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My first 5 years in entrepreneurship was 34 painful product failures in a row (you heard me). Finally, on #35 it clicked, and for the next 4 years, 55 NEW offers made over $11m. I’ve learned enough to see a few flaws in my baby business… So, as entrepreneurs do, I built it up, just to burn it ALL down; deleting 50 products, and starting fresh. We’re a group of capitalist pig-loving entrepreneurs who are actively trying to get rich and give back. Be sure to download Season 1: From $0 to $5m for free at https://salesfunnelradio.com I’m your host, Steve J Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio Season 2: Journey $100M
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Now displaying: November, 2017
Nov 29, 2017

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Heres some of the best business lessons I've learned while sitting next to Russell Brunson for 20 months...

ClickFunnels

Hey, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Oh, yeah.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

I'm still such a dork. Hey, I want to, so just real quick, I know I talked about in an episode ago, my voice is just rocked right now. I want you guys to know a really cool success I just had. It's good that we all ... Your successes, too. I want to hear about them. Don't shun your successes.

Everyone, you got to go embrace your successes. Here's one of mine. I used to call them brag moments. When I was in the army, we'd be doing push ups. There was a time when I was commanding 150 people, and I was pretty good at push ups. I've got, honestly, longer arms than most people so they were a little bit harder for me, but I wanted to be good at them.

I'd be doing these push ups, and I'd look up in the eyes of all the guys looking at me while I was doing it, and I'd be like yelling at them, getting them going. We were all fired up. You know, we were trying to keep each other motivated. It was a lot of fun.

I used to have these brag moments to distract them while we were in those painful episodes, right? I would say, "Hey, Johnson. Brag to me, man? What's sweet in your life? What are you doing right now that's just kicking butt? Don't be humble. You tell me what's awesome in your life. What are you doing awesome at?" He would tell me. "Well, I did great at this," or, "There's a test I killed it at at this," or, "I did this over here. I did this." He would tell me that stuff, and it was cool how much confidence that brought the individual.

I wasn't planning on saying this at all, but be cognizant of those things. Whenever you have a win, take time to win. You know, I'm not saying you've got to stop your whole operation and throw a party every time, but take time to acknowledge it, and be like, "Yeah, I'm the freaking man."

Not in a cocky way, you know, but take pride in what it is your own personal progression. Be in competition with you, and get excited about those successes. Those are the successes to get braggy about. The ones where you're in competition with yourself and go kill it.

Anyways, here's a cool one for me. I was asked to speak at a B2B Mastermind last weekend. It was a ton of fun. There was a FHAT event, though, two weeks ago, and I was solely focused on that. By the time the Funnel Hack-a-thon, the FHAT event, was done, I only had one week ... Actually, it was like five days. Only like five days to create an entire three hour presentation.

Okay, I've done a lot of four hour presentations without stopping. I've done a lot of 15 hour ones at the FHAT event, too, but three hours, that's still a long time to prepare for, when it's a new material the whole time. You know what I mean? Meaning I had to reorganize and restructure it.

I was spending all the evenings, I was thinking through strategy, I was talking to all my buddies, I was trying to figure out all the pieces in place. I was like, "You know, let me know what you think." I was trying to get a heartbeat on the industry, trying to figure out where people are.

You know, what are the false beliefs of all the people who are going to be in the room? Literally doing the same strategy of creating a new product that I would anywhere else. I went through, I was like, "What are the false beliefs of the people in the room? What are they going to be thinking? What are they going to falsely believe about my ..."

It was cool because I got to pitch. This was my first time ever pitching from stage, so I wanted to do a good job.

I went, and I was flying over there, and I've got longer arms than the average bear, like I said before, so anytime I'm trying to do work on a computer in an airplane, it is not easy. My hand is contorted into the weirdest positions just for me to ... It doesn't work. Anyways, it's like a five hour flight with one stop and all that stuff over there. I'm getting stuff done, and it's like 10 o'clock in the evening. Wait, no. When did I land?

It was 11. I landed at 11, got to the hotel at midnight, and I'm presenting this thing in eight hours. I was like, "I have barely even started the slides on this thing. I've barely made a dent in them. Oh my gosh. Okay, well, buckle up. When in Rome. Let's just get this done."

I sat down in the hotel room, and I just put on tons of awesome music. I was listening to the Foo Fighters, and Muse, and Incubus, and all my favorite bands, and I was jamming out. I was just cranking out these slides, and I was working the formula, and I was putting the pieces together. All the things that we know, do the best. I put those pieces together, and I look up, and it's 3:30 in the morning. I was like, "Crap. I'm only going to sleep a few hours.

Ah, whatever, let's make this sweet." Then I went back through, and I was making things, and I was fixing it. I was like, "When in Rome, baby. Let's go, get this done."

I went through and I was writing the script, and putting all the pieces together, and about four o'clock ... I only lasted another half hour after that, but about four o'clock, I fell asleep, and I finished, and it reminded me of all these other hack-a-thons that I'd done with Russel, where we're like just dying, but we have a deadline, you know? It's letter gold. Are you going to get it done, or are you not? You know, just do it. Time's not going to wait for you, just get it done. I was like, "All right, well, I'm going to get it done."

Anyways, I went to bed at four a.m., and I was on stage talking and teaching at 8:30 a.m. I only slept four hours, got up, didn't eat, didn't nothing else, I just dressed and showered real quick, and I got downstairs, and I started teaching. It was a lot of fun. There is a rush. If you guys have never done a webinar, I beg you to, because it's like the fastest way to cash we've ever seen. Myself, personally, as well as with Russell, and all the two comma club coaching students that I have, but especially though from stage.

There is a huge endorphin rush from stage. I love it. I didn't feel like I only slept four hours. I felt like I had a full night's rest. I was on fire. It was awesome. I actually got the recordings back, which is awesome. I was teaching B2B people how to make new opportunities from their offers, and a whole bunch of other stuff, which is really a whole lot of fun.

My first session ended, there was a bit of a break, and I hadn't even made order forms yet, so I run to the back with my buddy James Smiley, shout out to you, buddy. Hey, a little side note, actually.

You guys know when I did that six part series where I interviewed someone from the six different industries that we know are using click funnels? James Smiley is still the guy who represents the B2B industry for me. He is killing it. He's doing awesome. From that one podcast episode, and the things that he's created from that, only two, three months ago, they've done huge numbers. I'm not allowed to say how much, but a lot of money, and it's been awesome.

Very, very proud of what he's created. Super pumped for him. Anyway, he's been a friend to me for a long time.

Anyways, he was there. It's his Mastermind. Him and Danny Veiga. They were both there, obviously. I was there with them, and after my first session, I realized that we didn't have order forms done, so James Smiley's running over to the back, and he's writing these order forms, and he's putting those things together.

I don't think anyone in there knew. I started feeling like crap, so I took some more caffeine. "Let's take some vitamin C, baby, some caffeine. Let's get this thing rocking."

I did my first ever stage pitch. I've taught in the whole perfect webinar format many times, but I take out the last part where there's the actual offer, and this time I didn't stop it. I'm really excited, you guys. I closed 28% of the room on my very first time ever pitching from stage.

By comparison to other stage presenters, that's actually quite good. I'm very excited, you guys. That's my brag moment for this episode, and I'm super, super stoked about it.

Well, what I wanted to go through real quick with you guys is, there's two different directions I could take this episode. I've pre-written out a lot of stuff, a lot of ideas. There's two different things, okay? Anyway, so what I was going to tell you, though, is that was Friday, and I went to bed at like midnight, and got up early again, and I had a full day of meetings with another group of people that was over there in Dallas, and then I went to bed again at four a.m. that next night.

It's Monday, and my throat is on fire. I'm actually going to stop here, shortly.

Principle number one, just get it done, just do it, okay? You set the goal. It's like when I would buy tickets to triathlons. The first triathlon I did, I just bought the ticket before I was in shape, because I knew now I had to get in shape. You know, same thing. All right, set the date, start sending traffic to your registration page. Just get it out there, and you will figure out a way because you have to. You hold your own feet to the fire, feel a little pain over it.

I dare you to feel a little pain over it, but you'll find out actually really quickly that it's the secret to getting a crap ton of stuff done and actually your goals much faster.

I've got to get some water. Just a second. There you go. This is live. Unedited. Raw. Steve Larsen, raw. That means different things in different places.

All right. Hey, so what I wanted to go through really quick was, it reminded me of this, is I was thinking through a lot of the lessons I've learned, because I was teaching a lot of cool stuff at the B2B Mastermind, and super stoked I get to speak again in January, probably in February. In March, I will be, as well. I'm kind of off to the races. I'm going to speak a lot next year, so I'm kind of warming up baby.

I'm excited. Hopefully I'll sleep more next time...

Anyway, guys, as I was starting thinking through the different lessons that I've learned while at ClickFunnels, things that I could share at the B2B Mastermind, I was reminded of a list that I kept for a long time when I first got hired at ClickFunnels.

I first thought to myself, "Oh my gosh. I get to sit next to, in my opinion, the most brilliant marketer that is alive, Russell Bronson." I was like, "How on Earth am I going to be able to capitalize on this? You know, how am I going to learn the most? How am I going to take away the most I can from this?" What I did is I keep a list of "Brunson-isms", okay? These are "Brunson-isms." These are 12 "Brunson-isms" that I've kept over the years. Well, I shouldn't say years.

It's been almost two years. It feels like years, though, guys. We've been hauling cojones for a long time. I feel like I just have not stopped. I'm in a whirlwind.

Anyway, but I call them "Brunson-isms." These are the things that I have written down while sitting next to him. When I say that I don't mean in like the same building, I literally mean arm's length away. As he'll be on coaching calls, as he'll be coaching in a circle, as he'll be talking to someone on a podcast interview, as he'll be launching this or that, or creating this video, or making this podcast episode of this own. You know what I mean? This is just 12, okay?

I sifted out a lot of stuff. I didn't want to talk specifically about funnel building strategy. I wanted to talk more about how you act as an individual, as an entrepreneur.

Anyways, these are 12 "Brunson-isms." I won't dive too deeply into these, simply because some of these, the lesson just kind of speaks for itself, but guys, one of these lessons alone has changed my life, in my personal business, I mean. Anyways, I'm excited to go through these. I realize it's 12 of them.

Usually, it's easier if I say like, the three things, the two things, the one thing, maybe five, but there's 12, okay? I wanted to get them all done in one episode, so that you guys could hear what they are. These are the 12 "Brunson-isms" that have had probably the most impact on my life. My life, not just my business. I sifted out those. This is my life, okay?

Number one "Brunson-ism," and these aren't ranked. They're not ranked. I wrote them down. I was actually in a Trello card, and this is just a running thing that I've had for a long time. Number one is don't create stuff. Document and sell instead, okay? Huge lesson. I did a whole episode about this a few episodes ago. It changed everything, okay? Anyway, it's crazy you guys.

Review, document, and sell what you're doing instead of take the time to create it...

I spent eight months making my first info product, and no one bought it for the first few months because I hadn't spent any time creating any market pressure, creating any interest. I didn't know what I was doing, okay? You can go spend a ton of time figuring out the actual like, "Let me go make the whole thing first." No, no, no. Flip it. Sell it first, then document it and create it as you go. Sorry, document and sell as you go. All right. That's number one.

Number two, and I'll do like a review, just I'll read all of them real fast at the end, too. All right, so that's number one. Number two, design doesn't sell stuff. Okay, design doesn't sell stuff. As sad as that is to a lot of designers that are out there. If you look at Frank Kern's funnels, he's got a completely white background, and all he has is a headline, a video, and a button.

That's pretty much it...

The more I've been doing this game, the more subtle my design's become. I do think that design will help with follow-up sales, but it's still not the thing that sells. If you're getting hung up, like, "What should my funnel look like? What should this look like?"

Scrap that attitude...

Russell BrunsonScrap that mindset, and know instead that it's the copy that sells, it's your offer that sells. Okay, that's it.

If you're going to spend a lot of time on the funnel, the place to spend the time most on, after an offer, after all that stuff, is on your video. I don't mean like making it all professional, and stuff like that. I mean the script. I mean actually what are you going to say in that thing, and how are you going to come across as human rather than it being scripted? The actual words on the page, that's what does the converting.

As much as we sometimes want to trick ourselves and think that it's the colors, and how good it looks, and things like that. That'll help you for a little bit, but there's no longevity with it. Anyways, that's number two. Design does not sell stuff, copy does.

All right, number three. This is a big one. A little bit ago, Russell talked about, we realized that one of the reasons why Russell is where he is is because ... and honestly a lot of the other people that I know who are wealthy that have become wealthy quickly on the internet, is because they stopped selling one to one, okay? Bear with me a little bit, okay?

Understand where I'm taking this...

I'm not saying not to have call centers or people doing outbound or inbound calls, or taking inbound calls. I'm not saying not to do that stuff. What Russell, as the main entrepreneur, the entrepreneur of the company, has learned to do is sell not one to one, he's learned to sell one to many. Think of the scenarios where that applies most, okay? One to many.

One to one, that's when I was like doing door to door sells, right? That's when I was a telemarketer, right? I was good at those things, but it's still only one person hearing the pitch, right? 28% of the people I closed in that room before, let's think through that, though. 28% of the people.

That means I've got to talk to a lot of people one on one conversations. I've got to do that pitch a ton of times to really make a dent in my wallet. Well, what Russell's learned to do is get a lot of people in a room, or a lot of people in a webinar, or whatever it is, and pitch one to many. If you can learn to do that, wealth is easier to be yours, okay?

All right, that's number three...

Number four, this whole thing has been all about movement. There have been many times both personally and with Russell in the office there, where we'll look around, and we'll be like, "I don't know what to do next." Personally, in my own business, I've run into this many times, and you probably have, too, where you're like, "I don't know what to do next. What am I supposed to do next to actually be successful with whatever I'm trying to do?"

You've got to come up with that plan. One of the biggest lessons I've learned from Russell is that this is all about movement, all of it. All about movement. Just move, okay?

Think about a river, okay? There was this river I was rafting down once. We went on this 36 mile kayak trip, and it was a lot of fun. 36 miles, that's long, it's not like crazy long, but it's pretty long. It wasn't supposed to be that long, because the river was supposed to be moving, but what's funny is like the first 12 miles it was moving. It was fast. It was a lot of fun.

Going through, I'm an adventuresome kind of guy. The last 24 miles, though, the river stopped moving. We literally paddled 24 freaking miles. We were so sunburnt, because we were planning to be out there like four hours. We were out there 12 hours. 12 hours, no sunscreen, like none of that stuff. Barely enough water. Actually, we pretty much were all incredibly dehydrated.

We were so sunburnt that we couldn't stand for like two weeks. We actually got hurt over it, okay?

Eventually, you've got to steer the ship in the right direction, but if the thing isn't moving in the first place, then who cares? If you don't know what to do, just move. Think to yourself, "I don't know. What should I do next? I think that." Like, cool. Move forward. If you really have no idea, just do something, okay? Don't worry about placing your foot in the most perfect place before you start going, or having all the steps planned out. It doesn't work like that. Hardly ever does. Never has for us. Never has for me personally either.

Just about movement. Some people are like, "Well, that means you're going to do like 13 things you didn't need to do." It's like, yeah, but I found the three that made a ton of money, and you still haven't done anything yet.

Anyway, this is number five. Number five is a big one. One of the first things Russell said to me when I sat down next to him, is he turned around and he looked over at me, and he goes, "Hey Steven, I want you to know why you're here." I was like, "Cool, I would love to know that, too, because you chose me out of a bunch of people. Why am I sitting next to you?" He's like, "Someone told me early on," I don't remember who told him this. He's like, "Someone told me early on, though, that there are starters and there are finishers."

He goes, "Steven, I think that you are a finisher. I'm a starter." What's funny is that's true for me as far as funnels go, but it's part of the reasons I'm leaving ClickFunnels, is because I'm actually a starter. I know how to finish, but I'm actually a starter, and I can't not start stuff, and I've been doing that the whole time since I've been there.

Anyway, just know, though. Usually, most of us have a predominate side. Are you a starter or are you a finisher? Sometimes one of the reasons people aren't being successful is because they're a finisher and they're trying to do all these starting things. Go find a starter. Attach yourself. Same thing as the opposite.

If you know you can start a ton of stuff, but you take forever to finish things, find a finisher and connect yourself to them. Russell told me early on that's one of the reasons he's hired who he has, is because he's like, "I'm a huge ridiculous starter," which is true. You guys will see all the things that he does. He moves fast. He goes to sprints quickly, but he said, "I have tried to hire as many finishers as I possibly can." Anyways, huge sage advice.

All right, number six. Russell's a delegation master. One of the "Brunson-isms" that I've learned probably most from him is, I'll make comments like, "Oh man, I wish I knew JavaScript better." Or, "Oh man, I wish I knew CSS better." He'll be like, "Why? We've got a guy for that." I was like, "Yeah, but then I'll be able to do X, Y, Z." He's like, "No, no, no. We have a guy for that." I

was like, "Yeah, but I'm interested. It would be cool to know that." He was like, "That doesn't matter, dude. It's not what makes the money." He's done that to me many times. I like video editing. I like sound editing. I geek out over the process. I like geek out over the process of doing the thing that I do. It's a lot of fun. All of the pieces of it, all of the aspects of it, but one of the things he's helped me realize is like, "Man, you just delegate like a beast."

That's exactly what he does. He's a visionary, he moves forward, he's a mover, he's a shaker, he figures those things out, and what he's very good at doing is figuring out what he shouldn't be doing. Not what he can't do, but what he shouldn't do.

There are many things that he could do that he's not, because he shouldn't be doing those things...

He should be focusing on the other parts of the business. Does that make sense? One of the biggest lessons I learned from him. It's not that I didn't know it before, but seeing it in action. It's insane, you guys. It's how he gets so much done. He doesn't do it all on his own. He doesn't try to.

Sometimes, a lot of us, especially for brand new, for kind of a solopreneur, I actually have a team. I haven't told you guys much about them. I will interview them shortly. I want you guys to know who they are and how I found them. Specifically how I found them, so that you guys can do and start to replicate yourself as well, but I have my own team for my own stuff. I have for a long time, for this exact same reason.

I delegate like a beast...

I've got all sorts of stuff going on. I've got software being created, I've got an app being made right now, I've got tons of stuff that I do that I juggle on the side of working at ClickFunnels, which is kind of ridiculous, but it's because of this principle that I can do that. I'm not doing it all on my own, and neither is Russell. Anyways, delegate like a beast, you guys.

Okay, next one. Moving on. Selling is all about status. Okay, if I'm trying to sell stuff, you guys got to understand that if you're selling things to people, in the person's mind, this is what's really happening. "If I buy this dude's thing and I fail at it, I'm going to look like an idiot." That's one of the biggest hang ups. That's one of the biggest reasons people don't buy from you. One of the things that he's taught me a lot of is that, "Look, selling's all about status."

Okay, that's why there's a guarantee. It has less to do with them being able to recoup their money. It has more to do with them being able to protect their status, so that when they go to their spouse who didn't know they bought the thing, and they go and something breaks, they can say, you're giving them the excuse, you're giving them an out, you're giving them the ability to say something like, "Oh, don't worry. It's under warranty. Total crap. I shouldn't have done that, but I got the money back."

It protects their status. It's all about status. You're trying to increase their status and protect them from losing it at the exact same time.

Anyway, next thing. Biggest thing I see from Russell, also, he's a huge planner. Big massive wall calendar. Since seeing that, I got one last year, and I just got my one for next year, also. It's for macro level planning.

We really don't do that much micro level planning, but we almost always have what we're going to do the next day totally planned out before we get there. Meaning, I know what I'm doing tomorrow. I know what I'm doing the next day. I know what those things are, but we've got a macro level view on these big massive wall calendars. "Okay, we've got this event this day. We've got these things this day. We've got that that day. We've got these pieces here. We've got that there."

What's cool about it is that it actually really ... In my juvenile years, I used to think that planning would cause some kind of stress, because I had to think through details that I didn't need to know yet, and there's an element to that, but if I keep it macro, it actually takes more off my head. I actually increase my shelf space, my mental shelf space, when I use a macro level planner. Then I'll have a micro level one on just a legal pad. Russell does the same thing.

He actually types it, he prints it, but I like to write mine on a legal pad. Anyway, plan the day the day before.

All right, there's a few other delegation points here, so I guess some of these could have been combined.

When you hire people, your only focus is to hire those people to do business stuff, to tend to the actual business, so that you can do what your role is. As the entrepreneur, your only role, the only thing you need to worry about is selling. That's it. Stop worrying about your dang logo, okay? I know it's cliché, I say it all the time, but it's true. Stop worrying about your logo. It doesn't matter, okay? For a long time, it does not matter.

What you're trying to do, is it's proof of concept that you're looking for. Just sell it. Sell stuff, and know that at the beginning, you know what? You'll probably have some refunds because you didn't sell it right. So what? You're moving.

Anyway, so when you hire people, you hire people explicitly to handle business stuff, right, so that you can do your job, which is to sell, sell, sell. Basically, if something doesn't make you money, you shouldn't be doing it, okay? Yeah.

Okay, another huge thing that I see Russell do, which you guys actually have also been a part of, you may not have known it though, is that do your best to include your customers in the creation of your business, or at least your product. I mean, how many things does Russell publish?

A lot of stuff...

How many secrets does he keep? He doesn't keep any secrets. Everything that he tells you is everything that I get, too. Everything that he publishes, all the pieces that are out there, he tells it all. What's funny, is it's contrary to what most people think. "I've got this idea, and if I tell anyone my idea, they're going to steal it."

Okay, I've told everyone my ideas for such a long time. I can tell you that's not true. You'll have one percent of people who try to pull it off, but even if they do, they're not going to pull it off the same way you will, so stop hiding your ideas. Start telling them. Get feedback, okay? Include your customers in the creation of your thing.

All right, next one is whenever we're about to go on stage ... He taught me this early on, also. I thought I'd pass this on, because this has been a huge piece. Whenever we're about to go on stage ... What's funny is that at first it was just him, and then I've started doing it, too, but now we do it together, especially when we're about to collaborate on stage together.

Like at the last FHAT event, I was on stage for a while, he was on stage for a while, and then back and forth, and then for a while also, we were on stage together, which was really awesome. Actually, it was a lot of fun.

Anyway, he taught me this. My voice is going, guys. I've got to end this thing quickly. I've been going for 26 minutes, too. I've got to end it soon, anyways. You guys are probably like, "Shut up, Steven." Here's the last one, and then I'll recap real fast. All right, the frame work is what saves you. That's what it is. Now let me explain it. Whenever we're about to go on stage, we drop pictures, okay?

You know all those little graphs inside Expert Secrets and DotCom Secrets book? Those were once stage presentation images. Okay, so when we're trying to figure out what to teach, a lot of times what we'll do is we'll use that opportunity to test stuff, to test concepts, to test things that we know we're on the brink of that we haven't quite been able to formulate yet, though.

It's not that when we get on stage it's always polished. We obviously present it very polishedly, but if there's a concept, or there's this technique, or there's something like that that we want to make sure that we can test or whatever, we actually will draw it in pictures, which is why we have so many pictures. We draw it on a legal pad or a piece of paper.

That's the thing that we take on stage with us. I do the same thing, and then when I'm teaching, and when Russell's teaching, we can just look real fast at that picture, and it represents that entire idea, okay? Rather than write out all these bullet points, which we'll do sometimes, which I'll do sometimes also, but mostly it's just this big, big thing of pictures, because if you can explain something in a hand drawn picture with a stick figure, it means you've probably dumbed itRussell Brunsondown enough that anyone can understand it.

Not that the people are dumb, but that you've put it and an area, and in a concept, and in a way that can be grasped and digested quickly. Hence lots of pictures formulate cool book, okay, that's the formula.

Anyway, so that's actually 11. I thought there were 12. It's actually 11. 11 "Brunson-isms".

Number one, document and sell. Document and sell rather than create.

Number two, design doesn't sell stuff.

Number three, learn to sell one to many instead of one to one.

Number four, it's all about movement. Just move. Just do stuff.

Number five, are you a starter or a finisher? Whatever your answer is, hire the other.

Number six, be a delegation master, okay? Just delegate like crazy, you guys. It's funny because there's a lot of personalities out there that are begging for that kind of thing. They want to be led. They want to know what they're supposed to be doing. So tell them.All right, what is this?

Number seven? Selling is all about status.

Number eight, plan your day the day before.

Number nine, hire people to do the business stuff so you can focus on just selling. If something doesn't have to do with selling, you should not be doing it. What is this?

Number 10? Hold on. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Yeah, 10. Include customers in the creation of your thing.

Number 11, the frame work of what you create is what saves you. That's what saves you on stage. That's what saves you in tons of areas. Guys, my voice is going like crazy, and it actually is killing, but I hope that that helps.

There's an episode I did a little while ago called My Black Book of Business. All I would do is write down business ideas and lessons. I beg you to start tracking those things for yourself. If you keep track ... Just something to writing stuff down that frankly drives me nuts, because sometimes I don't like to write stuff down, but I know if I do, it'll be there. Just write down the thing. Keep a list.

I don't care if it's on Trello or whatever it is, but start writing down the lessons you're learning, and they'll stick longer, you can teach them, you'll actually end up doing them, you'll remember them, you'll actually get them digested and start applying this stuff.

Anyway, so that's kind of what I've been doing this last little bit, and I just wanted to share that list with you. That's my 11 "Brunson-isms." Remember to have your brag moments. Remember to have your lessons written down. This is a long Sales Funnel Radioepisode, guys. Sorry about that, but I thought it'd be worth it to go through some of the biggest lessons I've learned from Russell Brunson. Thank you guys.

Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnel for free? Go to SalesFunnelBroker.com/FreeFunnels to download your prebuilt sales funnel today.

Nov 24, 2017

 

iTunes

...sadly, it's time...

ClickFunnels

Hey. What's going on everyone. This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business, using today's best internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

All right. My voice is a little bit shot. There's another story to that, another time. I have not slept that much in the last few days and I just wanted to get this episode out to you guys, because of something that has happened very recently. I've actually known about it quite a while, but it's not been let out of the bag for quite some time now, and that is that I'm leaving ClickFunnels. I know. I know. I just heard your gasp during the recording of this. You gotta understand.

I'm not leaving ClickFunnels, like the software. I am not longer going to be employed there. The first time I ever said that, the other ...

Anyway. I should tell you some of the story, so you guys have a little context with this, then I've got somewhat of a treat for you. It is a huge bittersweet for me, a huge bittersweet. When I first got hired at ClickFunnels I was driving. I was at Rexburg, Idaho and I was driving over to Boise, Idaho.

I'd never been to Boise, you know, this is where we are now. I was driving over there, and after I was driving away after the interview, the interview went great. I think I've told you guys about that before, but the interview went great.

As I was leaving, the moment I got on the highway, they called me and they said, "Hey. We want to hire you." I said, "Oh. What? That's so cool." They're like, "Yeah, but I don't think you get it yet." They say, "We wanna hire you, but we want you to be Russell's actual funnel building assistant. We want you to sit next to him and help him build his funnels all day. Are you willing to do that?" I was like, "You're gonna pay me to do that? Uh. Yes."

The moment that I hung up with them, I first screamed like crazy, and I pretty much lost my voice in the four hour car ride home. I couldn't believe it. I mean it's like winning the lottery, even better than that. Yeah. Actually that's a stupid, stupid analogy. It's way better than winning the lottery.

I went and I called my wife immediately afterwards. I told her ... I was like, "Babe. You gotta understand that, first of all I just got hired, and ..." She was going nuts. I was like, "Babe, what you gotta understand is that like, our life just changed." Okay? It was one of those moments where I just knew the course of it had just shifted. It's a big deal, you know. I hope that you're starting to identify those moments in your life.

For me, one of the biggest first shifts, professionally, is when I first got my ClickFunnels account. Another was when I first read DotCom secrets. I had been trying to do this stuff for a long time. Someone recently said, "Steven you're so lucky. You got to sit down and Russell taught you how to build funnels." No. No, no, no, no, no, no. I was already building well before I worked there. Okay. I had my own clients. I was making money for other people. I was making money myself.

I definitely was ... I was doing it. I was in it. I was running. I was already in motion, and obviously I learned a lot, from Russell like crazy. You know, we geek out together all the time about it, but anyway ... I've had another one of those moments. Anyway, maybe I'll tell you guys the whole story sometime.

Guys, I'm an entrepreneur. Okay? I don't make a good employee, and I know that. It's my fault that I'm leaving. You know, it's not like I'm being fired. I'm not being fired at all. It's kind of a mutual agreement actually. Actually, in fact, Russell kind of suggested it that I go leave for a bit.

Gonna go pursue some of my own stuff, frankly because I keep doing my own stuff on the side as an employee there, and...

Russell BrunsonAnyway, I just so love ClickFunnels and Russell, and I can tell you from being there almost two years, that ... Man, like, guys there's not another place on the planet like that. It's not that I'm just, you know, drinking the cool aid, or indoctrinated, or whatever it is, but I can tell you that everyone who's there, truly wants to change the world. It's not like it's this accidental thing.

We are actively trying to actually change the world...

I mean it's something that is intentional. That's kind of one of the main point of this whole podcast, is that I'm leaving ClickFunnels. There's a whole bunch of stuff I've been doing and selling on the side, stuff that you guys don't know about, stuff that a lot of people don't that a ...

You know, I've been scratching my own itches, you know. Selling stuff like crazy, doing things in here and there. I mean, I've never really stopped, and ... Anyway, what made me actually, kind of just push it over the edge, cause it's been on my mind for a while, really since like, June-ish, July-ish, somewhere around there. Maybe around August-ish.

Somewhere around there, like mid-summer, late summer, somewhere around there.

What really pushed me over the edge was ... I was talking to a mentor, a different mentor. I've got several mentors, which I recommend you all do, if you don't. I was talking to a mentor and he asked me ... He said, "Hey Steven. What's your five year goal?" I think I've talked to you guys about this before. I said, "I don't know." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "I have no idea. I have no idea. I am focused solely. I never plan past six months, because I'm trying to stay focused."

He goes, "Okay. I understand your point, but you gotta understand that you could be running in a completely different direction you actually wanna go, because you're not asking the actual hard question. What do you want to be doing in five years?" I was like, "Ah. I don't know." It stressed me out. It actually freaked me out.

He's like, "Okay, well, what's your 10 year goal?" I was like, "I have no idea. I've never thought of that question before. I don't know. I'm just focused on what I'm doing right now and being the best in the world at it." I'm trying ... Am I? No, but I know I'm close. You know, I work really, really, really hard.

Besides Russell, I don't know anyone else who's built as many funnels as I have in as many industries, like I just don't. I mean, I've worked super hard to get where I am. There's no shortcut to it. You can fluff it. Okay? This isn't some crappy thing that you ... You know, it's not a get rich quick thing.

I hope it is some day. You know what I mean? Whoever said, "Don't worry. It's not a get rich quick scheme." He's like, "Oh dang it. Really? Darn it." I understand what they're saying. I hope I get rich with it. You know what I mean. Anyway, that was always my come back when they ever said that.

The point is that, it freaked me out. I didn't know the answer to it. I did not understand what I actually wanted. That question haunted me. What's funny is that most of the time, whenever there's something that new that pops up ... Whenever, there's something that pops up that ... I'm good under that kind of pressure.

I actually perform quite well under pressure. It's one of my skills.

I like pressure, good pressure...

You know there's bad pressure too, but there's good pressure. Good stress. I love it. I love being under that kind of stress, cause it's very growing. It's very uncomfortable, and at the end, I always pop out the other side with more confidence, more skill, a better know how. You know what I mean? And so, I look forward to those things.

This guy's asking me, "What do you want to be doing?" It actually scared me. I went home and I started talking to my wife about it. I was like, what do I actually want? I didn't have an answer for a while, which scared me, because I was kind of tricking myself, cause I really did know what the answer was.

The answer was ... I kept asking myself that you guys. I mean, an obsessive question. It's not like me to do that. I like the stress. I like the questions that come, because I get to tackle 'em, challenge 'em, move forward. Tackle 'em, challenge 'em, answer it, move forward. I couldn't answer this one. It was like I was wrestling something that wouldn't go to the ground. I was like ... It's not like me.

You know, I try and just have a very aggressive attitude and it comes to my profession, cause I'm dealing with my family finances, you know? I'm not being a pansy about it. You know what I mean, I'm trying to ... I'm not trying to accidentally make money. I am trying to make money. You know what I mean?

Funny enough, I think some entrepreneurs, you know, will get themselves kind of in that rut, where they're like, "What? I don't want to feel greedy, so I'm not trying to make money. I'm making it for those peop ... I'm making it for that like ... No. I mean, you can make it for yourself, you know, with good intentions. You know, anyway. Different subject. It scared me. For honestly, probably several days at least, which in my brain is a few years, I just couldn't answer the question.

Finally, one day ... This is probably three months ago. Yeah. It was probably three months ago, maybe three and a half-ish. Anyway, one day I was sitting there and I was like ... I asked myself again. I was like, fine. I'm just gonna be totally honest. I'm gonna get to this place of vulnerability with myself. I was like, Steven. What do you want? I immediately just blurted out, "I want to run my own company. I want to run ... I've always wanted that, which is ludicrous to leave what I've been in. I get that.

You have got to stare at yourself in the mirror and answer that question at some point, you know. Maybe it's that you are scared to death and you really think you may not be able to make it as an entrepreneur. I mean, challenge that, you know. Is it something you want? Then don't back down. You know, whatever it is that you're really trying to do. I was like, "Gosh. Dang it. I don't want to leave ClickFunnels. I don't wanna leave ClickFunnels." I still don't want to leave ClickFunnels.

Most people leave their job, because they hate it, or because they finally beat the nine to five, or whatever. I could legitimately say I love Russell like a brother.

I would do anything for him. I have got to scratch this itch. The answer freaked me out. And so, after a lot of conversations, a lot of long conversations, honestly a lot of ...

I'll be open about it. I totally broke down in the bathroom at work, several times. I am not excited to leave ClickFunnels, for the sake of leaving ClickFunnels. I want to be there, but I'm trying to follow the answer and actually, the answer that I've given myself, and I've actually kind of been uncovering, which is that I wanna run my own company. I think I'll do a great job at it. In fact, I think I'll do a very good job at it. I'm cut out for that kind of thing.

You know, my brain works that way. I'm excited, which is, I think is one of the reasons I've been a good assistant for Russell, you know, cause ... It's not like I'm managing just to funnel. There are parts of things where I'll manage, like whole aspects of what we're doing. You know what I mean? I'm excited to do it.

Please understand. I'm not trying to showboat or be like, oh, Steven this, X that. You know, you're showboating. You're being whatever.

That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that, you have got to stand with full confidence in the thing that you're trying to do, and stop apologizing to others, but especially yourself for what your goals really are. Pause for effect. Okay? Think about that.

For a long time, I'm know that, that's what I want to do. I've known that since high school really. It's always been a part of me. You guys remember a few episodes ago, I went and I actually talked about the ... I called myself the seven year overnight success story.

I talked about the 17 businesses that I can remember, that I failed at beforehand. I mean, a ton of stuff. It's my not first rodeo at this stuff. It's not my first time making money on my own. It's not my first time failing on my own. It's not my first time creating awesome stuff on my own. I'm excited to go do it again, but I'm very excited.

I've had several of you guys reach out, as kind of the news spread out there a little bit. This podcast will definitely continue. This is not affiliated ... Technically it's not affiliated with ClickFunnels. I just am obsessed with it, and what I know the mission of ClickFunnels is, and what they're trying to do. I talk about it a lot. Okay?

Sorry. My voice is like shot you guys. I'll tell you what's happened in a little bit also.

Anyway. That's what the lesson of this whole show is. This episode anyway, is that ... Get honest. Okay? When Garrett White stood up, a few lives ago, he stood up and he said, "You've gotta stop lying." Okay. He said a lot of expletives. He said, "You gotta stop lying. Stop lying. Stop lying. Stop lying. Stop lying to yourself. Stop lying to your family. Stop lying about your goals. Stop lying on what you really want.

Stop lying about any desires you really have, things that freak you out.

Whatever it is, you gotta get to this place of ultimate vulnerability and it's not easy to do." What's funny is that most people don't think that, that's honestly what it does take to be an entrepreneur. You've got to do those things, just like Robert Kiyosaki said. Any venture you start in any business, funny enough, it's your character flaws, a lot of times that blow up in your face and keep you from moving on. Not other stuff. Yeah, you gotta have an opportunity.

ClickFunnelsYes, all those other pieces get in there. All of those other ... Like that stuff matters.

Awkwardly enough, until you address some very critical, key character flaws, you won't move forward, not at a quick pace, and not at a pace that you're hoping to actually make money at. That's what this whole things been about for me is just ... I'm just trying to be real. Steven, what that have to do with building funnels? Everything. Okay? Everything, has everything to do with it. Just get real about it.

I was watching a post from someone the other day. They were saying how they're trying to build several funnels a week, or even like, one a day, or something ridiculous like that. I was like, "That's not the point. That's not the point." I know some people have used that strategy before, but some people use it as a distraction, where it's like this goal. It's this badge. "Oh, I built a new funnel every week for the last six months." Cool. And you're still not making money. Okay. You missed the whole point.

Just choose one. Get good at that one. ClickFunnels comes with hundreds of funnels that you can go build. Truly, you need one funnel to actually kill it. You know what I mean? I mean, there's a lot of stuff you can do the other's for as well. Focus on one. You know, obsess with the one. Get real with yourself about what one thing you're actually trying to do. That's my challenge to you.

A lot of you guys have asked. A lot of you guys have reached out. Steven, why on earth would you leave something like ClickFunnels? I get it. It does sound absurd, but I actually never in my life thought that I would go into the MLM industry, but I am. The reason why is cause, I'm frankly a little bit ticked off at that industry. Russell and I were looking at a definition of entrepreneur the other day.

I actually really like it. The definition was that, an entrepreneur is somebody who takes responsibility for problem that is not their own. I was like, interesting. I have been obsessed, actually, silently ...

For a lot of you guys, you don't know this, but for the last three years, I've been obsessed with trying to help fix the MLM industry, meaning, I think it's stupid that you gotta go talk to your family members and friends. I think that, just like in any other business on planet earth, if you sell the same thing, like in any MLM, or in any industry, or in anything else. If you sell the same thing as every other person out there, with the same script, the same everything, you're gonna really struggle in business, for some reason, all these MLM'ers think that it's gonna be different for them. That's not.

Uplines don't teach that crap. Corporates don't teach it, because they don't know.

I'm super fired up, really passionate about it. There's a lot of things I'm doing in the industry already that a lot of people don't know about. That's what I'm leaving to go do for a while. I've got a piece of software that I've been creating, that'll be done, honestly probably in about two months, that's killer, it's amazing. I've got a whole bunch of auto-recruiting funnels.

Got all these cool ..

Anyways, I've been building on the side for a long time. I've launched the beta of it about a year and half ago. Went great. I learned what was wrong with it, learned what was great with it. I've got a whole beta group that's been running for months. There's a lot of stuff going on, a whole podcast has been created out of this, which is killing it, so anyway, that's why. I'm very passionate about it.

I'm passionate enough about it to leave the insane, insane, amazing, incredible, other synonyms, cool job that I had at ClickFunnels.

If you compare what I'm leaving to what I'm gonna go do, it must be pretty freakin amazing. That's all I'm saying to it. I hope you get that, that I understand very much, what I'm doing and the pain is huge, which must mean that the potential for pleasure in what I'm trying to actually go do, must be even bigger, and it is, and it's stuff that no one's ever done before in that industry. I just wanna go help it. It drives me a little bit crazy.

Anyway, it's not a pitch anyone. A lot of people have been asking and I thought I'd just answer it here. Anyway, I hope you guys get real. Get real is what it is that you are trying to do in your life. If you are not doing it, I beg you to get real with yourself, and figure out exactly what it you're trying to go do, and be willing to jump out without your parachute being built yet. Don't worry.

You'll build it on the way down, cause the fear of hitting the ground's gonna be too strong. That's just how it works. That's just how it works. This game has so much less to do with being perfect before you do something, as it does with just taking action, and just doing stuff.

You know what's funny? 80% of people out there, which I'm is much more than that, are just freaked out about life in general. If you're one of the other 20% that just does, something, you're already ahead of everybody else. Just do something. That's really what's been on my mind past little bit. It's like, man. Just get out and do it. Whatever it is that you've waiting for. "I just gotta have this membership site done," or, "I've gotta just, get this last piece together," or, "I gotta get this contract done," or, "I gotta meet with my lawyers."

No you don't. "I gotta get my logo done." I hate that one. It's not true at all. "I gotta finish my website." Barf. No you don't. Okay.

The only thing you need to worry about is selling. That's it. If you've never sold your thing, but you think it's gonna be the thing that saves you and gets you out of your thing, wake up. Okay? Papa Larsen's getting real with you, okay? Wake up. Quit hanging onto that false dream.

It's not a real dream...

What you do is you get real with yourself, and you get to a place of vulnerability, which is gonna take you, learning how to trust you, and a different level you've never gone before, and you say, "Oh my gosh. This is where I actually want to go." Then you have the cohunes to get out there and try and sell it for the first time. If people are buying it, ah, awesome. Now you're getting into a spot where the possibility of you leaving your job or changing your business, or whatever you're trying to do, actually can become real. Before that, you're just lying to yourself.

Anyway, sorry my voice sounds weird. I pretty much didn't sleep over the weekend. I think I'm getting sick. I'm trying not to. I don't want to admit it, cause I feel like that's part of me getting sick. I don't know if that's true at all. I really don't want to get sick.

Anyway, so I'm leaving ClickFunnels you guys and I'm really bummed about it, but it's because I've gotta go cut my own path. I'm just being true to myself. I'm stoked to do it. I'm extremely passionate about it, but there is a level of Steve Larson that the world has not experienced yet.

I've done a lot of stuff in a nine to five setting, with Russell, which is, it's way more than nine to five, but you know, normal job. Oh Mylanta. I come back and I get all this other stuff done in the evenings, on the outside of my job there. A lot of people are like, "How do you do all that?" You haven't seen anything yet baby. Here comes Steve Larsen. Okay?

I'm super excited. I'm just gonna come out of the gate just running and I excited to do it. I'm excited to be more a part of it, the entrepreneur world. I'm gonna figure it out. I got no doubt in my mind about that. I've already done a lot of testing a lot of the way. I've already made a lot of money along the way with my testing. It's been great.

Anyway, Honestly I was planning on taking this episode an entirely different direction, but that's what was from the heart. Not necessarily about funnel strategy, but very much having to do with where you're trying to drive your ship. Some of you guys are running super hard, but in a weird direction. You just gotta get real with where you're trying to go, and not confuse, like I said before. Don't confuse your movement with achievement. It's not the same thing. If something doesn't have to do with selling your thing, quit doing it.

You know, if you're not doing the stuff that you ultimately want to be doing in the next five years, change it. Get to it.

Anyway guys. You're all awesome. I love this community by the way. I absolutely love all the guys. I love everyone who listens to this show, not just cause you're listening to it, but because I know that you guys are fighters. I was tired for years, of being around people who are just trying to just get by. "Well, I'm just trying to get by." It's like, really? "Oh Gosh. I have to work today?" I'm like, "Oh you kidding me? I get to work today." You know what I mean?

I know this podcast brings those kinds of people around. I am intentionally trying to change the world, and I hope that you are as well. I hope you're bold enough to talk about that. It'll feel weird at first. It was weird for me for quite a while. It was not comfortable for me to say those kinds of things. I'm comfortable with it now. I've developed enough now.

I'm in my own journey, in my own progression. I'm telling you right now. ISales Funnel Radiowanna change the world. Not exactly sure how, but that picture is coming more clear. Me leaving ClickFunnels is a big piece of me trying to get that picture in focus. Anyway, guys, talk to you later.

Have some cohunes about your own future, and I'll talk to you later. Bye.

Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Wanna get one of today's best internet sale funnel for free?

Go to salesfunnelbroker.com/freefunnels, to download your sales funnel today.

Nov 18, 2017

iTunes

The good and the bad of my very first info product...

ClickFunnels

 

What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to the best podcast on planet earth in my opinion and in reality of course. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now here's your host, Steve Larsen.

Hey, you guys...

Hey, I'm excited for this episode. This is something that's been on my mind for probably four weeks now. I've just not ... I don't know. I haven't had the time to actually make it, but I've been making this list and I've been writing this list for a while.

I keep walking into my office, my home office, and I look over to the right and I've got whiteboards all over the place and quotes stapled to my wall. A huge black sheet stapled from the top of the ceiling down to the bottom of the floor. I've got big flood lights and film equipment.

I've got a whole set up in here. I got a whole studio, but all over on the side of the wall over there, I've been writing this big list down. Weird as it, whatever it is in the morning, my brain turns on real fast.

What's been on my mind for the last sort of while is kind of lessons from my first info product. When I first started coming up with this product idea, my little girl was about to turn four years old. Super excited. She's a cutie, a lot of fun. Love hanging out with her. It's fun though.

As she gets older and older, it's not that she wasn't fun before, but even now we can have like more conversations, which is crazy. She's only four almost, which is nuts. When I look at her too, I also remember weirdly enough this first info product that I launched is around the same time when we found out that she ... That my wife was pregnant with her.

My wife came running out of the bathroom one day and we were excited...

We were trying to have a kid. She ran out and she was like, "Oh my gosh. We're pregnant. Ha, ha." I was like, "Wow. Yeah. I'm so pumped." We were so excited. We're so excited. I have, how should I say this, almost the bitter taste in my mouth also during that moment. It has nothing to do with my excitement for the kid. I was so excited for my little girl, so excited for her to come, had nothing to do with that. What the bitter taste comes from still is that I mean we were just broke. I mean broke, broke.

I didn't know how to pay for the birth. I don't know how I pay for those. I mean it's one of the reasons I joined the army. I mean I always wanted to anyways, but it is one of the root reasons.

It was like, "Crap. I had not figured out how to sell stuff," despite the fact that I have been constantly trying. Up until that point I had been doing real estate, both commercial and residential, door to door sales. At that time I was getting into like eBooks and I was writing a lot of stuff, which I never launched one of them by the way. It'd be kind of cool to show and actually finish that one one day.

It's cool how on point I was four years ago when I was writing that thing. It's like right on point. All of it's still valid. I was like, "Oh my gosh." Anyway, different subject. It was hard because like I really just didn't know how we were going to live, how are we going to eat. I was trying to be fiscally responsible....

We didn't have expensive habits. Thankfully neither my wife or I we really had like super expensive taste. It's not that we didn't want to, but we were okay with the fact that we didn't have the money to...

Neither of us have really ever been concerned about the other spending a whole bunch of money randomly. You know what I mean? That's not ever been us, but at the same time, we just didn't have any money. I was in school. I did great in school. After a while when I learned how to learn that I started getting straight A's every semester almost, which is awesome. I was deep into school. I was trying to learn. I was trying to outdo my other peers. I'm very competitive on purpose. I was trying to beat them on everything.

I was trying to beat my professors even, my marketing teachers. I was trying to show them that they were wrong on a few things. I mean it's just my personality. I run. I'm a sprinter. I know that. Anyway, this product idea though came at a moment when I was really needing something the most money wise. Not almost the most. There was one more intense time than that. I remember I was sitting on the couch at 2:00 AM and it was freezing.

IdahoI was in our cold apartment. This is in Eastern Idaho, Southeastern Idaho, which if you don't know in the wintertime and even during the summer, like the wind just always blows there. I don't know what is going on over there, but it always blows wind.

I'm from Denver. My wife and I are both from Denver. It doesn't blow like that over there. Anyway, I had this idea and it's not like it hit me all at once. The core of it did, but it continued to develop over the course of several weeks. The idea was to create this info product that I could not find anyone else in this particularly industry creating. No one else had done it. No one else understood ClickFunnels enough to pull it off as far as I could tell.

ClickFunnels was pretty new. I'm sorry. Let's see. Yeah, okay. This was about three and a half years ago right after ... Timeline wise, ClickFunnels had just opened up, so not quite four years ago then. It's amazing how much has happened in that amount of time.

That's crazy. Holy crap. Anyway, I had this idea and I was excited and I didn't totally know what I was doing, but I figured that I needed to go create this product and then start to sell it because it was a blue ocean. No one else had really done it.

There was enough people that I could go funnel hack to get kind of an idea of the thing that I should create, like what would be accepted content wise, but I was going to deliver it up in a completely different way than that market had ever experienced before.

I was like sweet. Cool. I mapped the whole thing out many times. I wrote out the value ladders. I literally went page by page through Russell's DotComSecrets Ignite program.

It was a workbook that he gave for free. After the DotComSecrets book on the thank you page there, he was like, "Hey, I don't want you to sit around, wait around just being bored, so here's three days of this event and the workbook with it." I was like what? Oh my gosh. I took the workbook. I printed it out. It was like a hundred pages.

I got it spiral bound and I started hiding in the basketball ... On campus, the basketball stadium box office seats because you could jump through the front window and it was kind of like dark, really fast internet up there. No one would bother me. I would just kind of dodge security when no one was looking and I'd jumped through the window. That's literally how I learned this stuff you guys.

That's how I did it. I was just hustling my brains out. It hasn't really stopped. I just haven't stopped since then. I learned it around this entire product. This product was how I learned funnels. That's why it was so near and dear to me. Now I had created stuff before, but not like this. I promise I'll get to the good stuff here in just a moment.

Here's the back story with the whole thing, okay?

I went and I created the product and it took me eight months, eight months to make the thing, right? I was in school. At that time we had our kid. I had family life with a kid that had just started. I had started with the army. I went away for six months to basics training and all this other stuff and other trainings, pieces like that.

Six months I was gone. Anyway, in total, actually creation, took me eight months to make the thing and I launched it and I was so proud. I was so proud. No one else really understood what I was doing, but I was so excited to just have ... It was my first info product to really put out there and it was good.

I knew it was good. Nobody else was doing what I was doing and I knew that. I was very proud of the full thing, but the problem was a lot of stuff. There was just so many things. Oh my gosh. If I could go back and just like shake my three and a half year old ago self, I would. What's been on my mind the last few weeks here and now has been lessons from that first product launch.

I think the reason it's been popping back up is because I'm about to launch another info product here early January and I know there's another soul in planet that's doing what I'm doing. I know that there's no other one who's even pulling it off closely or even remotely similar to how I'm doing it.

I know it's a blue ocean. I have tested the crap out of it for the last year and a half to two years. There's on one else. I'm excited. Very similar scenario as that first info product I launched. When I launched that very first info product though, nobody bought it. I had not even thought about traffic. Looking back, so juvenile and now I'd be like, "Why on earth would I not think about that now?"

I just didn't know. I had no idea. It ended up making me like 50 grand just through like one or two traffic sources and it was awesome. It was great. Really, really cool. Well, now I'm about launch a second one and I'm so excited about it, but I wanted to go through a list of kind of some of the ... I wrote them all down here and I'm sure that there are others, but these are like the most stark lessons that I have gathered from that first info product launch and it's totally different this time. 100% different.

Like completely day and night different the way I've been handling this thing. Anyway, you know what's funny is I actually go through these with two comical coaching students as well and definitely did this with the latest fad event as well.

Went through a few different strategy on how you could pull off. Here's the number one lesson from the whole list. There's about five or six things. What I'm going to do is I'm just going to go through them real quick and I'll explain them as I go. I want to go through these because I need you to understand that if you're about to launch an info product and you feel stuck, I almost guarantee that it is because of one of these reasons.

Here's number one, lesson number one is create the revenue before you make the product. This is huge and it's totally counterintuitive to anything else you would ever expect. All right?

Even in my marketing classes, like even some of the early mentors I had, they were always like, "Look, go create something brand new. Create this cool thing and then go try and sell it." I was like no. It's totally the opposite. First, you sell it and then you create it. You're like, "Steven, that makes zero sense."

Let me tell you how to do it...

Online MarketingThe reason why is because I spent eight months creating this thing that was amazing, but I did not get paid a dime for it forever. Luckily I created something that was cool enough people could pay me for eventually. I mean that was straight luck. I guessed my whole way to profits. Here's how you do it though. Let's say that you're selling an info product or even a physical product.

You can start selling the thing. I mean think about Kickstarter. That's exactly what that thing is. You are buying something that may not even be done yet. What does that tell the entrepreneur? It tells the entrepreneur it's a good idea, right? You currently as the entrepreneur do not create the creativity. You do not create the ideas. You do not have them inside of you. You do not have inside of your own being right now what it takes to make a million dollars from the market.

None of us do and I wish I had understood that ahead of time. What you do is you create the product with the first buyers. You create it with them. What I've been doing is I've been spending all my time. I mean I've created cool stuff.

I've created workbooks. I mean I've created lots of stuff that goes with it, but I still have not created or filmed the actual thing yet. It's because I am waiting all my time, all my attention, all my focus is on creating pressure, the actual sales message before I start to sell it. I'm not creating the actual thing first. Now if you see the way that Russell rolls things out, if you see the way Russell Brunson and ClickFunnels in general roll products out, a lot of times the way we do it is we sell the thing, we prove that it was good and then we start to ask campaign the buyers.

We prep them ahead of time, so it's not like a bait-and-switch. You know what I mean? There's certainly room where you could be really shady with that and we're not.

What we do is we say, "Hey look, classes start in two weeks. Buy now for your early bird ticket to get in cheaper," right? Then on the very first module or the very first training, you could do this for physical products too, whatever it is, then we start saying things like, "Hey, what's the number one question or challenge you have with X, Y and Z," and that's just for module one. Well, now we know what to create.

They told us what to make. Does that make sense? What's going to blow a lot of people's minds is when you realize that the product rarely sells itself. Rarely ever do you have a product that's so good that it sells itself without any sales copy, without you even trying, where their word of mouth is so strong that you don't need any sales message.

What's funny though is when people focus all their time on creating the product and no time creating the sales message, right? They think the product alone is what sells the product. That's not true at all. I have watched Russell sell products he doesn't even know what the product is. It's because he knows persuasive. He knows how to sell. He knows how to create offers.

He knows how to stack things. He knows how to create new opportunities. He knows how to invoke that kind of emotion from an individual, right? It's because he's gone through and he creates the actual new opportunity. He creates the sales message. It does not matter really what the product is. It does obviously. It can't be crap.

It's got to be amazing. It's got to deliver. It's got to be the coolest thing on the planet earth. You know what I mean? You're creating a brand new opportunity. It better deliver. It better be awesome. Do not deliver junk. That is not my culture. It should not be yours. Okay? What I'm telling you is that you can sell and make money before you actually start creating the product. Then what you do is you create the product with them.

You create it as you go. That's all we do. That's all I've done...

I have created so many freaking member areas in the last like year. It is ridiculous. My role at ClickFunnels has somewhat shifted. I'm not so much of a front end funnel builder anymore. We're not creating them any front end funnels anymore.

My role has shifted. I'm more like a members area, content creating, fulfillment guy now. I don't know why it's totally shifted, but I think that's why is just because we don't create that many front end funnels anymore. It's all about delivering these massive awesome members area. It's all built in ClickFunnels. I mean everything I do and everything I build is in ClickFunnels, but anyway. That's the first lesson is that oh my gosh, biggest thing, why did I wait eight months to collect any check?

Honestly, it took a while for word to get out because I hadn't thought about traffic, so really it was like a year. That was rough. Why did I do that? Don't do that. I'm begging you not to do that.

Anyway, number one, please know that you should spend most of your time on actually creating the sales message. Focus on getting paid before you make the product as much as you possibly can.

SalesFunnelBrokerThen what you do is that first round through, that first group through who bought your thing, you create the product with them and you say, "Hey, guess what? It's all going to start in two weeks. Go ahead and get your ticket. Go ahead and buy now, so you can get the early bird pricing. It starts in two weeks. When you get in there, very first module, there's a little stop in there, go ahead and answer that questionnaire so that we know we are covering the things that you need most."

It's just an ask campaign...

Then when we're one week out, "Guess what guys? It starts in one week. Go ahead and get your ticket or go and buy. Then the very first module, get in there, make sure ... Guess what guys? It's starting today. It means you don't have to wait like the people who wait had to wait two weeks ago. Go ahead and get in. I'm going to extend the early bird pricing. You can go ahead.

In the very first module, you can go through and make sure you fill out the survey so we can make we're answering it and filling the products to your needs so we can make sure we're helping you the most. Guess what guys? It only started a week ago. That means you don't have to wait. That means you don't have to wait.

You can get in there and you can start right now, but go ahead and go to module two and to let us know what is it you're most struggling with. That way we know we can make sure we tailor the product to ..." You know what I mean? It's that same thing. "Guess what? It started two weeks go. Guess what? It started three weeks ago." Then whatever it is, let's say you have six modules and something, that first group through, they're creating it with you. You're making money.

You're seeing what works and what doesn't and you're no longer just guessing, creating an entire product, spending all this time and actually wasting a lot of time and frankly probably money that you could have been getting that you didn't.

Does that make sense? This is like one of like six lessons and I'm spending a ton of time on it because I just want you to know that. For the love, sell the stuff. Do a great job fulfilling on it. Don't be shady. Let them know that they're the first ones through.

You know what I mean?...

Let them know that they're going to be creating with you and then a really easy thing to do is let's say you go create module one. At the end of module one, let's say it's on a Saturday. Let's say you released module one on a Monday. Friday do a live Q and A call with everybody. Put the recordings back into the members area. That becomes a value-add. You can toss that in at the end of your stack. That lets you know what holes you didn't fill.

That lets you know where the people are not able to understand or follow what it is you're actually doing. Does that make sense? Anyway, what is that? 18 minutes for number one?

Let me go a little bit faster here, but I hope that makes sense though, okay? That's one of the biggest lessons I ever learned. Number two, here's the second lesson, let's say that you're hiring out support. Let's say you have a support person or you've got support people or whatever it is.

Let's say it's someone who's not totally vested in what it is you're doing. Let's say it is and they just don't understand what your product is. One of the worst things that can happen is when someone starts to ask a front line support person about your product because they may not know about it.

What I try to do, what I'm trying to do now is I'm trying to separate support where they are mostly transactional style questions, "Hey, I can't find my login. Hey, I didn't get my receipt. Hey, does this include this?" Right? It's more factual and transactional. I'm trying to leave support to do that stuff while I handle the question on my live Q and As about the actual products and how to use it and how to get the most out of it and how to go crush it.

You know what I mean? I'm trying to create that split right there and there's really a few things that I've been doing. I got this awesome guy. I want to interview him so you guys can all meet him sometime. He's so cool. He's awesome.

He's been going through and he's been taking a lot of the Q and A questions that I get, support questions that I get and he's making a knowledge base with the most common questions. I think we're using Freshdesk. He's creating a knowledge base with like the most questions and it's not a perfect process yet and it's not a perfect system.

I know that and I apologize if some people have gotten confused or frustrated if there's something that's been weird in there. We're still making it better. It'll be awesome. Anyway, that's where the knowledge base is sitting and a lot of transactional questions, a lot of like what things come with what questions.

All that stuff is I'm trying to separate that and put that to support and I'm trying to take the other questions about the product and how to use it, how to actually be successful with it. I'm trying to put those in a live Q and A that I'm going to be doing with this new info product starting January. I'm going to be doing that every single week live with a group of people.

I'll share my screen and we'll go through stuff. I'll take those things and I'll put them back into the members area so that people know what's going on with there. You know what I mean? That's the plan. The reason why is because there's been a few times where much earlier support people who were with me ... This new guy I have is amazing.

His name is Luke. Shout out to you, buddy. I want to introduce him to everybody sometime. He's been amazing. Anyway, very much earlier support people, they weren't as passionate about my stuff as I am, which you can expect. That's totally fine. They might make customers a little bit mad or whatever it is because they may not understand a strategy.

That should be something that I handle, not the support person. Anyway, okay, that's kind of a long answer there. Here's another lesson, well, I was originally funnels on SalesFunnelBroker.com for $100. I think they're still out there right now, but that's been changed. I just want you to know that.

When I originally was selling that stuff, there's a lot more stuff I had on there for sale for a hundred bucks also. When I was selling funnels, when I'm selling share funnels, things like that, and even with this other info product, when I was selling stuff for a hundred bucks, I did not like the customer that brought. That was way too intense of a product.

A whole share funnel and how to set it up, that's way too intense to be selling for only a hundred bucks. That's holy crap. This is lesson number three. Lesson number three is more money equals a better customer. Now I can understand having smaller physical products on the front end of your value ladder.

That's a lot cheaper. It's because it doesn't take as much to fulfill on that...

Not nearly at all. It does not take nearly that much to fulfill on it. That's a hard thing to screw up. You know what I mean? Like a book or something where it's cheaper and smaller and it's self-explanatory. That's way easier for a customer, any kind of customer, to come through and actually understand. When I was selling stuff that was cheaper that should have frankly been more expensive, that brought a kind of customer that was a little bit more needy.

Not that it's a bad thing, but there's a level of self-solverness. They are people who solve a lot of issues or problems on their own. Entrepreneurship is a self-solver kind of a game, right? If you're not in love with solving problems, you're probably not going to make a great entrepreneur.

Does that make sense? It's a big deal. All this game is going from one problem set to the next problem set, to the next problem set. The reason why Russell Brunson sometimes doesn't listen to a lot of stuff or go to a lot of other events anymore, he doesn't go to a lot of other people's things anymore, he doesn't read a lot of other people's books, the reason why is because he's on a much higher level problem set, right? He's not trying to figure out how to go from zero to a million or 1 to 10 or even 10 to 100 anymore.

He's trying to figure out how to go to a billion dollars. That really ups the kind of person he's trying to learn from. It's the exact same thing with this whole ... Look, more money you charge equals a better customer.

I could dive into that a lot deeper for other things too and show some other examples, but I'm going to move on. First lesson, make money first and make the product with the customer. That's huge. Massive value bomb right there. Number two, the live Q and As should be ... Anyway, I wish I had been doing live Q and As about how the product works rather than leaving that to support. That was a dumb decision on my move. Support should be more transactional stuff and creating a knowledge base.

Number three, when you charge more money, you get a better customer typically. Number four, I wish that I had first funnel hacked a really hot market and then created a new niche out of that hot market.

A lot of times it gets confusing for people...

Hey, go funnel hack someone...

Model them totally. Then hacks for secrets comes out which says, "Hey, create a brand new opportunity. Totally new niche. Something that's never been created before." You're like, "Wait a second. What? Where does funnel hacking come in and where does creating a new niche come in?" Right? Luckily, I guessed right on my first product.

Number one, you go find a really ridiculously bloody, bloody red ocean, right? Something where tons and tons of money is being spent. You find out what they're all doing, then you create a new niche out of one step out of that really hot market. That's one of the easiest ways to ensure a big win. I wish I had done that the first round I've been more purposeful with that, but I frankly wasn't.

I just didn't know. Next lesson, nevermind. That one doesn't make sense. Here's the next one, this is going to sound self-explanatory as I say this, but I just didn't understand this either. I wish I had created traffic sources prior to launching my first info product. I didn't even test anything.

Nothing...

I talk a lot about Tim Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Workweek and it's simply because it's really good, but if you know the story of how he actually wrote that book and put it out there, it took him like a year of planning and preparation and writing. He would drip out a little bit of it here and drip out a little bit there and write little pieces here and there. He did it over the course of like a year.

When he came up with the title, The 4-Hour Workweek, what he did is he brainstormed a ton of book title headlines, lots of ideas, a lot of book title ideas and he created an ad for each one of them and he threw them all out to the marketplace and he looked at which one had the highest click-through rate, which was The 4-Hour Workweek, and that's why he chose the title The 4-Hour Workweek.

That's why that book is called that. He tested like crazy. He PR'd himself like crazy before he ever, ever launched the thing. He primed the pump way before he ever put it out there, which is awesome. I love how the product Software Secrets was launched. If you hadn't seen the Software Secrets launched, it's amazing.

They made tons of money. It's amazing product. I personally use it. I personally bought it. I absolutely love Software Secrets. I think it's so cool, but what's cool about Software Secrets is that for almost a full year, in fact it might have been a full year, they had this podcast where all they did was document the creation of the product.

They included their customer in the actual creation of the product. Now when there was this new feature that popped out, they said, "Oh yeah. You guys remember the story behind this feature?" Then they talk about it, right?

That's cool because when they actually launched the thing, now they know the stories behind how hard it was to create this thing and the trial and challenge behind this one over here.

It's cool because they brought us on the journey. They basically were selling everybody before they actually sold the thing and that's why they did it. That's how they did it. I wished that I had done that before. I wished that I had created pressure and traffic sources prior to actually launching the product.

Oh my gosh...

Guys, if you can make the event of you launching the product feel like an event, it's like one of the easiest ways to ensure success with this whole thing. Anyway, I have been talking like crazy and I know this is kind of a long podcast. The last few have been kind of long, but I'm just excited to share a with you guys a few of these things that have been going on my head.

Anyways, if you're making a product, you're making something that's good, that's ... It could be the first one. It could be something that's also maybe not even your first one. Maybe it could be whatever it is you're about to launch something or you've already launched it, think through ... Okay. I'm just going to recap these lessons real quick. There's one, two, three, four, about five things here. Number one, figure out again how you can actually make money before you start creating your thing.

That's going to ease your pain like crazy because the guess work's not going to be on you. The market will tell you what it wants you to create, right? I just went over that. You don't have that inside of you of really knowing what it is to create.

You got to ask the market. You might as well get paid while you do it and you can. Start selling before it's ready. That's number one. Number two, separate what support's roles are with your roles. Your role is to sell the thing, make it awesome, help people learn how to use it, help people learn how to consume it. Support's roles in my opinion is more transactional. You know what I mean? It's more let's make a knowledge base.

Let's do the things. Let's answer the questions you're answering all the time, Steven. Let's answer all the questions. You know what I mean? It's that kind of stuff and again I'm going to introduce you to a cool guy here shortly. Stuff starts to roll out with this thing. The third thing, charge more money.

More money equals a better customer typically. More money typically equals someone who's willing to take more action. If someone spends more money, usually they're willing to do what you say rather than blame random stupid crap on you that it's not your fault, rather than just their own fault for not actually taking action. You know what I mean?

Anyway, more money usually equals a better customer. Fourth lesson, find the hot product where lots of money is, then take one step out of that as you create a new niche, right? Don't just create something new willy-nilly. Find out what's actually selling before and go create something new from it. Then the fifth and final thing is create some pressure before you start to sell something.

Find the traffic sources...

Do some testing. Figure out what is actually selling. Your job is to sell. Just sell. Don't worry about stupid stuff like business cards or office space. That stuff doesn't matter. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. Sell for a while and prove what the market wants, then we can kind of automate stuff because the market told you what it wants.

Anyway, I've been talking a long time. That was a freaking 30 minute podcast and I'm sorry that it went that long, but honestly, I just hope that you understand more of like ... Gosh, like so many headaches. I can't even tell you how many headaches would have been relieved if I had just done this. I mean this is over the course of like two years of me learning that.

Okay? I hope that that 30 minutes cut down two years of you learning how to do this stuff. You might even be amazing at selling that stuff and I hope that you and you probably are, but just the way you structure stuff with your support, with all the different things, all the different pieces, just know that like is ...

Those are for me the five huge lessons when launching an info product or products in general. When it comes to selling it, just ... It eases the pain like crazy. I kind of jumped into a lot of that stuff too with our last fad event and it went really great, but anyway. I'm excited to launch this thing. I think it'd be great.

I've got a lot more structure in place this time as far as the business wise goes, which usually I don't care as much about, but I'm trying to take you to a lot of the lessons I learned for the first info product.

I'm excited to launch it. It'll be early January. Anyway, it's going to be awesome. Anyways, get out there. Launch stuff. Just sell stuff and I'm excited for you and what you're launching. It's cool to hear all the stories. I love when you guys reach out and share with me what you guys got from these things too. It's really fun. Anyway, you guys are all awesome.

Get out there...

Create products...

Sales Funnel RadioPut stuff out there...

Time is a ticking...

Don't waste it. I'll talk to you later. Bye.

Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnel for free? Go to SalesFunnelBroker.com/freefunnels to download your prebuilt sales funnels today.

Nov 14, 2017

iTunes

Routinely, these are the most common ways we'll increase the perceived value of our offers...

ClickFunnels

What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business, using today's best internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

How you guys doing? Hey, just right off the bat, I want you to know if I'm talking fast or a little bit jittery, it's because I am a little bit jittery. Okay, so a few weeks ago, about three weeks ago I was like, "Crap!" When I first met my wife, I was six per cent body fat. I was running ... I was doing sprint triathlons like crazy, I was ... I'm not gonna lie, you know twisted steel and sex appeal. I mean, I was like ... I was looking really good.

I had veins all over me, it was awesome. And then this thing called like work and college came along, and married life and responsibility and that kind of stuff and I was like, "Man, I'm not gonna lie, I feel a little bit big."

So I went online and I went to YouTube and I found this guy that was just like shredded, right? I went on YouTube with the explicit purpose of finding some person who just looked totally jacked and huge and swole and looked like he could kill me in a single flex. And I found someone. And I got on there and I was like, "Hey man, do you do like, you know, do like customized meal plans?" I got no problem with the actual workout part, but I want like help with the meal plan part. So anyway, he's been ... I've been on this super, super strict like ... I mean it's literally like chicken and veggies and some healthy fats, like that's it.

That's what I've been eating for the last two weeks and I feel so much better. It's amazing! How restricting actually makes me feel more enabled, think about how many lessons that applies to.

But anyway, it's been interesting and right now, I was about to go do a workout and I've just been pounding some caffeine before I go and do my workout. And it's starting to hit me right now. So, if I sound kind of jumbled and all over the place, that is exactly why. And anyway, I'm excited. In fact, a few days ago, I was talking to Russell, I was like, "Dude, I feel so good, like oh my gosh, I've had no caffeine. I've had like ... I'm eating super clean." And he's like, "Really? Like that's awesome man. Like oh that's so cool."

And I went back home and I was started looking at what it was he was having me take, and I've been taking 275 milligrams of caffeine in the morning. And I was like, "No wonder I feel like I'm on freaking cloud nine, my head is like buzzing, I'm going like crazy." And anyway, he's laughing, he's like, "Dude, that's like the equivalent of 12 Ignites, that's like so much caffeine." Anyway, so it's just been kind of funny.

Hey, so we just barely finished a Funnel Hackathon event. Now, if you never heard of that, what happens is people come in for three days and day one, we go through their sales message. Now, well that's really day two. Day one what we do is a lot of foundational work, okay. What's your new opportunity?

Who you selling to? You know, have you actually created a new niche? What's your message? You know, describe more of the target? It's more stuff like that. What are the false beliefs of the individuals? What stories do you have in your life that we can start crafting around it? And we do a lot of like, it kinda feels like you bouncing around a lot, but in day two, a lot of stuff starts to come back together.

Okay, so the first day is like a normal nine to five kinda day, the second day though is ... We start at about eight thirty in the morning and we go til about midnight. And the entire three day event, it's not like we take breaks, there's no official breaks, there's no ... I mean, it's intense, it's very intense as a participant.

It is extremely intense as the person running it, you know what I mean? It's kinda fun 'cause day one Russell and I, we're on stage, sometimes separate, sometimes together, sometimes we're kinda ping ponging back and forth, teaching this and it was just a ton of fun.

I know a lot of you guys listen to this podcast, shout out to you guys, I know that. We've had hundreds and hundreds of you guys come through it now, it's been great. Day two though, it's just ... It's mostly just me and we go from sun up to way past sundown.

And we build out the entire webinar slide presentation. All of it. From top to bottom. Then Russell comes in, the very last thing of the day, usually like nine or 10 in the evening and he does this actual stack presentation and just breaks it down and shows what he's actually doing and why it works. It's really cool.

And then the third day, we jump through a whole bunch of funnels and one of the things I like to do, and I promise this is going somewhere, one of the things I like to do is on day three, I like to stand up at the front on the stage and just ask ... Okay, we've gone through the actual message, we've gone through how to deliver it, we're gonna go through some funnels here in a little bit.

And I open up ClickFunnels with them. And we start to go through ClickFunnels itself and it's a lot of fun and I help them get the webinar ready to rock. But I always like to ask, "What ..." You gotta understand it, like Russell Brunson and ClickFunnels and Expert Secrets and DotCom Secrets and all this ... I mean, I have a marketing degree, I have no idea what it really did for me, besides create an environment for me to learn all this other stuff. I don't ...

There's nothing content wise in college, except like two or three lessons from a single semester that I really even use, you know, from college.

And so, what's funny is that, this is the best material, right? It's the best stuff, it's the best tools, it's the best everything and they're in the room. Each one of them paid like 15 grand a seat, just to be there, right? There was like over 60 people in this room, it's a ton of fun. I mean, I absolutely loved it.

Everyone else always does love it. It's .... There's no other place on the planet where I know you can get that kind of stuff. And so, I always like to make the point, "Look, you've got the best stuff, you're in the best scenario, you're in the best environment, you're in a room with people that frankly you probably will not find in many other places, right? You're all A players, you're all here to run, you're all here to go."

But it is incredibly baffling to me to sit and realize that like 20 per cent of them aren't gonna do anything. What? Are you kidding? You know what I mean? I never had an event like that, I never had any kind of ... I had DotCom Secrets, that was it. Expert Secrets wasn't even out, right? ClickFunnels was kind of just barely getting started, there were still a lot of things they were fixing, a lot of bugs.

Expert Secrets SecretsLike why on earth would you not just go take action? So what if no one sees your Facebook Lives when you're just starting? No one knows who you are anyway. Like there's nothing to lose. And so, I always like to, on that third day, sit back and write. Okay, what are the real barriers? What is the thing that is actually gonna keep you from going? What is it? I wanna know what those things are.

And one of things I always like to bring up is a ... It's a section ... So everyone's using the Stack slide, we're creating brand new offers, we're all creating brand new opportunities in brand new niches 'cause they're creating the niche, not choosing a niche, if you choose the niche, you lose.

You create the niche, okay? If you choose the niche, it means you're in a proven based offer already, out of the gate. Don't be that, right? I know I'm saying a lot of technobabble right now, but it was kinda interesting because I had the thought hit to me, like, there are some things that we constantly do to help increase the perceived value of the offers that we sell, right? The perceived idea ... I mean this is huge, massive gold mines going on here, okay?

Or goldnugget, whatever you wanna call them. Okay.

And so, what I said is like, "Let me show you guys some of the things that we do and the things that we use to increase the perceived value of the offers that we sell." Let's think about this real quick, okay? If you are selling just a straight info product, what is it cost you to fulfill on that? Like nothing, right? You're gonna send an email with an email link in there and they're gonna go jump into the members area or they're gonna go download your stuff or something like that, right?

The amount of work that it takes to fulfill on an info product, very small.

Now that's awesome for the business owner, right? But as a consumer, there usually needs to be more sales copy, you gotta convince me that it's actually worth it, right? That the information itself is actually worth it, okay? Now let's think about this. How much sales copy is on an Amazon E-commerce page? Not that much, right? There's not that much sales copy that actually goes onto, I don't know ... Whatever ...

Let's say you buying a CD player, whatever, an MP3 player, something like that. Let's say you're buying whatever it is off of Amazon, how much sales copy actually goes on that? Like not much. We're talking bullet points, right? Another additional paragraph talking about the features. A little section that might be frequently asked questions from people that have already bought it, right? Some reviews. That's it.

Now those are all things we would include in an info product, but why do we not have to include that on a physical product? It's because we can anticipate, right, the tangible aspect of that product. I can sense that I'm gonna be feeling and holding and touching this thing. This thing is gonna be real. It's gonna show up in my mailbox. I'm gonna take it out and it's real.

I can touch it, right? I can hold it.

I just got this sweet hoody from a rap artist I really like. I'm usually not that much into rap, but I found this guy I really like and he's amazing and I've been just all about his music for the last like month and ... Or however long. And it's been awesome and I totally bought his hoody, it's freaking cool. And it was expensive. But the perceived value is through the roof. Now if someone ... It was $60 for this hoody, okay? So it's relatively expensive, right? Actually honestly not that bad, now that I think about it, but when I think about like, okay, how much would you have to sell me for me to spend $60 on an info product, right?

It's gonna be quite a bit more, you know what I mean? It's gonna be quite a bit more money. Now you think about it ... Okay, so the first thing I'm trying to tell you is that if you are selling an info product, if you can figure out a way to actually send something physical, anytime someone buys an info product, you're perceived value of that offer is gonna go way up.

Let's think about this for a second, right? On a free plus shipping offer, free plus shipping, you're getting something physical in the mail, so free plus shipping, seven dollars, for something physical in the mail, that's really cheap, especially if it's a book, right? The perceived value of that is way higher than seven dollars, that's why it's so stupid, simple and easy, for people to go and get that thing. If you bundle an info product with a physical product, the perceived value goes through the roof, most of the time.

If you do it right, if it's not crap, right? But most of time, the perceived value goes through the roof.

And so, that's something I was trying to tell them, is that when you're actually selling on these webinars or these mid-tier products, right? Let's say it's around $1000, $2000, something like that. If you can bundle some kind of welcome package, something that they get in the mail, something that the perceived value is gonna go through the roof. "Hey, guess what guys? You're not only gonna get this sweet info product that's gonna teach you X - Y and Z, guess what?

You're also gonna get my welcome package. It's something that I'm gonna ship to you in the mail, so make sure you put in your shipping address because I've got some cool box that's coming. We've got a T-shirt for you, we've got this cool notepad that's customized and a sweet pen with our logo on it." Or whatever. You know what I mean?

If you've got those kinds of things in there, it's gonna be a lot easier for you ... Perceived value is gonna be a lot higher. I hope I've made my point with that. Start thinking through what those things are. And if you don't have an idea, I guarantee that if you were to go to Amazon and you started checking out key words that relate to whatever you're selling, I bet you can find stuff, right? Even if it is another info product, you could seriously just serve it up in a physical way, right?

"Hey guess what? It's a whole bunch of recordings. Oh, guess what? I also transcribed the recordings and I put them in a little notebook and I'm gonna be shipping it out to you." Does that make sense?

A lot of times, the additional money you're able to spend or sorry, a lot of times the additional money you have to spend to ship out something like that is gonna be far worth the additional money you get to charge for that thing. You can sell a lot more stuff typically, when you bundle an info product with a physical product. Okay, that's number one. Physical product, one of the easiest to increase perceived value of whatever it is you're currently offering, okay?

And there's I think, through a lot of things that we've sold, you know, either personally, I've seen a lot of my early funnels, that's actually how I did it, was a free plus shipping thing, but then it went onto info products afterwards. And that's one of the models, where we have the most ROI, usually.

Personally, as well, I've been that way, because we lead them in with a physical product and then when we sell info products on the upsells, it's pure profit. It takes nothing to fulfill on that. And it's free plus shipping, they've already paid for the shipping, they've paid for the product, right? And now we're just selling additional product, more info products than we were going to 'cause more people are seeing the upsells. You guys following me?

I hope you guys are seeing how this gonna makes sense for your business, because if you think ... Especially on front end funnels, front low tier funnels, and even mid-tier, heck, even high-end products. I mean, I've seen Gary White, those black books that he sells like for $1000 or $10 000, however much it is, it's a lot of money. You're getting something physical in the mail and a lot of times, that's one of the easiest ways to boost the perceived value.

So, anyway, without beating a dead horse, I hope you understand that. Start seeing the way you can apply that in your business right now. Number one, have an info product. Number two though, you toss something in, even if it's simple, you toss something physical in there. The perceived value, typically can go through the roof, as long as you not sending them pure crap or something like that, you know what I mean? It does have to be good, obviously. Alright, does that make sense?

Alright that's number one. Physical product bundled with info product. Number two. Number two way to increase the perceived value. Now, this is not a definitive list, but these are three things that I always teach, that's kinda always off the top of my head. But we were two ...

Sorry, getting stumbly, it's that caffeine starting to hit. I routinely see these things as the things where the perceived value goes up through the roof a little bit higher.

Okay, so number two: software. Now when you think software, I don't want you to think ClickFunnels, right? You're not gonna go out and you're not gonna freelance this software ClickFunnels in like a day. Okay, that's just ... It's amazing, right? That's software's incredible. What's cool about software is that it does take usually an extra coder or programmer, it does usually take some extra people, it does ... It does definitely increase the perceived value. Now, I wanna give you a few resources you guys can use to go create your own software.

Click FunnelsI, right now, am creating my own app. I have this problem that I continue to run into, over and over and over and over ... And it's not a huge problem, but I see a really easy, obvious way for me to create this cool app that's gonna solve a ton of my own problems and I know if I'm having the issue, a lot of others are also.

And I'm not gonna tell you what it is yet, I'll tell you guys as soon as it's out and stuff. It will probably take two months, honestly.

But guess what? I'm not a coder or programmer, I have no idea how to do that stuff. The most I know how to code, I can read a little html, I kinda know what Java Script is doing and I read it, I definitely cannot write it. I can definitely read and write CSS a little bit, at least enough to be dangerous, that's how I do a lot of, you know ... That's it though. And that should be a source of comfort for a lot of people. That I don't know how to do that stuff, because it means that you don't have to either. If you don't know how to do that stuff.

So I wanna give you two resources real quick. Alright, if you start thinking through software, software, software, software ... Software is some cool stuff you can toss into your current offer, to easily boost the perceived value. When you think of Brandon and Kaelin Poulin, right? Those two, they're doing like a million dollars a month or something like that. I mean, something ridiculous. They're selling an app, okay? They're selling access to an app. You think about how powerful that is, okay? It's huge, that's amazing. And I guarantee it, it could not have been a million dollars to create that app, but because ... I mean, the perceived value of apps are so big. Apps aren't that crazy hard to create anymore.

If you go to Flippa.com, Flippa.com. That's with two P's, F-L-I-P-P-A.com. What's cool about Flippa.com is they ... It's a place for entrepreneurs to post pre-made apps, pre-made E-com stores, pre-made ... And all of it with an existing revenue. And you can go buy existing software and apps and E-com stores and all this ... In fact, pretty soon, one of the people I wanna interview, what he does is he goes on Flippa, he finds a cool E-com site that's already killing it, buys it, puts a funnel in front of it, if he can tell it's in a cool niche and blows it up.

They've already proven the product concept the hard way, now he just puts a funnel there and blows it up. Like Flippa is amazing, well in Flippa, you can buy pre-made apps, they're already on the Apple app store. You're buying the whole thing, you're not buying source code, you're not white labeling it. Although there's plenty of other places, you could also white label apps or something like that.

But what's cool about Flippa is that you can go and you can actually, you know, you can grab a whole bunch of stuff that's already existing and anyway, so super cool. Flippa.com, that's awesome. The other place that I go is Freelancer.com, I love Freelancer. I know there's others, there's Upwork, there's a whole bunch of other places you can go get, even Fiver, although I've wasted more money software wise on Fiver, than anywhere else.

Although, Fiver still has its place. But anyway, Freelancer and Flippa, those are two places I like the most 'cause I can post projects and I can post contests and find out and sift out who's actually good. Does that make sense?

So anyway, software does not need to be expensive. And what's cool is that you can go and you can get, you can go get existing software that's already proven, you can bundle it for free, you can put it into your existing stuff, you can do ... And it's way, way, not as nearly as expensive as you might think it is. I saw some app on Flippa the other day, I get little notifications 'cause it's exciting for me. I'd rather go on Flippa than Facebook, Facebook stresses me out now. And so sometimes I'll just kinda dink around in there and I'll watch what's going on. Some app, it was pretty cool, sold for like 70 bucks.

I mean, when I say it doesn't have to be expensive, I really mean it, you know? Some of the most expensive ones I've seen on there, like three grand, even up to 10 grand, but it does not need to be that much.

Anyway, there's a really good book that's called ... And this is why software is so cheap. And I'm sorry I'm going kinda deep, I know this is kind of a bit of a longer podcast, but I just wanted to drop this all to you guys, so that you know some easy ways to make more money. That's what I'm really ... This is me trying to help you make more money. So hopefully you don't mind that this podcast is a little bit longer this episode today ...

So, there's a really good book, it's one of my favorite books actually. I read it in college and it was one of the books that actually had a stark impact on me. It's called, 'A Whole New Mind', it's by Daniel Pink and the subtitle is: Why right-brained thinkers will rule the future. You need to think about this. Now in America, and honestly most places, you know, first world places, especially obviously like ... Are you farming right now? Do you have a farm?

Most of us, no. And even if you are farming, you probably chose that profession, you know what I mean? Like it's not like I have to go be farming. I'm not ... we're not making our own clothes, I'm not trying to like pump anything to try and get electricity, like the basics of life are pretty taken care of. You know what I mean? In a lot of first world places. Especially if you live in America.

And so, like back in the day, when you know, during the Industrial Age and back when we were manufacturing like crazy or electricity is brand new or you know what I mean? Like those were the hot things to go sell, that was the hot markets. But that stuff's kinda taken care of. It's either monopolized or de-commoditized, right? So who really rules the future?

It's the creative ones, right? It's the ones who are ...

It's the reason why you can go hire out programmers super cheap, they're a dime a dozen. You can go get programmers ... And it's not ... I'm not saying don't go be a programmer, there's certainly a great place for it. But you just gotta understand where value gets really creative inside the market place, it's not typically someone who's doing some maintenance style job, right?

It's what's new and exciting? It's the creative stuff, it's the stuff that's out there. So if you can be the creator, that doesn't mean you have to be the programmer, but if you can go create a piece of software, if you can go create ... It's not that expensive to go create those things anymore.

And so, that's all I'm trying to say. Anyway, start thinking through like simple apps, little tiny simple things that you see ... I mean, I'll go back to the Brandon and Kaelin example, Brandon and Kaelin's app is a list of recipes and some exercise videos that describe to you what you should be doing on your daily routine and stuff.

It's not like, it's not like it's doing crazy stuff, it's basically a content app. Does that make sense?

That's the whole point I'm trying to make. It doesn't need to be crazy. So, if you've never thought about creating some kind of software piece before, I urge you to start thinking through that, okay?

Anyway, so number one, think about how you can do a physical product bundled with your info product, right? Or vice versa, as the upsell. It definitely ... It boosts your perceived value. And number two, some piece of software that you can bundle with an info product or with your physical product or ... Does that make sense? Okay.

And then number three, here's the other thing, now I wanna explain this one just a little bit. Let me just say it first, okay, number three, live Q and A. Okay, that's number three. Live Q and A. Now when I say live Q and A, I mean live group Q and A, alright? I mean live group calls. In my opinion, in my opinion, you should never include your own time as part of the fulfillment of whatever your current offer is.

MoneyLet's say you're selling a $100 thing, don't you dare be offering your time as part of the offer, when they buy that info product. Does that make sense?

Even on a $1000 webinar funnel product, a $1000 product, I still tell people, I always tell people this, at the FAD event, to Two Comma Coaching, anywhere, I tell people, "Do not put your own time in to fulfilling each order."

Okay. When we do the Two Comma Coaching programs, like when I built Secrets Master Class and we built that program, when we were putting all those things together, I am not doing one on one calls. And the reason why is because there's no way I could handle that, I'm trying to sell a lot of right? Of Two Comma Coaching programs and they're totally worth it. And it's awesome to have all those people in there.

But I do group coaching calls and I record them and I make those recordings available to all the people who are currently buying and buying in the future. And I index them. So I say, hey, in this one we talked about this and they can go listen to the recordings, and it starts to replicate me. And this is when we talked about this and that replicates me. And this one we talked about that. And I index all of them and now they're all inside the Secrets Master Class and Two Comma Coaching programs.

And now anyone who comes in the future, they can keep watching those things and reading those things. And I still continue to do the live Q and A, group Q and A, every single week. One on one coaching time, that's higher up on the value ladder for me. I don't want myself to be a part of that fulfillment, right? I don't want that. I want an info product, it's only a $1000, like my time is not worth that, you know what I mean? It's worth more than that.

And so, I wanna ... Anyway, those are some of the easiest things ... Because when you offer a live Q and A, as part of your stack, as part of your offer, whatever it is you're selling, right? Stack slides and things like that, that's not just for webinars, that's for every step of the value ladder. No matter what you're selling. I don't care if it's a free plus shipping seven dollar offer, put a freaking stack slide side by side with it, alright? Where does the free plus shipping book sit on the stack slide, probably the tool, right? Or that top one. Cool. Let's fill in the gaps.

Alright, let's figure out what a bonus one is, bonus two, bonus three, that's how we make offers, that's how we ... On any, in any level of the value ladder, okay?

Anyways, I'm sorry, I know I'm going really technobabbly with this one, I just wanted to toss in three of these things that we routinely do, that I routinely do also, to boost the perceived value, to give more and actually help you guys charge what your things are really worth.

So, anyways, number one, just to recap again, find some kind of physical product. If you don't have any ideas, Amazon probably does for you, right? Number two, software. Doesn't need to be expensive, Flippa.com, Freelancer.com. Honestly, what's cool too is you can go to the app stores and see what things are already selling. You can probably go to some coder and say, "Hey, I wanna make me a version of that." And all they gotta do is ... What do you call it? App hack. Right?

Software hack. And actually create that. Number three, live Q and A's. That gives warm, fuzzies, that I'm gonna be taken care of, that helps me know that there's plans after this. That lets me know that I'm not left on my own. That makes sense? That lets me know that other people are involved with it. So anyway, those are three things.

I'm sure there are a lot of other things as well, but those are the three go-to things that I continually go through and that ClickFunnels and Russell continue to go to as well, to help boost the perceived value of what it is you're selling.

I'm not saying it's not worth whatever you're selling it, but sometimes customers have a hard time like believing it, you know?

Especially if they're Debbie downers, especially if they're doom and gloom style people or they just don't ... Whatever it is, like whoever you selling to, people want that extra thing, they want to feel like they're taking advantage of you, which is sad and stupid. But if you can play to it, by boosting perceived value and show 'em like, "Yeah, you're right. You are taking advantage of me. Here's all this extra stuff." You know what I mean? Like then it can help you sell even more and those are little things that take hardly anytime on your fulfillment, you know what I mean?

Which is awesome...

So, anyway, guys hopefully that was helpful. It's one of my favorite sessions to do, we dive a little bit deeper into that, even at the FAD event and through Secrets Master Class, but I thought I'd just kinda dive into it a little bit more, so you guys can see a little bit some easy ways to do this. So, again, does not need to be expensive, does not need to be very time consuming even. And honestly, you don't need to be the one doing it, right?

If it's physical, a fulfillment house can do it for you. There's a ton of places, right? I don't send out ... I have a free plus shipping CD thing that I've been sending out for years, I don't send any of those, some other person does 'em. I think in Indiana. I don't even know. That's the whole point with this whole thing.

So, anyway, physical product, some kind of software and some kind of live Q and A, group Q and A that you can record and continue to use in other assets, in other places and keep perceive value high.

So anyways, hopefully this is helpful guys. I know it's a little bit of a longer episode, but this is honestly one of the coolest things on the planet for me, to share that kind of stuff with you.

Please ... You know what would be really cool though, honestly? This podcast is gonna hit 80 0000 download here, very shortly, which I can't believe. I mean, it's so exciting. Thanks for being listeners, thank you for jumping into this content with me and sticking with me in all this.

Number one, I would love if you guys wouldn't mind to go to iTunes, I am asking, and just leave some reviews. It was fun for me to go back the other day and see all of people who have left reviews, it's exciting. It's really cool actually. Got me pumped.

But number two, more importantly, honestly, if one of these three things, I would love to know if you guys actually implemented 'em and I would love to know how much money you guys actually made back from it 'cause that would be so cool. Very, very exciting.

So anyway, you guys are all awesome. I really appreciate just you listening. You know what's really cool for me too? Is just to know you guys are all out there, that you all listen to this, that it actually is helping you with your life. I love reading your comments. I love reading the things you guys are doing as well.

Sales Funnel RadioAnd you've been successful with all this stuff, so scratch and back both ways, just so you know. I love hearing your comments and making these, probably just as much as little pieces of gold I'm trying to drop in each one of these.

So, anyway, you guys are all awesome. Talk to you later, bye.

Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Wanna get one of today's best internet sales funnel for free? Go to SalesFunnelBroker.com/freefunnels to download your pre-built sales funnel today.

Nov 1, 2017

iTunes

I just realized I have TWO FULL Value Ladders running right now... NO NO!

ClickFunnels

What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio, oh yeah.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business, using today's best internet sales funnels, and now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

Hey guys, hope you're doing fantastic, hope you're having a great week, great day wherever you are. Thanks so much for tuning in, really appreciate it. This podcast I believe just passed 70,000 downloads. 70,000 downloads, that's crazy, never in my life, I first started this only a year ago, did I think I'd have that many downloads, that's amazing.

Anyway, thanks so much for being a listener, thanks so much for being a subscriber and tuning on into this. 70,000 downloads that's awesome guys, and I really appreciate it, appreciate the support and hopefully you are getting some nuggets and things you can use inside of your sales funnels, both online and offline to increase your revenue.

There's these sayings that I continue to put out in my head, these sayings that repeat in my head over and over again, and one of them that I say in my head all the time is like, I believe, one of my ism's is that I believe very much that one of the purposes of entrepreneurship ...

One of the purposes of business in general is to pump as much value into the marketplace as you possibly can. Now I realize a lot of people will disagree with me on that, I'm not saying that it's not to make money, it is. It is to turn dollars, sales keeps the economy going.

Make money, charge money, you know what I mean? Don't be afraid to sell, but you do that by pumping value into the marketplace.

So anyways I just hope that my little ism there, like pump value into the market, pump value into the market. Like that's my thing, and hopefully this podcast has been helpful in some aspect to you, in some way. I would love if you wouldn't mind, I got on iTunes a little bit ago, and there's several reviews on there. Those are awesome, those are fun to read. If you wouldn't mind I would love to have a review in iTunes of this podcast, that'd be really fun.

So anyway, don't feel pressured, but man I would love that, it'd mean a lot...

Hey I'm really pumped, I love speaking on stage. I was on stage a lot growing up, I actually sang in a band, I played drums for four years, the full kit. I played piano for about six years, I sang, whether it was in choirs or in musicals or something like that, a lot of you guys probably don't know that about me. I sang a lot, ever since fourth grade, and I had the lead in several things growing up and anyway, really, really enjoyed it.

I have the privilege of getting on stage yet again, several more times. I'm excited, I just got asked to go speak at James Smiley's B2B event, very excited about.

If you guys don't remember him, he was on an episode probably about 10 episodes ago, he was talking about his B2B funnels and from that one podcast, I don't know how much it was he made, but it was a lot, which is very exciting. I had no idea, and from that one episode all this stuff has stemmed out, and I just really appreciate him as a friend and buddy. They ended up asking me to go over and speak at his event here in Dallas next month. So I'm really, really pumped to go do that.

Then I'll be speaking at another one in January, called Authority Maker, that'll be exciting as well, that ones in Vegas. So anyways, I'm pumped and there's actually several more already lined up next year.

I love talking, I love speaking from stage, luckily feedback has been that not bad to listen to either, which is kind of nice. But hey I have been revisiting my Value Ladder, and it was a few days ago, I sat down at my white boards here.

I stood and I was jamming to music, I was in state, I was in flow, and I was really excited and I realized that I have two value ladders.

If Russell saw that he would slap me, because it means I have two different businesses. Anyway I sat down, I started mapping through my Value Ladders, you know so I was putting the first thing in there. Right, Sales Funnel Radio, the next thing on there, and the next thing on there, and the next thing on there, and there's all these other things and I started putting them on. I was like those don't fit in that business, like what on earth? I went and I was like, wait those all create their own Value Ladder in a different Value Ladder, it's their own business.

For those of you guys who don't know what a Value Ladder is, all we do is we start with cheap and or free things up front, and they give a lot of value to the customer or the person who's visiting. Then all we do is as a business we try to age and ascend customers. So as we give away that first thing, and we try and solve legitimate problems for the person, that lets us create a relationship with them.

Well that means that I can now start charging money and the more value I'm bringing to that person, the more money I can start to charge them.

So there's multiple steps in that Value Ladder, and the farther up the Value Ladder that you move, you get into areas like done for your products. Implementation and coaching products, the products that are more high tier, high ticket, more time intensive for the entrepreneurs personal time, and you obviously charge more for things like that.

Usually when someone has not, does not feel like they can ... Usually when someone doesn't feel like they can charge enough money, it's usually because they're actually not pumping enough value in there. Or the person hasn't felt enough value come from the entrepreneur yet. So there's this weird awkward feeling that comes from it.

So it doesn't necessarily matter where someone comes in, what level they come in to your Value Ladder with, but it's important to be purposeful about it. So think through, like what's your Value Ladder. I encourage you after this episode to go write that down, what are the free things, what are the free pieces of bait. What are the free things that people should be paying for, that you've got out there, right kind of your region of things, or things that help identify hyper buyers and things like that. Usually there's a whole funnel dedicate to just that front end product.

Okay now what's the next thing? Is it a 47 dollar thing? 297 dollar thing? 497 dollar thing? 1000 dollar, 2000, you know what I mean? There's usually standard kind of price points throughout, that can be a whole episode. But anyway, think about what your actual Value Ladder is, and be purposeful about it, and don't get dissuaded from it.

I don't know about you guys but I repeatedly suffer from shiny object syndrome, or at least I did for a long time. There's so many cool things out there, that I could be doing, that you could be doing. That ClickFunnels and Russell could be doing, I mean opportunities ... You know what's funny, I was actually talking to Russell about this the other day, and I was saying dude how funny is it that when you're in college, the mentality of every person in college typically, stereotypically, is oh my gosh I just hope that I get a good job.

Please just get me a good job, I have to have a good job.

You know hopefully there's at least one person out there that can give me the opportunity to have a good job, and I'll just work till I die there. I was like dude how funny is it that, that's the mentality in college, yet for an entrepreneur it's the exact opposite. It's like oh what opportunity should I chose? There's too much crap going on, there's too many things that I could go do. We were just laughing about how funny that is.

If you're not feeling that yet in your life, my guess is that you've not been pumping enough value, you've not been solving enough legitimate problems out there for people. Solve legitimate problems, and you'll be pumping value out there.

Opportunities will come knocking at your door like more than you can handle, and just trust me on that, go test me on that, tell me how it goes. I dare you to go give something away for free that you should have charged for, if you have nothing for free to actually give away, and watch what happens. I was watching, I was listening to Dayna Derek's on stage the other day, it was awesome, and he was like hey yeah, this book of mine, you know he's selling it for a lot of money, he's like I realized it was in a separate Value Ladder.

So all I did, I just took this book that was a lot of money and I just made it for one of my free things in the front, and it brought in all these extra customers and now it's reinforcing my one Value Ladder.

I was like hey that's really cool, it's sweet, it's a cool approach to it. He's like yeah now I just have tons of cool front ends, lots of cool front ends, but it still supports the core Value Ladder, the core business. I'm not chasing new shiny objects all over the place anymore.

I was like, that's interesting, that's cool. It's been interesting because Russell went back and he started looking at his Value Ladder, he's like hey now this is our business and this is all we do. We're getting more focus there, and I realized like crap I have two separate Value Ladders, and they're similar enough that I feel like I can't get rid of them but they are as different enough that I feel like they're not the same thing.

I don't have the answer, I actually it's kind of been the thing that I've been going through right now, is trying to figure out how to split the two. I don't really know yet where that split is, and I've committed to both, and I'm not telling you what the other one is yet, I will at some point here shortly.

So you guys can go check it out, because it's killing it, the first funnel, the first page has got a 68 percent optime rate. There's been like 400 people that have hit the page, 68 percent, it's ridiculous. Tons of other ... So anyway, I'm testing it right now, I'm making it all awesome. It's this little side fun thing I've been doing on my own and it's killing it, and I'm so excited.

Anyway I'm going to go turn ads onto it here shortly, and it's not hot traffic, it's not ... This is warm traffic, but still 68 percent optime rate, I'm like what the heck, so exciting. Anyway, but my encouragement to you though is to not have too many Value Ladders, and in fact just have one.

So what's the core of your business? Typically the core of the business, this is what we teach in Secrets Master Class from the 2 Comma Club coaching. What we teach, what I teach is that really the middle of the Value Ladder, mid tier right, somewhere around 1000 dollars, could be more 2000, 25 hundred, five grand. Could be a little bit less, maybe down to like 500 bucks, usually not a whole lot less than that, usually, there's exceptions.

But the core of your business, what is it?..

I hope that you have one, that something that is kind of mid tier right there. Why? Because it doesn't take a lot of mid tier Value Ladder level products to change your business. It doesn't, because they're higher ticket, you don't have to sell as many of them to help your wallet.

How many smaller, free plus shipping seven dollar books do you have to sell to actually make a dent in your wallet and actually see? A lot, right? A ton, so they're great for front ends, but that's why we don't want to try and make money off of them, they're just to bring people in. We'll make money on that middle value ladder area, and then we'll double our business with a high ticket thing in the back.

Do that to each Value Ladder, do that to each funnel, do that to each, and that's the formula right there. There's a whole bunch of other things you can do with it, and it's a lot of fun, it's a lot of deep strategy depending on what industry you're in that we could go through right now.

But I'm trying to not go too deep ... Its fun though, I really, really enjoy it, and the only thing I'm trying to say is that if you feel like you've been spinning your wheels ... 'Cause I remember feeling that way, I felt that way for a long time, years, and the problem was that I didn't have one Value Ladder. I had tons, I was going to do ... There was a piece of real estate that I had a contract on, it was 3.5 million dollar piece of commercial real estate. I was flipping the contract, and that was one deal with one dude, and then I was writing, I can't even remember what else I was doing. I was like totally unrelated businesses, I can't even remember now that was probably like about five years ago.

Holy crap that was five years ago, I don't remember every else that was going on, what I do remember is that there was a lot of things I was doing, but none of them to the full extent. I was spread too thin, and it's because I didn't have one Value Ladder. That's why I was laughing so hard when I sat down here the other day and I started looking at it, I was like crap I have two freaking Value Ladders.

So my answer to it right now has been that I'm just not even working on one of them, and I'm only working on the other. I'm not touching the other, I'm not doing anything with it at all. Soon I'll reveal to you guys everything of what all those things are, so you can check them out, you can see what I'm talking about. See examples of the stuff that I know is converting, it's been fun, 'cause I've been able to test stuff before you guys will ever see it.

So I can you actually numbers, which is exciting too, which I think you guys will enjoy.

Anyway that's the whole point of this, it's fun for me to listen to Russell as he coaches his inner circle, one of the biggest things that he yells at them for is when he can tell they have more than one business. He can tell ... You're just not going to do more than one business very well, you're not. That's the thing I was kicking myself for, I was like crap.

This other one snuck in so well I didn't even notice it, you know. That was just this little side hobby turned into this actual thing, and I was like oh crap, I have to actually support this thing now, like dang this is working. Oh gosh it's working, wait a second I already have a second business here now, oh, oh. So I've been trying to figure out what to do with it, again don't totally have the answer, I'm just only working on one at a time I guess.

So I won't even touch the second for months, but it's going well. I'll tell you ... Again I know it's kind of, I'm being elusive but that's okay. Anyway guys go back restructure the business, think through what your front end free things are and what's cool about this is that you can have tons of cool free front end things. You know that part of the fun of it, when you know your Value Ladders converting, you know and you got a mid tier thing that's converting that well, and you've got a high ticket thing that's converting really well.

I mean you get to go create all the cool front end products and multiple layers of it, as much as you want. As long as it's all part of the same business, all fueling the same part of the core. That's so fun, but the moment you take your focus and you shift over to, which is the medicine I'm trying to take right now too, and I'm like crap. Shiny objects, I just want to do this one thing.

I'm trying not to take on a third that I really want to go do, but I shouldn't do it.

Every time you go do that though you spread yourself too thin, and it takes a lot of mental mojo just to get a single funnel up, and I think everyone on this podcast probably knows that. So if you go do that and you're skipping from understanding one market and one person really well, and you're trying to skip over to a different profile, and understand that person really, really well. It's the whole reason why when I was ... I built a lot of funnels for my own clients for a while, I don't currently do that right now.

I wouldn't take on more than one, because I couldn't handle more than one, because I had to understand so deeply just that one customer, right, for that one business, for that one Value Ladder. So that I could make the copy, I could make the sales letters, I could put the funnel together. I could make the follow up sequences, I could make the higher ticket thing and the front ...

I mean there's so much that goes into it, right? Some guys making his whole career out of it, you think I can go do three or four of these at the same time? There's no way, that's why I was like, I got to just one of these things at a time. It's the same ... I'm trying to take my own medicine. I feel like I'm preaching to the choir now, you guys probably already know that, but I encourage you to go back and really think through what your Value Ladder actually is. Let's say you don't have the back end yet, ask your market.

Let's say you don't know what the front end is, ask your market. I encourage you to not start by creating a front end product, and if you already have, that's fine. I encourage you to start with a mid tier product, thousand bucks. Why?

'Cause you only need a few of them to really break even, right? It's way harder to throw everything up against the wall and hope that something works when it's a free plus shipping offer, it's like oh. I know for E-comm people they might not like to hear that, well you can start with something that's even higher. You know, make an offer out of it, package a few things together and sell it in a package, as an offer.

Or sell more higher ticket items at first, that'll at least get the cash flow going as you figure out how and what to sell.

What are you selling? How do you sell it? You figure out those things the core of the business right there in the middle of that Value Ladder, boom, I guarantee you, you're going to start getting feedback. As you start getting feedback, guess what happens? Patterns will start to emerge, oh you know what everyone's asking for this one thing, that would be a really cool free plus shipping front end.

Or a really cool free download front end, or a really cool 17 dollar physical thing front end. Does that make sense?

Let the market tell you what front end to make, it's way less risky. Then guess what, a lot of people after they're consuming your core product, your 1000 dollar thing, around that area. Guess what's going to happen? A lot of them are going to go, oh my gosh I wish I had more Steve in my life, oh my gosh I wish I had more of you, your business, whatever it is. They're telling you what back end thing to go create. It's way easier to do this game when you take a lot of the guess work out of it, let the market tell you.

You only have to kind of guess once, you're not really guessing 'cause you're going to run an ask campaign for that mid tier product. They're telling you everything to make, the market will tell. That's the whole point I'm trying to make with this, have one Value Ladder, let the market tell you what those front and back end products are, and create a new niche based off of the core product, that mid tier product.

Anyway, I chattered a lot with this, and it did get a little bit techy, but I hope that, that helped. I hope that it simplifies a lot in your head, for years my head was spinning. I could do this, I could do this, I could do this. No, no, cut away everything else, cut away, cut away. Don't worry about those things, what's the one mid tier product, the 1000 dollar thing that you could go create right now, and actually go sell it? If it doesn't sell doesn't sell round one, tweak it.

Figure out how to sell it, what are you selling, how does it sell? The core of the product, and then the market will start to tell you what to do in those back end and the front end products. The market will tell you what they don't like with your core thing. The market will tell you, it's all about iterations, just keep it going.

Launch, figure out what's broken, go back fix it, and relaunch. Boom, boom, boom, that's how we do it. That's how I do it, that's how Russell does it, it's how ClickFunnels does it. It's how every person I've ever seen be successful in this stuff, all of the hundreds of people who've come through the 2 Comma Coaching Program. All the people in the Secrets Master Class that I've coached, that's how it happens. I feel like there's this paralysis that starts to happen, oh I better have the back end before I launch the front end.

Like no, just launch the freaking, do the core, go launch the core. Oh I got to have this and this in place, no you don't. No, you don't, half the time we don't have the actual product built yet when we sell it. Like what? Oh my gosh, what? Well we're trying to see if the thing is right, if it sells, then we'll go build it real fast. Does that make sense?

Take the pressure off, go figure out the one funnel, it'll simplify everything in your head. Go figure out the one Value Ladder, it'll simplify everything in your head. Have fun with the thing, gosh it's so much fun, if I'm not having fun with it I usually suck at it.

Anyways guys thanks so much, hope this has been helpful, thanks for tuning in to this episode. I'm very, very excited for everything that's coming up, both in the internet marketing world. Whatever's going on in your life I hope that it's going awesome too, and if it's not go orchestrate it that way as well as your business. I'll Sales Funnel Radiotalk to you later, bye.

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