larsen, he was ready to take on the entire world solo! STEVE: Yeah. ALEX: Like all alone, right? And here's the thought process… After you start making money, the next thing to ask yourself is: How do I sustain this? How do I make it real? How do I make it last a long time? How do I make it so that I'm not the only driver here? when you get to the point where the momentum you're creating on your own isn't enough, and believe me, we all get there... Like I know that if you're watching me, watching Stephen, you're one of those entrepreneurs... and in the back of your mind, you have this crazy voice that has always told you: You're meant for more You're gonna do more You're gonna change the world You're gonna make a massive impact ... and if you've always felt that, then there's a shift you have to make in your thinking. Because here's the issue for people like us; I call it the Entrepreneurs Dilemma. For people like us… We need far more help than the average person to reach our full destination, but any request for help or support that we have to make, leaves us feeling vulnerable and exposed. Stephen, you with me? STEVE: Yes, yes, yes, yes, 100%! ALEX: And so here's the shift… We have to realize that if we're gonna change the world, that is a group activity, and leadership's a contact sport. So we have to wake up to the fact that when we start to: Build a team Create a structure Pour into the people around us Invest in those people Make them important Build relationships with them …. we will build the company that we have always wanted. That's the only way it's ever been done. The myth of the solopreneur who's changed the world is a myth - it's a joke. STEVE: So true ALEX: It's one of the most damaging things out there in the entrepreneurial world today. Because the fact is… Show me anyone that looks like they changed the world on their own, and I will show you a massive team behind them. STEVE: So true! There's this idea that gets pushed around now, and it's like, “I'm gonna go and be this person that does all this stuff. I'm the gift to the world...” ...and it's like “Okay….” but you can't do that on your own. In the last six months, I have begun to experience and feel burn-out. ALEX: Yeah. STEVE: I have never in my life experienced that, and it's been hard. The only way I've been able to create leverage is by listening to what you say and create those teams. ALEX: Yeah. Well then, Stephen, that's the thing… Here's the deal I want everybody to understand this: If you're an entrepreneur, you have a job, and that job is to… Stay out of burn-out Lower pressure and noise in your life Increase the protection and support that you have around you. Because if you don't work with that equation to constantly lower the noise and increase the support, lower the noise, increase the support… Here's what ends up happening… You are in an equation that doesn't work. … and it's not like anyone can come and argue against me here because this is like gravity. This is like you know the facts of life, this is like taxes. We're all gonna pay 'em. There's no way to argue against this, you're going to lose. And so in that situation, as an entrepreneur, you have to be really cautious about doing too much yourself, and about loading yourself up, because here's our instinct… (You know you have this, I have this, we all have it.) If there's something to be done, the first thought we have is, “How do I just get it done without telling anyone else,” right? Oh yeah! STEVE: Yeah ALEX: And it's like "I'm gonna conquer!" STEVE: Freedom baby! ALEX: We forget that humans are tribal animals, man. We are all terrible at most things. Let's get real… If you're good at a lot of things then you have a liability because you're not gonna be able to choose what you shouldn't do. I'm very fortunate, I suck at most everything, and that's like an honest reality. Anyone on my team will tell you like "Oh man, don't let Alex fill out a form, use the calendar, "send emails. We keep him out of all of our systems." Seriously my team actually knows when I have a password for a system and they monitor me using it, 'cause I'm so bad at that stuff. But on that same token, I know what I'm good at. I'm good at vision I'm good at where we're gonna go I'm good at putting the frameworks together I'm good at assembling a team … and by doing those things, we can grow a massive organization and have a massive impact. So for every entrepreneur, the key is to figure out what you're good at and do that to the exception of everything else ... and it's the hardest thing you'll ever do as an entrepreneur. Here's why… The second you start doing that you feel like you're being egotistical. You feel like you're being self-serving. But here's the fact: When you drive your business to get easier for you it will grow like crazy. But driving your business to get easier for you will feel like you're doing the wrong thing. It happens all the time. There's a discussion right now on our Facebook group, one of the CEOs in our group made a post, and I'm paraphrasing, but she said something like : "As I offload and reduce discomfort and get a team around me, I'm feeling less and less significant, am I doing this right?" And my answer was "Yes! You're absolutely doing this right. That's exactly how it's gonna feel!" Because we need to attach significance to the total contribution, NOT to your day-to-day activities. STEVE: Mmmm, that's powerful. You know it's funny I was It reminds me of … You know when I first got to ClickFunnels, it was just he and I. There wasn't like a copywriter, a videographer... it was just he and I! So we did every single role in getting these funnels out, occasionally there was an exception where he'd go "Oh someone's really good at X, Y, and Z," but then, by the time I left... ALEX: - Probably design or something… but everything else was you guys? STEVE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, right! I knew enough Indesign and Photoshop, I was the one doing it most of the time... and doing first copy rounds, and it like, it was nuts! But by the time I left, it was funny because he had started implementing these types of things. I remember watching him during these funnel launches just laying on the floor, bored out of his mind. I've never seen him like that in my life, and he was almost going to a state of depression. He was like "I'm not needed in my own thing now. Ah no-one needs me anymore." It's a funny thing to realize, we're just the orchestrators. We don't play all the instruments. ALEX: We shouldn't, we shouldn't. And so, you know, back to your question about what systems should an entrepreneur start looking at? Now, I'm gonna talk high level, and I wanna share... You and I are really close friends, and I wanna share the most critical content we have for entrepreneurs with your group. STEVE: I appreciate that. ALEX: This is what we normally share internally once somebody joins our program… We share the five things that keep companies from scaling. The reality is, there are really five things that keep companies that should scale, from scaling. And here's what I mean ‘companies that should scale…’ You know, if you go talk to most consultants, venture capitalists, investment bankers, accountants, lawyers, whatever, they'll give you this laundry list of why companies don't scale: They didn't have enough money They didn't have the right people They didn't do all of these things The reality is, if you look at most companies that should scale, there are five clear reasons why they don't… So let me share them with you, but let me give you this caveat… Here's what I mean by "should scale..." If you've got a market If you're capable of selling If you could do more If you know you're leaving money on the table …. you should be scaling. If those things aren't there for you right now, go resolve that and then start scaling. Far too many people try and scale before they actually have all the steps in place. Then you just build infrastructure that does nothing. So let me tell you what the five things are... #1: So number one, first and foremost, absolutely most crucial, is… Most businesses don't have any type of strategic plan. So as a result, there's no go-forward strategy, and here's what happens in a business when you don't have a go-forward strategy. If you don't know where you're going, neither does your team ... neither does anybody around you And so you will, by virtue of math, become the biggest bottleneck in the company. Here's why… If there's no forward plan where all of us can point at and go get it and help you chase it down, every time we want to know what to do we have to ask you, and we have to go to you... and it's a death of a thousand paper cuts. You're literally in a place where you're: Telling people what to do Checking that it got done Telling them what to do again. And if you've ever been in that situation as an entrepreneur, you know that somebody only has to ask you twice before you're ready to flip out and lose it. Am I right Stephen? STEVE: Yeah, yeah, usually once. ALEX: Once, right, right, but by the second time you're like "Are you kidding me?" And so the way we get past that is we create a clear strategic plan, we share it with our entire team… ... and if the team knows where they're going, here's what happens. I want you to understand something about the people coming to work for you. If you're in a small business, you're hiring entrepreneurs. I know that there's this saying in the market, "You're either an entrepreneur or you work for one." I call complete and total BS - don't even bring that crap around me. STEVE: Yeah! ALEX: Every person on my team is an incredibly talented, hyper-motivated, world-changing entrepreneur, they just choose to be part of a team. And so you're gonna hire entrepreneurs, and the way you keep entrepreneurs absolutely and totally focused and excited, is you show them what they're hunting, you give them the kill. You say: Here's our plan This is what we're doing This is how you win. And if you hire the right people, they will walk over hot glass to get to that destination for you. STEVE: Yeah. ALEX: But if they don't know where it is, you're gonna demotivate them and completely de-leverage them. So number one, you have to have a strategic plan. In my experience, less than 1% of businesses do. Also, less than 1% of businesses ever hit $100,000,000. In fact only 3% ever hit 1,000,000. STEVE: Jesus. ALEX: So when you look at that, it's not 1% of businesses that hit 100,000,000, 0.01% of businesses ever hit 100,000,000, and the reason is... Most businesses don't know where they're going. And Stephen, by you having the tools to build a strategic plan in your business, hasn't it changed how you approach things? STEVE: Oh gosh, you guys remember when I tell you those stories of I left my job... I created 200 grand of revenue really quick but there were no systems I was the… Support guy Fulfillment guy Sales guy. I did every role, and I voluntarily, very painfully, had to turn down revenue to go build these structures. And I want you all to know, it was Alex Charfen's stuff that helped me go in and actually set those systems in place... and so, please understand my affinity for this man and what he does. About halfway through the year, I was only at like 300 - 400 grand, which is pretty good, but that last huge sprint came in because of the things that Alex Charfen and his team were teaching me. All those planning things that I use, and all the things that I've just lightly mentioned, they've all come from Alex Charfen, and it helped scale me. ALEX: That's awesome Stephen... Man, that makes me so proud. This is so cool! Like there's only one Stephen Larsen in the world, and I told you that the first day I met you… I'm like, "Dude you are completely and totally unique and I think I can help you build the company you really want." STEVE: Yeah, you said ALEX: And for us to be sitting here, and for you to say that, I got chills Stephen, that's so awesome. Thank you, man! STEVE: Oh man, I'm so jazzed about what we do, but it's because of what you teach I'm like "I can do it... " The first time I ever saw Stephen at an event, I did not leave the event until I'd cornered him and told him what I needed to tell him... because I knew you were gonna be exactly that type of person. ...and here's why it's so important to me, Stephen. I could tell the first time I saw you, that you were gonna have a massive effect on the world. But here's what I know about entrepreneurs; you're gonna have the biggest effect on the people closest to you - the people who are most proximal, your team. And when I see an entrepreneur like you Stephen, I'm like: "Man, if that guy builds a team he's gonna change hundreds of lives internally in his company. They're gonna change millions of lives externally, and I know those hundreds of people will build your legacy." And when I see somebody like you, I'm like, “Man! That is the path, let me show you how to do this.” The fact that it's working, is like, “Ah, it makes me so excited every day.” This is why I get up out of bed every morning and do what I do. STEVE: Ah, it's so fun man, feeling's mutual. You walked up, it was from that FHAT event that you were at. ALEX: Ah ha. STEVE: And you walked up and said, "There's a huge company in you and I don't think you know it, and I'm gonna help you pull it out of you." I remember when you said that, I was so scared. I was like, "There's no way that this is real! I know who you are, are you kidding me?" It freaked me out, and I had to own my own vision for a while. It actually took me a while to practice that. Anyway, so much has gone on in mental clarity and development from what you've taught, not just these systems and things around, it's really cool. ALEX: - So let's give the second one, Stephen STEVE: Yeah, sorry, sorry. ALEX: oh don't apologize, shit I love this part. So first you have a strategic plan… #2: Second, the thing that you need to have is A system to communicate that plan. Let me tell you something about us as entrepreneurs… We think we're good communicators, but we're lying to ourselves. The fact is, we are haphazard and emotional, and we're pumped one second and we're not the next, and we're all over the place… Here's what happens… When we have a team that has to deal with a personality like ours, and there's NOT a system for communication, it's random and haphazard and overwhelming... and it comes from all angles, and they're waiting for word from on high. Here's the fact, if you're the entrepreneur in charge, you're the MOST important person in the building all the time. You're the most important person on the team, in the tribe, in the group, and they're all waiting to see what you say. And if they're waiting for days and nothing's happened, they start thinking: Is something wrong? Did something go bad? Did we do something wrong? So you need a system. As an example: My team knows every Monday at 4:00, we're all gonna be on a weekly meeting together. They also know every day at 9:27 a.m. we're gonna be on a daily huddle, and I'll be there. They know that once a month we're gonna have a meeting where we show our strategic plan. They know once a month we're gonna have a meeting where they all get the results. So they all know when they're gonna communicate with me and how. From the first day you're on our team there's a system that controls how you hear from me. Not just me pumping stuff out there haphazardly. As a result, my team knows they're gonna hear from me, they trust it and here's what happens. I set the expectations, I meet the expectations, we create trust. I create trust with my team every time I do that. And here's the fact: If your team trusts you, you get way more out of them. If your team trusts you, they will do more for you. If your team trusts you, you'll get discretionary effort ... which means when they're driving, when they're showering, when they're doing something else, they're gonna be thinking about your business. Why? ...because it gives them momentum. So if you have a strategic plan and a system to communicate it, you're ahead of 99% of companies out there. And Stephen, same thing for you with the system, the structure? Like… We all fight structure, but once you put it in place, isn't it incredible? STEVE: Oh, it's amazing! Stuff's getting done right now, that we set in place once. and then, I'll be like "Oh, podcast episode just launched,!Oh, what day is it? Oh, that's sweet! Everyone just put it out, all right, cool!" ALEX: Right, I remember when I started getting messages like, "Hey, I love the new podcast!" And I'm like "Oh, we put a podcast out? Nice!" STEVE: I didn't do that, what are you talking about? ALEX: So you have #1: a strategic plan, then #2: a system to communicate. #3: Here's the third one, now this is BIG, really big, and most business owners just, they don't look at this ever and it's the biggest struggle is, or one of the biggest struggles is; You have to have a system to consistently document the right processes in your business. And by documentation, I mean having: A flowchart A process document A checklist Something that shows you how the important things in your business are done over and over again. For example: If you walk into a McDonald's, and you look above the fry cooker, there is a process to cook fries above that fry cooker. Anything that happens in that McDonald's, there's a process for literally every single thing, including: Unlocking the door Turning off the alarm Sweeping the floor That's why there's a consistent experience at McDonald's; I'm not saying it's a good experience, I'm saying it's consistent. In most businesses, in most entrepreneurial businesses, there's no process. In fact, it's even scarier than that... The process lives either in the owner's head or in an individual's head - so you lose a person, you lose the company. You lose a person, you lose a big chunk of what you're doing. STEVE: Hmm. ALEX: So you have to have a system in a business to consistently evaluate what processes are in the company, and then on a monthly and weekly basis document the right ones. The way that I would suggest you start, is you look at your customer experience: What is the customer experience in your company? What process documentation do you have to back it up to make sure that is completely consistent? If you do that, you're gonna beat most people out there... 99% of entrepreneurial companies have little to nothing documented in any type of process. STEVE: They're just shooting in random spots 24/7. ALEX: Or they're doing stuff like, "Here's how we do our customer on-boarding…” I trained Suzy Suzy trained Annie Annie trained Bob John does it now ...and you're like "Oh, cool! Let's go and see what John's doing?" Well, John's doing nothing close to what Suzy and Bob and everybody else was originally doing, and so you have these degrading processes in your business. And here's what happens… When you look at entrepreneurial businesses, they tend to… Go up in revenue Come back down in revenue Go up in revenue Come back down. If you're inside those companies, hundreds of times like I have been, here's what I can tell you… Revenue goes up as the process is working, and then when it breaks, it comes back down. *PERIOD* That's why businesses don't continue to go forward - there are processes breaking in the business. Whether it's marketing, sales, delivery, whatever it is there's a process breaking. When you document your proceses, you make them bulletproof. So in our business, we actually use: Lucidchart Flowcharts Sheets in Google Sheets A new product called Process Street - a distributed, automated process document system, which is incredible. So we have all of our processes in Process Street, and we have a distributed team around the world. We have somebody in Ireland who can do their part of the process, as soon as they hit the last button it transfers to somebody here in the US who can do their part of the process. STEVE: That's awesome. ALEX: Documenting your processes + Putting them in place = Game-changing STEVE: Holy cow, okay I wrote that down. I'm taking tons of notes so everyone knows, I hope they are as well…. And I'm not sharing! ;-) Process.st is the company, and we are so happy with it because... Stephen, here's what I want everyone to know,... Cadey and I have had five businesses get over $10,000,000 a year, and all five of them ran them with paper checklists. This is the first time we have automated checklists in Process Street. The last information products business that we had, we literally had three-ring binders that we would carry around the office and check stuff off. Having a three-ring binder with a process was so much better than having somebody trying to do it from memory. Now with Process Street, we can distribute that three-ring binder, and I can get reporting on who's doing what. STEVE: That's amazing. Yeah, I've actually seen the three-ring binder and I've thought, "Holy crap, that really is how he's doing it.” You would teach it and then I watched you actually do it.. 'cause you would record your stand up meeting calls in the morning ALEX: Yeah. STEVE: And I was, "Oh my gosh, that's so cool! I'm NOT doing that, interesting." Then I’d go back and take notes and start it. ALEX: And then implement. Well, and you know, there's this phrase in the entrepreneurial world. Ah... I kind of get a little triggered, right! STEVE: Let it out, baby! ALEX: You know the thing that people say from stage: "Here's what I want all of you to know. All you have to do is stop working in your business and start working on your business." And I'm always like: "Oh, good, thanks. Thanks for solving it all for us dude, that was awesome. You just solved all my problems with that really cliched BS thing that everybody tells entrepreneurs." When I was in my twenties, my instant thought was like, "How do I get on stage to punch that guy in the face?" And my then my second thought was like, "What a load of crap! If I don't work in the business nobody's answering the phones, sucker." Like, what's going on here? I don't know how to make that change. And so the way you make that change is… Working on the business means documenting processes. By making it: Clear Repeatable Real And so you have… A strategic plan that everyone understands A communication system everyone knows is gonna happen A system for documenting processes so everyone can repeat what's going on with your clients #4: The next step,(and this is BIG), is.. A consistent system for identifying, documenting, and then prioritizing the right project in the business. STEVE: Ah, this changed my life. *HARDCORE* ALEX: Whoa, Stephen, you know how game-changing this is because, here's the problem in most businesses… Projects are selected emotionally. Period, I can't tell you that they're done any other way - they're emotional. You go to an event and somebody says "I'm doing this thing," and then, the next day, you're doing that thing. You listen to a podcast or you hear a webinar, and the person says "Hey, I added this thing to my business," and the next day, you're trying to do that thing. In our business, if I have a really great idea that I want to implement today… If I'm like, "Man, this is a really high sense of urgency, we should get this implemented." It'll probably be somewhere around 45 days, and I'm totally okay with that. That's the timing it should be in my business. Now if there's an emergency we're gonna fix it that day, but if I'm like, "Hey, I see an opportunity here with something," it's probably a 45-day event… Why? I have a team and a structure, and a plan, and we have a system that's moving forward. We're already hitting our numbers, why would I mess with anything? I actually protect what's going on in the business I add things gently I add things carefully I make sure my team's into it too I make sure we have consensus In just in the last 60 days, we've gone from two million recurring to two point three million recurring, STEVE: That's awesome! ALEX: So why would I mess with what we're doing? STEVE: Yeah. ALEX: Yeah, so when somebody's like "Hey Alex, I got this "great idea for your business." I'm like "Awesome, get in line." And we'll put it into our system to see if we want to actually do this… Because the fact is… If you're getting sold as an entrepreneur on what your next project should be, you're probably in the wrong place. STEVE: Yeah, that's fascinating. I really agree with that. It was your planning system for figuring out which projects, I still do it. Top of every three months and it has guided everything we do. And while I do follow a few rabbits and I'm practicing bringing it back in, we still largely follow the plan as to what the business needs, and that's ‘grow and scale’ rather than this impulse of like: "Yeah, oh shiny object, shiny object, "that looks good, that looks good!" And it's been that discipline, that's the other thing that's always up is my waterfall... ALEX: Yeah, yeah, always! I mean mine's up right now. I mean I could share it right now. And the reason is I always have my strategic plan pulled up in front of me, I'm looking at it every single day. I'm asking myself: Is the team doing what we need to do here? How do I support people more? How do I help them do this more? Because when you look at our strategic plan, here's what it's made up of. Our one-year outcomes Our client-centric mission - which is our Superbowl, our hall of fame, the long term The 90-day projects we're focusing on right now What we're doing this month to hit those targets . So that waterfall of long term, to one year, to 90 days, to 30 days, I can see it all on one document and it tells me EXACTLY where I should be supporting the team and what we're getting done. And so here's what happens… I went to an event a couple of weeks ago, and I had an idea that was like "Oh man, we have to do this." Then I come back to the office, I look at the waterfall and I'm like "What do I want to kill in order to do this thing over here?" And you know what the evaluation was? *NOTHING* I'm not going to take anything off this, that would be crazy. There's no way I'm gonna go to my team and say, "Hey guys, in addition to all the other stuff you're committed to, here's a hot potato." I just backed down and I waited till the next time we had a planning meeting and I said, "Hey, there's this thing I think we should do." We evaluated it It went into the system It went into the plan There is very little knee-jerk reaction in our company because we are going so fast in a forward direction, that for me to challenge that in any way it has to be game-changing at a different level - so it rarely even happens. STEVE: Yeah, black-ops right? Call them black-ops? ALEX: Black-ops. STEVE: No black-ops! ALEX: No black-ops, baby! If it's NOT on the plan, you don't do it... or it's black-ops. And usually, the biggest creators of black-ops are guys like Stephen and I. So my team has an open license to tell me if I'm doing black-ops. They will actually call me out in a huddle, in a meeting, they'll be like "Ah, this sounds like black-ops," and then we'll make a note, we'll put it in a parking lot and do it later. STEVE: Oh, that's so cool, okay. ALEX: Yeah, that's one of the most important things you can do when you have a team Stephen… You train your team to criticize you and then you congratulate them when they do. STEVE: That's really cool, then they have a license to actually flex their brain instead of feeling like they're in a box. ALEX: Absolutely. You know I heard a story once about Larry Page, who runs Google, He was in a meeting and he really strongly stated a point. and one of the team members got emotional about it and started yelling at him. She was like, "I think you're wrong and this is why you're wrong," and Page was smiling… Afterward, she asked somebody "Hey why was he smiling?" ‘Cause she backed him down, and he actually said "You know what, I think this deserves more investigation. Let's do this." She walked out and she was shaking and all adrenalized up, she had just yelled at the CEO of Google, like, “What the heck's gonna happen to me?” She turned to somebody next to her, and was like "He was smiling, is that because he's gonna come down hard on me?" And the person was like, "No, he was smiling because you confronted him, he loves it, he wants it.” He knows that if people aren't confronting him, he's in a bad place. So I look at it in my team and I'm like, "Hey, if my team's not challenging me a little bit, then we're all just marching behind a duck." You know, I don't wanna have ducklings behind me. I want people who are saying: Hey, this might work This might not work We might have a better idea So you give your team license to criticize and license to call you on stuff. STEVE: Gosh, I love that. #5: So here's the fifth one... So we have: Strategic plan Communication system Selecting and documenting the right processes Selecting and achieving the right projects, ….and then, this is *BIG* Finding the right people It's NOT just finding the right people, its… Evaluating the company Understanding what the company needs right now What can you offload that is going to create the most momentum, not just for you, but for the team, for everything that you're doing together? What is the position that you need to put in place next - so that the company moves forward the fastest? And unfortunately, just like everything else I've named, planning, projects, process, all of those... people also become emotional. An entrepreneur wakes up one morning and says, "I'm doing too much, I'm gonna hire an assistant." Then they have the assistant sit next to them for three weeks, and they wonder why this doesn't work out? It's because you had the thought to get help, (which by the way I congratulate you on), but there was no process there to actually make it work. And so here's the process you need… Evaluate what's going on in the company Understand what the company needs Turn it into a job description Then you use it to recruit You do tons of interviewing You drive it until you have three people that you can select from You hire one of them and then you do at least a 90-day onboarding, high-intensity onboarding. When I'm onboarding an executive team member, I meet with them every day for the first month, three times a week for the second month, and two times a week for the third month. People tell me, "Hey man, doesn't that "feel like overkill?" I'm like: You don't understand what it means to have an executive team. Your job is to build relationships with those people. You want to know how you build relationships? There's one commodity that builds relationships. One! *TIME* - that's it. And so when I'm onboarding, when I'm bringing somebody on, (whether it's on my executive team or anywhere in the business), somebody is doing that high-intensity onboarding with them… Up close and personal every single day for the first 30 days making sure we have no drift. And so, when you have a system to select the right people, bring them on and then onboard them the right way… Here's what you avoid, (and Stephen this is like, Ah, this statistic drives me crazy)... In corporate America, I know because I used to be a consultant there. In corporate America, they would say things like, "Well we just hired so-and-so in that position so they'll probably be productive in four to six months." The first time I heard that I was like "Did he just say four to six months? Does he mean four to six days, or does he really mean four to six months?" Because in my business, even way back then), if I had to wait four months for somebody to be productive I would have been, “They're gone”! STEVE: Yeah, yeah, they're gone! ALEX: And so in our business, we actually have this experience right now. We recently brought on somebody else, a new person to help us in marketing, and with our onboarding process, he was actually achieving products within the first five days of his first week. STEVE: That's so cool! ALEX: And that's how it should be. You want somebody to come in, be effective and start contributing and creating momentum. Because here's what will happen… As an entrepreneur, if you're wired anything like I am, (and I know Stephen is), if you have somebody on your team that starts to feel like they're not carrying their own weight, you won't sleep. You won't sleep, it will rip you apart, Stephen am I right? STEVE: Yeah! ALEX: It will destroy you… And so here's the question though… Are they not carrying their own weight because: They're lazy? They don't want to? They aren't the right person? Or is it because it's not clear what they’re doing? STEVE: They have no idea what they're doing. They don't have confidence...I didn't help them! ALEX: Right, 'cause here's the thing. Your team needs three things in order to ultimately be effective and to be the type of team you want. And here's what I mean by that… As an entrepreneur here's what you want, you want a team that just does stuff and asks permission later. You want a team that achieves and lets you know how things worked out. That's it! I just know this is how entrepreneurs work. You want people who make really good decisions. You want people who move things forward. You want people who don't stand around waiting for stuff. And if you want to have a team that actually moves things forward as an entrepreneur… You gotta spend the time with them and let 'em know what your ethos is, and let 'em know how you make decisions… That's how you duplicate decision making. STEVE: Hm, gosh I love that. Okay, so… Strategic plan System to communicate System to document processes that can be shared inside the whole biz Documenting projects and the ones you're gonna work on Finding the right people ...and I actually personally just went through your onboarding training and it's so awesome! 'Cause it goes through and it's like this, you basically create a runway for 'em, right? And if they don't land, don't worry you've got parachutes and there are jumpy cords all over the place... - you're doing everything you can to help 'em win fast and lots of small tiny wins that build that confidence, and I was like: "That is brilliant. 'Cause that is not the way you're taught anywhere else.” ALEX: So Stephen, check this out, man. We recently fell out of the lucky tree on recruiting and we hired this guy named Greg Duby and he is, ah, amazing. He's like, he's just one of the most exciting guys I've ever worked with because he's so solid and so centered, and just so good at what he does. Greg is a former nuclear propulsion tech in the Navy, so you know what that is, that's the guy who rides the bomb around in the submarine, okay? STEVE: Yeah, that's amazing! ALEX: Yeah, you have to have advanced degrees in Physics, advanced degrees in Math. He's literally a rocket scientist. So he worked in the Navy, then he worked at NASA, then he worked for some of the larger consulting firms out there… I mean, he's done incredible stuff in his career. He's just one of the most solid people I've ever worked with, and within about two or three weeks into our company, in one of our daily huddles, we said, "Who got caught being awesome?" It's where we call each other out, and he said: You know, I just wanna call this company out for being awesome. “ I've been here for three weeks, I've never had an experience like this getting on-boarded anywhere... I'm up and running, I'm excited. I feel like I'm really part of the team. I feel like I've worked here forever and I'm three weeks in." And this is somebody who worked at some of the best consulting firms in the world, NASA and the Navy! And our little tiny company has impressed him so much because we did onboarding because he knew what he was supposed to do. And as a result, Greg, I think we're about three months in with him, and dude, there are projects that I thought were gonna take a year or two that are getting done this week. STEVE: That's so cool! ALEX: It's crazy. STEVE: It's just a completely different way to do it. One thing I hated in the military, I love the military, but you know, some things that are rough and that is that there are no clear guidelines on how to win ahead of time. The way you're instructed is by hitting barriers and then you get punished for it, and you're like: "Just tell me ahead of time and I wouldn't do it! But all right, let's do more push-ups." Anyway... ALEX: Something tells me you did a lot of push-ups, Steve! STEVE: I just want to say thank you so much for being on here. I asked for 30 minutes and you just completely over-delivered, and I just really want to say thank you to you. My audience already knows very well of you. Where can people go to learn more about you but specifically also get your help inside the business? ALEX: So the best place to learn more about us is to go to our podcast. I publish a podcast four days a week, which is essentially a one-on-one conversation with an entrepreneur growing a business. And the way that I create each one of those episodes is when a question or issue comes up in our coaching groups, I create an episode around it, we distribute it to the group. But then also we distribute it to anybody who's listening, so you can get the same coaching that I'm giving my high-level clients right on our podcast… It's called Momentum for the Entrepreneurial Personality Type, and you can check it out at momentumpodcast.com. And then, if you want to understand more about our products, about our coaching groups you can go to our website charfen.com, but better is to just reach out to me or to one of my team members through Facebook. The easiest thing, is just reach out to me, and I'll connect you with the right person in our company, and we'll go through a process with you to help you understand if we can help you. You know Stephen, we're pretty neat, we don't sell everybody. We actually get on the phone with a lot of people who we sell later, but we won't sell you unless it's time. We know exactly what solutions we provide, and if you have those issues and they link up, then we'll work together... but we go through a personal inventory in order to help you do that. So if anybody's interested in getting on a call with a member of my team, you can also shortcut the entire process by going to billionairecode.com… Answer a few questions and you can just set up a call link and you'll be on a call with one of my team members and they'll help you qualify and understand where you are. And just so you know, we don't do sales calls, they are all consulting calls. When you get on a call with my team, you won't ever feel like you're being sold, you'll feel like you're being helped. STEVE: Which is exactly what I have felt when I started doing that as well. Just so you all know he's very serious about that - that's very real. I always feel like I'm being helped by anyone on his team. ...and come to find out later, "Oh that was the sales guy!" ...You know what I mean? They dare to go in and actually they want to change the world and they're very serious about it. So thank you so much, appreciate it. Check out Billionaire Code. The Momentum podcast is a goldmine, it is one of those gems on the internet that is actually worth all of your time and attention. Thanks so much for being on here, Alex, I really appreciate you and love you, and thank you for being on here. ALEX: Stephen, dude, this has been an honor. I hope to be able to get invited back again, and as a Sales Funnel Radio listener, this is really cool. I appreciate you, man! STEVE: Thanks, I appreciate it! Hey, awesome episode right? Hey, once I figured out the simple patterns and formulas that make this game work, I had a new problem… Back when I eventually left my job and launched my personal business, I sold about $200,000 of product in around three months-ish… And while I thought I was King Kong, a new problem started. I was the business, there weren't any systems... I was support I was fulfillment I was the one in charge of getting the ads around I was the sales department I was the marketing department And I knew I wouldn't survive it alone… Better yet, I knew I'd never seen a rich solopreneur. This game takes a team. Contrast that to now, and my company does tons of stuff that I don't know how to do... What changed? His name is Alex Charfen, check him out at charfenrocks.com. So I usually don't bring tons of people on Sales Funnel Radio, but you should know that his programs, combined with my marketing skills, are why my business is killing it in revenue today, and NOT killing me personally. Alex Charfen's programs and training have been life-changing for me and my family... and taught me who I really am and what I'm meant to be. So when you're ready to build an actual business, an actual asset and NOT just make this another job… When you're ready to keep the role of entrepreneur but learn the role of CEO, go get started with Alex Charfen at charfenrocks.com. That's C-H-A-R-F-E-N rocks.com.
Dave Woodward helped shape the entire affiliate program at ClickFunnels. He's a personal mentor, friend, and brother. It's long overdue that I invite him to come on Sales Funnel Radio to share his wisdom... I'm really pumped about this. Frankly, it's been in the planning for, like, seven months now… I have wanted to get interview Dave Woodward for a very, very long time. If you guys don't know anything about him, he is one of the backbones of ClickFunnels... … so you’re in for a treat. I think it was October-ish 2018, just after the 30-Days Book went out. I was approached by ClickFunnels to write a chapter for a NEW book... And, NEWS FLASH… In case you’re slow to catch on ;-) this is me, announcing the release of the NEW Affiliate Bootcamp Book! And of course, in true Steve Larsen fashion, I'm gonna over-deliver bonuses to the hilt, so you’ll wanna buy the book through my link… THE NEW AFFILIATE BOOTCAMP BOOK The book asks the question: “How would you retire as a ClickFunnels affiliate in a hundred days?” I spent pretty much all of my Christmas break writing my chapter. ...it's NOT straight theory kinda stuff. This is A LOT of the strategies I’ve used to crush it in affiliate contests. So, I'm really excited about this. For the 30-Days Book, I interviewed Russell… For this one, I thought I would interview one of the backbones of Clickfunnels and the reason why: Stuff gets done There's an affiliate program that's run well. The Dream 100 program is killin’ it. ...and the name of that individual is Dave Woodward. He's a beast. He's the man... Dave has become one of my favorite people on this planet, a mentor, a friend, a brother, and I look up to him like crazy. I care dramatically what Dave Woodward thinks about me. Maybe I shouldn't... I'm NOT supposed to say that, but it's true. I really appreciate him, and everything he's done for me, and my family. I am very, very excited, and completely, (in full transparency), extremely honored, to have our guest today. This has been an interview I have been planning, and looking forward to, for a little over a year and a half now. I'm excited and to be completely honest, a little bit nervous. I have tremendous respect for Dave Woodward. - tremendous respect. If you guys don't know who Dave is, you should! INTRODUCING DAVE WOODWARD Dave is one of the cornerstones and keystones of all of ClickFunnels, and why it works… ...please take that from a guy who sat across, and watched, and was very much a part of the intimate workings of what ClickFunnels is, and how it works. Dave is one of the reasons why ClickFunnels is where it is. He is one of the reasons why relationships are the way they are. And, in my honest opinion, the reason why Russell can even get his message out there… I have a ton of respect for Dave and for what he does. He has gone from a friend to an incredible mentor to me. I so appreciate and love him, and I'm very honored to interview him today. Dave, thanks for being here. DAVE: Well, I'm extremely honored, and I'm very nervous myself, so that makes two of us. Thank you for allowing me to come on your show. I have such huge props for you, and I just admire all your work, and everything that you've done… No one implements like you implement. I love seeing it, you're such a role model to my kids, it's just fun, and I love seeing the impact that you're literally having across the entire world... so, it's an honor to be here. STEVE: Oh thank you very much, man. I'm glad to have ya. Now a lot of people may not know…. Dave sits, literally across from his seat, he literally is looking into Russell's office - I mean he's like right there… There's this tradition, (at least when I was there), it looked kinda like this… So Dave and I, right, we're working, Melanie's there, we're getting our stuff done. Usually, there's some music going. We're sitting around, and then all of a sudden Russell goes,”“UHHH!” Which means… “Get up and run to my desk.” So Dave and I, would get up and run over to Russell's desk, and we'd basically watch the zeroes and ones God pour down wisdom into Russell's marketing brain… https://media.giphy.com/media/3JSGn9bSDpzAFutb6W/giphy.gif ... and gold would just fall out. Dave and I, would both try to keep up, while at the same time validating, “Oh my gosh, that is a cool idea, better catch on to it...” ... it's like really, really fun. One of the funnest environments. I miss it terribly. Now, but a lot of people don’t know that you had a history with Russell and, pre-ClickFunnels. Right? I mean, what were you doing before coming into ClickFunnels? HOW DAVE MET RUSSELL DAVE: I had my own marketing consulting agency for years. In fact, I actually met Russell… So, I come from the direct response marketing days… Old Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, copywriting type of stuff... years and years and years ago. And at the time I had a lot of clients who were in either the insurance, the health field, or else mortgages. A lot of them were trying to figure out this whole online thing… (this is like 2007, 2008). And it was that point where I thought, I gotta figure out this whole internet stuff. I've got too many clients who are wanting information about it. I'd been on Russell's list, I'd been on other lists, and Russell was coming to do a seminar in affiliate marketing, not far from where I lived in Southern California… So I thought, “Oh great, I'll just go, and go and listen there.” I'm a huge believer of either working your way in, or buying your way in. And I've always preferred buying your way in, if it's at all available, it's faster. So it was Russell and Stu McLaren, and Russell got up and said: "Hey, you know what? If you guys would like to take us out to lunch or dinner or anything, to just kinda pick our brains, go to the back and sign up." I literally jumped out of my chair, ran to the back, and I signed up for EVERY breakfast, lunch, and dinner that Russell had. I'm like, “The guy's either gonna hate me, or we're gonna become friends through this thing.” I wanted to get to know him better, and so I literally signed up for EVERYTHING! I'm sure when he first got it he was like, “Who in the world is this Dave Woodward guy? What have I gotten myself into?” I can guarantee you, Russell would never do that now. You could never take him to lunch or dinner, but he was just getting started. … and so we created a deep friendship. I ended up setting up his 10th anniversary for Collette. They flew down to Southern California and went out to dinner, then flew to Catalina... Russell is more than a friend, he's like a brother. He's probably, in all honesty, the closest friend I have aside from my wife. There's nothing I wouldn't do for him. Over the years, we've had the opportunity of doing a ton of different projects together, some in the real estate niche, some in the network marketing niche, some in the fitness niche. Some made money, some lost money. My very first product was with Russell - it was Legendary Marketers. STEVE: No way. DAVE: Yeah. STEVE: Oh, I didn't know that was. Cool. DAVE: And so, that was the very first product that I ever did... Again it was one of those things where I saw, just his desire to help others grow, and, at whatever the cost. Just, just pour so much into people, and I was just drawn to him… … and we've just literally become lifelong friends. When we started ClickFunnels, I was still in Southern California. I was flying up here every other week, and Russell was like, “You just need to move up here..” I'm like… Dude, listen, we've been through a lot of things over the years, and NOT all of them have worked… Before I uproot my family, I wanna actually make sure this whole ClickFunnels thing is actually gonna take off. And then, as you can tell right now, it'll be three years this August. So we moved up here after ClickFunnels was up and running for about a year and a half. STEVE: I remember that. Only because it was like two months before, you flew in, that's when I moved my family up. Russell was like, “You know Dave Woodward?” ...and I had just started seeing your majesty in the inner workings of ClickFunnels - all the stuff you're doing with Dream 100, the affiliate stuff… … and Russell was like, “He's gonna move on up,” and I was like, “No way, that's awesome.” You moved up, and I kid you not… We were already kind of naturally high energetic people, you, and I, and Russell, but the overall energy, it was like one plus one equals twelve when you came in! I was like, “This is awesome,”...it's not a classic business office… We were running around barefoot in t-shirts, shorts... music going all the time… it's such a fun place to work and try to change the world also. So, how did you end up doing stuff for Russell's people - the affiliate manager was your first role, right? DAVE: Actually, no. I was in charge of all our business development. So one of the pieces of it was the affiliate plan. STEVE: That's right, my bad. DAVE: Yeah, so, what happened was, so … My coming into ClickFunnels, (as far as, one of the things), we were at TNC, (we’ve just come back from TNC 10, so this must have been TNC, like five, or six), and it was ClickFunnels' first booth, at TNC, and they had put us in the far back corner… I was like, “This just sucks. We can't do this. No one's gonna see us.” Russell was actually speaking at TNC, and he was like, “Gosh, I just wish we had some way of getting attention to us, no one's gonna come to us…” ...because it wasn't in the main ballroom… He was like, I wish we could just get some of those like showroom girls, you know, event girls, whatever it is.” I'm like, “Dude, you're in my city. This is San Diego. I promise you, I will get you some girls.” And sure enough, within about two hours, we had about five girls there, basically handing out t-shirts and directing people where to go... And that's, I guess when Dillon and Todd were like, “We definitely need him more full-time than he is currently,” and that's how it started. STEVE: Oh, man. Yeah, yeah. There have been multiple times where you've done stuff like that. Russell flies in, you fly in, you know. Guys, Dave, Dave is the one that protects Russell emotionally when we travel as well. Multiple times, just protecting him. Making sure, “Hey, we need to get somewhere,” or making sure Russell is where he needs to be, and protecting him from people who may be, respectfully, somewhat of a time suck. There are just so many stories that are just popping into my head. Oh my gosh… You guys flew in once, and Russell didn't have any time to sell, or didn't get order forms, and you literally, in the lobby… What's this story again? It's awesome. DAVE: A friend of ours, basically in the health space, flew into Denver… I love to sell, which is weird because for years I hated selling. It was like the worst thing in the world. I would never, ever sell. I would never associate myself with selling... … NEVER, dirty, bad! But, I remember, we flew in, and I was sitting there talking to the promoter, and he basically said: “Well, you know what, I thought we were gonna have more time. we ran over, we only really have about 25, 30 minutes, and you can't sell” I'm like, “Dude, we flew all the way to Denver. We're not here NOT to sell.” And he says, "No you really can't sell." So I said, "Well, how much time do we have?" He said, "Well, you've only got 30 minutes." I'm like, “Well we need at least 45.” He said, "Okay, 45 minutes." I said, "If I just have a little tiny offer, would that be okay?" He said, "Yeah, but I don't want a full pitch." I'm like, “No problem.” So I literally went into the little business center, and I created an order form on the computer they had there, (I'm sure it's so completely non-compliant)... It was, honestly, just name, email, address, phone number, credit card - that's it. It was printed off black and white and there was nothing fancy to it. I don't even know if they knew what they were buying. But, just like Russell does, he was able to get up and he spoke... I could tell the promoter at the back was just getting antsy. He's like, “You gotta hurry, you gotta hurry, gotta hurry.” I'm like, “Russell let's just go a little bit faster.” So, all of a sudden, he gets to the pitch. He's like, “Listen, I don't have time to go through this, but you're gonna get this, this, this, this, and this… ...and if you want, Dave's got some order forms, just take the order form and give them to us, and we'll process it.” I literally had someone come back there and grab it out of my hand, write on it, and slap it down right in front of Russell on the stage. Usually, we get table rushed at the back, but we had this massive podium rush. Everyone went to the front, and it was hilarious. We out the room and we just laughed. It's those types of moments, where I'm like, “No matter what it takes when you have an opportunity, we're gonna sell...” And we sold, and it did very well. STEVE: You guys knocked out the house, is what I heard. Just blew it out on a whim. I mean, come on! That's the kind of team that you guys are. It's just awesome. Hey, so I wanted to ask a little bit about this Affiliate Book that's coming out - you have such unique eyes from where you are, and where you get to sit. I know you get to work a lot with: Biz Dev Bringing in new Dream 100 people All the affiliate stuff as well … what is this New Affiliate Book, by the way? DAVE: Oh, it is super, super cool… so this whole idea behind affiliate marketing ... First of all, for those of you who aren't familiar with affiliate marketing, it's probably the easiest way to get started online, because you don't have to have your own product. You are literally promoting someone else's product. And for us, they're promoting ClickFunnels. We have a whole bunch of front end products because it's really hard to promote just a free trial - one of those was 30days.com. Another one is OFA… If you're not on OFA, my gosh, the One Funnel Away Challenge, Steven is just crushing it - so you definitely need to be in that. We had so much success with 30days.com - the idea behind that summit was, Russell went out to a lot of our Two Comma Club award-winning people, like Steven, and basically said: “Hey, if you were to lose everything, and all you had was ClickFunnels, and your marketing know-how, what would you do in the next 30 days, to make money?” ..and they put together a 540-page book, and it became a front-end for the One Funnel Away Challenge. Well, as we were looking at that model, it became super, super successful, and we realized... Steven actually helped build out Affiliate Bootcamp, which has been the primary product we've used to train our affiliates over the last year and a half, and we're at a point right now where we're trying to think… If we were to update it, how would we do it best? And we thought, instead of us doing it… Why not reach out to the people who've been the most successful doing affiliate marketing inside of ClickFunnels, and have them tell their stories… ... and use somewhat of the same premise as the 30 Day Book… Not necessarily, if you lost everything and only had 30 days, but, “If you were to start over as an affiliate, what are the things that you would wanna do?” What are the different things that would actually provide the greatest return in the shortest amount of time? Because for a lot of affiliates, it's like, “Ah, I've got my own job, I don't have a whole bunch of time, ” and it was just fascinating. Bailey Richert is the one who basically put it together for us, she went out, and interviewed 17 of our top affiliates… I was literally talking to her today, and she goes, “You know, Dave, the 30days.com was really cool, but the real secret sauce was on the back end after you bought the product you got behind the scenes of their actual funnel…” She said, "I don't know what it was with these affiliates? They literally gave every single thing on the front end." So those people who actually get involved in our New Affiliate Launch, or Summit are going to get the very best of 17, (we may actually get to 20, but 17 right now), people who have literally been crushing it as an affiliate for ClickFunnels sharing EVERYTHING: YouTube strategies How to do an offer? What is a bridge funnel? How do you build a list? How do you build a product that ties into your list to provide even greater value so that people fall in love with you, as well as the new product that you might be introducing them to? So, the whole idea behind this is really to have a person create their own product/ business on the front-end without having to create all the products, (and everything else), on the back end... … and NOT have to worry about the support. So, I'm so excited about it... because it’s literally going to be the BIGGEST game changer for us. Currently, Steve, we have five people who have done over a million dollars in affiliate commission so far. Five people who have hit the two comma club as an affiliate for ClickFunnels. STEVE: Oh man. DAVE: It's just insane. You know, when we first started this thing, we came up with this idea of the dream car… The idea behind it is, if you got a hundred people, we'd pay $500 for your lease or purchase of your dream car. At 200 people, we'd pay $1,000. I thought, “No one's ever gonna get to 200 people!” ...and now we have people who have thousands of affiliates... Thousands of ClickFunnels accounts because of it. So the idea behind affiliate marketing: It's the easiest way to get started online. This new affiliate summit is literally gonna give you, truly, the step-by-step program from 17 of the top affiliates that we have. They're gonna break down, NOT only just affiliate marketing, but how they actually get traffic, how do they actually build an offer, how they build a bridge page. And you’ll actually see some of their actual bridge pages, as well. We were sitting there trying to price this thing out, and I'm like, “You understand this is like a $500 product,” and Bailey's like, “Yeah, but summits only sell for like $47 to $67.” And I'm like, “Oh my gosh, alright, we'll do it, whatever price.” I don't know what price point we're gonna settle at - somewhere between $47 and $97, I don't know... But it's people like you, Stephen, who literally said, "Alright, let me show you exactly what it really takes. Let me go through and break it down step by step, how you actually can make tens of thousands of dollars a month, as an affiliate." And I know we pay you a pretty hefty cheque, just in affiliate commission. STEVE: Yeah, it's, uh ... And what's funny everybody, is that it's kinda on the back-end of my business and it's just because of the strategy. I gotta tell you, I loved writing the 30 Days chapter, but the affiliate chapter... oh my gosh, I took all of Christmas, like three or four days, to write that thing - it was beautiful. DAVE: Well actually Bailey, (just between you and I), even though anyone who listens to this will now know it, Bailey actually said yours is the best one… … honestly, because it was so detailed, Stephen. The way you did it, she actually wants to lead with yours to set the stage for the other ones... Because of the way you talked about: Bridge Funnels Offers Bonuses I mean, you were our top affiliate for 30days.com, and it was just crazy. And, I've seen you do that multiple times, even in our One Funnel Away Challenge. And the crazy thing about the One Funnel Away Challenge was you came in dead last and didn't start until like three days left. It was crazy. STEVE: That 10X Secrets thing... DAVE: That's what it was. And you were right in the middle of OfferMind, I think. Was that it? STEVE: Yeah, yeah. DAVE: And I was asking you to teach some of our speaker training, and you had no time. No time at all. And yet, to see you come in, and use this strategy that you now taught in that chapter, it was just brilliant to see. The thing that I love most about the chapter that you wrote, is your chapter actually goes in through, literally, step by step… It's how you teach - you're so very methodical in teaching practical steps - literally, it's ‘paint by numbers.’ It's the easiest way you can do it… I mean, step one, step two, step three. And because you've been through it, you lived through it, and you started with nothing… ...and NOW, you're one of our top affiliates! It's just neat that you were so kind and so generous with spending as much time as you spent on that chapter. It's probably going to be one of our leading chapters. STEVE: Oh man, I appreciate that a lot. Well, what can somebody do ... What's a favorite way ... I mean, you have such a unique area that you get to see all these different affiliates… If somebody’s new and doesn't have much of a following, what should they be doing if they want to become an affiliate? DAVE: I think, it goes back to, probably your secret sauce, and that's publishing. I think, honestly, and as much as people hate it, I think it’s one of the coolest things. People wanna find someone they can connect to, so documenting your journey as an affiliate, is probably the best thing that you can do, because later you’re gonna be able to sell that journey. And it may take a little bit of time, but if I was a brand new affiliate, just starting off, I would start publishing on a regular basis. You could pick: Dotcom Secrets Expert Secrets 30 Days ….I don't care which product you want. I would literally go in, I would make it your own, I would teach what you learn, on a Facebook live, on an Instagram story, whatever it might be, and refer people to it: “This is what I've learned.” Because people love understanding the take a way that you got and seeing how that you're actually using that. So, I think that's probably one of the things that I would look at. Where MOST affiliates go wrong is, they think they're just gonna take the affiliate link and just promote it directly, and that's why I love your chapter… because you were so anti that. You're like, “You can't do that! Let me show you what you can do.” And I think, as an affiliate just getting started, just pick one thing… And, again, as you mentioned before, just go all in on it. Study it. Make it your own. And that way when you're teaching it, people are going, “Oh, that's how that works. Oh, okay, now I understand,” and then people can connect with that… and they'll love the journey as well. STEVE: Oh man, that's awesome. Thank you so much for taking the time. You know, I have such respect for you, and what you do, and just love your family - my wife and I talk about you guys a lot. We love your sons, they're all awesome and incredible - we just love your family and everything that you guys do. And I really mean what I say, I really believe that half the reason Russell can do what he does is that he’s got you in his corner, just fighting battles he didn't even know about. You know what I mean? Just going to bat, getting all the dirties away that are out there trying to take advantage, you know, stuff like that. It's just this role that is like so, I don't even know, it's special. And it's fun to see it. DAVE: Thank you. STEVE: So I just, anyway. Any parting advice or words before we end up here? DAVE: You know, for me, I think the one thing I would tell people is just don't give up. I think the hardest part for affiliate marketing, or even for a lot of the online marketing is just, you have a dream out there, and you see it, and you want it so bad… ... and yet things don't go exactly the way that you want. You can joke around about this idea, being one funnel away, but you truly are… You just don't know which funnel that's gonna be. And so, I would just say: If this is what you wanna do, don't let anything get in your way. It's possible, things happen... it doesn't go as fast as you want, I'll let everyone understand, I'm totally transparent... It never works as fast as you want ,...but for those who stick it out, you get to this little corner and you literally hockey stick and life takes off for you. I saw the same thing with you last year, where you got going and you’re putting forth all this effort, and all of a sudden you get to this little corner, and you literally hockey stick, and life just takes off for you. And I think the problem is, most people aren't willing… Again it's that, 99 yards does not a touchdown make… You gotta be willing to go all the way As long as you don't quit, and just realize that you're in that phase of learning… There are two parts… You have the: Learning phase Earning phase Too often people wanna jump into the earning phase, without paying their dues in that learning phase. If you'll spend the time in that learning phase, the money that will come later in life - it's just crazy. Astronomical. STEVE: Oh, man. Well, thank you so much. You're a friend, a mentor, a brother, and just, I love and appreciate you. Thanks for being on. Awesome episode, right? Hey, bear with me for just a moment while I tell you about makeaffiliatesgreatagain.com. Probably one of the most fragile phases of being an entrepreneur is that tender spot where you have just enough cash coming in to get excited, but expenses also increase a little while you take on new tools and new systems, new teams. It can be heart pounding, and frankly, nerve-wracking. Well, one of the ways I've kept ownership of my companies and NEVER picked up any debt or used any of our family finances to grow the business, was through affiliate marketing. My first dollar online actually came from affiliate marketing, ONLY a few years ago. So I often get asked the question: “Steve, how can you have been bootstrapping this and scraping by so hard just a few years ago, but now have a business that makes millions in revenue?” … that's a fair question. So besides having kick butt products, when I've needed to get some extra cash for an expensive project, I have a very specific method of affiliate marketing that gets me paid to sell other people's products. You wanna see how I do it? Just go to makeaffiliatesgreatagain.com. ClickFunnels actually wants to know how I've been doing this as well… So I just wrote a chapter in ClickFunnels new book called Affiliate Bootcamp... and if you wanna see my chapter, and be shown how I treat affiliate cash in my business, just go to makeaffiliatesgreatagain.com… You'll get a bunch of other cool stuff from me - like, the actual Make Affiliates Great Again Funnel… The one you're gonna see there - it’s pre-built - it’s awesome - and you can download it. You also get my audio chapter on how I create affiliate offers. You get the actual video of me training my team on how to build Make Affiliates Great Again - it's crazy valuable. Plus you also get several my other stage speeches. How I launched my affiliate offers… And you'll even get a discount ticket to OfferMind… + the Make Affiliates Great Again Mini-Course… Is it okay if I over deliver??? If you want ALL that for free... plus other things, literally just sign up at makeaffiliatesgreatagain.com... and then, sign up for the New Affiliate Bootcamp through my affiliate link. Go figure. My friends, get rich, give back.
Here's a deeper look into how I launch my podcast content and the sideways webinar I sneak in… Marketers are event throwers. … and you can use this strategy to your advantage in ANY content that you put out - yep, even your podcast or your blog! I’m gonna show you a strategy that I use in my content to: Break Objections Build Epiphany Bridges Build Pressure Announce and Sell products … it’s time to throw in a sneaky *SIDEWAYS WEBINAR* I DON’T WANNA PUBLISH When I went to my first Funnel Hacking Live, I knew that I was prepared to do ANYTHING Russell said… EXCEPT publish! I took 52 pages of notes FHL and in those notes, I actually wrote... “I don't wanna talk!” “What am I even gonna say?” “I don't even know if I'm interesting enough to listen to!” My very first episode for Sales Funnel Radio was an interview because I didn't know what to say. To start with, I just published because Russell said to do it. I fought him on that for a while... Fear of talking was one of the things tripping me up. … but then I realized, “Woah, producing content is changing me faster than I could change myself!”. Creating content was teaching me what to sell faster than I could test things out. I’M A CONTENT CREATOR I’ve finally accepted the fact that I’m definitely in the content business! One of the biggest questions I get right now is NOT: how to create an offer how to create a funnel how to create a sales message. ...instead, it’s, “Stephen, how on earth do you come up with your podcast content ideas?” And that’s a very valid question - because I produce sooo much content right now… (Bonus points if you remember the fish slap episode ;-) ) I’ve just bought mycontentmachine.com specifically to deep dive into how I create and publish content. There’s a third show that's about to come out, (which is exciting)… and there's a lot of strategy behind it. However, right now, I’m going to let you in on a secret... (and I wonder if you’ve noticed me doing this?). WHERE I GET MY IDEAS FROM...Often, I create content based around: An idea or an “AHA!” that I have Problems in my business and how I'm overcoming them (a fun thing to document!). Straight up documenting the journey of what I'm doing. ...but other times, I actually use a webinar script to create content. Did you realize I was doing that? It’s very effective ;-) WEBINAR SCRIPTS… THEY’RE NOT JUST FOR WEBINARS You’ve probably seen a webinar, right? Sometimes, when I say, “Webinar,” people just roll their eyes. To that, I say, “Well, we're still making a ton of money off of automated webinars… Webinars are NOT dead. In fact, a while back, I realized that webinar scripts are NOT just for webinars - they’re for ANY selling...EVER! So… The question I’m gonna answer is: How I use webinars scripts to create content without you knowing that I’m doing that? Well, here’s an example… During my last podcast episode, I shared all about my high-end program MyOfferLab with you... and while that wasn't a webinar, it was very much me breaking and rebuilding false beliefs. My intent was to... Help you understand why OfferLab is so cool. Make you think, “Oh my gosh! This program could actually shortcut my success by a few years!” IF I COULD LAUNCH SFR AGAIN… The first 30-ish episodes of Sales Funnel Radio are so bad, that in some ways, I wish I could delete them… You could tell that I was reading them out. I was like: ”Hey, what's up everyone? This is Stephen... uh, Larsen… Uh, you're listening to Sales Funnel...uh, Radio... uh....”. The content was great, but the delivery sucked so bad. (Oh, how I wished I could go back and do them again) I probably would had deleted them if Russell hadn’t told me to keep them (and you should keep yours too)... *It’s really helpful for your audience to see your journey because it helps them believe that the same transformation is possible for them. My advice is: Don't listen to yourself for a while… it's gonna bother you … it’ll totally get in your head… You’ll start thinking: “Do I really sound like that!?!” Naturally, I sounded really HOT! ;-) Errrm… Sadly, NOT true! I was terrible, “Oh my gosh,” I couldn’t believe that I sounded so bad! The first 30 episodes of Sales Funnel Radio, I did TONS of interviews because I didn't know what to say. I was sooo freakin’ scared of talking. By about Episode fifteen-ish, I stopped reading everything out as much. Then around episode 30, I started getting more comfortable with my voice and the way I sounded. But here’s how I create my first content for SFR... THE EPIPHANY BRIDGE I went to page 114 in Expert Secrets... On the right side, in the middle of the page, (geek alert), you’ll find the Epiphany Bridge Script... ...that was literally my episode. I wrote down all of the headings Answered all of the fields Deleted the questions to create the script that I’d use. It was eight questions: The Backstory: What is your backstory that gives us a vested interest in your journey? Your Desires: What is it you want to accomplish? The Wall: What was the wall or problem you hit within your current opportunity that started you on this new journey? The Epiphany: What was the epiphany you experienced and new opportunity you discovered? The Plan: What was the plan you created to achieve your desire? The Conflict: What conflict did you experience along the way? The Achievement: What was your end result? The Transformation: What was the transformation you experienced? Yes! I did ALL the Epiphany Bridge... in one episode. Then on the next episode, I took one of the objections and false beliefs... (that I didn't answer in the main script!)... ...and I’d just found another story. I’d ask, “What's the cool story that helps people realize that…” Their belief isn't real? They need to rethink the way they're seeing the world? “Huh... cool!” Now, for that story, what’s the… Backstory? Wall? Epiphany? Plan? Conflict? Achievement? Transformation? And that's how I launched Sales Funnel Radio... However, about a year later, when I launched Secret MLM Hacks Radio I did it very differently. MY SIDEWAYS WEBINAR The Secret MLM Hacks Radio launch was awesome, I learned a lot from it. I wish I’d launched Sales Funnel Radio the same way… because it was so much better! So let’s talk about the Sideways Webinar... The way I launched Secret MLM Hacks Radio was totally different. Here’s how I did it… First of all, I understood that people are gonna have some serious hang ups about using funnels in the MLM space! So I started thinking about what objections they’re going to have to even just the idea of using a funnel. I listed out all of the objections out that I could imagine All the ideas that were gonna cause them to flip out a little bit! AND I started to look for ways I could break those objections with my stories. STORY SELLING Q: What are all the major elements of the actual webinar script? A: The Origin story = Introduction to you The 2nd Origin story Story for Secret #1 = vehicle based concern Story for Secret # 2 = Internal based concern Story for Secret #3 = External based concern A pitch and call to action (CTA) So for Secret MLM Hacks: Episode #1: was my origin story = the introduction to me. Episode # 2: was the story associated with the vehicle story = Secret #1 Episode #3: focused on the internal story = Secret #2 Episode #4: was the external story objections. Episode #5, I did a call to action = this cool little free download. The audience had no idea that I was telling stories to break specific beliefs... I had no following at all... and it was so crazy to see what happened! At the time, Sales Funnel Radio was doing about 600 downloads a day. Secret MLM Hacks had no downloads a day, but the engagement was through the roof - it was insane. There was way more engagement from the MLM audience even with fewer downloads. It was almost the creepy kind; aka, they find your phone number and wanna fly out to meet you! And all because I broke their belief patterns in this way. I It was super nuts how engaged they were. HARVESTING FOLLOWERS From Episode #6 onwards, I started asking a different question. I wanted to increase my audience, so I asked: Q: Who would wanna get on this show? A: Red ocean...C- level influencers... Now, I'm starting to harvest other people's followings and getting them to come to me. And with those influencers, come their follower… and if the enjoy the show, they’re probably going to start listening from beginning of the show… Which means they're gonna hit my call to action and get sent over to a registration page or an opt-in page to start building a relationship with me. This is 100% how I launched Secret MLM Hacks and it’s way more lucrative and effective when you do it this way. Now, I have brought a lot of my students through this process with their MLM product. If you go to iTunes and type in “MLM”... of the first top 20 podcasts, the first six of them are my students. Their shows are ranking at the top of iTunes because they’re breaking and building people's beliefs like crazy! CREATING PRESSURE Before I even launched my Secret MLM Hacks product, I’d published about 50 podcast episodes. To start with, I just started talking about the ideas and I told stories to break false beliefs and objections. But then, around episode 10-ish, I started building pressure for my program launch. I started saying things like: “Hey, there's this crazy cool project that I've been working on and I just wanted to tell you guys about it!” … then that was it - end of the episode. In the next episode, I’d say: ”Hey, I'm really pumped, we've actually grabbed a few people as a litmus test to see if this project works and it's been amazing - this is kind of what happened... but anyway, that's today's episode... see you later!” I'm starting to build curiosity. Q: What are the two major weapons that a marketer has? https://media.giphy.com/media/10HPl8c6VZKc4o/giphy.gif A: Scarcity Urgency … when used correctly, scarcity and urgency are AWESOME. I thought I was gonna launch in October 2017, so I started building up all this pressure towards it….pressure...pressure...pressure. I kept teasing, “It’s coming in October. I don't know the exact date yet, but be ready!” People started commenting and leaving reviews on iTunes asking, “What is it?? This is so cool!” #Open loop #Open loop I wasn’t exactly sure what the product would be, but I knew it had something to do with funnels and automation. I’d already been doing a few of those things personally... so I wasn't just making stuff up...I was doing the thing myself… PREACHING TO THE RED OCEAN I started telling stories about things that I hated in the MLM industry... stuff that just drove me nuts. Things I felt that were an injustice about what was available for current MLMers. Some people started leaving comments like, “I hate your guts, Steve... you're dumb!” But other people started reaching out to me saying, “You’re right! It’s terrible. I hate it too!” I didn't create the divide; I just brought it to the surface. And when I started seeing this divide in opinion, it was a signal that I was on the right track. It meant that when I start selling the product, people are gonna talk about it without me asking them to... When it’s a little bit spicy like that, it means you have a talkable product You’ve found the hot spots. CREATING CONSTRAINTA few episodes later I realized, “Oh crap, I wanna make the product even cooler, so I’ll actually have to push it back a little bit!” I was focusing on leaving ClickFunnels well… Yes, I wanted to leave...but I didn't wanna burn bridges... because that would be dumb. So then I started saying, “Hey, I'm gonna launch to January instead, but I don't know when...” At the beginning of November, I started thinking, “Alright, if I leave ClickFunnels on December 31st... can have something ready by January 4th?” It was intense, but it was a good constraint. I didn't want to go a while without getting paid though. We weren’t gonna have any other income… ...and that was some scary crap. But that was the reality... So, I asked myself, “How can I spin that to a positive and LEAD WITH IT?” So I began telling people: “I'm gonna leave ClickFunnels. I'm gonna leave my job! Watch what I do when I do this. I want you to know that the framework that I’m using works.” It was a cajones moment... Yeah baby…*twitch in the eye* So then I started building the pressure by saying: “If you wanna get on the waiting list and get first dibs on the product when it’s launched, go to this URL… Go get on the waiting list.” I ended up getting 400 people on the waiting list before January even showed! I started asking those people… What's your number one question or challenge with this? What's your big fear? I started writing a huge list on a whiteboard with tons of: Objections False beliefs Stories of problems they were running into The things they hated Stuff they loved This started showing me - “Oh my gosh, *that* is where I need to sit in this market.” Beforehand, I kinda had an idea of what my product was going to be...but I still didn’t know EXACTLY. ...so I kept building up pressure! MY FIRST BUYER There was one lady who was so excited to buy in October that she stayed up waiting for the page to launch … (I didn't know this at the time, she sent an email to me after the actual launch.) She said, “Are you kidding me?! Why is it January?” I was like “Sweet, that's a buy signal. We should probably move forward on this.” She was that person on the Webinar who’s like, “I don’t care about the stack! Where is the link?!” I thought, “Yes! Yes! Yes! I'm hitting it! Yes, this is gonna work!” She actually started getting mad on the webinar. I closed the chat just because she was starting to get in my head: “You really wanna buy, but I’ve still gotta sell all these other people,! Come on now, hold on a minute!” She ended up being the first buyer of the actual program. Two days later, she messaged me...I think she was crying… She said, “I forgot to tell my husband that I wanted to buy this! I stayed up all night and bought it without talking about it with him….and he's a little bit mad. I have to get my money back.” I was like, “Oh, Crap!” I was said, “All right, that's totally fine.” She was sooo devastated and embarrassed. A few weeks later, she came back…. and told me, “The most amazing miracle happened, Stephen!” My husband was like, “You know what, you really want this thing, huh?” And she said,” Yes, I've been waiting like six months, the dude's been dropping all this content on me like crazy!” (...by then I was Episode 60) So she messaged me, “My husband just turned to me and said, ‘You know what? Why don’t you just go get it.’ ” So she came back AND she re-bought it. Now she's this HUGE evangelist… And that’s what happens when you take care of people and build pressure in the right way by launching your content with a sideways webinar. If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, 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 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? There are 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.com.
I thought it'd be cool to document what is happening during our 7-day launch of OfferMind Masterclass. The good and the bad… One of the biggest reasons I've noticed people don't have success with launch campaigns is NOT because your… Product isn't amazing Offer isn't good enough Sales message isn't doing its job ...it's literally the way that the campaign is brought to the market. A lotta times, your products are already good - it's just that you don't have a launch mechanism, and you don't understand what a funnel really is… ...and that's why you don't make a lot of money. So here’s how I’m gonna help you: What I’m about to do next is a little bit different - it’s in 3 different sections that span 7 days PART #1: I’m gonna walk you through a simple 7 Day Launch that I used to sell my OfferMInd tickets - I’d never seen anyone one sell tickets like this... so I thought I’d give it a go. PART #2: Is kinda a mid launch check in to give you an update on how things are going - what’s working and what’s not! PART #3: Reviews the campaign as a whole - how did it go, what I learned, and what I wish I done better? HOW TO LAUNCH A PRODUCT HOLLYWOOD STYLE You can learn a lot from Hollywood - if you watch the way that they bring movies to the market you’ll notice that the pre-sell is EVERYTHING! If the first time you ever hear about it a movie is on the day of its launch - that's a HUGE failure! You often see weekend box office sales hit 100 million dollars - that wouldn’t happen if there wasn’t a lot of pressure built up ahead of time. … and yet many marketers often have a ‘build it and they will come attitude’ and they launch their products without putting any thought into the campaign. I want to show you how to STOP leaving money on the table! CHANGING BELIEFS At the core, markers change people's beliefs. However, the act of marketing, (a lot the time), revolves around creating campaigns… And... CAMPAIGNS ARE A DYING ART! I love Frank Kern's most recent book called Convert… Frank says, “These are campaigns... and I believe the campaign is dying.” … and I was like, “I DO TOO!” (Many times, I’ve ranted about people are forgetting what campaigns are - and that they think a campaign is just a Facebook ad) So I want to show you how we launched the OfferMind ticket funnel by creating a ton of noise, Hollywood style campaign... My subtext is that I hope this will incentivize you like crazy to join my programs - because we actually do what I'm teaching. I'm not just re-teaching stuff that I heard from somebody else - we're actually actively doing this - which is very important to me. CREATING A (PROPER) LAUNCH CAMPAIGN The first time I ever learned this strategy was when I was working at ClickFunnels. Russell was hanging out with Brendon Burchard, and Brendon has this thing called The 7 Day Launch. Now, this is Brendon’s thing, and you should totally go learn it from him… I'm just gonna teach you briefly how I'm using some of the launch principles to sell tickets to OfferMind. If you guys went to Funnel Hacking Live a couple of years ago, and you remember the documentary funnels, it’s very similar to that funnel style. At the time of this going out, OfferMind tickets are available - so if you go to offermind.com you can get tickets, but we're expected to sell out pretty quickly. I'm psyched about it - so go to offermind.com to see if there are any tickets available. Now, back to the Hollywood launch… I realized that if I just saying: “Hey, OfferMind Tickets are available…” is kinda an anticlimax… … and I don’t want it to be that way! You see, marketers are event throwers - whether the event is physical or not. I'm NOT saying you have to pull out the stops and throw an OfferMind to be a marketer, that's not what I'm saying at all... However… To be a good marketer you have to be good at creating pressure, and then releasing it in a single direction. Anyone who can do that... has A LOT of power. CREATING A PRE-FRAME Recently, I went Jeff Walker’s launch event, and I got so excited just during the first half of the first day, 'cause honestly for half of the first day, Jeff did nothing but pre-frame the entire crowd. I didn't know you could pre-frame that long, and frankly, it was very impressive. The event is three days, and eventually, Jeff sells you into his Launch Con Program, and ‘cause I'm a Funnel Hacker, I bought the program to see how it works. I love Jeff Walker - the book Launch plus DotCom Secrets is what finally helped me create success. There’s a BIG lesson because I learned about funnels and launching rather than product creation. Anyway, at Jeffs event, I took two full pages of notes of watching what he was doing… and for two-three hours, he did nothing but pre-frame. The entire first session was just pre-framing - it was crazy nuts! At the same time, I was thinking through different campaigns that have worked incredibly well... I got a 2 Comma Club Award for a project I did for Russell using the 7 Day Launch campaign… (It was for the first Two Comma Club Coaching Program where I helped organized Russell's stuff a little bit.) … so I was like, “Why don't we ‘launch’ OfferMind tickets using the same funnel!” As OfferMind is a two-day event, I don't have the luxury of spending half a day pre-framing… So instead… I decided to use the 7 Day Launch strategy to NOT only launch the tickets but to also to act as a pre-frame. So that's what I’m gonna show you now. I want to teach you the campaign and show you how we used it. THE 7 DAY LAUNCH - PART # I: The 7 Day Launch kinda looks like this… Now, as we move forward, there's gonna be a few things that it would be advantageous to watch on YouTube. If you go to salesfunnelradio.tv it’ll take you to my YouTube channel where you can watch if you want… So there's… Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday So, what I did was I created a single page funnel - I added a second page, simply because I added a share element from UpViral - but you don't actually need to do that. The first time I built one of these funnels was for the Experts Secrets Masterclass There was an Experts Secrets Masterclass that we used a 7 Day Launch for, so I was like, “Why don't I do an OfferMind masterclass?” … and so offermindmasterclass.com was born. PRODUCT LAUNCH # DAY ONE So on MONDAY, I built the page and promoted it. My goal was to have 2,000 people registered. To start with we did one email drop and one Facebook Live, and we got about 700 people registered. Then I had the rest of the day to keep promoting - so, day one, promote, promote, promote. PRODUCT LAUNCH # DAY 2 #More promoting… PRODUCT LAUNCH # DAY 3 About a week and a half ago, I did an Ask Campaign where I asked everybody in the thescienceofselling.online group, “What do you struggle with when you're creating an offer?” I had no idea how reactive that would be. BOOM! There were 150 comments and HUGE awesome sample data! I had no idea some of the things that people were struggled with in Offer Creation… So I took the top five topics and split them into session content. The first two sessions were on day #3 at 10:00 a.m and 2:00 p.m. PRODUCT LAUNCH # DAY 3 Session #3 is at 10:00 a.m the following day (I'll come back to session four 'cause that's a little different - but it's still 2:00 p.m on day #3) PRODUCT LAUNCH # DAY 4 Sessions #5 and #6 are at the same time the following day My pitch is for the Masterclass is: “Come watch me as I film my next course OfferMind Masterclass live in front of a live audience.” … I’m answering a lot of the questions that people have had as they've gone through last year's OfferMind event recordings. What's powerful is that this not a top-level Ask campaign anymore, it's getting more detailed. People are like, “Hey, about this scenario, where does that work?” ...and I'm like, “It's a good question - you're not the first to ask that. I didn't realize that was a general question. Here's the answer.” So in these five sessions, I'm just teaching and answering questions. I already have content planned out. It's NOT just a straight Ask Campaign styled course - I already know what I'm gonna teach. However, the Ask campaign validated and helped fill in holes that I wasn't thinking about. Sessions one, two and three, I'm breaking down a lot of vehicle, internal, and external related beliefs. BACK TO SESSION #4 Can you guess what session #4 is gonna be? A: It's gonna be a whiteboard webinar. Q: What's it gonna sell? A: OfferMind I'm using 7 Day Campaign structure to launch the next thing in my value ladder - which is OfferMind. I believe everybody should come to OfferMind - it'll shortcut tons of stuff in your life... So session #4 is a webinar…. It's NOT a traditional webinar, I'm gonna do a share from my whiteboard - there are no slides, nothing else. There's an offer that I created around getting a general ticket for OfferMind and I'm just gonna take that offer, and put it on this whiteboard and sell it. It's really fascinating because this is a live class meets a webinar funnel. PRODUCT LAUNCH FOMO During this masterclass, I'm gonna teach for three days for almost six hours each day. Part of the strategy is that people are NOT gonna be able to be with me the whole time. It's a lot of content for me to teach, but in reality, there’s barely enough time for me to teach ALL the things that I want to. it's gonna be a long time, and it's gonna be some of my best stuff - kinda an abbreviated OfferMind. And here’s the catch… After the launch ends, I'm NOT gonna sell this masterclass in other places… (it’ll probably be a $300 - $400 OTO or upsell some low-end funnels), but it's not gonna be something that I sell generally… So my pitch will be: “Go get OfferMind, and get this course for free - ONLY until Monday at midnight.” PRODUCT LAUNCH # DAY 5 After the webinar, the sessions are still gonna be teaching and answering questions, but the stories I’ll tell are to help break additional vehicle, internal and external related false beliefs. They’ll also be reminders that: “Hey if you want this course, you can get it FREE when you buy OfferMInd.” Recordings are not gonna be available. The replays get taken down each day at midnight PRODUCT LAUNCH # DAYS 6 & 7 At the end, there’ll be the scarcity urgency closeout sequence that you normally would put at the end of any webinar… So for Saturday, and then for Sunday, it's all the sequences that are pushing them out… Then Monday at midnight, BAM, it's done! CREATING NOISE For this to work, I have to create a ton of noise! My Offer business has an email list of over 15,000 people... and I'm pinging all of 'em - we're hitting all cylinders on this. For three days people can watch me film my course Then to keep the course for FREE - they have to get an OfferMind ticket. Finally, the course will then be taken down, and no one else will get it. The beauty of this is that it’s true urgency and scarcity. I hate fake scarcity and urgency, it's stupid - this is real. https://media.giphy.com/media/QYQ3PZ9UHje3S/giphy.gif OfferMind only has seats for 1,038 people, and there's already way over that on the waiting list. Sooo… That’s the end of PART # I… Now we’re going to PART #2: to find out how EVERYTHING is going. THE 7 DAY LAUNCH - PART II: Welcome to PART #2 of me documenting the 7 Day Launch for the OfferMind Event funnel. Oh my gosh, I'm not gonna lie, I'm so freaking tired. I have one of those Oura Rings - and one day, I spent 800 calories just teaching … and another, I think it was close to 1,300. It’s ridiculous! My voice is hoarse and croaky… This on top of the One Funnel Away challenge, “Oh my gosh, I am wrecked.” I've had to call a few audibles throughout this... and that's always expected in anything you launch, ever. So let me just bring you through my studio setup real quick here… The first time I ever watched Russell create and do a 7 Day Launch, he had this amazing camera crew, and there were all these people running around, all over the place. There was this big ole' crew going down, and it was awesome - it was impressive! We have a picnic table with some boxes, and my laptop sitting on the top. The room is a mess 'cause we had to restructure it real fast. Then we have these ring lights, this backdrop light over there, and another light that's just pointing into the corner - so that everything looks kinda level on the actual Sales Funnel Radio backdrop. We have a boom arm that's being held by a bunch of weights from the garage to weighing it down ‘cause the little clamp on the side wasn't quite big enough… The place is wrecked! You’re probably thinking, “Man, he's a freakin’ pig.” ...and, yep! In the middle of launches, I stop adhering to general cleanliness standards. In the middle of a launch, you do all sorts of crazy stuff. You go the extra mile to make sure crap happens. THINGS ARE NOT GOING TO PLAN Today, I was supposed to launch the actual OfferMind ticket funnel, but as I started looking at the last few things needed in order to actually finish it, I was like: “There's no way. There are too many small particulars for me to launch this comfortably right now.” If I just go one more step further, it'll make it easy for us to manage, and that's what I want. Which means, again, I'm only gonna sleep a few hours because I'm gonna go finish the event funnel. I have a funnel team, but I'm finishing is that last 20% that sucks to finish. These are my notes on what I need to finish for the OfferMind funnel... and there's A LOT. This is actually how I started doing it while I was sitting next to Russell… Take a piece of paper and draw the funnel Grab a different color and inside of each of the boxes, I’d write down what needs to be finished before the funnel’s ready. ...and that's kinda the pattern I go through to see what need to be done. I’ve just barely brought them through how I've developed and designed a sales message and offer at the same time using My Core Offer Model, XAVIER. When Russell did the 7 Day Launch, session #4 was when he did his big drop... but I need one more night - I gotta finish this, these last few pieces here. I'm hustling hard to finish it. SIMPLIFY TO WIN I'm in the simplification phase of funnel launching. You start by thinking, “I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this,” and now, I'm in the phase now where I'm like: “Okay, that was a cool idea, but it's completely unrealistic now.” The first three sessions were just deep dive teaching, and then I was planning to finish the funnel in the one hour break I gave myself each day… *IT’S NOT GONNA HAPPEN* So we're gonna do it tomorrow morning. We’re gonna hide some elements so no one knows they're there, and finish 'em later, so we can just launch. That's totally what we're doing right now, and that's exactly how we're handling it. So in installment #3, I will tell you how it went! What is kinda ninja, in the OfferMind Masterclass, (as I'm teaching how to go create a sales message and an offer), I used the example of: “Let's act like I'm trying to pitch you guys into coming to OfferMind!” So then I asked: “What false beliefs would you guys have if I said you should come to OfferMind?” Then I broke and rebuilt their beliefs throughout the whole thing... it was awesome. About halfway through, someone was like, “Wait, you're doing this on us now!” ...and I was like “Ha, gotcha!” THE WHITEBOARD WEBINAR Tomorrow, I'm gonna tape pieces of paper on my whiteboard to hide the offer, and literally, do a whiteboard webinar selling OfferMind. It's gonna use EVERYTHING I've taught them up to this point. It's this awesome culmination - I'm really pumped about it. We’ve had 200 people consistently live with us every single session, (there’ve been two sessions per day), but what's fascinating is that within like six hours, there are another 1,000 views per session - it's been crazy. Last night, before I went to bed, I took the videos down at midnight, ('cause I said I would), I want there to be real scarcity and urgency. I hate fake scarcity and urgency. … there were 3,000 views from yesterday's two videos! All I'm telling you guys is that if you're gonna go in and do this kinda thing, all you need is … A Boom Arm A Box And... A Coulton Look at him over there... Coulton's don't grow on trees. He's been moderating and kicking out all the psychos with small mind syndrome - so that they get outta my life and my audience FOREVER. He's the heavy that kicks people out when they become jerks on the chat: “Wow, this doesn't work,” and I'm like, “Yeah, you're gone.” I'm not even gonna go there. Coulton’s top takeaway so far... “Simplicity is key. Just the clarity that everything has come through with you teaching it, to all these people, like it just shows that it works” Cool stuff! I'll kick this back on in probably about 24 or 48 hours to document the aftermath of the whole thing. PART III This is PART #3 of me documenting the 7 Day Launch, and I wanna show you guys what happened… It was Super Successful. First of all, let me tell you how completely exhausted I was by the end. It took me two or three days to recoup. Normally, when I'm talking on stage, it wouldn't take me that long... but I mean this was really aggressive speaking. When it was all said and done, I think I spoke for about 15 hours in three days, and I was finishing a funnel in the evenings - so it's not like I was totally relaxing or anything… I'd go sleep a few hours, and then I would get up super early to finish the funnel - so it was A LOT. So I'm actually gonna walk through what actually happened. MY LAUNCH CAMPAIGN STATS Okay, check this out... *This is between the dates of April 17th to the 24th 2019* You can see that it actually performed quite well - it did everything I hoped it would. What's interesting is the cart value was actually higher at the beginning of the launch. Towards the end of the launch, it actually started dropping - which is kinda fascinating. This is NOT the first time we’ve launched these the OfferMind tickets - there are more tickets sold beyond that… We're actually about double that as far as seats sold. This morning, I got a message from Russell, (which was really cool), saying that this was the 7th highest grossing funnel in all of ClickFunnels yesterday - so it certainly worked. We made a lotta noise and a BIG ole' splash. https://media.giphy.com/media/3kxqLmAVaGvHAmgs6d/giphy.gif OFFERMIND TICKETS There are actually four different ticket prices, and then a bump... if you look, you can see that some people have a discount, (here are the discount ones right here, across the bottom), what's interesting is that not a lot are taking the discount. There are actually more people buying without the discount - which I thought was fascinating. These two here, that it says bundle, (right where my fingers are), that is is that’s a phone call that we're giving away for free. So people put in their information, and we're gonna chat with them. Significantly more people are choosing to get the phone call than not. ... which makes sense, right? It's actually funny to me when they say, “No.” On a few of 'em, I'm just gonna call 'em live - I thought that'd be kinda fun to call 'em live, 'cause I don't think they're expecting that. So as far as the actual bump goes, which is them buying the funnel… (This funnel cost me 17 grand to build, only because I got a sick team and they're really good, which also means they're very expensive). … you could buy the funnel (and get the thing that cost me a lot of money) for 147 bucks - which is really cool. I am shocked that's only 19%. I thought it would be closer to 30% - so it’s a little bit lower than I thought it would be... and maybe it's just that we're so inundated with the share funnels nowadays… … but this is NOT a normal funnel - so I don't know. I was a little bit shocked by that, but eh, whatever. Let's see, looking at the VIP offer, VIPs are going quick, (this is not reflective of the other VIP tickets that already sold in the past)... So a 41% take rate is pretty insane! Next, the Capitalist Pig ad book… So there's an ad book that we're offering, 13% for a second OTO, it's actually not bad either. Soon there’s gonna be an additional product on top of this; I don't have it turned on yet, it's a two pay option that we’ll turn on very soon - so I think that should increase that. So it's going well… On top of that, I have a Thank You Page Webinar, and so of 97 people who have bought a ticket, four have gone in and purchased - which is still pretty good… It's a $1,500 thing, and they get a 50% off coupon with it. It's a pretty powerful campaign that we ran. One thing that I will mention that's been fascinating is that: The moment the campaign was over, pretty much all buying stopped, and this just attests to the principle that if you build it, they WON’T come. … that's like the stupidest line on the planet. I was doing some consulting with somebody, and they vehemently were very much about that phrase: “You know, Stephen, if we just build it, we know they'll come.” I thought they were joking, and I didn't know that they were dead serious, and I started laughing. I was like, ‘Yeah wouldn't that be nice if that was true!” I had no idea that it was the CEO, and some of the major people in the company, and I was straight up laughing at his face, and then I explained myself, I said, “That's NOT true!” We got another sale today, which is great, but like one sale today verses like the 96 that came in in the last couple… They're not small ticket prices either - that's almost six figures. Actually, with the other funnel, we've collected well over six figures for this now. It's a popular event, we're really excited about it. We got a lotta cool people coming - it's gonna be fun. It's just funny, the moment the campaign's over, the buying stops. It's still open, it's still up, but the buying stops. https://media.giphy.com/media/yIxNOXEMpqkqA/giphy.gif So the next thing we're gonna look at: What other campaigns can we run? Running Ads Doing a summit I have offersummit.com, and I'm gonna go get the big who's who of the industry to come in and teach us how they create their offers - that should be probably June and July-ish. Anyway, there's a lotta like smaller to like micro things… I'm gonna piggyback on the back of other affiliate promotions… there are secrets... I don't wanna tell you guys everything ;-) ... just watch what I'm doing. But it's just fascinating, this has really pushed back to the lesson the moment the campaign's over, the sales stopped the sales - that's buying behavior. And so when someone's like, “I don't know if I wanna do scarcity or urgency,” I'm like, “Well, be prepared to not sell anything.” As far as the lives, there was always about the same 200 people on with me every session... but by the time 12 hours had passed, it had been watched almost 2,000 times per video. People loved it, they ate it up. I had a lotta big friends, who are larger than I am, reach out and they're like, “What is it that you're doing?” I got a lotta people I respect reaching out asking me questions. It was validating. So, anyways, it went really really well, and we got a lotta noise from it. Everyone and their mom heard about it We did a 7 Day Launch to launch tickets - I hadn't seen anyone do that, so I was excited about it. It was hard work, but it's one of the easiest campaigns to run. Energy wise it was challenging because you teach like crazy, but it was still one of the easiest things for me to go pull off - it's a single page funnel. 1,800 people, I believe ended up joining the list. That’s huge. 30% of the traffic came from shared referred traffic, not my list. We found that out by using UpViral. So not only did it expand the list, it expanded those seeing me. On weird thing, since it was on YouTube, it was actually a lot of people who are not normally in my audience... I think if we’d used Facebook, I would've gotten more of the hot audience to buy. Almost 100 people of the 200 who were live with me bought. ...that's a pretty good sale rate, right! I'm happy with that. Once we finished the actual training, we went through with three day urgency scarcity closeout period just like what you would do on a webinar, and just as expected… Day 1: the cart opened, and boom, big old blast the sales. Day 2: kinda nothing - which is usually what happens. Day 3: it's like shoosh - another huge amount of sales coming in. Anyways, it was fun, it was cool. I learned a lot from it. We’ll definitely do it again. A highly effective way to teach, but also sell at the same time. Most of the time, webinars don't have that luxury; teaching is a liability inside of webinar *usually, so it was cool to be able to pull that off. So anyways, cool stuff guys. If you guys, anyway, I would love to have you guys come to OfferMind. We’ve got... I don't know if I'm allowed to say it… You know what, I'll bring certain people on the show to introduce a lot of the speakers to you. I am now actively, (and hopefully they see this), I am actively going to go and BEG absolute killer giants, like Mark Joyner, and Bill Glazer to come speak. I don't know if they're going to yet, but this is me calling my shot before they've said “Yes.” So, in the next month here, by the time this goes out there, hopefully, they’ve agreed. BOOM! If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, 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 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? There are 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.com.
Today I want to give you a peek behind the curtain to share with you the reasons why OfferMind … ..was FREE the first year ...will NEVER be free again … was a very STRATEGIC move on my part WHAT WAS GOING ON? People have asked why I gave OfferMind as a FREE bonus to the 30-Day book… Others have gotten mad that it's NOT free any more… And one person, (and I totally get this), commented that they hadn’t come to Offermind BECAUSE it was free… He’d judged the content based on the fact that the event was free. First of all, OfferMind was NOT a cheap event. Even though it was free, it cost me $80,000 to put on. We didn't make much money from the whole thing once it was said and done, and I’m totally fine with that… In fact, making money wasn't the primary purpose of OfferMInd at all ;-) For you to understand WHY I need to walk you through what was going on in my business life at the time: I left ClickFunnels in January 2018 I started out selling in the network marketing industry, (which I'm still very much a part of) #secretmlmhacks Around September 2018, I started to wonder about my life’s purpose “Oh, my gosh... what is it that I really, really, really wanna do?” I’d identified a place where the market wanted some value. I knew how to deliver that value and I was selling in that space… and it was going extremely well. I love Network Marketers, but I’d started to wonder what it was that I actually wanted to be known for? So I started having some deep heart to hearts around finding my purpose and I started future casting 5, 10, 15 years - which isn’t something I usually do. WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? I always hate it when gurus ask you to set goals by asking, “What's your life gonna be like 10 years from now?” By the beard of Zeus… I don't know what my life’s gonna be like six months from now most the time! I think it's stupid to plan that way. I think it was Tim Ferriss who said that after six months planning is just guessing... I totally agree with that. There's some fluidness that I can't have if I try to plan everything out all the time... However, as I learned from Alex Charfen, you need to be able to predict the future in your business so that I know what action to take… and what I need to do to make things come to fruition. ...I've been practicing this a lot in last six months, and it's been working. I say, “Hey, here's where we're going,” and then we go there... BOOM, it shows up - which is awesome. Now… Back to the PURPOSE question… I started asking: What is it that I actually wanna do? How is it that I wanna move forward professionally? What do I really wanna be known for? What’s my natural skill set? What are am I already known for? What am I good at? It's always best when you can build a business around your natural skill set. I'm not saying you have to... but it helps a lot. I also started consulting with people that I look up to who are my peers and my coaches. I hire a lot of coaches, guys. That’s one of the fastest accelerants to the game. I get coached. I know I bring up Russell Brunson a lot... and it’s because I spent two years sitting next to the guy. It's NOT like I did anything else. I didn't have any hobbies. It was such a fast work pace over there - I didn't do anything else with my life. So, I have two years of memories that I keep going back to. THEN STEPHEN ASKED RUSSELL THE PURPOSE QUESTION… A bunch of us were hanging out at an Inner Circle at James Friel’s house. Russell and Myron Golden were standing side by side, I was on the other side of a couch, and we were talking... Russell looks over and asks, “How are things going then?” I said, “Good, but I'm trying to figure out what my purpose is?” (Have you ever asked that question? It's an important question to ask…) ...the moment those words left my mouth, Russell starts laughing hysterically. I was like, “It's a serious question, dude. I feel like that's something that you shouldn't be laughing at!” ...but Russell just kept laughing. Myron looked around and asked, “Wait, what’d he say?” Russell said, “He just asked the purpose question,” and Myron starts laughing too. I was like, “Why are you guys laughing at me? I’m assuming you're laughing because you're telling me it's NOT that big of a deal, but I'm acting like it is?” Myron said, “Stephen, I only found out what I wanted to do three months ago.” Russell said, “Yeah, dude, you came in right after I figured out what I wanted to do, #ClickFunnels, but I'd already been in the game for 12 years.” https://media.giphy.com/media/69qpuTOBTsHTJRcNkW/giphy.gif I was like, “...that makes sense, and I understand and accept that... but I'm trying to figure out if my purpose something I hunt... or if it’s something that’s discovered by me along the path? (Right, that's a good question... you know what I mean!) ...because otherwise, I'm gonna start brainstorming my purpose and what it is that I'm gonna go do?!’” My mind will go deep and I’ll obsess if I don't stop myself. https://media.giphy.com/media/9RWeDFAf07oxT1hgLB/giphy.gif (There's a lot of power in that obsession... but it needs to be focused on the right thing ;-)) After a while, Russell looks up and goes, “Dude, don't worry about it…. Solve problems for people and create value. I was like, “Ahhhhh,” and I suddenly stopped freaking out so much. THE GAME IS MALLEABLE I loved the FHAT events, and when ClickFunnels decided to stop them; there was a part of me that died a little. I was like, “Crap, I really loved that event.” It was one of those scenarios where I knew I was getting the fastest results for people in a compressed three day period. And so I was like, “I gotta find another way.” How can I… Incorporate the things that I'm good at…? Mix them with the business ideas and the models that I like most…? Do live events…? Live events are my jam. I come alive at events and I love that. I'm bringing this up is so you can start asking these kinds of questions to yourself … Maybe you don’t know what you wanna do yet... but I want you to realize that a lot of this is very malleable. So… think about how you can combine: Your skill set A problem A business model that's proven How can you take what you do and deliver it to the marketplace? When somebody knows what they want to do, I'm very good at helping them make that profitable... but when somebody says, “I don't know what I wanna do?” I'm like, “I don't know how to help you.” A lot of times people hire me for a consultation and they’re like: “Stephen, I've hired you so that I can figure out what I wanna do.” I'm like, “Crap, I should probably refund you because that’s not my role. How on earth am I supposed to put words in your mouth and thoughts in your brain as to what you're gonna dedicate yourself to?” That's not my role and I never will do that! When someone knows what they want to sell - I'm very good at making that profitable on multiple platforms. Honestly, it's the same four or five things that I've noticed work regardless of the industry you're in... and then it's bam, bam, success, success, success, success! … and then I couple that with a lot of what goes on in the human psyche. That's what I'm good at. That's what I’m known for. … and that led me on this journey. ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS … so back to discovering my purpose! I was like, “What is it that I really wanna go do?” I spoke with a lot of guys that I’m friends with: My buddy Dana Derricks Russell Myron Dave Lindenbaum Alison Prince That's one of the benefits of an Inner Circle. I gotta be honest, a lot of times I don't participate that much in the coaching. I should... but just the network alone is worth it. That's why everyone should join a mastermind at some point. The acceleration is so much greater than anything I’ve EVER experienced - it’s ridiculous. Quite unanimously, the people I asked saw something in me that I could not see in myself … (which is another benefit of having an Inner Circle that knows you intimately). I was like, “What is this thing? What is it?” Julie Stoian started laughing, and she said, “Come on, Stephen, you know what you should be doing.” I was like, “No, I don't. All of you see this thing that I'm NOT seeing in myself yet. I'm this close and I can't see it.” (You may be in the same situation too, and I get that. That’s why I’m sharing my journey) This is me making sure you understand some of the things that I've gone through along the way. ... most successful entrepreneurs do! It’s a common theme in Inner Circle meetings - someone will stand up and say, “I'm standing here today because we're making a lot of money, but I don't know if it's what I wanna be doing anymore?” … that's NOT an abnormal thing to say. Don't freak out if you have that question - everyone has that question eventually. So anyways, Dana, Russell, Julie and Dave and a lot of people, pretty much all said the same thing...(and I don't think they spoke to each other). They're all said, “Dude, you obsess over offers.” BECOMING THE OFFER GUY Russell was said: “Dude, you go so much deeper into offers than anyone I’ve ever met my entire life. You should be the offer guy. Dana Derricks is the Dream 100 guy, you should be the ‘Offer Guy’!” Suddenly, all these maps and frameworks that I'd been developing came together and I saw the thing that I wanted to do… I loved doing the FHAT event for Russell, but it was his content, all I did was organize it. I realized that EVERYTHING I taught had to do with how to create a better offer. Even if it seemingly looked like it had nothing to do with offers, it actually did, and now... I wanted my own platform, and that’s how the idea for OfferMInd was born There were two things that needed to happen in order for me to kill it as the Offer Guy: I needed people to think, “Stephen is the offer guy!” I needed to capture that market share in people's brains. So how could I do that? *This* is why, from a strategic standpoint, OfferMind was free that first time. There are a lot of levels to this, so I'll just start from here... THE DEATH OF SALES FUNNEL RADIO? I want to be the offer guy. iTunes doesn't like it when you go past 300 episodes - so I ll probably rebrand Sales Funnel Radio. I will probably, (at some point), retire Sales Funnel Radio. I'm not saying I'm going to... but it's a thought that I'm playing with. I'm NOT trying to be the Sales Funnel Guy - that'd be stupid. In fact, that would be suicide. Let me ask you a question... Q: Who is the sales funnel guy? A: Russell. It made sense for me to have a show called Sales Funnel Radio when I was a sales funnel builder… The first 100 episodes are me documenting everything I learned sitting next to Russell. I'm not that good at speaking in those episodes, and that's okay ... that wasn't the purpose of it. But from episode 101 onwards, I was documenting the journey to my first million! Now I’ve done that I'm documenting my journey to the next 4 million. I think we're on track to hit 4 million this year - I believe we will do it. There's a shift coming - I can feel it. BUILDING MY VALUE LADDER There’s a lot of things at the top of my value ladder that you don't know about yet, but timing matters… … and it's not time for me to reveal what those are. You have to understand that in order for me to become the ‘Offer Guy,’ I had to create a new value ladder - which in my mind is a business. So on the marketing side at least, there’s 100% an entirely new value ladder. Q: What do I understand very clearly about how to develop new value ladders? A: I have to start in the middle. However, I wanna cash flow it like it's at the top... because I have a current business. I've got a couple of employees and about eighteen 1099s that work for me monthly. I've got business expenses. My monthly expenses right now are 30 to 40.grand a month - which is fine, I expected that. … it was part of the plan. We've been doing over six figures every single month for the last nine months. Soon our expenses will rise to 40 - 50 grand - it just depends how much we spend on ads. Anyway, here's the point, and there are a few forces that play here... WALKING IN CLAUDE HOPKINS SHOES The last guy to really be the offer guy was Claude Hopkins back in the late 1800s - there hasn't been an offer guy for 100 years! It's been a long time… For me, that's cool because it means that: Historically, the banner has been raised historically in the past. The idea has been validated. No one is the Offer Guy now. … which means that the move I want to make has been validated... and that was one of the things identified I was like, “Oh my gosh, I should go do that.” Back in the day, offers were called schemes. You’d hire a ‘Scheme Man…’ i.e., What's the scheme? What's the plan? What's the scheme for you to go sell your thing? Hopkins was a Scheme Man. Today, that means something different; it means you’re a schemer with a negative connotation... ...but it didn't mean that back then. So I was like, “Well, I'm gonna go be the Offer Guy - that's technically a blue ocean. No one is the Offer Guy… There are people who’ve brought books out... and there are people who’ve said “Hey, do this, this, this,” around the offer - which also further validates the move. But… No one is the Offer Guy! No one has dedicated themselves wholly to offers. So those were all great signs for me! FINDING MY RED OCEAN The next question I had to answer was: Q: What red ocean will come out of? A: Definitely, ClickFunnels ClickFunnels understand the power of an offer. Does this make sense? I'm NOT just trial closing you! Hopefully, you understand why I did this... I was like, “Okay, there is offer stuff out there, but no ones put it together and become the offer: Ocean Market Guy Guru Those are all HUGE signals for me! So what I needed to do, (with that backdrop in place,) was capture as much of the market mindshare as possible in people's brains… I wanted people to think: “Oh, Stephen really does know what the heck he's talking about when it comes to offers!” … so how do I do that? So I started putting together all my content about offers together, but then, I need a platform to deliver it. I'd been teaching bits and pieces on Sales Funnel Radio I'd been teaching bits and pieces on other people's stages I'd been teaching bits and pieces on other people's platforms... Until OfferMind I’d never had a scenario where I could teach all my stuff… (and literally, it wasn't everything... the audience gave out before I did. I was ready to keep going, we just ran out of time. Two days is not enough time for me to teach my stuff). However, I was able to teach from beginning to as far as possible: Ideation How do I validate the idea? How do I know if it's a good idea? How do I know that it's most likely gonna be a success? What are all the things I can do to make sure that I've got all the cards in my hand to make sure this is a success? Market positioning About what marketing is How to actually create an ecosystem - which we know sits on top of content Content It was just fascinating to see all these things come together that I'd already been doing. I realize, “Oh my gosh, there it is.” CREATING OFFERMIND I always tend to do better in front of a live audience because I can watch people’s reactions. I wanted to teach offer creation from start to finish I wanted to be able to create lots of content in front of a live audience I spent three weeks preparing my slides. I did NOTHING else - it was OBSESSIVE. It was fun and I can't wait to do it again… but *HOLY CRAP* it was a lot of work! Here’s the thing… I hate crappy events; when I walk into an event it needs to feel like I'm NOT in a hotel. It needs to feel like I've entered another dimension ... it's all about the seventh phase of the funnel - which is to change the selling environment. Then, I was like, “Okay, well, how do I fill the room? I really don't care if they pay...” I didn't wanna lose money. I just wanted to break even. So this is what I did… PIGGYBACKING ON A GIANT I looked over at ClickFunnels to see what momentum and noise they were already creating… This is one of the easiest ways to create a lot of cash quickly - You piggyback off some momentum that the category king in your red ocean market is creating. This is how I filled the event and made so much intense noise. I used the 30-Day book to piggyback and ride the momentum of a giant. I was creating a blue ocean, (and I still am), but if I didn’t take as much market share as possible... Someone else with a bigger list could swoop in and steal the crown For Example: Let's say, Frank Kern, Pat Flynn, or somebody else saw the opportunity and I didn't capture the market share quickly... they could swoop in and claim it. So it was a game where I needed to capture as much of the market share in people's brains as possible - so that they associate me with being the ‘Offer Guy’. So when I saw was Russell telling everybody: “Hey, we got this big summit coming. Hey, it's gonna be big affiliate thing, “ and that's where I gave away a FREE ticket to the first event. I can't do that anymore, and I won't do that anymore because it cheapens the content now... but in the beginning, it didn't. So my plan was to… Ran a BIG live event Made a lot of noise about it Filled it by leveraging the momentum already created by a red ocean category King, i.e., ClickFunnels. And because of that first event, I was able to... Capture (as much as possible) the market share in people's brains Fill the event with people from the ClickFunnels space - all my dream customers Leverage a campaign that ClickFunnels was heavily backing to people - my dream customers Validate my stuff in front of an audience and to myself Get it on camera and repurpose the crap out of it MAKING NOISEIt's only April - it's only since November that I decided to try and be the Offer Guy. Q: Doesn't it feel like it's been longer than that? A: It was by design! I planned this out ahead of time. I needed to create a lot of momentum, so I asked the questions: How can I create as much noise as I physically can? How do I set this up in a way that allows me to capture a large market share? I wasn’t just looking from a market positioning standpoint … I was looking from a marketing position standpoint and seeing: No one’s the offer guy now There used to be an Offer Guy 100 years ago How am I gonna attach myself to reach my dream customer? (I used the ClickFunnels space where I already had some stature... why wouldn't I?) How do I get my dream customer to come over to me? I'm NOT telling them to abandon ClickFunnels - I created a complimentary market. I NOT trying to be the Funnel Guy, I’m trying to be the Offer Guy - and they work in tandem. I didn’t throw rocks at ClickFunnels. Instead... I created a complimentary blue ocean and attached it to ClickFunnels to fill it. I piggyback off of the momentum that ClickFunnels already had... Gave away a free ticket on purpose just get butts in seats… Told I will not ship their swag to them and that they will forfeit their swag if they don't show up. … that caused some of the most ridiculous buzz ever. It pissed people off, and honestly, I'm okay with that... because “What happened?” I got butts in seats I wanted people to hear that I knew what I was talking about... and that I wasn't some guy who came out of the ClickFunnel riding that gravy train. ...and it worked. It was more of a middle ladder move - even though it's free-ish, it’s still content that I used to launch something at the back end. Now we're launching more things in the middle, and there's a lot coming down at the bottom of the value ladder. SO WHY WAS OFFERMIND FREE? The reason OfferMind was FREE the first time was by some serious design. I wanted to… Capture that market share Test the core theories that I'd already had success with Go in and show that I was worthy to crown myself as the Offer King None of my other events will ever be free again - EVER. I actually pride myself on being very expensive for a lot of reasons - However, it's not to keep people out. Man, I was going through my value ladder the other day - I have about 20 insanely valuable things that are FREE. If it’s NOT free, then it’s at the bottom of the ladder. I’ve got a lot of FREE stuff. My actual stuff’s very expensive and I don't apologize for it. WHAT’S YOUR PURPOSE? So when you're trying to figure out what you wanna do… First of all, understand that it takes time to figure that out. It's been like four and a half years that I've been active in this game, (I have to think how old my girl is)... I started using ClickFunnels right after they left beta. I think it was actually on the webinar right after they left beta. I was already selling stuff on the internet. I was already building websites with agencies and stuff... I've been acting this game for a while, and I’ve just barely figured out what I wanna be and do - I'm the Offer Guy. I know where my value ladder is leading… and I've designed it, but it would be a mistake to build it as fast as humanly possible. Instead... I should build it as fast as possible with the constraints of launching with good campaigns. … so a lot of what you're gonna watch me do here over the next year is build campaigns and launch is There's a bunch of other stuff that I'm NOT willing to release yet or talk about that stuff afterward - I know what those are as well. OfferLab is one of the things that’s come out of this so far - it’s one of the things on the value ladder and OfferMind’s definitely under it. OfferLab is AMAZING - it’s where I help people build their offers and put all this stuff in place! Go to myofferlab.com to check it out (The guy who had OfferLab wanted a ton of money… it was insanely expensive.) So once I know what those things are... it's not enough for me to just build the product... I also need to build a campaign that launches it and an evergreen campaign that sustains it. Those a lot of things that most funnel builders don't look - they just start driving ads.. and it's okay… BUT… You lose out on a ton of money and promotional noise. … and *that's* why OfferMind was free. BOOM! If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, 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 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? There are 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.com.
Paul Teshima, co-founder of Nudge.ai is interviewed by Sales Funnel Radio host Matt Heinz. Paul is a believer that culture eats strategy for breakfast, and business culture can be built through storytelling. He has always have been a leader with a strong focus on sales and customer engagement. He is a successful technology executive who has run services, customer success, account management, support and product management. Helped lead Eloqua (marketing automation) as part of the executive team from $0 to over $100 million in revenue, through IPO and a successful acquisition for $957 million by Oracle. Now co-founder and CEO of Nudge.ai, a modern sales platform that uses A.I. to find actionable insights on your customers. Passion for building great teams and products that help customers grow their businesses.Twitter: @paulteshima About Nudge.ai Nudge was co-founded in 2014 by former Eloqua executives, Paul Teshima and Steve Woods. After having successfully guided Eloqua to a market leading position in marketing automation from $0 to over $100 million in revenue, then through IPO and acquisition by Oracle for $957 million, Teshima and Woods recognized another massive challenge to solve – this time, however, it was on the sales side. The best sales professionals understand that people buy from people they know, like and trust. In a world that’s becoming overloaded with information, it’s becoming harder to build trusted, authentic relationships with buyers and customers. This is where Teshima and Woods saw the challenge, and the biggest opportunity yet to be solved.
Unpacking insights from a bounced email to create 4 connections using ABM Campaign refined emails are the key. Can't just put it in the byte bucket. Everyone is too busy. Lead Gnome is that solution to find the pockets of value the rest of the market is ignoring. Matt Benati didn't see any solution to accomplish what he needed, so he built it. It's looking for insights into the internal buying machines. Surprising enough you can gain a lot of insights from "out of office" messages. You will basically be given the org chart of the company. They looked at trigger events and campaigns around bounces. A bounced email happens when someone leaves the company. "Matt's no longer with the company, but Sally is here..." This gives you a lot of information and opportunity for an introduction and you can look for Matt at his next company, which is probably in a similar position. You can get two contacts from the one bounce. Who did Matt replace? Where did Sally leave to take Matt's old job? This is 4 contacts from one bounce. This is about unpacking the information in the body of the email, this is not scraping. This is human written information in the body. This was just in the first 8 minutes. You need this replay! About our guest, Matt Benati: Matt Benati is the CEO and Co-founder of LeadGnome, an innovative Account Based Intelligence web service that mines email responses to deliver account-specific contacts, enhance existing leads, and provide actionable sales intelligence. Matt is a passionate believer that sales and marketing alignment, transparency, and communication optimize revenue generation, and he champions this philosophy in his teams and writings. He participates actively in the market-changing FlipMyFunnel, Account Based Marketing, and Account Based Everything communities. Matt is a contributor at the Account-Based everything hub. Matt’s previous positions include VP Marketing at LogMeIn, VP Global Marketing at Attunity and senior roles at Netezza and IBM. You can follow Matt on Twitter at @mattbenati. _________________________________________ Sales Funnel Radio is hosted by Matt Heinz and sponsored by Heinz Marketing on the Funnel Radio Channel
Once you get clear on what you want as an entrepreneur, the rest is a lot of learnable formulas that you DO NOT have to be pro at... Every once in a while when an interview is just so awesome, I ask: “ Do you mind if I repost this on Sales Funnel Radio?” ... and usually, they're very excited about that. This interview was with Marian Esanu from the High Ticket Client Acquisition podcast. Sometimes the right questions get me to teach something in a way that I haven't taught before. Shout out to you, Marian, this was a great interview. I’ve pulled out the BEST bits where Marian asks me about what I look for when I am trying to decide what to sell. We talk about the whole red ocean analytics thing, (which by the way is a huge focus of the last OfferMind). The next OfferMind is coming up September 2nd-3rd. They’ll be a bunch of really cool speakers coming in and Russell's keynoting. But back to the formulas… Marian asks me: What do you look for when you decide whether or not you should enter into a market. What do you look for when you're deciding what to sell? How do figure out what hooks to use? You have to understand like I can close my eyes, and I can see the whole formula… It's all a big pattern to me. I know the formulas that cause success at each part of the value ladder. I know the formulas before we even choose or start brainstorming an offer to promote. That should be really encouraging to everybody because that's what I teach: That's the point of my OfferLab program That's the purpose of EVERYTHING I do... The offer is part of the sales message. The sales message is part of the offer. They're separate, but they're combined in their purpose. They're equal but different. FINDING YOUR VOICE Marian: What's your thought on somebody starting publishing for the first time? How do you find your voice? Do you just talk about stuff that you're good at, even if you don't know if people are gonna respond to it? What do you think about that? Steve: That is one of the most frequent questions. It’s also one of the questions where the answer is NOT inspiring. We created this event called the Funnel Hackathon Event. We called it the FHAT event. Russell's inner circle was there; these people were paying 25 - 50 grand to be in the room. The room was filled with very rich, very successful, smart people. I had gone through the previous 12 years of Russell's content to organize it. I thought through like, “Hey, in order to know this, you really need to do that. In order to know this, you really need to do that.” … and I put it in a digestible way... and we launched the original Two Comma Club coaching program from that. We decided to test the material against the inner circle, so it was a BIG event for me. Russell was gonna teach, and so I was excited to see how he was gonna do it. I was walking to the event room side-by-side with Russell, and he turns to me and goes, “Stephen, dude, do you want to introduce me on stage?” Immediately, I was like, “No.” I was so scared, like... there's no way. I'm very formula oriented, and I was like, “What's the formula dude? What's the script? How do I MC? How do I bring somebody in?” ...and Russell starts laughing. He's like, “Dude, no wait, wait. Okay, settle down.” I was freaking out, so he took me back out of the room, and we went to this little side conference room. Russell said: “Stephen, I got to tell you something... It’s impressive how well you model me... that's very rare, but dude, it’s time for you to find your own voice. Stop asking how would Russell Brunson introduce somebody on stage. How would YOU introduce somebody on stage?” I focus so much on modeling success, it sounds stupid saying it, but it was the first time in my life where I found my voice. It was the first time in my life that Steve Larsen was born on stage. I was already podcasting... because I was listening to what he was saying... but Steve Larsen started becoming born on my podcast. Around episode 70 or 80, I felt it…. I started doing it the way I would do it. I feel like a lot of the model's we follow will get you to 80%. They'll jumpstart you and help shortcut decades, lots of pain and money that you otherwise would have to spend, but eventually the whole find your voice thing, in my opinion, is very unteachable. I believe that there are things in this business that we can design, but there are other things that we have to discover... and your voice is one of them. So you can follow some scripts and blueprints for a while, and then after a while, it's like: “Okay, how would you say it? Just okay say it that way.” Marian: Got it. So it's more like practice, practice, practice, and then it would just come out at some point? Got it, awesome, and that's a hell of a story. Steve: It's funny, man. It was sooo depressing for me to hear that. I was like, “Just tell me the script, dude. I want safety in the script.” Marian: All right, awesome man. I think that will really help a lot of people that are listening to or watching this. Now let's take it a step further, and let's say somebody has started to find their voice and find their message, and you know, model it and design it, and all that stuff… The next part in there would be the offer, and that's where your entire expertise and all of these things come in, right? Steve: Yeah. THE BUSINESS OF PROBLEM SOLVING Marian: What do you think is the next step would be, let’s say we're talking about a coach, a consultant, to design the best offer? What do you think they lack... and how they can start looking at that process as being one of the most important? I know you preach a lot on making sure that you work on your sales message and your sales process before you build your: Product Course Anything that you want to build What's your process so that somebody can implement that for themselves? Steve: That's a very good question. It's interesting... I believe the sales message and the offer are actually one and the same. They're very separate roles, but I don't think you can have a sales message without an offer, and vice versa. There's no offer without a sales message. They support each other, but they're very different roles. If you're gonna go create an offer, and let's say you're a coach or a consultant, or something like that… I'm sure you've heard the saying that CEOs read a book a week… So for a while, I was just consuming. consuming, consuming, because that's what successful people do, therefore I will do the same… After about two years, I started asking myself questions like: “I'm doing what successful people do, why am I still broke?” ...and I realized several things. #1: For the first time in my life, I started realizing the difference between marketing and sales and that they're very different. Marketing changes people's beliefs so that they can buy something. That's what a sales message does. The act of selling is just presenting an offer and overcoming objections. ...they work in tandem, but they are very distinct things. So if somebody's trying to come up with an offer, you shouldn't be behaving as a CEO. CEO's are in the business of running and tweaking systems. Entrepreneurs are in the business of solving problems. If you're trying to come up with an offer for the first time, you’ve got to put on the entrepreneur hat and get rid of all the mainstream CEO junk. You're not a CEO, so stop acting like one. I don't read a book a week. I'm NOT saying that you shouldn't learn, but… I learn with the intent to solve problems. That's what entrepreneurs are in the business of doing. So if you think about the way a customer is experiencing your product… The Winter Olympics was a while ago, right. (Crap, it wasn't a while ago, it was like a year ago. Nevermind, time is going fast.) So, for example: If I'm gonna go be an Olympic skier, every single opportunity that's out there is guarded by a whole bunch of problems that you can't see… My dad really wanted to go be an Olympic skier... if he’d the opportunity to be an Olympic skier, there's a whole bunch of follow-up problems that you have to solve. Problems that you never knew you had to solve until you were given that opportunity. Follow me for a second... I know I'm kind of going all over the place, let me tie it with a little bow in a second... Marian: No, I get it. Steve: Yeah, this is a HUGE deal to realize... I think most people that are in the business of selling anything, any kind of entrepreneurship, any kind of business… we forget this. Your product is an opportunity, and there's a whole bunch of problems that you have to solve that show up after someone buys. So, if I have the opportunity to become an Olympic skier, now that the opportunity's in front of me, I have to solve problems that weren't there before I had the opportunity: Who's my coach gonna be? What kind of skis am I gonna use? Which mountains am I gonna practice on? Are my times fast enough? Did I study my competition enough? Do you know what I mean? Marion: Yep. Steve: It happens to us when we buy any kind of product in our life. I'm trying to find something on my desk here. Okay, this gum... SELLING GUM There are follow-up problems that somebody has after they buy this gum that they did not have until they bought it. It's the same thing if you are a coach or a consultant… When somebody buys your main product, there's a bunch of follow-up problems that you now have to solve that were NOT on your table ahead of time. Like ClickFunnels, right? It wasn't until I bought ClickFunnels that I realized: I should learn how to write copy I should probably learn how to drive traffic ...I didn't have that problem before I bought it, right? I didn't have that problem ahead of time. You have to realize that every product you sell is a gift both to the buyer and to you. For example: When you sell gum, (or something else), there's a bunch of follow-up problems… This is the easiest way to create an offer ever. You ask: “What are the follow-up problems that my product creates for somebody after they buy it?” Then you see what the majority are and you solve those problems with additional products. I just give those away for free when they buy the first thing. Back to gum… What kind of issues would somebody have? Maybe they want more flavors They want teeth whitening Bad breath in general… So you could go interview oral health doctors… … and include that interview, (which is a digital thing, takes nothing to fulfill), with the original product that you sell and all these things that you go stack on there. That's one of the easiest ways to create an offer ever. I hope that made sense? Marian: Oh, it does. Steve: I figure out what the follow-up problems are, create a product to solve them and give them away for free with the original product. Marian: That's INSANE! I don't think I ever thought about the whole offer creation process the way that you said it. That can be applied to any kind of industry regardless of what you sell, as long as you charge people for something, they'll have a question that they didn't have before they bought it. I hope everybody's taking notes. Steve: It drives me nuts when people are like, “...but in my industry’s different.” I'm like, “No, it's not. Do you sell anything? Sweet!” Marian: Even if you sell a commodity, people will still have questions. Even if it's a t-shirt, “How can I wash this t-shirt so it's not getting all crappy?” Steve: Exactly, yeah. “We'll give you a cool free PDF that shows cool fashion things to wear with the shirt when you buy.” You're like, “Oh man, you just increased value without dropping the price.” So there are a few ways to compete in this world... If I’ve got a bunch of other people that are selling something similar to me: Drop the price... that's one way to increase value. Don't drop the price and charge a little bit extra, but add more value... because price and value are not the same thing. So I'm gonna bump the value up with mostly digital products that take nothing for me to fulfill, and boost the value like crazy. Now I can sell for a premium, rather than fight to be the lowest price for what I sell. That's terrible, it's a terrible way to do business. Marian: That's super powerful. I hope everybody's literally just taking this part here. This is worth a lot of money. Awesome, I love that. CAMPAIGNS ARE DYING So I listened to one of your episodes. I don't remember the name of it now, but you stressed a lot on this matter. You have a different way of approaching a campaign. A campaign for you is NOT just driving traffic to a funnel, it's a whole different thing put on steroids. Can you, can you talk about that? Because I really think that this can help a lot of our listeners. Steve: Yeah, I think the term campaign is something that's actually dying. It's a dying art. Before social media existed, all these marketers that were out there, how did they get such fast, big sales? If you buy an ad on YouTube, or Facebook they call it a campaign. I think what's killing it. From a direct response marketer's viewpoint, ads are just part of a campaign. It's NOT the campaign itself. A campaign is pressure building up to a certain point. One of my favorite things to go do if you're podcasting or publishing... (which is one of the easiest ways to get clients for life, it's ridiculous. It will change your life if you just publish), is to create episodes that lead up to an event. So in the episodes, I'm like, “Hey, in two months from now, this cool thing is happening, and by the way here's a whole bunch of stories that are gonna break your beliefs.” ... I'm not gonna say that, but that's what's happening. I'm dripping out those pieces of content, and at the end of all of them, I'm saying, “Hey, go to this page and register so you guys get early bird access... on the waiting list... or whatever.” You build up all the pressure for this date, it's kind of what Hollywood does for movies. THE HOLLYWOOD LAUNCH Q: How much money do you think Hollywood would make if you didn't hear about the movie until the day it’s actually released? A: They wouldn't make that much money. They are masters at creating pressure to a date. They create pressure, “Here it comes... on this date, oh my gosh!” right? ...and then tons of sales come in all over the place. Then they drive more ads… it's very much more like that. Ads are part of that… A marketer, at the core, is an event thrower... meaning they build pressure to a certain date, and then using scarcity and urgency... and remove access to it after while to get a second bump in sales. A campaign is much more, I don't even know what the word is…. Marian: Making them hungry for your product before it's launched, I guess? Steve: Yeah, in my mind, there are two types of campaigns that I use: #1: There's Launch Campaign for if I'm gonna introduce something to the market for the first time. There are several strategies for building pressure, noise, getting a big list and shoving them all to a certain date, so that there's lots of pressure out there. #2: There's Evergreen Campaigns (it's my own definition), it is things like turning on Facebook ads, where I'm just gonna be tweaking the numbers, stuff like that… You miss out on so much money if you start a funnel or a podcast.. and then just turn on ads. Build Pressure! ...I use the two campaigns together. I build a launch campaign and build all this pressure, pressure, pressure, and because I have a podcast, I'll launch to my own audience. When they buy, I take all that money, (I don't take profit), I dump it right back into my Evergreen Campaign. So I never put a dollar of my own in my business because of that strategy. That's how I launch everything. I launch with a lot of pressure and then I take that cash roll it into my ads... and now my customers are paying for my ads. Marian: That's super smart, and I really love the way that you explained things, and the way that you put it out there to the public. It's super smart. You are one of most in-demand funnel builders, so everything that you say, people will think, “Oh, I'll go and implement it,” but you have a complete in-depth process of things to do before you even touch your laptop to build a funnel. Steve: Yeah. Marian: And I think a lot of people would miss a lot of that stuff. Can you debate a little bit on that process? I know we're getting close to wrapping things up here. Steve: That's fine. Yeah, I think the biggest issue, and I did the same thing, you know. I can't blame anybody for doing this... but when I first got ClickFunnels, the first thing I did... (and this is what I did for a while), was log in and build the funnel… ClickFunnels makes it so easy on the tech side to do stuff, it's attractive and it's sexy, and most people jump right to that… They say, “Hey, let me go build this sweet thing.” So they build it, this is literally how I did it. I remember one of the first funnels, I built a free plus shipping thing, selling a CD. I wanted to have a free plus shipping thing, so I went and I rebuilt all of Russell Brunson's Dot Com Secrets book funnel… I said, “What should I tell them on this page?” I went through, and I came up with something to sell on that page. I went to the next page, what should I sell on this page? What should I sell on this page? Then after I had all the products in there, I was like, “How should I sell this?” ...and I went and I wrote the sales message, and I put it all in there. THAT is the exact opposite order to where you find success. People need to get out of the mindset of testing products. You don't really test products. You test sales messages. The role of the sales message is to cause the desire for purchase. The product just fulfills on the promise that your sales message made. That's all the product does. The product should be amazing, but you really don’t need to test a product. It's NOT about that. What causes the purchase, is the sales message itself. So, I gather all this data from my competitors in the red ocean. I want something that's crazy competitive... and then I'm gonna take all that data and craft my sales message for those people alone. The worst thing ever is when someone walks up and they're like, “Stephen, I built this sweet thing, who should I sell it to?” I'm like, “Ah that is like square one. You jumped to 99…” FINDING THE WHO First, you start with the who. It's all about the who and understanding: Where they are? What do they want? What they don't want? Their current desires? What they've already been buying to try and solve their problems? (So you don't go make that and it's a step backward in a customer journey) You understand MORE about where these people are, and that creates your sales message. You go test that to those people specifically, and then once people are buying, then I go create the product to fulfill on. Super safe, completely the opposite order than what college taught me. A different way of thinking about it. Completely different than mainstream entrepreneurship out there. Marian: I get it 100%. Julie Stoian shared the same type of thing... we were talking about an online course, and she broke it down in the same exact steps. So I can see why for sure. Now you talk a lot about the red ocean, the blue ocean, and then you created something in the middle, the purple ocean. I know, a lot of people will say, “Well, my industry's too crowded. I got to compete on price. I don't know how to build an offer, whatever… How are they starting?” Let's say they do what you say, they start publishing, they find their voice, they create an offer, they create a sales message, all together. Are they testing that offer to the red ocean... and then they try to build their own type of blue ocean out of that? What's the best way to do that? Steve: That's a lot of strategies involved in that. Marian: Just the big picture. THE BLOODY RED OCEAN Steve: So this red ocean concept. You think back in the day where Al Gore created the internet, he didn't. He did NOT create the internet. But he claims he did. ...but you think about when the internet became publicly available for everybody in 1991… There was one internet service provider, that's it. You know? Straight up monopoly. You couldn't get the internet anywhere else. Then suddenly, all these other tech companies say: “Look at that, and they're like we could be an internet provider,” ...and someone else comes in, somebody else comes in, somebody else comes in. They start driving the price down because of competition. We actually want that. I want to have the most ridiculous red highly competitive, bloody ocean that is out there. I want it to be very bloody. I want it to be soooo competitive… Because when it is competitive, it's actual security. If the market of internet service providers is lasting long enough, what's cool about that is that in order for the market to survive, they have to start learning how to create new customers. They have to make customers out of people who are not planning on being customers. That is not easy, and most markets don't survive that. Most of us would not go into the beanie babies accessories market. You know or Pogs or Kmart or Sears, all these things that are dying….they didn't learn how to make customers out of people who were NOT planning to be customers. It's easy when a new thing comes out, they collect the easy people off the top who’d buy just because they're looking to buy something. It’s hard after those people have dried up, for a market to move from customer collection to customer creation. That is challenging. Most markets die because of that. I actually want a highly red ocean. I want a lot of competition... because it's a sign that the market is surviving and growing. Not all markets are red. I want one that's red. I want to be able to go in, (hopefully, this isn't too deep), and look at this really, really, really red, red ocean, and learn how to take a step out of it, and build a sales message that goes directly back into it. ...because they figured out how to create customers. It means I don't have to learn how to create customers. I just sell to those people and my sales message pulls people over to me. I don't have to create customers, I just have to collect them. It's very, it's kind of a different way of thinking. I don't know. Hopefully, it makes sense but like, Marian: It does. Steve: I've coached 10x of thousands of people in this now, and the thing that's scary is they go do all this work, they create all these funnels, they make all the sales messages, they're making all the things that we tell them to go do… BUT… They go and they plug them into a market that's dying, and when the market leaves, they now have to go back to square one... the who. “Crap, my who dried up. I don't know where they went.” The market left. The market died... and so they have to find a NEW who and go back to square one to create a new sales message and make sure that offers something that's sexy and fulfills… ...and make sure the funnel is something that is attractive for that market... and it's terrible, it sucks! It's where the entrepreneur in this game, (especially online), feel like their wheels are spinning... it's because they chose the wrong who. So I go in and say: Let's choose something that's insanely competitive Figure out how to throw rocks into it Talk to those who are only in pain… I'm NOT gonna talk to somebody in there and try to sell them if they're like a massive diehard, right. They're like, “I believe this stuff, this is my thing,” right? That's like watching the Superbowl with opposing fans in the same room: “Well, this team's better, no that team's better.” No one wins, right! It's that exact same thing… 99% of sales copy that's written out there by somebody that's brand new, they're speaking to somebody in the red ocean who's a die hard. It's a dumb argument. I don't speak to them at all. I find a market that's really, really, really red, and then I only talk to those people in there who are feeling pain and hate the market they're in. They just don't know anything different... That’s a very easy person they go sell. Marion: That's something that a lot of people just don't talk about… You hear everybody being like, “Oh, I'm afraid to get into that market because it's so crowded. I'm not gonna be able to survive,” but no, you just said the opposite: “No, go there because you don't need to create customers.. all of them are over there, and it's so much easier for you to get them out.” Awesome man, you’re literally just spitting fire here. Last question before we wrap things up in here… You're one of the few people that I know, (especially in this online game), that has two completely different audiences. You manage both of them so well in a way that you never like… I don't know I mean like correct me if I'm wrong, but it's very rare when you cross-promote between the two... maybe I'm wrong, I don't know? But I just, I'm so amazed by the fact that... I don't know how big both of them are, I know this one that I'm in, it's pretty large. Steve: A little big. Marian: Yeah. So then how do you manage to keep them you know not necessarily from a technical standpoint, but because you have to create offers for both of them. You have to publish to both of them. How do you manage your time and your strategy behind that? Steve: First of all I would just caveat everything right there by just saying please don't try that. It actually was NOT on purpose, but it worked for a few specific reasons… So one of them is the MLM space, and when you think about that, the reason I went into that is because of the exact same principal I was just talking about. Like, that's an insanely red competitive ocean. There was a lot of opinions around that industry, which is good. I actually want that. I don't want anything that's too blue. I want a lot of red... because then what I did, (and this is the reason why it sells so well, and why I don't actually have to manage it that much)... This is one of the easiest ways to create a sales message, create hooks, create podcast content, is you become the anti-red in your messaging. ...and my headlines in that space are: How I'm auto recruiting a downline of big producers without my friends and family even knowing I'm in MLM. ... and they're like what? The whole industry is built around attacking your friends and family, and so when they read that headline, it is the anti-red... and because of that, it's talkable. We drive ads, but on the ClickFunnels page, when everyone's like, “Who does MLM funnels?” Like, everyone says my stuff. I'm not doing any of that, and the reason is that I'm so strongly anti-red. I'm like, “Yeah, do the MLM thing, but don't you dare do it in the way they're teaching you...” and who does that speak to? It speaks to people who are doing it, who are in pain and hate it. They just don't know another way. Exactly as I was just saying. So it's talkable, and they do a lot of my selling for me because it's word of mouth. It's very easy... because no one's doing that, and then they can go, “Oh my gosh, have you seen this guy?” I'm very careful about what I sell, NOT based on the product... I'm careful based on the sales message and how abrupt it is in the red ocean. That's one of the biggest keys and one of the biggest misconceptions. For years, I walked around asking myself the question, “What should I sell? What should I sell?” … it's like paralysis. If you're listening or watching this now, and you're like, “I don't know what to sell... I don't know what to do?” … the reason's that you're starting with the wrong question. Instead of asking, “What do I sell?” … You ask, “Who should I sell?” And “Who do I want to sell? Who’s my dream customer?”... what should I sell gets really easy... because you just solve their problems and become the anti-red in your sales message. It’s waaay easier after you do a little research like that. Thanks so much for listening. Please remember to rate and subscribe. Hey, I know this game can take a few tries to get the money flowing, especially the first time, right? And that can suck. I also know from experience how frustrating it can be to know your business is just a few tweaks away from your next big payday, but you don't know what tweaks to make. I've felt completely paralyzed by that in the past, and it sucks. I've been blessed to work with thousands of new and successful businesses over the last three years, and two things have really shocked me. #1: I began noticing the pattern to success is vastly the same, but everyone's spot on the path is obviously different. #2: I've been shocked and overwhelmed by the number of people asking for my help, my systems, and funnels in their business. Well, until now I've never had a system or product in my own business to help you build yours. Now, I'm finally able to be public about all this... If you'd like my help to build your offer or sales message funnel and even your content machine, go to myofferlab.com. The path to online and offline success is 80 percent the same regardless of the product, price point or industry, and it works if you're new or already a killer in business. You can get more details on how to get my personal attention and frameworks in your own business by going to myofferlab.com In-person classes are limited to 60 people each, and frankly, I can only do about two of these a year. Get more details, and even jump on the phone with us for free at myofferlab.com
I’ve been working on the NEW OfferMind funnel. I have a 7 person funnel building team now, (which is awesome)… So I thought it'd be neat to walk you through: WHY I took the old funnel down… The structure of the NEW funnel... The TWO checklists I use to make sure my team can do their job… How I plan to get MORE big names to speak at the event... The EPIC offer creation that gonna knock this outta the ballpark! WHY I KILLED THE ORIGINAL FUNNEL The original OfferMind funnel that I built was incredible. It was working extremely well... A lot of people had already bought tickets, but I took it down because I when Russell agreed to keynote I wanted to make sure that the funnel was the caliber of Russell freakin’ Brunson. … there’s also another way that I’m gonna use this NEW funnel to create the BEST OfferMind experience EVER… so keep reading ;-) HOW TO MAKE A FUNNEL AWESOME The first page is the sales page. Sometimes we put the order form on that page too, but for OfferMind we actually have a separate page. When people join the One Funnel Away Challenge they get a discount code for OfferMind tickets. When people use their discount code to buy an offermind ticket it subtracts 150 bucks from their ticket. Then… And this is brilliant, (if I do say so myself)... When you buy a normal OfferMind ticket, we’ve set it up so that you can get a ticket plus a discovery call for the exact same price. Crazy Cool, eh! For the exact same price, you can grab a discovery call with your ticket. You add your phone number to the form and it sends that data through a zap over to my phone team who then walk anyone who wants one through a super epic Success Strategy Session. Next, there's a bump coming up…. I don't want to spoil everything, but it's a freaking cool, and I'm gonna leave it at that… ;-) WANT MORE? On the next page, there’s a sweet VIP upgrade... At a recent event, they had a directory of all the VIPs printed in a booklet that was handed out to EVERYBODY. I was like, "That's so freakin’ cool. Oh my gosh, that's awesome." Think about it… What better way to meet the ‘Who's Who’ that you wanted to connect with when you booked your ticket in the first place! OfferMind is 1,100 seats, but… Only the VIPs get: Their names in the Directory. Early access. Dinner with me. VIPs get all this crazy cool stuff, but EVERYBODY gets the ‘Who's Who’ booklet, and you ONLY get to be in the directory if you're a VIP. I was like, "Oh my gosh, that's awesome." BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE! Then one morning, I was thinking about the second OTO ... (I think about this stuff in the shower sometimes)... Check this out... This is so *LEGIT* I've never seen anyone do this. I learned this when I did door-to-door sales. Here’s what happened: I was knocking in one area and I met a guy. He told me that he was in a real estate thing…. He said, "...but don't do real estate.” Instead, he went to local businesses and told them: Hey, when new people move to the neighborhood they create new habits and patterns very quickly. Can we place some of your product in their house for free? We’ll put you on a list which will be included in the bundle of products. It's $50 a month per house that we place. Typically we place 200 houses a month. ...so basically he’d get companies to donate their product plus pay $50 a month to be part of this thing. They were collecting several hundred thousand dollars, and doing nothing. I was like, "That's ridiculous. That's crazy." So check this out: The first upsell is to VIP, but then the second OTO is the opportunity to buy a one-page ad in my Capitalist Pig Ads Book. Everyone can place an ad for NOT much money at all. At the event, I’ll put these booklets on every single person's chair. So for $500 you can put a full page spread ad in front of a targeted audience of 1,100. That's crazy. Then as part of the offer, we’ll use that booklet in future OfferMinds and other events... You can go use Funnel Scripts and all these cool things that we teach you to make sweet ads. Plus, it'll give me even more things to talk about on stage. I'll give a shout-out to the coolest ones, and immortalize you in the videos. What a freaking sexy offer, right! We're calling it The Capitalist Pig Ads Book. It's super cool. There's MORE exciting stuff too... but I don't want to kill the goose on everything. TEAMWORK So now, when I building a funnel, I’m NOT always doing all the building. So… I draw out the entire funnel for my team, and then I teach them all the things that they need to know… Then I say, "All right, and now I'm going to start sending you guys your individualized instruction video." There are seven people on my funnel team, and I use a different color pen to go through the entire funnel and walk through each role. To my video guys I say: "Hey, this is what I need from you…” Create a sweet video and model the Funnel Hacking Live video. I’ll film the video for ‘this and this’. I'll film the intro video for the thank you page. I record it on camera, then I take that file and send it over to my video people and I say, "That’s your role in this funnel build." Then I go to the copywriter and say: "Hey, you're going to get the videos from the video guy. Here's what I want you to do…” Take the videos and write sales copy underneath every single one of the pages. Write all the sales copy. Write all the emails and all the email sequences. I film it on that camera and sent the instructions to them. Then I erase all that color and start over again for the designer. I say: “Now you have the videos and the copy, what I need you to do next is make it look pretty." ...and I walk through and draw it out. There's ALWAYS a framework that applies to the entire team. MY TWO CHECKLISTS There are 21 agency/people who do work for me now. I have: Two content teams A funnel building team Full-time support Three phone closers, (I'm going to bring on a team of five more as well). There's a system that I came up with that helps me understand what each person needs, not just from me, but from the person directly in front of them in the line. Think about it this way… I did a lot of backpacking growing up, and if there's a person directly in front of me, they set the pace… However, the person directly behind them, every once in a while that second person has to walk a little bit faster to catch up. (Go read The Goal; it’s a very good book.) So if there’s a third person, every once in a while, that person has to break into a little bit of a jog to keep up with the first person. But when you get to number twelve in the line, that person needs to freakin’ jog just to keep up at the normal walking pace set by the first person. *THAT’S HUGE* On my team, I have the: Video guy Copywriter Initial funnel builder Designer Funnel finisher ...then it goes back to me to test and tweak. There’s a lot of roles... and that’s just the funnel, (it doesn’t even include product creation). So if the lead person is moving at a normal pace, then a lot of times, the person at the back is sprinting to keep up because there's space in between each of these roles… These are a series of dependent events... So when I'm creating a funnel, there are two checklists that I need to create, NOT just one. *This changed my life* For Example: If you look at the job of the initial funnel builder I need to ask: What does this person need from me in order to do their job? What does this person need from the person directly in front of them in order to do their job? My role is just to create all the inputs needed and gather them ahead of time so that everyone can do their job without me needing to be pinged or interfered with… Does that make sense? ...it's two checklists. I have the checklist for each individual, but I also have the checklist for each person from the person directly in front of them. That increased my speed like crazy. HERE’S HOW IT WORKS So for the OfferMind funnel, (it looks so sexy)… I filmed all the videos so that the copy guy can go in and write. It goes to the initial funnel guy who will build a rough draft of the entire thing. He's gonna loosely place all the videos and the copy... so that there's clay on the page for the designer. Then the designer gonna make it look pretty. Next person, the funnel finisher will write all the emails, add all the metadata, and put all the titles in... (tons and tons of stuff). If you do this, you will make you A LOT of money very quickly. It costs me about 15 to 20 grand to turn the crank once. Yep, it's a lot of money, but my team’s really freakin’ good. It costs about 15 - 20 grand... depending on how much video and copy there is. Those are the two expensive pieces…. after that, it's design. (This is excluding the cost of product creation with the team.) Anyway, that's where we are with OfferMind...and that's why it's taken a little bit longer. MY DREAM 100 SPEAKER PLAN! At the beginning, I told you that part of the reason for this NEW funnel design was because Russell is keynoting…. However, my plan is to attract some more BIG names. I'm going to try and get: Bill Glazer. Mark Joyner. Myron Golden Some of my finance people, who are incredible. Brad Gibbs Ryan Lee Anyway, a lot of high-level people. I want to go to Bill Glazer and all these other influencers with a super awesome funnel... AND… Check this out, my friends: Right now, I’m recording the audiobook for the "30 Days" book. It's one of the bonuses I'm giving away for the OFA Challenge when people buy through my link. It's freakin’ huge. Waaay too BIG…. I did NOT realize how big it was when I said that... but anyway, I'm doing it, because I committed. BUT… How cool would it be if I just went to each of the BIG names who wrote a chapter, and gave them the gift of their chapter already recorded for them? Do you think they're going to know my name after that? Oh yeah, baby! There are NOT that many people alive who are really into offer creation. Claude Hopkins was the last big guy, and he was alive in the 1800s… Mark Joyner wrote the book "Irresistible Offer".... but offer creation is NOT exclusively his thing, you know what I mean? "The Man Who Sold America," is about Albert Lasker who was partners with Claude Hopkins, but that was in the 1800s... There's just not many people out there anymore who are really big in the offer creation space. And so I'm using the "30 Days" audiobook as a reason to reach out to BIG people, and tell them: Hey, I'd love to get you in OfferMind. Oh, by the way, here's a sweet chapter. Oh, by the way, let me just keep adding value to your community. Oh, by the way, can I just get you on my podcast? I'm going to make you like a rockstar. Watch what I'm doing in the next little bit... I HAVE A PLAN Watch the way I'm leveraging Sales Funnel Radio to create relationships with people that ultimately, (hopefully), lead them into speaking at OfferMind. Did you guys like the podcast episode I did about how I pitched Russell on speaking? A lot of work went into that, right? These are all direct response marketers, so it’s likely that’ll do the same thing for Bill Glazer and Mark Joyner. It's a lot of freaking work... but it should be worth it. There will be 1100 people at OfferMind; that’s as many people as my first Funnel Hacking Live. When I think of that, I pinch myself. To sum up the OfferMind Funnel, we have the: Ticket with a free upgrade = A FREE DISCOVERY CALL OTO #1 = VIP LISTING/ EARLY ACCESS/ DINNER WITH ME OTO #2 = THE CAPITALIST PIG AD BOOK LISTING The Bump = #TOP SECRET Swag = IT’S RIDICULOUS THIS YEAR Goodie on the thank you page = CLICK AND SEE ;-) I’m not even gonna tell you about the T-shirt this year... It's NOT the capitalist pig one. We created a new one. It's freaking cool. I'm the offer guy, so it's got to be sick. This is going to be a really freaking expensive event, but it's going to be really fun. If you want to get on the waiting list go to offermind.com. # Make Money, Do Good
This is one of the first things I did to expand my team on the flight back home from Funnel Hacking Live... Ray Higdon crossed the million dollar mark extremely quickly, and at Funnel Hacking Live he shared some of the tactics that he uses to grow his business at epic speed. He had a great product, but that doesn't mean it's gonna sell, right? ...and that's something I focus on a lot. Anyway, Ray dropped a tactic that I thought was brilliant… So I want to share the genius way Ray discovered to boost his Facebook Community...and some of the surprising things that happened when I used the same tactic in mine… (You are gonna be surprised) ;-) SOCIAL AMBASSADORS There's a lot of negativity on this planet, and sometimes we need safe havens to go where our dreams are still okay and we don't have to constantly be in defense. So to keep engagement high and help people to know that their online community is a well run and safe place for them Ray created Social Ambassadors. Here’s what he did... He put out a post to his group which said: Hey! I’d love you to be a social ambassador for my community. We expect around five hours a week from you... and just to be completely clear, it doesn't pay anything… But you will get: MORE access to me. A chance to chat with me a bit more. Exclusive behind-the-scenes stuff. To be part of team huddles before we do events. Exclusive swag, etc. ...and that was kind of it. I thought: “Hey, that's really interesting.” So on the way back from Funnel Hacking Live, (on terrible Delta Wi-Fi), I decided to apply his strategy. What happened next shocked me… FINDING TALENT I created a Wufoo form and posted it in the Science of Selling online and a few other groups along with a post that said: “Help Wanted!” I asked everyone who was interested to answer a few questions: How long have you been in the group? What programs of mine are you a part of ? I wanted to know how much they could help people if I made them a social ambassador for my community. The last question said something to the effect of: “Do you understand that this is NOT a paid position? This is NOT a position that comes with monetary pay, but you’ll get MORE access to. Are you okay with the fact that you will NOT be paid?” It was very forward about the fact that there was NO MONEY involved, and the applicants had to tick “Yes” or “No,” to show that they agreed About 72 hours later, I checked the stats. 116 applications had been started… BUT… ...by the last question, ONLY 26 actually finished. There were even some responses from people who were just a little bit mad about the no-pay thing. So I wanna explain something to you guys about this… MOTIVATION MATTERS I learned this somewhere in my childhood... Sometimes you just do stuff to do good things... Sometimes you just do things in order to be more known and gain proximity around other people… When I got the call to let me know that I’d been hired by Russell, I was like: "I know this is terrible negotiation strategies, but I would do that for free. You're saying you're gonna pay me to come sit by Russell so that I can help him build funnels? Yeah, totally, 100% absolutely!" When I'm looking to hire somebody or bring somebody into a team, I want them to be married, first and foremost, to the mission that I’m serving. I’m The Capitalist Pig (#got the t-shirt) I'm trying to teach people to get rich. I'm trying to teach people who didn't have an upbringing with a silver spoon. I'm trying to show people who actively try to launch the formulas they can use to make money in easy ways on the internet. However, if one of the first questions out someone’s mouth when I try to hire them is: “Well, how am I gonna get paid?” “How am I gonna get compensated again, Stephen?” “How are you going to be helping me?” “Okay, Stephen, this is what I need from you.” … that SUCKS! Instead, I’m looking for people who ask: “What is it that you want me to do?” “What does your audience need?” “How can I serve?” “How can we help more people?” HEAR ME CLEARLY… The “I need to be making money from you before I'll even think about serving you” mindset is a very different mentality. Now, I understand that this is a 100% a give-and-a-take situation, (all business is), but when the first question out of someone’s mouth is: “SHOW ME THE MONEY?”… #warning sign I don’t want to say names here… but someone extremely famous (that you probably know) says that he wakes up each day, and asks himself: "How can more people be saying my name every single day?" He's like, "All my focus is how can MORE people hear my name?" ...Russell and I were laughing about this because it’s 100% the opposite motivation that a lot of us have in this space. It's not that it isn't nice to have a little limelight. It's not that it isn't nice to grow and have a big following. Those are all byproducts of what we all do, but it's NOT the core motivation. Man, we're trying to like change the world. We're trying to go help and bless... and cash is a byproduct of that. So when I have somebody come to me and say something like: “Well, how much is it gonna pay?” ...and it's specifically, a monetarily-driven individual… I appreciate their focus on cash. I have a massive focus on revenue and you need to be focused on that. BUT… When I can tell that cash the ONLY thing that they care about, and that they will only go to the extent of the contract for which they are hired… *I DO NOT HIRE THAT PERSON* GO THE EXTRA MILE? So here's what happened when I posted for Social Ambassadors for my online community… (this is sooo interesting!) Out of the 116 who started to fill in the application, ONLY 26 finished when they realized that it wasn’t a paid position. I’d asked for a three-minute video explaining why they would be a great fit. The hardest part was that those who actually took the time show up, we're ALL pretty much all incredible. They were all just amazing individuals. (So I can use more than one social ambassador for the groups that I have, right?) However, there were a few specific key individuals that I saw videos from where I was like, You know what… That person would be great as a Performance Coach in my OfferMind program. This person would be perfect in this specific role... … it helped me see the people who shine... and who sent in applications with NO thought of pay. And so I reached back out to those people and said: "Hey, thank you so much. I actually don't want you for this social ambassador role. I actually wanna bring you in as a paid member of my team." HERE’S THE TEST... Now, I gotta be honest with you, I did something that might make you a little uncomfortable… I purposely low-ball on how much I will pay. I say: “We still have to review a few more applications, so we’ll reach back to you if this works out. I was just wondering if you had any interest?” If they're like, "You know what, that's fine. I would have done this for free." I'm like, *JACKPOT* … and, THEN, at that point, I pay a fair wage. Does that make sense? So I start out by checking out: Who just loves the mission I'm doing? Who just wants more proximity? Who wants to be able to go in and just see more behind-the-scenes of what I'm doing? ...and it sifts out a lot of people. I'm not trying to offend anybody, but this is why this tactic is soooo effective. There are several filters I use: Who would do it for free? I low ball those who would be great for a paid position to find out whether they're still totally in and ready to rock. If the low ball didn't bother 'em at all, I go back and announce the real wage. I’m sure some people would get pissed off by my methods... and that's ok. You have your methods, I have mine. What's cool is that it helps me find those individuals who are all in and really excited to do what I'm doing. SUCCESS LOVES COMPANY I'm in the ClickFunnels Inner Circle, and I've never seen anyone stand up to accept their 2 Comma Club Award who was the only person in their company. *IT DOESN’T HAPPEN* I can't even think of one person who got a 2 Comma Club award by themselves. It takes MORE than ONE individual because you’ve gotta divide and conquer. Someone’s gotta: Hand fulfillment Send in ads Help push out content It's a full-time profession to be the offer and product creator, and that's my role. The whole core of my business is content, coaching and creating products, but there are people in other roles... otherwise, I can't do what I do. ...and I massively try to find ways to scratch their backs. DO NOT STEAL MY TEAM ;-) My content team are amazing, brilliant individuals. I am so lucky to have them. I'm always nervous to tell you who they are… I don’t want anyone to steal them from me. But I constantly try to do things to help 'em realize how much I appreciate them... things that they’re NOT expecting. Things that I didn't lead with. If you guys go to stevejlarsen.com, you can click on Team at the top, and it will show a lot of the members of my team. I kind of cycle them; different members are featured at different times. Not everyone's on there ALL the time... But it's my way of saying, “Thank You.” So they're featured on stevejlarsen.com with a link back to their personal profile page. Which is pretty awesome, right? I didn't need to do that, but I'm trying to constantly to give extra little goodies and shout-outs. I filmed testimonial videos that they weren’t asking for (or expecting) that they can use to keep getting clients, and I kick clients and referrals to them ALL the time. In fact, there's a ton of people now on the ClickFunnels team who know about my team members by name. They ask how and what we're doing because we're killin' it! So how cool would it be to just connect people? That's a HUGE value add which increases the beneficial relationships EVERYONE, my team as well. BUT… If it takes all those things in order for somebody to agree to work with me, I don't want them in the first place. I'm a capitalist. Ya gotta be awesome to work on my team. I'm extremely aggressive and very competitive. I’ve got a smile on my face. I'm kinda jovial. I laugh and stuff, but I am extremely competitive and I am here to win. I do not lose. I'm not saying that I don't EVER lose, but that's my mentality. I'm ready to rock, take over the world and push my message out to the ends of the earth, so my teams gotta be awesome. I create competitions and contests to find people and bring them into my team. I didn't pay 'em a ton of money at the beginning. I've gradually increased their pay across the board... and added tiny nuggets that they weren’t expecting. MY NEW SHOW We're doing a huge project right now… I'm gonna have a third podcast based around the One Funnel Away Challenge. I’ll interview the cool success stories from people who've taken the challenge. There are some crazy stories that can't go to waste. But very soon what I want to do is interview my team. Recently, I told them: "Hey, let's get you guys on Sales Funnel Radio. Everyone deserves to know who you guys are and how awesome you are." Just because I'm paying them... doesn’t mean I don’t have to sell them over and over on the vision and the role I have. My team knows why I'm doing what I’m doing, and they know how much I appreciate them. I can't do it without 'em. I'm trying to help you understand how I find my team, what I look for, and how I support them and make them feel appreciated. By using Ray Higdon’s method mixed with my own... I have Social Ambassadors in The Science of Selling Online and my other groups. In OfferLab, I’ve got Performance and Accountability Coaches. I’ve built another layer of support for my community... and the products I sell. I’ve literally created another arm to provide an extension of what I do. It's been a ton of fun, but the way that I do it is very methodical. So I thought I'd share a bit about my methodology for how I bring a new team member on. I hope you're expanding your teams, or at least you have it top of mind. First and foremost, I want to find people who are married to the vision… And then, I will make sure that they are paid well... and overpaid in terms of the little bonuses I give them. BOOST PERFORMANCE I have two content teams I have an Internal Funnel Team I'm starting to put together a Coaching Team We're gonna grab an assistant soon, (l’m sooo looking forward to that!) In The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss talks about giving your team a crazy amount of room to just mess up… NO! I require my people to be absolutely amazing... But that doesn't mean that I need to be a crazy jerk. I don't have to be all Mr. Negative and constantly down everyone's throat, and reminding them: “You're replaceable. I could fire you. At any moment I could get rid of you!” That's NOT an environment anyone wants to work in. I am NOT here to make somebody scared to come to work or do a task for me. I'm here to enable them to do the thing I hired them for. One of the practices I have is to continually ask: "Hey, what is it that you're needing from me that you don't have that you need to even do what I hired you for?" If someone's amazing at Facebook ads, I need to facilitate that individual's zone of genius. I'm NOT good at Facebook ads, so they shouldn't come to me asking how I want my ads run… I don't know! They’re the expert. That's why I hired them. ...but it is my role to get them everything they need to do what I hired them for in the first place. On my team, I’ve got an: Amazing YouTube expert. You guys'll get a chance to meet her in a little bit. Awesome blog writer, (two of 'em). Incredible, incredible blog creator. Audio guy who balances and patches my podcasts together in a genius way. Absolutely incredible social media expert who spreads all my content around. Absolutely fantastic Pinterest expert, she's amazing at what she does. They're ALL incredible, and they’re as geeky in their thing as I am in mine... and that's the way it's supposed to be. My entire role in my business has begun to shift as I take on to do lists that facilitate a zone of genius that they already have. It shouldn't always be done in my way because I'm not an expert in what they do. I'm here to facilitate their zone of genius. Back in the day, I could just look at a funnel and tell that if I just got two or three things from my client, then I could make their funnel do things that they didn't even know existed. BUT… Because they dragged their feet, I couldn’t do the epic crap that I wished I could. I would tell some clients, and they'd be like, "Well, I just don't know if I want that." I'd be like, “Gah, just give it to me, and I'll do it! “ I don't wanna be that person for those that I hire or who work for me... so I’m constantly trying to figure out ways to give them the things that they need to facilitate their zone of genius. Remember, I’m the orchestrator, NOT every instrument in the orchestra. I absolutely love my team. Hopefully, you realize the importance of the team too. I don't look for a rock star to hire anymore… I look for someone who’s excellent in a single discipline. They don't need to know how to do everything. I don't know how to do EVERYTHING. However, they do need to be really, really, really freakin' good at the one thing I'm hiring for. I don't care if they suck at everything else. Gone are the days where the renaissance man is paid above everyone else. Get really, really insanely good at one skillset and hire out the rest. ...that's exactly what I've done, and the same is true for my team. I try to be the dream client for them, and they do all these extra things I never even knew existed... or didn’t even know to ask them to do. BOOM! As you likely have heard in my podcast, I left my job in January 2018 to build my million dollar business completely from scratch without any funding or any help... AND I HIT IT, right on February 1, 2019... Just 13 months later, we actually grossed a million dollars, which is pretty awesome. Better yet, I got to keep a lot of the cash, just 'cause my costs are honestly NOT very high. That said, there are several tools, though, I use to automate vital pieces of my business and ClickFunnels is one of them. ClickFunnels lets me build automated sales machines all over the internet that are non-stop pitching people for me. It's ONLY $97 a month. Better yet, I don't need to be a coder. If you're asking yourself, “Stephen, are you giving me a blatant pitch for ClickFunnels right now?” YES, 100%! I think it's dumb when people don't use ClickFunnels. It makes you MORE and saves you MORE. Basically, I have the power of an entire tech team in my hand and I want you to have it. Go grab a free trial of ClickFunnels by going to freecftrial.com. I want EVERYONE to experience the power of ClickFunnels in their business, so they're letting me hook you up at freecftrial.com.
If people are learning about your product for the first time on the day it launches, it's a massive blow to your sales.. Launch campaigns are starting to die. There are a few books out there that’ll teach you how to launch something, but proper campaigns are kinda becoming a thing of the past... :-( I was talking with Russell about six months ago, I said, “Dude, I feel like the term campaign is starting to die. People are forgetting what it is. They're forgetting the fact that a campaign is NOT setting up a Facebook ad.” When you set up an ad Facebook calls it a campaign... If you set up a YouTube ad they call it a campaign... But you have to think back to before any social media platforms existed… How did these old-school guys create noise? How did they launch and bring a product to the marketplace? How did they do that without social media and without the Internet? A: They Created A Campaign. An ad can be part of a campaign, but it's NOT the campaign as a whole. A campaign is NOT freakin’ Facebook ads. Facebook and Google and YouTube are destroying the term campaign. Old school campaigners and direct response marketers, when social media wasn't around, those were campaigns. Ads are part of the campaign, but it's NOT the campaign itself!!! (Urrg… Another riff there.) So I want to show you how I design and structure a Launch Campaign in away that’s far more methodical than I think most people realize. There's a pattern I use whether I have a week or six months to launch… I am a pattern seeker. So I wanna teach you the pattern with an actual launch I did recently. A lot of times, I've found is when someone's product doesn't sell well it's NOT because the funnel wasn't good or the sales message wasn't good or the offer wasn't good. Sometimes they just didn't accurately create pressure ahead of the launch. So I want to show YOU how to create that pressure. It's pretty valuable stuff! THE PROBLEM I've coached a lot of people and helped them design their: Messaging Positioning Offer Funnel … and here's what happens. They build the funnel, and then they push the launch button, (even though there's no launch button in ClickFunnels), they press launch... and literally, nothing happens… NOBODY sees it because there’s NO PRESSURE created. So I wanna teach you how to create pressure ahead of time... A LOT of pressure. You have to understand that a marketer is an event thrower. We build pressure to events whether they’re virtual or not. There are multiple campaign styles: Launch campaigns Evergreen campaigns. Sadly, most people sidestep Launch campaigns and go straight to evergreen. What they'll do is: Turn on the funnel Start driving ads I'm not saying it's wrong, but… There's a lot of cash that you're leaving on table when you go straight to ads. If that's the first time someone's heard about your product, that's a problem. That should NOT be the case, EVER! It's just like Hollywood… COMING SOON If the first time you heard about a movie was on the day that Hollywood released it, they wouldn't make much money... Literally, the entire business model of Hollywood is to build insane pressure... lots and lots and lots of pressure for a specific time and date so that people talk about it and mark that date on their calendar. … and it's because of this whole thing about anticipation. Russell (and a lot of other people) have always said that Scarcity and urgency are some of your biggest tools as a marketer, but there's another one… Scarcity and urgency are your biggest tools of a marketer post-launch, but pre-launch, (or before receiving whatever you purchased), your biggest tool as a marketer is anticipation. So how can you structure and build anticipation to create emotion so that people start telling their friends, and it's so talkable that they literally put the date on their calendar??? I swear if you do this, the chances are that you’d make MORE money. You ready for this, my friend? HERE’S THE SECRET What I do, (and my strategy behind it), is this: I build a launch campaign for whatever I'm putting out there. I launch the campaign The day of the launch, all this cash comes in. I take all that cash and I dump it into my evergreen campaigns. In my brain they're separate; they're very different roles, but they're both equally important. Evergreen campaigns are gonna include things like: Facebook ads Doing podcast interviews Getting on influencer's shows Those are things that are evergreen and that will stay there forever. They just continually drip traffic to whatever I launch. The actual launch campaign though, that's a VERY different beast. A launch campaign is about making people feel like an event is coming up. It's about building that anticipation. The scarcity and urgency of the event is the fact that it comes only once... and then, it's gone. The launch that I’m gonna share with you know, (no one freak out), is for a product that you probably aren't even interested in... and I understood that when I decided to share it. I wanna teach you how to structure a launch campaign... and that doesn’t change depending on the product. True marketing comes down to beliefs changing. So check this out… CHANGING BELIEFS I’ve been working with the CEO of Pruvit, (as well as some of their top people), to create something for their specific MLM. I want you to see how I've been creating the launch campaign for the product. All marketing, whether I'm creating a message or a launch campaign, I start the exact same way. I write down the WHAT and the WHO: I'm selling Wealth I'm selling to the MLM space It’s specifically for Pruvit … so I'm thinking through who the dream customer is? If you've watched OfferMind at all, (OfferMind's coming up, September 2nd-3rd)... OfferMind is the funnel we're building right now, so that'll be COMING SOON! Q: What did I just do there? A: I just built a little anticipation for our future launch campaign that you don't know about yet… ;-) BOOM! AN EASY SELL? In OfferMind, I talk about how: It's easiest to sell people who are already consuming a similar thing to what you're selling. If you're like, “That doesn't make sense Stephen because I'm trying to make a blue ocean…?” My answer is, “Yeah, but NOT always a ‘blue product’, right? That's very different.” So here’s how I do it… I walk through and write down some of the characteristics of that red ocean consumer. ...so who'd be the easiest person to sell to? If I'm selling to somebody in the MLM space, I'm going to sell somebody who's already: In MLM - (#Pruvit) Using funnels. (I don't want somebody who's brand freaking new. Are you kidding? I’d have to sell them on the concept of funnels too. That's a harder customer) Knows how to drive traffic Publishing So you go through and you figure out how to talk to people who are buying things that are already similar to what you're selling. Your offer is different, but your products people are buying similar. That’s a MASSIVE hack to the game. SLOW DOWN I start by writing down the offer, (it’s basically done) and we could just launch and start telling people about it, but… That would be a mistake. I can NOT turn around and just start dropping this thing out to people. People are like, “What? Why not? Start telling people, man! Get traffic.” NO, NO, NO! I need to keep the waiting list page up I need to build pressure I need to create an event … and I'm going to share with you, how... and why I do that... And the easiest way to make this happen. WHAT’S THE HOOK? Now that I understand more of who I'm going to be speaking to and the offer I'm leading to… I start thinking through hooks. I’ve got the major marketing piece down; I’m very clear on the who at this point... and what needs to have happened already for someone to be considered a prospective customer. At this point, the next thing is to start writing down all the audience lists that I have that might be interested in what I'm launching. We have people who are: On the MLM side Listening to my MLM podcast Specifically asking for the offer I've created Sales Funnel Radio and who wanna know how to do an onboarding case study or a launch campaign. The Science of Selling Online group So zooming back here, I think through all the audiences that I have that I could go and talk to about this and I give everyone a number to identify them. So if I have 7 audiences I’ll give them a no. from 1 - 7, (I’ll show you why in a minute). Then… My message changes for each group of people. The major mistake people make with launch campaigns is that they create ONE message and they send it to everybody. ...but this is specifically for Pruvit, and you may not be interested in that? So the question is: How can I repurpose what I’m doing and add value to *THIS* audience, aka Sales Funnel Radio? Well… I could teach you about launch campaigns. ...which is exactly what I'm doing ;-) Check this out: Sales Funnel Radio = there'll be an episode called Launch Campaigns... (you guys are reading it right now.) WHAT? Oh my Lanta! #repurposing ;-) So I think through ALL the different hooks that each of these has. Secret MLM Hacks podcast = “Hey, you guys want to be a fly on the wall? There's no pressure.” Sales Funnel Radio = I'm going to tell you guys about my onboarding case study and launch. The squares are for the podcast episodes that I'll drop. For example: This one’s for Sales Funnel Radio so you can learn how I structure a launch campaign. … so think through: Who you're talking to... (you should already have that figured out) What’s the offer you're building All the audiences that you have reach with Next, you need to identify the: The Hook The Intro The beginning message ... that would be interesting to each audience. One audience might just want to be a fly on the wall, but it still lets me put the offer in front of them. What do you think happens when that happens? I sell more. Some audiences are specifically asking for this offer, so I'm just going to tell them about it... (and I'll tell you how I'm doing that). The Science of Selling Online might be interested in hearing about this with the hook: “Hey, check out this onboarding case study!”? The Affiliate Outrage Group are very similar to the MLM group, so I'm going to tell them: “This is how you make your own training program. I'm gonna teach what I did and how it's structured the whole course.” The One Funnel Away people might be interested in this because a lot of them are in the MLM space and they always just go nuts on my door asking me: “Does this work for MLM?” People who are on who are already on the waiting list. Does that make sense? (I’m trial closing you? ;-) ) I'm thinking through: Who it was made for All the audiences I have reach with The hook that would be interesting to them HOW I GET CR*P DONE Now there are two other things I want to share with you real quick about how I actually structured the launch itself. Okay, so now I know who I'm talking to. I know about the hooks and the themes I'm going to talk about… A campaign is just a vehicle to deliver a message So… What's the actual campaign? What's the Vehicle? What's the Message? So check this out: *THIS* is how I launched my first product when I left ClickFunnels… I wrote the days of the week on my whiteboard, and then drew out weeks horizontally... I think through the ways I could reach out to all of these people? For example: Facebook live into groups Facebook messenger Slybroadcast texts Email Next, I identify what group I’ll talk to on which day? Monday = Facebook live to the Science of Selling group. To find out what I'm gonna do on each day, I just look at my chart… That way takes all the thinking out of it and I can just focus on the message. I know what I'm supposed to be doing every single day for the launch. A lot of reasons why people don't make a lot of money with their funnels is because they don't actually structure a campaign. They just finish the funnel and then they just start kind of telling people about it... but there's NO PRESSURE behind it, so it dies. They got nothing! So look at this… I'm gonna drop out an email for number one, two and six. Q: What am I doing? A: Building pressure and anticipation. I know that I'm launching on Friday; so what I'm going to do on the first four days is pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure. MESSAGE TO MARKET Q: What are all of the messages going to be inside of this? Vehicle Internal External Launch ... that's it! I can check to see what's going out each today. You have to understand that there's a vehicle, internal and external false belief related individually to each one of those groups. Now, while some people are in multiple groups, collectively the belief of each group is different. So I need to understand the vehicle, internal, external false belief as fast as possible. So when I write an email, I'm NOT talking to each audience in the same way… You see what I'm saying? For Example: I know you're probably not in an MLM, so I'm NOT here to pitch you. I'm here telling you what I'm doing so you can structure the exact same campaign. But when I talk to some other groups, I will be pitching. I want them to go to my offer. However, I can still repurpose my content and talk to a whole bunch of other people to make noise. I'm in the business of making noise. So a campaign is the vehicle that delivers the message. Most people don't do this... and their campaigns SUCK. They’ve got: Good products Good funnels Good offers … they're just terrible at launching them, and they get no money. So they go straight to: Evergreen campaigns Facebook ads ... stuff like that. There's no feeling of: “I can't wait for it to come out. Take my credit card!” ...and that's what I wanna create. MY CAMPAIGNS Here's the campaign structure itself for the Science of Selling Online Group: Monday = Facebook live Wednesday = an email with a lot of internal hangups stuff Friday = an email so you can watch and follow what I'm doing. The number twos are the people this product was specifically built for, so I'm gonna drop an email to them just announcing the fact that we've got it ready for them. Then we have more emails covering: Vehicle Internal External Launch Another 2x email But then, we're going to drop out a text message because I have phone numbers for almost all of them; so I'm gonna drop out a broadcast text message. The text will be something like, “Hey, on a Friday I emailed and sent you a voicemail as well. I just want you to know that it's available. The thing that you've been wanting all along is here.” So the modalities interact with each other. Does that make sense? I own real estate salesfunnels.com and for a while (like two, two and a half years ago), I thought I was going to go and do more stuff on the real estate space… The way I did it was like, “Hey, put your home address in here and I will send you a quote for how much you could probably sell your house for.” ...so they put in their: Name Email Phone number … they opted in. 15 minutes later I automated a text message to them which said: “Hey, let me look this up real quick and I can give you a call.” Then about 30 minutes later, I automated a Slybroadcast that said: “Hey, I texted you saying I’d call. This is me calling. I just want you to know we got some cool information for you, just make sure you call us. Go check your email because I'm gonna email you something.” An hour after that, I automated a pdf that was kind of applicable to anybody. Every single message was, “Call me, call me, call me, call me, call me, call me…” 'Cause I know if they called me it's worth waaay more than me calling them. I'm parsing out all the easy people to grab. Each one of these things in the campaign interacts with each other! If you’re thinking, “Steven, and this is deep!” Yeah, no Duh! I love what I do, okay? MIXING IT UP Maybe people don't like checking email. I hate checking email. People are like, “I emailed you months ago.” I'm like, “Sweet, I definitely didn't see it.” “Steve, I Facebook messaged you months ago.” “Sweet, I KNOW I didn't see that!” Not everyone wants to consume their communication in the same way... but I'm definitely going to: Point them to it Make it interact Connect with story The launch campaign is as important as the evergreen campaign It's one of the major reasons (besides affiliate marketing) why I've NEVER had to spend a dollar of my own on my own business. Instead… I structure a launch campaign Put all this pressure on Release it to the people I was building pressure for I take that cash and go dump it back into evergreen style campaigns #ads ...and so it builds off itself like crazy! In my high-ticket group called OfferLab, this is the kind of stuff we do. We structure the: Sales message Offer Funnel .... but then, the next piece is the launch campaign. How do you get a butt ton of money so you can go dump it straight back into ads, and now everything is pure profit? You put a dollar in... but it wasn't even your dollar anyways! It came from the launch campaign… Do you see what I'm saying? Here’s *A SHAMELESS PLUG*, go to myofferlab.com if you want to see more. Hopefully, you can see that this is ONE of the reasons why my stuff has done so well. I feel like people just don't understand the launch campaign. BUILDING PRESSURE When Russell puts things out, he builds pressure and soft drops. That's why he creates so many open loops when he's speaking: Just wait… It's coming… Oh, my gosh… here it comes... He’s creating anticipation and pressure and that really annoys some people, but whatever... Each day, I go in look at my checklist to see what part of the campaign I’m focusing on next: I've done that, so I'll go do a Facebook live in the next group. I'm gonna drop out an email to that audience, that audience, and that audience. Where am I in the campaign for that audience? Where am I in the campaign on Thursday for that specific audience? Here’s the theme I’m using. I know the specific day it's launching so I say: “Make sure you're on the waiting list!” ….I'm building pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure. Call to action, call to action... Waiting list waiting list, waiting list, waiting list. ...and then all of a sudden, BOOM! The product is launched like crazy. BONUS INFO One of the BIGGEST mistakes people make when they create a launch campaign is they don’t have a way to create A LOT of momentum and pressure. So how else can I leverage the fact that noise is naturally going to expand further than my own reach? Check this out: One of the things that we're doing, (and I've done this on Affiliate Outrage). After people opt into the member's area, you’ll see a message: “Hey, if you want this other cool thing for FREE, this is how you get it…” It's part of the members' area, and they can click enter and unlock it after they've shared on social media. That's me hyper-leveraging what's going on. I'm taking something that I know is highly attractive to them; very, very sexy, and entering it inside of a sharing contest. If they share with two or three people, this extremely, extremely attractive, sexy thing unlocks. The list I’m using will hit probably almost 30,000 people this launch, but then I can probably expect a 25 to 40 percent referral traffic share rate... which means I should get like another 5,000 - 6,000 people that are NOT on my list. I'm going to ask everyone to share on social media and reward them for it. It's NOT just what am I selling, it's NOT just how am I selling (sales scripts, sales message, funnel wise), it’s what’s the campaign that launches my funnel? A funnel is NOT a launch. What are the mechanisms you’re using to create noise? What are you doing to create pressure and momentum? I actually bought offersummit.com and I'm going to do an offer summit… Why? ...’cause it's going to create tons of noise explicitly around the back of the OfferMind event. It will ride on the back of OfferMind. So many people are like, “It's hard to fill events.” It is hard, but if I structure all the campaigns ahead of time, it's actually NOT that crazy! Until Next Time: Get Rich, Do Good, Give Back Hey, I know this game can take a few tries to get the money flowing, especially the first time, right? And that can suck. I also know from experience how frustrating it can be to know your business is just a few tweaks away from your next big payday, but you don't know what tweaks to make. I've felt completely paralyzed by that in the past, and it sucks. I've been blessed to work with thousands of new and successful businesses over the last three years, and two things have really shocked me. #1: I began noticing the pattern to success is vastly the same, but everyone's spot on the path is obviously different. #2: I've been shocked and overwhelmed by the number of people asking for my help, my systems, and funnels in their business. Well, until now I've never had a system or product in my own business to help you build yours. Now, I'm finally able to be public about all this. If you'd like my help to build your offer or sales message funnel and even your content machine, go to myofferlab.com. The path to online and offline success is 80 percent the same regardless of the product, price point or industry, and it works if you're new, or are already a killer in business. You can get more details on how to get my personal attention and frameworks in your own business by going to myofferlab.com In-person classes are limited to 60 people each, and frankly, I can only do about two of these a year. Get more details, and even jump on the phone with us for free at myofferlab.com
FunnelHub is kind of a new term, and it’s something that Mike and AJ Rivera are experts in. A funnel is not a website… but sometimes people still get confused... About a year ago, somebody reached out to me, and said, “Hey would you please take a look at our funnel it's not converting very well?” They hired me to come in workout what was going on. I went to look at their funnel… I opened up all their URLs, and I immediately, off the bat, I could tell: This is NOT a funnel. This is a website. When I told them they were like, “No no, no, no, no, no. This is one hundred percent a funnel.” I said: “No, one hundred percent, without a doubt, I swear on my life, this is NOT a funnel... because for starters, you’ve got exits all over the page.” A funnel is a funnel because there's only one way to progress. You either have to purchase or opt-in. If you can exit in any other way, besides the one way forward, that's NOT a funnel. That by definition is a website. They had exits in their headers all over the place. Exits the middle. You had to scroll down to the bottom to even opt into anything and move forward in the funnel they'd created. I was like, “Guys!” So we switched a few things up to make it a legitimate funnel, and just that one switch alone, BOOM! WHAT THE FUNNELHUB??? This is the 228th episode of Sales Funnel Radio, and it's funny to me that a lot of people still have no idea about EVERYTHING that I offer… And I get it… It's for a lot of reasons: I've focused on building a lot of stuff and linking it together. There have been little launch campaigns together to get noise around them. I've been working on fulfillment and systems for fulfillment. I've quietly launched some stuff to hyper-users just to see what would happen. Other stuff has made loud entrances with big old launch campaigns behind them. … there's a lot of moving pieces. However, there's gotta be a way to help everybody understand what it is you're selling at all times… And that’s what I'm excited about what I’m gonna share with you next. I have two very special guests today and they’ve created what they call a FunnelHub. It's NOT a website. It's almost like a directory. A FunneHub looks very similar to a website but it has a different intent. This is the official launch of my FunnelHub. The old Steve J Larsen site is completely gone and SteveJLarsen.com has been TOTALLY REDESIGNED. It's very exciting! So now you're going to read an interview I did with my AMAZING FUNNELHUB creators so you can learn MORE about FunnelHubs and why your business needs one. So let me introduce, Mike Schmidt and AJ Rivera... WEBSITES ARE DEAD…? Mike and AJ are members of the Inner Circle and they own an agency called they’re from AnchorWave… Mike: Awesome, thanks so much Stephen for having us. AJ: Super stoked, man. Steve: Oh it's gonna be awesome. You guys approached me... when was this? It was a while ago. Mike: It was in October, we were at the Traffic Seekers Events in Scottsdale. Steve: That's right, yeah, yeah. And basically, they came to me and said something that would be very dumb for me to say no to: “Stephen can we build you something for free?” I said, sure! … and as kind of a case study, we want to walk through what they built. because I believe that what they've got will revolutionize websites. A lot of us make fun of websites. I make fun of websites. We all know that Russell in ClickFunnels' world definitely makes fun of websites. Mike: Totally. Steve: But you haven't built a website, you’ve built what you call a FunnelHub. We're definitely gonna get into that... but beforehand, we'd like to know about you guys. What do you guys do? Mike: So we have a web design digital marketing agency based in Tucson, Arizona. We have about a team of 20 people here. We started in 2003, so celebrated 16 years in business this year. We've built A LOT of websites. More than 1300 by our closest count at this point. Steve: Oh my gosh. Mike: What's funny is we heard Russell recently renew his efforts around the death of a website. Steve: He did. Mike: And for those of you guys who were at Funnel Hacking Live, he enrolled us in the promotion of that message. I had to turn to Anthony here and say: “I don't think that we can share that video for Russell, given what our company does.” We have a lot of experience helping a lot of different types of clients build websites in order to build credibility and help them serve a local market. We joined Russell's inner circle about four and a half, five years ago, before it was cool to be in the Inner Circle. It was just a bunch of nerds in a room giving Russell a lot of money to geek out on stuff. And now, thanks to what he's done, and what you've done, it’s kind of elevated that status quite a bit… but originally, we joined in order to start our expert business. Given our experience of running a sizable team, building websites, and doing digital marketing for a local type client, we just kind of understood inherently that there was something we needed to get out there and teach to: Our marketplace WordPress developers Digital marketers So about three years ago, we started something we call Agency Mastermind - which is a group that's all about teaching the things that have helped us be successful in our world, to people out there. We've just crossed the threshold, at the end of last year, to achieve our Two Comma Club Award. Steve: Whoo! Nice! Mike: We got to officially hang that on the wall not too long ago. So it's cool. HOW TO INCREASE SALES We live in a world where we are: An agency of the traditional sort. A funnel business. An expert business. So things started to kind of collide for us, and especially with our proximity to a lot the people who are just doing some really, really amazing things with funnels, (yourself being one of them)... We started to see this picture of how we could really redefine and bring our 16 years and 1300 websites of experience to something that Russell's currently saying is totally dead. Steve: If Russell sees this, we still love ya. “Viva la funnels!” Mike: Totally, and we get where that's coming from. There's parts of our bodies that feel that websites are dead for certain things and where the funnel makes more sense... and there's a lot of places it does. It’s the most amazing tool we've ever implemented for our expert business. Steve: That's awesome, that's awesome. So, obviously, we throw so many rocks at websites from a direct response marketers viewpoint. I was looking at some stats just off Shopify; with like a single product on there, or multiple products... I mean they don't convert except for like maybe one to three percent (if you're good), you know. From that standpoint, I can certainly see why Russell throws rocks at websites. Mike: Totally. Steve: But you guys, I mean, you're like scrapping that whole thing, and while it kind of looks like a website, you're calling this thing a FunnelHub... Could you talk about that a little bit? Mike: Yeah. AJ: Yeah, so sure… VIVA LA FUNNELHUB The idea behind the FunnelHub is really that, you know... Russell's right; the funnel's where the sales are going to happen. We know that there's a lot of hot buyers that go through that process. When you're driving paid traffic, you're going to get them to a landing page, you're going to end up getting them to a webinar, or sell them something. All your hot buyers are going to raise their hand and give you money. But what happens to everybody else that isn't in that bucket? They're gonna go, typically, and research your brand. They're gonna do a search for you just to see if you're legit and they end up in the middle of nowhere. They're not sure what the message is. Once you reach a certain level of status in doing this, (like yourself), a lot of people are coming to you and searching for your name because they have heard you on a podcast… Or because someone told them, “Hey you gotta check out Stephen Larsen.” So, of course, they're gonna Google that, and now they're kind of lost. They didn't see your ad. They didn't get to your landing page. They didn’t see your videos that kind of explain everything. ...they're having to piece all this together on their own. So the FunnelHub is a spot where we can still guide them through that process. We can still let them know everything that Stephen's about... and then get them right back into the sales funnel where we know that conversions are gonna happen. That's the goal. We want to communicate the movement, communicate the message, and then get them right back to where we know they're gonna actually give you some money. Mike: Yeah, I think what's important… If you figure that we're all high-fiving and celebrating the fact that we got three or five percent of the people that made it into our funnel to hand over cash... Or three or five percent of the people who made it to a webinar to sign up for a course… We're all really excited about that three-five percent who convert... but what about that other 95 percent? What do they do? There's kind of a thought process that goes: Those 95 percent of people, they're gonna buy sometime between three months and three years of interacting with you. The question is, are they going to buy from you? Or are they going to buy from somebody else? CATCHING THE 95 PERCENT The FunnelHub is about making sure there is a safe landing for that 95 percent of people, (by the way you probably paid for or earned them through your efforts)... Giving them a place to get back into those funnels and really even cross-pollinate into things that they may not be ready for. Steve: It's almost like a way to kind of turn them from warm and cold traffic to a little more hot before they re-enter your funnel. Mike: And to think of it from a strategy that a lot of us look at in terms of our emails… We hear about soap opera and Seinfeld emails that go out. For a lot of people, these may be the only other way that they're nurturing somebody along to build that relationship. The FunnelHub is the only other platform, aside from email, that you can truly own. At the end of the day, you're renting space on Facebook, you're renting time on YouTube. Instagram is making it, (at the current moment), pretty easy for you to reach out to people... but those things change. … but what won't change is: You're going to own your customer database, and you're going to own your FunnelHub. And those are the two places that you can truly use in order to really nurture that 95 percent along. Steve: Totally, and you know what's funny, everyone watching and listening to this, the thing that has made it so starkly real for me that I need this, is I actually have a lot of products that I sell… But I know the majority of my audience has no idea what it is that I actually sell because they came in on one thing that was attractive to them…but I've been testing products and processes and things like that. So, there isn't anything that's pushing them to the next thing... or saying, “By the way, I also have *these* things.” Mike: Right. Steve: So when you guys first started talking about this, I was like: “Oh my gosh, yes, it is the death of a website... but the birth of a FunnelHub.” THE BIRTH OF A FUNNELHUB When should somebody start looking to build a FunnelHub? Mike: What we look at is if you're currently running a successful funnel that's getting you leads and sales every day, that means that you are building a mass of people who are going to be looking for you and going to be needing something like this. So it's a wide spectrum because you could have just one funnel doing that, but many of us have built several funnels that are producing leads and opportunities. Signs that I look for: Are people confused about what you offer? They might think of you as the Sales Funnel Radio guy, but do they know that you have an event? Do they know about these other things? If you get the same questions over and over again, (especially easy ones like support questions). That's a key indicator. If there are things that you're trying to communicate to people that you just can't seem to get them to understand. If you feel like you're kind of shouting at a wall as a producer of this content. How you organize that in a FunnelHub is a really, really key place for that. AJ: - Yeah, I think I'd add to that: If you're spending a lot of time getting some earned traffic, (appearing in a lot of podcasts, different publications or articles online where people are just being introduced to you)... ...those are other indicators that you probably got the shadow traffic that's looking for your brand online. Mike: And tell me if you think this sounds familiar? You get introduced to someone, maybe through a Facebook ad or some kind of social post, and maybe you follow them a bit. Maybe you opt into their funnel… And then, one day you decide to look up something you saw them advertise…. you do a search for their name and their product… And what comes up is their 25,000 dollar high ticket coaching application. You're kind of brand new into this world, yet the thing they're leading with, (or Google's helping them lead with), is the funnel that's NOT appropriate for you at that point in time. Steve: Straight to the 25 grand market. Mike: If we could get those all day long without anything else Steve: No one would build anything else! Mike: Totally, but I think we can all relate to that scenario where it's like, this person has this really deep thing, but all I'm looking for is that thing, lead magnet, this thing they promised they could help me do… ... and I can't find it anywhere! Right? I'm ready to start dipping my toe in the water with you... and work my way towards that one-on-one 25,000 dollar Hawaiian vacation that we're gonna go on. That's a scenario that I think a lot of us can relate to… Where the FunnelHub comes in play to make sure it's very clear how your world and business works. I think we see that happening more and more with a lot of people in this space. PUBLISH YOUR VALUE LADDER Russell, being a trailblazer that he is, at Funnel Hacking Live, what did he do? He did two things: #1: He published his value ladder. First time ever. Being in the inner circle, he had shared with us a number of months back… About a year ago, he's like, “Guys, I'm working on my value ladder. I've promised the team that I will never change it for the foreseeable future.” ...'Cause he's one of those guys, (just like a lot of us), that has a lot of good ideas... and he's constantly reorganizing what this means and looks like. Steve: It took him like four months to get serious on that value ladder too. He changed it a million times. Mike: Totally. AJ:- All of us do, right? Mike: It's a living breathing thing and that's a totally natural thing. So the lesson isn't that you gotta lock it in place, but you do need to publish it... and you do need to help your people understand how they can move through your world. They wanna know, they wanna buy, they want an offer, so making that clear is really key. So we saw him put it on the screens and he published it. He printed 5000 plus versions of this thing, then distributed that to all of us so we could understand: How to live in his world. How to buy from him. How to associate ourselves with what he has to offer. ...and that's really important for a lot of funnel hackers to pay attention to. If you're not clearly communicating how to buy, people are going to make up their own story about what it is you do. CLARITY EQUAL CASH So the FunnelHub steps in place to really clarify what that is for people. So that way, they know how to move through your world. Steve: Definitely! You know, there's a podcast episode I did a little while called Branding Comes Second. And I think when I said that, people heard, branding doesn't matter. I was like, no, that's not what I said. It comes second. It comes way down the road… In fact, there's a great book called Niche Down... Once you have something that sells, once you have an amazing thing, you really should start looking at branding things. I'm not throwing branding to the wind and saying it doesn't matter. I'm saying it's NOT what makes the sale… But after the sale, it starts to matter for second and third sales. One of the things that Russell taught me was that when people start saying cool things about you on Facebook or other places, start screenshotting it and keep a folder for it. Start collecting those kinds of things for in the future, so you can go back and already have assets ready for essentially a FunnelHub. What assets should somebody start collecting if they're not quite ready FunnelHub yet? What should people be collecting along the way that makes it attractive and easy to build one? Mike: Well the cool thing is that Russell's kind of outlined a lot of that in Expert Secrets. AJ: Yeah, absolutely, that plan's already out there about establishing the attractive character, about creating the future-based cause, about creating new opportunities. So what we find is a lot of people are aware of that, (and they might be communicating a lot that through their funnels), but for somebody that comes to their website... they're not seeing any of that. They don't get that full picture. So this is also helping people just do what Russell says and making sure that all of that stuff that they've worked hard on is put in a spot where people can actually see it, feel something for that movement... feel like they're part of that movement... and want to be part of it. Mike: As you're working through those things and coming up with your: Future-based cause Manifesto Value ladder False beliefs … these are ALL the pieces that need to be represented there. That's why this isn't just some fancy, “Oh, Russell killed websites, so let's call it something else,” type move. Steve: No not at all. Mike: This is very much about how do you align the important lessons from what we've learned in Expert Secrets and what we do as building an expert business and having that place where all this belongs. This isn't just for the people who might land on that page and your audience. It's for you as the expert to really have something to point at. I know that there have been times where I've written my manifesto and re-wrote it. And I’d have like four or eight versions of it in my Google Drive… Which one of them is the right one? Being able to point to my FunnelHub and say: This is the right one This is what I'm standing for This is who I'm throwing rocks at … that's what takes that nebulous thing and really solidifies it … for not just the audience, but for the expert too. Steve: Totally! So you're collecting those things along the way. Again, a value ladder is a marketing idea and there are different products that represent that idea along this FunnelHub... The FunnelHub is a representation of all the marketing idea that you have that's not just a value ladder... it's a manifesto and the title of liberty that you hold up and wave the flag around with. It's really such an awesome platform to do that on. This is the unveiling of SteveJLarsen.com! STEVE J LARSEN: THE ORIGIN STORY The guy who owned SteveLarsen.com wanted like 30 grand, or whatever... and I was like, ‘There's no way!” So Stephen Joseph Larsen was available, so I bought it and I built it … and it was terrible! It's always poorly represented of what I do, and now it’s rebuilt. So do you want to walk us through it? Mike: Yeah, we'd love to. AJ: We're super proud of this, man. Steve: It's incredible! I think I ran around the house a few times when I saw it the first time. Look at that! Mike: Here we go. First things first, is I think we're going to have to get a picture of you with a proper beard here now. AJ: Photoshop that in or something. Steve: Yeah. Mike: This FunnelHub is really designed to help guide people through the journey that they have with you. A big part of that is helping them understand the programs and offerings that you have and really providing that piece. So we've obviously got the events… These are the things that people want to know about you: They want to know who you are and what you stand for, and that's like one of the reasons we the manifesto that you've adopted here letting people know what you stand for. In programs, we've published your value ladder with this cool little graphic to help people see what steps someone can move through… being able to click on these things. Steve: I'm so excited for people to see this. I guarantee most of them don't even know half that exists. Mike: How many people listening to this knew you had, how many people knew about FunnelStache? They may have come in another funnel… Obviously, a hundred percent of the people reading this right now know about Sales Funnel Radio, but there is an opportunity to ascend those people through the other things that you offer. If you didn't know, Stephen is the offer creation king. Clarify in your mind that he's the category king of helping someone clarify and launch an offer to the world…. And that's what this FunnelHub is really driving at. As cool and as amazing as the podcast is, (and the stories that are told), at the end of the day, they're all in service to really building Stephen as the king of the offer creation. It's NOT about funnels. We use funnels, yes, but it's about, “How do we leverage the offer?” And that's really what this is doing. AJ: Yeah, one thing I'd mention on this page is that this is a living breathing thing. I feel like a lot of people feel like they can't get started with this unless they've got this all planned out and they know everything about their value ladder… But this can change… This is electronic. Unlike Russell printed 5,000 copies of his value ladder... this is just a graphic that we can update. So if you have a smaller value ladder right now, and you know it's going to get bigger, give us what you've got and we can communicate that, and as it grows we can continue to add that later as well. Steve: Yeah I'll say the thing that I was really kind of relieving to me was when you guys said that it could change. When we first started working together, I was feelin’ I can't ever change it! It's permanent. It's like a book, it will be printed... it cannot stop ever. AJ: It's NOT a tattoo. Mike: Absolutely, so one thing that we haven't touched much on is the media and speaking opportunities… DO YOU HAVE A BLOG? One thing that I keep on hearing people say as it relates to their own website is they just call it a blog. A blog is one component of a FunnelHub. It's one piece of that. And so when you just reduce your web presence to just, “Hey it's where I publish my blog,” ...there's so much more that should be there. We're not putting that there just for the just for fun, it's actually to help people understand: What you do What you stand for So our mission here with the FunnelHub is to help people understand that it's much more... A FunnelHub is much more than a blog. It's much more than a website. It's really helping to help paint that entire picture that needs to be shown. It’s even a big part of a traffic strategy and it's a big part of a Dream 100 Strategy. That it's NOT something that just kind of gets left off to the side. AJ: - Yeah, I have an example of somebody in the Inner Circle, I'm not gonna mention her name, but she had an opportunity to appear on a pretty big podcast... and they went and searched for her name online, and they didn't like what came up. So they pulled that opportunity away from her. So if she’d have had a FunnelHub that clearly outlined her movement, who she was, had all the credibility indicators that they were looking for to feel comfortable to welcome her on their show... then she would've been able to take advantage of the earned traffic there. Steve: So awesome. I love that you guys asked me, “What are all the questions that people ask you over and over and over again?” You put that in there… There's a FAQ…it's awesome. It helps support everything that I'm doing. Anyway, I'm excited. Everything is going to have Steve J Larsen in it. Mike: And kind of like to bring it full circle, what's cool about helping this audience, and coming from the point of view where we have our own expert business, is that we get that the experts are really busy and have a lot on their plate…. The fact that we got Stephen J. Larsen to dedicate some time to work on this project among all the other things you do, is amazing... But really, what we asked you to do is pretty minimal. Steve: Oh, that's what was shocking to me. There's people who have asked stuff like that, and I'm like, “Ahhhh!” I was excited to do this, but I think we had like three meetings and you just caught the vision and went and did it. It's rare. Everybody listening and watching... it's rare to have somebody who clearly understands like FunnelHub/ websites, but then, also funnels and the funnel world and the roles between the two. That’s rare. I don't see that often. So it was neat. You guys just took it and ran. It was really cool. Mike: That's something we see as a unique aspect we provide: Being in the Inner Circle Building our own funnels Having an agency that's done this for 16 years. It's kind of an “Ah-ha,” and I almost feel guilty... or dumb, for not really thinking of this sooner. They say there's a reason for everything... you know, some kids take the slow path through school, and that would be me. Being in the inner circle as long as we have, the timing was just right around this. AJ: For a long time, we never even talked about that side of the business. We just went to the inner circle asking for advice on our expert business and getting a lot of tips with that. They didn't even know we had this agency. So this is like a coming out for us, not only in the inner circle but everybody else in the Funnel Hacking community... like, “Hey, we've got an agency that can help you with all this stuff.” Steve: Totally awesome. Where can people get information? I know about half of my audience is already killin' it... and this actually would very much apply to them. The other half, they're kind of brand new, which is great and “Welcomed,” just know this is also what's in store. ...where should people reach out? Mike: Absolutely, so the best place to connect with us regarding this is FunnelHub.xyz. Yes, you can get an XYZ domain name! Steve: I didn't know that. Mike: And now we know that too… But on that page, you'll find a lot of information about what we're talking about here today, also a little bit of video preview of Stephen's website. You guys who are not watching the video, just head over to FunnelHub.xyz ...and you can kind of get the whole story there, as well. Steve: Yeah, it's cool too, because they took the reins, they went and built it all out, and then I just did a critique... like, “Hey change this vernacular or whatever.” They're always there, even on a monthly basis, for when I reach back out and say, “Hey, my product's changed... this has changed,” so nothing is cemented. That very much was like, “Ahh…” That helped me a lot. Mike: As much as I would love to credit for the design or putting this whole thing together, it was absolutely our team here that helped out with that. Jill one of our project coordinators played a major role in jockeying that. So, what's cool is, even though we're busy running our own expert business, you have access to the team that can make that happen. Steve: You have a pretty big team too. Mike: We have a team of 20 people here in Tucson, Arizona. So right outside this door right here, Jill's office is right there. We've got the team that shows up to work every day to do this kind of stuff. That's something we're really proud of that and really proud of our team. I hope that you guys can see the labor of love through the FunnelHub that was created for Stephen. Steve: Totally! You all know that we focus heavily on hiring the who that knows the how. Entrepreneurship is NOT about you learning how to play EVERY instrument in the orchestra. It's about you being the orchestrator. You're the conductor. I want you to understand clearly that the who to FunnelHubs is definitely Mike and AJ. Go to FunnelHub.xyz and check them out. They are the experts, they birthed a lot of this concept. You're getting it right from the horse's mouth. Guys, thanks so much for being on with this. This was awesome. BOOM! If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, 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 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? There are 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.com.
It wasn't on purpose, but there's a certain style of coaching that I like to live by. It’s certainly effective, but can make some people... not like me, ha! I've never seen anyone make a million dollars who wasn't trying to. After coaching thousands of people I’d be an idiot to not see patterns… When I first started coaching at ClickFunnels everyone thought that I’d be teaching strategy. However, the truth is that getting MOST people to move forward with strategy takes a MASSIVE amount of work on their mindset. PERSONAL GROWTH MAT TIME In One Funnel Away Challenge, I'm the guy who yells every day. BOOM! I yell a lot. I’m kinda NO BS. So I want to explain to you the difference between sympathy versus empathy, as it relates to my coaching. Here are a couple of observations I’ve made from all my hours of coaching: People often come with the expectation that I’ll just tell them to click a button and they’ll make millions! (Even though ClickFunnels is probably the closest to that of anything that's out there… that still NOT gonna happen.) People fight the shift they have to go through personally because it can feel like pain... pain is not the right word, but sometimes a shift can feel like pain. You have to go through a shift. You have to uninstall crap in your head and reinstall NEW beliefs. A lot of it comes down to shedding beliefs that we’ve been taught about money either from parents or other authority figures. Success has MORE to do with your beliefs around money than the patterns or strategies I'm teaching. I'm trying to prep your brain so when you hear me speak you don’t put up a wall ...or think, “Well that works for Steve ‘cause he's Steve.” Man, I was NOT Steve three years ago. Sales Funnel Radio has only been out for three years. When I started publishing my acceleration just went through the roof. It was NUTS! That's why I keep telling all of you guys to freakin’ publish. It'll change your life. If you feel yourself having a little negative knee-jerk reaction that you're not quite controlling to anything I say, then check yourself! Sit back and ask, “Why am I having this reaction?” FOR EXAMPLE: If I say, “Hey, please be a capitalist pig and get as rich as possible because it gives you more ability to help people in this world...” … I know that as I'm saying that I know people often feel this little knee-jerk reaction. ( I know just because I work with tens of thousands of people ) ...but Stephen! I was taught this way. ...but that means that I have to experience personal growth in order to consume and believe that belief. I'm NOT making fun of you. I just want you to be wary of the things that you're telling yourself. That's the stuff that's keeping you back. That’s the stuff that you have to self-identify and be prepared to question: “Oh my gosh, I have some false beliefs I didn't realize they were there.” That's NOT easy to do. I know it's NOT easy. GET OUTTA YOUR OWN WAY One of the major reasons why someone will stop their progress in a programs I'm teaching isn’t because what I'm teaching is hard… *IT’S JUST NEW* People stop because they hit a personal growth zone that their NOT expecting and it's uncomfortable. So people start looking around for excuses, “Hey Stephen, this is really good... but it's just a lot of material!” I'm like: “Oh is that the excuse you're using to slowly back away from what I told you to do?” Is that the excuse you're using to back away and logically justify removing yourself from growth? That's some fiery crap, but I say that stuff in my programs because people need to understand what's going on. TRUTH The NEW ways and methods that I teach are NOT any less true because you won’t find them in college textbooks or mainstream books and media. Truth does not require consensus. I heard Myron Golden say that recently. It's a great quote. Truth does not require consensus! … which is awesome. It's really good news! But it's also really sucky because most of us feel like we're running alone in the game for a while. It's NOT that what I'm teaching you is not true, but rather it’s a question of how well you’re adhering to it?” No! Adhering is the wrong word. I hate constriction. I don't do well with someone trying to constrict or confine me. I'm bad at that. Adhering is the wrong word, my bad… How well are you growing? If you measure you against you... NOT somebody else. Half of getting over false beliefs is just understanding WHAT false beliefs you have. As soon as *YOU* understand that you have a false belief, you can just kind of uninstall it. Like, “Oh crap that's NOT true! Where did I learn that? Parents? A Teacher? Some Authority Figure? Maybe you’ve always believed that, but is it true? For that person, in that time, in that scenario, it may have been true... But that blueprint doesn’t have to be YOUR blueprint. INSTALLING PERSONAL GROWTH I know what I'm talking about because I've gone through the same process to uninstall my own false beliefs ... AND it’s still going on. I know which false beliefs I'm hitting now and I'm trying to overcome them. It’s Me Against Me. Most people are looking to have some kind of logical release from the pressure of moving forward. The positive pressure, growth pressure... the type of pressure you get in the gym. People make an excuse and they pick it up like a flag. They use it as a banner. That's the theme they use to run out of my world. I see it all the time: I don't really have time. I don’t have the money to do this. I haven't quite found my voice yet. We are all individuals, but our brains still tend to work logically and emotionally in the same kind of way. So when I say it’s time is build a funnel… all the excuses appear: Q: But how do I build a funnel? A: Click Add Funnel! Q: Where’s the button? A: It's the BIG orange button in the center at the top of the screen. Q: But how do I do it? A: Are you freaking kidding me? You just want me to tell you that you're NOT a good fit. So you can release yourself from taking action. I will NEVER do that! In fact, I was telling a good friend last night, I have empathy because I've been through that personal growth. That doesn't stop. Your personal growth just increases and the problems you're trying to solve change. EMPATHY VERSUS SYMPATHY I have empathy for the person who is poor right now and who’s trying to make it work… Because I've been there. That was three or four years of my life. It was so hard. It was hard emotionally and hard on my self-esteem. However, I don't have sympathy for the scenario or that person who is trying to get me to say, “You're probably not a good fit.” So that they can go back to their friends and family and save face by saying: “Steve said I wasn’t a good fit because of x, y, and z.” Without the courage to change belief and take action the model work for them … so they're trying to save face. They're trying to save status… I'm NOT gonna give you that card EVER because I believe you are better than you think you are. We're all trying to progress and trying to grow, but you’ll only do that if you recognize your false beliefs. EXCUSES There are over 500 Two Comma Club Award winners. 500! How much more social proof does someone need to start taking some freaking action in their life? BUT that's not the problem… The problem is when someone says: I'm gonna go make my first funnel. I'm gonna go make my first sales message. I'm gonna do a webinar for the first time. I'm gonna do a podcast AThey get into one my programs and pay me for it... I tell them exactly what to do... Because it's just a freaking pattern. It's all a framework. It's all a model. It's all a pattern. Then I say, “Did you do what I assigned you last week?” They say, “Well, no, I haven't quite done it yet, but I went through the videos.” So, you're telling me that you: Went through the videos. Learned the patterns, the models and the frameworks ...but you didn't take action on it? That screams internal hangup. That screams massive, massive voice going on inside the head. I'm NOT throwing rocks at the fact that you're having those challenges. EVERYONE experiences these challenges with every new opportunity that we take. It's part of the demons-in-the-head game that we all get. Not just in entrepreneurship, but in every single thing we do in our lives. I'm NOT throwing rocks at the fact that it happens. I'm throwing rocks at the fact that people use it as a banner to give up. Rather than take the opportunity to grow, people step back and say, “Well, Stephen, I really want to be able to do this, but it's not a good time for me.” *BULLCRAP* No time is a good time. That's freaking garbage. I'm gonna call BS on that. I have empathy. No sympathy though. I have NO sympathy. I'm not gonna sit back and say, “Oh, you're probably right.” That's NOT a good coach. I'm not here to make you feel good. I'm not here to make you feel better. I'm here to make YOU better. That's the role that I serve. It's not for me to be like this, “Oh, it's okay. Let me care about your emotions more than your output.” I don't care about effort. I care about outcomes. OUTCOME MODE My Content Team is so freaking awesome. Not one of them will step back and say, “Well, Stephen, I tried to get the episode out on time, but I tried but just didn't cause Glee was on.” You gotta treat this as a business. I don't pay for effort. No one does. That's just freaking capitalism, baby. My content team is so freaking awesome because they all know that. The funnel building team that I've built all know that I'm paying for outcomes, NOT effort. The same is true for you and your growth, but most people don't go there. I'm trying to help people self-identify when they are in effort mode, which is like pansy-zone... and when they are in outcome mode, which is like: “I know it might hurt because I need to grow, but I'm willing to feel a little pain in order to get the outcome in myself, and the change that myself requires to have a successful business.” Sometimes people get on my coaching calls because they want to feel the semblance of growth and progression. They keep getting on the calls and they say, “I got on the call today. I feel momentum. I'm doing it.” *Even though they haven't done ANYTHING* You getting this? … just trial closing ya ;-) GETTING HONESTPeople have a hard time until they get a little tough with themselves. Not that you have to be tough... just HONEST. When people get honest with themselves about: Where they are? Where they're not? Where they're efforts are providing real fruits... and where they're not? Where they are trying to get released from growth? Where they're actually growing? Until someone actually sees and identifies their own false beliefs and BS, it’s tough. “Stephen, I don't have my first follow-up yet. I just don't have any time.” I ask them to do a time study and it turns out they’re watching freakin’ four hours of Netflix a day! Are you kidding me? I’ve got no sympathy. I won't grant you any. I got empathy because I've been there. No sympathy though, I'm never going to give someone that privilege. I'm never going to give someone the release or the license of this is what you need to be doing. EXCUSES If you’re feeling kinda twingy in the brain or the heart... and you're like,“GAH!” I'm NOT trying to make anyone mad. I'm trying to help you self-identify where your false beliefs about this game are? “Stephen, I would totally move forward on this, but for me right now…” Don't you dare throw the ‘right now’ and ‘time thing’ at me! I hate that one. It drives me up the freaking wall. “I just don't have time to pull this off.” Are you serious? Are you kidding me? I was full-time in the army. Full-time college. Married. Kids... I had to learn how to learn faster in college so I could squeeze out two-three hours of funnel building time a day. I hardly slept for a little while. Was it worth it? You better freakin’ believe it. Yes! I don't do that now. I believe in hustle but not like 24/7 hustle. Sorry, Gary V. HUSTLE AND HARVEST There's a time and season for everything. I call it the hustle and harvest phase I'm gonna hustle and build the thing… because time is valuable. I'm gonna build my thing quickly, and I'm gonna hustle. I'm going to be willing and open to experience pain in order to get it done, personally, on an internal believe level… I’m just NOT gonna wear not sleeping for three days as a badge of honor, #funnelhacker. I think that's crap. There are times and seasons for funnel hacking at massive hustle speed where you don't sleep. I get that, but… That's NOT the point. That's NOT sustainable. That's NOT why I do what I do. I Hustle and then I Harvest. In the harvest phase, I'm building a lot of systems. I used to call it Build and Harvest, but there’s nice alliteration to Hustle and Harvest... So now it's Hustle and Harvest. Hustle, Harvest, Hustle, Harvest. I don't always run hard. Man, sometimes I'll sit back and watch The Office for the fourth time... and that’s ok. I'm NOT trying to ALWAYS be on 100% output. EFFORT & RELAXATION I've had multiple people ask me, “Stephen, do you ever take a break?” I'm like, “Yeah.” I took a huge break last night. It was awesome. It was so nice. It was so cool. I didn't do anything. I was so lazy. When I prepared my speech and slides for Funnel Hacking Live I did a combination of massive concentrated effort mixed with massive, aggressive relaxation. BUT it's the hustle phase that I'm trying to get people into with the One Funnel Away , the Two Comma Club X, and all of my programs. I'm trying to get people to identify in themselves what they are deciding to hold themselves back with because they don't want to experience growth. Empathy. Not Sympathy. I CHALLENGE YOU Know before you go I want to challenge you, (don’t just read this and take no action)... I challenge you to write just the one false belief you know you've been using a banner to not move forward in your life. I challenge you to do that. You get bonus points for this one if you decide to post about it. Do some kind of publishing about it. Like, “Hey, look, I realized I've identified I want this but….” It's not vulnerability. It's not weakness. It's Truth. Tell the truth... and tell everybody: “I've been wanting to go do this, but I haven’t done it in my life because I've had a hard time with these beliefs and overcoming them... but I know they're false.” Let everyone know that's what you’re working on and your plan to get over it. I promise you're gonna have an army of people who are excited for you and want to help you overcome. I challenge you to identify what's been holding you back. BOOM! Until Next Time - KEEP CRUSHING IT! Hey, just real quick: A few months ago Russell asked me to write a chapter for a secret project he was doing. I had to write a chapter for a book, this was the letter I got from him. He said: "Hey Stephen, let me ask you a quick question... You suddenly lose all your money, along with your name and your reputation, and only have your marketing know-how left. You have bills piled high and people harassing you for money over the phone. You have a guaranteed roof over your head, a phone line, an internet connection, and a ClickFunnels account for only one month. You no longer have your big guru name, your following, your JV partners. Other than your vast marketing experience, you're an unknown newbie... What would you do from Day1 - 30 to save yourself? Russell Brunson Hey, if you want to see my answer and a bunch of other marketers who also answered that in this amazing book and summit, just go to 30days.com/stephen. You can see the entire summit, you can see the book, you can see what we wrote in there and each of our detailed plans. Just go to 30days.com/stephen.
If you're like me you know MLM is an amazing opportunity to grow a REAL asset for yourself. But you also see that there is HUGE issues starting to emerge. WHY haven't big MLMs let tactics change in over 30 years? Or why have they been cutting commissions smaller and smaller? How DUMB is it that old MLM rules say you'll get in trouble when you use the internet to grow your team? These are some of the blaring questions we ALL face today. I want to show you how REAL MLMers like us are waging war on the old dying methods. And we aren't cheating by only bugging uninterested family and friends. Follow me while I expose the shocking methods I'm using to build my 10,000 person downline, and get people begging to join my team daily. HOW I LAUNCHED SALES FUNNEL RADIO I wish I hadn’t launched Sales Funnel Radio the way I did. When I launched Sales Funnel Radio, I didn't want to talk. So I did a lot of interviews instead. I'd do two of my own episodes, then I'd do an interview because I wanted them to do the talking. Then I'd do two more episodes then another interview. Interview Me Me Interview Me Me I did that for the first 20 episodes almost. The way I launched Secret MLM Hacks Radio was... I thought people are gonna want to know why the heck I got into MLM in the first place. Regardless of what I sell, that's a big question. How did you justify getting into MLM? Regardless of whatever you do in life, people want to know that. MY ORIGIN STORY The first episode I did was what I called The Origin Story. I've told them this origin story, and at the end of the episode I tell them, “I'm here because I want to help people know there's a better way to recruit.” When I say, “There's a better way to sell product on the internet. There's a better way to recruit” there's gonna be some objections. “WHOA, I don't know about that!” That’s a vehicle-based objection. So what I do is, I tell a story. The next three episodes of Secret MLM Hacks Radio were lots of stories. It ’s literally a sideways webinar script. If you go and listen to the first five episodes of Secret MLM Hacks Radio again, you'll hear what I'm doing. I'm telling the stories of each one of the secrets that's meant to break and rebuild their beliefs. It will help people listen to me and it also future paced them for buying Secret MLM Hacks later on down the road. I knew it was gonna launch but I didn't know what it was gonna be. I just wanted to start building the buzz and the audience. Then I told the story related to secret number two and three and four... An origin story A story that breaks their beliefs about the way MLM works. That’s a vehicle-related belief Then it's a story that breaks their internal insecurities. Usually, there is an identity shift that is required OBJECTIONS TO MLM Think about vehicle, internal and external. It's in that order because typically that's the way the brain handles it. It's also in the order because: Vehicle - they're in MLM. I gotta break the way they see MLM. Then I need to help them realize that the way you're doing MLM is not real... Not true, IT’S OLD. BROKEN! Cast it to the side. Those strategies, those methods for the old way, that's not good. So I told a story that has to do with that. Internally - There's a story that I tell that helps them address the fears and insecurities they have individually. If I do this correctly they actually go through an identity shift. They start to think, “You know what, I don't actually want to be doing that old way. You're right. Let me come over here,” and they take a step off to the side and they start to feel a new identity come across them. Psychologically that's what happened, that's what's going on inside their head. The external related belief that I need to try and break is the belief that they needed to begin with a huge downline. OR Success is all about the MLM you join and making sure you join at the top and early on. That's garbage. It's not true. It's a facade and it is a belief that is passed around in the industry. I wanted to break and destroy that. SECRET MLM HACKS RADIO SCRIPT In the script for the Secret MLM Hacks, the actual webinar, all I did is tell stories and then drop some kind of offer/call to action. The call to action here was go to secretmlmhacksradio.com and download your FREE Master Pack. Now that I've broken and rebuilt the way they see the: MLM industry Way they see themselves Relationship with that industry Possibilities to do different things … Then it opens up a gap and I can step in with some kind of call to action. Even though it is free, I still have to sell it. People always ask me, “How come nobody's downloading my free thing?” I’m like, “Well, are you selling it?” They're like, “I don't need to, it's free.” No, no, no, no, no! t The price they pay has nothing to do with selling! That’s the reason why people still don't take your samples when you're walking around with your MLMs product. You still gotta sell it. MLM don't teach that. They'll teach a few closing tactics but they don't teach selling and they definitely don't teach marketing. That's what I'm trying to help you understand. What's going on inside their head is very psychological. I don't know how you can get great at this without learning a little bit about how the noggin works and the way human psyche goes now. You're gonna have to break and rebuild people's beliefs with what you're gonna be putting out there. WANNA JOIN MY MLM DOWNLINE? I am over 80 episodes into the Secret MLM Hacks Radio show, and I've done my best to keep this strictly educational and I don't pitch anybody or even tell you what MLM I'm in. However, the number of emails, Facebook messages, text messages, people hunt my phone number down, or even find my address, it's kind of insane, and it's kinda become unmanageable. If I'm gonna take this show where I want to, that noise is only gonna grow. So, here it is, here's my extremely soft pitch right here. Okay, I'm not gonna even tell you what MLM I'm in here either, but if you wanna join my downline, or simply find out more, literally go to joinmydownline.com. Simply for transparency, when someone joins my downline, this is what they get: Auto lead and recruiting funnels Proven product sales funnels A 30 day step-by-step set up system Easy traffic methods Unique upline support that's been assigned to us from our MLM headquarters That’s pretty awesome. All of what I do is not only proved by my MLM, but they consistently ask me to build funnels for the MLM itself. So again, if you wanna jump on the phone, and see if this is a good fit, literally go to joinmydownline.com. This is just to direct some of the noise I personally experience as I talk about and reveal a lot of these tools that my team has access to, which I know is unconventional, and it's kind of shaking the industry, which is really fun. If you're interested in actually making MLM an asset, joinmydownline.com is where you need to go now.
HOW NOT TO DIE BEHIND A DESK Being an entrepreneur is amazing. It's very sexy and really cool... but it's also the place where you're gonna feel MOST exhausted! I have been hustling my face off for years, and I don't want to die behind a desk. So, I want to show you how being able to do a dance between the entrepreneurial mindset and that of a CEO, is the ONLY way I've seen to enable you to create the freedom that most of us crave when we start the entrepreneur’s journey. The CEO and entrepreneur are NOT the same thing. Just like a business owner is NOT the same thing as the CEO. There's a time and a place for both roles, but they're very different. And I wanna talk to you a little bit more about what I mean by that… LOOKING FOR PATTERNS I was on a yacht heading towards the Bahamas with some of the ClickFunnels crew (two weeks before Funnel Hacking Live) when I decided to share this concept with you… I'd NEVER been on a yacht in my entire life. In fact, in the last six months, I've done more things than my previous thirty years combined... And I was able to sit back and think about what’s made all the difference in the last little bit of my journey... I used to squeeze every second out of every day to build my product. I woke up super freaking early for years. I'm the eight-year overnight success story. I've pushed hard. I've been hustling my face off for years. I'm the capitalist pig, baby, but I didn't start that way. I had my own money barriers to overcome. I had a lot of ideas that were just not correct. I'm very introspective. I love watching patterns and I wanted to see what patterns made all the difference… and one thing that I realized was… A lot of what causes wealth is NOT taught. To become successful, I had to uninstall crap in my head and reinstall different software than what I was raised with. That's no knock against my parents, my heritage, or the way I was raised. HOWEVER… If you wanna learn how to make money make sure the person you're taking advice from is rich. You know what I'm saying? If someone tells you, "You'll make more money doing this..." If they're poor... DON’T LISTEN! STOP listening to advice from other people who aren't rich or, who haven’t already attained what you're going for. I'm not gonna let someone who's overweight tell me how to lose weight. I've been very careful on who to listen to and who to purposefully block out of my mind. I attribute more of my success to this one act than a lot of the other strategies I teach you guys on Sales Funnel Radio. Which is weird, man. But I gotta be honest with you, I would NOT have believed that myself if someone else said that to me even three or four years ago. I'd have thought, “Oh, it's because he's had exposure with Russell...” Looking back, I realize, crap! I'm very careful about who I listen to. I understand clearly that products don't sell themselves. I'm very good at sales message writing now. I'm good at one to many styled sales pitches. (That’s helped tremendously). I'm very, very good at listening to advice that is from people who are further on the SAME path I'm trying to follow. If someone's a really good cook, but I'm not trying to be, I'm not gonna listen when they tell me how to make money... MAKING A MILLION I’ve recently hit a million dollars. Not in a single funnel so it's NOT officially the Two Comma Club. But my business has only been around officially for 14 months. So to make a million bucks out the gate. That's NOT normal. In my mind, a million dollars is NOT wealthy. 10 million dollars, (in my opinion), is NOT wealthy... But it's not a bad shot coming out of the gate. One of the things that’s helped me like crazy is that once I have a product that sells, I STOP trying to be an entrepreneur, and I start, as fast as possible, to become a CEO. Understanding the massive difference between a business owner, a CEO, and an entrepreneur has helped. I didn't that would be a defining concept for me... (and it doesn't mean it will be for you), but for me, it’s been MASSIVE. WHAT’S AN ENTREPRENEUR? Q: Would you consider a McDonald's franchise owner an entrepreneur? A: I don't. Q: What are they entrepreneuring? #madeupword A: They're NOT entrepreneuring ANYTHING! They're a business owner. Q: So what is a business? A: A business is a series of systems that: Bring leads in Closes on them Fulfills Brings new leads Closes on them Fulfills... A business is just a set of systems, that's all it is. And if you don't have any systems, YOU ’RE the business. SPINNING YOUR WHEELS When you're an entrepreneur, typically you DON’T have a lot of systems in place... and it's one of the reasons why you might sometimes feel like you’re spinning your wheels. I'm very good at being an entrepreneur... BUT what I'm being tested on right now, is my ability to be a CEO. A CEO is a business owner who's got a little bit of flexibility in how he moves. I'm on my second product in the last 13 months and it’s working very well... So I want to see how fast I can: Build systems so that I'm no longer the business? Own systems rather than just a product? I want to go from entrepreneur to CEO as fast as possible. ....And it's going really, really well, but it's A LOT of work. AVOID THIS PITFALL!One of the major things that I've noticed that’ll screw people up is making new products one after the other. This works really well if you already have a business... If you already have the systems in place. If you DON’T, my friends, that is very challenging because YOU are the business. If you're treating fulfillment, each customer inquiry, each support ticket, if each sale, each lead, differently… YOU DON’T HAVE A BUSINESS (but you do have a bucket load of stress)! So here’s what I do to avoid this problem: I start selling the idea before I create the product. When the idea is enough to bring in cash, then I finish making the product. After I finish making the product, I'm selling, I'm selling, I'm selling, I'm selling. Next, I start to build systems that bring in leads, close them, qualify them, all automatedly - it's called a sales funnel! Then, I build up systems to fulfill - Support ticketing systems, maybe there are packages that we need to create and send on out. It's all the things that the business needs to make sure I'm NOT the one fulfilling on it. For Example: My first product that I left my job to create, I honestly haven't touched that side of the business for, like, seven months. It's been a long time… But it's still making a lot of money! Check this out… We put two thousand dollars in ads just on a test a little bit ago. We brought in 18 grand from it. We're putting a dollar in and getting nine dollars out. So crazy! Absolutely nuts. I'm excited just to scale, scale, scale, scale, scale as that adds up. But the point is… If you don't have systems, you don't have a business. If you’re making new products consistently, it's gonna be very challenging for you to stop for a moment and build systems… and things will probably break! It's a dance between marketing and systems. That's all it is... Marketing Systems Marketing Systems Marketing Systems I do a whole bunch of marketing and break a lot of beliefs, get a lot of people to me, and start selling like crazy… But then, when I notice that my revenue starts to outdo my systems (this kinda sucks, but I haven't found another way around it yet)... I voluntarily pull back my revenue just a little bit so that I can go turn up my systems to allow my marketing to go further the next time. It's like this teeter-totter back and forth going higher and higher and higher. I haven't found another way besides that. DROPPING GOLDEN NUGGETS The things that have made all the difference for me are: Making sure I know what advice I'm following and what advice I'm NOT following. Understanding that as soon as I have a product that’s selling well, an offer that actually works, then it's all about transitioning to a CEO and building systems and then leveraging existing followings. My gosh, it takes so much time, so much effort to create a following. It takes a lot of time to create a following. Leveraging existing followings is the easiest. Every time I see Russell Brunson, myself or Dana Derricks talk about the Dream 100, sometimes I will see people’s eyes roll. You are missing the greatest hack of the game ever. You could spend years, tons of money, lots of time, lots of effort, energy, mental cognitive shelf space, to build your own following (and you should!) ...But if that's your ONLY strategy... it takes so freakin' long! I wish someone had walked up to me and said, "Stephen, what if you just ask all of the people who have a little bit more influence than you do to be joint on a product together with you...What if that's what you did?” That would have been super cool! A huge percentage of them would probably have said, YES! I would have leveraged all their existing following, and I would have crowd created a product with people who already had a following... catapulting me to their level. I wish that someone had said that... but that's ALL I do now. Watch what I'm doing in the next, especially like six months. I am doing very much that. I am leveraging the followings of other people. Not in a negative way, but in a way that gives a lot of tons of kudos, lots of value back to the actual big person. Holy crap, that's so much easier. I wish all my products had started that way. Anyway, hopefully, that makes sense to you. As FAST as possible: Try to become a CEO and not just an entrepreneur. Build systems. Don't be a launch business where you just constantly have to launch new products in order to stay afloat. Build one product that's really freakin' awesome then systems to support it. Then once you do that, start leveraging the followings of other people in the same area that you sell into to go sell more and faster… That's it! If you’re constantly having to build new products just to keep the cash flow coming in. That sucks! I’m realizing that getting to 10 million dollars is actually NOT that crazy. I think it's gonna happen way faster than even I'm thinking because that's what I'm focusing on. I've got something that's awesome, it's extremely unique, no one else is doing it. Which is super cool. I can go on and leverage the followings of other people and create mine at the same time. Makes the game way easier. I know I spat it out a lot there, but my brain has been spinning on: Why I suffered for like four or five years while nothing was working out? Why was there so many repeated failures for so long? Why did so many businesses fail and then, suddenly, almost every funnel I've launched in the last thirteen months has killed it. Why the sudden transition? Why is it working? It's NOT just that I have a following. There’s something that I'm doing here because I'm launching things in areas where I DON’T have a following. Those are the questions I've been asking myself recently. So I'm gonna be spouting off a few of those answers and observations here as I keep going forward. I just need you to understand… Do NOT listen to the money advice of those who are poor! Capitalist Pig, Baby, okay! Listen to those who have money and who are farther on the same path you're trying to go down. As fast as possible, move from entrepreneur to CEO. It's cool to be an entrepreneur but if you don't wanna have that wheel spinning feeling, go to being a CEO as fast as possible. I always will go entrepreneur, CEO, entrepreneur, CEO. There's a bounce back and forth, but you can't stay in one role the entire time. There's a transition back and forth that you need to have, otherwise, you're gonna stay in a launch style business where you’re exhausted and you're dead. Building a product, building offer, all that stuff matters, but understanding your role in the game, and staying clear on that helps like crazy. After you have built a product, you move from entrepreneur to CEO: You're building systems. Your role is to leverage the followings of other people. It’s about the Dream 100. It’s about finding MORE people who are willing to go and drop this out to their communities. And therein, my friends, lies the very fast cash, and that's the thing that I've realized in the past little bit here. I’ve made way more money on this trip than if I was staying behind my desk because of systems because I treat myself like a CEO now. I have 20 people who are working for me now. One full-time employee, (well, two including myself)... and then 18 other people and contractors who are filling roles who are a part of existing systems that I’ve built so I DON’T have to be an entrepreneur with a launch business. I'm not in the launch business. I'm in a real business. A real company that I'm building. Don't just build products, build companies. Build systems. Be a CEO. That's the biggest thing I realized in the past little bit here watching all these people, especially at the 10X Growth Con. So… Please take stock of where you are and where you're not. Look at some of the misconceptions you're experiencing about what it takes to NOT just build successful products, but a lifestyle with a business. And that, my friends, is what's gonna be the major game changer for YOU. I'm very good at is building sales messages, offers, and funnels, that go crush it. What I'm learning now is how to build systems and that's where my weakness is. I've been building systems which let me: Fulfilling faster and better. Support better. ...We've systemized like crazy. Dude, my content machine is so awesome. It's so tight... I know the quality of my content and what it's gonna be. I'm just super stoked about it. LIFE WAS LOOK ROSEY UNTIL… I found that I’d forgot to pack shorts for my trip to the Bahamas. *That Sucks* I'm sweating my face off, man. Anyway, whatever… Build actual companies, NOT just cool products. BOOM! Until Next Time… KEEP CRUSHING IT! Hey, just real quick: A few months ago Russell asked me to write a chapter for a secret project he was doing. I had to write a chapter for a book, this was the letter I got from him. He said: "Hey Stephen, let me ask you a quick question... You suddenly lose all your money, along with your name and your reputation, and only have your marketing know-how left. You have bills piled high and people harassing you for money over the phone. You have a guaranteed roof over your head, a phone line, an internet connection, and a ClickFunnels account for only one month. You no longer have your big guru name, your following, your JV partners. Other than your vast marketing experience, you're an unknown newbie... What would you do from day #1 to day #30 to save yourself? Russell Brunson Hey, if you want to see my answer and a bunch of other marketers who also answered that in this amazing book and summit, just go to 30days.com/stephen. You can see the entire summit, you can see the book, you can see what we wrote in there and each of our detailed plans. Just go to 30days.com/stephen.
I frequently get interviewed by new content creators. The purpose of this episode is that EVERYTHING I show you is completely learnable and doable by YOU… Every Tuesday, I leave my morning open to go on anyone's show. So, once a week, I just wake up, get ready, and check my calendar to see who's scheduled time for me to get on their show. I typically do two-three interviews every Tuesday, and I don't even care who with. It helps me: Keep connected with the audience Understand what peoples' questions are Understand who the other influencers-to-be, or current influencer are My calendar is pretty packed up, but if you want to book a slot, then go to interviewsteve.com. Recently, I had an amazing person set up a time with me. It was her first EVER show… and she just jumped in and asked me the MOST amazing questions. THE POWER OF PUBLISHING If you've listened to my podcasts at all and you've NEVER heard me say, “Everyone should publish!” I think you're probably lying. I say that all the time, and it's something that’s changed my life. I am massively convinced that if you want to increase your income, especially on the internet... The checklist is very simple: Step number one: Create some content Step number two: Keep offering people stuff Step number three: Keep getting attention Step number four: ...I really don't know whatever the steps are beyond that…. It's super simple, okay? Step number five: Just go back to number one. Truly, that's it! On a daily basis: I create content I make sure that I offer something to somebody just kinda keep getting attention for my business and what I do. The thing that always makes me MOST pumped is when somebody who’s just starting out sets up a time for me to get on their show. Currently, I’m a 2 Comma Club X Coach and a One Funnel Away Coach; I'm the guy that yells at everybody every day! I also have my own program, Offer Lab, I have another program in the MLM space. I spend a lot of time coaching... A constant theme that I push in EVERYTHING I do is that EVERYONE NEEDS TO PUBLISH. I can tell who’s MOST likely to have a successful funnel by whether or not they start publishing. Publishing is the safety net. It's the parachute for all the stuff. Frankly, you can stop listening to 80% of the tactics I teach you and just publish consistently, then come back to me in a year... and tell me that your life's not different! Seriously, it's that powerful. HOW TO START PUBLISHING I’m ALWAYS really pumped whenever somebody who's brand new comes on to interview me.... Because they’re just doin’ it! #success Recently, an amazing lady called Angela Clark jumped in and booked me for the first episode of her show. She’s created a podcast called Side Hustle Strategies, (which I think is a great name). Now, I wanna turn your attention to two things. Number one: She's just doin' it! Number two: Check out the types of questions that she's asking me - notice their simplicity. Not all interviewers are good, and she was very, very good. It’s one of my favorites interviews that I've done recently. When we were done, I asked, “Do you mind if share this on Sales Funnel Radio?” She said, “Yes, absolutely. Go for it.” I want you to see how awesome it is that Angela is just doin' it. I want to show you that YOU can do it too! About half the time, the person interviewing me is a newbie. Whether it’s for a new show, a blog, or whatever... I thought it'd be kinda cool capture one of 'em, toss it out here. MY PUBLISHING STRATEGY Now, I wouldn’t be Steve Larsen if there wasn’t a strategy underneath my Tuesday morning interview sessions ;-) It’s helpful because I get interviewed all over the place... I've noticed when I'm being interviewed, I tend to dive into topics, teachings, and strategies that I have a hard time replicating without somebody asking me questions. Here's what I'm getting at… If you have a hard time creating content or teaching what you do, stop asking yourself for answers. Don't let EVERYTHING come from your own head. Instead, get someone to ask YOU a whole bunch of questions. Let them pull the answers out of you… Then all you have to do is delete all their questions and BOOM! You have a course… Or BOOM! You got the podcast. It's one of the reasons why I ask so many questions in my group, The Science of Selling Online; I'm trying to see where the holes are. In my head, there's a model, there's a picture, and a framework, but I need to know where the questions are. DUPLICATE YOUR TIMEI'm super proud to just have a whole bunch of people who’ve actually started their shows. It doesn’t matter whether you’re publishing on a: Podcast Blog Facebook YouTube Whatever platform you publish on, I don't care, as long as you’re actively talking, because... If you're NOT speaking, no one knows you exist. You WILL BUY your customer, whether it's with your time or your money. If you're like, “Stephen, I don't have money for ads.” Well, then you better be willing to spend some time! One of the best ways I know to duplicate time is to create content. I have to do it once, and it lives on the internet forever. Between my two shows, I’ve got almost 400 episodes now... which is crazy! That's a lot of hooks pulling people into my world and adding value for my entire life. If you're NOT willing to spend money, BE willing to spend time. It would suck to walk around the street and be like, “Hey, can I tell you my recent podcast episode?” I'd rather duplicate my time by creating content. One of the biggest hacks of the game, create content, make offers to people consistently, and that's kind of it. Gain attention, there you go, there's the hack, there's the BIG SECRET... and that's what I'm doing. One of the easiest ways to buy your customers and make a real asset on the internet is by consistently publishing. Now, let's cut over to Angela's interview with Side Hustle Strategies. If you like what she's asking, go say hi to her, and thank her as well. AND REMEMBER… you don’t need credentials to get started... Just a willingness to jump! SIDE HUSTLE STRATEGIES Angela: Alright, so I know you from ClickFunnels fame, Sales Funnel Radio, Secret MLM Hacks. So, for those who don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about your story? Steve: Yeah, totally. I was newly married... seven years ago. I call myself the seven-year overnight success story. I failed my face off in tons of business attempts. My wife and I could barely feed ourselves, and life was really intense for a while. I know a lot of people are still in that sort of scenario. It was a college town, so no one was getting jobs for more than like three dollars an hour. It was a new town we moved to, we didn't know many people. She didn't have a job, and I couldn't get a job. It was crazy. There were more students than there were jobs. I was like, “We're gonna die. I gotta figure out a way to make money.” I asked my dad to float us some cash while we waited for some student loans to come in... just so we could just have like a base, right? Then I was gonna go run hard and try and make some more money some other way and thankfully, he's on the phone and he goes, “Son, No. If I give you this money you will not exhaust the resources you didn't know you had.” It was really intense. It was very wise of him to say that to me, though. I had the fire in the gut to provide that I think most people just fail to ever light. And when you have that fire, little details that you otherwise get stuck on, they don't really matter as much. How am I gonna figure this out? Doesn't matter! Do I need to know that? No, run! And so, it gave me this lens of action of just move versus getting focused and distracted by all these other things. So, I started trying all these businesses and none of them were working. I was spending money, that frankly, we really didn't have trying to make something just kick off. Over three and a half years, four years, I went through 12 business attempts and they all failed or kinda broke even. Each time, though, I was learning some stuff. It was very valuable stuff. I was in college for marketing, business, and entrepreneurship... and I started learning MORE in these attempts than what I was learning in my classes. Because of this, I started getting into fights with my teachers over different principles. It was like, “No, I've tried what you just said and it doesn't work very well that way. I'm doing it right now. It doesn't work!” I'd be praying to God in the evenings, like, “Please, help me find a way. It's not that I'm not willing to go through pain, I am, I'm in it right now.” I believe he totally guided me through failures that were needed for my future success. That's really interesting to think about it that way. I started blowing up these different businesses, trying these different things, and running into ClickFunnels. If you guys don't know what ClickFunnels is, it's basically a way to sell things online or offline... but it allows you to have higher average cart values. Basically, meaning: People spend more money buying more of your things that they probably wouldn't have otherwise because you just didn't ask 'em... so you make more money. It's really cool! ...And you don't have to be a coder to put these things out on the internet. And I'm not, I don't know how to code. I have no idea how to do that stuff. I started making all these sales funnels. I still didn't have much money. And I was like, “Who made this software? Russell Brunson! Does he even shave? This guy looks freakin' young, should I even trust him?” You know what I mean? I was like, “Who is this guy?” And I had my own reservations because the first time I saw him, I was like, “This guy's 12.” You know? He's just a very young-looking guy. If you don't know who he is, we're good friends, so I can say that, and I don't think he'll get mad. Anyway, so I was like, “I gotta go to his event.” I was in college still, I was about to graduate. It's like, “I can't get to his event.” So, I started changing the question in my mind. This was towards the end of college for me. It was like, “What if I just get resourceful... 'cause I don't have resources?” And I was like, “Well, I could learn how to build one of these funnel things.” And I went and I started trading funnels for tickets to his next event; funnels for plane tickets and funnels for hotel nights. I bootstrapped my way to the event I was nerdy enough in their software that they knew who I was when I walked up to their event. They said, “What's your name?” I said, “Steve Larsen.” And the guy looked up and he goes, “You're the guy pulling off all that Star Wars ninja crap in our software, right?” That's exactly what he said. And I said, “I dunno.” He's like, “You are! I need you to apply to ClickFunnels.” ...And I ended up getting five job offers at their event, and one week later, I graduated, and three days later, I was sitting next to Russell as his funnel builder. It was just super fast. Really fast pace. Angela: Wow, great. Steve: That's kind of the quick and dirty. Angela: Alright, so now, today, what drives you to do the work that you do? Steve: Honestly, I felt so much shame, which is stupid. Maybe I shouldn't have, but the fact that I couldn't provide just destroyed all semblance of self-esteem for me. I started coming home right after we got married, and I'd walk into our little apartment... It was overpriced, we barely had any money, neither of us could get jobs, we really had no income, but I wasn't thinking about that. It was honeymoon phase, and I was mad in love… Anyway, I started coming home, my wife would still be in bed. She'd already graduated college and I was like, “Are you okay? We alright? You okay?” She's like, “Oh yeah.” So, I'd go back the next day to school, and come back home... *same thing* “You okay?” She's like, “Oh yeah, no, it's nothing, it's fine.” Same thing, same thing, day after day after day after day… I finally got her to admit to me, (and she didn't wanna tell me, 'cause she didn't wanna hurt my feelings), she’d only been eating one meal a day ‘cause we didn’t have money. Angela: Wow! Steve: She’d been doing that so long that she was physically weak. I had no idea. She was literally eating like, some beans… And all the while, still making my lunches so I could have energy in school, and she would just eat a scant meal of dinner with me in the evenings... and that was all she was eating. I am telling you, it destroyed me. A lot of men get their identity based on how well they provide or what they do, and I couldn't do it... and it rocked my world. Rocked everything. I can't describe the pain, and it didn't leave. That's when I called my dad and said, “Hey, will you give me some cash?” And he said “NO,” which is great, I'm glad he did. I went and just started running, just trying stuff. The pain, the level of shame I felt, I had to hide that from people. I was in classes trying to focus but knew my wife was starving at home. It was nuts. It was super nuts. That went on for a really long time… So what drives me today is, I'm a capitalist pig, right? I intend to make a lot of money, but do it in a way that provides a lot of value for the world. There's nothing wrong with that. What drives me is to help install that belief in people's brains, rather than this weird belief a lot of people have around cash. Make money, make a lot of it... because that lets you go help people at a faster pace than you could if you didn't have money. What drives me is that... and when I see people who are still in that zone I was at the beginning of our marriage, like that... Oh, my gosh. You can tell, even now, I'm NOT over it. That was very, very challenging. It was hard on me and I don't want people there either... Angela: What advice would you give to someone who's stuck, who's in that place, who maybe is discouraged, and not able to see the light at the end of the tunnel? What advice would you give to someone to kind of muster that energy to move on? Steve: Few things. It's a great question. The first thing I would tell you to do is, and I was doing this… A lot of these lessons I know because I was doing the exact opposite of it and that's why I learned the lesson. You want depression, here's how you get it... You CANNOT compare yourself to another person's success or the speed that they gained it. It was the fastest way for an entrepreneur (or somebody who's trying to make it) in this game to die. The only way. If you start comparing yourself to these ideals, “Oh, that guy did it at that speed,” I guarantee that's NOT true. Nor is it the first thing they tried… That's the visible side. All of us have years of just trying and trying and trying and beating and beating on our craft. What's interesting is ideals aren't measurable. Pop culture changes every second, and if I measure myself to an ideal, I will never hit it because I can't measure it. Therefore unattainable. You end up measuring your self-esteem, your self-worth, your value to yourself and others on something that is constantly shifting and fictitious. That's totally a huge thing in the entrepreneur world today. Entrepreneurship finally, thankfully, is cool now. It's awesome, it's super cool. It's like this big fad, it’s awesome. But what's funny is, if I go in and rent a freakin' Lambo to take a picture in front of and make on my Facebook profile picture, 'cause that's what I think causes success. That's the most jacked-up crap on the planet. It's NOT true. I've noticed that those types of people will ride this little high, but because it's based on things that are fake, they crash real hard. All of their worth, all their business worth, all their sense of self is based on something that is constantly shifting. Sit around and be like, “Oh man, I'm a bad mamma jamma! Look what I did yesterday that I could not have done six months ago!” My level of opportunities changed based on how I changed. The whole game's a game of progression. Man, I got the nicest kid award in high school. It's not 'cause I was nice, it's because I was shy. No one knew that, and I had to overcome the fear of speaking. I had to overcome a fear of adults that was near clinical. I had to overcome a lot of stuff. I was dumb, I was kicked out of my first semester of college; I didn't know how to study. I am the least likely success story. The only way I got around it was by comparing me to me yesterday. In that way, I stopped comparing myself to others. I stopped looking at the clock of others, and I know totally ranting right now, but this is a HUGE thing I achieved in my life. Angela: No, but you touched on something important. I've seen lots of your videos and I've heard you tell a little bit of this story before about being very shy, so in my head... I've got two kids and I've got one that's really reserved with most people, but at home, she's a wild woman. Steve: Yes, exactly, at home, you would have no idea. Angela: Right, so my question for you is, ('cause I think that that's pretty important), there may be a lot of people out there who have a hard time putting themselves out there. Russell Brunson has said that he considers himself a more introverted person, but when you see him, he's like, “Wah!” So, where do you get that from? Where do you muster that energy to be on, like on demand? Steve: I think the biggest thing someone can do that will destroy them is starting to self-hate. That'll just wreck 'em. Instead, everything that I know that is NOT gonna be an aid in my business, his name is Stephen, and he's shy... and he's a little bit more reserved. I wouldn't say I'm shy, but I'm a little more reserved. Anyway, I would not be wearing shirts like this or like, “Bleh, Rah!” People ask all the time, “Stephen, how do you have so much energy all the time?” I have a lot of energy when I need to become Steve. Steve is a second person I created... and I know it's stupid, and this sounds really weird, but even Tony Robbins teaches that we all have multiple personalities inside of us. And so... there's Stephen... And Stephen, he's cool, he's the man. He's everything that I needed to be in order to learn the painful lessons I needed to create Steve. And most of the time, I'm Stephen. Steve, that dude's nuts. He is a killer on stage, oh my gosh. He is the one talking to you right now. He destroys the microphone. He tells Russell Brunson to get stage insurance, 'cause he's gonna try and crack it. He’s a deliverer. I love Steve. So, every time I'm about to go on a video, do an interview, or record a podcast, I take a moment to become Steve. ... And it sounds weird, but I had to do it that way... because otherwise, I would've just stayed reserved... kinda just like, “There's no way I'm gonna get on video.” I would NOT be doing this at all if I stayed Stephen 100% of the time. Angela: So, what does that transition look like? I mean, are you like amped up on music? Is there caffeine? Steve: It's a little bit. It's not much. When I do take a lot of caffeine, it jacks me up. But it's a little bit of caffeine. A lot of times though, it's the mentality that I'm taking on. This sounds kinda dark, but one of the things that I try to do is... Man, it's so funny… The moment you start trying to level up your game, you get a lot of lovers and haters. It's like you are the Red Sea. It's like the split, that's what you're walkin'. Both voices get louder. For quite a while, I cared too much about what people thought about me and so, what I decided to do, (and I didn't mean to make this a public thing, it was actually just for me.) I went and bought this heavy punching bag that's shaped like a human, and I wrote Poverty on it... and I beat the crap out of that thing on a regular basis. It's like this little self-therapy that I will walk through if I need to become Steve. If that thing's not around, I'll imagine beating the snot out of it. But what I do is I write every single thing that's negative that I'm hearing from my audience, another audience, or online, I write it on the freakin' dummy. Most of the time, what I realize what I was trying to do is act like the negativity wasn't there. I would try to shield and shelter, and be like, “It's NOT there, No, no, no! I should just move forward.” Everyone says just to move forward. For me, that was cool, but it was like this weight. For me, in business, I compete on strengths. In my personal development though, I kinda have to work on my weaknesses in order to qualify for more business opportunities. So I write down all the negativity that I hear from the world... and people are really tough behind their computer screens. Some are just straight-up jerks… So, now, there are just tons of words all over it: Not enough Terrible Stutters Say too many “um’s” Big eyes You're not gonna make it Not sustainable Watch him fail and burn. ...Anything that's negative. They're just freakin' jerks! I write it down, I face it, and I consume it. I allow myself to feel it, and I accept it's there. Then I beat it up. Despite knowing the negativity is there, despite all that stuff, I just move forward. So, when I sit down in this chair, I am in a state of war. I am ready to deliver. I will provide and go to war for my family. I will make a lot of value out there, and I will make money while I do so... and that's totally awesome. But that transition zone was very practiced at first. I had to really work on that and meditate over it, and try to... Not that I'm downplaying who I am or who I was, but realizing that my business most likely needs somebody else besides me. A new me in order to actually run in the first place, am I willing to become that person? Not a fake me, but somebody else! So, anyways, music is definitely part of it. Angela: So, let me ask you this... I know a lot of entrepreneurs don't have the support of family and friends. Was that something you had and how did you find your tribe to sort of have those people that you could bounce ideas off or just be a sounding board for whatever your challenges were? Steve: Yeah, there's a lot of family and friends that are out there who, for all of us, it's not that they're trying to be negative, they just DON’T understand what we do and they don't get it at all. ...And frankly, the entrepreneur, for a long time, sucks at explaining what they do. So, you have these two differing angles, and most of the time, I found... What was that book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? Angela: Yeah, great one. Steve: Yeah, a super good book, right? He's like, most fights or little tiffs are a result of a misunderstanding of roles and goal. So, if you start working under a different framework, your blueprint starts to change a little bit. That can be threatening to people. A lot of times, I remind people of the things that they didn't take risks on… they're not telling me I'm bad, or they're being mean… What they're doing is reacting to things they've tried to hide in themselves. That's a big thing that I noticed. I was the only person that I physically knew who was doing what I was trying to in my physical sphere. You know what I mean? No one else was building funnels. For years, it was that way. The reason I wanted to go to Russell Brunson's event so bad is that I wanted to be around, for the first time in my life, other people who knew what a sales funnel even was. Even though I was in sales. I was in my sales classes, I was in entrepreneurship classes, in marketing classes… we still weren't talking about how to actually make money. I I'd say, if any entrepreneur's experiencing kind of negativity with family, friends, or even just in general, don't act like it's not there, but just be patient with it... and understand that they're operating from a completely different mindset, and have no idea. They didn't have the same epiphanies you had in order to be doing the logical things that you’re doing, the things that you think are logical. Most of it's just a misunderstanding. Angela: Well, great, thanks. I think you've given some great nuggets for folks who are in the trenches or considering getting in the trenches. So, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today. Is there anything you wanna share about what you're working on or where people can go to find out more information about you or maybe some of your projects or products? Steve: Yeah, I think it was business 17 that actually worked. 17, right! That’s a crazy, crazy amount of failure. It was around business try number 12 though, where… Everything I was launching, I didn't get it. I thought I had to have a better product. I thought it was all about the product. I've realized, though, that's actually not true. I could sell any piece of junk. Most people believe that they need to have so much belief in their product. ...But I can sell things I don't believe in. I'm NOT telling anyone to go do that, but it's because of the principles I've learned about marketing and sales... and understanding that they're different. Understanding that closing and sales are different. Those are the things that have made all the difference in the world for me. So, it was around business try number 12 when I started learning what funnels even were, how to do them, how to use them. That's when things started shifting up for me. I love affiliate marketing. I’ve found that most people get distracted by the creation of the product. They have no idea how to: Sell Position themselves Write copy to get attention So, if you don't have a product and you're trying to learn this game, I would actually tell you NOT to learn how to make a product. I would go do affiliate marketing. I created a program for this exact reason called Affiliate Outrage, affiliateoutrage.com. It's completely FREE, and it walks you through how to market other people’s products, and get paid for it. It's 30 days long, and I brought in all these other experts to teach all the stuff inside of it. What I like about affiliate marketing is that it lets you practice. Just because somebody else made the product, doesn't mean you don't need to make marketing. So it's like marketing training wheels. That's why I like it. So, I would go there. Angela: Okay, so affiliateoutrage.com, that's where we can get more info and step-by-step instructions from you. Steve: Yeah, definitely. Angela: Alright. Steve: Hey, thanks for listening. As you likely have heard in my podcast, I left my job in January 2018 to build my million dollar business completely from scratch without any funding or any help... AND I HIT IT, right on February 1, 2019... Just 13 months later, we actually grossed a million dollars, which is pretty awesome. Better yet, I got to keep a lot of the cash, just 'cause my costs are honestly NOT very high. That said, there are several tools, though, I use to automate vital pieces of my business and ClickFunnels is one of them. ClickFunnels lets me build automated sales machines all over the internet that are non-stop pitching people for me. It's ONLY $97 a month. Better yet, I don't need to be a coder. If you're asking yourself, “Stephen, are you giving me a blatant pitch for ClickFunnels right now?” YES, 100%! I think it's dumb when people don't use ClickFunnels. It makes you MORE and saves you MORE. Basically, I have the power of an entire tech team in my hand and I want you to have it. Go grab a free trial of ClickFunnels by going to freecftrial.com. I want EVERYONE to experience the power of ClickFunnels in their business, so they're letting me hook you up at freecftrial.com.
The biggest mistake I see people make when approaching others of influence is they enter the relationship without adding value to the other. This is my campaign I used to approach Russell Brunson about Keynoting at OfferMind 2019... HOW RUSSELL BRUNSON HELPED ME CREATE OFFERMIND I wanted my own event real bad, so last year, when Russell Brunson came out with his 30-Days Book, I decided to piggyback off the launch to build my event. Each affiliate received a $100 for each person who signed up through their link. 375 people bought the book through me which meant that I could use that income to create a sweet event. Each person who bought the 30 Day Book with my link also got a free ticket to my first OfferMind. We found a room that would hold 180 people, and about 160 RSVP’d to get tickets. There's always a 5 - 10% no-show rate on all events, no matter what you do (crazy, I know), so on the day, we ended up with roughly 150 showing up, which is pretty good for the first time. I know that OfferMind is an event that I will probably do each year, so I wrote down my dream list of potential speakers on my whiteboard. You can guess who was top of that list, right? ;-) HOW NOT TO PITCH YOUR DREAM 100 People have asked: “Stephen, you’re friends. Why didn't you just ask Russell to speak at Offermind?” Well, first of all, I’d NEVER leverage a relationship for the sake of my business. So I'm gonna do EVERYTHING I would normally do to Russell that speaking at OfferMind was a GREAT idea. I created a full-out stack and offer for him with closes, calls to actions, AND a fast-action bonus! If you're gonna ask an influencer to do something, you better go the freakin' distance. The absolute worst way to get someone to speak at your event (especially a dream 100 influencer) is to send them a message and say, “You wanna speak at my event?” I've been asked to speak at two events recently, where I can tell my name was just being used to fill their event. I will NEVER do any business with those individuals the rest of my life, they burned the bridge so hard. You're gonna NOT get an influencer to show up for your business by walking up and saying, “Hey, you being coming to my event would truly be awesome for me and my business.” That's stupid! You need to make your OFFER amazing and speak their language. That's exactly what I did with Russell Brunson, and thankfully he agreed. I'm really pumped! The reason I'm sharing this with you is two-fold: #1: I want you to come to OfferMind. #2: I want to show you how to approach a Dream 100 influencer Next, I’m gonna go through the script and offer I created for Russell to show you how I presented it, but if you wanna download the script, all you gotta do is get a ticket for OfferMind. I'm handing the script out to each person who grabs a ticket at OfferMind.com. PITCHING MR RUSSELL BRUNSON So, instead of just asking Russell straight out… I started dropping hints. My first move was to send him a Vox saying, “I'm NOT asking you to speak at OfferMind, I'm just telling you I'm trying to think of ways to get you to speak at OfferMind.” I was kinda messing with him, and surprisingly, he messaged back, and said, “I want sushi while getting a massage.” I said, “As long as it's not me doing them, yeah.” So two days later, I walked into his office with a masseuse gift certificate from his favorite masseuse and sushi for the entire ClickFunnels office. I also wrote a sales script and created a stack slide to pitch him on keynoting at OfferMind. I wrote out the vehicle, internal and external related false beliefs that I knew he’d go through when I asked him to keynote at my event. I went through the whole marketing process and created an offer and wrote a full freakin' script. I probably spent five hours writing it. This was a spawn of my brain. Sometimes that's great, and sometimes it's dangerous... right now, it's great. Here’s how I did it… CREATING AN OFFER FIT FOR RUSSELL BRUNSON I took Russell’s webinar script which he knows inside out, (I use that script a lot too), and I went slide by slide from the stack slide on, to create an entire script. What you’re gonna get when you choose to keynote at OfferMind 2019. The first thing you're gonna get when you commit to keynote at OfferMind 2019: #1: First, you're gonna be the featured keynote speaker, with ads, paid content, hyper fans all promoting the event. Also, Steve's personal closing team will be calling his audience after any purchase throughout the year leading up to the OfferMind event to sell 'em tickets. Whoa! *On the right side, I added in a lot of trial closes which imitate what you'd expect a person's brain to be going through as I'm speaking... It’s a two-sided conversation that I'm having both with Russell, but it’s also what’s going on inside of his own head. #2: Secondly, you're gonna get more paid traffic to your One Funnel Away Challenge, Steve's ad team will drive paid traffic to each of your One Funnel Away Challenges throughout the year. Each One Funnel Away buyer who buys through Steve's affiliate link will get credit for an OfferMind ticket where they'll further get ClickFunnels indoctrination from Stephen. Wow, that's pretty awesome, right? Now you're probably thinking… (Okay, now, I'm starting to hit secondary objections.) Right now, you're probably thinking, “Is Steve Larsen or OfferMind even big enough for my level of influence? (That's a vehicle-based objection right there, I'm hittin' it on the head.) And... “Could the decision to speak threaten my status as the CEO of ClickFunnels?” You're probably thinking that right? Great question! We thought of that too. So, the third thing you're gonna get… (And so there's literally a piece of the offer combating each one of those objections exactly as I’d do in any script.) #3: So, the third thing you're gonna get high-end stage and event designers with professional media coverage to make this the coolest experience. Steve has already hired the same A/V companies that do a lot of the Funnel Hacking Live and Two Comma Club X stages and they'll put on the event so the caliber will match your caliber. Steve's caliber will match your caliber. We'll also have professional photographers and videographers taking pictures, recordings, and B-roll that we'll turn over to you afterward for your own use. (He's always looking for cool B-roll.) You'll have your own custom backdrop and smoke that comes out. The crowd will be chanting, “Russell, Russell, Russell,” with Seven Nation Army blaring when I invite you onstage. Additionally, the audience will be wearing the same Funnel Hacking or funnel promoting t-shirt like a uniform... which I will provide. If that isn't enough, Steve will personally yell in the face of anyone NOT absolutely going nuts when you walk up. *Um, my jaw just dropped* Are you starting to imagine how epic you're gonna look on the stage of OfferMind? If you listen carefully, you probably already can hear them chanting, right? “Russell, Russell!” BUT if you're like me, you're probably thinking, “Ah but, what would I even talk about?” (I know he's gonna think that) *How do I know? Because I sat in a room with him for two years. He's gonna go, “Um, I don't even know what to talk about? That's alright I'll figure it out later.” I know he's going to say that, but I wanna make sure I answer that concern as well. It's very much an internal-based concern: “I can see OfferMind would be a cool thing to do, but what would I talk about? Do I have the personal capacity to jump in and do that?” He's gonna wanna over-deliver. So the objection is gonna be content focused, and what’s he gonna talk about? So I'm gonna bring that up ahead of time. Ah, but what are you gonna talk about... and for how long? #4: So the fourth you're gonna get topic and length autonomy. You'll have 500 - 800 people in the room... *We're going for 500 to 800 people (if it’s possible with the event space). I'm sure we'll figure it out... but 500 people at least is what we're goin' for. Steve will be speaking the full first day, and we'd like you to keynote on day two. You'll be the last speaker and have total control on what you talk about and how long you wanna go. Feel free to test new material or talk about anything you want, but at the end of your speech… (Okay, now I'm gonna tie into something that he wants) It's not just WHAT does Steve Larsen want... It's HOW can I make my purposes align with Russell Brunson's purpose? *If you're trying to Dream 100 somebody, aligning with their purpose is a major key... At the end of your speech, Steve would like some time to interview you on-stage, sitting on couches, about your new Traffic Secrets book... releasing a few months before or after OfferMind... Feel free to pitch him! Already, as one of your top product affiliates, Steve will drive heavy traffic to your new book using that interview you do with him onstage. At the end, the crowd will go nuts and cheer you offstage. Steve will take a few open questions as you leave through our secret backstage door to avoid swarming. (I know he's concerned about that, so I'm gonna put that in) Woo! I don't know about you, but this is getting pretty amazing, right? By now you're starting to see how insane this all will be, right? Luckily, Steve is a safe bet too… Imagine yourself speaking on his stage. Think of how epic the ads will look to have a sweet stage interview promoting your NEW Traffic Secrets Book. As a busy CEO, you're probably saying inside… (Here comes the external-based concern) ... “I might not have the time or mental bandwidth to add another thing in my life.” Right? So here's the fifth thing in the offer. #5: You're gonna get your choice of the actual event date to fit your schedule. (Oh! There's the one-two punch, right!) Q: What's the biggest reason someone would probably NOT be able to come speak or keynote when they want to? A: Scheduling! So what if I just let him choose the schedule? Steve isn't here to add stress and understands firsthand what you do and the speed of your office. He doesn't expect you to stay the whole time or try to sprint from one thing to the next just to squeeze in a stressful pitch or speech. Keep it all simple by telling him what day works for you, he'll plan the event date around you. Oh, and don't worry about travel either, a limo will pick you up from ClickFunnels headquarters and take you to the event room where you'll be greeted by Steve and taken to your private room. Prüvit Ketones, (which he loves, I love, I drink every day) Bullet Bars, Quest Bars, Hydrogen water will be chilled and waiting for you in a private retreat and recharge room. Bring anyone you like with you, and the limo will take you back when you're ready. *Now I know that he doesn't wanna even think about travel. So I'm gonna take care of that. Even though it's local, I'm gonna send a limo to pick him up ‘cause he's the man. Dang, this sounds super awesome, right? This sounds like a no-brainer! What will everyone think when the limo arrives to pick you up? Imagine their faces. Imagine stickin' it to that daycare next door; can't tell you where to park, right? (There's a daycare right next to ClickFunnels that's a little bit moody about where you park. So I threw in a little humor here) This will be one of the easiest and coolest speaking experiences you've ever had. HE SAID, YES! I want you to see like what lengths I went to to make this happen: I bought sushi for the whole office. I didn't say why I just arranged it and got it there. We called his favorite massage places to figure out where he got his last massage last because I knew he liked it. We had to go hunting to figure out who that was so we could get it book it again. Then in the office, on-camera, in front of a bunch of people, I read this script to him: Just to recap, here's what you're gonna get when you agree to keynote at OfferMind 2019: You're gonna be the featured keynote speaker. You get more paid traffic to your One Funnel Away Challenges throughout the entire year. You get a high-end stage and event designers with media coverage that's amazing. Topic and length autonomy. Your choice of the actual event date to fit your schedule. Dang! That's a really good deal, but wait, there's MORE... on top of everything above... if you confirm with Stephen soon, (so he can start preparations), you'll also get: Your own speaker highlight video created at Steve's expense and given to your two video guys for any B-roll they'd like to use. You're gonna get a copy of your Traffic Secrets book interview that you do with Steve onstage for more B-roll epicness. I'm gonna give you a couples massage by your favorite masseuse, (gift certificates already attached). Sushi, from your favorite local restaurant which will already be in the kitchen today at noon. Professional recordings of Steve screaming, “It's Monday, baby! It's Tuesday, baby!” … and so forth, so you can use them for all those ideas you keep bringing up. (Yeah his voice has that weird ability.) Man my face is starting to melt. This offer is too cool, OfferMind must teach really cool offer creation methods. I just wish Steve let this offer last forever. The total value of this offer is incalculable. It's too awesome, but unfortunately, it can't last long due to overexposure of pure awesomeness. So, to take advantage of the positive effects this offer will have on your: Offer Mission Bottom line ….just open up your phone right now and Vox Steve the phrase, “On like Donkey Kong.” Again, that's, “On like Donkey Kong” to get started now. Luckily for you, we've recently started accepting talking or typing options on Voxer. Now, Steve had two options when he made this offer … (I went and I grabbed a lot of the closes he likes to use in webinars) The first was to go as weak sauce as possible, be a little pansy, be a little Sally, and approach you with the question, “Will you speak at my event?” in a stupid dumb voice with no value added back to you. But that wouldn't really incentivize you to agree to this… ... and Steve's beard would shrink two sizes too small. The second option was to make it as cool and memorable as he could be dumping all profits from his One Funnel Away affiliate earnings into a sick, awesome, kick sissies in the teeth event where you can nerd out to whatever level you want. Now let me ask you a question: If all this did was let you get in front of a group of people of your hyper-followers already in your community, would it be worth it? Of course, right? If all this did was let you test your material and thoughts before you test them on your own platforms, would that be worth it? Yeah! And like I said, you'd be getting tons of creative assets at Steve's expense just for showing up. If all this did was give you another chance to promote your new awesome book, build pressure for the launch, and push more people to ClickFunnels, would it be worth it? Absolutely, right? Steve knows you… He knows you're gonna spend hours behind your computer promoting your new book when it launches... Why not spend some of that time in an awesome, local, professional location with a swarm of people who already know, love and buy from you? Again, get started on this risk-free offer now, simply open up your phone and Vox Steve the phrase, “On like Donkey Kong.” Again, that's. “On like Donkey Kong.” (He has a shirt that says that and he loves it. He says that phrase a lot.) To make it even easier, Steve has already Voxed you this phrase. You don't even need to type it, just forward it back to him. Remember, this offer won't last forever! Just think, what's one extra Traffics Secrets book buyer worth to you? $7.95, $9.95, or even $50,000 each and every year. What would that do for you and your family? Imagine getting that new BioHacking test, or even a second Cryosauna, which you can shove Steve in again. ( There are a few inside jokes… I'm gonna skip some bits here) Remember, this isn't a cost, it's an investment! Just open up your phone right now and Vox Steve the phrase, “On like Donkey Kong,” to get started. Agents are standing by for your Vox. Again, to keynote at OfferMind, simply pick up your phone right now and look at it, let it recognize your face, look at it, open up the Voxer, and tell Steve, “On like Donkey Kong,” (talk or type accepted) and Steve will handle the rest. Remember, you're just one Vox away. THE DREAM 100 On my Dream 100 speaker list, along with Russell Brunson, I have: Mark Joyner, he created a book called The Irresistible Offer many years ago. Dean Holland Todd Brown Jay Abraham Dana Derricks These are all some of the best *living* offer creators. I don't know anyone beyond that list, that's really it… I’ll reach out to Dean Holland and Dana Derricks because they’re on the same level of influence as me, so that's an okay thing to do. I'm sure that they'll say “Yes,” hopefully so. If NOT they're gonna get tagged inside this episode for Sales Funnel Radio, and I'll ask them that way as well. But Russell gets approached like crazy by tons of people. So he's got walls and barriers just to keep his own sanity. We can all understand that, right? So to approach influencers who are above your status, you’ve gotta go all out... I got a pretty awesome Dream 100 package in the mail. I was handed an envelope and inside, somebody (this is actually very clever), had attached an actual hundred dollar bill. They attached a hundred dollar bill and said, “We know your goal was to always do 10 grand a day, so a hundred dollars should buy 14 minutes of your time. Please read the letter and see if you would like to spend the time.” That’s super cool! STATUS DECREASE One of the principles of the Dream 100 is that: If what I'm offering presents a risk of a status decrease, the answer will be, NO! This is more important than whether or not the event fits into their schedule. So I'm crafting an offer with stories and I'm listing out his false beliefs. If it's gonna decrease his status, or if there's any risk that it will, he's already gonna say, NO. So I need to show ways to increase his status while protecting it from decrease at the same time. Does that make sense? I’m gonna answer the objection of, “Oh crap, will this decrease my status?” I'm gonna say, “No, in fact, here's how it will increase your status.” So one of the BEST things you can do when approaching a Dream 100 influencer is to know what campaigns they’re running. I need to know what campaigns an individual is already running that I could piggyback off to increase their status? The internal hang-up definitely is NOT, “I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough.” Instead, for Russell, it would probably be, “What do you want me to teach?” For him, it's not so much about money obviously... he's probably gonna have a time-based concern 'cause he's Russell Brunson. He's also gonna have a mental shelf space concern. It's NOT, I don't have enough to teach, it's, “Oh my gosh, I have to spend time planning what I'll teach.” That's a real concern. That's a BIG issue. I solve each one of these pain points inside of the offer. Q: Where am I fishing out of right now? Where's my market? A: ClickFunnels. Q: What's the new opportunity? A: OfferMind. There are parts of the offer designed to scratch, soothe and satiate all the concerns that come from the vehicle, internal, external-based objections... And then, there are a few pieces that are just awesome and straight from me. X-A-V-I-E-R Here's the XAVIER model for drafting offers created by yours truly, and highly featured in my book coming out soon called Your Core Offer. Go to YourCoreOffer.com if you wanna get on the waiting list. X = what you want to sell. A = what they want to buy. These are NOT ALWAYS the same thing. When you sell something to somebody, they don't ALWAYS want what you want to sell. For Example: Russell wants to sell Funnel Hacks web class. When he sells Funnel Hacks web class you pre-buy ClickFunnels for six months with a whole bunch of programs. The A: the anchor of the offer, is ClickFunnels itself. People just want ClickFunnels; so that's a prime example of what I'm talking about there. Now, back to my offer to Russell… So X - equals: Russell what you're gonna get when you come speak at OfferMind 2019, the first thing you're gonna be the only keynote speaker at OfferMind. I'm gonna put ads with a lot of ad money behind it, content, fans, all promoting your appearance and your name. *One of the things I'm gonna give him is status. That's one of the ways I'm fighting the status decrease thing, but it's not the exclusive place that I'm fighting it yet. A - equals: Each One Funnel Away Challenge buyer in 2019 who buys through Steve's affiliate link will get credit to OfferMind for further ClickFunnels indoctrination from you and Steve. That's HUGE! What did I just do? ‘A’ is the anchor of the offer, it is the part of the offer that’s the sexiest. The thing that the other person wants the most. I know Russell is spending a ton of time, money, effort, energy, and resources on this One Funnel Away Challenge. He's re-launching it, and it's gonna be massive. He's gonna push hard to get a ton MORE people in One Funnel Away Challenge than are probably in ClickFunnels right now. So the question is: What could I do to best support that? What if I attached my OfferMind tickets to that again to fill the events, promote him, promote ClickFunnels and align myself with what he's trying to do. That's a no-brainer because now the offer’s NOT about me. DON’T PITCH AN IDEA LIKE THIS I hate it when somebody walks up, and they're like, “Stephen, I'm so excited man, why don't you come get on my show because you’d be great and you’d bring tons of people to my show.” ...I'm like, “Wow, okay, what’s in this for me? This is a two-way relationship, you're just goin' one way though. That’s hurting our relationship by you approaching me like that.” STUPID! STUPID! It's D-U-M-B! You’re gonna trigger: Fear of status decrease, “Why on Earth is this for me?” Rejection... Objection... Tons of stuff like: “Oh, my gosh, NO. I don't have time for that.” “What would you want me to teach? Nah!” *status decrease* “There's no way that vehicle aligns with where I'm moving. This is key; when I’m dropping something out to a Dream 100 influencer... I'm aligning with their current mission... so part of their offer is also part of my offer. Dana Derricks just did this to me, and it's one of the reasons why he's speaking at OfferMind. ALIGN I was on Voxer with Dana, and he goes, “Dude, I would love to pre-buy some OfferMind tickets next year to give away because I want my people to go through some of your stuff.” I was like, “Sick, super cool. Yeah, that'd be awesome.” What did he do? He said, “Let me give your tickets away as part of my offer.” Russell Brunson did the exact same thing with Grant Cardone for his 10X Event. He went to Grant Cardone pre-bought a thousand of your tickets to give away as part of his current offers. What does that do? It spikes the value, someone else fulfills on it, aligns the two offers together. That's part of the “A” in anchor for XAVIER. Does that make sense, you guys gettin' this? I'm NOT trial closing... Does that really make sense? This is HUGE. This is a BIG BIG deal right here. In my pitch, it went like this: Each One Funnel Away Challenge buyer in 2019 who buys through Steve's affiliate link will get credit to OfferMind for further ClickFunnels indoctrination from you and Steve… Meaning: I am going to go and push One Funnel Away Challenge really really hard. When people buy the One Funnel Away Challenge through me, I'm gonna give them credit to get an OfferMind ticket where you can speak to more of your people and continue to get them inside ClickFunnels. That's HUGE! It aligns both me and Russell. VEHICLE OBJECTION? Q: What's the vehicle-based fear here? A: Probably status decrease: “Is this good enough?” That could be the potential major concern about speaking at OfferMind. “Is he big enough?” Russell would never boastingly say that, but you get what I'm saying… He’s Russell Brunson, right! I'm like, “Oh don't worry about it... To protect your status I want you to know that we hire the exact same A/V team that designed your Funnel Hacking Live stages, and they're gonna put on the OfferMind stage. The stage caliber will match your caliber.” One of the most frustrating things I've ever experienced ever is to show up to an event that I've been invited to speak at, and you can tell that there wasn't much thought put into the experience in the room. That's why OfferMind costs me so much money... and it did it cost me a lot of money. I actually went in the hole just a little bit... because I wanted to create an experience. You can find out MORE about how I created OfferMind and made it an experience here. I specifically made it so it felt like you were entering a new environment... (which is so freaking key, it is ridiculous!) I'm letting Russell know: We have all the old OfferMind recordings. This is what it looked like last time. It was very professional. It was amazing; very top-notch and high caliber... it’ll be the same kind of thing. Rest assured, it's the same people you're used to working with, so there won't be any new faces when you're getting mic'd up. There won't be any new experiences.” Does that make sense? INTERNAL OBJECTIONS This is how I'm combating the internal hangup, “What would you want me to teach?” I see it’ll be cool, but… How will I? How can I? Do I? Will I? Do I know enough? I don't know what to talk about?” It’s ALL the ‘I’s’... I know one of your strategies, Russell, is to go in and test your material on smaller crowds before you go to your major one. Feel free to do that at OfferMind. Let your noggin have the playground and the fun crazy zone that you wanna go to, and test your material on my audience. Does that make sense? I just solved that internal objection for him. EXTERNAL OBJECTIONS How will I solve the objection: “I don't have time to speak at your OfferMind, but I want to...” I believe it's a good vehicle. I believe I could pull off. BUT I DON’T have time/ money/ resources #externalbasedobjection Don't worry about it, man. You will choose the actual date of the event so that we can make sure you can get there. We know what date it's gonna be, but if it came down to Russell NOT being able to speak, and us just choosing a different date that's a few weeks difference… We will Change the Freakin' Date. That's a SICK OFFER! From his perspective, it’s like, “Oh man, he's gonna change his whole event!” Well, yeah, we're talking seven months in the future, so, yeah, we'll definitely change the date if we need to. That's a BIG offer right there. I've been asked to speak in several locations in the past little bit including Australia and Greece... It's not that I don't want to, it's a date issue… So if Russell has control over the time and date, and it came down to it and I'm like, “Dude, what day? Say it, just, and we'll do it.” He's like, “You know what, I could come to downtown Boise, so I don't need to travel anywhere.” I'm making it EASY. A limo will pick you up from CF headquarters and take you to the event. And he can talk as long as he wants to. Does that make sense? Like, this just got sexy, man. He doesn't need to worry about travel, it's close to him, it's right there, it's downtown Boise at a SICK venue. THE CTA Reason to Act Now... (this is what he told me he would like to have) A couples massage: he wants a massage from his favorite masseuse. We already set it up. Sushi from his favorite sushi place. I mean that's a sexy offer... it's NOT just, “Dude, come speak at my event so that I can fill it with people who are interested to see you.” Some more things I'm gonna add inside this offer are: We’ll send you the professional recordings. We’re gonna have professional photographers there to take pictures. His own private room where he can go and just kick back, and there are snacks and drinks in there. I know you're always looking for new material. You can have the recordings. You can have the pictures... very very high-end stuff so that you can look like a rockstar on my stage. That’s what would motivate a Russell Brunson-esque figure. So what I'm trying to help you guys understand is like, when you're doing offers, and especially when it comes to Dream 100… Offer creation for Dream 100 is NOT the same thing as offer creation for customers. It’s NOT the same thing as offer creation for affiliates. It’s NOT the same thing for offer creation for front-end product. It's all different. You gotta understand exactly WHO you're speaking to. THIS DIDN’T HAPPEN… The last thing I tried to do was find a local actor to play Claude Hopkins, tell a fast origin story, and hand him a piece of paper with the offer and the call to action. Claude Hopkins was one of the original offer creators. You probably know about Claude Hopkins if you've been following me. Claude Hopkin was the first guy to put an ad on a car. He actually popularized the concept of brushing teeth so that they could sell toothpaste! Seriously, brilliant, brilliant man; late 1800s. Anyway, I wanted some dude to gonna dress up like Claude Hopkins and walk up and say: “What's up? My name's Claude Hopkins, I was one of the first offer creators in America: Hey that Steve Larsen, you should really go talk to him about his event.” ...and then hand off the offer, the gift certificate for the massage... the sushi already on the table. It's Pretty Sexy… but unfortunately, the Claude Hopkins bit didn’t happen. PLAYING FULL OUT I wanted to go full out because I knew that if Russell said, “Yes!” Then it would be a lot easier for us to get two or three other really high-end people to speak at OfferMind. It was definitely worth crafting a campaign for. I want to be able to bring in some of the best to OFFERMIND, and Russell obviously is THE BEST! Remember I talked about how important it is to follow the framework master, and Russell is that guy! Why would I bring in anybody else?! So that why I went to soooo much effort crafting this offer for Russell to keynote. It's was an offer NOT a request. It's WASN’T, “Come look at me…” I'm not gonna EVER do that. That's the fastest way for you to put a bad taste in their mouth when you're talking to a BIG influencer... even if we're friends. In any influencer scenario, you got ONE SHOT to set up the way they're gonna look at you FOREVER. It really does matter! So, when I talk to the other offer creation rock stars I want to bring to you, I will craft a custom campaign for each individual. Campaigns are a dying art (It’s NOT the same thing as a Facebook ad). I will craft a campaign, NOT just an offer, NOT just a sales message, and reach out to each individual to try and get them to come to speak at OfferMind. BOOM! If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, 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 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? These are 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.com.
Boom, what's going on, everyone? Steve Larsen from Sales Funnel Radio, today I'm gonna teach you guys my event teaching template. I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today and now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business. The real question is how will I do it without VC funding or debt completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer. Join me and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business, using only today's best internet sales funnels. My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. What's up, guys? Hey, I'm excited for today. I wanna share with you guys kind of a cool little thing here. I’ve been teaching at events for a number of years now. I’ve taught everyone, from people who are brand new to people who are extremely experienced and very wealthy, and there is a format that I teach in. One of the things that I get asked, actually more and more frequently this has been happening, is, “Stephen, how can you get up and riff for two hours?” The answer is, I'm not just like talking, I'm actually following a format in my head. There's been a few people have reached out and said, “Stephen, I wish you'd just get straight to the principle.” But there's reasons why I'm doing what I'm doing with this. Right after my OfferMind event in 20218, I had the opportunity to go in and teach Russell Brunson's new speaker team for about half a day. He's got a new traveling team and they travel around on small stages that he can't get to, 'cause of who he is - which totally makes sense. This team pitches ClickFunnels and content around the world, which is awesome. It's super cool. So I was asked to come in and teach some of my methods and how I do what I do. I walked up and there wasn't really much of a framework, I had an idea… I was watching and observing like crazy before it was my turn to go up, 'cause I wanted to see where they were. So I had an idea of what to actually talk about… But guys, I'll be honest with you, sometimes as I'm talking, especially on stage, (I'm always extremely prepared, especially when I get on stage), but there's always a little bit of playroom. One of my favorite things to do when I'm talking and going through a principle or whatever is to watch, I don't know how else to describe it, other than watching the eyes of the people to see: #: Do I have them? If I'm losing them, I've got to tell a story. I've got to just do something that's high drama or drop some more gold, something a little more valuable. I've got to do something to get 'em back; whether that's an engagement, or sometimes I'll do a random Q&A. Half of a being speaker is being able to deliver cool stuff; the other half is being able to read the audience. I’ve done a lot of three-day events, tons of them and I have slides, but not every group that comes into the room is the exact same, so I've got to be able to adjust based on what they're doing. So what I've done, especially over the last two years, I've been developing kind of my own pattern for how I do stage stuff. Those of you guys who are coming to Funnel Hacking Live, you’ll see me do this. I'll be extremely prepared, however I'm also gonna leave a little bit of room. I'm gonna watch how people are reacting. There's been some stages that I've spoken on and like every audience is different, there's nothing to really prepare you for it, other than just doing it. There’ve been some audiences that I've spoken to that were just the driest, dry, most unfun group to talk to ever, I'm not gonna say who it was, but it was a few events in Vegas and Texas and these other areas. I just talked to them and like, “Man, are you guys dead?” Anyway, before I say anything offensive, I'm gonna move on, but like, “MAN!” Then some of the most fun stages are not necessarily always the most educated in what I do, so I've got to start at a different level. You've got to be really fluid as a stage talker. Now there's a difference between stage teaching and stage pitching - huge difference, monumental difference. Every time I'm doing a stage pitch, I will follow a webinar script. Teaching from stage, it's kind of that, but not really, there's a lot more that goes into it. So my wife and I, we're both geeks now and she and I were talking late about stage and we were talking about the different formats of being able to present on stage, and so I thought it'd be kind of cool to share with you guys some of what I do, and how I'm actually able to pull that off… I'm not just riffing, although it may look like that. Let me just pull this whiteboard in here. If you guys are on ITunes, no sweat, I'm gonna walk through, you guys won't miss anything out. Drawing just helps me explain, so that's half the reason I draw so much. Okay, so the first thing that I do is I go in and I draw a big old framework picture. It's a massive framework picture right here up at the top and it's a picture that represents the all the content. One of the major reasons that I do this is because it helps me stay focused on what I need to produce, but also it helps me stay focused on what I should NOT get distracted by. There are squirrels! As a speaker, you're like, “Oh man, you, one person in the audience, you think that's cool? Why don't I go on a massive tangent and teach you some other cool things, 'cause you think that's cool?” No! I'm sticking to a framework. There was an event I was speaking at early on, one of the first stages I ever spoke on, and it was really valuable, but I stopped teaching and started Q&A-ing. Stage pitching, totally different than stage teaching, which is totally different than Q&A, which is totally different than workshop. They're not all the same thing. They're the little tools that I pull out of my pocket when I need to to keep: Things interesting The learning up and high The energy high People engaged ... 'cause some of the principles I go through... man, they're freaking boring. I know they're boring! I hate listening to boring speakers. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I don't really watch so much football. I like the Denver Broncos, they're my team, but I don't really watch that much of it, but when I do… I'm not really an armchair quarterback, but I am TOTALLY an armchair quarterback when I am watching other people on stage. I’m nitpicking the crap out of 'em, I can't help it. I'm like: Oh, I would have done that different I would have pointed differently there What's with the stature of that person? Why is every one of their sentences going down? They should be going up. ...you know, it's like I can't help it. This is my craft, this is what I do, I can't help but watch what people are doing on stage. So anyway, there's different mechanisms and frameworks and patterns that I'm using throughout. Specifically for this episode, I'm gonna walk through how I handle teaching on stage in a way that’s: Interesting Interactive Captivating and brings the minds of the audience with you If I just pop right out and say, “Here's the framework!” The audience will: Look at it Finds something on there that they have seen before Thinks that they understand the rest of it immediately - when they don't. I can't just walk up and be like, “Here's the framework.” So what I do first of all is I go in and I draw a framework picture, then what I do is I break up the picture into chunks, three, four, five, six, seven chunks. This is exactly what I did for OfferMind This is exactly what I did for all of the FHAT events that I used to run It's exactly what I do for OfferLab, which is coming up for those of you guys that are coming to it. ...Does that make sense? There's a lot of what I do that comes from just this piece alone. I got to hang out with Russell when he was drafting a lot of the Traffic Secrets book which he's been working on. He's writing it right now, but the actual ideation of the principles, he does the exact same thing... Where do you think I learned it? ;-) When I first got to ClickFunnels and he started drafting the Expert Secrets Book, this is exactly what we did. There was a picture that represented all of it and then the picture was broken up into four or five different pieces, and those are the major sections of the book. So I do this the exact same way when I'm doing a teaching-based event. When I go into pitching, that's a different activity and a different pattern. But specifically this is how to teach at events. Okay, just making that clear, so that no one thinks that's how you pitch! The first thing I do is I draw a picture… If I can explain a complex principle with a doodle, it means it’s simple enough for the masses to understand. Most people are on a third grade reading level,and I can't stand up and use complex vocabulary. The point is to not make me look smart, the point is to educate the audience. It drives me nuts when you can tell someone wrote a speech to make 'em look smart, rather than to connect with the audience. I'm not gonna name any names, but man, there was an event that I went to, (this happened like three times last year), where I got to speak at an event or I went to one that I just kind of wanted to go to… and there would be one or two speeches specifically you could just tell that were created to just remind everyone how cool the speaker was. ...That's awesome, but I believe that if you want credit, don't seek it. If you want stature, don't seek it. You're gonna look like you are and you distance yourself from the listeners, 'cause you're like: “Will you remind me again of how awesome I am, please? Remind me how much of a pedestal I'm on. Raise me up, please, audience, following.” ...You distance yourself from the audience in that one move. Stupid, don't do it! okay. So anyways,I draw a picture (for a lot of reasons), but it's so that I understand it in a simple way to teach it and so it's a simple to deliver the principle at the same time. So I draw a smaller picture of a chunk of the major framework picture and I do it again, and then I do it again. Let's say that there are four major principles, that are distinct from each other inside of this major picture. So then I draw another picture. Then there's a pattern inside each one of these that I'm pulling off. When I'm doing a lot of Facebook Lives, or even sometimes in these episodes, I don't always do this in these episodes, but a lot of times I'll follow kind of a version of this a little bit. There's really two phases to this: #1: Is Preparing: so, first, I'm gonna walk through the preparing phase, which is what we're doing right now. This is how I prepare all the content ahead of time to make sure that I am ready to over deliver on stage. Is it a brain jog? Yes, it’s mentally exhausting. It’s so challenging. I'm going through the exact same process for my book right now. Ha, right! It's not easy, guys. It's NOT easy at all. Realistically, if you're doing something that's gonna be a little more permanent like a book… I don't write the book to make money, it's gonna make some, but I'm making the book to make sure it’s easily transferable information to the masses. It's a low ticket thing = low cost + high circulation product. So these are the stages I’m gonna go through with you: 1. Preparation 2. Delivery So the first thing I do is I come up a big picture represents all of it and then there's four major principles - they're like little breakouts of the major framework. So now let's get down to each one of these levels. I draw the major, overarching principle pictures and I will usually use blue. The next color I use for the actual content itself is typically green.I hope it shows up well on the camera here. Then I draw a smaller picture, yeah, that shows up alright, I draw a smaller picture and inside of that, I'm coming up with: A quote, A story The actual concept itself A ‘So What?’ You’ll see Russell do this in several places as well, I do this in a lot of spots: “Oh, cool quote about this. By the way, here's a really cool story that's gonna set you up to understand the concept when I drop it.” Which is why I always tell a lot of stories on this show and anywhere. Then, the “So what?” Meaning; “Who freaking cares?” If I teach you something cool and you can't use it, then who cares? I'm not here to say, “Oh, look how cool I am. So what? Who cares? I hate my time being wasted. I do my best NOT to waste you guy's time, so I do what's called a “So What?” I this at OfferMind; meaning: I teach you the principle Here's what you should be able to do with it now that you've learned it. It's like the deliverables, the thing that they should be able to go do afterwards. And frankly, this is a small picture... and then I do it again. We do a smaller picture, a quote.. and these are all little, tiny micro stories that teach the bigger concept. There'll be a bunch of 'em, boom, boom, small, small pictures. However many I need, in order to actually accurately show the BIG concept. Does that make sense so far? Then what I do is I typically, not always, it depends on how much time I have... So then I grab a red pen and red to me is the “So whats?” If you don't have red, you're dead... meaning this is the applicable area of what I'm teaching here. So then, I usually do somewhat of a workshop/Q&A, not always. One or the other, sometimes both, it’s very time dependent. These usually end out the principle that I’ve taught. For those of you guys who have got tickets to the next OfferMind, you got the replays from last year, watch me doing this. Each session is is usually about an hour and a half to two hours,and then we usually need a break, and that's fine, but I usually end with a workshop/Q&A section or session. I do the exact same thing for every single one of those major pictures and frameworks moving forward. Does that kind of make sense? That's how I prepare, but that's NOT actually how I teach it. That’s NOT how I teach it at all. Now I'm gonna erase the bottom of this right here, just so that I can draw how I actually toss it out, okay. So that's why I lace it all out on my floor. I just got another 12 legal pads from Amazon Basics, because I'm running out. I use a lot of legal pads because I'm literally drawing pictures and writing the quotes on all these sheets on my floor and stuff - because then I can visually see: “Crap, I'm missing a story on picture number two, section one, right, oh, dang, I'm need to find a quote, that backs up what I've been saying, I know this is a true principle, who else talks about that?” That's why I buy so many books, I don't necessarily read that many books from cover to cover, I don't. What I do is I hunt answers. If I know I'm missing a quote from section one, picture number three, I'm like, “Crap, who talked about that again?” Then what I do is I walk through my bookshelves and I grab out all the books,that look like they're about that topic and I will rifle through and speed read like crazy. In fact, on the other side of this camera is where I usually put all that stuff. I had stacks of books next to each principle: “Oh man, this stack of books is really about that one principle. This stack of books is really about that principle.” And I rifle through them to make sure. That's why OfferMind was so good, guys, I did my freaking homework. Let me grab another color here. Yeah, let's grab black… So that's how I prepare, but the way I actually deliver is, I always start with a story. A story at a place of high drama. Sometimes I will start also with a quote; sometimes those are interchangeable. It's not always in that order, but these are always at the beginning at least. So it's a story at a place of high drama, and a quote. I never just present the picture. This is one of the reasons why so many of us use whiteboards on stage is we are drawing the picture in front of the audience. If you have to go fast, that's fine, but it actually creates a deeper understanding for the audience if you draw and explain at the same time ...and then show them the finalized picture that you prepared ahead of time. Russell does this at Traffic Secrets. I do this all the time like at the FHAT Events.I did this several times at OfferMind, time depending, based on where I was. What I do is I draw a story to place high drama, then I go through a quote and then I'm drawing the picture in front of them on a clean whiteboard or a clean piece of paper. I'm saying the steps that they need to take in order to to do that principle, but I'm also visually writing down those steps. That's why in my slides, a lot of times, you'll see I'm drawing the picture even though it's already done on the next slide. This works so freaking good. I've used this many times on a lot of stages, a lot of stages, okay. I've an abnormal amount of stage time for someone my age and I know that, and I'm just saying, okay. So then I'm gonna number the steps out, audibly and written and then finally I press the slide button, 'cause I go make all these pictures. I have an artist go in and they will actually make a rendering of each one of these pictures. But if I just show it, it's not nearly as effective. Then I go through my “So Whats?” and then leave off with the Q&A/workshop. Does that make sense? Sorry for the reflection there, guys, I'm trying to get that off there. Anyways, cool, that's how I do it. First, I prepare it in the order I’ve shown you, but then I deliver it in this order. I DON’T just: Show the picture Use a quote Tell a story Reveal a concept Add the “So Whats?” BECAUSE… it's better if the audience discovers the picture with you as you're drawing it. Man, that's so much more effective. The learning's a lot deeper. Anyways, I just wanna share that with you guys. Some of you have been asking about this and I'm stoked to be able to share it with you. So if you guys are doing events - which are amazing. I believe everybody should do an event. Events are incredible whether it’s virtual or in person. Marketers are event creators. When you go in, especially in a teaching event. I'm speaking in a lot of places already in 2019, I'm really stoked about it. I got a lot of offers, I'm going a lot of places and I'm excited about that. I'm saying no to most of 'em, 'cause I'm really focused on my goal for this year. Thank you, I don’t want to offend anyone. If I’m gonna do any kind of stage speech at all, if I have an hour, if I have 30 minutes, if I have three days, this is how I do it. You'll see a lot of times, when I'm trying to over deliver content, in my head, I'm following this format. What's the story format I'm using? Epiphany Bridge Script. What's the quote I'm using? Someone who's influential, that the audience all know about. I'm drawing the picture in front of 'em. I suck at drawing, whatever! Next I walk through and number the steps out: it's the same exact thing I would do in a webinar script, but in this format, it's a little different. Then I go in and write the “So Whats?” Finally; Q&A/workshop at the end, time dependent. I love that one, it helps 'em really feel like they've gotten a lot. Anyway, that's the format that I use both in creating and in delivering. What I want to do real fast is cut over to one other video real fast… When I was at OfferMind, I ended the event. I was done, I was excited, I was like man, I knew that it had been awesome. A lot of money has been made from that event already; meaning the people in the audience applied everything and made a lot of cash, which is awesome and very validating… But I was getting down and guys, I was tired, okay, I was about to go get in the car and continue to teach the speaker team. I was exhausted, man. I had really not slept in a while, and if you've ever been on stage, like you should be freaking tired. The photographer came up to me afterwards and she goes, "You move more on stage than anybody I've ever seen ever," and I said “Yeah, well, number one, I hate bad speakers who are boring and number two, if I don't keep things interesting it's gonna suck.” I don't know if you guys have heard the saying or the stat. I don’t know if it’s a stat or a saying, whatever... but I believe it's true, 'cause it seems true every time I do it… 90 minutes on stage is the equivalent in energy to a full eight-hour workday ...And so to go for two straight days, man, you're wrecked, you are so freaking tired. Whenever I'm doing a webinar, it's an hour and a half, I'm acting like I'm on stage. I’m exhausted after I do a webinar. I’m putting out energy, I’m working hard. They will NOT exceed my energy level. I set the pace, so I've got to come in high and hard, so that I can bring everybody up because that brings them in a better place to be engaged and learn, I pre-bought caffeine for the tables. Anyway, so I did all this stuff, and then the event ended, and as I was about to walk off, Colton runs up and he goes, "Hey, wait everyone, don't move, don't move, don't move." I didn't know he had a mic in his hand and he invited John Ferguson up and they gave me the Statue of Responsibility Award which had a hard time not breaking down and kind of crying over, guys. The only reason I'm showing you guys this, it's not to pat my back, it's to pat my wife's for what she does to support everything that I'm doing. It's pretty intense. So I just wanna give a little shout out to my wife here. We're gonna cut over here, so you guys can watch US get that award and the amazing compliment that he gave her at the end of this video. So anyways, let's cut over real quick here: Coulton: We have something pretty special planned for Steve right now. He has no idea. So you guys are gonna be part of this, but in order to, like, explain it a little bit more, we're gonna roll a video, so if you guys wanna kinda sit back and watch a quick video with us, that would be awesome. VIDEO: Viktor Frankl, the author of Man's Search for Meaning and a Holocaust survivor, he firmly believed that if we don't act responsibly with our freedoms, we will lose those, and now we're able to create his vision. His vision was to create a Statue of Responsibility. Bookend the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast with a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast. "Freedom threatens to degenerate into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsiveness. And that is why now it's for ten years that I've been teaching my American audiences they should see to it that the Statue of Liberty on the Atlantic Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the Pacific Coast." -Viktor Frankl SCULPTOR OF THE STATUE: "Everyday we make decisions. We can think about what defines us. Is it our past, or is it where we're going? Is it what we want to do, or what's happened to us? We have the ability. We decide what we're going to create each and every day." Coulton: I'm now gonna invite Mr. John Ferguson up to the stage real quick. John Ferguson: So Stephen knows what this is, but a lot of you didn't, so we wanted to share the video. On my way out here, I had an opportunity to talk to the sculptor of The Statue of Responsibility. Two years ago, we were on a mission to find entrepreneurs, influencers, people who are looking to change other people's lives. Viktor Frankl had in his study in Vienna, a sculpture with a man called The Suffering Man who reaches up to the sky looking for help. He always used to say, before he passed away, is "Where is the hand reaching down?" Being a Holocaust survivor, he talked about responsibility on the West Coast to bookend liberty and freedom on the East Coast, and so we said: "Look, we have to find individuals who are the hand reaching down to others in our world." Don't you think Stephen is one of those people? Yeah, totally! I think I've known Stephen about three years, first Funnel Hacking live event. We talked about that, and he is a different dude. He is awesome, right? I mean, phenomenal. And so I talked to the sculptor, and I had him sign one of the statues, and it’s numbered, and we're only giving away a few of these to individuals in the country. These individuals will have their names in a special place at the statue that will be built in Southern California, 305 feet tall, just like The Statue of Liberty. You'll be able to go inside and visit it. Because of what he's done, not only for this community, but for all of your communities, do you understand that? Now you can get your message put in a way, you guys are all a part of this. To Steve: so would you accept the Statue of Responsibility as a gift for what you've given all of us? Steve: Absolutely, man. Thank you very much. I really appreciate that a lot. That's huge. Thanks, man, thank you. John Ferguson: And one last thing here with Alyssa, the reason why I wanted her on the stage was she's the hand reaching down at home while Stephen's here with us. So thank you for giving us Stephen while you're having to take care of the home. Appreciate it. Steve: Thanks. It means a lot. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Well, you guys are, you guys are gonna see my tears flex in a second. Hey, guys thank you so much for being here. We love you, we appreciate you a lot. This is totally a family endeavor. Hope you guys know that and feel that from us, and go change the world. We'll see you guys. Thank you, thank you very much. Thanks for watching this episode, please rate and subscribe at ITunes, I would really appreciate it if you guys rated it. That means a lot. Guys, thanks so much. Let's cut over to the video and see us getting that award. Bye. Boom, just try to tell me you didn't like that! Hey, whoever controls content controls the game. Wanna interview me or get interviewed yourself, grab a time now at stevejlarsen.com.
Boom, what's going on everyone? Steve Larsen from Sales Funnel Radio and today I'm excited to teach you guys my list management strategy. I spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today, and now I've left by nine-to-five to take the plunge and build my million-dollar business. The real question is, how well I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer. Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business, using only today's best Internet sales funnels. My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. Hey guys, I'm excited to show you guys this. This is probably a simple lesson, but I find more often than not there is a lot of people out there who don't really have a strategy for what I'm about to show you. Which means for all the lists that are being built, (which are the true asset of the Internet), there’s no strategy - there’s no list management at all. I remember the first funnel I ever built, it was a free plus shipping funnel, and it was selling this little CD. For those of you guys listening on iTunes, just know I'm drawing this but you'll be fine just listening as well. It was free plus shipping CD funnel and as soon as you bought the CD… Let's say the CD was here on the very first page - there’s a list specifically of people who bought that CD. Now, that makes sense. there was a list just for the CD people. Then there was a bump in there… If this is the first time you've ever tuned into Sales Funnel Radio, just know we're talking about sales funnels obviously. This is the way to sell things on the Internet, and this is one of the cool strategies to get a lot of low-end, low-ticket kind of things out the door through a free plus shipping funnel. So anyways, there'd be this bump, like: “Hey, you want to add something else to your order?” So there'd be another list specifically for this bump. ...and it started getting messy quick. You're starting to see where I'm going with this, right? The next upsell = there was another list. There was another list for this one. There was a list of people who just bought the down sell. There was a list of people who made it all the way through the funnel and bought everything. ...I mean, it was like a list upon list upon list. Lists had gotten together and had babies. There were camps of lists all over the place. It was ridiculous. I had so many lists. It got convoluted very very quickly. So literally every funnel that I'd build… If it was just a standard kind of low ticket funnel like this; I would easily have one, two, three, four, five, five or more lists per funnel. That's just for this value ladder step two. So if there were all these other value ladder pieces, for example, if there was five on this one, five on that one, five on that one… That’s easily 15 lists for every single thing I was going and I was building... And then I’d go build for other people! I mean, it got so convoluted so fast. I would have to go in and re-remember where each person specifically. It was terrible guys. And I know you're like “Oh, woe is you.” But like seriously, imagine how intense that gets very very quickly. It gets stressful. Every time you want to send an email, you’re stuck selecting 100 lists: “This one but not that one, this one but not that one.” It takes a long time actually. It took significant chunks of Russell's day every time he would do it. One of the things Russell had me do when I first got there, (probably about five months in), is I had to condense and organize and sort all of the lists at ClickFunnels. It's was a half a million people that were on that list at that time... just ClickFunnels' lists; now it's way more than that. It was a huge, massive list, but it was spread out across, I think well over 50, 60, 70. Don't quote me on that, but it was a lot of lists. So what I had to go do is come up with some kind of procedure some I could sift through to say, “Okay, this is how we're going to handle all list management in the backend from here on.” These funnels we built were so powerful, but there’s not really a nomenclature. If there’s not really a system for naming and organizing all the different lists that are inside someone's ClickFunnels account, value ladder, or inside of any business, it gets really convoluted. I know this might sound kinda a trivial trial, but it's not though! I promise, go try this out, and you'll see how frustrating it gets when you want to send an email. It's hard because your brain will be so consumed by the next thing you are building to have to go back and remember what you were doing in each one of these pieces. Man, that's why we have automation. So there are a few more pieces of automation people can add inside of their funnels to just make the whole thing sing and make it really really simple. That's the purpose of today's episode. I want to teach you guys, real quick, this list management strategy that I use still today. I just barely went through and I started deleting a bunch of lists that are old. I realized I wasn't following my own strategy. I think I just deleted 40 email lists. I download all of them, combined them, and re-upload them to my Seinfeld list If you don't know what I'm talking about here, guys, go get the book DotCom Secrets. If you're on this podcast and you've been listening to this and you haven't read that Dot Com Secrets, you should probably follow a different podcast… I say that jokingly, but not really ;-) This is gonna help you tremendously in every single funnel. I'm trying to make this as simple as I possibly can. Let me just move this whiteboard a little more here… (I'm gonna draw a list here in red) I'm never going to build a funnel and NOT collect an email or some kind of contact information. Whether it's some kind of Facebook opt-in or whatever, I'm always gonna be collecting a list. *ALWAYS* There's no point for me to even make the funnel if I'm not going to somehow collect a list. It's NOT always page one, but somewhere I'm going to be collecting some kind of opt-in. There is a core list that I am always adding to. ...So if this is again my value ladder, I am always, always going to add people to what I call a Seinfeld list. That's what it is called. It’s called a Seinfeld list. That Seinfeld list represents and is added to by every funnel in my value ladder. So if I have this big old list right here, kind of like a bucket... that's how I kind of imagine a list... like hey here's a big bucket. That's my symbol, when I'm drawing funnels, for a list. I have one Seinfeld list that represents the entirety of the value ladder. If anybody opts in anywhere on any funnel, all rivers, all oceans lead to my Seinfeld list. Every time I'm building a funnel or designing it; Seinfeld. Seinfeld list, meaning Seinfeld series. If you don't know what that is, you gotta read DotCom Secrets. Just to recap real fast: The Seinfeld list is the general list of all your people. We call it that because when we email them, we are following the Seinfeld (as in the Seinfeld show) format of talking to people. There's gonna be a really small micro-story which doesn't necessarily need to relate with the topic about the email, but it's just to capture attention and edutain. And then I'm gonna go in and have some call to action. The Seinfeld is the list I'm consistently hitting. It's the list where I'm gonna go and be like, “Oh man, I should go promo my next thing.” It's the Seinfeld list that I'm emailing, NOT all of my list. For Sales Funnel Radio, we blast out a general, “Hey, here's the next episode… this is what it's about. We choose specifically my Seinfeld list and my Sales Funnel Radio list inside of my ClickFunnels account - just those two. All rivers lead to Seinfeld anyway. Every single funnel though, I'm running it off of just a few lists. It’s the same for every single funnel, I'm just telling you. I stopped collecting unique lists for people who just opted in for OTO 2, or who wanted a downsell - that sucks quick. It gets terrible real fast. So the first thing that I do, whatever they opt to… Let's say there's an opt-in form with a big old button and someone opts-in and gives their email. The first thing I'm gonna go do is add them to a general opt-in list for the specific funnel. ...so each value ladder funnel has its own opt-in list… After about five, six, seven, sometimes 10 days, however long it takes for this specific campaign to end, I automatically add them to my Seinfeld list. So let's say that there's an email soap opera series that's dropping out over five days. On day six, I would automatically tell ClickFunnels: Add that contact to my Seinfeld list, and on day seven remove them from my opt-in list. I want to know exactly where people are inside of my funnel. There are not many occurrences where I want someone to be on multiple lists at one time. At the same time, they could be on: An opt-in list. A Seinfeld list A buyers list ... that's it. If they are on one list and they suddenly get on the list for the high-ticket thing, that's fine as long as they are actually experiencing the funnel still. I don't want them to be there 10 weeks later just sitting and chilling out in there. That does not give me a good accurate description of where the flow is happening inside of my value ladder. Does that make sense? Again, we're more techie on this episode, but just follow me on this. This is actually very simple once I just draw it out. So I have the opt-in list, and after, let's say, day six, I'm going to have ClickFunnels automatically add that contact to a Seinfeld and then on day seven remove then from the first list. I don't want them on both. Seinfeld or opt-in, NOT both at the same time. If it's just a general opt-in with nothing to purchase, that's how I would do it. If they opt-in in general, I'm still gonna add them to opt-ins. I'm NEVER not gonna just not collect the data. I'm gonna collect the data. But let's say they purchase something here on the first page, I would add them to another list. Say it's a two-step order form, so they opt in, boom, I'm gonna add them to opt-ins, okay, but if they actually purchase I want to know who my specific buyers are. I want to speak to my buyers in a very specific manner; so I'm gonna add these guys to their own list. I'm NOT going to create a specific buyer list for each individual product in my entire funnel - like I was saying before, that sucks quick. It's terrible. That's pretty much it, guys! I mean, I wish there was more to this episode. I mean that really is it. So let's walk through a few scenarios here… Let's say someone opts in and they get added to the opt-in list where they experience an email sequence or some kind of follow-up sequence - something, an Actionetics. Maybe they're hitting all my Facebook ads for a while, and then once the lead kinda dies down and I realize they're not very warm anymore, they're kinda cooled off and they’re NOT really in a buying state anymore, I want to get them off the list. I don't want them on the opt-in list. I don't want them to be a representation of people who are in the funnel. They're not on the funnel. I don't want them in the list… I've done this in series before that’s been a 21-day series or 30-day series… So on day 31, or whatever, I will automatically have ClickFunnels add that contact to my Seinfeld list, and on the next day, remove them from the list they came from. That way, everyone else who's left in the list, they are still in the list, they are still in the funnel. They are still experiencing the funnel. I'm still trying to sell them. That helps me, it's really cool guys. I can look at my ClickFunnels account and see: There's a ton of people right here at the bottom on my value ladder = that's great. There's almost no one in the middle and tons of people at the top = Why are they not ascending from this space to the next space easily? Does that make sense? It lets me see things more accurately. I don't want lists all over the place. That's crappy, it’s literally a clog in my funnel. So that's one scenario... and every single value ladder step is that way. All rivers continue to add to the Seinfeld list and remove from the original opt-in list of that value ladder step. This is super easy, super key. The buyer's list is the one list that they will NEVER get removed from. I want to speak specifically to my buyers sometimes. When someone makes a purchase they are added to the buyer's list. If they buy the next OTO, they’re already on the buyer's list, I'm NOT adding them again. They’re already on the buyer's list. For each value ladder step, there’s a specific buyer’s list so I know how many people are buying on each value ladder step. Then there’s one Seinfeld list for all of them Then there’s one opt-in list for each of them. ...And that's literally how I run it. They can stay in a buyers list forever and hopefully, they’ll never opt out. So there's an opt-in list on each value ladder step, but eventually, that opt-in list expires for that session, and that person gets added to Seinfeld list It’s literally with those three lists that I manage all of my stuff. As I'm building the funnel, I walk through several scenarios to see where the dead ends are. I don't want leads to get stuck somewhere and stay there forever. They should not hit a dead end. The only place that it should end is in a Seinfeld list or buyers list. That's it. It's flowing somewhere. Now I'm able to sit back and go like, “Holy crap, look at this! They're going from here to here, but then NOT from here to there. What's wrong with this series?” If the email series is first meant to sell whatever's going on in the funnel, and then let's say I have more emails that are meant to ascend somebody to the next piece in the value ladder, and the next value ladder. I want to be able to figure where things get stuck. So I'm gonna go one level deeper on this here real quick… There's one other piece to it that makes the whole thing sing and it's something that can really help you guys as you start to move forward on this stuff. Check this out: So if I've got a value ladder... Man that sucks, I need like those big thick markers. I got them for my whiteboard for the OfferMind event, but they’re hard to find. I haven't found anybody with dry-erase versions. You know what I mean? Anyway, so if I've got a value ladder: each value ladder has a list for opt-ins, and a list for buyers. That opt-in list will auto dump people out to the Seinfeld list. I don't want them to stay there long term. Eventually, all rivers lead here to the big old Seinfeld list. Now I can accurately see how people are moving inside of my actual value ladder, but there is one other piece here that is actually super cool. If you go to ClickFunnels.com and you’re NOT logged in, you’ll see a new quiz. Clickfunnels has created 10 unique onboarding sequences based on the industry you’re coming from; which is very very clever. SoI click on Network Marketing, I'm gonna get onboarded to ClickFunnels in that specific industry's language. Massive project. Absolutely huge! Not a small feat to pull off. Amazing that Russell did that. Let's say somebody comes into a specific funnel, then I need to create a sequence inside of each funnel to sell them on what’s in this funnel. That's the purpose of that opt-in, to sell them what's inside the funnel. When somebody opts into my application based funnels (I get two to three applications per day asking people to join some things that I do, which is really cool), well, when they go opt-in, I have a 10-day series continually pitching them to join my thing. So now, I'm making a series for each value ladder step, but I'm also making a series in between each value ladder step. One of the things that I'm gonna be doing in 2019 which I'm really pumped about. On the floor, you guys can’t see it, there’s yellow paper all over the place. I’ve started to design and put together an onboarding series so that regardless of where you come into my funnel, you’ll find easy ways to consume my entire value ladder, NOT just that one step, Does that make sense? I want one of those big long email series, let's say it's 30 days or whatever, and what it's doing is: The first 3 emails are selling you on why you should come up to this area of my value ladder. The next 3 emails are selling you on why you should come purchase in the middle of the value ladder. Then 3 emails are selling you on why you should come up to the very top level of my value ladder. ... So there's a tie-in list between the steps which can be attached to the Seinfeld list. I have the value ladder steps already built out, but the thing I'm stoked for 2019 is this piece: When you get into my world, and I need you to go build an offer. Q: What's the easiest way for you to do that? A: Go buy my book (which we're working on right now which I'm super stoked about). Q: What should you do next? A: You should probably come to OfferMind in all reality. Q: What should you do after next? A: We got this sweet thing called OfferLab where I actually help build your thing. I'll fly out to you, or you fly out to me, or and you can come to a three-day event with just a small group of people. Q: What should you do next? A: Oh, you know what, it looks like Steve Larsen's got a mastermind (which I'm gonna have soon). ...That's part of the value ladder I've been designing, but what's the sequence? So, if someone was to start at the very beginning of the value ladder, this BIG sequence would actually pull them through and showcase every single area of the value ladder and all the things that are in it. So that's how I manage my lists. Again, a bit of a long episode and more technical, but hopefully it spurts some ideas on how you can organize your lists more. It's NOT just for organization sake. It’s literally to see the effectiveness of how well you're upselling people NOT just in the funnel, but from value ladder step to value ladder step. That's the way we do it, and honestly, I'm super stoked for that. I've watched a lot of people go in and build one of these big sequences and I'll be doing the same soon. I just went back and rehashed all the stuff that I've been doing in my own ClickFunnels account to make sure that it was set up with this process. There was a lot that I had, just for speed's sake, forgot to set up like that. So I exported about 40 lists, combined them all, uploaded that new list to my Seinfeld list, and then deleted the old separate lists. I went through every single funnel and added automation to add to Seinfeld and remove from opt-in. Which I’m psyched about So the next piece, sometime this year I'm gonna be building out an awesome onboarding sequence, which is not aggressive, but it's showcasing: “Boom! Once you get this, did you know I have this? Did you know I have this?” A lot of people have no idea what I even sell, or they have no idea of all the products I do sell or the things I do offer. That's a problem! Don't have it in your business. One of the ways you can solve that is by having one of these cool onboarding sequences as well. So, anyways, guys, that's kind of the list management stuff that I do. You literally can run your entire thing: One funnel with three lists. More often than not when I log into someone's ClickFunnels account, they have no set up for how to run it. I have no idea where people are getting stuck in their business, and it's hard for us to actually maneuver. I don't know who to send emails to and who to not to. I don't want to send an email to the entire list when they're still inside a funnel. I want them to focus on that purchase. I don't wanna come around with, “Hey, I know you're about to scratch the buyer's itch with a $15,000 thing. Why don't you come buy my book for $7.95?” Like, NO! There are specific people you should NOT be talking to who are inside of your sequences right now. That's exactly why I wanted to do this episode. So you guys can see from a top-level, each part of the funnel, each part of the value ladder is super similar. It's the way that I'm able to go and send them from piece to piece and only talk to specific people - that's very very key, super key. Anyways guys, thanks so much for joining me. If you guys like this, please like, subscribe and review it in iTunes - that actually means a lot to me. Guys, we'll see you in the next episode, bye. Woo-hoo! Hey, there's more marketing resources than there are sands of the sea, am I right? Okay, maybe not, but there's a lot... How do you know if you're paying for good ones? Recently, I went to my business bank statement and I counted 51 Internet tools and resources that I used to run my business every day and actually keep my team size small. If you want to see the list, I actually filmed an individual video teaching you why I use each tool and the strategy behind it, and then I dropped a link straight to the source right below it. If you want to see the list, then see what you can use yourself, go to bestmarketingresources.com. That's bestmarketingresources.com.
Boom, what's going on, everyone? Steve Larsen from Sales Funnel Radio. I am excited for this episode. Well, to be honest, I'm actually freaked out. This is my 2019 goal. I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million-dollar business. The real question is: how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer. Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels. My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. What's up everyone? Hey, so every single year I do this, and it's the scariest thing I do every single year. This is my fifth year in a row of doing this. If you wanna see the past goals I've made year by year, you actually can find them on the youtube channel. You go to salesfunnelradio.tv, and it'll take you to the actual youtube channel. If you want to check it out there - you can see the playlist of my previous years' goals. Well, every single year I do this. And I remember the first time I ever did this. I was in this place of desperation. I was going into the army. In fact, you can see I have a shaved head. There's almost no fat on my body for some of those videos in there. I remember sitting back and just thinking, “I'm tired.” guys. I'm tired of not having what I wanna have. I need to start doing things that are more drastic. And that's kind of what I was going through in my head at that time. So I grabbed my computer, and I literally had traded funnels for the computer I was using. Actually no, not at that time. I don't even know that I really knew what a funnel was when I made that first video. When I think back about it. I was taking a lot of traffic courses. Yeah, okay, that's what it was! Wait a second, so at the time what was going on, I was probably at business try, let's see, that was around number eight or nine, maybe ten. I was a traffic driver for Paul Mitchell. I’d had my first thousand dollar day, and it blew my mind. I was like "Holy Crap!" I was working with another guy at the time, we split the check, but still, $500 in a single day for me, I had never done that. And I was super blown away, guys. That was nuts. Absolutely insane for me. We were living on a grand a month, basically, I believe. Something like that, anyways. It was hardly any money. And I was tired of it. We’d been married for three years by that time and I was sick of being poor. You can actually hear me in the very first thing say that: "I'm tired of being poor. "I'm tired of not having the things I'd like to have. "I'm tired of not having a lifestyle." And honestly the biggest internal reason? I was tired of feeling like I couldn't provide for my family. I was sick of all of it. I was like, I need to start doing bigger things. I need to start doing big, drastic things in my life that are the big disruptive activities that literally catapult me to new levels. So the new goal that I made, the huge big goal that I made that very first video, five years ago, again you can see it, and you can see the progression year by year, which is crazy. I never thought I was starting a thing by doing this. But you can see, the big goal, I wanted to just do an extra thousand dollars a month. I was like, “If I could just do,” and I didn't know how. I was like , “If I could just do a thousand dollars a month that would radically transform our lives.” ...I mean, we would eat a little bit better. We would eat more. We could actually eat in general. I was just sick of it. I gotta be honest with you guys. Looking back on what's happened in the last five years, first of all, is ridiculous. I didn't really figure out the game for the first two years doing these videos. Then two years ago I was like, “Oh snap, the pattern's everywhere”... and then this last year, I decided to actually test the pattern, and I left my job. Scary, scary, scary stuff. But when I think about it and the things that have propelled me, I actually wrote this on my window. It says Play Angry. I'm not an angry guy, but when I remember back to what life was like before I started doing this stuff… I worked my face off, guys. I worked so freaking hard. I know the reason why stuff has happened really well in the last, especially two years. It's 'cause I worked really freakin' hard. I only took two days for Christmas, and that's not necessarily a badge of honor. I actually wanna change that, and that's part of what I want to talk about for my goal for this upcoming year, but I work hard. I work really hard. I just get after it. Nine times out of ten, I have no idea what the plan totally is. I'm just taking action. I'm just doing stuff. So as I look back at the things that have really kept me moving forward, like, “Yes, there's this strategy, that strategy... Remember to do this before that...” That's great, and it's helpful. But 80% of it is just me remembering the crap that I was going through and what life was like without having known or doing the things that I'm doing now - which sucked. I mean, “Oh my gosh, life was hard.” ...So I'm excited for this. I'm not gonna lie, I'm actually nervous about this. I hate posting these videos. It's one of the reasons I do it: I hate it. It freaks me out. I don't want to tell you all my goal. I don't wanna account for every previous year every single January. I hate New Year's resolutions, I think they're stupid. Why am I gonna do that once a year? At the end of every single month I think through the goal, what I'm doing next month, I make sure that all the things and activities I'm doing are heading me to that target more closely. I'm not doing that once a year, that's stupid. So, anyway, I guess an effort for me to accept a little more of that resolution thing is to do this. If you guys have never seen me do one of these episodes, or declare my goal publicly - what I do is I account for the last year. It's not to throw mud in anyone's face. It literally is so you can go back and watch: Year #1: Here’s Stephen when he had no money and was completely broke. Year #2: Still broke. He still hasn’t figured it out. Year #3: Still broke, but it’s a lot more breakeven. Year #4: Wow, lotta cash coming. Oh, my gosh. Year #5: Stephen left his job... Holy smokes, why? What did he learn? I'm trying to be super freakishly transparent in a way that’s not that popular anymore. It's not me saying, "Woe is me. Look how weak and vulnerable I am." No, no, no, no. Not at all. That’s NOT the point. I'm trying to do is document everything I'm doing on the way so that you can see my journey. Being broke was one of the most painful things I've ever been through in my life. And it almost had nothing to do with the money. It had everything to do with my feelings of inability. It wrecked my brain, guys. It sucked, I don't want to feel like that. That's something that I'm really afraid of. I'm open to talk about that... So I worked my face off, and after applying a few of these patterns, things really started to work. And then things really started working. Anyway, so at the beginning of this I always go through and account for last year, and then tell you what my goal is going to be this next year, fiscally. There's really only two, maybe three goals that I ever set. EVER. Anyway, so I'm gonna go through the fiscal goal for this upcoming year, and then my plan to get it. Which I'm really pumped about. There's something that I, this episode is a little bit different than the previous ones that I've done where I just kind of say the goal. I want to tell you what I'm trying to do and... there's a gap, guys. There's a hole… Literally two days ago, I realized that it was starting to appear in me. And I think I know how to fix it, but I'm freaked out about this one area, and I'm gonna solve it. It's just been really challenging. So anyways, I'm excited about this though… 'Kay, so here it is, okay? # January 1st, 2018, I left my job. And just to be clear, I had NO team. I had NO additional revenue at all. I had absolutely zero. I didn't have a product. I wasn't running any funnels, I didn't have a script. Guys, I left with nothing. I'm actually shocked how much hate mail I got by leaving ClickFunnels. Which is stupid, by the way. That's my choice, no one else's. But when I left ClickFunnels, the reason I did it was because I had been coaching so many people in the Two Comma Club coaching program at ClickFunnels, that I started seeing these patterns of what was making somebody successful and what wasn't. There were these holes and these gaps. And I was learning how to do is fill in those holes. Regardless of the product, the price point, or the industry that anyone was in, I was able to go through and figure out, "oh my gosh, this is how you fix it!" I’d create my own framework and drop it in front of them, and BOOM! I helped create a lot of millionaires in that program. Literally. A lot of hundred-thousandaires, which is still really good, and tons of people made money for the first time in their life on the internet. I started getting better and better, and better, and better, better. I'd already been doing the Two Comma Club coaching program for over a year at least, probably almost a year and a half by the time I left ClickFunnels. So there were two reasons why I left ClickFunnels: Number one: I just knew in my bones I'm an entrepreneur. I just know that, and I'm trying to be more true to myself. I'm trying to find me. And I know that I'm an entrepreneur. So the longer I stayed at ClickFunnels, regardless of how amazing it is over there and regardless of how dumb it looked for me to leave, and how cushy and amazing and plush and secure that job was... it wasn't me. So I left. I had to grow some balls and just do it. So number one, I had to get out of there. That was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made in my life. Okay, literally. And it still hurts. It’s hard that I only live like three miles away from ClickFunnels, 'Cause I just wanna go in sometimes, and be like "What's up? You all are awesome! Hey, can I just hang out for a bit?" I tried really hard not to be that kid that just won't leave. You know what I mean? So I just didn't show up for the first three months. 'Cause I didn't want to be like "What's up guys, how you doing? Hey, remember I said I left, but I'm not leaving. How are ya? So I left... and really made sure I left. Number Two: The second reason was that I’d become very confident in the frameworks I was producing. When I was coaching, I knew that if people just did it, they would make money - eventually. There might be some in-between things that they need to fix, which usually had to do with their personality and NOT my framework. But eventually, it would work. A lot of good marketers do this, guys. You gotta think about this, right? I started asking myself the question… I remember this was June 2017, and I started asking myself the question: “What is something huge, like really big, like the biggest thing I can think to have to go through to prove that I know this stuff?” Straight up, I don't know, what's the word, prowess. I was trying to, not as a "look at me," but it was to prove to myself and others that I wasn't just building funnels in the corner. I knew there was more. I knew there was more. And I knew that my frameworks worked. So I started asking myself the question: “What's something that's so big that it would be hard for people to not notice me?” You know what I mean? Again, it's not like an out of a "look at me!" mentality. But it represented so much - because of all the crap I had gone through. And all the stuff that had gone on in my life up until that point. I was like, “I need a crucible.”There needs to be this big event. What's the craziest thing I could fathom going through to prove to myself that I could do it? Almost like going full circle and healing parts of me that weren't healed about what I had gone through. You know what I mean? ...And then especially, “How can I prove to myself that what I am teaching?” I know it works! If I go to the gym and I'm like "Hey, I wanna lose weight," I will never hire someone who's overweight, right? I don't want to be a hypocrite and be the guy who's teaching stuff that he hasn't done… And that really got in my head, and it started giving me a complex. I knew that what I was teaching worked because I was seeing other people do it. But I hadn't done it. And to me that's freaking blasphemy. It's like, it's so stupid. I'm never gonna hire somebody who's broke to teach me how to make money... I follow the principle of the guy who has the biggest cheese. Sausage number one man. Right, who's the guy, who's the lady, who's the person out there who has done it so much, right, and they can teach it so well because they are speaking from experience? I wanted to be that kind of person. I wanted to prove that my frameworks work. So I thought to myself, "Self, what if you left your job with no assets, no income, no funnel?” Like, this is freaking extreme! I know it is. And I'm not recommending that anybody do that. For me, and where I was, that was the right answer. I was like "That's insane." And I went back and forth for a few months like, "Are you kidding? That's stupid, dude! Why would you do that? You're gonna leave?" And like, “Yeah, but it's the ultimate, it does work." How do I know? Because I jumped out of a moving airplane with no parachute and built it on the way down. Again, scary, risky, risky like crazy. That's risky. And so anyways, I'm super proud. I obviously wish I had made more this year. Who doesn't wish that? But I'm really proud that it worked. And that I knew the frameworks and the models and the formulas to make the game work so well that I could do that. And again, not like a beat on the chest, “Look how great I am!” But you see what I'm saying? It was really important for me to prove to myself that I could do that, and for whatever reason, me and my personal development and growth needed that. So anyways, what I'm gonna do really fast is I wanna walk through what happened last year, what I'm gonna do next year, and how I'm gonna do it. ...And then there's something that's kind of freaking me out a little bit and I'm trying to figure out how to solve it. And I think I have the answer but I'm not quite sure. Anyways, let me pull in my whiteboard here. My trusty whiteboard. Okay, check this out. Here it is. Let me just make sure there's no glare. Let me look over here at the camera. Alright… So last year from January 1st to December 29th at 9pm mountain time... (I held off a little bit to record this episode 'cause I was trying to flet December end out)... I did $850,000. Well, $850,353, and 87 cents - which is cool. Last year, if you watched the video for 2018's goal, I was like "I'm gonna go make a million bucks." And like, I saw that and I was like, “Crap!” You know. I was like, “Yeah! No!” Like, “Yes! No!” Superbad. I was like, “NO!” … because of THAT. So I'm super stoked, I did 850 grand out of the gate: No team No funnel No product No system The only thing I had been doing was publishing = big lesson in that. I had done 100 episodes of Sales Funnel Radio at the exact date that I left ClickFunnels, I believe. The show hadn't even done 100,000 downloads when I left ClickFunnels; we're now at 250,000 downloads of Sales Funnel Radio. Last I checked, but it's growing by almost 2,000 a day now. Which is awesome. So that's cool, right? That's me accounting, being totally open and really vulnerable. When I left ClickFunnels, I followed my own formula and made 200 grand really fast out of the gate. And then, I got freaked out, guys. January and February what happened was, there was a lot of cash that came in. And I’d built funnels for revenue, but I hadn't built systems for a business. So I was the business. And it was hell, I'm not gonna lie, guys. It was so nuts. March came around, which was Funnel Hacking Live, and I turned off pretty much every revenue stream because I was like, "Shut it down, shut it down! I need to go set up this stuff. I gotta go put these things together.” So I started putting together all these systems and all this stuff like, support. And then Coulton moved down. And I started putting all these people together because I couldn't handle the speed that the revenue was coming in. I couldn't fulfill fast enough which is scary because the people were like "Oh, it's a scam!" And “It's not a scam, I just can't keep up.” Trey Lewellen went through a similar thing when he sold that many flashlights. You know what I mean? Crazy, crazy, crazy. So I slowed everything down… and a lot of March and April was a lot of more biz building which was exciting, but it freaked me out, guys. I was trying to keep it cool but man, I was so scared because there wasn't a lot of revenue coming in. At the beginning where it was like 40, 50, 60 grand a month, somewhere like that, it was like like 10, 15 grand, and I was like "We're gonna die in a gutter. Maybe this was a stupid mistake!" You know, "What have I done?" So, I was so scared, but I knew the process and I just kept true to it and kept blocking out the noise. And when I turned everything back on, we were back up to 50 grand, 70 grand, and then, five months in a row of hundred, hundred, hundred. I was like, “Holy Crap!” Last month in December we didn't hit the hundred. It's funny man, people go on holidays and everything just kind of shut down. It was totally a slow season, I didn't know that. But I'm so stoked though. And then what also happened, is we were pulling in so much money there that again, I had to stop things and slow things down. A lot of December for me has been business building and systems building. So I've been building these things that’ll make it so that I can move faster in 2019. So here's the sting, guys. Here's the sting… I did 850 grand, collected. Check this out. Man, I was so pissed off when I saw this. I was just quickly running through my accounts receivable,and we're getting another big chunk of cash again either today or tomorrow. Okay. Check this out: Collected = $850,000. To Collect, (meaning the business is there, we're just collecting it still) = $156,000 Man, that's a million dollars! That's six grand over a million bucks. No, no, no no no! I was so mad when I saw that. I ran downstairs to my wife and I was like "Look, that + that = that’s over a million! What! Like why didn’t I set up more systems?” Anyway, it was super cool, BUT like, a massive slap in the face. When I tell you guys the market will always tell you what to do - it just did! I was like "No!" The market's saying: “Stephen, you don't have the systems in place yet to collect enough of the money upfront in some areas of things that you provide.” There's some really high-end stuff that I go and I do. I just get so excited about doing the thing I didn't have everything set up - which is stupid. ...but how would I have known unless I looked. Unless I listened to the market. Unless I was willing to fail... you know what I mean? So was it a failure? “No, but Yeah.” By the numbers, yeah. Was it really? No. Did I do something really risky? Yeah. Did it work? Barely. You know what I mean? So I'm excited guys, I can't describe to you the feeling of accomplishment that I have with this. If you guys have been following me at all, I mean there's been many, many moments where, I'm not gonna lie, a little man-tear happened, okay. It flexed on the way out so it's still manly, it's cool. ...But there was a little bit of a tear there and I was like "Man, you're crazy, Stephen. In fact, you killed Stephen. You're Steve now." A lot of you guys are asking me what you can call me; you can call me, whatever.... But anyway, this journey, this year has been of insane growth in many areas. I've learned: What did work What didn't work Where I should tweak stuff Where I need to go next I know what to go build next. ...And I know, because of pain. I couldn't have foreseen some of the things that I need to go fix, which is why I needed to leave ClickFunnels. You see what I'm saying? I would NOT have known, "Hey look, when you move into this area watch out for this and this and that." I wanna be the ultimate litmus test for what I'm teaching people. So, risky? Totally. oh my gosh, yeah, yeah. Not that risky though, because of what I do and what I did. Don't compare yourself to me if you're like "I'm NOT willing to leave my job." Yeah, then don't. I'm not telling you to, okay? But what I'm so stoked about was, “That would've been a million dollars. No! Dang it!” ...Because I, technically, have two businesses, I didn't get a Two Comma Club award this year for my stuff, but both of them, we got the stuff to make 'em work really well, you know? It's freaking close. Anyway, so I'm being open with you guys about what happened, and what didn't. I’m trying to be the ultimate guinea pig on a lot of the stuff and test guru's material out. And Russell Brunson's is the closest material that I've ever found where it's like ready out of the box, you know? It's not that way for other guru's stuff. I want to be long-term. I want to have the reputation like that for my material. Not like, "Yeah, when you go to that person's stuff, it's great and it's really helpful, but you still need X, Y, and Z to actually use it." I don't want that. I don't want that. That's why I made OfferMind and I made that event because it was me going through and showing the framework. I have a very framework, systems-focused brain. And I love going in and pulling those things out and showing: Look, this is how I did it This is when it worked This is when it didn't work. ...and being that kind of person. So anyways, going forward, my goal for next year - which is scaring the crap out of me. Which solves half my problem I'm gonna get to in just a moment here. My goal for next year, though? If you watch the pattern, a lot of what I've done for these goals is the first year was $1,000 a month. Then it was $3,000 a month. Then I think is was $5,000 and then $10,000. This last year was a million bucks - which is $82,000 a month. This year, though… Man, I'm telling you guys, I don't totally know all of the path on how to get there, but I see enough of it that I think it's gonna work. It’s scaring me to death. Ready? Here we go. You can see that, right? Yeah, okay. Four million dollars. I've tripled the goal almost every time. And that's where I've gone from one to three, you know. Then this to that. Four million, though, that's the goal! Gosh dang it, that's really freaky to say to you guys. I know the systems that are gonna be in place. I gotta have more of them. A lot of what I need to set up in order to actually make that happen. I gotta have a better phone sales system. I'm noticing that that's a big issue of mine. I don't have that many closers. And there's not much of a system and a script set up for that stuff. This year for me has been a lot about the methodology I use and I teach that you need to enter into and design a new ocean with a single product. Once the idea has been proven then you go and you can develop all the things inside of the value ladder to go explode it and expand it and actually plant your stake there. Okay, so for this year… I’ve accidentally kind of become the category king in two different categories. One of them was purposeful; the other was completely accidental. The business I lead with, my major, major passion, is Offer Creation. Just since OfferMind, collectively, those who attended, they've made hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. A lot of money. I know this stuff works. It's NOT one person is just killing it, that's a lot of people. And a lot of people who have never made money ever. I continually get a lot of people that are like, "Man, I made my first 10 grand ever. 10, 30, 30, 30!" And I'm like, "Yeah! What's up?” Pretty sure you guys made more money collectively than I did - which is awesome and I've very proud about that, actually. I made more money doing the thing than teaching the thing. That's also very important to me as well. I focused on that a lot of this year. So what I'm pumped about, you guys, is that I have gone in and I've developed these two businesses. I have a front end business and I have a back end business: #1: I teach offers, and I help people create their offers. I build off a lot of 'em, and a lot of people are in need for that. That's one of the major missing loops I was seeing in what I was coaching in the Two Comma Club coaching program. And so I was like, “I'm gonna go be the offer guy.” And because of Russell Brunson and Myron Golden and Alex Charfen, and a lot of guys that I was being super vulnerable and open with… They were like "Stephen, dude, you geek out about offers more than anybody we've ever seen in our entire life; go be that guy. There isn't a guy for that. Go be that guy." I was like, sweet. So I'm the offer guy. I've proved out the idea into that market. How did I do that? By OfferMind. Now that I've got that, I have a product up here. There's actually gonna be a second one up at the top. And then there's a whole bunch of cool front ends. So on top of all these, proving the idea in front of the market, that's a lot of what this year was about. It's not so much about cashing out. It was about me proving out the systems and the things that I was teaching - that they work. If you look at Alex Hormozi, Brandon and Kaelin Poulin. If you look at, a lot of those people that blew up and made 10 million really quick, it's because the year prior, they actually went in and proved out their systems. And then scaled hard with a sales closer team and a phone team, which is what I'm gonna do. A lot more sales positions, a lot more money up front scenarios, so I don't have this happen again. The very one at the bottom says: An Assistant. I don't even have an assistant. It's literally two of us that are full time. I have two content teams and now, we're building an internal funnel-building team. Which is really exciting. For me to increase my speed, I cannot be the only one building my funnels anymore. So anyways, guys whatwhat I'm trying to say when I'm teaching you guys right here is like, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that fail at this part of it. This is where they die. They will remain the solopreneur; they cannot build the team. They don't know how to scale, they don't know how to put the systems in place. I am excited to crack that code. I will will win at it, and I'm really, really pumped about that. Now the thing that's freaking me out, just so you guys know: major growth in my life has come from scenarios that I don't know how to solve but walk forward anyway. I didn't know how to build a funnel the first time I told someone I'd build one. Was it lying? No, because I knew it was possible, and I knew I'd figure it out. So I youtubed like crazy, you guys. I remember the first time I asked ClickFunnel support how to change background color inside the editor. Okay, seriously, you guys are way further ahead than I was when I started, okay? I got to the Funnel Hacking Live event the first time with no money. I had to bootstrap my way there. That's a crazy move. That's a big bold move. I created the original Two Comma Coaching Program and ran the FHAT Event, which is crazy. A lot of successful people came from that event. For me to say yes to that was a scary thing. I had to replace Russell Brunson on stage for three straight days, That freaked the crap out of me. Yeah, I was excited but I was scared to be totally honest with you. Leaving my job! WHAT? Okay, that's nuts. And so what I've noticed is that I suck at willingly manifesting personal growth. I'm not good at it. Almost no one really is. 'Cause when we start feeling pain the natural inclination and all of our justifications say "Back off, Stephen, why you gonna feel that pain?" What propels me forward, and what I've been trying to figure out is what the next absolutely freaky goal is? What’s the experience? I have a hard time willing those kind of experiences into my life, anyone does. Like, basic training. Man, I couldn't get out of that. Right, I couldn't get out of, and I did those things for that reason. I did door to door sales because it scared the crap out of me, and I knew I'd learn like crazy in the middle of that environment. I'm trying to find the next environment. You see what I'm saying? My goal is four million dollars. I know I'm gonna hit that. It's a goal, it's scary 'cause I've never hit it, but I know I'm going to. I know that this next year I'll probably have at least three Two Comma Club Awards. ...cause I got a lot of products that are in the hopper and they're all gonna tie together and reference each other, it's gonna be awesome. BUT the thing that I'm trying to figure out is: How can I architect freaky big things and environments I can't get out of? And I don't know how else to do that except for a big goal that feels freaky to me that I've never done before. And is it bigger than other people's? No. Some peoples are bigger than mine, I totally get that. But I'm on a journey and a comparison of me versus me. And to me, that scares the crap out of me. I gotta build crap I've never built. I gotta build stuff I've never done. And I gotta push forward that way. Anyways, what I'm saying is, the thing that I'm trying to figure out... Guys, this sounds so opposite. Completely opposite than what a rational individual would do. I did not have an option when I left ClickFunnels, other than to make money work through funnels - because my back was against the wall, and I knew that. And that's one of the reasons I was doing it. I could learn at a really slow pace by studying others, which is good to do for a while. I could learn at a really slow pace by consuming tons of content, which is really good to do for a while, until you're trying to figure out what you want to do BUT, then, I don't know another way except burning the boats.I voluntarily try to find ways to put my back against the wall and cut all options out. For the last five, six years there's been a lot of scenarios like that. Bam, bam, bam. I'm 30 years old, I don't want there to be too much comfort in what I do. My goal could freak me out, but I know I'm gonna hit it. I know I'm gonna hit it. So, what can I orchestrate in my life to make it where I don't have an option but to move forward? ...And that's the thing I've been trying to solve and it's really been freaking me out. I don't know how to solve that right yet. Because I don't wanna get comfy. I'm not saying I'm not gonna go experience and have fun times doing a few things, you know what I mean? I'm gonna enjoy life, and I am a happy guy, but when it comes to personal growth and business and moving forward, frankly, I want to be big. And I know that… Hopefully you guys know what you want? Don't be apologetic about it. ...But how can I orchestrate the next ridiculous scenario in my life where I don't have an option? Where I will figure it out, out of desperation. Which sounds crazy. Almost a masochist, I promise I'm not. But you see what I'm saying? I have never learned more about myself than in those scenarios. I've never learned to love me more than in those scenarios. I've never learned to fill in the blanks faster, with more aggression, applied aggression, good aggression, right, than in those scenarios. So like, man, I left the job, right? And everyone talks about that, and okay, done. I'm trying to figure out what the next freaky thing is? And I can't. I think there's a combination of some physical aspect, so I've been saying like, “Man, sometime I'm gonna try and choke out Russell Brunson in jiu jitsu.” Which is freaking scary 'cause that dude's like, all-American killer. That's cool, but my back's not against the wall. There's no scenario yet where my back's against the wall. My back's not against the wall yet for this years goal, which freaks me out. Most entrepreneurs just glide into the night when they hit some kind of a phase like this and I don't wanna be that way. That's the real thing. That actually freaks me out more than the four million. I know how to hit that. I know the processes and the systems. I know exactly what I'm building. I'm almost done with my high-ticket thing that I've been building and putting together, and it's so awesome and there's nothing like it, and it comes from this perspective that has been very unique for me - because not many people do the stupid move I did by leaving my job. Which is ultimately awesome, but you know what I mean? Anyway, I'm really pumped about it, but I know I'm gonna hit that goal. I know exactly what my products are gonna be in my value ladder. I've got people building that stuff for me now. My internal funnel-building team that I dream-lined out; I've already approached them, and they already said yes. Now I'm just gonna run through the process of it. I'm gonna treat it just like I do my content team, so I'm gonna babysit it the first few funnel-builds to really document the system, and then keep moving forward. You know what I mean? But like besides that, where's my next level of: "Oh crap Stephen, can you do this” coming from? And that, my friends, has been one of the greatest accellerents to anything that I've done ever. So I'm really pumped about it, but also scared to death 'cause I don't actually know the answers yet. I'll figure it out, and I'm gonna keep looking for it. It's exciting, exciting stuff. So anyways guys, that's my goal. I collected $850,000 I still have $156,000 too collect I'm gonna do four million this next year. Honestly ,I feel like I'll do four million this next year running at the pace that I am, but anyway. I know I think at least we'll do three; four is the stretch. Which again, freaks me out, but I see where to go for it. I'm pumped about it. Watch how I'm launching my stuff moving forward to watch how I'm doing that. It's a balance between what I'm doing publicly and behind the scenes in my actual company. It's this next piece, though: How can I orchestrate a little bit more fear for me personally? To be freaked out for the sake of: let's put your back against the wall and see what you're made of, Larsen? You know what I mean? Anyway, so I'm psyched about this, guys. Thanks so much for sticking with me. It's a little bit of a longer episode, but I just want you to know that's my goal. I challenge each one of you guys to post your goal publicly. It’ll freak you out; it usually scares people. And a lot of the audience that is following you, that you might not even know about, even if you don't feel like you have a following, someone's watching you, they'll follow up with you. A lot of you guys did with me. They were like, "Stephen, you gotta hit the goal, man!" I'm like "I know, and I think I'm going to!" And I thought I was, and then I didn't freaking collect on some of it - “Dang it. Dang it man! Gosh!” Anyway, whatever… Thanks for following the journey. Appreciate it. Again: I challenge all of you guys to go in and post your goal, whether on the comments of this post or somewhere, but get open and real with what you want. Get unapologetic about it, and move forward. Because no one wants what you want more than you do. Stop waiting for permission. Alright guys, see you later, bye! Aw, yeah! Hey, obviously a funnel's already dead if you can't even get anyone to opt in, right? So I spent four hours teaching an audience how to get high opt-ins; when they work, when they don't work. If you want access to that members area where you can watch those replays, just go to freeoptincourse.com to create your free members account now.
"how to be productive" "growing business" "entrepreneurial skills, value ladder, team building This is the one question I ask every quarter that always CHANGES my business... Answering this question ALWAYS results in me growing my business. Each my business changes for the better... NOT my funnels, my business. ...if you’re wondering, “...but, Steve, aren’t your funnel and your business the same thing?” I totally get why you’re asking that. I used to think that it was too… until the strangest thing happened to me... Here’s how it went down… HOW TO BANKRUPT A BUSINESS I was building cool funnels for a company: Day #1: We launched the funnel, and the sales start pouring in. I get a call from the owner: "This is awesome, this is epic, this is incredible. Are you serious! I can't believe this." Day #2: I get another call: "Wow! The sales are still coming in. This is really still cool... I think..." (This time they sound a little more unsure) Day #3: The phone rings: They're like, Help! The sales are still coming in. Turn the funnel off. TURN IT OFF!" The first time this happened, I was shocked that anyone would want less sales? But the company was like, "You're gonna bankrupt us." I was like, “Oh, crap!” Until that point, I didn’t realize that the funnel was different to the business. It sounds silly to say that now, but I just didn't know that at the time. A massive amount of sales sounds fantastic, right? But if your business doesn’t have the systems to cope with a massive amount of fulfillment, then you’re in trouble. So what do you do about it? *ANSWER* You ask yourself the question: How do I increase my speed? ASKING A POWERFUL QUESTION When I ask THIS question it ALWAYS provokes the most change and the most progress in my business. It actually happened this way… I was coming back from a speaking gig where I’d sold a ton of stuff. It felt awesome and I was excited about it. ...THEN I had to spend the entire night fulfilling on what I had sold. Which was great, but I’d only slept four hours the night before and I was exhausted! So sitting on the plane on the way home the thought came to me, “Stephen, how can you increase your speed?” And I wrote it down in my notebook. I started listing out all of the ways that I could possibly increase the speed of my business. My funnels, do great, but the business needed some work so that I could leverage all the opportunities that were coming my way… The BEST way for me to show you how I answered the question: How do I increase my speed? … is to let you in on a Q&A session I did with my OfferLab Group. These are the high-level killers who work with me directly, one-on-one. Each week, I do training sessions with them. Look at their stuff to help them design their: Funnels Offers Message I haven't officially launched OfferLab, so unless you came to OfferMind, this is probably the first time you’ve ever heard of it. I'm not selling anything else. Offer Lab is not open to anybody else because we're fulfilling. We're putting in the processes and the systems in place. … So this is kinda like a sneak peek behind the scenes of Steve Larsen. HOW TO BE PRODUCTIVE & INCREASE SPEED We had a cool chat with the CEO of Pruvit (the MLM I’m in). And, like a lot of people, he asked me to build funnels for Pruvit. I was like, “Well…” My first thought was, “Sure, that would be honoring, but I don't have the team in place to handle that.” That's why I initially went back to Tony Robbins and told him, “No.” I didn't have the team in place to build the front revenue, or the team in place to support it after it was built. After talking with CEO of Pruvit, Colton and I just stared off into eternity for a little bit. Our heads were spinning. We had a tremendous opportunity in front of us. But first, we had to answer the question, (...and here it comes again): “How can we increase our speed?” So we've been asking that question in TWO areas: How do I increase my speed on fulfillment? How do I increase my speed on sales? *NEWSFLASH* Answering those two questions, usually, does NOT involve MORE of YOU as the entrepreneur. ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS & PLAYING BIGGER Play Bigger teaches that in order for you to really make a lasting business that's awesome, you need to design a category, a product, and the business, at the exact same time. Well, I've gotten really freakin' good at designing: Categories Products/Offers I'm getting far better at the business side, as well. It's the reason why I’m able to create so much the content … But what do we have in place on the fulfillment side? I'm nervous to bring in all the money that we could because I wouldn't be able to fulfill on it very well. … So the questions that I've been asking are: How do I fulfill faster? How do I sell faster? We asked the question, “How could we increase speed?” And that question ALWAYS leads to growth and things that are, frankly, a little bit uncomfortable. Let’s use my content machine as an example: I have #1 Content Team for Sales Funnel Radio, but a while ago, I realized that I needed to spin up a second content team for Secret MLM Hacks. So that’s what we did. There are a few people that are on both teams, but it's a separate team. It's really interesting, the process is different, even though they're both content. It's really fascinating. We mapped out a high-level process and we found the people to fill all the positions. So I wanna walk you through this because this will change everything for YOU… 3 QUESTIONS THAT’LL SAVE YOUR LIFE So glad you asked… ;-) The 3 questions that will save your life are: What problem am I trying to solve? Who is my dream customer who has money and is able to spend a lot of money? What's the model that I'm following? As part of answering those questions in my own business, I draw up value ladder and leave it somewhere visible to act as a roadmap and an anchor. (A value ladder is for life, NOT just for Christmas) Opportunities are so funny guys, it's like they show up as soon as you start the down a path, another opportunity pops up. It's like opportunities have babies and multiply the moment you start moving and doing anything in life. I'm sure you’ve have experienced that, right? So to keep myself rooted and forward, I always draw a value ladder. I have two value ladders because I have a front-end business and a back-end business. The business that's in the back-end is the MLM stuff, you know about. The front-end stuff is all offer creation/ funnel stuff You’ve seen me building out. I wanna walk you guys real quick through this value ladder, and then tell you guys what’s happened because we asked the question, “How can I increase my speed?” That question usually, (in fact, I'm not even gonna say usually), it has ALWAYS made me grow. And sometimes, in ways that are NOT all that comfortable… in fact, pretty much every time. Just beware, every time you ask that question, if you're truly willing to find the answer to the question, you're gonna have to grow. So here’s what I do... CREATING MY VALUE LADDER Because I have my value ladder planned out, I can answer the question, “What model am I following?” In this instance, I'm following the Info Product Model. Now the stuff that I'm doing has never been done, but the model that I'm following has totally been done. Does that make sense? That's where I get a combination of living on the edge and doing things that have never been done before - so I have security at the same time. I don't need to run a risky business. There's no way. I'm not into risky business. But the stuff that I'm doing though, the actual content and all those pieces; 100% is stuff that's never been done before. It's how you get the combination of risk and security at the same time. I draw out the value ladder. At the bottom, is all my free stuff: My radio shows Publishing like crazy A free program on each side. An affiliate program. The real reason Affiliate Outrage exists, is so I can teach people how to be affiliates for me. About a third of our sales last month for the MLM side came from affiliates. It's working - it's awesome. I'm not just gonna give somebody an affiliate link. I'm gonna teach them how to use it, and how to make an offer so that they feel inclined to create content around that affiliate link. Does that make sense? That's the way I do it. My value ladder has: The radio shows... and that kinda content Books Webinar Event Mastermind It's the exact same model on each side of the business. It’s a lot of funnels! We have a hard time getting somebody to just build one funnel… We counted; there are 12 funnels we need to truly hit every single step that we have planned. So what I do is I hack the value ladder in order of importance? I always start in the middle; I practice what I preach. I go up to the top of the value ladder. Finally, I go down the value ladder. But the question that we started asking is, “How can I increase my speed?” That's the question I want you to start asking yourself: “How can I increase my speed in…” Creating an offer? Creating a sales message? Creating a funnel? Fulfilling for what I sell, (so I can sell faster)? Gaining the sale? I ask that question multiple times, in multiple areas, for multiple things. Asking this question helps tweak out a lot of the processes that support revenue. BE UNCOMMON AMONGST UNCOMMON PEOPLE The first time I asked the question, “How can I increase my speed?”... I was working for Russell and had no time of my own. It led me to create a schedule, that I lived by for about a year, that was painful. Went to sleep five hours a night, then I'd get up at five, be at work at six, work on my own there 'til nine. It's always been that question because… Money loves speed. Money sticks by speed. Money feels the thrill of speed. ...and so I have to adhere to that lesson at some point. I can build everything in these value ladders, but if I’m the only one building them, it's gonna be slow. I want all that done next year. In just one single year. That's fast, man. That's almost as fast as ClickFunnels builds their own funnels. Seriously, they build one funnel and launch it, just about one every other week. That's crazy! So what I've started asking the question about... and what I want you to start thinking about is: What revenue model am I following? What business model am I following? So the questions that we’ve have been trying to answer, and I think that we have, are How can I increase my speed in the business? How can I increase my speed in the revenue?” ...and the way that I'm doing that, is by building teams around both. QUESTIONS INVITE REVELATION I have two businesses: The Offer side - the sales funnel side The MLM side. These are revenue models, but what supports these? So Colton and I asked the question several times last week: What do we need to have in place in order to pull EVERYTHING off, in a year? If questions invite revelation, which they do, you gotta be real careful of the question you're asking in business and everything else. So we went back and forth: “Well, here's all the stuff that we have and all the things that are forward facing. Do I have that on each side?” Like, “Crap, no, I don't.” “Do we have a system set up where if I don't show up for a month, would things keep running on their own? Like, “Hmm... I gotta build more of the business side there.” It's just about there - which is really fun. For my content teams; I show up the first half of each Tuesday, and it keeps both machines alive. I can keep speaking and be forward, in the front of everybody, because of the systems that I've built. The teams that I've built. We have Content Team #1 and Content Team #2. Then our NEW funnel-build team, they're gonna be the ones who actually go dive in and build out all the funnels. Although I'm a funnel builder, I’m been my own bottleneck. Which is what I realized when I was looking at this stuff. I was like, “The only way we can keep going as we are now and still make great money is to get another team.” The parts of the business that I should be involved in are actually a lot narrower than I'm currently focused on. A GROWING BUSINESS I was talking to Al Hormozi this last week, and a few other of my good buddies who've made like 10 million in a year, and they validated exactly where I'm going with this. They said: At this point, it’s NOT about you. It's all about the team. Q: How do I sell faster? “Crap, I gotta speak more. Oh, I can't speak more…” A: Content Team #1.” Boom! And I mapped out the content team, and then made it. Q: How do sell faster on the MLM side? I'm either gotta speak a lot, or I’ve gotta go drive a lot of money with ads… A: Content Team #2. Boom! that's the one that did it on the MLM side too. ...the next question I asked was... Q: How do we increase the speed so we can build-out this value ladder with even more speed? A: “I need an internal funnel-building team.” It came faster than I thought, but I realized I needed it. I've built the majority of everything on the MLM side, and I've built a few things on this side, and lots of stuff on the bottom. And I'm good at it, but I'm just only one person. So we've mapped out the process and the positions we need, in order to build an internal funnel-building agency. We just got the last person on board and they're like, "Absolutely, heck yes." Next, I'll tell you how we automate everything... LEVERAGING ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS If you’re already selling stuff, the next process is speed of sales - and has less to do with you, which is fun, but it can be terrifying. When I left ClickFunnels, the position that I had ceased to exist. When I left, the position closed. So my final task was to replace me with a system. That made me think about what I was doing in a different and advantageous way. I had to document everything that I was doing for each funnel, find the similarities, and then start systemizing all the pieces and create a checklist. It's was super complex and crazy. If you’ve done like funnel-building on your own, you know that the checklist can be freakin' huge. Let alone: Write Research Positioning Voice ...and all those things. The actual act of putting a funnel up - it's easy because of ClickFunnels, but there's still a big checklist with it. There's a lot of things you can put inside of there. There's a lot of bells and whistles that you can get distracted with. THE BAT SIGNAL Anytime we built a funnel at ClickFunnels; they had what's called a bat line meeting. We grabbed a cool image. You know that like the Bat Signal that Batman shines up in the air. When Russell sent that image out to his team, they all know that in 15 minutes everybody has to get on the same Zoom room. Then Russell teaches for the new funnel for a straight hour. He draws it out, “First, we're gonna have this page, and then we'll have this page, and then we'll have this page, and then we'll have this page, and these down-sales, and then this automation.” He draws all the pieces and puts it together. What's cool is that it’s recorded. So afterwards, they take that recording, and some writers go and they'll make mini tasks for each individual. There's heads of each of department. So they grab a writer to write out the to-do list of everything they were assigned during Russell's batline meeting. That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm planning out not just the funnel, but also planning out podcast material and content that would be really cool to time with the launch of the funnel. This year, you guys will see me do specific podcast episodes to build pressure around the launch of the whatever funnels we're building. Then there’s the: Funnel plan Sales message Offer Fulfillment We're gonna need this package and this package - so we go to our fulfillment house (which is a few miles down the road), and let's make sure they package everything together, so that every time a sale happens, this thing gets shipped out. That's all the stuff that I'm really good at and what I teach… Then I know, I'm gonna create sales videos. Right from the get-go. The videos are gonna be on the pages - because I can just hand those videos to writers... and I know who all of these people are. If you notice, most the styles that we do, pretty much all the time, if you look at the copy underneath all the videos in any page I create, it's pretty much the exact same thing that was said in the video. Which is means I can hand videos off to a writer and they can write all the copy for the sales page. Then the video and all the copy gets handed off to the designer, and they make it look incredible. Design doesn't sell, but I'm not against making things look good. The designers make things look awesome, and use the copy. You’ve seen sales copy, where certain words are bolded out. There's a certain style of writing for sales letters. Now they have the writing, the designer can take one of my templates to build-out the initial funnel, put all the copy in there and put the videos in for the initial build. From that point, the funnel will go to to a funnel finisher... that was actually my original role at ClickFunnels when I was hired. I was the funnel finisher. We didn't have extra writers or designers. We had a videographer, it was Brandon, but we didn't have writers, we didn't have designers… So I actually did all three of those roles for the first year. It was the only the final eight months that I was there, that we actually started building out, actual teams and processes. Before that, it was just me - it was insane. It was freakin' insanity. Funnel finishers are the ones that do all the stuff that's not fun to do in funnels: Legal footers Favicon Metadata Naming all the pages Linking all the emails Adding the email copy in email sequences Adding SSL Certificates Porting over URLs if it's bought from somewhere else It's all the stuff that sucks to do in a funnel, but it's super important. Next, I try to break the funnel. That's my favorite part. I like to go in and try my hardest to just crush it! Then, because we've gone through video stuff, we've had designers and all this stuff, then I start working with the traffic team and coordinate my podcast episodes with the launch of the actual funnel and the ads going out. Then I just review and tweak it. So that's it. It seems really complicated, it's actually not. This changed my life. What I focus on, when I'm building these teams out, 'cause you guys all should all have teams, eventually. If you don't right now, that's okay. If you don't have a team, (or you're not in a position to have a team)... What I found is that it means that you're still building this main core product inside of your new value ladder: You haven't actually built the product yet It's not actually selling very well yet You don't have a funnel yet. The first time, you being the one doing all that is totally appropriate - that's totally fine. But building out, everything from above and down below it, after that, is really just a repackaging of that main idea in different ways that are more expensive or less expensive. This initial build-out, that can take awhile. That's fine, that's fine. So if you're like, "I can't have a team yet." That's okay, usually, it means you don't have enough cash or you're still launching this main core product inside of your value ladder. But from there, everything else, you should be able to do fast when you build a team. But there's one thing that changed my life when I'm building out these teams... TEAM SECRET SAUCE ...So when I'm building these content teams out, the things that have really made the BIG difference is: I no longer hire individuals. I hire agencies. That changed everything! When I hire an agency to do video, rather than a person, the speed is better, the quality is better. If some reason, there's a holiday, or birthday or whatever, they got a replacement, usually. When I hire an agency, it's usually a little bit more money - 100% worth it. 100% worth it! They're easier, they're faster, they can implement better. They follow the processes better which I'm about to show you. I don't hire individuals anymore. I hire agencies. So there is a specific agency for each one of these, almost. Like the funnel finisher one, that doesn't need to be an agency for that, that's a single person job. Like I don't even know how you'd make an agency out of that. But I actually do think that that person has an agency, which is funny. This person's the only person that hasn't is the writer, but he's had a massive writing company in the past, which is cool. So he still has that background and totally gets the project management side of fulfilling - which is really interesting. I don't ever hire a person anymore, I only hire agencies. That's true for every one of my content pieces. It's funny, looking back, on the Sales Funnel Radio content team, and the Secret MLM Hacks Radio. In the Sales Funnel Radio content team, there's seven or eight, something like that. But they're pretty much all full-blown agencies behind each individual person. It's the reason it costs so much, but it's also the reason it's so good. You know what I mean? And it's fast, and it's consistent. I can pretty much set my watch to each time an episode drops. They're good, they get it, they move. And they got backups. And what's cool, is that when I hire an agency, they've thought about their internal process. They've thought about how to fulfill. They've thought about how to do all the things the best possible way. When I hire an individual, a lot of times they haven't, and they're just doing it. They know how to do the thing, but they haven't thought through how to actually write down the process for the thing. That's a very different mentality to be in. In the Secret MLM Hacks Radio, we just barely spun that team up, probably about three weeks ago, cause I knew we needed it. I could just tell. There are a few people on both teams, but there's a lot that aren't. The team has either eight or nine people now - which is pretty crazy. I use this approach for even for one-offs stop kind of things that I do now. There's a person that I've been hiring to revamp my LinkedIn profile, 'cause it sucks. I know it sucks. But I'd rather hire a person, who owns and started their own agency, rather than an individual - because of what they've gone through mentally to prove-out the process. And the fact that they can bring revenue to keep a team going. Man, it's night and day difference. I'm not saying the individual can't be good, but holy crap, huge difference in insights. Oh my gosh! So, agency, agency, agency, agency, agency, agency, agency. That’s saved a ton of stuff. Oh yeah! Hey, wish you could geek-out with other real funnel builders, and even ask questions, while I build funnels, live? Oh, wish granted! Watch and learn funnel-building, as I document my process in my funnel strategy group. It's free, just go to thescienceofselling.online and join now.