Podcasts about stephen how

Today we are talking about Drupal Basics, Why we got away from them, and what we do to bring them back with guest Mike Anello. We'll also cover Entity Reference Override as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/496 Topics Where did this idea come from Why do you feel more basic content is necessary How did Drupal get away from the basics How can we get more basic talks into Drupal events How do we balance basic content with new topics like recipes or Drupal CMS How do we entice speakers to take these talks Could this adversely affect attendance Question from Stephen: How do we address virtual events and that they are preferred by a younger crowd Will Florida Drupal Camp have a track Guests Mike Anello - drupaleasy.com ultimike Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Kathy Beck - kbeck303 MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to replace a text field on entities you reference in your Drupal site? There's a module for that. Module name/project name: Entity Reference Override Brief history How old: created in Sep 2016 by Jeff Eaton, though recent releases are by Benjamin Melançon (mlncn) of Agaric Versions available: 2.0.0-beta3 which works with Drupal 10.1 or 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage, yes but needs a stable release Test coverage Documentation - user guide Number of open issues: 13 open issues, 2 of which are bugs against the 2.0.x branch Usage stats: 2,004 sites Module features and usage The module defines a new field type, with associated widgets and formatters. Your site editors will see a normal entity reference field (autocomplete or select) with an additional text field. Text provided in that additional field can be used to override a specific field in the referenced entity's display, or add a class to its rendered markup. This could be handy in use cases like showing people with project-specific roles, or showing related articles with the summary tweaked to be more relevant to the main content being viewed. It's not a super-common need, but if you need this capability, it can save having to set up a more complicated content architecture with some kind of intermediary entity I thought this module would be interesting because today's guest, Mike Anello, is listed as one of the maintainers. Mike, what can you tell us about your history with the module and how you've used it?

FE vs lines of longitude. Chinese New Year. Trump: "clean out" Gaza? Calls on living in a liberal world, love, and false identity — including a BHI!The Hake Report, Monday, January 27, 2025 ADTIMESTAMPS* (0:00:00) Start* (0:00:51) Topics* (0:04:32) Hey, guys!* (0:06:38) Lines of Longitude, FE, Russia time zones* (0:10:38) Chinese New Year / "Lunar"* (0:21:50) Trump: "clean out" Gaza?* (0:32:07) BRYAN, MI, "1st": Longitude, FE debate* (0:43:16) BRYAN: Gaza, Jewish people, Israel* (0:51:56) DANIEL, TX: FE vs Fact Checkers, Advertisers* (1:00:01) DANIEL: DEI, damage is done, conserva-tardism, pride* (1:08:09) DANIEL: Battle of Vicksburg book* (1:08:44) STEPHEN, MD: Uniting the races?* (1:12:16) STEPHEN: Octopuses or Octopi?* (1:14:06) STEPHEN: Asking JLP for advice?* (1:16:56) STEPHEN: How he wrote his books?* (1:19:12) TERRI, OR: No phone case!* (1:20:52) TERRI: Ideology for religion, Sinful identity vs God* (1:28:21) TERRI: Churches "welcoming," "love is love"* (1:32:05) JOHN, KY: "Love"* (1:35:51) JOHN: Transgenders, Love/Emotions* (1:41:14) JOHN: BHI and "true Jews," not Africans* (1:48:08) JOHN: Confirmation bias… Jesus* (1:49:54) "Ojitos Mentirosos" - Tropicalísimo Apache - 1999(?)LINKSBLOG https://www.thehakereport.com/blog/2025/1/27/the-hake-report-mon-1-27-25PODCAST / Substack HAKE NEWS from JLP https://www.thehakereport.com/jlp-news/2025/1/27/hake-news-mon-1-27-25Hake is live M-F 9-11a PT (11-1CT/12-2ET) Call-in 1-888-775-3773 https://www.thehakereport.com/showVIDEO YouTube - Rumble* - Facebook - X - BitChute - Odysee*PODCAST Substack - Apple - Spotify - Castbox - Podcast Addict*SUPER CHAT on platforms* above or BuyMeACoffee, etc.SHOP - Printify (new!) - Spring (old!) - Cameo | All My LinksJLP Network:JLP - Church - TFS - Nick - Joel - Punchie Get full access to HAKE at thehakereport.substack.com/subscribe

The idioms "Elbow Grease" explained. You'll also hear some exmapled from movies/series.On the Vocab Man, we cover interesting idioms, expressions, phrases and sayings to make you a better English speaker. Interview LinksWORLD NEWS QUIZ on Luke's English PodcastLearning English WIth The News (also on Luke's English Podacst)What is the idea of Simple English News Daily Podacst? (short clip)My interview with Stephen (How to learn English with a news podcast)LinksStephen Devincenzi on LinkedinSend7.org (where the learning with news happens)Definition of Elbow GreaseThe idiom "elbow grease" refers to physical effort or hard work, especially manual labor that requires physical exertion. When someone suggests using "elbow grease," they are typically emphasizing the need for diligent and strenuous effort to accomplish a task, often involving activities like cleaning, scrubbing, or any manual work that requires energy and perseverance.Send in your voice message and be part of The Vocab Man!Send a voice message to myfluentpodcast (myfluentpodcast_VOCAB_MAN) (speakpipe.com)Some example phrases"To get the stain out of the carpet, you'll need to apply some elbow grease and scrub it vigorously." 2. "Cleaning the garage will take some serious elbow grease, but it'll be worth it in the end.""If you want those shoes to shine, put in some elbow grease while polishing them.""The garden won't look its best unless you put some elbow grease into weeding and pruning.""Fixing up an old bicycle requires more than just spare parts; it needs some elbow grease to make it ride smoothly again."

On today's show we are talking about The Drupal Coffee Exchange, How it got started, and How it keeps going with guest AmyJune Hineline. For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/413 Topics What's new with AmyJune What is the Drupal Coffee Exchange How did it start Who started it Where was the first Drupal Coffee Exchange How do you participate Live Mail How is it live Does it have to be ground or whole bean Listener question: Stephen - How can it be added to a camp What was your favorite coffee received What was your favorite coffee given John's first experience Brick of Shame When is the next Coffee Exchange Where is the schedule Favorite type of coffee Resources Our friends at the Linux Foundation are offering Talking Drupal Listeners 25% off on any e-learning course, certification exam or bundle. Good from August 22-Sept 30, 2023. With discount code LFDrupal25 … Please note Bootcamps, ILTs and FinOps courses are excluded. Join the Quarterly Coffee Exchange: Coffee Exchange Slack #coffee-exchange Equator Coffee Spinn Coffee Maker Enter the coupon code at checkout, or follow the link below to receive $100 off your Spinn. SMDNI120337 (Affiliate link) https://www.spinn.com/order?code=SMDNI120337 Vertigo Dave's Coffee Link to Brian Perry's Video https://drupal.slack.com/files/U24L61M26/F03DEUBDPJN/image_from_ios.jpg https://www.brickofsha.me/ Next stops for the Coffee Exchange: DrupalCon Lille Your camp! Drupal Coffee Exchange Social Twitter @DrupalCoffee Mastadon https://drupal.community/@DrupalCoffee Hashtag: #DrupalCoffeeExchange Guests AmyJune Hineline - volkswagenchick Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Andy Blum - andy-blum.com - andy_blum MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - @mandclu Coffee Brief description: Have you ever wanted to quickly search your Drupal admin UI for the specific page you need to get to? There's a module for that! Brief history How old: created in Nov 2011 Covered as MOTW back in episode #45 Versions available: 8.x-1.3 (D9 & 10), 7.x-2.3 Maintainership Number of open issues: 53 open, 13 of which are bugs against the 8.x branch Does have test coverage Usage stats: Almost 31,000 sites Maintainer(s): Michaelmol, who appears to have created the module in his first year on drupal.org, now almost 13 years ago Module features and usage With a simple keystroke, (option-d or alt-d) you can start your search, and then see suggestions as you type Can use the arrow keys to move between suggestions Listeners who have used Mac apps like Alfred or Spotlight will be familiar with the experience A very fast way to move between different places in your Drupal admin Also includes :add as a quick way to add content of a specific type Provides a hook you can use to define your own commands There is a Coffee Extras module that adds more commands, but it doesn't work with Drupal 10 and is marked as no longer developed Also worth noting that the Gin admin theme comes with built-in optimization and formatting for Coffee, so you can enjoy Gin and Coffee together

REMASTERED & OPTIMIZED - Series 2 Episode 37 (May 3, 2003) of The Ricky Gervais Show on XFM, the tin pot radio station we all know and love. Our brilliant trio together again! Ricky “the thing is, awards don't matter.” Gervais; Stephen “How has he done me?” Merchant; and the eminent, Karl “nice to meet you Ken” Pilkington. THIS TRACK HAS BEEN OPTIMIZED FOR AUDIO.

If you care about your skin and healthy aging whatsoever you won't want to miss today's episode! My guest today is Esther Olu, Cosmetic Chemist & Licensed Esthetician. We discuss everything from SPF, Toner, skin type, and much more! Before the interview, I'll update you on a few things going on in my life!   Time Stamps:   (0:55) Apologies for Last Week (3:05) Extending Your Invite (9:00) Gym Update (11:20) My Guest Today (17:05) Entertainment Recommendations (21:50) Who is Esther? (25:45) The Process (42:18) Beginner's Guide (47:14) Finding Your Skin Type (55:10) The Importance of SPF (1:11:30) Final Thoughts (1:14:40) Where to Find Esther   FOLLOW ESTHER:  www.instagram.com/themelaninchemist www.titok.com/themelaninchemist  1) Lab Muffin Beauty Science: How Much Sunscreen Do You Need For Your Face? Lab Muffin Beauty Science - YouTube 2) Glow By Ramon: How Much Sunscreen DO You Need? How To Measure Your Face + How Much Sunscreen To Apply - YouTube 3) Kind of Stephen: How much sunscreen do you need to use? Use a sheetmask to find out! - YouTube 4) Capricorneum Skin: tony (@capricorneum.skin) • Instagram photos and videos   Lastly, for any of your listeners trying to find sunscreen recommendations, Esthers colleague Julian (Scamander14) has a sunscreen database with over 200+ sunscreens to browse (Sunscreen Database - Skin by Scamander14)   JOIN 6WEEKS2STRENGTH: https://www.dbft6weeks.com/2022-6week2strength40 HOT TAKES GAME: https://amzn.to/3zUkt1x   Join betterhelp today - www.betterhelp.com/desb code “desb” for 10% off your first month! #ad #sponsored   JOIN MY LIVE WORKOUTS: WWW.PATREON.COM/DESB   Apply to work with me 1-1: https://dbft.typeform.com/desbcoaching  NEW MERCH: https://www.desbfittraining.com/collections/shop-merch DM me on IG: www.instagram.com/brunchwithdesb    FOLLOW ME ON TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@desb___    OPEN FACEBOOK FITNESS COMMUNITY: www.facebook.com/groups/dbftcommunity    Purchase a program (bride guide now with at home and pregnancy modifications!): https://www.desbfittraining.com/ Follow @brunchwithdesb on insta: www.instagram.com/brunchwithdesb  Hit me up: https://shor.by/DESB    Be sure to join my email list for our new challenges, merch, and weekly motivation from me: http://eepurl.com/dy2JLz OR join my app here: https://train.desbfittraining.com/trainers/312078/landing   PARAGON FITWEAR: code “desb” to save 11% PTULA ACTIVE: code “desb” to support me HYDROJUG: code “desb” to save 10% and stay hydrated af TULA SKINCARE: code “desb” to glow off with your skin and save 15% ALANI NUTRITION: code “desb” for free shipping over $50 and support me BUFFBUNNY COLLECTION: code “desb” to support   instagram ➭ https://www.instagram.com/desb___ twitter ➭ https://twitter.com/desbfit youtube ➭ https://www.youtube.com/desireescogginfitness  facebook ➭ https://www.facebook.com/desbfittraining official website  ➭ https://www.desbfittraining.com   ---------------------------------------------------

This week we are delighted to have Stephen Poloz the former Governor of the Bank of Canada.  Stephen was the Bank's Governor from June 2013 to June 2020 and was at the helm during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stephen just released a new book titled “The Next Age of Uncertainty” that outlines five tectonic forces that, when they interact together, will create more volatility and risk than the past era. Here are some of the questions that Peter and Jackie asked Stephen: How would you compare the inflation we face today to the period in the 1970s? How do higher interest rates work to reduce inflation? Are there other tools the central bank can use to control inflation? During the early 1980s high interest rates used to fight inflation caused a double dip recession, is that a concern now? What actions were taken by the central bank during the early days of the pandemic?  How concerned are you about Canadian housing prices? Why do you view the future to be more uncertain and volatile? “The Next Age of Uncertainty” is available for purchase from numerous retailers including digital and audio. Here is a link to purchase a hardcover on Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Next-Age-Uncertainty-Riskier-Future/dp/0735243905Please review the ARC Energy Institute disclaimer.

Overview You may have heard Guy on another podcast because he is pretty popular and the authority on fighing with swords. He is The Sword Guy - pun intended. He studies historical books on how people use their swords and he translates them for modern audiences. Plus he recreates and teaches their style of fighting. He discusses his newest book - The Windsor Method - and tells us about how things were done different. There's a bit of a discussion on how movies get it right and wrong. If you like swords, we have a good discussion on several and in the YouTube video he shows us a couple. His Book https://www.amazon.com/Windsor-Method-Principles-Solo-Training-ebook/dp/B098TRXPB9?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=mindarchitect-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=804345a973a88d6127a41b38ed3e39b1&camp=1789&creative=9325 Website https://swordschool.com YouTube https://youtu.be/wtorg-r9tcA Transcript [00:00:43] Stephen: Hello, welcome to episode 1 0 5 at discovered word Smith. This is going to be a great episode. If you are a regular listener to author podcasts, I'm sure you've heard this, uh, person it's guy Windsor. He's the sword guy. [00:01:00] Aha. Um, it's really a fun talk. I like hearing all about the swords and what he does. It's super interesting. So I think, uh, those of you that are interested in swords, those you, that like the sword fighting, he has a lot to say in his book, looks like it'd be something you should have. Uh, and possibly some of his other ones also. And as a reminder, if you do enjoy the author, if you enjoy this podcast and you're interested in his book, go to the sh the website, the show notes and click on the link there. Yes. It's an affiliate link. It gives. Me a couple cents, uh, when you click it and buy the book so I can help support the podcast. The time I put into it, the cost of the software, the cost of the hosting, uh, et cetera, et cetera, but also it doesn't hurt guy. Uh, and he still gets his commission on the book. So you're helping lots of people and getting a wonderful book. And that goes for every interview. Every author that's on here, uh, clicking the [00:02:00] link, helps out multiple people, including yourself for getting a great. And there are a few other links I've added to the show notes. That is the services that I use. If you are an author or thinking of doing a podcast, go ahead and click these, check it out. It doesn't cost you anything extra and it will help support the show. The more people that do that. So, um, before we go too far, let's get into the interview with guy. Here you go, guy. Let me welcome you to today's podcast. Discovered wordsmiths, how are you doing this? [00:02:33] Guy: I'm fine. [00:02:34] Stephen: How are you? I'm great. So usually when we get started, I asked people to tell us a little bit about you and what you like to do outside of writing. It's all [00:02:45] Guy: part of one package. Basically my day job is I find theoretical sort of fighting sources. So books written a long time ago about how to fight with swords, by people who actually did it, or their students actually did it for real. And I recreate systems of [00:03:00] fencing that those. Represent. And I organized those systems into still, uh, by the, uh, modern people can train safely. And then I teach that as a kind of living martial arts by students. And that takes out quite a lot of my time. You can imagine there's lots of parts of that physical training and practicing with weapons and teaching in person and teaching online and all that sort of stuff. And the research and finding the sources and working with the sources and figuring out the language. It's quite a lot. So when I'm not doing that, my three current hobbies before I do woodworking, the reason I love, I used to be a professional cabinet maker. Now just as a hobby, I do a bit of indoor climbing and I have recently taken up both watch repair. So fixing like old watches,

How fast is your machine learning infrastructure, and how do you measure it? That's the topic of this episode, featuring David Kanter of MLCommons, Frederic Van Haren, and Stephen Foskett. MLCommons is focused on making machine learning better for everyone through metrics, datasets, and enablement. The goal for MLPerf is to come up with a fair and representative benchmark to allow the makers of ML systems to demonstrate the performance of their solutions. They focus on real data from a reference ML model that defines correctness, review the performance of a solution, and post the results. MLPerf started with training then added inferencing, which is the focus for users of ML. We must also consider factors like cost and power use when evaluating a system, and a reliable bench Links: MLCommons.org Connect-Converge.com Three Questions: Frederic: Is it possible to create a truly unbiased AI? Stephen: How big can ML models get? Will today's hundred-billion parameter model look small tomorrow or have we reached the limit? Andy Hock, Cerebras: What AI application would you build or what AI research would you conduct if you were not constrained by compute? Gests and Hosts David Kanter is the Executive Director of MLCommons. You can connect with David on Twitter at @TheKanter and on LinkedIn. You can also send David an email at david@mlcommons.org. Frederic Van Haren, Founder at HighFens Inc., Consultancy & Services. Connect with Frederic on Highfens.com or on Twitter at @FredericVHaren. Stephen Foskett, Publisher of Gestalt IT and Organizer of Tech Field Day. Find Stephen's writing at GestaltIT.com and on Twitter at @SFoskett. Date: 4/12/2022 Tags: @SFoskett, @FredericVHaren,

Machine learning is unlike any other enterprise application, demanding massive datasets from distributed sources. In this episode, Bin Fan of Alluxio discusses the unique challenges of distributed heterogeneous data to support ML workloads with Frederic Van Haren and Stephen Foskett. The systems supporting AI training are unique, with GPUs and other AI accelerators distributed across multiple machines, each accessing the same massive set of small files. Conventional storage solutions are not equipped to serve parallel access to such a large number of small files, and they often become a bottleneck to performance in machine learning training. Another issue is moving data across silos, storage systems and protocols, which is impossible with most solutions. Three Questions: Frederic: What areas are blocking us today to further improve and accelerate AI? Stephen: How big can ML models get? Will today's hundred-billion parameter model look small tomorrow or have we reached the limit? Sara E. Berger: With all of the AI that we have in our day-to-day, where should be the limitations? Where should we have it, where shouldn't we have it, where should be the boundaries? Gests and Hosts Bin Fan, Founding Member of Alluxio Inc. Connect with Bin on LinkedIn and on Twitter @BinFan. Frederic Van Haren, Founder at HighFens Inc., Consultancy & Services. Connect with Frederic on Highfens.com or on Twitter at @FredericVHaren. Stephen Foskett, Publisher of Gestalt IT and Organizer of Tech Field Day. Find Stephen's writing at GestaltIT.com and on Twitter at @SFoskett. Date: 3/15/2022 Tags: @SFoskett, @FredericVHaren, @BinFan, @Alluxio

AI is everywhere, and so are AI accelerators, from CPU to GPU to special-purpose hardware. Eitan Medina, Chief Operating Officer of Habana Labs, an Intel Company, joins Frederic Van Haren and Stephen Foskett to discuss the various specialized AI processors being developed today. Habana Labs has created a special-purpose AI training and inferencing processor with many unique features. Since deep learning is done at scale today, it makes sense to integrate enterprise networking with an accelerator like Habana Gaudi to increase overall system performance thanks to rDMA over Ethernet (RoCE) technology. Habana Gaudi is optimized for matrix math and also includes a fully-programmable vector core for Tensor processing. In October 2021, Amazon AWS launched the new DL1 instance based on Habana Gaudi, offering more performance than many GPU-based instances for a much lower total cost. Habana is very developer-focused as well, working with partners, data scientists, and end users to expand the accessibility of the platform in channels like GitHub and their own developer forum. Habana will soon introduce a 7 nm Gaudi 2 processor with much-improved performance and power efficiency. Habana Labs is also making their hardware more accessible thanks to their SynapseAPI and recently acquired cnvrg.io to bring a higher-level MLOps pipeline to AI. Three Questions: Frederic: At what point in time do you believe AI will be able to show compassion (like humans) if ever? Stephen: How big can ML models get? Will today's hundred-billion parameter model look small tomorrow or have we reached the limit? Edward Cui Founder of Graviti: Which will be more important in the future: Bigger and bigger ML or smaller ML? Gests and Hosts Eitan Medina, Chief Operating Officer of Habana Labs, an Intel Company. Visit habana.ai to learn more. Frederic Van Haren, Founder at HighFens Inc., Consultancy & Services. Connect with Frederic on Highfens.com or on Twitter at @FredericVHaren. Stephen Foskett, Publisher of Gestalt IT and Organizer of Tech Field Day. Find Stephen's writing at GestaltIT.com and on Twitter at @SFoskett. Date: 2/01/2022 Tags: @SFoskett, @FredericVHaren, @HabanaLabs

Data is the most important component of AI implementation, but most companies neglect data infrastructure and focus too much on the ML models. In this episode of the Utilizing AI podcast, Melisa Tokmak of Scale AI joins Frederic Van Haren and Stephen Foskett to discuss the democratization of data infrastructure to support machine learning projects. Enterprises often don't have a good understanding of their data, and this can undermine the success of an AI project, and this must be addressed before the project can proceed. Companies also must consider the quality of their data, beginning with a definition of the metrics that will properly assess the data foundation for their ML models. Three Questions Frederic: Will we ever see a Hollywood-style “artificial mind” like Mr. Data or other characters? Stephen: How big can ML models get? Will today's hundred-billion parameter model look small tomorrow or have we reached the limit? Alexandrine Royer: What do you think is one of the biggest ethical challenges that comes with AI that often goes under-discussed and should be more present in conversations surrounding the deployment of AI models? Guests and Hosts Melisa Tokmak, GM at Scale AI. Connect with Melisa on LinkedIn or on Twitter @MelisaTokmak. Frederic Van Haren, Founder at HighFens Inc., Consultancy & Services. Connect with Frederic on Highfens.com or on Twitter at @FredericVHaren. Stephen Foskett, Publisher of Gestalt IT and Organizer of Tech Field Day. Find Stephen's writing at GestaltIT.com and on Twitter at @SFoskett. Date: 11/09/2021 Tags: @MelisaTokmak, @scale_AI, @SFoskett, @FredericVHaren

Acts 7.55-60, Psalm 31.1-5, 15-16, 1 Peter 2.2-10, John 14.1-14; Can we find joy when everything else feels joyless? Should we get stoned with Stephen? How exclusive is Christianity? These questions and more on this episode of Strangely Warmed with guest Josh Blakely. Josh works at Longwood University and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree at Duke Divinity in order to pursue ordination as a Deacon in the UMC.

Acts 7.55-60, Psalm 31.1-5, 15-16, 1 Peter 2.2-10, John 14.1-14; Can we find joy when everything else feels joyless? Should we get stoned with Stephen? How exclusive is Christianity? These questions and more on this episode of Strangely Warmed with guest Josh Blakely. Josh works at Longwood University and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree at Duke Divinity in order to pursue ordination as a Deacon in the UMC.

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

    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.  

What's going on, everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna share with you guys how I was able to make the transition from employee to entrepreneur boss.   I 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, so as I started getting ready to make the jump, I wanna talk to you guys real quick about something that was really, it was hard for me. It was challenging for me. It was my biggest fear.   One of my buddies I'm talking to, well before I left, but I told him I think I need to leave my nine to five. (You can apply this to yourself regardless of what you do, right?)   I was like, "Okay, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I gotta think about, I gotta think about how I'm gonna handle this." And he goes, "What is your biggest fear?  Is your biggest fear that you're not gonna make enough money? What is the fear?"   And I said, "No, actually, my fear is not about the revenue.  I've been a part of a lot of these funnel things now and launched enough kind of on the side while I've been here. I think I've got that part." (Not to say that I'm amazing, you know. Anyway, you get what I'm saying.)   "The part that is freaking me out the most, the part that's freaking me out the most is that I'm gonna be sitting by myself alone looking at a wall with no one to crack the whip. You know what I mean? I'm gonna be sitting there by myself in an isolated room."   In ClickFunnels environment, there's energy. There are people running around over the place. There's "Hey, let's do this" and "Let's do that."   So even if there was a day when I felt kinda tired, I don't know if I wanna do this right now. I still had other people and other processes and things and place to pull me along and to hold me accountable.   And I said the thing that was freaking me out the most when I left was that I'm not gonna have that.     I was talking to my wife about this. It was the biggest fear I have; do I have the discipline to continue to show up every day like I'm going to war?  Do I have the discipline to show up day in and day out to show up and act like, "Okay, today, the goal is to make a sale." You know what I mean?   Do I have the discipline to just do revenue-generating activities and not get distracted by things that are easier? Instead of like going in and trying to make the sale, "What's more comfy for me?" You know what I mean? You guys know what I'm talking about?   So  I just wanna share with you guys how I'm able to go in and stay structured, personally, day in and day out.   Now I'm not perfect like this, and I don't want you to think that I am. I'm not.   I really only listen to like two or three people. I listen to Russell Brunson's stuff. I learned marketing from him. I learned business structures from Alex Charfen. And I listen more about closing and what to do with cash when you have it from a lot of Grant Cardone stuff. And those are kinda my three. That's about all I listen to.   Sometimes, I listen to some Pat Flynn. Pat Flynn on Smart Passive Income. His podcast, that was one of the first shows I ever listened to that started teaching me about this world.   Anyway, so there's a few people I listen to, but really, it's just them -which gurus did they learn from, which books did they study, which courses did they go to to learn how to be where they are, right?   When I'm done diving through all their stuff, I just go the next level deeper with them. And that's kinda how I make sure I put the blinders on and not get distracted with my education. So it's been kinda cool.   So this was a serious fear of mine though, right? When I leave, how will I maintain discipline? Will I? And it's funny now that I'm thinking about it, but that was eight months ago, nine months ago, and that's kind of a weird thing to be afraid of, but not really...   And funny enough, one of the things I would teach at the funnel event, (the Funnel Hackathon Event -  FHAT) was this very thing.   Funny enough the thing that people was asking about after a while, after like the first day and a half, I've had another day and a half with them, pretty much every question turned into, "How do you keep your energy so high, Stephen? How do you stay checked in so often, Stephen? How do you... "   And I was like, "Why are you guys asking me this?" I didn't say that. But I was thinking it was like, "Why does everybody ask me that question?" It almost frustrated me.   I was like, "Well you just freakin' do it? You don't overcomplicate it - you just do it."   But it's funny because like as I started leaving, I put my foot in my mouth because I realized, "Oh my gosh, I have the same fears." As I started leaving nine to five, I was like, "Holy crap! How am I gonna do that? How am I gonna stay motivated?"   So I just want to teach you guys just a few things that I do to keep myself checked in, day in and day out. Again, I'm not always perfect at it. No, but I'm like 99% on certain aspects of it. Other parts, I'm like 50%. Other parts, I'm not so good at - and I'll get better.   There's a guy; I can't remember who it was... He was getting a Ph.D., and what he chose to study was Will. He choose to study willpower. In fact, I think I have his books somewhere over there. Anyway, I'm gonna keep going here though. Let me tell you the lesson.   Here's the lesson, what I learned from it:   He went in to study and do a Ph.D. dissertation on willpower, and what causes humans to have such high will, right? And he ended up getting like depressed about his studies by the time his study was over because he found out that basically, willpower doesn't work.   In fact, I think that's the name of the book, Willpower Doesn't Work.   He found out that willpower is a terrible thing to put your faith into. Willpower is a terrible thing for you to bank your success on. And I thought how interesting is that? He said the thing that does work though is environment.   Think about this, okay? Walk with me for a second on this...   If I go ahead and I start saying things like, "Man, I need to be better," 'cause a lot of guys say that to me when they hear my episodes. "Oh man, I need to be better. I need to be so much better. I need to be doing this. I should be doing that. I need to stop doing those things. I need to stop doing that."   The first step is recognition of what you need to change personally in order to become what you're supposed to be. So you gotta recognize it, right?   "Oh man, I'm gonna do this. Oh, look at that. I don't like this part about me. Or I do like this part. I'm gonna go change that. Or if I just did this differently my business would boom."   The problem is that you were literally basing all those decisions on your own willpower.   It's one of the major reasons why on January 1st, we all come out of the gate with this massive New Year's resolution goals-  "I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna change the world. I'm gonna be over here, and I'm gonna do that."   And by week two, we can't even name what the goal was anymore. You know what I mean?   He said, so rather than focused on will, rather than focused on willpower, you need to focus on environment. And with that in mind, that's one of the ways I've been able to keep such high intense pressure, right?   Pressure makes diamonds baby. I don't want to take pressure off me. I want good pressure, right? There's bad pressure too. I don't want bad pressure. I want good pressure. I want the pressure that creates diamonds.   I want the pressure that creates me into a better person. I want the kind of pressure that forces out the bad parts of my character. I want that kinda pressure in my business, in my personal life. That's good pressure. But if I just use willpower on it, eventually, it's gonna get really uncomfortable for me.   I'm the source of the willpower. It's not sustainable. What's sustainable is environment. Willpower, you gotta get rid of that crap after a while. It's a good kickstart, but it's habits and environment that'll help you win.   And that's what the guys was saying in his study. It has everything to do with environment.   And so there is a specific place, physically, that I need to be in when it's time to work out.   There's a specific place, physically, that I need to be in when I'm gonna sleep.   It's the reason why I don't do study, and I don't do work in bed, right?   I know lots of you guys would just roll over and grab the laptop and start right there. I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to isolate.   There are certain environments where certain things happen that they should not happen in other places. It's part of the way that I've been able to structure this stuff. Environment plays a huge role.   When I walk into my office door right there, I can't explain it, I don't know what it is, but I'm on. I'm ready. And it's because of training myself that way; this is my environment to produce. This is my environment to go to war. This is my environment to be a killer, right? It's my environment. I've trained myself that way.   I don't sleep in here, I eat in here a lot (if I remember to). But I make sure that there is a specific environment for the core activities of my life.   Down right below, I'm in the second floor of our house right now, literally right below me is my gym - in the third car garage of our gym. The third car spot bay is a home gym that I built.   It's so funny like how well this has worked. When I walk out there, and I put my feet on that mat -I got that thick hard gym mat, and I got a full weight set. All the dumbbells, the bench press, it's a full setup. Got a squat rack, all of it.   I got that dummy Poverty. You guys have seen him. I brought him on here a couple of times and different places.   Willpower is no longer what I'm betting on in order to work out. I've already done 80% of the work which is just to show up and do what that environment is conducive of. Work out, right?   A lot of guys have asked me like, "Stephen, how do you come up with your podcast ideas?" I set up this screen, I got two lights right here and I got this camera on this tripod. And sometimes, it's when I'm sitting down with this setup ready, and I'm standing in front of the camera and I pace.   I will pace back and forth, and I was kinda going like this, "Okay, what it is that the community needs? What is it that they've been asking? What's something that I can share and be valuable?" I'm kinda going back and forth...   I don't wait to set this stuff up. I don't wait to have all of my ideas in place to set up my equipment. I just set up my equipment. And now, I'm in the environment and the flow starts. Does that make sense? This is one of the biggest things I could tell you.   If your spouse is like, "Hey, why don't you come work on the couch while there's a movie going?" Very few people can sit there and actually be productive, I mean truly - without watching the movie. Very few. It's because that's not the environment it was meant for.   Now, when all we have is a couch, and I didn't have a specific office, (technically, this is a bedroom - it's a big one though), there was literally the same seat or two in our couch that I would sit. It's the same seat. And it was a certain time.   It was about 5:30 in the morning, I'd get up. And if I wasn't gonna bike in and be in the office at 6 AM, I sat right there 'til about 8:30 and I just work on my own funnels. That was my environment.   Here's another one. Something I said I'd do, I tried desperately hard, I'm still not amazing at this. Like last night, my flight came in at like 2 AM. It's ridiculous by the time I get to sleep...   Anyway, I was flying like crazy over the weekend. So I'm so tired my voice is kinda shot, so I'm so sorry.   But anyway, I don't set my phone as the major alarm clock anymore as much as I can. In hotels, sometimes I can't help this. But I set my phone, if it's the alarm clock, I set it across the room. Because willpower, when I'm tired, does not work. The alarm goes off, and I wouldn't even think about it...   There have been times where I've snoozed like four times before I've consciously remembered, "Oh my gosh, I set my alarm for this time because I had to get this thing done." You know what I mean?   I don't wanna bank on willpower. I'm gonna bank on environment. And so I set that clock across the room.   Now I have a specific $7 alarm clock that's really freaking annoying. You know, beep-beep-beep. Like I hate that thing. Oh my gosh. But I set it up across the room, sometimes in another room to get up and start moving, get that blood pumping.   Sometimes, I just stand there, like, "Why am I awake again? Oh yeah, 'cause I gotta do this, this, this." Does that make sense?   Environment. Huge, huge, huge, massive accelerant right there.   If you can start to control the environment and the things that you do in those environments, massive, massive, accelerant.   Sometimes, one of the issues that I found is that people will try to relax in the same environment that they work in. That's very hard for me to do. 'Cause when I'm here, I'm going to war. That's what my mentality of it. I'm here to conquer. I'm here to dominate. I'm here to get filthy freaking rich and then give it all away when I die to charities. You know what I mean?   Like that's it. That's what I'm doing. Solving legitimate massive problems, right? Provide a huge incredible value. Get rich, and solve huge humanitarian issues. That's my goal guys. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. That's why I'm doing all these stuff. I really want that, okay?   But I can't be in a relaxing environment in the same environment where I am trying to do that. Where I'm pacing around - and I've got Vitamin C caffeine running through my veins - I've got dubstep step music going through my headphones, and I'm in front of my whiteboard trying to solve something. That's hard for the human brain to do. So I just separate environments.   That's one of the major answers to the question, "Stephen, how do stay so productive?" It's because I dedicated certain spots to do certain things and not do certain things. You understand? Massive help. Massive help.   I cannot do all of my relaxing things in the same place I'm doing my work, intense things.   I'm not going to eat my meals on the gym mat where I work out. You know what I mean? Like, no, that's crazy. Well, like, shoot, there are certain places we eat meals. Kitchen table, right? The countertop, whatever. And that's usually where it happens. We do that with the way we eat, we do that with the way we sleep, do that with the way you work. Do that with the way that you take care of yourself, your self-care.   Anyway, so that's one of the first answers, I would say. You guys start controlling your environment.   If you feel like, "I've been doing this stuff so long with no traction." It's probably 'cause of your habits. It's probably where you're trying to be successful and control your environment, 'cause willpower doesn't work. It's all about environment. That's the first thing I would say.   The second thing I would say is that I am not very good at time. I'm just not. I'm not good with time. And so one of the tricks that I noticed...   I was doing some trial runs to see if I could handle having a lot of discipline at home. I remember a Christmas time right before I left ClickFunnels. It was either Christmas or Thanksgiving, right before I left my nine to five...   I was like, "Let's do a trial run." Do I have the discipline to produce for like nine straight hours? I'm not gonna take a freaking lunch break - that's stupid. I could eat while I work. So I'm gonna get up and let's just act like a normal nine to five, or eight to five. Really, it's nine to six. That's about how long, but nine to six. And no breaks.   I don't really get up. I get up to go to the bathroom, get water, food, but I eat it all right back here and I just stay at it.   I don't know how you guys take lunch breaks. Somebody gets you to, let's go to lunch. Like, no "No, I'm not gonna go to lunch." Anyway, side rant right there. But I'm not gonna go to lunch.   Anyway, it's funny how many people ask, "Let me buy lunch." Like what if you bought it through Uber Eats and sent it to my house? I'm cool with that. Anyway, I'm not gonna go to lunch with you. Why would I waste two hours? Not that it's a waste, but it is for me. You know what I'm saying?   Like, in that environment, I'm in the zone. You know what I mean? When 9 AM hits, I'm ready to rock - hopefully, earlier than that. But anyway, so the first thing: environment - 'cause environment is the thing that does work.   The second thing though is while I was doing that trial run on, I think it's during the Thanksgiving break, so I didn't have work anyways. But I was like, "Let me do it here and see if it actually works out." Here's what's interesting about that...   Because I did not have, I didn't need to be in the chair, I didn't need to be behind the computer, the work always has to be behind the computer, but whatever the work is because I didn't have a certain time, there's nobody else I was accountable to...   The first two days, I was really good at coming in at like 9 AM. I was really good at coming in. Then it was like 9:15. And then like 9:20, and then 9:30, and then 9:40, right?   And then I would end the day as disciplined either.   When I was at ClickFunnels, I'd work about until six, have dinner with the family then I come back, stop at 10, so I can get up early. I'll stop at 11, I'll stop at 12. No, let's just push to 2. You know what I mean?   Like the schedule thing, I suck at time management. I do, and I'll admit it. I'm not ashamed at that. But a business can't run like that...   So this is one of the tricks that I've used a lot. I have used many times. I actually used to use this in college. I hated doing early morning classes, but I noticed that when I started my classes at about 10 o'clock in the morning, I would do almost nothing from the time I got up to the time my class happens at 10 o'clock. And it was like that for a whole semester.   I was like, "Huh, what if I chose to do 7:45 AM classes every morning? Let's see what happens. Let's check it out."   It was a little more painful sometimes, especially when I was like little late on an assignment, or not late but like pushing up to the edge, which is pretty much every assignment.   So I would get up at seven and just haul. Just push, just go super fast to campus. Go flying into class. But I noticed that when class was over at 8:45, I would make fantastic use of the time since I was already up. I was already awake. I was already doing stuff.   But on the days when I didn't have class until nine, I would just sleep in a little more. I wouldn't do anything else with the day. And so one of the things that have been really, really powerful for me, is I set appointments early in the day every day.   If I don't have an appointment, I make sure that I have a sense of accountability to something or someone. And now I'm practiced at it.   You guys know I was in the army for a while, right? I went and enlisted, and when I was done, I came out as an officer. And I remember when I went to basic training, there some guy who was 15 seconds late to this formation that we were doing And he didn't have all those crap with him.   We were doing something. I can't remember what it was. We hold our M16s with us. We had our weapons and shooting range or something like that, and we're gonna go on like six days or something...   Anyway, the dude didn't have all these crap together. And so the drill sergeant put everybody in a front leaning rest position. He just goes, "Attention! Front leaning position, move."   Then what you do is you just hold the push up position. That's it, with all of your gear on. And you put your M16 across the top of your hands. You have two liters of water on you, 40 pounds in your pocket, and you just hold the push up position.   We held that thing forever, while we waited for the dude to pack in front of the rest of the platoon. We just sat there. Hands shaking, you start freaking out. You try to self-talk, like "Yeah, you got this."   What they teach is that if you are the weak link, if you do not show up on time, if you cannot get your crap done, you actually are making the rest of team suffer.   They would not make the guy was late. They would not make the guy who was not packed. They would not make the guy who was late on the run get punished. They would make everybody else get punished for his mistake.   There's some psycho-ness to that if you think about it. But there's a really powerful crap behind it too. And it's the state that I try and stay in.   I got a little bit of a team now. I got like six VAs on my content team. I got other team members that I'm starting to look out for and grab as well. And if I don't have my crap together, if I can't get my butt in the chair at the right time I'm supposed to, if I can't get the stuff to the people that I need to, I literally am making the rest of the team unable to be successful in what I've asked them to do. I literally set up my team for failure if I do that.   That's not fair - that's not fair to them. It's not fair to what I'm trying to get done. And it's because of me; it's on me. You understand?   And so one of the things that's super, super helpful if you have a hard time getting where you need to be, just set appointments. Be active, have appointments.   There have been times where I've set appointments with people for the sake of having the appointment. That's it. Just getting up, just being where you need to be. The body and mind can handle far more than you think it can.   And so when I sit down and I'm like, "Oh man, I really don't wanna do this thing. I really don't wanna do that. I feel a little bit lazy. Let me just relax tonight..."   I'm not saying I don't relax. I really have been a lot, actually. It's been really cool. I've been really level-minded lately. I've been doing a lot of meditating, which have been very helpful also. Using that muse headband thing, it's been super helpful. Maybe we'll toss the link out to that somewhere. But that's been really, really helpful for me...   But what's been cool is by strategically just having a full, having a calendar where I'm accountable and responsible to somebody at a certain time in the morning.   I don't wanna feel like an idiot, and so I get my crap together, and I do it. Does that make sense?   So you can use, like, if you know you're like, "Hey Stephen, I'm really bad a time management too." Great, that's fine - you have two options:   #1: Get really good at time management - that could take a long time.   #2: If you're one of the people who's like, "I don't wanna feel like I'm an idiot or I don't wanna feel like I'm letting somebody down..." Man, use that fear to your advantage.   Start setting up things in your life to create barriers, to create constraints.   I get up, I exercise in the morning, most of the time, and I was traveling. That's why I got back super late. Holy crap. So I don't know. But my normal day, I get up, I go, and I lift really, really hard...   There's a future date that I'm preparing for, even though it's not for another four or five months, I don't wanna look like an idiot at it. That's one of the motivating factors I have for me for working out every day.  I remind myself of that. I really don't wanna be late today. I don't like to be a freaking idiot at this thing that is coming up. (I'll tell you guys what it is when we move on, but that's what I'm doing.)   I've been working my face off. I work the entire weekend, no breaks, working straight for 21 straight days. You know what I mean? I could take a break. You know what though? We got people coming over, we got this, or I got an interview.   That's why I have interviews at Tuesdays at 9 AM. I do another people's shows. It's mostly for me to get my butt in the seat.   So I'm giving you several things, several tools that work with here. Because funny enough, if you just...   More than half of success is just showing up. I know I'm gonna dominate what I'm going for because most people are too afraid to even show up. If I'm just here, then I'm the only option for people to consume.   If I'm just here, and I have my products out there, I'm the only option for people to buy when they wanna buy something. Does that make sense?   The game is really easy now. The game's super easy now. It's really easy to dominate a space. The incredible, ridiculous lack of discipline in society now mixed with such an abundance of education, of knowledge.   YouTube, and Google, and I can find out the answer to anything I want, pretty much, just by freaking searching it; if you couple that with this extreme lack of discipline...   Man, like, I want everyone to change. I want everyone to be like killing it, but if they're not willing to, it's like all easier for me to just go dominate a marketplace, right?   So I'm trying to give you guys a few different tools to understand how I do what I do. To show up, just be there. Just get in the freaking seat, right?   #1: willpower doesn't work.   #2: Set things early in your day for the sake of being where you need to be.   #3: You have got to have a full schedule.   That doesn't always mean like you're hanging out with other people and you're like, "Hey, I'm gonna do this or I'm gonna do that or whatever." But I pack my day.   Entrepreneurs are not very good at judging how much time it takes to get something done, right? We're not. But I would rather expect and run like crazy to get this list of crap done and get like 70% of it done than just be realistic and try and do this one thing today. You know what I mean?   I wanna stay hungry. I'm trying to stay hungry. Pack the day. Idle time, that's bad. That's bad. Pack the day. Have a ton of crap going on. Keep a full schedule. That's one of the ways that I push so hard as well.   There's stuff I've agreed to. I'm not totally sure yet how I'm gonna fulfill on it, but one thing I've noticed is that every time I take on stuff like that, I personally have to grow in order to match the opportunity I've been given. If I just push hard at it, I never know the answer ahead of time, but I always find it in the middle of looking. Meaning, I have to actually be walking then I find the answers on how to get something done. Huge lesson to that.   Some of you guys are religious. I'm religious. Moses and the red sea, baby. That thing did not start splitting until he was walking in the freaking water, right? Go back and look at it. He didn't split that thing and then wait for it to go. The dude got wet before it moved, right? It's the same thing.   You got to be willing to get uncomfortable in order for your goals to happen. There's a level of personal fulfillment required, right? The level you develop will be at the level of your success on the other side as well.     I'm trying to share with you guys little tiny things I've done to help make sure I've been successful along the way.   I am terrible at some things in my life. And that's cool. Whatever. Everybody is, right? But rather than be like, "Oh, I'm so crappy at this or this... let me just take this whip and just whip myself all the time. I suck at this. Time management, you piece of crap. You got me bad. I can't do what I want to in life..."   Instead, I call out my own crap.   I figure out exactly what I can craft around my life to create a positive constraint. Positive constraint. Positive constraint. Not all constraints are bad.   And when you're willing to submit to something like that, you learn the discipline to actually execute on those things.   That's why I'm doing what I am. That's why I can do what I can.   So again, just to recap real quick.   #1: Willpower doesn't work. It's all about setting up good environments. These are very simple things that I've done.   #2:  If you have a hard being in places you're supposed to be, set appointments just for the sake of getting there. That has helped me tremendously. I've used that multiple times. Multiple times.   On Tuesday, I have to be somewhere at nine. On all Fridays, I have to be somewhere at nine. Thursdays, not yet, but my discipline's really good. I've been a lot better at that stuff now.   So anyways, I work my face off when I finally get there. So instead, what if I just work on getting there? Mondays, there's a place I have to be right at nine.   Wednesdays, I can't remember. But I think it's kinda like flex time. Anyway, right?   So again, willpower doesn't work. It's all about environment. Number two, you have got to set up things to get you where you're supposed to be even just for the sake of being there because more than half of success is just showing freaking up. Because no one else is gonna do it. Not many people do it.   When you're the only option, guess what? You get paid.   #3: You gotta stay busy. You gotta pack that schedule, you gotta keep it busy, you gotta stay full and be productive.   I would rather make mistakes of ambition rather than mistakes of sloth. I am not a man to make mistakes of sloth. I will not be that character.   There have been so many freaking things that have not worked out that I've launched. Who the freak cares? I don't care. Because I've been in the act of just being in motion. Just being in motion causes amazing productivity, causes ideas to come.   Some people are like, "Stephen, how are you gonna ever run podcast materials? Stephen, how did you come up with that idea? Stephen, what books can I go read to learn, offer creation like you have?"   Man, I don't know. Those are things that I've learned while in the act of doing them. Some things you can't learn from a book.   So anyways, just know that those are three of the things that I do to stay productive.   My fear of, "Am I gonna have the discipline to stay hungry when we make that first six figures?”  -Which came really quick, same with the second one.     Last month was really awesome. Am I ever gonna sit back and go, "You know what... we did really good." That is the scariest mentality. Oh my gosh. I am fighting complacency. I'm doing everything I can to not get complacent.   I can find great funnel builders. I can find great copywriters. I can find and train good marketers. I can find and train. You can learn how to do a lot of this stuff. I can teach you how to do a lot of stuff.  The thing that nobody can teach you that you have got to get serious about is hunger. How can you stay hungry? It's challenging at first, and you're not gonna find the answer. You might try like this little tweak here, that little trick there. It might take you some time to figure your own system. But if you are not hungry, I can't have you, alright? If you're not hungry, it doesn't matter what I try to teach you.   If you're not hungry, I mean, like. "backed against a wall, you're gonna figure out a way" hungry. If you can't do that, it doesn't matter what you're trying to do. You're not gonna make it. That's why I'm trying to do this episode.   I've had the shocking amount of people reach out and be like, "How do you keep the mentality you do?" I was like, "Well, I just make sure I stay hungry. I just make sure I stay hungry."   I could pay myself a lot more right now, but I'm scared to do so. I kinda want to double or triple how much I pay myself for now, but like I'm nervous because I wanna make sure that I'm hungry. Will I maintain that hunger?   I don't have mechanisms in place yet to maintain that next level of responsibility. That's what I'm thinking about. I'm like, "Crap. I don't know that I can stay hungry?" That's more important to me.   There was a product that I was being offered percentage of. And I said 'no' to it. And it shocked a lot of people. Like why would you say no to that? And I said that because (I don't think I actually would have), but my fear of not staying hungry is so strong. It's got me everything. It's the reason why I've done what I have. I'm hungry.   My fear of not being hungry outweighs my fear of I don't know what to say in this podcast episode.   My fear of becoming complacent, my fear of that vastly outweighs my fear of I've never done a webinar before, and I've never written a script before, and I've never... Scary, right?   My fear of oh man, I've never introduced Russell on stage; that pales in comparison to my fear of becoming complacent.   And I'm begging you to not become complacent.   If you've gotten squishy and fussy and you've gotten too nice a life - you gotta get uncomfortable. You gotta get uncomfortable. I try and do something that freaks me out as regularly as possible.   There's a really good quote that I've heard. It's from David Goggins... He said the worst thing that can happen to a man is for him to become civilized. And I kind of believe that. I'm not here to be comfy You know what I mean?   It is not an easy task to create a freaking blue ocean. You're like, "Stephen, I got this great product, and I got this great offer around it, and I got this great marketing message around it. And I got this great thing around it, but I just don't know, like I'm really nervous..."   If you're not willing to become the character you're not gonna give birth to a blue ocean.   Be willing to be uncomfortable. That's part of the price. Funny enough though, it's really not that freaking scary once you do it. It's just like riding a bike for the first time or the first time I was driving shift, driving stick in a highway. You know what I mean?   It's like learning to walk. Like anything else, just downplay it, cause you should. 'Cause it's not as scary as you think it might be.   Anyways, it was a long episode. But I just want you guys to know a little bit more about how I do what I do and the mentality that I'm trying to stay in at all times.   #I'm trying to stay hungry.   # I'm trying to say yes to things that I should say yes to.   # I'm trying to create positive constraint in my life. I   # I'm trying to make sure that what I'm doing with my personal discipline is on purpose. There's intention behind it. That it actually is counteracting and adhering to my personal defects, my character defects.   I have character flaws; everybody does. But sometimes, people use that as a crutch to not do stuff. You should use that as a crutch to do stuff. Just create things around it. Create positive constraints and craft success environments, right?   Some people, they might look at celebrities on TV and be like, man, they're so lucky. "They're so lucky." Did you sit on your freaking couch for years doing nothing with your life? You know what I mean?   Are you are comparing where you are to that person? How much discipline does that person have that you don't? I beg you to learn discipline. I beg you to get it. I'm not perfect at it. I'm really not. But I'm trying.   Those are some of the tricks I've used in my personal life to maintain speed, right? And now that a lot of the speed with the business has been set up, I have this massive realization...   I was at Alex Charfen's event last week. I realized that I have done so much, sprinting and running and setting systems and processes and marketing and revenue and pulling stuff up in the business setting,  that I've been neglecting my own needs on a few things. So I'm gonna go start leasing those things back in.   There's no such thing as perfect balance. I believe in obsession.   So before I keep going on the soapbox, it's been a long episode...   Those are some of my tricks guys. I hope you guys enjoyed it.   If you guys like this podcast episode, please go rate and review it on iTunes or YouTube. That actually means a lot to me and helps the show a ton. And thanks so much.   Bye guys. Oh, yeah. Obviously, our funnel's already dead if you can't even get anyone 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 member's area, we can watch those replays. Just go to freeoptincourse.com to create your free member's account now.

Haha, what's up, guys? This is Steve Larsen.   This is Sales Funnel Radio, and before we cue the intro here, I want you to know, this episode for me was really special.   I interview an incredible entrepreneur. Her name is Natalie Hodson. She's fantastic. I love learning and studying from her.   She's gonna talk about some things that went on kinda crazy in her life, and how to leverage the crazy things inside of your life for your audience - particularly around the subject of vulnerability.   So this is how to be vulnerable without looking like you're weak, right? And for a lot of guys, that's super important.   For a lot of selling in general, that's super important - the purpose is not to look like you're weak.   So anyways, let's cue the intro here. I hope you guys enjoy it, and if you have liked this, please reach out to her and say thank you. She puts some really amazing things out.   Thanks, guys, so much, and see you on the episode.   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 going on, everyone?   Hey, it's Steve Larsen, and I'm really excited to have you here today.   Stephen: I have someone that I've been trying to get on the podcast for a very long time - because I just think the world of her. It's been super amazing to get to know this person. Anyways, I'm excited about it.   The first time that I got to hear this story,  it was heart-wrenching for me to see, not just everything that had happened, but the inspiration that it's causing in other people's lives.   The way it's changing other people's lives is a huge deal.   It was fascinating for me to see that this is real, you know, this is a big deal.   I already knew that, but just to continue to watch it in application... I was like, "Gosh, the thousands and thousands and thousands of lives that it's changed."   It's my incredible honor and privilege to have you on the show. Guys, I wanna welcome Natalie Hodson. How are you doing?   Natalie - Hey, thank you so much, Stephen. That was an amazing intro.   Stephen - I mean it.   Natalie -  I'm so excited to be here too. I've watched your stuff, and I've binge listened to all your podcasts. Your advice has helped me so much, so it's like a win-win. I'm excited - you're excited. It's awesome.   Stephen - Oh, I appreciate it. Thank you very much.  I know a lot of people may not know about you yet, and frankly, it's just a matter of time... I think everyone's gonna know who you are.   Natalie - Aw, thank you.   Stephen - Could you tell us a little bit about your story, and kind of the background, 'cause it's inspiring, and...   Natalie - Yeah.   Stephen - There's obviously funnels in there, but that's a vehicle for this whole thing. You're changing people's lives, and I'd love you to grace my audience with that... that'd be great.   Natalie - Totally. Well, there's a long version and a short version. I'll try to keep it towards the short version, but I tend to be long-winded.   So at any point, if you're like, "Natalie, take it this direction," you know...   Stephen - We have happy ears.   Natalie - So I'm in the fitness space. But I always say that I accidentally fell into the fitness industry because I was a history major in school. I didn't know:   #1: That there even was a fitness industry   #2: That I ever wanted to be a part of it.   After I had my son, I gained 70 pounds when I was pregnant with him. I was like big, out here. He was a 10-pound baby.   Stephen - 70 pounds?   Natalie - Yeah, I was really big. And after I had him, I remember feeling lost. I remember looking in the mirror and feeling like, "I don't even recognize myself... I just wanted to feel like myself again," and it wasn't even so much about the weight. I just didn't feel like me.   So I started a blog, and honestly, it was like an online journal - just as a way to keep me accountable for my fitness stuff.   I didn't tell a single person that I knew in real life, because I was embarrassed.  I didn't want the people I knew to know what I was struggling.   This was when Pinterest very first got started, about eight years ago.  I just started sharing...   I like to cook, so I started sharing healthy recipes, and I started putting them on Pinterest.   And honestly, if you look at my first pins back then, they were taken with a flip phone, just awful photos, but luckily for me, now people are taking gorgeous pictures for me.   So I started to get a lot of traffic to my website.   Stephen - You were just kinda documenting what you were doing?   Natalie - I was just documenting what I was doing and sharing.   This was right when Facebook groups weren't even a thing, and I started a Facebook group with this training program I was doing. I started sharing my ups and my downs, just because I felt like it was a safe space.   I was really vulnerable and telling, you know, my struggles; like I got called out of the gym daycare again - just like real struggles, you know?   I was struggling with all this stuff. And so, I did that 12-week program, and had awesome results, and got some recognition from bodybuilding.com.   I was getting a lot of traffic to my site. So I was like, man, if I'm getting traffic, I might as well monetize it. So I got certified as a personal trainer and started writing - I wrote a couple of ebooks.  I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't how to write an ebook. I just kind of figured it out as I went.   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - And then, I started recognizing, basically, like, long story short, what happened is one day...   I was at an event, and this girl came up to me. And she's like, "I love following your stuff! I could never do what you do, because I have stretched skin after I had my babies, and I could never look like you."   I got really confused in the moment, 'cause I was like, "What are you talking about? I have tons of stretched skin."   And then I started realizing that, I don't share that. I have all these beautiful professional photos where I stand up straight, and I angle myself just right so you can't see it, right?   Stephen - Right, yeah.   Natalie - Posture and perfect looking. I started realizing, like, "Holy crap," in my head, I look down, and I'm like, "Oh, yeah, I have stretched skin, whatever," but I wasn't like, showing that to anybody else.   And so, that night, I pulled out my camera, and I filmed this video,  just saying to people, "Look, I recognize that I've never shown you... this is what that looks like."   People talk about that a lot, but this was six years ago, and really, nobody was talking about it.   I remember the first time I posted that video, my hand was shaking. I thought I was gonna lose every follower I had. But I was like, "I know that if I'm struggling with this, other people are too."   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - And I posted it, and I shut my computer down. I wouldn't look at it, 'cause I was like, "everybody's gonna hate this."   When I opened it up an hour later, there were just thousands of comments, and that video went kind of viral.   Then I started realizing that the more I talked about things that felt scary or uncomfortable, it was actually more of like a magnet. People started to feel like, "Whoa, she gets me. Whoa, she's talking about things that I think in my head, but nobody's really talking about."   And then what happened is it started to  heal broken parts of me too - because I started to realize that those fears and insecurities weren't even real. It was just the story that I was telling myself.   So the more I talked about my story, the less power it had over me.   And so, total side note here, fast forward to right now... 'cause this was years ago... but I feel like I worked through all that body image stuff kind of on accident.   Stephen - Sure.   Natalie - I was being vulnerable, and it's crazy, 'cause right now, I'm going through a very similar process. I'm trying to do a lot of self-work. Learning to be perfectly imperfect with the body stuff - I feel like I did that, and I'm okay with it.   Stephen - “Perfectly imperfect” - that's cool.   Natalie - Yeah, and now it's like, "Okay, how can I...?" I've always struggled with this idea of perfection, and now with relationships, I'm trying to recognize that it's okay to not be perfect in relationships. That when you work through the hard stuff, when you talk about the hard stuff, it actually...   So anyways, I'll turn back now. I skipped a big chunk in there, but...   Stephen - No, that's fascinating what you just said... We will come back to that.   Natalie - Okay.   Stephen - Keep going, 'cause there's this whole spot... I'm like, "This is so cool."   Natalie -  I might not have the right words for it, because I'm just starting to figure it out. It's what I was talking to my friend Yara about last night.   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - So, anyways, I built this big audience, all organically. I had about 400,000 followers, but I wasn't really monetizing it.   I was selling ebooks and making decent, good money, probably  around six figures as a stay at home mom - so it was good. Like, it was awesome, and I was enjoying it. I was writing.   And then I went through a divorce. And then it got really scary, because I was like, "All right, I don't have child support, I don't have alimony.  I have to figure this out."   Stephen - Right.   Natalie - And it just so happened... like, you know, I swear, a lot of times, things fall in place when they're supposed to, or you meet people when you're supposed to.   Stephen - Right.   Natalie - It just so happened that... I don't know actually what happened. I don't know if my name got thrown around in a mastermind or something, but all of a sudden, I got emails or phone calls from eight different people wanting to build a funnel for me in ClickFunnels, and all this stuff.   I was like, "What? what is a funnel? What is this?" And so, I started researching and googling, and I kept seeing this name, Russell Brunson.   It's so embarrassing now 'cause I know what a good, honest, genuine hard-working guy Russell is... but honestly, at first, I was like, "Is this a scam? Why are people promising me the world, and like telling me they can..."   Usually, if somebody tells you something that's too good to be true - it is, right?     ...And they're like, "With that audience, you can make all this money." And I was so skeptical.   But the embarrassing part is, Russell wrestled in college with my cousin, and we live like just right down the street from each other. So we had all these mutual friends.   Stephen - Right.   Natalie - I messaged him on Facebook, and basically just... I mean, I didn't say, "Is your company a scam?"... but that's basically... I mean it was rude!   And now that I know who Russell is, I'm like so embarrassed, and I'm so grateful he didn't just say, "See ya, I'm never talking to you again."   So I started finding out about ClickFunnels, and then I read his DotCom Secrets book, and I was like, "What?"   'Cause  I'd built this big audience, but never in my life had I even spent a dime on Facebook ads.   So, I started reading his book, and I was like, "What? These are real secrets. Why is he sharing this?"   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - Look, this is my original notepad.   Stephen - What?   Natalie - That's crazy. I was organizing my office, and it happened to be sitting here.   So what I did, this was cool. I pulled out this notepad, and as I went through the book, I started saying, "How can I apply that to my business?" Like, five variables of successful campaigns:   Step one, who are your competitors? And I started writing down who are my actual competitors? This is cool. Blast from the past.   Stephen - That's so cool. I just found mine the other day.   Natalie - No way!   Stephen - Yeah, it's just right over here - the exact same thing. I was just showing it to somebody else. But, yeah, I found mine. It's like going way back.  "I remember the first time I realized this!" This is a huge deal.   Natalie -  I was mind-blown, and I was like, "What?" And so, I started implementing it, and I was like, "This works!"   I brought somebody on to help me with building the funnel at the beginning. Now we've since split ways...   So we launched the funnel. So, okay,  this story's getting very long, so we'll wrap it up, but...   Stephen - No, it's awesome. Super valuable.   Natalie - Okay, so, basically, at that point, I was like, "Hey, my back's against the wall. I need to figure out, how am I gonna monetize what I have here?"   So what I did was, I looked at my Google Analytics on my website.  I was like, my audience is telling me what they're interested in through my analytics, right? So, I took my five most popular blog posts, and I said, okay, I'm gonna make an offer around each of these.   Stephen - Wow.   Natalie - So the first one was this weird word called Diastasis Recti. Which is basically ab separation.   When you're pregnant, your abs can separate to make room for the baby, and in about two-thirds of women, they don't always come back together the right way. So it can cause you to look pregnant, even if you're eating right or exercising. It can cause you to have like just core weakness.   The other post was this thing called Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, which in layman's terms means like, if you laugh, cough, sneeze, jump on a trampoline, exercise too hard, a lot of times, women, after they have babies, will pee their pants a little bit.   Stephen - Right.   Natalie - And so it just so happened that one of my good friends from college had just gotten her Ph.D. in this specific area.   So, I reached out to her, and I was like, "Hey, Monique, I am getting a massive amount of traffic to this blog post. Do you think we could do something together?"   And that's when she told me. She's like, "Oh my gosh, Natalie, the peeing your pants stuff doesn't have to happen! Just 'cause it's common, and happens to so many women it doesn't mean that it's normal or healthy. It can be improved."   And I was really skeptical again at first. I was like, "Yeah, right!" I was like, "Yeah, I've had two 10-pound babies." I got kind of defensive.   Stephen - Your kids were 10 pounds?   Natalie - Yeah, both of 'em. Isn't that crazy?   Stephen - Oh my gosh. Our first two were five and a half.   Natalie - Oh, wow.   Stephen - We have little kids.   Natalie - Yeah, and I had 'em at home too, with midwives, yeah.   Stephen - Oh my gosh.   Natalie - It was crazy. So crazy.   Stephen - Amazing.   Natalie - So, long story short, last year, it was November of last year,  I talked to her. It was that first conversation. And it's funny, 'cause we have the Facebook messages still with the date.   And I said, "Hey, do you think we can write a program helping women?"   Because she put me through a program, and it totally worked.  I knew that if I'm struggling with this, other women must be too.     We started talking about it on Thanksgiving. We began writing it at Christmas. We launched on January 31st.   It was like, a month, a month, a month.   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - And we launched it through ClickFunnels, and within four months, we'd sold a million dollars of this $37 ebook.   Stephen - Do the math on that, people.   Natalie - Yeah.   Stephen - How many people? That's crazy.   Natalie - Yeah, it was really crazy. We don't sell the physical version, but this is the physical version, and it's just an ebook. I mean, there's nothing super fancy about it. It's kind of text, parts of it are kind of textbooky.   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - I partnered with the doctor to write that. I'm glad I did because she has the credibility, and I have the connection, so it's kind of like a one-two punch.   Stephen - I love that, yeah.   Natalie - I don't think I could have created that program 100% on my own, because when you're talking about the body and anatomy - there are so many things that I wasn't qualified to talk about, but anyways.   So then, it was this whirlwind of like, "Holy crap." Before this, it was just me in front of my computer answering emails.   Then all of a sudden, it's like, "whoa," we have this big company and this big machine, and I need to learn how to hire people and scale and be a CEO of a company instead of just like, a little solopreneur.   Last year was a real whirlwind of a year. I had to learn how to be tough with business. I had to learn the value and the importance of contracts and of not let people take advantage of you.   I had to grow and scale - and create value. I mean, just everything was...   Conceptually, I knew what I needed to do, but applying it was kind of a whirlwind.   I still feel like we're still... we'll always be working on our businesses, but...   So, that was the world's longest answer to "How you got started," but that's how I got involved in the ClickFunnels community.   The one thing I will say is; if anybody is watching this and is skeptical, "I understand," 'cause I felt the exact same way.   But if you just do what Stephen teaches, what Russell teaches it works. It really, really works! It's not scammy.   If you have a good product and a good message to give to the world, follow the system and don't try to change it, and it will work. That's all I did.   I didn't do anything fancy, other than I came up with the idea and the program...  I just did what you guys say to do, and it worked.   Stephen - That's so cool. That's so awesome.   Natalie - Yeah.   Stephen - That's so awesome. Yeah, sometimes people look at it. I had a buddy who looked at it once, and he's like, "That looks like it's scammy," - you know, the same kind of thing. I'm like, "Ah, no, we actually end up delivering more value than if you don't do it this way."   Natalie - Yes, 100% agreed.   Stephen - Fascinating.   Natalie - Yeah.   Stephen - You gave a speech at Funnel Hacking Live which was incredible.  I was so excited. I think we were sitting in the front row, or something like that, I was pumped.   I was like, "Yeah, Natalie's next!" You gave a speech about vulnerability. And you talked about some of the ways you build in vulnerability - and this isn't a weakness.   Natalie - Yeah.   Stephen - Right, but how do you find the strength to be vulnerable?   I guess, first of all, can you tell us what it means to be vulnerable?   You're such an... I don't know if you wanna call it vulnerability secrets, vulnerability expert, or hacks? Whatever, like, but you're really good at doing this in a way that doesn't come across, you know...   It seems like most people are like, "I'm not gonna be vulnerable 'cause it means I'm weak."   Natalie - No, it's not.  I get that, 'cause I felt that way for a long, long time.   So first off, I think a lot of times, especially if you're talking to guys, they will hear the word vulnerable, and they'll be like, "I'm a man. I am not vulnerable," right? And I get that.   So, another way of saying "be vulnerable" is just "be real," right?   Look at Russell. He shares the ups and the downs, and because he shares the downs, you wanna champion and root for him on the ups.   If somebody only shares the good times, then you don't connect as much.   It's almost like we naturally, as humans, have a tendency to...   If you think somebody is only always doing good, it's harder to wanna cheer for them and root for them, you know?   Stephen - "Yeah, the cards are always in that guy's favor... are you kidding?"   Natalie - Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, when it comes to being vulnerable, it's not about crying all the time, and it's not even about being vulnerable all the time.   If you look at my content, 80 to 90% of it is just really good quality content, and then occasionally, I'll add some real honest truth or raw moments into what I share. And what it does is it brings, this isn't my phrase... it from an author named Brene Brown, her books changed my life.   *Natalie looks for books* I don't have them here, but "Daring Greatly" and "Rising Strong" literally, personally and professionally, changed my life.   Brenee is a shame and vulnerability researcher. She teaches that vulnerability is the ultimate human connector because vulnerability and shame cannot survive together.   And so the more vulnerable you are, the less shame can survive, and the less power that story has over you.   And so, you know, we all have moments that we feel embarrassed to talk about, or we think that people will judge us, or we feel ashamed, and what's crazy.   I've found that the more you talk about the hard stuff:   #1: The less shame you feel talking about it, and you start to feel more comfortable with it   #2: People start to open up to you and say, "oh my gosh, me too. I didn't think anybody experienced that."   And so what happens is it creates a different level of trust with your audience.   However, there's a fine line between being vulnerable to get sales and actually being vulnerable, right? That's kind of hard to teach. And so, you know, I didn't start this off saying, "I'm gonna be vulnerable so I can build a big audience and make all this money."   I genuinely have a heart to help people, and selfishly, it helped me along the way, too, because it made me feel less insecure about these things.   People always say, "Okay I get it in theory, it makes sense to be vulnerable, but how do you actually do that without coming across as that crazy person on Facebook that puts all their drama there?"   Stephen - Always crying, the person like, "Oh, crap, unfollow."   Natalie - Yeah, and you're just like, Where's the popcorn. Let's watch their drama unfold." And so I kind of have this four-step system that I didn't mean to create. It's just how I naturally write, but it works really well.   The first thing that I do is #1, remember that you don't always have to share your vulnerable moments in the moment.   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - So, if you haven't worked through something and you're still feeling very fragile about it - it's okay to wait to share. Because, I've made that mistake before.   If you get criticism back and you haven't really worked through it yet, that criticism can be shattering to your confidence.   And so, one of the tricks that I have...   For a long time, I struggled, 'cause when you're going through the vulnerable stage when you're really sad or excited or happy or embarrassed or feeling ashamed when you're in the moment, the feelings feel very real...   But sometimes it's hard to sit in front of your computer later and remember the real emotion that you felt during that moment.   So one of the things that I do now, a trick that I have, is I'll pull out my phone and pull up the notes section when I'm in that moment feeling, you know, small or hurt or scared or whatever the feeling is, right? It can be good or bad.   And I'll just shorthand write out the raw feelings. Not like full paragraphs, but, now I have this big catalog of feelings, so if I want to tell a story that relates to this, that relates to body image, or that relates to whatever,  I have all these raw emotions to draw on.   I'm not faking vulnerability. It's my real stuff.  It's my real moments that I can draw from and turn into actual stories.   Another tip: A little family joke is that I'm really bad at analogies, and my family calls them "Natalogies" because a lot of times, like, you know...   The whole crux of expert secrets, is you have to be able to do epiphany bridges and analogies. And my analogies do not make sense half of the time.   I'll say them, and people are like, "that didn't make sense?" I'm just not good at them.   I hope someday, I can learn to be better at analogies. So what I try to do instead is just pull on these stories that I have - and kind of weave it together instead - 'cause my "it's kind of likes" never actually make sense.   So that's like my trick, you know how Russell talks about in the soap opera sequences, to start with the drama - to start with the most dramatic point, and then you tell the back story...   In my posts, a lot of times, I do that.   I start with like the hurt, the pain. Whatever you're feeling, the run moment, start with that, 'cause then people will automatically be like, "Whoa. She's talking about something nobody talks about."   And then what I do is I, and this is just my style. Everybody will find their own style.   But my step number two is to show myself some grace. Remind myself "perfectly imperfect, it's okay," or,  just show yourself some grace, and in some words, type that out.   Then the third step is to try to remind myself of a time when this has happened before and I worked through it -  or when somebody else has gone through something like this and worked through it.   Stephen - Right.   Natalie - And then the fourth step is; I always finish up on a positive note.   So like, either how I worked through it - if this is a past experience, or if I don't know how to work through it, I share what my plan is to try to work through it, even if you fail trying, right?   So what it does is it puts people, like, when you're, when you start with the raw stuff, it makes people feel like, “whoa, like, that could be me, because I've felt that exact same way.”   And then you're giving yourself grace, and you're teaching other people how to show, how to give themselves grace if they're in the same shoes, and then when you talk about how you work through it.   It's like, somebody else could look at you, look at your situation and say, “Whoa, I'm in that situation too, and if she can work through it, I probably can, too.”   And so, I think that's why a lot of my content has gone really viral, is because I make it relatable by sharing, it's not fake. I mean, they're the real moments, and then I come up with like a positive, and it's not.   Stephen - End with hope at the end.   Natalie - It ends with hope, yeah, but it's not like, talking down to somebody.   It's not like, you have to do x, y, and z, or I'm so perfect on my high horse here.   It's more like, we're in this together. We're all in the arena, and we've all fallen down. Let's dust off our knees, and this is how I'm gonna try to stand up. I might get knocked back again, but like, this is what I'm trying.   I don't know if that makes sense at all, but I think that's why... there's an underlying subtleness of talking down to somebody or being on the same playing field and championing everybody to come up together.   I don't know if I have the language to always describe how I do it, but that's kind of the feeling behind it.   I have written and deleted and written and deleted, 'cause I'm like,“This feels like I know everything,” or you know, I'm like talking down, and I never want that to come across that way.   Stephen - Right. Absolutely, and you know, you know what it reminded me of is so like, you know, we always tell people, like, start publishing before you have a big following.   Natalie - Mmhmm.   Stephen - So that you can bring them with you and you become the expert in front of them.   Natalie - Exactly.   Stephen - Rather than become an expert and then start publishing, 'cause it's so less believable.   You've done the same thing with the vulnerability, which is fascinating. Like, yes, start it. Don't be afraid to talk about the low moments, not that it always needs to be low, and it probably shouldn't always be, but you know...   Natalie - Totally.   Stephen - But being open about what's actually going on and doing it in front of 'em rises everyone together. That's fascinating.   Natalie - Well, and what's crazy is that it never gets... well, it's always a process, right?   So, what's weird is that eight years ago, for me to talk about the body image stuff, it was so hard for me, 'cause that's where I was. I was in that phase of my life where I was really struggling with that, right?   And so, I did the work, and I went through the process unintentionally.   I didn't know I was doing the work at the time. I was just being vulnerable. I was sharing.   So what's cool is that, fast forward to now, I don't really have all of those body image insecurities that I had then, and I think it's honestly because I was willing to talk about it in the moment.   Now, fast forward to today, and the issues that I'm struggling with are different.   I'm a different person than I was eight years ago, right?   So when I built my audience with talking about the body image stuff, now, it's like, "okay, I don't feel like I have to talk about that as much, 'cause I've not grown past it," - that's not the right word, but  it's not my main focus anymore. And now it's...   Like, okay, you know, I went through a divorce, and I haven't really talked about that very much publicly.   But now it's like, "Okay, now I'm sitting in this moment where  I'm at a crossroads." Am I gonna do what has worked for me in the past and be vulnerable and open up and share these things that feel uncomfortable to me again, right?   It's not the body image stuff anymore. Now it's personal development and relationships and the struggles that I've had with my business.   Like, it's always changing.   So vulnerability is never like, you just learn how to be vulnerable and you've got it. Like, it's always easy.   It is easier for me to be vulnerable on the body image stuff, but now it's shifted to "how can I grow?"   And the only hope I have is that I know that it worked with the body stuff. So  I'm hoping that five years down the road, I can look back and say, "Okay, I was scared to be vulnerable.  I was scared to talk about these things, but it got me into this confident, comfortable zone because I shared."   Stephen - No, totally, totally. Like, I went through a lot of the exact same, you know, it's funny because I feel like it's the emotion that binds people.   While I haven't gone through a divorce, there are other times where I felt really vulnerable as well. And so whilst that person may not have gone through a divorce, if we didn't have the same experiences, we did have the same emotions, and being able to expose the emotion, I feel like, is what binds people. I think it's interesting what you said.   Anyway, quirks, the little quirks that you have or the little vulnerabilities you have, that's your superpower. That's the reason people follow you. They don't follow you because of pure perfection 24/7. That actually annoys people after a while. But you actually get personal healing along the way. Like that's so, that's so amazing.   Could you tell us a little bit... I mean, this is Sales Funnel Radio, and you're talking about your sales funnel. Like, what does this have to do with sales funnels? Why does it matter? 'Cause it totally does, but just for everyone else, you know.   Natalie - Well, it 100% matters because the thing that I've learned is although I'm not the best trainer in the world. Like, I will be the first to admit that. Yes, I'm a personal trainer, but like, people don't buy my programs because....   I mean there are probably people that can talk science better than I can. I stumble over my words. I have mild dyslexia, and I mix up scientific terms all the time. But the reason people follow me and the reason people buy my programs, the reason we were able to sell so many of this book, is because of the connection.   I owned a company called Dollar Workout Club a couple of years ago, and we would film our workouts, and we never cut the cameras. And we would always be joking and be like, "guys, if you're at home you can relate to the doorbell ringing or whatever, right?" And it was very relatable.   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - Well, in one of the workouts, I happened to be wearing gray shorts, and Drew, the only guy, the other trainer, wrote the workout, and it was all jumping exercises, right?   So, we're doing the jumping, and I'm like, "Oh, crap." I could tell I was like, peeing my pants a little bit, right?   It was so embarrassing.  I'm wearing gray shorts and you can see this little tiny spot, then by the end, my whole butt was just... it was so gross. It's just covered in pee. At the end, I'm trying to stretch and turn sideways so you can't see.   Anyways, I could have never shared that, and I didn't for a while. I was really embarrassed about it. But we have that footage. So then when I went to go create this program, I could take screenshots from that video. I could take the actual video and put it in my funnel.   So what happened is people were like, "Whoa, this woman actually peed her pants." Like, this is embarrassing. I mean, truth be told, this program almost didn't come out, 'cause I had to have a heart-to-heart with myself really, and say, "okay, Natalie, are you willing to tell the whole world that you used to pee your pants," you know?   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - But what happens is then you can put those real stories in your funnel. You can put the photos. And it's kind of like instead of social proof this is your real story and your real-life proof.   "Whoa, this woman understands me and this woman gets me." Because the truth is that real change, like, I can give you the best meal plan and the best workout program in the whole world, but it's not gonna have a lasting, long-term effect until you make that internal change and have that belief in yourself.   I feel like that is my gift, is helping people see their value and their power. And so, you know...   Stephen - People kind of have an identity shift with the vulnerability that you have, almost. That's fascinating.   Natalie - 100%. And so that's the psychology behind it.  I think that when you are willing to be real vulnerable, not fake vulnerable... If you're willing to be real vulnerable, people can relate to that. And once people relate to it, they begin to trust you, and then once they trust you, they'll buy from you.   My biggest fear is that when people listen to me talk about this, they're gonna be like, "Oh, I see dollar signs. I'm just gonna like, figure out how I can be vulnerable." But the truth is, people are smart. Your customers are smart, and they will smell out fake vulnerability.   Stephen - Right.   Natalie - And so.   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - The biggest thing... If you're sitting there and you're thinking, "There's no way I could ever talk about this," then you're on the right path. That's how you know it's real vulnerability.   If you seriously feel nervous to share it and talk about it, and you think: “Everybody will think I'm a fraud. Everybody will think I'm a bad parent." Everybody will think I'm a bad husband or wife. Nobody's gonna find me attractive."   All of these things, these stories that we tell ourselves that you feel if you start talking about, people are gonna think you're terrible... Guess what? That's the real good stuff that you need to be talking about and sharing if you wanna create real connection and live a wholehearted life.   Stephen - Totally believe that yeah. 'Cause I struggled. Anyway, when you got up, and you were speaking about that on stage, I was like, "Man, I know, I feel ya, holy crap."   I had like, zero confidence. So rather than choose not to be active and do this game, I just called out my fear publicly, and that became a theme for a little bit.   It was like, "Look, guys, I don't really wanna be doing this, although I got something cool to show you, all right?"   And for a while, that was the theme of it. And then as I grew up and healed, (I like how you said that) I passed certain things in front of the audience.   Then it was like, "Whoa, I've gotta wait for this new episode," or "what's he doing now?" And it was crazy, crazy. That was worth more than me putting hundreds of episodes out of just the best content ever.   Natalie - Yeah.   Stephen - It was crazy, crazy what that did.   So, what would you say is, like...   So you tell people, go ahead and start recording down things that are going on in the moment. Don't feel the pressure to go ahead and say it in the moment, which I totally agree with. I don't know if I can handle that.   Natalie - Well, and it can be whatever platform you like the most, right? Mine happened to be Facebook, but some people are better at YouTube, or some people are better at podcasting or Instagram.   There's not one that's better or worse. Just find what feels the easiest for you and start there.   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - I will say too...   So, one of the downsides of being vulnerable is, and I don't let this scare you from being vulnerable, but it does happen. It still happens to me.   So when you're open and transparent about your life, for some reason, and I get it. We're that way with celebrities, right?   You're like, "I wanna know why they broke up." And both sides of the story; people feel like they know every aspect of your life. And I do share a lot, but I don't share everything.   And so what can happen is that you get harsh people on the internet. And we all get that anyways. Even just last night.   I get mean from people messages every day pretty much.   Luckily, I have my team now to kind of shield me from it, just 'cause it's like silly.   Stephen - I have to do the same, yeah.   Natalie - Yeah, just 'cause it's hard for me to continue to be vulnerable if I'm always reading the negative messages.   Stephen - Yeah, I'm the same.   Natalie - But one woman was like, "You are so different from how you used to be. You used to share your progress photos, and now you just talk about your life."   The truth is, we all change and grow as people, right? And so for me, posting an ab selfie now, I don't get validation or fulfillment. I don't need that like I did six years ago. So, yeah, if you look at my feed, I don't post as much like, like, body image stuff, because I'm kind of like in a different space.   And so what will happen is that as you're transparently sharing what you're focused on in your life, sometimes, you will get people that you don't attract anymore.   Like, they're still in a different area, and they want to follow people that are in that area, and that's okay.   What I've had to learn is that the number-one thing when you get mean people on the internet, and it took me a long time to figure this out, is that it's so much more about them and what they're personally struggling with than it is about you, you know?   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - Okay, so, for example, my peach tree. So we had a big wind storm. I'm sure you saw it 'cause we live in the same town.   So, this tree that I've nurtured for two years, finally had some fruit coming off of it, well the storm completely broke the tree, and I was really sad. I posted about it on my Insta Story, and she wrote back, and she was calling me all these mean names, and she's like, "To think that your biggest worry right now is that your peach tree died. My mom just died, and my brother is sick."     And I realize she's hurting because of that, and she's lashing out at me, right?   So it's a reflection of her. It's not a reflection of me. And so that was the hardest thing I had to learn, being open and vulnerable in the online space, is that you will get critics.   I always say it's like the people in the peanut gallery out there who aren't, like...   I'll listen to criticism from people who are in the arena with me, right, people who are battling and fighting and trying and working hard, but if it's just a critic out in the peanut gallery that isn't there fighting along with me, then their opinion doesn't matter.   It's probably more about them than me.   Stephen - You're better than I am, then. There are times I just, I don't know.   Natalie - Well, I did block her.   Stephen - I like to fight with 'em sometimes. And I shouldn't, and I'm growing past that, and there's me being vulnerable. I like to stir the pot sometimes when it's already brewing.   Natalie - You should talk about that, Stephen. So you should talk about it-  not just like the fun, "I said this, and he said that" but the real issues, "why did that trigger you?" And what's the story behind that insecurity?   Those are the things that people love. Not just the story, but going deeper into the feeling or the "why" behind it - you know?   Stephen - Yeah.   Natalie - I don't know.   Stephen - I told you, yeah, some of it's going on right now still with some other people. Like, it comes in waves. I don't know if that happens for you too.   Natalie - Yes.   Stephen - It's like the criticism goes down, whoa, and then it goes away, and you're like, everything rocks, and then you try something big again, and everyone's like, "whoa!" Not everyone, but there's like, anyway, the talking heads, as I call them, come on out. It's the armchair quarterbacks.   Natalie - Uh-huh, 100%.   Stephen - Yeah, I told you, and I've been planning on doing that. Funny you say that. I just haven't quite formulated how to do it yet, so.   Natalie - Yeah.   Stephen - It's top of mind.   I wanna thank you for being on here with everyone, and guys, Sales Funnel Radio, we're talking about vulnerability.   This is everything, especially if you are the attractive character in your own business - which I hope that you are, and you choose to be.   This is not a tiny subject. It's something that you will not have the choice to go around. You will address it whether it's through haters or your own personal growth. You're gonna get it.   So, please, please go follow Natalie. Natalie, where should people go to follow you?   Natalie - My website is nataliehodson.com, or Facebook is Natalie Hodson Official. Instagram is nataliehodson1   Stephen - Cool.   Natalie - If anybody has any questions, you know, you can leave 'em, and I'll keep checking 'em. I'll answer them and stuff.   The books that I talked about are Brene Brown's Daring Greatly and Rising Strong.  I think they're books every single human being on this planet should listen to.   I call the books magic, 'cause I've listened to them probably six times now, and every time, I need to hear a different piece. I gain something different from them every time, you know? They're good books.   Stephen - I wrote it down. I'm excited. I'm gonna go get them right after this.   Natalie - Cool.   Stephen - That's awesome. Everyone, guys, thank you so much.   Please reach out to Natalie and say thank you and go follow her, and watch her practice what she preaches on this stuff. It's fantastic and amazing - and that lets her audience open up as well.   So Natalie, thank you so much for being on, and it's been a pleasure.   Natalie - Yeah, you're so welcome.   Stephen - Woohoo, hey, thanks for listening.   Hey, many don't know that I actually made my first money online as an affiliate marketer.   If you wanna know how I funded my entire company without using any of my own money ever, you can learn to do the same for free at affiliateoutrage.com.

Overview: One of the great privileges I have as host of this podcast is the opportunity to meet so many good people doing really great  work. At the top of that list are the folks at the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care, or CTAC, a DC based organization dedicated to the ideal that all Americans with advanced illness, especially the sickest and most vulnerable among us, receive comprehensive, high-quality, person- and family-centered care that honors their dignity. I love that.    So naturally I was super stoked to be invited to CTACs annual conference where I got to hear from folks on the front lines of the battle to transform care from the fragmented, siloed systems that result in unnecessary suffering to one where caregivers and the people they serve are empowered and getting the care they want when and where they choose. Today I want to introduce two people from the front lines of this great challenge, Torrie Fields and Dr. Stephen Bekanich.   Now please understand these recordings were made at the conference, so you’ll hear some occasional noise in the background. But you know, I’m like a moth to the flame, and when I see a bright light, I move toward it. I think you’ll agree these two guests are shining bright. So please join me on this special episode of Dance Past Sunset, recorded live at the 2017 annual conference of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care. First up is a women who owned the stage with her positive energy and optimism, Ms. Torrie Fields, Senior Program Mgr for Advanced Illness and Palliative Care, Blue Shield of California plus their affiliated Medicaid Carefirst Health Plan.   What You’ll Learn from Torrie: How she advises start-up incubators and early stage entrepreneurs focused on advanced illness or end-of-life care Blue Shield’s long running history working with new organizations and helping them to grow The innovative ventures she has seen that really excite her How she uses a game called “Hello” from Common Practice’s game (formerly called “My Gift of Grace”) on first dates to determine values and openness What it means to live well all the way through the end of life,  Her personal role as caregiver, and with folks who are not comfortable talking about death, and who are not tech savvy The needs for more ways to help people understand the progression of their disease  How tech designers don’t understand the digital divide Her evaluation of the Trillion dollar "Silver Tsunami” and its relation to Spinal Tap Policies and regulations that keep us in the past (e.g. restrictions on what we can do in the home) and stifle innovation How do we enable the future   Stephen Bekanich, MD: Many advanced care patients, like Torrie’s mom, want more help understanding what’s happening with their health now and what they can expect to face in the future. That’s one of the things my next guest helps people do. Dr. Stephen Bekanich from Iris Plans is not only focused on that challenge, he looks like he belongs in a rock&roll band with a fire red electric guitar strapped on him. And when you see a guy walking around who looks like that, you just have to ask, you know?   What You’ll Learn from Stephen: How he uses his rock & roll attire to open a conversation with his patients and help them focus on the relationship and not just their illness About WalMart's Angel Wings   How Iris plans targets COPD, CHF, late stage malignancies, dementia, stroke, cirrhosis and helps patients assess what’s happening now. and what will they will face in the future. What’s missing from Obamacare How to bring the patient and their families into the equation When Texas will become a Republic again, his tips for finding good BBQ   Coming Up Next on the Show: Thank you Stephen and Torrie for taking time to speak with me, and thank you CTAC for hosting such an important event. Coming up in the next episode of Dance Past Sunset, I’ll have more guests from the conference including a couple who took their 90 year old mother and a dog named Ringo on a bucket trip your across America. Good stuff! Copyright 2018 Dance Past Sunset. All Rights Reserved.