Episode 34: Russell Brunson

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Russell Brunson is a legend in internet and online marketing. He started his first online company while wrestling at Boise State University. Within a year of graduating, he had sold over a million dollars’ worth of his own products and services from his basement! For over 12 years now Russell has been starting and scaling companies online. He is a best-selling author, owns a software company (ClickFunnels), a supplement company, a coaching company (DotComSecrets), and is one of the top super affiliates in the world.

Read more about him here, or visit his coaching company, DotComSecrets. You can also check out Russell’s Podcast; Marketing In Your Car and, of course, his software company ClickFunnels

In the podcast, Russell recommends two sites: Clarity FM and Buzzsumo

 

AREAS OF DISCUSSION

00:25 – Podcast Guest Introduction: Your host, Christopher Duncan, introduces the special guest for Total Freedom’s First 2016 Episode

02:25 – Russell Brunson shares his story: what prompted him to look into internet marketing? What did he hope to achieve? What was his strategy for online success?

03:56 – Why Modelling Made Sense

05:29 – How Important is the Online Space for People Looking to Create Freedom?

09:21 – Before his stint with online marketing and online entrepreneurship, Russell was already familiar with the concept of leverage. How did he come across it, and why does it make sense? How does leverage work?

11:11 – The Job Experience that convinced Russell that trading time for money is NOT the way to go

14:52 – Athletes Turned Businessmen: From one athlete to another, Chris asks Russell how the athlete mindset gives them an advantage in business and entrepreneurship

18:40 – Marketing Testing: 90 Percent Won’t Work, 10 Percent Will. What To Do With the 10 Percent?

23:14 – How important is modelling and mentorship?

25:22 – Russell shares his insights on where the future of internet marketing is headed

31:40 – Entrepreneurs and Focus

34:46 — How ClickFunnels Was Conceptualized

38:39 — Let’s Get Results

 

FULL TRANSCRIPT

 

Chris: Welcome to the Total Freedom Podcast with your host Christopher Duncan and today is such a special day. I’m here with Russell Brunson who is, as you know, an absolute legend when it comes to online marketing and building sales funnels online. He’s the founder of ClickFunnels, which you guys have heard me talk about over and over and over again. And I know a lot of you out there that listen to this know that I travel a lot and know that my whole thing’s about freedom. And just before I started, I said to Russell: “You know, I don’t want to travel with a lot of books.” And before I had the interview – I’m travelling! I only got the notification we’re going to do this show like three or four days ago. So I went, “You know, it would be really cool if I had one of his books so I could kind of hold it up. And so, I found the first book. And I say the first one because, as I started talking about it, I told Harriet, my wife, who pulls out the second copy of it.”

Russell: [laughs]

Chris: And for all my listeners, when I teach you Sales Funnels and I show you how to do things – I mean, a lot of it has come down to what Russell has done. I’ve bought a lot of his programs and stuff. And I just wanted to show you guys; in this book, it doesn’t matter which page I go to; there’s a highlighted section and there’s notes sticking out of there – it’s a good business plan on a napkin – and everything in there, so [voices overlap]

Chris: Thank you so much for getting on this show, Russell, and it’s such a pleasure to have you here. So everyone, make sure that you listen up to whatever this man says and follow him and do it right. Other than that, Russell’s the founder of ClickFunnels – which we do everything on – and so, mate, it is so good to have you on the show.

Russell: Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here, and I appreciate you letting me share all this cool stuff with your audience. It’s always fun for me.

Chris: Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Chris: And I know – I mean, there’s a lot of people that will know you but maybe not as many of them know you and your whole story and those sort of things so maybe we can just start off with you kind of filling in your story and getting into it to where you are today

Russell: Yeah, sure! You know I, I got started doing this business almost 12 years ago now, which is funny because people always tell me I look like I’m eleven so I’ve been doing this from the womb. [laughs] I was in college and my wife was working. I was trying to figure out how to make some money because I was also a wrestler and I wanted to keep wrestling for my university. So I just jumped online, just trying to figure out how to make money. As most people know there’s the – you know, [when you go on the internet] with that goal, there’s a whole bunch of stuff you have to get through [before] you find out how to actually do it. It took me about eighteen months of just, I don’t even know what I was doing. Selling stuff on eBay and Craigslist and signing up for pansy schemes and who knows what else I was doing. And nothing was working. And then, about 18 months in, I realized it really wasn’t that hard. You just had to figure out a cool product people wanted, figure out some way to sell it, and getting people to show up and see that thing. And that was kind of the beginning of it. So I started creating little products. I created a potato gun product. I created these little software products and I was just kind of looking at what other people that were successful, what they were doing. I just kind of modelled it. I remember there was this dude named Armand Morin, and he used to sell stuff – he had a very distinct way he sold everything. Like, they all looked the same. And I’d buy every one of his products. And I had my first software product – his were all softwares – I just like … I copied as close as I could. I remember he had these banner ads on top of his site and it was pictures of him in a suit and tie, so I went and got a suit and tie, got a picture of myself and I put it on top of my banner ads as well. [laughs]

Russell: I just modelled as close as I could because I knew he was making millions. I’m just, like; “I’m going to just model everything he did,” and that’s how I started launching these little products. Just finding people that were doing cool things and modelling them. And that was, again, ten or twelve years ago. And since then, we’ve sold almost everything you can dream of, from supplements to dating advice to weight loss to internet marketing software, and just a whole bunch of things in between. And it’s just been the most amazing ride of my life. I never thought that when I started searching for those kinds of things where it would lead, but it’s just been … amazing, and it’s just been so much fun to get to meet entrepreneurs like you and, you know, just people and hang out and share ideas. It’s been a huge blessing for me. It’s been awesome.

Chris: Yeah. And that’s one of the things that I love about you so much; it’s that you’re nearly as obsessed or probably just as much obsessed as I am about this stuff because it is … it’s so much fun. It’s so much fun. Just to get it working and to watch your business. I mean, I guess the one thing that I truly love about what you’ve done with ClickFunnels and your book is you’ve taken this complex thing and you’re so great at just making things so simple. I mean, you even called it “the simple webinar”. You make things so simple, right? And I think a lot of times that’s so necessary because everyone’s out there kinda … you know, they’re struggling in this complex, digital – like, “I need this, and this, and this” and then it’s just: out pops ClickFunnels and you can just – this is it!

Russell: [laughs]

Chris: You know, it’s so good! So, obviously we talk a lot about Freedom. And for us, what freedom means is the opposite of sacrifice. So, for me, I still love working and I love building businesses and doing things because that’s what I would do if money’s not an object. And so we talk a lot about Freedom on this show. So I’d love to ask you how important the online space is to anybody wanting to create their freedom.

Russell: Yeah. It’s interesting because I actually – just this weekend – had a conversation with my son’s eye doctor. So my son’s got [kind of a lazy eye] and so he [wears glasses to] correct it and he’s got this eye doctor that’s helping him. He’s doing these cool exercises and all these things to make it better. And he was asking me what I was doing, we were sharing back and forth, and he’s like; well, for someone like me, how would I usually do it? I was like, “Tell me what works right now.” He says; “Okay. We get a client in, they pay $5000 for a nine-month program, and every day for the next nine months they come in and they go through all these exercises. And nine months from now, their eyes are strengthened.” And I was like; “How many clients could you possibly get through your doors if you just maxed it all out?” And he was telling me so I kinda did the math. I’m like; “Okay, so you’re telling me it would be physically impossible for you to make more than … whatever that number was.” He was like; “Yeah, I don’t know how I could.” And I was like; “Dude, why don’t you just go and take this amazing skill you have, set up a video camera, spend three days, record yourself teaching the whole thing, throw up a website, and then go on vacation! And then people can buy this product, it ships to their house, they go through it – you do the work once, and you’re paid for it over and over and over again.” And he’s like; “Well, I don’t think that would work.” It does work! [laughs] We’re doing this every single day! He’s like;
“Well, people in my profession would look down on me.”

Chris: Uh-huh.

Russell: I’m like; “Who cares about people in your profession?” The problem now is that we’re so used to – our society’s into this whole thing where we trade time for money, right? So everyone has, like, their dollar. How much they make an hour and we’re trading. We’re handing this thing off. When we start understanding the internet and the leveraging that comes with it … like, it completely breaks out of that. You’re not bound by that anymore. Example; we did a Periscope last Thursday. This is ridiculous, right? And like, last minute, I’m like; oh, my new Periscope. And I had a thing we were selling, so I – I didn’t have time to make a webinar or anything, so I just got out my whiteboard and I mapped out like the perfect webinar script. I just, like – on the whiteboard real quick, we opened up Periscope, and we started doing it. And I spoke for 22 minutes on this Periscope. Did a $150,000 in sales.

Chris: [laughs]

Russell: It’s ridiculous! And then I went home and hung out with my kids for the rest of the day, and – you know, it’s just ridiculous when you start understanding how leverage works. Where it’s not you having to trade time for hours. It’s you create something, and then you create a system to sell that – that pulls you completely outside of it. And that’s when you get the freedom you’re talking about.

Chris: Totally. Totally, man. I mean, for me, it was sitting on a beach in Thailand. I did a ninety minute webinar and at the end of it, I had – way less than you’re turn, I had $13,000 and I went; I’m sitting on the beach, this is crazy. And you know –

Russell: [laughs]

Chris: — that led me to this journey to, you know, keep building them out and I think … one thing that I hear a lot from people when they hear it, they kinda get this: well, that’s good for you, but I can’t do it. Or, you know, people looking down on me. There’s always this story or reason why they didn’t do it, and I mean – I know your story. Where you started – and you’re in college and you got someone else to basically make the product, and you just launched it. I mean, for the people out there who are still kind of in that space, maybe, where they’re going: “$150,000 in 20 minutes? That sounds awesome but I make that in three years.” You know? What would you suggest or – actually, before that; what’s your story? You know, when you were back at the beginning – when you started – I know it already, but would you tell the listeners how you kind of got your first wins and how you started into this field?

Russell: How far back do you want me to go? To the beginning beginning?

[overlapping laughter]

Russell: It’s actually – you know, three seconds: I’ll grab it and you guys can see what – wait –

Chris: Yeah?

Russell: — because this is, like, an artefact. Let me grab it. It’s like we’re in a museum. [moves offscreen, voice fades]

Chris: That’s awesome, man. [beat of silence] We’re in a museum.

Russell: [voice fades back in] Alright, so I wish I could, uh, fr – I should frame these. But anyway. So I was … I think I was fourteen or fifteen years old and my, uh – you know, at nighttime, infomercials come on, right? So, my dad, he was watching the news and I was laying on the couch watching with him. And usually, at the end of the news, he’s like ‘get to bed’. But he didn’t, he was working and forgot I was there. And then like, after that, Mash came on and it was playing and all of a sudden this infomercial popped up! And there was this dude named Don Lapre who jumped up talking about buying and selling classified ads. And he was like just jumping around [talking about] how much money he was making and I was watching it and my eyes were like this big. I’m like; are you kidding? I look over at my dad and he’s not even noticing. I’m like –

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Russell: And I remember he told – this Don Lapre guy – he told a story. He said that he had a … he created this little info product – I think it was about mortgages or something – and he put a classified ad out and it made 30 dollars. And he said he was all excited. He told his friends and his family and they all kinda laughed at him like; sweet, you made thirty bucks. But what he understood – and what they didn’t – is the power of leverage. So he ended up taking that same ad and he ran it out over a thousand different newspapers. He was averaging $30,000 dollars a week coming in from this one little tiny classified ad. And I was listening to that and it just made so much sense to me. I was like; why … ? You know, those things were just – it was eye-opening to me. It just made perfect sense. And so he was selling his kit for forty bucks. I still have the whole thing, like; how to do 1-900 numbers and –

[overlapping laughter]

Russell: Anyway, it’s kind of funny but that was like my intro as a twelve, thirteen, fourteen year old kid. I was just like; this is amazing.

Russell: So I went through that and I started trying to figure things out. And I still remember – I think I was fifteen or sixteen years old – I got my first job. And I think was getting paid five or six bucks an hour. And I remember just thinking: “Ugh, I gotta work a whole day and they give me, like; ‘here’s thirty bucks,’ and I’m like ‘aww’,”. [laughs] I remember I got called to go, uh – I was working at this garden shop and they had these trees. And they were like; “Hey, come over here and plant this tree.” And so, I went to go plant it [to help out]. And they had a work order and they – the company billed these guys like five or six thousand dollars to come and plant these trees. And I was like; this is going to be awesome, I’m gonna help them plant their [trees]. And I assumed I was going to get some of that since I did all the work. The owner, you know, he knows where he was at. And I was out there digging and planting this thing. And I got back to the office afterwards and I didn’t get anything. I was looking at the girl who was doing the front desk. She was, you know, sitting there, goofing off, reading a magazine all day and she made the same hourly rate that I did and I was killing myself. And they made four, five grand off my work. And I was just like … huh. And that was why I’ve never really had a job after that. Because I’ve never been so frustrated by that. I was just like; “this isn’t fair. I’m doing more. There’s got to be a better way to do it.” Anyway, I was young, so I kind of got ruined back then.

Chris: [laughs]

Russell: And then, just as I started growing up, I started trying to figure these things out. And one of my first products I ever sold was this DVD – I should probably have it on the shelf here somewhere too – teaching people how to make potato guns. And it was crazy because I was learning about internet marketing. I remember hearing all these people talking about stuff. And then – at the time, it was Spring Break here in my University. During Spring Break, we don’t have school, so I was goofing off making potato guns with my buddy. And I started thinking: I wonder if anyone else besides me is looking for information on potato guns? And I was like; that could be something. I know how to make those. I did a search back then – there were about 80,000 people out searching for potato gun plans and nobody was selling anything! So I put together this little DVD and some plans and I put it up online and just put these little ads out there and people started buying them. And it wasn’t like millions of dollars. But it was thirty, forty, fifty bucks a day just happening while I was sitting at school and going to college and wrestling and all these things, and I was like; this is it. I got to – I want to do that over and over and over again. That started the whole obsession with it. [chuckles]

Chris: And it was huge! From what I know, you went from that doing your Senior year over $250,000 while studying.

Russell: [laughing] Yeah. Yeah, I know. People thought it was so funny because I remember, um – I was wrestling and we had these guidance counsellors – all the athletes, all the student athletes, we know we’re not that smart – and so they kept coming. And she kept saying, like; “Russell, I need to have your resume.” I’m like, “I don’t need a resume.” She’s like; “No, you can’t graduate without a resume.” I was like, “I don’t have a resume. I don’t need a resume. I’m doing fine.” Like, [this is gonna] work out. And finally one of the coaches went up to her and he goes … [laughs] He goes, uh; “Hey, Anne Marie,” – her name’s Anne Marie – “Anne Marie, Brunson could buy you. Don’t worry about it. He’s gonna be fine.”

Chris: [laughs]

Russell: She’s like; What? And then they told her I had this business and was making all this money and they left me alone after that. Yeah, it’s just so backwards. It just didn’t make sense to anyone there, so. Anyway. [laughs]

Chris: It’s funny. And I still get those same looks. Like; what is that you actually do? Like, when I go to Christmas and I go home, and my family goes “You know, what do you actually do?” and I try to kind of explain that we’ve got this Dating Advice Business and then we’ve got this Juice Cleansing Business and – you know. I try to explain it, but they still don’t kind of get. They’re like “Oh, well, where are your offices?” and these sort of things. I’m like; “well, you know. It’s a computer and an iPhone and we’ve got this team in the Philippines.” And I just look at them going; what? And uh, I think –

Russell: [laughs]

Chris: [laughs] I’m so blessed as well. You know, conversations like these. However, I think there’s a mindset that we share. And I want to hear it from you a little bit. And I think it’s important for this listeners because I think a lot of people overestimate sports. And, you know, for me; I was semi-professional. And you, you know, second in the nation in high school, I believe and, you know, Top 14 when you’re at college. And I believe that there’s a mindset and, you know, there’s a lot around getting a good coach and mentorship and applying yourself. And I’m wondering what you think, you know. What do you think about the mindset that we have to go through to be athletes, and how that translates into business?

Russell: There’s a lot of them. And it’d be fun if there were actually books on it. There’s so many – I’d say one of the biggest ones for me is – so I was a wrestler. And, like, every time you step on the mat, there’s a good chance you’re going to lose. The other dude’s coming out and he’s prepared, you’re prepared. And, like, if you’re going to win you have to be okay with losing. Otherwise you’re so scared. Like “what if I lose?” “What if I lose?” “What if I lose?”

Chris: [laughs]

Russell: You’re so paranoid. So, let’s look at my career. You know, I did four years in high school, I did four years in college. Actually, five years in college. Plus I did an off-season. I mean, I probably – I probably stepped on a mat – I don’t know – five or six hundred times. Where I’d go out there knowing that I could lose but then just doing it because I’m having so much fun, I don’t even care. If I lose, that’s cool, right?

Chris: Yeah.

Russell: I think that’s given me the advantage? Because, like, a lot of people have never competed. So, like, I see this with my coaching groups all the time where people are like; they have an idea and then they’re so passionate. They go out there and start creating this thing. And then there’s all this internal fear, like; what if I put it out in the world [and people] don’t buy it? Or, what if – you know, all these things and they’re so afraid that they’ll put it out there, it doesn’t work, and their dream is gonna collapse. That’s fear. And so, for me, I think one reason I’ve had success is that I don’t – I’m not concerned about that? Like, I assume even today that half my projects are going to fail. I don’t even care. Like, unless I do them, I don’t know. Like, I had this awesome idea for this funnel two weeks ago that I – I swear, I was so excited, I just spent all this time and energy and I thought it was gonna just blow up. We promoted it and, uh. I think we made maybe a thousand bucks off of like five-thousand dollar adds. [laughs] It was like, so far from like, even getting close to being, like, a realistic thing. I was kinda like “aww bummed out.” But the cool thing is that nobody knew outside of me that it failed. Because it’s the internet! Like, as far as people know I sold a billion of them and we shut it down because we sold so well, you know.

Chris: [laughing]

Russell: I’m honestly not concerned about what other people think because, first off, they don’t know and, second off, I don’t care. It’s just like wrestling. If I’m going to win, I have to step on that mat. I have to be okay with losing. And I think that was one of my biggest lessons. And it’s something I always try to instil in my people. It’s like; you’ve got to be okay [with] losing. The coolest thing about being an entrepreneur – especially in America, and I’m sure it’s the same in other countries – but [the government is giving us support] So if you screw the whole thing up? You go bankrupt, you rattle paper, and then you start over from scratch. You’re going try again. The worst-case scenario is you’ve just got to start over. And so, might as well roll the dice and just see what happens?

Chris: And, you know, we’re lucky to get that upbringing. So, for me, basketball; well, if I lose this week, I’ve got next week. And if I lose that, I’ve got – you know, if I lose this season, I’ve got next season! And it’s putting out there in that mindset. Because I hear a lot of people; they want that perfection. And it’s just, it’s weird to me because – for me – it’s like, well, this is as good as I’m going to be and I’m going to go play. And I see that in what you do as well. You know, you’re always doing so much action and you’re always doing so many things. It’s absolutely inspiring. And you’re right, there should be a book on it. You know; What You Learn From Sport and How To Cross it Over.

Russell: It’s really cool. And one thing that I think is important to: you know, we start doing these, like, daily Periscope shows and daily podcasts and just putting out a lot of stuff. And my initial goal when I did it was because I wanted to see what people respond to. Like, the cool thing about Periscope is [you write a] little headline and you click a button and within, like, ten seconds, either people show up or they don’t. And you’re like; okay, that one wasn’t very good. Another one’s like – tons will come on! So we figure out really quick what people respond to and what they don’t. And I think a big part of that is – you know, Jeff Walker – last year, he won my contest and launched a book, and so – we gave him my Ferrari as the prize, was kinda cool – and he came and spoke at our event. And at the event, we talked about him. It was so cool. He said that, when he got started, he didn’t – his list had like eight people on. It was like his family, and then one guy from work, and he started messaging in it. Started slowly growing in it. Every day he’d send something out because he didn’t know what people liked or what they didn’t like. It was like he was just publishing, publishing. He was like; ‘what happened?’ Most of the stuff no one cared about. Um, a couple things, people kind of were interested. And some things, there was a lot of interest. So when there’s a lot of interest, he went back and just did more of that and less of everything else and then that becomes the new standard and you need more of that. So you find within there, like, what because more things are focusing there and it kind of grows. One of the guys in my inner circle group; he’s a really good blogger. I see him, like, he blogs every day and he posts it on Facebook.  And some of those blog posts just like, tank. Like, nothing. And then last week, he did one that had almost a million shares, or – no, a million – a million something, a million views – something crazy like that! – and like, he looked and was like; okay, that was the right message. Let’s do more of that because that one resonated. Same with YouTube videos. We had a new project with a girl that was [unintelligible]. She posted all these videos and no one cared. And one of them got, like, 1.2 million views.

Chris: Wow.

Russell: Okay, more of that! [laughs]

Chris: Yeah, yeah.

Russell: And I think that’s the big thing; just putting stuff out there? Like, ninety percent is going to fail, but with that ten percent? You go, okay, cool; more of that.

Chris: Right! And I love that because we’re looking at the market and going “Okay, what does the market want?” rather than what I hear so often is people going: ‘no, it’s got to be like this,’ and ‘this is perfect’ and then they put it out there and then it tanks. But they spent so much of their own energy, they’re so invested in it working, they’re like –

[voices overlapping]

Chris: Oh, yeah. I think perfection is a huge, huge, huge killer and so, you know, listeners; what I’m hearing from this right now is: get the market to tell you. I’m doing this in my videos, I’m doing this right now with the podcasts and periscopes. But I love that idea of really getting out there, figuring out what they want to hear, and then capitalizing on – you know, it’s kind of like the 80-20 rule, but multiplied like 95-5 or something.

Russell: Yeah.

Chris: Which is huge.

There was a cool thing that uh … we hired Neil Patel earlier this year to come out and consult us on his content strategy. And I just figured he was the prolific writer. Putting stuff out. And I figured that he was doing human research to see all this stuff, and he was like; nope. This is what I do: I go to Buzzsumo.com, I type in the word that I’m interested in, and I look at all of the blogposts. And Buzzsumo will show you, like; this one was shared 1.2 million times. This one was shared 5 – and he’s like; I find topics that people are already talking about, already sharing, and I write something that’s almost the same.

Chris: [laughs]

Russell: I’m like; that’s it? He’s like; yeah. Okay, so, no creativity goes into it? No keyword research? And he’s like; no. I just do what people are already writing, already sharing, and then I just write my own version of that. I jump into the conversations that they care about. I was like; that makes it so much simpler. I don’t have to be creative. I can just –

Chris: [laughs]

Russell: — oh, that’s what they care about. It’s so cool.

Chris: It’s like, we’ve all heard of modelling and we’ve all done modelling and then we forget about it, and then he’s just like; no, it’s just modelling again man.

Russell: [laughs]

Chris: It’s the same thing. I just wrote that down because that’s something I didn’t know. Modelling has been huge. That’s basically it, right? You see what’s working and you capitalize on it.

Russell: Oh yeah.

Chris: I think mentorship and modelling is massive. How does that play a part for you? I see so many people trying to recreate the wheel.

Russell: [laughs]

Chris: And I just go; this is it. This isn’t working. And before I got on this, I did a Periscope. And I said, look, I’m about to go get Russell on. He’s basically way better and done it for a lot longer than I have, but it’s the same stuff! And it works. I love modelling, and I love getting the right mentors, and I love your stuff like crazy, but how has mentorship and modelling really played an impact on you and your journey?

Russell: Oh, it’s been huge from day one. I can show you, um … I try to have in every aspect of my life one active coach in each aspect of my life at all times. Because people are always a step ahead of you. So like, right now, I’ve got – you can call him a biohacking coach – whatever you want to call him – but someone who’s like hardcore in that? So I’ve got a coach there. Like, whatever level I’m at in any aspect of my life, I’m always trying to get more? So first step for me is always finding an active coach. One thing you can do really easily? If you go to clarity.fm. There’s a … this site has thousands of gurus in everything you can dream of. There’s dudes who have built up and sold hundred million dollar sass companies, right? And you go there, and you’re like; hey, I want to buy fifteen minutes of his time. And then you buy, and then his phone rings, and you pick it up, and you ask him anything you want for fifteen minutes!

Chris: Wow

Russell: For like a couple hundred bucks! And so, we went through there and, you know, we were looking for all the people we want to interview. Like, Mark Cuban is in there – and his is like crazy expensive – there’s all these people that have built up in companies and other industries as well but for me it’s like, people that built companies and you can come and just [pay per minute] to jump on the phone and just ask them your questions. ‘Who’s already done it? Let’s just – instead of trying to be smart, let’s just go; clarity.fm, pay a couple hundred bucks, call them on the phone, just ask his opinion.’ That will save you so much time. So much effort, you know? It’s awesome.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah! And it literally is the secret, secret, I think. I mean, surrounding yourself with the right people that are ahead of you and keep you moving is the thing that can get you there. So, out of all the questions that I got sent in to me. You know, I’m saying; hey, I’ve got Russell, I’ve got some time with him, and I get to ask him some questions, and – I bet you know the question, I bet you’ve been asked a lot of times – but I want to make sure that everyone … there’s about fifty people who asked the same thing.

Russell: Oh wow.

Chris: And here’s the question. They want to know; where do you think the future of internet and internet marketing is going?

Russell: Ah, interesting. That’s a good question. And I would say I think the biggest trend I’m seeing – and I was talking to one of our guys today about this – I look at how people sell stuff, right? The overarching concepts are the same. The scripts [are the same]. But I think that’s where the most change is happening. There’s always equal sales processing like that, but the biggest thing is how we sell. We started out initially with sales letters. And then it was like Tell Seminars. And then we went to webinars. And then went to Video Sales Letters. And then it’s like Sales Letters kind of resurfaced to do better. And then we went back to webinars. And then there are like Powerpoint Stuff – things like that. I think that where the future’s going in selling is more and more of, like, Virtual Reality. Not Virtual Reality, but like – Reality TV. I look at my Sales Processes. Even, like, three years ago, I spent so much time writing scripts and Powerpoint Videos and copy – all these kinds of things. Where nowadays, it’s way more like; let’s get a video camera and let’s show this experience that people are having, right? Like, earlier this year we flew down to New Zealand and Liz Benny, who’s a big ClickFunnels member, we filmed her lifestyle and what this tool has done to affect her life – and things like that. And I feel like the selling –

Chris: She’s from New Zealand, is she?

Russell: Yeah.

Chris: Cool.

Russell: I feel like selling is – people are just getting annoyed by it. It’s just getting harder and harder. [it works more when it’s] entertainment. It’s like Reality TV wrapped in like, here’s the offer at the end. And I think those people who embrace that will become good at, you know – not just making amazing videos but being good on video and understanding, like, how to speak right and, you know, be willing to sell. I really feel like that’s a big thing. And not just like you selling, but, um … using other people as – how do I say this right? – using other people’s stories as the sales tool, right? Like, five years ago, everyone was like; income claim, weight loss claim. Like, that was the big – like, it was just hardcore. And it converted, but then people got so sick of it. The actors didn’t even like it. Like, for example, when I launched our coaching company about two years ago, I didn’t just go like most people, like; “Hey, I’m an internet marketing coach! You should give me money.” I was like, I wanna prove that I actually know what I’m talking about and I can actually help people. And so, I found this dude online who – I love and respect what he does, his name is Drew Cannolli – and I was actually, at that time, going through this whole juicing thing, so I was juicing, I was following his stuff. And I was like; this dude is cool! But, well, from my marketer’s standpoint, I’m like; oh, there’s so many little things he could do that would be cool. And so anyway, he lived in San Diego and I was going to San Diego, and one of my friends was, like, a co-friend. So I was like; hey, can you introduce me to Drew? I’d love to meet him. And so they connected us and I went down and actually got to meet with him and just really hit it off. Like, really impressed with him and everything they’re doing. And I asked him at the end, like; “hey, do you mind if I come back like in a month from now and let me come work for you for free for a little while?” He was like; “what do you mean?” I’m like; “I just want to come here and just serve you. I’ll work for free, and just see if we can do something cool.” He’s like; “well, what’s in it for you?” I’m like; “I don’t know. Nothing right now, but it would be cool to just come and see what my stuff would do in your world.” And so I think he was kind of apprehensive, like; “Alright, if you want to come and work for free.” So, a month later, I flew down there, came into their office, he had this little team there. We sat there for an entire day like, looking at what they’re doing and giving little ideas and tweaks and changes. […] and just gave and served as much as I could. When it was done, I flew back home and I kinda coached them for free for the next few weeks. And then they rolled out their new product, smashing success, they made – you know – tens of millions of dollars, and afterwards; Drew made a video just saying like – telling them like what I did, how much help I gave them. I took that video, I put it on a page, put an application form down below, and launched my coaching program. And it was never me saying; “I’m an amazing coach!” it was; “look, here’s this dude named Drew. Ask him what he thinks.” And then after that, all the people started coming in and that’s where we met Liz and Jason and all these guys came in. And then we gave Liz an amazing result. I said, “Liz, can I capture that moment?” So we captured her telling her story. If you watch her story, she’s the no-income claim. She doesn’t say “Russell made me a ton of money.” She says; “it was really hard, it was like this painful process, but it’s what I needed, and it changed my life.” We got her video up online. Within the first six months, that video made us over 1.6 Million Dollars.

Chris: Wow.

Russell: And it just snowballed. And every time we change someone’s life, I try to capture that. So instead of me writing a sales script about, like, blah blah blah, how the keys to how I turned this guy into 1.6 million dollars – whatever, like, the way we used to sell, I call them on the phone. I’m like; how would you like a free trip, come hang out with me, I want to capture your story? And everyone’s like “sure” and I fly them here, we capture their story, and that becomes the Sales Message. I think it’s … it’s moving away from selling and moving to; “let’s change people’s lives, and then capture those stories in an interesting, fun way to watch” – and that’s your sales piece. I think that – I really feel like that’s the future. And I love that future because it’s so much more inspiring than these crappy sales videos where people are hard-closing you. Instead, it’s you serving someone, getting an amazing result, and that result will get you more people just like that. I think that’s the future.

Chris: Aw, mate. Beautiful. I’m so glad we got that question across and what a great answer. And one thing that I want everyone to hear from that is; we’ve talked about modelling, and that’s why I followed it up with that question. Because we just got the modelling answer. And if you didn’t get it, if you want to start a business out there, go and give first. Create a massive change in someone’s business or in their life, and then capture it. I mean, what a beautiful way to start a business. From a guy that I respect massively, and – one thing I think I haven’t mentioned is; you’re not only doing info products and coaching. I mean, you have the whole supplements division and all sorts of other things that you do as well. Because, you know, sometimes – we both know that people just go – oh, you know, they’re just selling. Having you do something without actually being able to do it. And like me, you’ve also got the real, physical products going out. I know you’re doing some stuff with Dave Asprey and some other things are happening. So, would you fill us in – I know that we’ve got to say goodbye pretty soon because I’m aware of your time – would you fill us in on what’s exciting you most at the moment? What are the projects you’ve got on? What’s happening in your world?

Russell: I think most entrepreneur’s problem is that we focus on something, we make a bunch of money, and then we get excited so we try, like, a million new things and then, like, everything else suffers? And so for the last twelve months I’ve been trying to focus on ClickFunnels, on one thing. And it’s been painful, but the fruits of that have been amazing? And what I’ve learned is that a lot of times we try to exercise our creativity by new companies, new ideas, new products, new things? And I’ve been changing it to: how do I use my creativity to keep focusing on my core thing? And that’s what’s been so much fun for me. No longer am I trying to create new things to sell and figuring out new ways to sell that thing. And that’s what’s been just so much fun and it gets my mind spinning. I think that the biggest thing that entrepreneurs can do to become more successful, and it’s also the thing that causes us the most pain, is learning how to focus. And I get that because there’s so many fun things out there. So I’m going to do another year of just focusing on this thing and figuring out how can I use all my creativity to grow this one thing and I think it’s going to be fun. Everyone looking from the outside will start seeing some really unique, really fun things – if you’re watching close. It should be a really good marketing lesson, just watch it externally. And feel free to funnel hack and model anything I’m doing, because – I did a podcast this morning, I was trying to explain the whole thing and how it worked, and I’m like; “guys, go do this! Everyone should do this!” I love it when people copy it because it works and so, that’s what I’m so excited about. We’ve got a whole bunch of really cool, unique ideas that we’re going to test now and hopefully, other people get tons of ideas based on that using their own businesses as well.

Chris: Aw. Man, I love that. I love that message so much. And so, we’re probably going to put in the shownotes a whole heap of places to go check out Russell’s stuff, including ClickFunnels, your podcast, your Periscope, and anything else that you want. But for those of you who may not have heard what ClickFunnels is – and I was hoping that that was going to be the answer to your question – for me, it has been … you know, I’m not a big tech guy. I don’t know how to do WordPress or OptimizePress or any of these things. And so, you know, I enjoyed it when LeadPages came out – that was great. And then you and ClickFunnels just took it to the next level, you know. Now with Backpack and everything else that you’re doing, it makes it so, so, so, so simple –

Russell: [laughs]

Chris: — and so, for everyone out there, would you just give us a quick one minute on where ClickFunnels kinda came from and why everyone should be getting on it. Because I truly know that they should be.

Russell: Yeah. ClickFunnels came out of a personal desire. We launched our supplement company, [and] we spent like eight or nine weeks building out the sales funnel. And we – we’re pretty good at this. We’ve been doing it for ten years. We have teams of people who actually specialize in this. And it still took us two months! I’m like; how is anyone supposed to be successful in this business? Like, it’s ridiculous! It was about the same time that LeadPages was coming out, and we were watching [what they were doing] and we weren’t that impressed with what they were doing? They seemed so limited. So we had a meeting, and […] we sat in front of this big old whiteboard for a week, and we were like; “If we could build this the way we wanted, what would it look like?” So we started sketching it out, we spent a week just daydreaming about what would be the coolest thing in the world. And then I toddled back to work. We stared building a bundle with a partner named Dylan and, between those two guys – they are amazing. They built something that – that same process that would have taken me eight or nine weeks in the past with a team of six people, I could now do it on my own, by myself. No tech skills, no design skills, and it will look better, and it’ll be done in about an hour and a half, two hours. And so, I was pretty psyched. I tried each week to do at least one funnel a week, and usually that’s … a day, or less than a day, of me just sitting down, moving stuff, and just building it, and then – then we started promoting and pushing things out. It just, it simplifies everything. You can get things done in a fraction of the time with zero staff or if you have one person doing it. And it gives you freedom more than anything I’ve ever done. You know, I’m sure you’ve met this before, where [you message your tech guy, and you’d have a page where you ask him: “can you move this image from here to here?” And then they move it, and it’s in the wrong frame. “No, from here to here!” And then they move it, and it’s in the wrong spot. And then you’re just like; “How is this – ?” [laughs] “How does this keep happening?”] With ClickFunnels, the first time I ever had it, I clicked on an image and tried moving it and letting go, and it moved? I was just like; “I’m done. I’m never going to need tech guys again. It’s over.” [laughs]

Chris: And I love that. Listeners out there, if you want to get a site up, and you want to get it done quick and make sales – it’s completely different to a site that may look nice or gives good information or reads nice. Like, it’s a complete different psychology, and there’s one that – you know – everyone will love to go to and read, and then there’s one that will make you revenue. And then the one that makes you revenue, you don’t know until you test. And then you have to tweak and change and move and change words and change the colors until you get it working; until you get it right. And that was a pain! And it meant that you had to go back to a tech guy and say, “Can you change this?” and then he’d have to go through the whole code just to change one thing, and then it’d be out of alignment so you’d have to go back and look — and I just –

Russell: Horrible.

Chris: So much! Thank you so much for having the foresight to do that, because – I checked, and we’ve got hundreds of funnels in there for us. Literally hundreds! We were like; “We want the unlimited thing!” we got hundreds of them, and – and fifty percent of them, we don’t even use! We don’t even need to, because it was just something that we tested, and we were like; “Ahhh, that didn’t work.” And then we tried again, and it just –

Russell: And you don’t feel bad about it too! It’s like, when you go that fast, if it screws up – ‘Sweet. On to the next one.’ As opposed to; ‘I spent three months on this! It has to work.’ [laughs]

Chris: Yeah! And I think, because of that, and because of things like Periscope and podcasts, I just think that right now is the best time that anyone could be an entrepreneur. You know – you guys listening, you’ve heard me say this over and over and over and over again. So, thank you so much for your time here today, and everything else. But before we go, I would just love to ask; is there anything else you’d want to part with [for] our listeners out there who are wanting to build freedom and wanting to do it now so they can give more to their family, and their church, and – and do things that really matter to them. What would be your parting piece?

Russell: I think it’d be similar to what I talked about for the future. Quit focusing on, like, selling something. Let’s say this [holds up object] is your new product. If it’s really that good of a product, go and find a bunch of people and serve them and give it to them. Let’s get results. If they don’t get results, then your product sucks and just move on. But if your product works and you really get results for people, it – it become really easy to sell it. I think shifting our focus away from all those other stuff we do and just focus on helping people and serving them and getting those results – and then after you get them, make sure you capture them, because the capturing is when people [breaks into laughter]

Chris: [laughs]

Russell: — help people and they don’t capture them. Like, capture that result, figure out the funnel that’s right for it, make one, and then now you’ve got a sales tool that will make sales for you for the rest of your life. That one video that we filmed with Liz Benny will pay me for the rest of my life. And that’s the power in all these things we’re talking about. It gives you freedom, it gives you leverage, but it all starts with you serving and giving and helping, and if you do that part correctly, everything else will just work. It’s really easy.

Chris: I love it bro. I’ve totally, totally, totally loved having you on the show today. I mean – from keeping it to the one thing and basically people understanding what’s possible … you just showed us what you can do with a Periscope, and serving first and – for those of you listening who want to start a business, we got the – we literally got the gold out, which was ‘Go and just work for free, capture a testimonial, and use that testimonial to build a business’. I have never heard anyone put it better than that. You know Russell, I truly, truly appreciate your time. I know you’ve got lots on, and – you know – you could have been spending your time with your family or any of your businesses and everything else. So, everyone listening, make sure you go check out the podcast on the website, we will put all the shownotes. But for those of you just listening on Stitcher or iTunes, Russell – where should they go? Just listening to get more from you.

Russell: The best spots are to go to DotComSecrets.com, you’ll see the training side of what I do. And if you go to ClickFunnels.com, you’ll see the software side of it, so those are the best spots.

Chris: Alright. So, everyone listening, go check those out. If you want to get all the links to Periscope and everywhere else, his podcast – Marketing in Your Car – which is awesome, you’ll find that. So, again, thank you so much for being here, I appreciate you, you’ve made a massive difference in my company and to all of my clients across Australia and New Zealand and the US. Appreciate you massively, man – just as a human, and also for what you’ve done with your company.

Chris: Everyone out there listening, this was the Total Freedom Podcast with Christopher Duncan and my guest, Russell Brunson, today. Live with Total Freedom – free your mind, free your time, free your life – so you can do more of what matters most to you.