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Sales Funnel Radio

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: 2018
Dec 28, 2018

"value ladder" "growth strategy" "money making business"

 

These are some of the elements I look for when I'm deciding if I should enter a market. I only want the Red Ocean's where the cards are truly stacked in my favor. Here's how…

 

Today, I’m gonna teach you the method I use to make sure that my value ladder crushes it…

 

And “Yep, you’ve guessed it.” There’s a science behind the way I make sure that I have the right products at the right price points to sell at. If you want a money making business… and not just an expensive hobby, then listen up!

 

There’s gonna be a bit of Papa Larsen love, and I hope it’ll help you understand why your business may not be doing that well - even though you seem to have all the pieces.

 

...Just picture me in a Santa Hat, if it helps to ease the blow.

 

THE VALUE LADDER

 

Hacking The Value Ladder was a specific section that I taught during my recent live event OfferMind.

 

If you don't know what a value ladder is…



A value ladder is a way to design a business and map out your customer:

 

  • Acquisition

 

  • Ascension

 

  • Monetization

 

  • Continuity



In college, I was encouraged to write monstrous 35-page business plans, which were not even that executable by the time you were finished plowing through them.


Now, what you may not know is that the value ladder was kinda pioneered by Russell Brunson who did a whole lot of work to help figure out how to plot all those things on one graph -  value ladders are a huge deal.

I never write business plans; I ‘value ladder.’ It’s a way to simplify everything I'm doing.

 

HACKING THE VALUE LADDER

 

I have a value ladder for both of my businesses which means I know the exact next step I’m building at all times - which is cool because it also means I know exactly what I'm NOT building as well.

If you’re thinking, “Ok, Stephen, value ladders are awesome, but they’re nothing new...”

 

I want to show you the specific order I use to attack a value ladder that allows me to create cash flow and build my business at the same time as acquiring customers.

But first, I’m gonna cover the basics…

 

Traditionally, a value ladder looks like this:

 

There are value ladders with more steps, but typically we draw them with three steps...

There are two axes:

  1. One across the bottom

 

  1. One that goes up the side

 

On one side we have "value" and the other side we have "price."

 


Now, you might be a bit confused by this if you're brand new in this game... However, Price and Value are NOT the same thing.

 

(This is a completely different topic which would be fun to rant on about sometime in the future.)

The more value you give, the more money you can charge moving up the top.

So  when I'm planning how to actually tackle a red ocean, I always look at:

  • The likelihood of me making money?

 

  • How many cards can I stack in my favor, before I even start?’

 

To do this, what I like to do is tier the price points that are already in existence inside the market I’m hacking.

I look at three different categories inside the market, and ask:

 

  1. What’s the area of the cheapest price range?

 

  1. What’s the area does the middle price range fall into?

 

  1. What’s the area of the price range that’s towards the top?

 

Let’s take a look at a hypothetical value ladder...

 


A REAL ESTATE VALUE LADDER

Let’s say I look at the three price points inside the real estate category and I find that:

 

  • Super expensive = $10,000,000 houses

 

  • The middle = $1-2,000,000 houses

 

 

  • Down at the bottom = $100,000 - $300,000 price range.

 

 

Now I have my market and the different price points that the industry is used to bearing...

Next, I look to see, “How frequently does the average real estate agent make a sale inside each of those categories?"

Based on what I discover, I can work out, “How much can I expect to make if I enter that market?

If you’re sitting back thinking, "Oh crap, this is really, really simple."  It is, but, “Man, I'm shocked at the number of people that don't do this.

 

They start selling some freaking knick knack and then ask, "How come I'm not making any money?"

I'm like:

Your funnel's great, your sales message is awesome, your offer is fantastic, but the industry you went into is not used to the price points that’ll actually make a lifestyle for you.


I swear if someone tells me they're selling “Homeopathic Life Coaching” to College Students, I'm gonna go nuts!

 

This exercise helps you to determine whether or not you even want to enter a particular market.

Just because I could enter a market, it doesn't mean I should. If that market isn’t a good fit for the lifestyle that I want, then I won’t go there.

 

I'm not trying to throw rocks here, but I am trying to get your freaking attention.

 

A “CHANGE YOUR WORLD” VALUE LADDER


A quick story…

There were some people that I’ve been coaching who (and I'm not gonna say what it was because I don't want to embarrass anybody), it became very clear that their target customer was extremely broke people.

I'm not saying that poorer people don't need or deserve services, they do... I'm just saying that you need to make the business that changes your world before you can make your change the world business. Man, stack the cards in your favor.

Make sure you think through this before you actually dive in.

 

Just because you could sell -  doesn't mean that you should.

For example:

 

When I was in elementary school, we had these things called Pogs, these little circle shaped colored cardboard things that you could play a little game with.  

I don't know that anyone ever actually figured out what the game was, we all just had 'em.

Let’s apply the same strategy that I applied to real estate to Pogs…

 

Well, hey, look at this cool (hypothetical) value ladder.

 

These are the price points that the market is willing to bear to get their hands on some Pogs:

  • Top Level = $100
  • Middle Level = $25
  • Down at the bottom, we can go super cheap - (we can get Pogs cheaper than everybody else)  = $5

 

We could auto-ship out to people for $10 every single month.

 

I don't even know if you could find someone to give $100 for Pogs? But how much margin are you gonna pull on something like that?


You need to Hack The Value Ladder to see if it’s even worth you entering a market.  

 

If you have a huge list, or you’re an e-comm killer you may be able to pull off the Pog game… but for your average joe, Pogs are not going to be a change your world business - the margins are just to low!

 

Now, let’s shake this up a bit and look at a couple of different metrics I use to determine whether or not I should enter a market…



GETTING REAL WITH PAPA LARSEN

 

These are a few things that I look at when I'm building out a value ladder. For real, this is what I do. This is something that I look at before I:

  1. Enter a market

 

  1. Think about traffic

 

  1. Decide what my offer is going to be

 

... before I even think through any of that stuff, what I'm thinking about is this:

Alright, so down at the bottom we're going to put "typical margins."

 

  • What are the typical margins I can expect at the high price level, the middle price level, and the lowest price level?

 

  • Next, up along the side, we're gonna go with "time to fulfill."

 

The problem is that lot of you guys are making money, but you're spending too much time fulfilling.

 

I'm not saying you need to get out of your business. I'm saying that you should start thinking about other ways to make a lot of money with margins - without a lot of time to fulfill.



If you’re still in your 9-5; that's a lot of time to fulfill with not much profit margin, right? It's the lowest spot on the totem pole, right there.

So let’s look at this more closely...

We fulfillment time on one side and typical margins across the bottom.

 

When you build a value ladder, the higher up you go the more margins you have.

 

Are there exceptions to the rule, "yes," but again, Steve Larsen is not about exceptions to the rule.  I want to know, “What are the rules that cause cash?”

 

I don't want to have to be constantly learning tricks to make money. What are the rules that make money? I can just follow those.


  • At the very bottom price point #1 =  very small margins when you're selling something like a book, or whatever your low-end thing is.

 

  • Towards the mid-price point, #2 = there are more margins - you're going higher up.

 

  • At the top #3 - there’s even more margins going up - obviously, the place you wanna go is the very tippity top.

 

But first, you need to answer the question, “Who can you only sell to?”

Typically, the people who will buy your high-end products are the people who are already your customers

 

When you're entering a market and you take people from the red ocean and bring them out to make a blue ocean, you want to focus on the middle of the value ladder first.


However, the middle = lots of time to fulfill.

If you're like, Stephen, "Why on earth would we create something on purpose that actually takes lots of time to fulfill?"  Follow me for a second, this is hacking the value ladder...

The middle of the value ladder typically produces good margins


Which means:

 

  • You can take the money and dump it back into ads.

 

  • You get good enough margins that you don't need your Facebook ads to be perfect on round one - 'cause they're not going to be.

 

  • You can get good enough margins that you can use the money to start building the business.

 

When somebody enters a blue ocean by building a product on the bottom of the value ladder, I know they’ve either got deep pockets, a giant list, are already an expert in something crazy... or they just like wasting money.

I have a hard time understanding why anybody would enter a blue ocean, or try to create one, with a low margin, low time to fulfill product the very bottom of the value ladder.

 

It baffles me; I don't get it.

 

MY GROWTH STRATEGY

The order I always build my value ladder in is:

  1. Middle

 

  1. Top

 

  1. Bottom



...Because as I'm building the middle of the value ladder there are enough margins for me to go and mess up a little bit and that's okay.

When I do get sales it’s enough of a mid-tier price level,  that I can a dump it back into ads and still be profitable.

 

 The machine works. The systems work. The numbers work.

BUILDING A MONEY MAKING BUSINESS

 

  1. I build at the middle price point first because it proves out the main idea with the customer. We a customer from the red, pull them over to the blue, then prove out the main idea with the customer.
  2. Then I sell something more expensive to my existing buyers, NOT to those who are in the red ocean. This is the second place I like to go build - because it's a high price point and ironically, less time to fulfill than the middle.
  3. Finally, down at the bottom, when I start running out of customers, I start building break even ways to fuel the two top tiers.
  4. Down at the very bottom, before these three steps in the value ladder, that's where I have my content.



I take my content very seriously. I consider myself to be in the content business. It’s like my identity.

 

I am a content machine... and then I am Steve Larsen.

I think it was Gary Vee that said that the first time I heard it.


I build content, and that fuels the different steps in my value ladder. I'm NEVER not going to publish. I will be publishing for the rest of my life.

Let’s break it down...

  1. The goal of the content is just to build a Relationship - that's it.

 

  1. In the middle, the whole point is Acquisition - all I'm trying to do it acquire customers.

 

  1. Next up is  Ascension.

 

  1. The next step is Monetization - I'm selling my existing buyers more expensive solutions.


What I'm typically looking at as I'm building out the offers that go inside each one of these tiers, is how to deliver the offer that I'm promising.

If the job on my sales message is to give a cool promise, then the job of my offer is just to fulfill on the promise. The roles are not interchangeable; you cannot reverse them.

That's the reason why when someone has a cool product, but it's not selling... the problem is, they didn't make a sales message - of course, it's not selling.


 

  • The role of the offer is to fulfill, not sell.

 

 

 

  • The role of the sales message is to make a new promise, not fulfill.

 

 

I just wanted to teach you what I'm looking at when I'm coaching people.
There are a lot of frameworks running through my mind when I start looking at peoples stuff.

 

I'm like, "Yes, no, good, bad, wrong order, look over here, don't look over there." You know what I mean?

So that’s how I Hack The Value Ladder  in order to:

 

  1. Discover what markets to go into

 

  1. The order I build my value ladder - so I can build my business at the same time

 

  1. I inflate a blue ocean and put the scaffolding in to win.

However, what I find is that when somebody reads the book DotCom Secrets, their natural inclination is to start at the very bottom and build a break-even tripwire funnel. They're sexy, they're cool, I totally get it.

Ironically enough, they’re more work than any of these at the top. Typically, they take so much more time to build, but not that much more time to fulfill after the sale.

 

… Now, a final bit of Papa Larsen Love,  I want to show you why undercharging my actually be damaging your value ladder and your business, and what to do about it…

DFY - DWY - DIY

 

You'd be shocked how many people in Russell's inner circle have never read Expert Secrets or DotCom Secrets. It shocked me like crazy. I thought they were joking, and I started laughing openly once at a Mastermind.

You have to understand that a lot of these people, they're successful business owners, a lot of them don't have time to go through the next book, they just want the "done for you" solution. So when you’re looking at services:

  • At the bottom, we have the "do it yourself" solution - DIY

  • In the middle is the "done with you" solution - DWY

 

  • Then at the very tippity top, we have the "done for you” solution - DFY

 


I’m gonna tell you something that might shock you…

 

There's an individual that I buy services from who is an absolute killer, but I was blown away at how freaking cheap their services were.

I thought at least that I was going to be charged at least five times more than the person said they were going to charge me. I was like, "What?"

This has happened to me multiple times. Guys, stop selling your "done with you" services at "do it yourself prices." Okay? Cut it out. You're actually hurting yourself.

I actually lost a little faith in the person's ability to fulfill and deliver to me. I actually refused to pay the cheaper price.

I was like, "There's no way I'm gonna pay you that much." They were like, "No, no, it's totally fine, totally fine." I was like, "It's not fine." I was like, "You charge all of your clients this much money? That's pennies, that's absolutely nothing."

If you’re reading this, you're probably already better than the majority of that market at what you do.

 

Stop selling your stuff at stupid, dumb low prices just 'cause you're afraid and you have a price aversion.

  • Your sales message is good enough to sell

 

  • Your offer is good enough to fulfill

 

  • Your funnel is good enough to deliver

 

BUT you're NOT making money because you're selling “done for you” services down at “do it yourself” prices. That's exactly what this person was doing.

It was almost nothing. I was almost embarrassed. I actually felt like I was in the wrong place. I actually refused to even take this person’s services on until we 4X’d the price. That's a true story.

 

We actually didn't even decide to do business with this person until they 4X'd their price and then it was just like, tolerable enough compared to all the other services and, I mean I have a lot of agencies working for me.

Even Colton walked over to the camera, "Look, do you know how hard it would be for Stephen to do this on his own? There's no way. Come on, it's worth way more. Are you serious?"

It was an insanely low price. Done for you services at do it yourself price.”

 

I actually felt embarrassed for the person at how shocked they were about what I was saying. And I don't want you guys to go through that.

... And what I'm trying to get you guys to understand is:

 

  1. Just because you can sell something, doesn't mean you should

 

  1. What the order you're going to enter your blue ocean in

 

  1. What are the historical price points that your market is used to bearing... and how can you enter in near the middle - a little bit more expensive.

 

Be premium, but within the expectation that people already have at those of price points.

Russell told me that when he started selling and doing all this mastermind stuff, the accepted market price point for a year-long mastermind was five grand.

 

Russell's Mastermind is 50 grand now, and he's a part of where he pays 100 grand a year… but that wasn’t possible six or seven years ago.

 

The historical price points of the market could not bear those levels.

So if you don't know what your markets price points are now, Hack The Value Ladder - there’s already is one in existence inside the red ocean.

Understand what people are already used to paying so you don't have the embarrassment of someone going, "That cheap?"

... Because I will tell you, I felt like someone got me inside a cool Ferrari, I just went and test drove it, I was super excited about it...

Then I got out of the car, and there was a smug look on the salesman's face and they said, "Hey, we're going to give you this awesome Ferrari for only $2000!" You'd be like, “What's wrong with it?”

 

When someone is too cheap, it doesn't feel like a deal. It feels like you're in jeopardy.

 

Funnily enough, I felt more taken care of after spending more money

If you're like, "That sounds stupid. Stephen, you're dumb. Why didn't you get the discount?" You need to understand, it's not about the money at that point, it's about the value - and they're not the same thing.

You need to know that people are looking for that from you. I never do discounts, and you don’t need to either.

So if you’re undercharging, raise your prices. Just raise your prices!


  • Understand the historical levels, then go a bit more premium

 

  • Understand that the order you're gonna attack the value ladder in is: #Done with you  #Done for you # Do it yourself


...And when you do that, my friend, Welcome to the Capitalist Pig Game -  it’s so much easier to do it that way.



Until Next Time - Welcome to the Capitalist Pig Foundation!

Hey, obviously the funnels already dead if you can't get anyone to opt in, right?

So I spent four hours teaching an audience how to get high opt-in's. When they work, when they don't work.

If you want access to that member's area, where you can watch those replays, just go to freeoptincourse.com to create your free members account, now.


Dec 21, 2018

"business development" "business process" "strategic framework" OfferMind, success framework, offer creation

 

These are some of the BIGGEST needle-moving lessons I've been applying in the last year…

 

When I did my live event OfferMind, I didn’t just jump straight into the marketing bit… I started out by walking through some mental attributes that have really shifted the needle for me.

 

This isn’t something that I’d normally do, but after coaching thousands of people, I’ve noticed that if somebody doesn't have these sign posts inside their brain, a lot of times their business won't do very well.

 

So I want to share with you seven of the most life-altering lessons I've learned in the last three years.

 

These are especially potent when it comes to being able to function as the entrepreneur inside your business.

 

ARE YOU WILLING TO LISTEN?

 

A few weeks ago, Russell was doing a big push for Cyber Monday and Black Friday. I was watching the way that some people were reacting to the Funnel Hacking Live tickets being sold…

 

I was like "Dude, let me teach some things to help people actually make 2000 dollars in a day."

 

I woke up the next morning, and looked at my phone, and I was stoked to see my an email with my name there next to Russells.

 

I've pushed really hard in the game, and to see that he'd blasted his whole list about the training meant a lot to me.

 

I taught for three and a half hours, and it was really funny what happened…

 

There was a group of people who really appreciated what I was teaching, BUT it was not necessarily a marketing education, and I think that threw some people.

 

There was a small group of people who were very unhappy with the fact that I was not teaching my usual content.

 

It was amusing to see the stark divide.

 

However, there are some patterns that I've noticed inside of somebody's brain that makes them successful.

 

These are some of the biggest lessons I've distilled down, especially in the last year.

 

These aren't flash in the pan things - they’re the lessons that have made the BIGGEST difference for me in my life and my business as I've moved forward.

 

So, I'm gonna walk you through each of them real quick:

7 BUSINESS CHANGING LESSONS

 

(An early Christmas present from Papa Larsen)

 

LESSON #1:

FOLLOW THE FRAMEWORK

 

It’s really common for people to ask me, "Hey, Stephen, I'm gonna start building a funnel. What's the what's the checklist I need to make sure that my funnel gets off the ground well?" I understand what they're asking, but the biggest thing I've noticed is that people will get distracted by the creative process.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a:

 

  • Funnel

 

  • Business

 

  • Product.

 

… the creative is the cherry on the top. It’s the exact opposite of what you need to focus on to succeed in this game.

 

You add the cherry AFTER you’ve made the cake… NOT before!

 

Let me explain…

 

When I was in college guys, a lot of times I was taught, "Make something that's brand new and completely prolific. Something that no one's ever seen before."

 

That’s some risky crap, and I never would follow that advice ever.

 

Instead, you need to follow the 80% framework. 80% of this entire game is just following the pattern. It's the 20% that allows you add your little glaze on top.

 

I get stressed out when people wanna know about “this little trick or gimmick.”  They have no idea that they're focused on the 20% instead of  the 80 that makes it work. You understand what I'm saying?

 

You can get an F in funnel building or make a design that's crappy, and still make enough money to have a fantastic lifestyle just by understanding the 80% framework.

 

If you are NOT a creative person, that's not a handicap. You just need to follow the framework to the ‘T.’

 

So, here's my lesson to you:

 

If you can't name, or tell somebody what framework you're following, then you’re spinning your wheels.

 

If you’re frustrated because you’ve been doing this game for so long, and tried tons of stuff..." But you have no idea what model  you’re following, and I'm not talking about funnels, I'm talking about business models….

 

If you can't say this is the 80% framework l that I'm following, that’s your problem, right there!

 

For years, I felt like I was spinning my wheels. I was like, "I know what I'd do in that guy's business, I know what I'd do in that guy's business... Why aren’t I making any money?"

 

And it's because I would always go out on the cusp to these places where I was trying to learn the 20%. And that's the 20% doesn't matter.

 

It's so much better to learn the 80% framework that causes cash. I only care about the frameworks that cause cash by a rule.

 

If you haven’t checked it out already there’s a really powerful episode called Cash Causing Models that talks about this in detail.

 

I don't wanna have to learn the exception to the rule in order to make money.  

 

I'm not throwing rocks at the financial market, but I don't do much stuff in the stock market or stuff like that anymore because I felt like I had to learn exceptions to the rule to make money.

 

It was the same with a lot of the things I was trying back in the day… that’s why I was broke :-(

 

The thing I like about funnels is that you can learn the 80% and then just build them and make money. You don't have to learn these crazy flash in the pan strategies in order to make it work out.

 

WANT A STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK?

 

Ok, well, what I recommend to find a framework that works is this...

(I'm gonna teach you right now how to shortcut your time to success)

 

For example:

 

If you're trying to be the best traffic driver for Instagram ads. What you need to do is start looking at the industry to work out WHO is yesteryear's framework master?

 

Let me walk through this real quick:

 

Let’s look at Sales Funnels...

 

Who's the person, right now, who understands the most about sales funnels? That'd be Russell Brunson, right!

 

 The reason Russell knows so much about sales funnels is that he’s studied yesteryear's gurus.

 

He's obsessed over the last generation of gurus. He knows the frameworks that they teach so well that he's learned how to distill  them down, find the gaps, and create his own frameworks.

 

I know one of the major reasons why I am where I am right now is because I decided, "I wanted be one of the best funnel builders in the world." Am I? I have no idea.

 

 

...But the pursuit of that led me to follow Russell Brunson, and he’s what I call ( and I know it sounds cheesy) A Framework Master. He’s the master of frameworks that cause success in funnel building.

 

So if you're gonna be the best traffic driver for Instagram, you need to ask, “Who is the yesteryear's guru's framework master?”

 

Meaning they’ve intensely followed loads of different gurus, consumed all their material, applied it, saw the gaps, and then produced their own frameworks.

MY OFFERMIND

 

My friend, I know that the reason why  OfferMind was such a big success was because I was teaching my own frameworks.

 

I've spent so much time preoccupied with the offer creation and the funnel building space, that I know where the gaps are between learning it, and actually doing it.

 

That’s knowledge comes from the time spent with the thousands of students I've help with offer creation. That’s a lot of mat time.



YOUR MISSION:

 

  • Identify the framework master... the Jedi master, the sensei that has obsessed over consumed all the gurus and their frameworks -  then got so good that they started producing their own variations.

 

That's huge. You cannot fake that -  and that's why I follow Russell Brunson on funnels.



LESSON #2:

BE PEAK FOCUSED, NOT PATH FOCUSED

 

An individual who’s path focused  always takes a long time to start moving.

 

I used to do a lot of backpacking, I remember this time when we were climbing a mountain on a three-week backpacking trip...

 

We’d just come out of this beautiful valley. It was afternoon; the clouds had come can over and it started drizzling. There was a nice smell of rain in the air.

 

Suddenly, we found ourselves on the top of a ridge we’d been scaling, only to see another summit beyond it.

 

 

We’d keep going, but time after time, there’d be another summit to scale. You’d think you’d reached the peak, but it only revealed that you’ve further to go - it’s what’s known as a false summit.

 

Here’s how this relates to success…

 

I've noticed is that when the individual is focused on the peak, the path stops mattering so much.

 

The people that I've noticed who don't do anything in this game are the people who sit back trying to analyze every single path.

 

They wanna see from beginning to end before they get started, and that’s crap. It doesn't happen that way.

 

You’ve gotta be peak focused, not path focused.

 

I'm not saying you shouldn't learn the path as best as you can, but *reality check* ...everyone switches paths on the way up to the top. Everyone does!

 

For a while, I studied SEO. I hate SEO. I'm never gonna do SEO again. SEO drives me nuts. I would rather hire people to do that for me. In all reality, I hate it

 

BUT that doesn't keep me from getting a cool online business online off the ground.

 

If you’re not sure about your path, the best thing you can do is get going.

 

Something aren’t revealed until you’re in motion

 

That’s just the way it is…

 

If you start on a path and find that you don’t like it, alright, then just switch paths, you're still heading to the same peak.

 

When I coach people, I know that if they’re peak NOT path focused, then they're a lot harder to stop.

 

If stuff starting to come up against them that they weren't expecting, they just keep focusing on that peak and they keep moving… and that's a big, big deal because it happens to everybody in anything that you pursue...EVER.

 

YOUR MISSION

  • Stop obsessing over the path that you're supposed to go down and just start, even if there's no path in existence. If you know where the top of the mountain is, then just start moving.

 

I'm very, very proud of my lady right now. She's doing some cool seminars  and things that, she's never done before... and without me telling her... there's been no encouragement. I'm not like, "You gotta do this thing.” She's just doing it.

 

I was like, I’m so proud of you, most people don't take action for freaking ever." They just sit back and ask, "But what's it gonna be like in session two?"

 

Man, I don't know…

 

I planned OfferMind the week before it started, NOT before I started selling tickets. You understand?

 

Some people react, "Stephen, you guys are so risky, oh my gosh." No, we're not. We're letting the market guide us, and that can only happen when we’re in motion.  

 

You can't steer a parked car, people - move!

 

NUMBER #3:

LEAN IN TO YOUR CONSTRAINTS

 

You’ve heard me riff on this one before, but the constraints that you have... they're not real constraints.

 

You need to realize that everything that feels it’s against you is actually your superpower.

 

That's why when someone's like, "I don't have enough time or money..." I'm like "Bullcrap; I don't believe you. I have zero sympathy for you."

 

Once you recognise that, it's amazing how fast you can move in the game and there's so much less anxiety. You stop comparing yourself to other people. And you stop saying thing like:

 

 

  • "Aw man, I'll take action once I'm in that kind of position."

 

 

 

  • "I'll take action once I have that kind of a following."

 

 

 

  • "Well, of course, they can do that because they have a huge email list."

 

 

... You stop saying crap like that because you realize that:

 

Everything obstacle you've been given is a tailored opposition just for you.

 

 

  • You're bad at speaking? Perfect. It means that you're gonna learn it in a way that others that are natural at it are not gonna learn it.

 

  • You have no money? Awesome. Lean into that. You're gonna have a story in the future where you can  say "Yeah, we had nothing," and you'll be more believable than the person that started with a lot of resources.

 

Lean into your constraints and be willing to live your hook

 

If you aren't willing to live the hook in front of your audience, that's a big deal because your audience is gonna call your bluff.

 

YOUR MISSION

 

  • Stop waiting for thing to be perfect - lean into your constraints and live your hook.



NUMBER #4:

BUILD A BUSINESS THAT CHANGES YOUR WORLD BEFORE YOU CHANGE THE WORLD

 

Please, please, please, for the love…

 

Stop trying to build a business that changes The World before you’ve changed Your World.

 

That's why I call myself the capitalist pig. I’m telling YOU to Make Money.

 

There's nothing wrong with making money. Make so much money that you can change your world, because then you'll be in a position to change The World.

 

Let me ask you a question…

 

“How much power do you have if you're living paycheck to paycheck?”

 

Not much, right? You're very limited in the options that you have. I know, I’ve been there.

 

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR WORLD…

 

About six weeks ago, and we launched a new project…it's really awesome, but I want to tell you WHY we launched it in the way we did…

 

Number #1: I chose the wealth industry. I did that on purpose because people expect to spend money in the wealth industry.

 

It's not that they don't in relationships or in health, it just that they particularly expect to spend money in the wealth industry. So, it's an easier sell.

 

I'm gonna stack all the cards in my favor that I possibly can.

 

I don't have to turn around and say, "Hey you wanna spend 25 grand on this free plus shipping book?" Cause people will be, " Errm, No."

 

I choose an industry where I don't have to sell people on the fact that they need to spend money. There's already an expectation.

 

Key move right there…



Number #2:  I choose an industry that has existed for a while because it’s gotten so good that it continues to create new customers.

 

 

 

I sell in the MLM space, and that's the reason why. MLMs have been around for freaking ever and people are already convinced that it's good.

 

The industry creates the customers. I don't have to create a customer. They make the customer for me.

 

How amazing is that!

 

When somebody builds a product and they say, “Who shall I sell it to?” *Wrong Order*

 

 

 

The first thing I do is I look for is bloody red oceans that have been in existence for a while, and create customers.

 

I want the sales message to be alluring enough that it creates a customer for me, and then I just need to figure out what message I can send into that red ocean to pull customers back out to me.

 

I didn't create the customer; I collected the customer.

 

As an ocean starts to expand, and the idea behind it gets more valid, the market will move from customer collection to customer creation.

 

Here’s what I'm looking for:

 

 

  1. I'm selling into wealth, not health, not relationships - when I'm trying to change my world and NOT the world, I selling into wealth.

 

  1. I'm looking for a market that has been expanding long enough that customers and companies reinvest the cash they made from that market back into the same market.

 

  1. I'm looking for ways to see, "Oh my gosh, this market is so good, they're not just collecting customers from other markets now. They actually are creating customers."

 

  1. The sales message is alluring enough and strong enough that it creates customers - and then all I have to do is learn how to sell into that market.

 

There's a process...

 

I never have to worry about who to sell to again. I'd never have to worry about how to create a customer. I'm just collecting them. It's a lot easier. Does that make sense?

 

There's a lot of things that I walk through to see if that read ocean is ready to be picked:

 

  • Is it ready for me to sell into?

 

  • Is this a good product for me to go into?

 

  • What kind of sales message do I see that there's a divide beginning already inside that ocean?

 

  • Are there third-tier influencers rising inside of that red ocean?

 

There's a lot of things, and I'll definitely do a full episode on this, but I want you to understand:

 

Change YOUR world before trying to change The World.



 

 

It's hard to pull margins out in a change the world business for quite some time and so you end up losing steam. Guys, go get money. Get rich.

 

I'm all about making an absolutely sickening amount of cash and then doing cool things in the world with it that help people. That's kinda my thing. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing.

 

However, I know  it’ll be waaay easier if I change my world first.





NUMBER #5:

THE MARKET WILL ALWAYS TELL YOU WHAT TO DO

 

 

 

Now, what you have to understand is this game is about you learning how to be a good detective, rather than a creative genius.

 

You need to learn how to go into an ocean and see what's actually going on inside it, and have it start to guide you in the creation of a blue ocean.

 

It's the EXACT OPPOSITE of what  I was taught in college and by a lot of the books that are out there today which tell you to,"Come up with a cool, brand-new idea..."

 

Okay, but people don't just spend money because they say they're going to....

 

You need to discover WHAT  people are actually spending money on, NOT what they say they're gonna spend money on.

 

 

 

It's all about discovering a blue ocean with a red ocean customer - that's way easier to do it that way.






YOUR MISSION

 

 

  • Become a detective in your Red Ocean, and discover you market with your customer.










NUMBER #6:

CASH IS NOT KING; CASH FLOW IS KING

 

 

 

Let me say that again, "Cash is not king, cash flow is king."

 

Too many times, I see somebody hit the Two Comma Club Award... they make a million dollars through the funnel and get this big payout, but then if it's not sustainable, they die.

 

I'm not saying it's not worth it, but I am saying that it’s not security.

 

I look for opportunities...

 

I have two value ladders right now that I'm building, two businesses.

 

I think of businesses as value ladders with systems in them.

 

 

 

There's two different value ladders that I'm building right now.  In both of them there's:

 

  • An Acquisition Processes

 

  • An  Ascension Processes for the customer

 

  • Monetization Systems for the customer

 

So I'm ascending, I'm monetizing, and I'm actually acquiring customers inside the value ladder. However, it is incomplete without the fourth step, which is:

 

 

  • Continuity.

 

 

It's not always super clear before I start, what that will be... but I want you to know that I'm always looking for a way to add a continuity base thing into each thing that I build because that continuity is what lets you build everything.

 

Is there a way for me to gain a consistent monthly check from my customers?



Bringing in this huge cash influx is cool, but it's freakin’ scary if it never comes again. And so I don't look for businesses where it's like, "Boom, tons of money all at once."

 

I'm not saying I don't do that, but I'm saying I don't let my emotional hair down and go," Oh my gosh, I'm totally set now."  Because that's freaky.

 

I look for ways to build my business and build my stuff so that I have cash flow. And when I have cash flow - when things are rocking, that's a huge deal.

 

That's actually what lets you build the business, NOT the funnel. The business is what supports the funnel. A business is systems.

 

 



Because of the cash flows that we have, I can go hire a team.

I take that cash flows and hire out different pieces of the funnel build or content machine.

 

I think ten people on the content team now between the two shows that I've got. Ten. It's not cheap. The reason I can do it is not because of cash flow.

 

So I'm looking for businesses where I can get money coming in. The funnel breaks even on the customer coming in, then I upsell them, and then there is continuity....

 

When I have that, I have a business.

 

YOUR MISSION

 

  • Make Cash flow king in your business















NUMBER #7:

CONFIDENCE EQUALS COMPETENCE

 

 

 

If you don’t feel competent in the funnel game or inside of a business, you’ve gotta learn more… But you have to do it in a focused way.



I don't learn anything about SEO or social media posting because I don't want to learn it. It's not what I need in order to solve the next problem in front of me.  

 

 

 

On my whiteboard, I have two questions I'm trying to answer right now. That's it.

 

I know that if any other question that pops up, it's either something I need to solve on the way to solving the big problem... or it's not a real question.

 

There's two problems I'm trying to solve right now. I can name them, so I know exactly what I need to learn.





I don't just learn generally. I don't just learn for the sake of, "Oh, it's good to just learn." No, it's not!  That’s the best way to make your brain feel clouded. It'll literally clog your mental shelf space.

 

Go on what Tim Ferris calls a Low Information Diet

 

 

 

YOUR MISSION

 

  • Learn on purpose - go on a low information diet.



 

THE ‘CRUSH IT’ TEAM

 

 

So, there you have it, the most 7 MOST important lessons I've learned during the last three years - and especially in the last year out on my own.

 

If I look back on the things that have made the big difference in my life, these are the players:

 

#1: It's all about the framework: If you can’t name the 80% proven will make money framework, you're gonna feel like you're spinning your wheels. You're gonna fire off your next funnel and not know why.

 

#2: You have gotta be peak focused, not path focused: Find the framework and  just start moving.

 

#3: Lean into the constraints: Anything that you feel, realize these are not constraint but super powers - specifically this has to do with the feelings and emotions of the individual:

 

  • I'm not good enough
  • I'm not smart enough
  • There's no way, I can't speak
  • I can't talk
  • I don't know how to write copy

 

... blah blah blah, wah wah wah... and everytime I hear that it’s usually because somebody's starting to believe their constraints are actual constraints, they're not.

 

Constraints are superpowers - but not until you flip the way you're seeing them. You’ve  gotta be willing to feel a little pain, a little pressure, and a slight amount of discomfort in order to push through them.

 

#4: Change your world before you change The World: That's a huge one. I want to change the world, that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. I wanna change the world. I don't know exactly how, but right now I'm changing my world and funny enough, that changes a lot of other people's’ world as well.

 

The pursuit of me changing my world has been changing a lot of other worlds, but it's also been giving me more in a position of power and increasing my capacity to change the world.

 

I know that those projects will come up soon, in fact, I can kinda feel they will be, but right now, doesn't matter, I'm trying to change My world before I change The World.

 

#5: The market will always tell me what to do: I totally believe that.

 

#6: Cash is not king; cash flow is king: Big old wins are awesome, but please build something that's sustainable.

 

#7:Confidence equals competence. Stop learning generally and for the sake of it. It is the best way to feel like you're going nowhere.

 

Until Next Time - Lean into Your Constraints!

 

Hey, there's more marketing resources than there are sands in the sea, am I right?

 

Okay, maybe not, but there's a lot. How do you know if you're paying for good ones?

 

Recently I went to my business bank statement, and I counted 51 internet tools and resources that I use to run my business every day and actually keep my team size small.

 

If you want to see the list, I actually filmed an individual video teaching you why I use each tool and the strategy behind it, and then I dropped the link straight to the source right below it. I

 

f you want to see the list and see what you can use yourself, go to bestmarketingresources.com That's bestmarketingresources.com.



Dec 18, 2018

Boom! What's goin' on everyone? It's Steve Larsen from Sales Funnel Radio.

 

Today I'm gonna teach you guys how I was able to pull off OfferMind so grandly as my very first event.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt? Completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. What's up?

 

Hey, I'm excited for this episode. I'm excited for today, I'll be honest. So, just know that what I wanted to do, is I had OfferMind happen just very recently. OfferMind was my event that signified me moving into the offer creation category.

 

No one has become the category king of offer creation. I am trying to make my stand there as being the best and the first in that area as the solution provider for that area. You know what I'm talking about?

 

So anyways, I'm really really excited about it and all of it. OfferMind has signified a lot.

 

What this episode right here is not about is the content about OfferMind. What I wanted to do is take a kind of an objective look at how I pulled off OfferMind so grandly as my very first event. Anyways, it'll be fun. It'll be really really cool.

 

I love events. Events are very special. If you guys think about it, there are seven phases of a funnel - we learned that from the book, Dot Com Secrets.  The seventh phase of a funnel is to change somebody's environment. That's why events are so powerful.

 

If somebody is agreeing to come to an event - they've gone through the first six phases of a funnel. I'm not gonna go through all those right now, but you can look them up in Dot Com Secrets. The seventh phase of a funnel, the last phase of the funnel, is to change somebody's actual physical environment, and that's why it's so awesome when they show up... but it's also why it's so hard to get them to the event.

 

So if you're about to throw an event, and you're like, "It is super hard to get people to an event."  Yeah, I totally get it. I completely understand.

 

I was at this Inner Circle meeting a little while ago. It was probably like six month ago, I think... I dunno, my timetable is totally messed up now...

 

It was a while ago, and I was at this inner circle meeting, and I learned from some people, that what they've been doing is in some of their products, is giving away a free ticket to their event.

 

So when you buy the book or the program or whatever, included in that is a ticket to the event. That's clever. Now let me ask you a question though...

 

Do you think the person who shows up with a free ticket has the same mentality as the person who shows up with a paid ticket? No! Totally different.

 

In fact, if you give away a thousand free tickets, I would guess maybe 200 would actually show up. That much of a drop-off, okay? Huge drop-off. And a very different mentality; you will attract a broke room, a poor room if you're going to be selling something. Not to offend anybody, just being honest okay.

 

If you pay to get to an event, what do you think the attendance rate is gonna be? A lot higher.

 

It's pretty standard inside of events that have a 10% drop-off rate. A 10% no-show rate. They just don't show up. Baffles me. Blows my mind. I have no idea why it's that way, but it is. Even with the high ticket events, paid ticket events, whatever.

 

When I was running a lot of FHAT events, or Funnel-Hack-Athon Events... Guys, that was a 15000 to 25000 dollar event for people to show up. That is how much they paid, and still, we'd have people who would not show up after paying that much money. Yes, I'm serious. It's like, "Holy crap are you serious?" Yeah, I am. And that's what's interesting about this.

 

There's always a no-show rate.

 

There is gonna be a different mentality of person that shows up when you gave away free tickets versus the mentality of a person who showed up with paid tickets.

 

So I was like, "Well, I need validation to even move forward on this idea. How can I validate throwing my own event?"

 

I mean I've always wanted to throw my own event. And so what happened was, about four months ago when I knew that Russell was gonna be doing the, (wait, it's November isn't it? November/December by the time you see this episode it will be December? Okay, but right now, recording this, 'cause I match my content, practice what I preach here, right.)

 

...It was back in February when Russell first started talking about doing this book. The 30 Day book. When he first started talking about that, and he started reaching out to all the people for it, I was like, "Sweet, this is gonna be so cool." And I went in, and I got to write my chapter - it was really exciting and awesome.

 

What was cool, is when he wrote this book, when the idea came out for this book, I thought to myself, "That's it. That is how I can fill a room. That's the vehicle that I can give a free ticket away with when I sell it." So that was super exciting.

 

I knew that OfferMind was gonna be comin' up some time in the future. I didn't know when, but I knew it was there. Most people will stop because they don't see all the details yet. Don't stop... if you've got a sweet idea, just know that clarity will happen as you move, not before you move. Little nugget there, just threw it out.

 

...So when I saw Russell go out and say, "You know what, we're gonna give away, for everyone who promotes the book, we're gonna give 100% commissions." He's like, "I'm not gonna take any commissions on that book." I was like, "You're kidding. Oh my gosh, this is actually really really big. Okay, okay, dude, can I interview you on my podcast?"(Russell was on the podcast a little while ago.) "Dude, can I get this, can I do that." Alright?

 

And I started structuring a campaign around this book. Knowing that when I drop out a free ticket with the book, I'm gonna get more sales because the perceived value of my offer is gonna go through the roof.

 

I also knew that people were gonna be like, "Oh my gosh," and it was gonna be more talkable.

 

I sold 375 books, and I was like, "I bet a third of those people will actually show up." And that's about what happened. About 120 RSVP'd, but I think about 100 showed up - which is pretty standard for a free ticket. You know what I mean? There's not as much fear of loss if you don't show up for a free event that you didn't pay for, right?

 

So what I did, was I piggy-backed the event on Russell's event for the 30 Day book launch. That's how I filled it up so much. I purposefully did it that way.

 

Now, I also knew that a lot of people were not gonna be able to, or didn't hear about, or just were like, "Hey, I already bought the book through somebody else," I didn't wanna leave out all those other people. So what I did was I built an event funnel.

 

It was a very fast funnel to go in and sell people who wanted to actually dive on in and join the event. So that's what I did. And it worked really really well. I started selling different areas around it.

 

I sold a VIP upgrade.

A one-on-one session with me afterwards on the third day.



But the biggest mistake that people make with throwing events is, they try to make money on the event tickets. I don't take any profit on people just getting to the event.

 

There's not as much story in this episode, I just want to hit several things right here. I ran a little ask campaign inside the group, The Science of Selling Online, and I asked: "Hey, what question to do you guys have about how I ran OfferMind?" And so I'm answering a lot of your questions here so you guys can see how I did it:

 

 

>The event room in the hotel was $7500 I believe. And I was like, "I don't wanna pay for that." I was like, "Holy crap, are you serious?" I was like, "Well, what if I just did a really long one-on-one session with somebody on the third day."

 

So the event was two days, but there was actually a third day where I left it open for people if they wanted to do one-on-one sessions with me. That's exactly what happened. Somebody came in, and they paid, and I charged almost the exact amount as the room was. "Sweet, alright, somebody else paid for the room."

 

Please, no one get offended by this. I'm just telling you guys what's going through my head.

 

I knew it was going to be around $20000 for the AV team to come in. It was significantly more though. It was $35000 for the AV team to come on in. It's why it looked so pro and so amazing.

 

I was like, "Man, I don't wanna pay for that." And so I was like, "Okay, what if I just push a little bit harder on this book?” And I did, and we sold 375 books, that's the equivalent of $37500. "Well, sweet, okay, that paid for the AV."

We have some sessions that paid for the room.

 

Now, how I pay for swag and to make it awesome, get a photographer there and get someone just filming B roll? All of those things together was probably another 10,000. Alright? So what I did. Uh, it was more than that...

 

. Anyway, what I did, was I sold a VIP upgrade. Through that VIP upgrade, I think there was like 14,000 dollars that came in through the VIP upgrade. I was like, "Sweet."

 

You guys get how I did this?

 

...I mean, out of pocket, there was a few other expenses, things around that I'm just not remembering off the top of my head, but you have to understand and get resourceful. It doesn't matter what level you're at.

 

I've watched Russell do this when he's been planning Funnel Hacking live; there will be these big people like Tony Robbins... or "Let's get in this person or that person." He's like, "Crap, seriously, that's how much money they want?" Or, "It costs that much money to do that?" Or, "The event room is this amount of money?" Or, "The swag, holy crap!"

 

Rather than go, "Well maybe we won't," he says, "How can do that?"

 

Multiple times I've watched him go through and structure a way to liquidate his cost on that. That's exactly 100% how I pulled off OfferMind. Structurally I'm talking about, how I actually pulled it all together and pulled all those pieces together.

 

So in total,  I think it was around $65000 to pull it off? Is that about how much it was? $65000 for OfferMind?

 

- Yeah.

 

- I was just checking with Colton, my alter ego now.

 

$65000 to pull off OfferMind. I think, out of my pocket, to actually pull off the event, (about 37000 dollars for selling the book, another $7000 for plus the 15 ish plus the 20), I think I shelled out maybe personally about, maybe like six or seven grand, which guys, in hindsight, really awesome. I wanted sweet swag. I wanted an amazing visually impressive experience.

 

If step seven of a funnel is a new environment, I cannot just have you walk into a normal room, I must put you in an environment. Does that make sense? You have got to enter a different sphere, a different place. I'm willing to go into the hole over that. You understand? And so I did. Sort of like, structurally, that's how I pulled off the event.

 

Three days before OfferMind happened, I asked one of the AV guys, which they're freaking amazing by the way...

 

Valiant was the name of the AV team. They're the same ones that do Funnel Hacking Live. They're the same AV team that does all the Two Comma Club X events - they do everything for Russell. They set up the stage, it's a brilliant, brilliant room, all that stuff. That's why it looked so great.

 

... they came to me, and they had this cool pitch. They were like, "We love your light bulb logo. We're thinking, what if we dangle light bulbs upside down from the ceiling in this cool way with your logo floating in the back?" I was like, "That's amazing, yes! Sounds good."

 

So as far as structurally pulling off the event logistically, that's how it happened. I'm looking for ways to liquidate costs on the cool things rather than sacrifice experience, I ask "How I can afford, how can I create an experience?" So the event was pretty much completely liquidated. Almost. Almost, I did go into the hole a little bit with it. But that was, you know, whatever.

 

I mean, you guys that came. I mean, if you didn't come, there's no way you did not see someone posting about OfferMind, right? Social proof was all over the place.

 

I know the psychology of sharing a post on social media. The reason we share is because we think it's funny, or it evokes a lot of emotion, it makes somebody laugh, or it makes somebody feel important.

 

When I share something funny, I'm doing it because I'm saying I'm funny. When I share something that makes me angry, I'm sharing it because I'm saying it makes me angry. Does that make sense?

 

We share stuff to say who we are. It actually is a reflection of the essence of the individual sharing. It has less to do with what you're sharing and more about how the share-er feels.

 

And so knowing that those are the motivations; knowing and understanding that piece of it... What I was trying to do is give people content to share. That's why the room needed to be amazing. That's why all the stuff in there needed to be visually so impressive. You understand?

 

It was not just about me teaching. It was not just about me practicing stuff about my book that is coming out about it, right? Your Core Offer is gonna be the book and the content itself  from the event, was on a higher level, the stuff that is coming out of the book and I needed to test it in one final phase. I've been testing it for months and months, eight, nine months. And I needed to go in and do that.

 

But you have to understand, that was what the event was for content-wise. But I needed it to be so visually impressive. It needed to be an experience. When you walked in, I needed those doors to close. You're not allowed inside the event. No one is allowed in there. No one is leaking pictures. (I know a few people did, and I wish they hadn't.) Because what I'm doing is I'm creating anticipation.

 

Event throwing is what a marketer does, whether online or offline. Part of the event is anticipation for the event. Can you imagine, wow? And I needed to invoke that emotion:

 

Imagine what it would be like, imagine what the feeling is gonna be, what is gonna be like when I sit there, and I have this major epiphany on why I've not made it work yet. What's it gonna be like. And that game in the person's head is what I'm trying to cause. So that when they're behind closed doors, and the registration table is on the outside of the event, and the doors are closed, but they hear the music...

 

They hear the music and the feel the ground rumble, and they're seeing some streaming lights coming through, but they can't quite see what's going on. And for the first time, those doors open. There's literally new doors in their life opening. You understand? It's a symbol, okay? It is a symbol.

 

Event throwing is an art. There is a science behind it, but there is an art piece to it as well.

 

I am not just having people show up in a room and have me speak at them. In my mind, no matter the content, what I would say, huge, huge, huge opportunity, failure if that was the case. That is not why I threw the event. I threw the event, yes, for the content pieces, I'm gonna be using that in other places in as well; book, other cool stuff that's comin'. But I needed, it's more about the experience of the individual showing up. Is it a symbol of new opportunity in the individual's life.

 

I am breaking and rebuilding so many beliefs inside the person's head that they are literally doing things that they never thought they could do? They have new capacities for own life that they never thought were possible. That's what I'm trying to do. That's why the event is such a big deal.

 

All the stuff laid out in perfect matching order on the tables, the swag, the way they walk up, why the doors are closed, the way they open up, the music that's playing; music you guys hear me play on my live funnel builds. There is so much freaking psychology behind it.

 

It's important that I'm not in the room when you actually open the door. I should not be in the room. I should have somebody else introduce me. And their whole role is to raise the energy level of the room: "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" And then, "Welcome, Mister Stephen Larsen." I need that. It elevates. As I walk up to the stage and the person who is MCing, (which is James Freel, who I'm very thankful for), he got them riled up.

 

There were some cool videos played. Marley, my amazing video person, made this incredible walk-up video. Lots of credibility stuff. Stuff that I'm a little bit uncomfortable with. You know what I mean? I don't want ever to be like, “Me, Me, Me,” but that's important for the psychology of the event.

 

When I walk up, I need to make contact with the MC physically -  that's the transfer of authority and power on stage; it's visual in front of the people.

 

This is important, and I'm not making this up you guys. Go watched 10X Secrets training, he's gonna talk about this. That psychology is massive.

 

So when I walk up, my role is not to raise the energy of the room. My role is to come in with an already high-level energy room and then I can do my thing - otherwise, I gotta raise the energy of the room. I don't wanna do that role.

 

There's a lot to throwing the event. There's a lot of psychology behind it. You think I'm joking? Go watch people who actually do this professionally all the time. I've been exposed to a lot of that. That's why I know a lot of this, and I've been doing it - that's why we pulled it off well.

 

There's orchestration behind your actual event; how it runs, the way it happens.

 

I know that as the event goes up, I need to build pressure and excitement, and then release it. And then build pressure and excitement higher than last time and then release it. And then build pressure and excitement higher than the other two times and then release it. And then build pressure, and then sail. That's exactly what I did.

 

So I'm like "Boom, cool nugget drop," release it, let's take a break.

 

I can tell when people were exhausted mentally or physically. I put caffeine on the tables - Pruvit, that's the emblem I'm in, and you guys all know that -, and a lot of you guys ask me about it. I drink Pruvit every single day, and a lot of you guys know that. You know that about the orange bottle, right? This is the orange bottle. There's always orange juice in there. A lot of you guys comment about that.

 

What did I do? I need you mentally checked in, I'm gonna drop some stuff that no one ever taught before. So because of that, we made sure to get literally $2000 worth of Pruvit it on the tables, and keep it on the tables. It wasn't so much about me. I'm not trying to sell it; I need their brains checked: “Boosh, are they with me?”

 

Because I'm gonna go long and I'm gonna go hard and  I'm gonna go late into the evening. I'm gonna over-deliver day one. Over-deliver to the hilt. Blow people's brains. Boosh, brains on the wall, right!

 

The reason is that I'm doing everything that I can, everything that I can, to orchestrate an experience, not just drop cool content:

 

>They got caffeine.

>I'm givin' them notebooks so they can take notes.

 

I'm not gonna expect them to come with a pen and a notepad, but I need them to take notes. Mentally, they're checking in when they do that. When they open up that notebook and they start taking notes, they are with me.

 

When they take a little bit of caffeine, (still one of the best nootropics that's out there), they are with me. They can go further and longer than they normally can physically on their own. More discipline, more focus, more attention than they would ever do on at their own homes. Very fascinating by the way.

 

Then they go to sleep, or they're spending time with each other in the evening, they're like, "Holy crap, that was freakin' nuts, jeez."

 

Then the next day, what did you learn, what did you learn, what did you learn? And part of what I'm doing is, as I'm taking breaks, there were those catch box mics, and I'm like, "If you have questions throughout, ask me. I need us to be interactive." It's not just for questions, it's to keep you engaged.

 

Me throwing around the catch box all over the place, (the microphone that you can throw), it's so that I know what the coolest piece was, and I'm hearing where people's "Wow!" is.  I'm like, "Oh, for me the 'Wow’ was over here. You thought the 'Wow' was over there... okay, cool." And you guys were guiding me more than you realize when I was on stage.

 

I was extremely prepared, but I'm making sure that I'm spot checking based on your feedback. And when breaks are over, keep that energy high by throwing around the catch box: "What did you learn?"

 

If I'm just standing on stage in the one spot? Bad. Dumb. Failure. You guys know the photographer that was there, she's like, "You move more than anybody that I've ever seen on stage," and I'm like, "Yeah, it's because I am trying to keep you with me." You should be freakin' exhausted after one 90 minute presentation.

 

Russell taught me once, he said, one 90 minute presentation is the equivalent of an eight hour work day in energy expenditure. 90 minutes - I don't even know how long I went? I went from 9AM to 9PM. I think I went 12 hours.

 

There was a one and a half hour lunch break. We took a hour at dinner, I think? Did we take an hour at dinner? Something like that? So I went for eight hours? I was freakin' exhausted you guys. Don't plan on sleeping when you do this kind of stuff. And you should be exhausted. I'm running around the room. I am responsible for the energy tone that is set in the room. I am responsible, not the audience.

 

When people stand up, and they beg for comments, it's the presenter that's losing, not the audience. I know that. And when I was doing these super high-level FHAT events, stuff like that, they're deep, complex concepts sometimes right? It's not up to them. It's up to me. So I run around like an animal. My feet were freakin' on fire after day one.

 

A lot of people say, “Stephen how do you do what do?” It hurts! That's the answer man. It hurts.

 

I was laying down in the hotel room even though I live here - way easier to just stay in the mind-prep zone and stay in state while I'm staying in a room at the hotel that it's happening at - so I can just go right to the room, right back up.

 

Lunches, go detox, drop the pressure and noise, as Alex Charfen talks about:

 

Relax for a second, listen to some meditation music, chill the freak out and then go back into state. Whew, bam, right. The break is for me is just as much as it is for the people. Boom. Boom.

 

There were multiple times when someone would walk up and be like "Can I ask you a question?" and I'd be like, "Sorry, no, because I need to make sure I protect my break. I need to make sure I protect my time.”

 

So, guys, I wanna walk through how I actually structured my first six-figure day, 'cause that's what happened there, but not on this episode though. I wanna do that on the next one. I just want you know how I threw the event and what was all involved with it.

 

And we're gettin' swag, and we're getting net 30 terms so I can make sure I can get the actual affiliate cash coming in so it pays for that: "Let's get it over here, so it pays for that. Let's get it over here, so it pays for that."

And guys, that's how you throw a sweet amazing event.

 

You don't have all those things in places. Not usually, most of us, not usually. You don't have all of that stuff in place. Instead it's all about building the pressure just like you would a product. Build the pressure. "Tickets, go, go, go, go, go. We're gonna close, we're gonna close, we're gonna close. Who can pay for what? Who is gonna do what? Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam..."  It has a lot to do with anticipation, energy output, expectations, and experience, and environment. That's how you throw a good event.

 

I could of stood up and said things that were not actually that prolific, and it would still have been a great event because of the experience that we provided. Does that make sense? It's that big of a deal.

 

Now, I understand that the content was epic and it'd never been taught anywhere - I've never had a platform to teach all that. It was really really cool.

 

I've talked about the content that came from the event, and how I write the book slowly, and why the event was thrown and stuff like that... But I'm not talking about the content, I'm talking about the event itself and throwing it.

 

What I'd like to do in a few episodes from now as well is walk through how I was able to structure a six-figure day. My first one ever. It was almost multi-six, which is really cool. I want to teach you guys how I was able to go do that, and pull that apart as well.

 

These episodes are a little more in depth, a little more intense than I normally would make them, but a lot of you guys ask, so I thought it would be a cool place to do that.

 

Somebody asked, "What was the biggest takeaway you had from your first live event?"Thank you, Pat Phelps, appreciate it. What's the first biggest take-away? They are challenging, but Colton and I were even talking, and they're not as challenging as people said that it would be - and I know it's because we had great help. there was a full out team.

 

There's no way you can do that on your own, by the way. You need people. People were all over the place helping. I so appreciate that. I clearly understand and realize that it's not me, me, me land.

 

Biggest take-away? Yeah, definitely it was in liquidating costs through other things.

 

How much did all the AV stuff cost using all the other crew? $35000 for the crew. They are completely worth it. Hire them, they're amazing.

 

For the total event, 65 grand.

 

And as far as roles and positions, it was actually Dave Woodward who taught me that one person on your team should be dedicated to you solely for the entire event.

 

There's a lot of pressure going into your head, so you need to have somebody with you all the time: "I need this. I need water, do you have a protein bar or something like that?" Back and forth.

 

And understand guys, it was just Colton and me pulling this stuff off - it was so crazy.

 

A lot of people helped, swooped on in, and I'm just so appreciative. It really really means a lot. As far as setting it up, getting stuff on the table, really, I mean, it was just so so helpful. Colton's wife came in for a bit, Tara, she came in and did a lot. Ryan Jones, Scott, Taylor, you came in. Anyways, I'm trying to give kudos and thanks to where it's deserved. A lot of people involved in the pieces to set-up, stuff like that.

 

As far as roles though? Anyway.

 

The biggest thing I learned? You know what, I'm not gonna answer that one now. The biggest thing I learned, I want to talk about it on the way I structured the six-figure day, which will be really really cool.

 

Anyways, appreciate it guys. Thank you so much. Very excited about this. Hopefully you guys learned more about throwing events. I'm not saying it's gotta be that massive scale all the time.

 

You're like, "Crap Stephen, I don't have 65 grand to go throw an event." Okay, whatever, fine, but just know, it's more about providing an experience and changing the environment. It is the final phase in the funnel. And because of that, you're gonna lose a lot of people, the six steps on the way to the seventh.

 

Think about it. Russell's got a freakin' giant list. A lot of people that show up to Funnel Hacking Live are not using ClickFunnels yet. They want to, but still, his event is only 4000 people when there's 70000 active monthly users.

 

There's 4000 people coming to this next event, 4500, alright. Think about the numbers of that. He has such a huge list. Some people are like, "Stephen, I'm gonna go throw a massive event it'll be real easy."  Events are like the hardest things to fill ever. Way harder than a webinar. Way harder than anything else because they gotta go set-up:

 

>Who's the babysitter?

>What are my flights?

>What are my hotels?

>Can I get off time for work?

>Can I get off time for this?

 

...blah blah blah... there is so much stuff.

 

Events like that appeal to hot audiences -  when you have a very hot audience who are in the seventh phase of the funnel, so it's a small group. A very small group.

 

I'm excited for the next OfferMind - there certainly will be one. Probably, it's gonna be a yearly event.

 

Next year I'm actually already bringing in some really cool speakers as well. I can't tell you who, but... So anyways, If you guys want a ticket though, we do have discounted tickets for a little while. The price is definitely going up because it's a sick event. I got some cool people coming to you guys as well.

 

For this first event, I needed the content to be more about the content. The next event though, I'm actually gonna bring in some more people about, "Here's how you create offers around that industry, that industry, that industry, that industry, and here's the expert on the person that did it, that did it, that did it, that did it." So really cool people comin' on in about specifically offer creation - it'll be really really cool.

 

So you guys can go to OfferMind.com and go get your ticket. It's exciting. I'm really really pumped for you - really excited for all this stuff, it'll be really cool. So go to OfferMind.com to grab tickets.

 

If it's off, just put your name on the waiting list. If it's up, then the tickets are there and you can actually dive on in and grab a ticket at the price that it was at now. We're gonna have to raise it a little bit, but anyway, excited. Screaming success, a lot of people involved, and definitely, a Hail Mary. Just tons of fun... but it took Colton and me, I think, a solid three days just to recover physically. Probably a solid week to recover mentally. I was wrecked. You were wrecked, Couton? We were wrecked, man!

 

I've thrown a lot of events, but there was only one other time in my life I've been that tired, and it was during basic training. Seriously. That was insane man.

 

But anyways, cool stuff guys. Appreciate it. You're all awesome. I appreciate you guys comin'. I know a lot of you guys wanted to come and there will definitely be others. We'd love to have you at the future ones. See you guys later. Bye.

 

If you're just starting out, you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies also. That's also good. But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them. Right?

 

That's also what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula.

 

So I created a special mastermind called an OfferMind to keep you on track with the right offer and more importantly, the right sales script to get it off the ground and sell it.

 

Want to come? There's small groups on purpose so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days. You can hold your spot by going to OfferMind.com. Again, that's OfferMind.com.



Dec 14, 2018

Boom! What's going on, everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio.

 

Today I'm going to teach you guys how to win affiliate contests. Not as hard as you'd think.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine-to-five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is: how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best Internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

What's up, guys? I'm excited for this episode. Okay, two quick things real fast. So you guys saw a little bit ago, I went in and I was promoting really hard the 30 Days book.

 

I was able to win this affiliate competition, which is really fun. I sold 375 books and got first place. There was an offer created around that. There was a special thing that you guys got from me when you bought the book through my link; I gave a free ticket to the OfferMind event along with a bunch of other stuff. It was really really cool. It was sexy. Very exciting to get that kind of a thing.

 

Just last week, I threw the event, and what was cool was I knew Russell was selling this thing called 10X Secrets while the event was going on.

 

Now, I did not have any time to promote Russell's cool thing. I like promoting Russell's stuff, he's got obviously fantastic stuff, obviously. I don't need to tell you that. But I realized, like crap. I don't have time to promote this thing.

 

Then Miles, he helps run a lot of the affiliate stuff over at ClickFunnels, sends me a message and he goes, "Hey dude, I just want you to know that because of sticky cookies, you are in 16th place. If you get in the top 10, we're going to take you on a private yacht from Miami down to the Bahamas right after the 10X Growth Con in February." I was like, "Are you serious? I didn't know that was the prize. That's crazy!"

 

It was Thursday night that he told me that, and it was closing in two days. I was like, "Holy crap." And so what I did, and guys, there's a point to the story here and I'm not just like rrrrr. I want you to know the story...

 

I went in, and I was like, "OK. How can I provide value?"

 

This contest had already been going on for a week - which means all the people who were really looking forward to purchase, all the people who wanted to purchase, have most likely purchased from the get-go.

 

Which means I have to sell a portion of the audience that was not planning on buying it. You guys hear what I'm saying? That's a harder sale. I was like, "Oh, crap!"

 

So what I did is, and this is the big lesson here... I decided, like,"OK, what if somebody bought 10X Secrets through my affiliate link, what problems do I cause for that individual?" What problems does that cause when they buy 10X Secrets? What else might they want to know?

 

I was like, well, funnels, right?

 

10X Secrets is all about selling. Russell's the funnel guy, but that product is all about sales specifically. Specifically, stage selling.  

 

When you learn how to do that skill, it's very powerful. It's one of the reasons my funnels work really really well. It's one of the reasons why I do what I do. I can do what I do because I study stage selling.

 

Funny enough, selling in a funnel is like very similar to selling on a stage. As far as the delivery, they're a little different. The way you speak, the way you present, the way you're talking and pointing and all this stuff. Like that's its own skill set. But the psychology, it's very similar of what you're doing.

 

So anyways, I was like, well, what else do they need? What else would somebody need if they bought 10X Secrets through my link? "OK, funnels."

 

Well, I got this cool product called My Funnel Stache.... What if I just let people choose one of those funnels? So every asset I have about the webinar funnel,  e-com funnel, supplement funnel, or info product funnel. Whatever it is... there's lots of them.

 

And I will give them the training on how to build it.

 

I'll give them the share funnel, so it's pre-built.

 

I'll give them the email sequence. I'll give them the video that shows them the strategy of what makes it work.

 

There's all this stuff. I was like, "OK, cool, that's sexy. That's really sexy." But what else?

 

And I started thinking through, and I was like, "What if I sent out some leftover OfferMind swag to people?" We had some extra swag leftover - and this is the kind of swag we had:

 

We had a water bottle. This is the famous, iconic orange water bottle that a lot of you know.

 

A lot of you guys will be on my live funnel builds and watch me, I always have this thing with me. A lot of you guys ask me where I get it, where I have them.

 

So we talked to Nalgene, and they custom created some with Sales Funnel Radio on the bottle - which is kind of cool.

 

And so I was like, you get the bottle. (Actually, I can't remember if we did the bottle or not. Anyway, it's part of the swag.)

 

The notebook - it says Sales Funnel Radio across the top.

 

The cool branded pen.

 

I write a lot, probably more than you guys think I do. I listen to books and podcasts, and stuff like that less than you guys probably think I do, and I write probably more than you think I do. There's a big lesson in that.

 

So anyway, we got this sweet notebook for them, so people can take notes - because I know I talk a lot - and talk fast.

 

Then there's the famous Capitalist Pig shirt that everyone loves. On the back, it says Sales Funnel Radio.

 

My favorite is to wear those in airports and busy public places where I get the most dirty looks.

 

There's the "It's Monday, Baby” t-shirt.

 

If you guys follow me on Instagram at all, you guys know the story behind this - which is pretty awesome. "I love Mondays! I hate Fridays."  I reminded everybody of that on the back. Right? "Woohoo, Fridays suck. But wait for your Monday." Fridays suck, OK?

 

Anyway, so what I did, is I went, and I said, If you buy, (just follow me on this for a moment.) I said, if you buy 10X Secrets through my link, I'm going to give you the:

 

#Capitalist Pig shirt.

#Monday, Baby shirt.

#Notebook.

#Pen.

# I'll let you guys choose a funnel from My Funnel Stache.

#I will give you all assets I have around that funnel.

 

I went from, I think, 1500 in sales, something like that, to 13,000 in sales in two days. And I ended up taking fifth place in the whole contest. Not bad for just swooping in the last few days, right?

 

I'm excited; I'm going to get to go on a private yacht cruise with the top 10 other affiliates in ClickFunnels. We're going to go to the Bahamas and anyway, I don't know any more details besides that. I'm excited about that!  

 

I used the same principles that got me to be the number one with the 30-Days contest.

 

If I had planned a whole campaign around it, I actually could have maybe; I don't know, done at least number one, two, or three. I could have definitely gone a few more spaces. It was the last two days. That affiliate contest had been going on for almost ten days by that time.

 

What I want you to understand is...

 

I love affiliate marketing, first of all.

 

Think about this for a moment. Do you think people get more distracted by the creation of the product or selling the product? The creation of the product! All the time!

 

Everyone I coach, they're like, "Stephen, what products should I sell? What should I do here, what should I do here?" They get so distracted by the making of the thing that they spend almost no time studying and obsessing over how to sell the thing.

 

What causes money to go into your pocket? Now, obviously, the selling does. I'm not saying to not make a product that's not amazing. But what I'm saying is, "It takes more effort and energy to craft a campaign and a sales message and an event, whether it's online, offline, whatever. Right?"

 

The feeling of the event. More effort and energy to create a sales message than it does the product. You understand what I'm saying? I'm just going to pause there for effect when I say that. It takes more effort. You should be spending more time creating the sales message, the actual hook, the story than you do the offer. It's not a linear relationship there. It's massively asymmetrical, OK?

 

And so the reason I love affiliate marketing is because affiliate marketing is amazing training grounds for marketing skills.

 

If you're like, "Stephen, I've never launched a product on my own...  or every time I launch one, it doesn't work very well." Man, maybe take like a step back and go practice some affiliate marketing. That's why I created the program, Affiliate Outrage.

 

If you guys have ever checked out affiliateoutrage.com, it's a completely free program.  I'm not pitching a thing in that program. The reason I made it is because affiliate marketing is like training wheels.

 

You don't have to go make the product; you don't get distracted by that. All you do is you flex the muscles of how to sell stuff constantly and how to build campaigns around it.

 

How to actually go sell stuff. How to actually make the dollar turn.

 

Those are the skills that you actually need to go create.

 

How did I be number one for the 30 Day book? It's because I know how to market, not just make products.

 

How did I get number five in two or three days, right before the whole thing closed up?  I swooped right in; I was exhausted from the event, "All right, let's just do it." Bam! Number five. How?

 

It's because I know how to sell stuff.

 

I'm selling other people's products. You guys would be shocked. My list is not that big compared to the other people that I beat in the actual contest. It really isn't. So how the heck am I still getting top ten all the time? How is that happening? That's like a huge lesson in this.

 

When we at Traffic Secrets event down in Phoenix, it feels like a month ago now, it was crazy. When we were down there, wow, it was like a month ago. Anyway, when we were down there, Russell said something that I want to recap, so you guys all understand the power of what I'm talking about here.

 

He said, "Usually you make a dollar per month per person on your list. So just get more people on your list."  If you're bad, that's the metric.

 

When you start to learn a lot of these skills and a lot of things like that, then you start to make two dollars a month per person on your list per month. Then it's three; then it's four.

 

I think I do seven to eight dollars per person per month on my list. And it's because of how I'm doing it.

 

Now, I know I'm going to go list build more. I've got cool strategies coming down the pipeline. It's just for me; it's the next phase that I'm going into. I'm always list building. I've got lists all over the place, which is great. Probably too many. It's a little bit convoluted in a few places.

 

...But what I'm trying to say is like, you have to understand, the reason I can flex these muscles in these different areas is because I know how to make a very attractive sales message and a very attractive offer to pair with it.

 

It doesn't matter if it's my product or somebody else's.

 

If I don't control the cart, if you're selling somebody else's product, like a lot of you guys, you're commission-based salesman, you're in MLM or affiliate marketing, right? Does that make sense?

 

Whatever it is, you don't have control over the actual checkout process.

 

There are several angles I think of in this scenario:

 

#What problems do I create for an individual if they buy that product through my link?

 

# How can I solve that follow up-based problem with a product?

 

#  I could give them that. I have this; I could give them that. I have this; I could give them that.

 

So now, when they buy through my link, they get all these other things as well. Boom! I just out-valued every other person in the contest.

 

Multiple times that's how I've done what I have.

 

It's not about, "Buy through my link." It's about how can I outvalue everybody else who also is trying to give people their link? Does that make sense?

 

It's a big deal when you understand that, OK?

 

Because everybody else is promoting like this: "Here's my link! Buy through my link! Oh, man, I got this link, and you should buy through it!" So like, “Why? What's the difference between you and somebody else?”

 

So what you do is you create an offer around the other person's product. Make an offer around it.

 

A lot of you guys know the story, right, when I was doing door to door sales, I was going out to this area, and I was ticked. The day before I was not having a good day. It was super hot, and I'm hiding in this McDonald's area. I was selling pest control. It was so hot. I was like, "Maybe I should sneak over to McDonald's that's right there because of the AC?" I wanted to cool off.  I walk in there and funny enough, like half the rest of the team is already hiding in there along with my boss.  I was like, "Oh that's funny."

 

This guy walked up to us inside that McDonald's and just asked to buy. He was like "Hey, can I buy?" And we were like, "Yeah." We all stopped for a second and looked around. We were like, "No, you should buy. No, no, you be the one that buys. You haven't had a sale yet today; you go ahead, you get it." We were friends and family.

 

So finally, my boss pointed at somebody, the lucky person, and said, "Here you go, you take the sale." So they closed the sale, easy lay down sale right there. That never left me, because as we walked out of that McDonald's and we went back to keep selling pest control door to door, I realized that to that customer, there was literally no difference in who he chose.

 

It was the same sale, right, the same process. We were in the same uniforms. We had the same script. We had the same stupid cheesy jokes in our script. Same fulfillment. There was literally no difference in who he chose.

 

Guys, affiliate marketing is no different, OK? Which is a huge advantage if you understand this one principle I'm trying to teach you guys right now.

 

If you just understand that the game is about out-valuing somebody else. It's not about price. They can get the same product from like 100 other people. Tons of other people, OK? Instead, just outvalue everybody else.

 

So one of the things I like to do, like I was just saying, I like to think through and go like, "OK, what are all the follow up problems that I create for an individual if they buy that product through me, and what can I add in so that they get all those bonuses when they buy through me?"

 

There was a time when I built 89 funnels two times to fulfill on Russell doing this exact thing that I'm talking about right now. I watched him stand up, and he wanted to promote somebody, it was when I first started working at ClickFunnels. Stu McLaren was selling a program called Tribe. Some of you guys have probably heard of that.

 

When Russell promoted Tribe, he created an offer. He said, "Hey, when you buy through my link, I'm going to give you this and this and this and this and this and this because I see that Stu is teaching about membership areas which is super cool, well this thing I have goes well with membership areas. And I'll give you this, and I'll give you this, and I'll give you this, and I'll give you this."  I was like, “Cool.”

 

As part of that, I had to build 89 funnels x2 separate times to fulfill and deliver what he had given inside of his affiliate offer. Does that make sense? That's exactly what I'm talking about...

 

You're just riding on the additional problems that get created when somebody buys a product.

 

Whenever you sell something to somebody, you're not just solving a problem. You're also creating new problems. Which is fine, it's great. You just solve the follow up ones with more offers, you actually can sell more and make more money.

 

Does this make sense, what I'm telling you guys? Because I don't want to get like too in the weeds here around this.

 

The easiest way to dominate and destroy affiliate games is to understand this one principle.

 

If I have just a little bit of time, I will do what I just said. How can I solve the follow up problems that product will create? How can I solve it with products, and can I bundle it with that person's thing?

 

So when somebody buys through an affiliate link of mine, I can see it. It's in Backpack. I can log into the affiliate area and ClickFunnels. Boom, I get an Excel spreadsheet of everybody who's purchased from me and then I just email them the bonuses, or email them the ticket for OfferMind like I did, bam! You know what I mean? It's real easy. Super simple.

 

If they don't have access to that, I just tell them, "Screenshot your receipt and send it over to me and I'll send you the bonuses."

 

We just did that for 10X Secrets. That's how I killed it. I was expecting to sell like 12 packages. I sold 62, OK? Sixty-two people bought through that link. "Woo! Holy crap, OK?" We're going in, and we're fulfilling, we're shipping out all that stuff and doing all those things the next couple of days here, which is exciting. But that's how; just outvalue the other person.

 

I love this topic; it's a super fun topic.

 

Affiliate marketing is a great way to spread your wings and practice flexing your marketing skills muscles where you don't have to work on building the product.

 

One of the other reasons why this stuff has worked for well for me is I don't like to make a business out of affiliate marketing. I don't. It's like icing on the top. I'm not in the business of promoting other people's stuff. I promote my stuff. So I'm very careful about what I promote.

 

I only promote other people products when I know they are freaking incredible and they pair well with what I do. You guys get what I'm saying? Don't just go promote a whole bunch of people's stuff. I don't do that. I don't like to do that.

 

There's a method that I use to go and dominate in the affiliate space:

 

#Step number one: create an affiliate-based offer - Put their product in your offer and then toss in a whole bunch of your own stuff that you'll give them when they buy through your link. Boom, now you have an offer. You are now out valuing everybody else who's promoting that product.

 

Number two: Create a story around each one of those bonuses

 

So I'm gonna walk you through this here real quick, OK. Let me find it here real quick here. I'm inside of my ClickFunnels stuff here.

 

So what I like to do is I like to create a story around each one each one of the things inside of the offer I created for them. Because now I've got to promote it.

 

So if I have this cool affiliate-based offer, and I've got all these bonuses that are coming from me, I just got my computer out here, right, oh and this sticker, too, these are cool stickers we've got, barely created for them.

 

Check this out...

 

  1. So I wanted to promote 10X Secrets. So my offer was:

 

# I'll give you some leftover swag

# I'll give you whatever funnel you want from My Funnel Stache as well as all the assets that come with it.

 

Does that make sense? That was my offer. So what that means, I have two storylines.

 

#1: I have a storyline about swag.

#2: I have a storyline around Funnel Stache.

 

So in my head, I knew, "Well, I've got like two days to promote." (I think I had three.) Anyway, it was two major days, but one was like a half day when I realized like "Oh crap, I should be doing this." (No, I had Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Okay, no, it was three days.)

 

So what I did is:

 

#Number one, I was just like, "OK, here's the offer," and I did a post on Facebook. I wrote out the post, and I was like, "Hey, if you guys don't know, 10X Secrets is going on. If you guys want to, here's my offer." I went live on Facebook talking about what they were going to get.

 

"You're going to get this," and I walked around my office showing them physically what they were going to get. That's very powerful, that's very important, alright? It's a physical aspect to my offer, OK? So I walked around, and I was like, You're going to get:

 

#This shirt

#this shirt.

#the water bottle

#the notepad

 

You're also going to get:

 

#Stuff from My Funnel Stache - the best offer.

 

So I walked around, and that's like step one. Just announcing the offer. You'll get sales just from that.

 

#Number 2:  I take my Facebook post, the description, and I go, and I send it as an email to my whole list. I remind them, "Look, this is going to end soon."

 

The next day, (remember now I've got two more storylines.)

 

>The first storyline was just announcing the offer.

>I have two major bonuses in there which means I have two stories I should tell.

 

The first story I told was about swag.

 

#Number 3:  I think the story I told was about how the offer of mine came about and why this shirt came about. Especially the Capitalist Pig shirt, right. How that Capitalist Pig shirt came around, and why does that make sense? That's why I did it that way. That's how it worked so well. There was a story about that; it became the story for the next Facebook post.

 

#Number 4: Then I copied it and sent it as an email with a link to go buy, with a call to action. "First, what you going to go do? Go buy through this link. It's my link. I'm just telling you it's an affiliate link.

 

Number two, send a screenshot to my team right here of your receipt. Number three, inside that screenshot, when you send the screenshot also tell us your shirt size, your address so we can ship stuff out to you.

 

Then tell us what funnel you guys want, all the assets for that that I have, and I'll blast it out to you as well. Ready, go! As a reminder, this ends Sunday at midnight, OK?"

 

Very standard call to action - that was it.

 

#Number 5: The next day it was Sunday, it was the story about the very next piece. The funnels, OK? I was like, "Well, how do I tell Funnel Stache stories in a way that people haven't heard yet?" So I started looking through assets I already had that I forgot that I had. That the audience will most likely forget that I had as well, OK?

 

A lot of times, guys, when it comes to affiliate stuff I'm just reusing stuff that I already have. A lot of times I'm not creating things that I don't have. For me, I'm going to spend my creative power on my stuff. However, for affiliate things I can just bundle up cool stuff. You know what I'm saying? So this is the post that I wrote talking about Funnel Stache, I said:

 

"Here's my client checklist. Some of you guys may have seen this. So here's my client checklist.  My early days of funnel building were ... interesting.

 

I'd take on anyone for any reason. At some point I was building for eight, eight different companies at the same time: skin care, toys, statues, supplements, political stuff. Yup, that was a crazy one. Different programs, et cetera.

 

I had no filter, no requirements, no qualifiers to work with me. Actually, my only requirement was whether or not someone had money to pay. My friend, that is not good business practice. I was a good funnel builder and hustling hard, but not at the right stuff."

 

Notice I'm not coming out saying, "Buy through my thing!" There's a story, right? I've told you the backstory. I've told you a wall. Internals, externals, like I'm hitting all the stuff right? So now I'm leading you into a spot where there's an epiphany, "Oh my gosh, there are actual qualifiers of who should be inside of my affiliate stuff."

 

...Okay, I'm going to go faster here, so this episode is not crazy long. But I want you to see just behind what's going in my head when I'm promoting somebody else's stuff - because two times in a row now, right, number one, I was number one for the 30 Days book and then I just didn't have any time. Last three days I just swooped in and was able to make fifth place - which is awesome.

 

But there's a method to how I'm doing this, and I don't think people know it. I don't think people are seeing what I'm doing. So what I thought I would do in this episode, is anyways, it's a little bit longer. Hopefully, that's cool with you guys.

 

So I said, "I was a good funnel builder, hustling, but at the wrong stuff. About two years in, I left college, I became Russell Brunson's funnel builder, and I started creating a checklist of things I needed to know about a company before I ever agreed to build a sales funnel for them. Here is that checklist."

 

I'm leading with serious value here. Am I promoting my stuff yet? No! That's big.

 

So then I walk through the checklist:

 

“There are 11 things that I walk through here. You need to look at this, look at this." I explain why in each one of them. People were like, "Holy crap." It got shared, it got commented on - it went all over the place. It was really really cool, the checklist.

 

Then I said, "I realize this list leaves a lot of you guys out. I can't build for you, or you're not in a scenario where I get to actually build for you, right? Your goal is to match your funnel building skill level with the correct client for you. So with that in mind, here is my gift to you...

 

About 12 months before I left ClickFunnels, I started building sales funnels in front of live audiences so they could ask their questions while I did it. The response was amazing. I kept doing it. I now have a collection of the best of the best sales funnels just as we would build them at ClickFunnels. I'd like to give one of them to you."

 

(... I mean, come on, guys, that's awesome copy. It's amazing. This took me about an hour and a half to write...)

 

I also want to give you:

 

#The course on how to build the funnel and why.

 

#The strategy of when to use it.

 

#The prebuilt shares funnel.

 

#The email sequence.

 

I'm also going to give you guys some of my leftover OfferMind swag.

 

#The famous "Capitalist Pig" t-shirt.

 

#The voice losing "It's Monday, Baby" t-shirt.

 

#Sales Funnel Radio journal and pen.

 

#I'm also going to pay for the shipping for you.

 

I was looking at my commissions when everyone would buy one of them, and it's like $118. My guess is it's not going to cost that much money to ship it, and then also less all of the costs of the swag; I'll actually be making money still on promoting this thing.

 

However, I'm willing to lose a little money to gain speed. Does that make sense?

 

I'm going to pick up more sales by losing, and I'm totally fine with that, I just wanted to be in the top 10, OK?

 

"How to get your gift: Simply buy Russell's new stage sales and closer training 10X Secrets through my affiliate link here.

 

Step number two: send a screenshot to goanswerme.com, which is the support link I have.

 

Step number three: just tell me your address, shirt size, all the stuff, we'll cover it in here.

 

Here are some of the funnels that are in there:

 

#Hiring funnel.

#Auto-webinar funnel.

# E-com funnel.

#Free plus shipping.

#Event funnel.

# Membership funnel.

#Publishing funnel.

#Supplement funnel.

 

Sound fair? Awesome. Just do steps one through three now.

 

Russell's ending his 10X Secrets offer tonight at midnight - you have 12 hours left."

 

Does that make sense?

 

Fifty-eight comments came in, and people were going nuts and commenting, "Boom, I just bought. Boom, I just bought. Boom, I just bought. Boom, I just bought."

 

#Number 6: The next thing I did, which was very very masterful on this, is I exported all the people who had already purchased, and I said, "Congrats " to these people for already purchasing. There's this huge list of people who've already been purchasing.

 

Huge social proof, right? Same psychology as you would have inside of a funnel. Does that make sense? So that's a huge move, and I do that all the time now. So that people see like, "Oh I'm not the only one doing this."

 

#Number 7: Then I tag the people who've been buying from me, so it pings them. "Oh, Steve Larsen just mentioned you in a comment." Like, what? They will go to that post. They will read it and say like, "Woo, yeah, baby." Massive social proof. You guys get what I'm saying?

 

#Number 8: Then I'll take that post and blast it to all my email list one more time.

 

Guys, that's how I run affiliate stuff. You don't get to sidestep marketing just because somebody else made the product and gave you a link to sell it with. You do not; you still have to create marketing. It's no different than if it was your product or not. Build a campaign around it, OK?

 

So:

 

#I told three stories.

#I made an offer.

 

What did I have? What were the assets I already had that could solve follow up problems they're going to experience when they buy the other person's product?

 

When they buy 10X Secrets, what are some questions they'll have? Oh, you know what, I know Stephen does a lot of stage speaking. What if I got some cool swag that he has that's left over. Cool. I already have that, awesome, done. Cool. Sweet. I can do a lot of cool things with that already.

 

What if I was able to send them out some funnels? Boom, done, awesome. "Which one are you going to choose?" Package the offer together.

 

One story is about the offer itself.

 

>Next story about the next bonus.

 

>Next story about the next bonus.

 

If I had longer, I would:

 

> Keep adding bonuses and stories with calls to actions.

>Additional social proof.

>Re-downloading the list of people who have bought from me.

>Putting it back out inside the email and inside of the actual comments area of the Facebook post.

>Take that post, push it out in an email.

 

Over and over and over and over and over. Pressure, pressure, pressure. Boom, here it comes! Here comes the ending, close close close, whoa, right!

 

And that's exactly how I do it, and that's exactly how I've always done it.

 

If I had even more time, I would go get Russell Brunson on a podcast, or whomever I'm promoting... I'd start getting that person on publications and interviewing them to make content around it.

 

You saw me do that with the 30 Days book. That's why I had so much noise.

 

I put my own content, my own money behind creating content for it. I just want you guys to know more about the affiliate game. It is not, not, not about just grabbing an affiliate link and sending some traffic to it.

 

Does that work? Sure. Are you going to make a lot of money? In my mind, doubtful.

 

Build an offer around the product. Build an offer around the other person's product and then go tell stories with a call to actions behind it. Super simple. A really easy way to do it.

 

I'm nervous to tell you guys this - because I've had a lot of fun being in the leaderboards like crazy for a lot of stuff.

 

Anyway, very very exciting.

 

Hopefully, you guys have enjoyed that episode. If you did, please please please go to iTunes and let me know and rate the podcast. That helps me like crazy, helps the show a lot. It really means a lot to me.

 

Those of you guys who have already done that, "Thank you, guys, I appreciate you guys being in this and watching this episode. Look forward to seeing you guys in the next leaderboards for anything you promote."

 

Boom, just try to tell me you didn't like that.

 

Hey, whoever controls content controls the game. Want to interview me or get interviewed yourself? Grab a time now at stevejlarsen.com



Dec 11, 2018

Boom! What's up everyone, Steve Larsen from Sales Funnel Radio. Today I'm gonna teach you guys how gurus write their books.

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my 9 to 5 to take the plunge and build my million-dollar business.

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt? Completely from scratch. This podcast is here to give you the answer.

Join me and follow along, as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business, using only today's best internet sales funnels.

My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

What's up?

Hey, I'm excited about this topic. I did a Facebook Live recently, and I went through, and I started showing you how gurus write their books.

Now, right off the bat, I want to acknowledge the fact that yes, I understand that people write books in a week or whatever. I'm not talking about that.

This is not to offend anybody, but when somebody says, "Oh my gosh, "why do you take so long to write a book, Stephen? Why does Russell take so long? Why do all these people take so long?" The reason is that we want them to be really really good, right? That's the only answer.

We want them to be super super epic, super fantastic.

Shortly after I got to ClickFunnels, Russell started drafting the Expert Secrets book...

If you've never had a chance to read that book, go to expertsecrets.com, pay for the shipping, and just get the book. That book changed my life. Awesome stuff.

...So he started drafting that book, and I'm right next to him. He'd be drafting stuff and drafting stuff.  At the beginning, I'd just be typing, like "Holy crap, history is in the making, right now three feet from me." I was like "This is super cool."

As time went on though, we started going back and forth on different concepts. I had a lot of fun being involved in the creation of some of the ideas. You know, it's obviously his book, he wrote it, it's all his.

I'm not gonna say, "Yeah I did that." Not true at all, okay? But I did have an amazing opportunity to be a part of a lot of things that were created for that book - to see the process, not just the content, the process that he was going through to make sure that what he was teaching about was prolific, was amazing, right? Was incredible. Was received well.

One of my favorite quotes is, "The destruction of information is the essence of intelligent work," or something like that.

You should not seek complexity. Complexity to make you sound smart does nothing for the person who's hearing the content -  which is why at Offer Mind, I didn't go huge into tons of stuff. I didn't go to the nerd zone.

I tested material like crazy to see how you received it and then watching you and your reaction to what I'm saying, I can go back, and I can adjust. Go back and adjust, go back and adjust. I'm holding something in my arm here. I'll show you that in a second, okay?

What I need you to understand is a lot of gurus that are out there who truly understand this game, I gotta be careful the way I say this, but whatever, I'll just be honest about this...

I get so nervous when someone's like, "Hey, I wrote my book in like a week." I'm like, "Is it any good? Have you tested it? Is the material in there fantastic?" A book will either make or break you. I don't want to write something that's not good, not amazing. I wanna write a book that's incredible, a groundbreaking book.

A lot of you guys have been asking me, "When are you going to have a book? When are you going to teach this concept?" What I've been doing, and a lot of you guys don't know, is I've been teaching a lot of this stuff for the past eight months, nine months with the intent to figure out if it's good material for a book.

I've been teaching this stuff, though, for years. I've been teaching it, I've been testing it, I've been seeing how you guys would react to it, and then I go in and coach people on those principles:

"Sweet, okay, that was received well. Oh my gosh, that one thing there worked really well. Oh my gosh, that plus that, boom. That made the money happen. That plus that, boom, that made the money happen. That plus that, in that scenario, that doesn't work very well." You know what I mean? I've been able to go in and test like crazy.

I am not trying to write a book for the sake of writing a book. I'm trying to write a book that's incredible. You know what I mean? It's not about speed for me in this area, especially with books. Books are very final.

In a members area in a course, I can go in and just switch out the URL, bam, new video, but with a book, it's there. It's printed. It stays. It's shipped. It's more permanent.

In this episode, we're going to cut over to the Facebook Live and what I want you to see is the process that I had a chance to watch Russell go through when he wrote the book Expert Secrets. Same process he went through when he wrote Dot Com Secrets. Same process he went through when he was writing Traffic Secrets. Same Process that I have been using to write my book. That was one of the real purposes of the event Offer Mind, was that.

So what we do, is, I've been coaching, I've been using this material, I've been testing it, but then I go through, and I write...

This is I think four or five legal pads worth of paper. It's a lot; I don't know if the camera can pick that up. It's a lot of paper; it's very very thick.

I draw one major diagram that represents all of it. Then I take little pieces out and say, "Okay, let's teach that and that. That and that sequentially. How should I digest this to understand it the best?" And that's what I do. That's what I've done.

Okay, now those are the principles, the major core things, now I need to go through and figure out the actual principles that teach that topic.

Now I need to think through the story that teaches that principle the best. I came up with probably 50 stories. I mean literally, it's a lot of stories. Because I can't just say, "Here's the thing!" I need to embed it, I need to embed it in the brain... and the way to do that is through storytelling.

So we're going to cut over the Facebook Live of me diving through... You're going to see these strewn out all across my office floor right here, all over the floor. You'll see more of the process of why we throw the event.

... Guys, a lot of the books that are out there that have been amazing, they're heavily researched books. It's not like someone's just walking around, I could make a book tomorrow, it's not hard, it isn't. I could literally just Vox something or make a voice thing, have somebody transcribe it, put it in a Word doc, print it, bind it, bam, done.

The process of writing the book is not hard. It's the process of coming up for the content that's challenging.

Something that's actually amazing.  Something that's completely prolific - So that's what's going on - I've been working hard at writing my book. This is my contribution to the marketing world. This is not an easy thing to go through.

The more I've looked at all these gurus who were doing this stuff, they all do something very similar to this. It's not about speed, in this specific area, for this exact move that I'm using and doing.

Soon, you guys will see me create my book funnel.

A lot of you guys are gonna join me for free - which is great. You can join me and watch me build a book funnel that's gonna sell the book.

You'll see me think through all the upsells, craft and create the offer, the sales message for it - because now I have the product, the book. But then I gotta also sell that. So the book is a sales message, on the new concepts and ideas, but then there's a sales message to sell the book, and then I have to make a sales message for a hook for headlines to bring you in. It's a big process, especially for book funnels. Especially for book funnels.

What I'm pumped about is there's not an aggressive timeline for me on this, perfection, obsession is the goal for me on this - which is why it's taken me a while, and I'm totally cool with that.

As I'm speaking right now there are three books in the hopper, one of them is near done, this one about offers, so it's gonna be called Your Core Offer. So you guys can go to yourcoreoffer.com, and that's where the book funnel will be.

If it's not up yet, which it likely isn't by the time you guys hear this, you guys can join a little waiting list, and I will drop it out to you the moment it's ready so you guys can jump on there. But also, there's a way for you to watch me build the thing if you'd like to, as well. So it'll give you instructions on how to do that.

I like to do this with complete transparency so you guys can check that out...

There's a lot of moving pieces with this. I don't want to rush for the sake of a timeline. This is a big, big, big piece,  a big move. Big credibility comes with having a book - so I don't want to jack it up just because I want to get it out tomorrow, or next week, or whatever. You know what I mean?

So let's cut over real quick, sorry for that long intro there, but I want you to know that stuff. So we're gonna cut over to the Facebook Live now, and see a little more behind the scenes of the actual process, and I'm gonna walk you guys through that.

Thanks, guys so much, appreciate it, let's cut over there now. Bye.

Real quick, so about two weeks ago, crap, it's Saturday. Yes, two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, I was able to go in and hang out with Russell late into the evening at ClickFunnels office. It was pretty much just he and I. Dave Woodward came in for a little while, and we were going back and forth on concepts for the Traffic Secrets book and the Traffic Secrets event. This is one of my favorite things to do ever.

Right after I got hired at ClickFunnels, that's when we started drafting Expert Secrets. Russell would come up with some concepts, then he'd come, be like, "Is that cool?" and then we'd go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, that concept, this concept, that concept, this concept. I was very heavily involved in that process. It was cool to watch how a genius like that writes a book.

I get a little bit nervous when I see someone bragging about the fact that they wrote their book in a weekend. You know what I mean? Unless you got a crap ton of material, I'm nervous for you. I am nervous when someone writes a book that quickly. So here is how we write it.

I'm not gonna share with you guys everything. That's all you're gonna see right there... but this is what we do:

We come right over here on this side, and we write down on one, see all the red right there? The red right there, right there on that column?

First of all, what we do is we start up at the top right there, and we draw a framework, we draw a picture that represents the entire book, or the entire presentation, or the entire whatever. That's what that one is right up there. I'm not gonna share with you guys because it's secret, okay?

(Showing beard) No Shave November, you like that?

But first we start with the framework that's right up there, and it represents every single thing that's going to be in the book - One massive framework.

The next thing we do is we go in, and as logically as possible, we break up the main topics, like big subjects. Things that we could riff on for three or four hours. That's what all that red column is right there. Right where my finger is. See that? That red column right there.

So section one, two, three, four, five, six, right, down right in there, you can see the one that's massive, right there, where my finger is right there.

(Pointing around the office) "You like the stop sign?" That's for an ad.  "You like it?" That's all my Dream 100 packaging, all that stuff; there's some sick stuff there for Offer Mind, stuff's getting shipped in like crazy, so the office is totally messed right now.

Then what we go do is we draw out the major images that have to do with this session. All the major images right here. Check this out, we all the major images for that session. There's gonna be a whole bunch of smaller ones, but that's the major image and logical progression of an idea that represents that main session. Does that make sense?

So it's broken down kind of like this:

we've got that main framework up at the top; we're like "Woo, here's the picture or whatever." Then what we do is we say, "Okay, well, first of all, there's that part, and then there's this part, and then there's this piece of the framework, and that piece…’  and we start to number them out in these big broad categories.

We number them out.

This is like a main broad thing. This one piece right here is just this section. However, you have to know that in order to go this one. So we put it in order, it's descending in the order you have to understand the concepts to pull off whatever the book, the course, or the whatever is about. The presentation, right?

This is exactly the process we went through for the Traffic Secrets event. Exactly the process we went through for Expert Secrets book. Exactly the same process I'm going through for everything right here.

So then what we do, if this is session number one, this is session number two, session number 3, okay, this is how all the experts write books. Just so you know. Write slowly. Write slowly.

Number one, there's a big framework up at the top, and then you break it all out into these different sessions.

Those of you coming to Offer Mind, you're gonna see me do this, and the full circle of this.

So then what we do is we draw step number one -  actually pulling off that major piece of framework is this. Then we draw an image about that. We come up with four or five major images up at the top. Now there's gonna be a whole bunch of smaller ones as well, but that's not how we're going to describe it on stage. Does that make sense?

If this is a big whiteboard and I'm standing on stage, and I'm like, "Rah rah rah!" because I yell a lot. I'm drawing it out, I'm drawing out, I'm drawing out the framework, and then I show this slide — the final thing. Then I go to the next one, and I'm drawing it out on a whiteboard. I'm drawing, I'm drawing, I'm drawing, and suddenly, "Oh my gosh, let's show this next slide."

What we're doing is we're fleshing out all the content from our head about this one thing. Does that make sense?

If this is session one, you have to know this, and you have to know this, and these are all images.

That's why we draw doodles, guys. That's why the doodles are in Expert Secrets books, the Dot Com Secrets books, that's why doodles are in Traffic Secrets, that's why doodles are in my Secrets Masterclass course, my Secret MLM Hacks, right? My Funnels stash.

If I can explain it in a doodle,  then it's simple enough to be re-teachable. I need to be able to reteach it. It needs to be able to be transferable. The purpose is not for me to appear smart, the purpose is for me to be able to teach clearly these concepts to the listener. Does that make sense?

So I draw the major framework right up here. Major, major framework, and that represents everything in the event.

Then I go through, and we figure out, okay within in session one, two, three, four, five, six, or whatever. However many that is, and then we draw macro-level images, draw macro-level doodles across the top that represent a collection of ideas. Then on stage, all we do is brain dump on that one thing specifically for the recording. We are doing it for the camera - because here's what happens:

The recording, all the doodles, all the images, everything, get sent off to a ghostwriter. Now, we do not leave it up to the ghostwriter to do the produced work. We let the ghostwriter take the first pass at it - so that when we see that image, there's all this content going in and driving in all of the points possible for just that one image. Suddenly we have a sweet chapter. Then we have another sweet chapter. Then we go back in, and we rewrite the entire thing personally. That's exactly what I'm doing as well.

However, having somebody else go through, see the images, see the things, listen to the recordings, watch when I drew that, and write out the first initial draft, is the best way to get the brain dump out of the head.

Now a lot of you guys don't know this, but everything that I've been doing in the past eight months in my podcast has been little tiny micro pieces of this.

I've taught a little bit of this in that episode. I taught a little bit of that in this episode. A little bit of that in that episode.  I'm spot checking and trying to see if the content's sexy enough? Does it attract enough? Do you understand it? What content in there was like, "Oh my gosh, that's amazing!" Does that make sense?

So for the last, like, eight months, all the things I've been teaching, and all the things that we've been learning back and forth. It starts to come into this one clear picture - so now I can lace it in order. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Then, teach it for three days in front of all these people, and see how you react to it.


You guys heard Dean Graziosi? I think it's Dean Graziosi, he teaches this cool concept... he's like you know all these cool stage comedians, they get up, and they're like, "Man that guy's hilarious."

The truth is, they started a year ago.

They write 10 jokes, and they go out to a stage, and they say their 10 jokes. Two of them stick, and the other eight suck. So they erase the eight jokes. Then they go to the next stage, the very next night, with the two original jokes and eight new ones. "Oh my gosh, now three of them are amazing."

Then they'll go back, and they'll write another seven jokes, they'll tell the original three plus the new seven. The people are literally voting for them on whether or not the joke was funny. So when they finally get to Conan. That's when they finally get to Jimmy Kimmel. That's why they're hitting it so hard, and all their jokes are awesome.

Fantastic lesson right there. That's the same format we use to write books.

It freaks me out when someone's like, "Well it only took me three days to write my book." I'm like, "Errrm, have you tested any of that content? Have you tested any of those materials?" That's freaky. I would never do that. That scares the crap out of me.

I've had some people reach out to me, they're like, "I'll ghostwrite your thing in three days." I'm like, "I don't want that. That scares the crap out of me." Instead, I've taken eight months to go through and deep dive on little tiny pieces. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.

Then I'll make that one an episode.

Then this on principle, that seems a little risky, that's the episode. Then that's the episode, that's the episode.

Now, I have one major framework - (I'm not gonna show you guys), sitting at the top of this thing, and what I have is, down the left side, all the major sessions that I'll be teaching at OfferMind.

Now that all those sessions are in Offer Mind, I can go dive in and draw macro-level things, doodles, that represent complex ideas. If I can teach that, and do this for two hours, and collect all your questions and everything back and forth - that's a huge deal. Now I know my book will be amazing. It's gonna be called Your Core Offer. I'm very very stoked about it.

Your Core Offer material has been tested and tested and tested and tested; I have case studies, testimonials, personal clients, success stories. It's not something that just popped out of my head. It is something that I have been working on slowly, for months. So anyways, that's the whole point of this. Just so you know, here's what goes on.

The framework's at the top, all the major key pieces are right there, macro-level images across the side right there...

Then what I do is I order them, and I draw them into pictures, but then I go over here on the whiteboard and see all of the sections right there? Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, those are all the sessions, and I write out all of the outputs that someone should be able to get by the time that session is over.

It's not just, "Well, lemme teach you cool crap," I believe in "so whats?" I call them "so what’s?" Okay, I'm doing this sweet thing. "So what? Who cares?" Well here's the "so what?" Everything in blue - those are the "so what's."

You should be able to have outputs in your personal business and results based on everything in that column.

Everything in green, that's a story.

Everything in red, that's a principle.

Everything that's a blue line next to it means that there is a very awesome strong image or doodle that's been created just for that piece.

Now I can go to the next step. This is exactly what I do. This is what Russell does; I'm just telling you guys because I don't think a lot of you know this.

So what I did is I started a contest inside of Freelancer. Huge fan of Freelancer, if you guys want to see my strategy on how I use Freelancer, go to bestmarketingresources.com, and it's all in there for you.

Check this out. So I have a contest that's running, I need to find a good doodler. I know who Russell's doodler is for the books, but this is my own thing. Find your own people. There's funnel hacking; then there's being annoying. I don't pilfer off Russell's team. I go get my own.

So what I need to do now is find somebody who can do all the doodles for me. So check this out. Right here, watch this:

In Freelancer, what I've been doing is running a contest for the last 24 hours, it's very aggressive, I'm awarding $120 to the person who gives back. I just took one image, took a picture of it and said, "Redraw that with these parameters. I need it to look somewhat like this."

I've had 299 submissions. The contest just ended, and so what I'm doing now is I've got 299 submissions.

I'm gonna reload it because it says, "Time to choose the winning entry. Four people are planning to submit... " Well, they lost out. I am ruthless. I am ruthless. I'm just hoping you guys know...

I called it Redraw My Stick Figures Into Vectors - I want it to be a vector, and there's a $120 reward, I have a month to reward the person, but really I need everything back in the next day,

So I took one image, so let me show you guys the actual, so here's the description, so you guys can model if you want to. I said, "I need several images...this is the first attached. Don't worry about the words so much. I just need the image. The end up looking something like this." I took a screenshot from one of Russell's books. "I want it to be very clean." Then I walked through; These are the files that are attached. I give them a whole bunch of stuff and then down here in the actual clarification board... I think I have one there, yeah. I wrote several things in here.

I was like, "Look, I plan on sending 40 images to the winner as soon as the contest is over. We can discuss price when I need it back. Make it look hand drawn. I don't want it to look like clip art." I was ruthless to these people.  I do that every single time. 300 submissions in 24 hours, that's nuts.

I rejected almost everything. Look at that. That person couldn't follow directions. I said only black. No color. That looks like it's clip art. I mean, look at those lines right there. So I get super, super, super detail oriented on this. I get anal about it. I get intense because I'm about to drop 40 images on them, it's gonna be hell for me.

So I come in, and rejected, rejected, rejected, There's only a few images. You get some really weird ones. I'm like, "Did you even read the instructions?"

I have a little system. If it's a four, it means I should look at it again. A five, I absolutely love it, I hardly ever give them a five. I'm usually rejecting and giving them a three. If it's a one or two, I just kill 'em. I just get rid of it. I was like, "There we go." It's starting to look like more hand-drawn things. So there's a whole bunch of submissions that are the same exact thing - because I'm vetting people out.

Now, the next step that I do, that's where I am right now, is I'm gonna go vote on the last few ones, clean up the last few pieces, and I look for the top three people. I look for the top three people, and I go to my number one, and I go to number two and number three, and I give them the same pitch. I liked your thing. It was awesome. How much would it be? How fast can you get it done? Here's all the images. Several times I've had a few freelancers do the exact same project just in case I'm not totally sure yet. That way I have a lot of copies back of the right thing. Anyways, that's my process.

Now I have all the images, and I can go in and put them in slides. And as I'm drawing things up on the whiteboard in front of people in the OfferMind, and they're asking questions and I'm hearing them, that's the important piece, I'm hearing them and making sure that what I'm drawing in front of them represents all the questions that are important to answer. Then I can pop the actual pro-looking image on the screen once I've already drawn it and walked people through it as I'm drawing it. Does that make sense?

Next, that event recording will go back to a ghostwriter, who will go back through, and she will take all the images and what I was saying about that image, and turn it into copy. Then she'll go back and write the thing.  Then I rewrite the entire thing.

That, my friends, is how you do a book.

The recordings of the event will easily be an upsell in the book funnel that sells the book, along with audiobook and all that stuff. That's how this stuff works.

It's not hard to write a book. You can self-publish any freakin' book. Having a book can make you or break you. Just having a book out there is not good enough. Is it a good book? I don't care if it took two weeks to write it, is it good? You know what I mean? So, I want to write a good, good book. An excellent book.

It's freakin' awesome by the way, everything especially in those three columns right there, has never been taught by anyone ever. They're all the little things that I've been using to make my clients successful that no one's talked about. I'm excited about it.

How do you choose a ghostwriter and where do you look for them? Great question, John. Same process. First I'll start with my personal network to see who has good writers that they've liked, and I'll test them. There are two ladies right now that write my blog. There's a third who's gonna go help ghostwrite a second book, the first round of it; then I'll come back through and write the second one.

I'm working on three books right now. There's three of them. Ahh, this is so freakin' awesome...

One of them is about all the lessons I learned while sitting next to Russell.

The second one is about this offer here.
anywayird one is going to be pretty disruptive in MLM space because I do have a backend business there...

I'm psyched about it. It'll be cool.

I start with my personal network and I'll have them write a few blog posts to see if I like their style. I'm not just looking for style, I'm looking to see if they can match my voice. That's what I'm really looking for.  So I'll start with a whole bunch of small projects, and then if it seems like it's a good one, then I'll go more deeply on it.

Anyway, awesome. Super awesome stuff.

Freelancer, yeah, sometimes I'll write 'em on Freelancer. Guys, but it's so much easier if you can, to hire someone from your own audience because they know who you are, they get the culture - they want to do a good job. It's not just about money. They understand there's gonna be probably follow-up stuff - know what I mean? Really helps like crazy.

Anyway, I just wanted to walk you through that process.

Please write books slowly. I'm tired of seeing people write books in three weeks and then be like, "Well, I only had this many purchases", or, "No one's talking about it." Because you probably didn't test any of the content, and you probably didn't teach it in front of a whole crapload of people. You know what I mean? That's how I write and create stuff that's awesome.

The other side reason for my podcast is that I'm testing material on you guys. If I look at my podcast stats, sometimes the thing that I'll do is run in here and look to see, it's logging in real fast, so you guys can see it...

So freakin' nuts guys, we just passed 200,000 downloads a few weeks ago, and we're already at 213,000 for Sales Funnel radio. It's crazy.

So on the right column, these are all the episodes that just launched; Branding Comes Second, Five Phases of a Funnel, My Latest Free Lead Source, these are the stats for after they've been out for like a month or six weeks.  Like wow, 1,400, 1,400; 1,400 - that's awesome - just for that one episode. "Okay, sweet. What was the story I told there? Hmm, I wonder if I should use that over there? Huh, what was this story over here? Which comment back the most?" I'm letting the market vote.

I'm not letting them vote on the core concepts of the book; they wouldn't know know how to vote on that. They don't know what those concepts are, but I am letting them vote on stories. I'm letting them vote on the way I told it, the way I taught it that time. You know what I mean?

There's been several webinars where not many people have shown up that I've been doing JVs for ClickFunnels, and sometimes people will be like, "Well, do you want to cancel it?"  I'm like, "No, man, I want mat time." I want time on the mat. I want to just be doing the thing as often as I can. Does that make sense? The same thing is true with your content and the core concepts.

Your book can make or break you. If the book is the first time that you've ever taught those things, I am scared for you. Books are so permanent. They're so permanent. It's hard to unpublish a book. It's easy to unpublish an episode. It's easy to unpublish a blog. It's easy, right? Those are low-impact places to publish and test your material.

Doing things on a webinar, doing things in front of an audience, those are great low-impact places to do it. But when you write a book, there's a finality to a book for some reason. Those stay on my shelf.

Look, I got that shelf, that shelf, that shelf, stacks of books on the side right there, stacks of books down on the floor. I got books all over the place.  I'm constantly going back through them.

I went through and I started organizing all the books where I learned certain materials, next to all the stuff. Anyway, I'm excited, I'm excited guys, this is really really cool.

The process is a massive brain jog, but you become... it's amazing how many epiphanies you have, just in the middle of organizing the material.

So I'm excited for you guys. How many of you guys out here want to be an author? If you want to be an author, I hope that you choose to be, a lot of credibility comes with it, but man, jumping to a book, in my opinion, a book is something that you earn the right to write.

Something that Russell taught me... if you think about it, you earn the right to write a book. It's a stamp. It's a thing that lives for a long time. So if it's not amazing, if it's not blue ocean, if it's not prolific - that's some scary crap.

If you guys are like, "I'm trying to get my book out," - don't try too fast. I'm actually taking this real slow. Real slow, and on purpose, alright? This has been sitting out on the floor because I'm going back, and I'm reteaching it. I'll reteach Colton. I'll reteach other people: "Does that make sense that time? Does that make sense over here this time? Does that make sense?" I know how it works, but like, can you teach why it works? That's a totally different thing.

So I encourage you to write books slowly.

Half of the reason for Offer Mind is for me to teach you guys how to find your core offer and draft it, and how to go in it and take hold of a brand new market that's never existed before, and the process for doing so. That's not a small task, right? And luckily, I've coached thousands of people on this now, I have logged thousands and thousands and thousands of hours in doing this thing. It's my obsession. It's a Saturday, and it's what I do - it's who I am. It 's my work and my hobby. I love it. I don't think about anything else really. I love this stuff.

But understanding how to do it and knowing how to teach it effectively and simply, completely separate things. And so, this is the process we run through.

If you watch a lot of Russell's stuff, you watch a lot of my stuff, and you watch a lot of Dean Graziosi's stuff... a lot of big people that are out there, they're using their content platform as a way to test material for future big programs. That's exactly what I've been doing, and that's why this is such a huge deal for me to run through. So hopefully that makes sense.

(FB Comment) John Pumphrey, man, that's cool, that you're launching your podcast.

But anyway, that's why this is such a huge deal. If I can effectively test all my material, if I can effectively draw into little doodles, that's hard. Some people are like, "Why do you use doodles?" It's because of what it means. If I can make a doodle out of a complex thing, I have now simplified it enough to reteach it. Because most experts, they're way past the point of fulfillment for the audience that wants to hear it.

Meaning, all you need to do is go right here, and people are gonna be excited. But since you're the expert, and the guru, you deep dive and you go way past the point of fulfillment, and you stress the crap out of your audience. So if you can doodle it, it helps you go backwards so that you can still teach complex stuff, but in a way that's digestible quickly. So they're not having to sit back and be like, "I think I get it." If anyone says that, it's wrong.

If anyone says, "Yeah, that was really good," it was wrong.

If someone's like, "Whoa!"-  that was right. If someone's like, "Oh my gosh that was really cool," - that was right. So that's the process, that's how I'm doing it, and that's why it works.

It's not fast, so it freaks me out whenever I see people saying that.

So, anyway, hopefully, that's exciting to you guys. I am just freakin' psyched for OfferMind by the way., there are a lot of big people coming - I had no idea until we started looking at the list.

If you're brand new, awesome, I'm excited for you as well. I'm excited for you to be there, it's gonna be fantastic. It's how to craft an offer, and how to actually put together something that the market's been asking you for, but still the ability to be prolific at the same time, and which funnel best manifests the offer that you've put together. It's really cool. It's really cool. Stuff that no one's ever taught. I'm really really pumped about it, guys.

This is my move into becoming a category king. That's who I'm trying to become - the Offer Creation Category King.

Alright guys, we'll see you guys later. Hopefully, that was helpful to you, I'm really psyched about it. So the next thing I'm doing right now:

#1: I'm gonna go in and find my doodler, send a whole bunch of images to them.

#2: Figure out my intro and my outro for the actual whole event, and then, ready to rock.

The biggest question I struggled with for years, and easily the biggest question I'm asked, by the thousands of people I've coached in this process is, "Stephen, what should I sell?"

And if you've been listening to my podcast, you'd have probably had that question, right?

After thousands of coaching students and sheer obsession in the game, I started noticing that there was a strong but untaught pattern of how I was selling successfully, and over and over again.

It honestly took me about 17 business tries, or failures honestly, to figure this out - to get one right. Since then, though, they've pretty much all been winners. So what changed?

What changed? I learned the pattern, I learned the framework.

Secretly, for the last nine months, I've been working to document my process and refine it even further, and it's worked, very well.

My book will teach you how to design the core offer of your business, and a winning sales message that sells it.

Did you hear what I just said? That's a huge claim and I totally get it, but this will help you actually figure out what you sell and how to sell it. It's a process I've been using now for about three years for myself and my students.

If you want to learn the framework, this pattern or formula for yourself, go get my book at yourcoreoffer.com. It's free, just cover the shipping, at yourcoreoffer.com.



Dec 7, 2018

Boom, what's going on everyone?

It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio.

Today I'm gonna teach you guys about the origins of the offer.

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

Join me and follow along, as I learn, apply, and share in marketing strategies to grow my online business, using only today's best internet sales funnels.

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.
What's up, guys?

Hey, okay. So I was at the Traffic Secrets event. Traffic Secrets was an event run by Russell Brunson, just for the Two Comma Club X people.

If you don't know what that is, Two Comma Club X coaching is a program where we take people and we help them make their first million. Tons of fun, and it is successful. It's lots of fun. It's a fun group. There's a lot of events that come with it.

I'm a Two Comma Club X coach. I've now brought, at the time I'm recording this, about 2,000 people through this process now. There are patterns; and when people follow the pattern, they have success.

This event was called Traffic Secrets, it was over in Phoenix. Getting to Phoenix was pretty crazy. There was something messed up with the airplane, so they had to get us off and get a new plane. There was like, a bolt coming out of the side of the airplane, and no one could figure out what it was. It was really freaky.

We got off the plane to switch planes, and that is the moment, my friends, when adults become children and start whining and complaining.

Anyways,  I get over to Traffic Secrets, it's a bunch of fun. It's a lot of work.

I remember growing up, my dad traveled quite a bit as well. I always had this perception like, "Oh man, Dad, is it so cool going out?" Like, "You're traveling like a beast, do you have so much fun? What, did you see while you're there? Did you see this while you're there?"

It wasn't until I was a little bit older that I realized, it's pretty much straight work. I only see my hotel room, the event room, and the walk in between, that's it. And then the shuttle ride back to the airport. That's kind of all I see any event I go to.

Anyway, so, Russell got up. He talked for two days. I had a ton of fun. Right before that, I got a chance to go and hang out with him in his office just he and I, until about 2:00 am, to structure a lot of the content and things like that. It was just a ton of fun.

I'm going off script here real quick, okay? It's funny, 'cause my wife kinda laughs, she'll be like, "Hey, did you have fun with Russell tonight?"  

I'm not teasing her, I just think it's funny, and I get it, you know. She'll be like, "Why do you like hanging out so much?"  Well, besides the fact that it's Russell Brunson and we are good friends, the more you learn about the thing that you're doing, the less people you can relate with about what you're doing. You know what I mean?

And that's why the game can sometimes be a little bit lonely. So I always have a bunch of fun going and doing that. It was cool to be behind the scenes and be back structuring content and putting ideas and concepts together, and then go sit back and watch the audience as Russell executed that plan. Cool education right there.

Russell talked for two days. Lots of energy. "Rah, rah, rah," right? He's all over the place - lots of energy. At the end of two days, we go, and we're having dinner with the ClickFunnels crew, the staff and all the coaches were there. We were just shooting the breeze, just chatting for a little bit.

Most people left, and there's only five or six of us left, and we're like, "Hey, let's go see that movie, Venom." Which was super cool by the way, it was a good movie.

Just before we left to see the movie, Russell leaves for a second. He comes back, and he goes, "Dude. Do you know who Claude Hopkins is?" I'd heard the name, but I hadn't studied him yet.

I'm making the rounds on who I'm studying right now. I haven't gotten to Claude Hopkins yet. And I said, "No, heard the name though." And he goes, “Dude, you are going to love Claude Hopkins." I said, "Alright, cool." So he starts telling me a little about Claude Hopkins...and he said, "...basically, he's like the godfather of what you do." And I said, "Please tell me more."

This is a picture of Claude.  I went and printed out a picture of him.  It's gonna look really blurry. This is the man himself. What's up, man? Alright,  Claude Hopkins?

Claude Hopkins (1866–1932) was brought into companies to create the equivalent of an offer.  In 1907 he was paid a salary of $185,000 a year. That's like getting paid 1.3 million in today's dollars. This is a highly paid guy. And all he would do is go in and create offers. That's what he was known for.

Companies would hire him to come in and help construct the offer as part of the sales message. So he goes in and he would create the offer, but then also pieces of the sales message that would make it sexy.

I was like, "Russell, dude, that was like the greatest gift you could give me. Are you serious? You just taught me about how my market came to be."

I've been looking around trying to find the history of what I do? And it's not been an easy thing to go figure out. Not many people teach what I teach, which is one of the reasons why I'm stepping into that zone and being the category king of offer creation. That's my goal, that's what I'm going for.

You wanna see my second shot I'm calling? I'm calling it! My podcast introduction is all about, "Hey, I'm calling my shot!" Well, I'm doing that:

I'm on track I hope, for a million dollars this year. It's gonna be close; it's gonna be really, really, tight. But we're getting close. Some of you guys have reached out and asked, so I'm just telling you.

I'm trying to make my first million dollar business. I haven't taken on any VC funding, haven't taken on any debt.  It's gonna be close. Makes me feel better knowing it took Russell three tries to get it in a year. I'm getting close, though. I'm hoping that I can make it. I'm excited about it, though.

I started freaking out. I was like, wait, this Claude Hopkins guy. Here's more about him:

Back in the day, they were not called offers. They were called schemes. Meaning a scheme, like, you're gonna go create a scheme. What's your scheme to actually make cash? Back in the 1800s, you had a scheme man. A guy who created your scheme. They would come in, like, "Oh, I need a scheme man."

A scheme man would come in and would create the offer, or their scheme. And so that's the origins of offer creation. That's literally, that's how that stuff came about.

Now, I'm sure if some copywriter way back in the day, way before we actually wrote stuff down, similar concepts were going down, maybe? But that's how it happened, though.  They would go create these schemes and guys would come in and get paid huge sums of money to go in and actually create these things.

I freaked out when Russell started telling me some of this. And I was like, "That's amazing. It’s a huge deal that you told me that."  There was a few, little epiphanies I had. My brain just started running, which it does, and I let it. It's a ton of fun - totally like the Beautiful Mind thing. "I gotta ask you guys if some of you guys are real." But in my head, because of learning that, certain frameworks about how I know money is made started getting adjusted right there at the dinner table. Right there.

I was like, "Oh my gosh. That's how it works?" I was sitting next to Julie Stoian, and she leans to me after about five minutes, I was just zoned out. It's funny, my wife will reach over and be like, "You doing okay?" And it will wake me from this reverie; you know what I mean? I'm like, "Oh."

Well, Julie Stoian leaned over, she goes, "You're getting very pensive." And I was like, "Oh, crap." I realized I had zoned out, I was staring at something for, I don't know, probably ten minutes. My head was racing, and what I realized was that...

okay, walk with me for just a second here, okay? Just think about this for a second...

Every sales message, every good sales message has two introductions, and it has to do with the way the brain functions. Every sales message has two introductions:

One of the introductions, whoever the audience is that's listening to us, the introduction must introduce the person who's speaking. That makes sense. "Steve, who are ya?" Now I gotta do a little bit of an origin story. Meaning, how did I originally come into the thing that I'm doing?

"Well, I started the Sales Funnel Radio podcast back when I worked in ClickFunnels,” right?

You guys know all my, you all know my origin story.

Now, if I'm gonna sell something, I also need to tell, I need to do an introduction about the topic. So there's two introductions, does that makes sense? I'm just kind of setting the framework here. This is a big deal, this is a huge deal. This has made it so much easier for me to teach copywriting to people since I learned that.

And you, hearing this episode right now, just know I recorded this a few weeks ago, just so you know, that's just how I run my content - so that my team's got time to repurpose it like an animal.

So, anyway, there are two introductions to every single sales message. Now, think about this, what I'm doing is I'm going in and I'm telling my origin story. It is the way I introduce myself. It was not until Russell walked in and said, "Dude. Claude Hopkins," that I'm like, "Whoa! That's crazy." I realized, markets have origin stories too.  I was like, "What?" That's the second intro. You guys getting this?

If you're not freaking out right now, I totally get it. I'm a psycho, I'm a freak in this stuff, I totally get it. I'm gonna nerd out over things that you may not, and that's totally fine...

But here's basically what it means:

A lot of people when they sell, they believe that they need to come at it logically, or just emotionally. There are all these different ways to come in and be like, "I'm gonna tell you this, and do a whole bunch of scarcity urgency. I'm gonna do this and do the takeaway sale. I'm gonna do this and do that way." Does that make sense? "I'm gonna do the drug dealer close."

There's all these different ways - there's a lot of different scripts out there on how to sell something.

But what's fascinating is that it was the first time when I realized, if I just told the origin story of my product, there's a likelihood that my customers will see the product's flaws without me pointing them out. Think about this for a moment...

So if I'm thinking about, well, offers... it's really hard to find books about offers. It did not take me long to buy all the books on offers I could find on Amazon, and start to move through them. There's just not a lot on offers. There really isn't.

Claude Hopkins. He wrote the book Scientific Advertising. This guy knows what the heck he's talking about. If you start looking at the things that he's doing, the most crucial part of the sales script, the most crucial part of the sale, right, is the offer. Now, the sales message is what makes the sale, but that offer is the exchange to value. It has to be amazing.

And if I can go in and teach you, "Look, you have to have an offer."  So I didn't tell you a full out rap story with the correct script and all that stuff about the origins - you know, teaching you guys about the origins of the offer...

But if you think about this, if I just educate you on, "This is how offers used to be created..." Suddenly just knowing that there's a backstory that you may not have known about drastically produces and increases perceived value about what I'm talking about, right?

Let's say you're gonna try and sell somebody the keto diet, right? You go out and you're gonna talk about the Atkins diet. "Oh, here's the Atkins diet, you're just gonna eat meat, basically." I think that's the Atkins diet, is it? I don't know, anyway... Here's the one where you just eat meat all the time, right?

If  I start showing you a whole bunch of research on why the Atkins diet is the best, why this is awesome, why this is incredible. That's effective, but it's not nearly as effective, or it's not nearly as much incredible perceived value as if I can educate you on the history of the vehicle that my customer's already in.

I'm going deep here, is that okay? It's not a normal podcast episode. I'm just freaking out by this concept. Way easier for me to draw it, I should totally have my whiteboard over here with me.

The book Play Bigger, one of my favorite books lately, Play Bigger talks about how, whoever can best articulate the problem to a market, it's also assumed that that person has the best solution. You guys get that?

Let me say that one more time. Whoever can articulate the problem the best to a market, it is assumed that that individual also has the best solution. And that's why this is so powerful.

I realized that if I can get good at teaching the origin story for the market, for the product, that my customers are currently using. And I'm like, "No, you shouldn't be using that." If I'm the best at going in and teaching, "Look, here's the origin story about the product you're using." It's another way for me to sell them. It's another way to educate the market in a way. It's another way for me to articulate the problem the best - like Play Bigger is talking about.

And to do what Claude Hopkins teaches, and actually say, "Oh my gosh, check this out." And they self-educate. And then suddenly, it's like being pulled from the Matrix. "Whoa! I never realized the product for the flaws that it has." Does this make sense? This is a huge deal.

When I first started building a whole bunch of funnels, I was like, "Yeah, I got the Page Editor and ClickFunnels, I totally understand how this is going around. This makes a ton of sense. This is actually amazing. How do I write copy?" This is before Funnel Scripts or anything like that came out...

I was like, "How do I write copy? Dang it, aw, man, hm. You know what, I don't even know." And there was no answer. But guys, if you're like, "How do I write copy, one of the easiest ways to do it is just by telling the origin story of the products that your customer's currently using. How did that thing come into existence?

It was Steve Jobs who said, something along the lines of ... if you look around and understand that all the things that are around you that you can see, someone just made it up at some point.

When you understand that, it's freeing 'cause you realize, "Wait, that was created with the restraints of a human being's brain." One person, most likely, right? Which means it also could be altered, like, "Whoa. That's crazy stuff!" That's huge.

I'm trying to help you guys understand that when you are telling your story, when you're telling your offers... you're not just telling your origin story. The key and the point is to try and tell the origin story of the red ocean you're selling into. Does that make sense?

Someone put that on a freaking t-shirt, 'cause that's good stuff right there, okay? That's gold. It better be on a freaking Instagram quote card here soon. That's a big deal. That's a big deal - because it means I can shortcut a lot of the little scientific isms of writing copy, but still get the idea across.

 

That means I don't have to go learn why the engine works. I can just drive the car when I just tell the origin story for the market.

There's this super, super cool quote I really like from the book. I just have to log in real quick to it. I took a screenshot of it. I believe this is Claude Hopkins here. He has a very interesting way of speaking:

"Many have advertised, 'Try for a week, if you don't like it, we'll return your money.' Then someone conceives the idea of sending goods without any money down and saying, 'Pay in a week If you like it?' That proved many times as impressive.”

One great advertising man stated the difference in this way; "Two men came to me, each offering a different horse. Both made equal claims. They were good horses, kind and gentle, a child could drive them. One man said, 'try the horse for a week. If my claim's not true, come back for your money.' The other man also said, 'Try the horse for a week.' But he added, 'Come and pay me then.' I naturally bought the second horse."

You understand what I just did there?

 

This is a big deal, and it's the reason why, if you have an offer and you have a product, if you have a skill, a talent, something that you have that you know you are better than the majority of the market at what you do - which is probably likely all of you guys if you're listening to this...

If you're better than  the majority of the market at what you do, and you're having a hard time selling, the answer is, "You need to have a better offer." Which includes a sales message in my mind. They're very inseparable. That's why I create them at the same time. Does this make sense?

Two horses, exactly the same, right? Exactly the same, both amazing. A child could drive both of them, as it says. One of them says, "Try it for a week, if you don't like it, come back, ill give you your money back." The other says, "Try it for a week and then pay if you like it." The only difference between those two offers is a little tweak in the way it's presented. That's like, the definition of a freaking offer. Does that make sense? This guy is brilliant.

This is another Claude Hopkins quote I really, really like. I've been geeking out about him, this episode is just kinda about that:

"The time has come when advertising in some hands has reached the status of a science..."

Oh, what's up, Claude Hopkins, how you doing? I'm your man, 'kay? I am your man, that's me, that's me. The science of selling online. That's why that group was created. It's not about the art, it's about the science. What are the formulas? You guys heard about the frameworks episode that I did?

"The time has come when advertising in some hands "has reached the status of a science."

I want you to understand that.

There's some really cool quotes he has in here also about, I was going through about, where he talks about, this stuff, advertising, and selling. It's all salesmanship, and if you have any questions, the best answers come from looking at the problem from the stance of a salesman. Does it sell?

You are not in the business of entertaining. You're not. I'm in the business of selling. Now, as part of that, I might go and do some entertaining stuff. I might yell in the mic, and I might go crazy. And every Monday I might yell on the Instagram, "It's Monday, baby, whoo!"  Right? And there's a showmanship aspect to it.

But I clearly understand that the showmanship is not selling. The showmanship is getting people to me, but I still have to sell the different mechanisms.

Anyway, I've kind of danced all over the place in this episode. I just want you guys to know how stoked I am. And the major key of this entire thing, I'm trying to help you guys understand, is that your market, much like you, has an origin story.

Your red ocean that you're selling back into, just like you, has a red ocean, I'm sorry, has an origin story. If you can go, just learn, and figure out how to describe the red ocean that your customers or the people you wish were buying from you.  

You walk up and you're like, "Hey, you should be trying some ketones over here," and they're like, "Why?"

If you can go in and educate them why their current solution is not awesome, and use the origin story to do so - it's huge power. Huge power.

Origin stories are not just for an individual.

Anyways guys, thanks so much. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, Mr. Claude Hopkins, for your awesome quotes and inspiration.

You guys will see me, many times now, attach, watch what I'm doing, okay? You will see many times now attach what I do in the offer world to the backstory, the origin story, of what Claude Hopkins created and pioneered as well. That's what I'm doing, that's why I'm telling you guys this episode right now. That's what I'm doing, and it's tying into so many pieces in my brain. I'm so stoked about it. It was the missing piece I've been looking for.

Boom! Found the hook, found the hook, baby.

Alright, my friends, go be schemers. Be scheming. Go create cool offers, I'll see you guys later.

If you guys like the episode, please rate and subscribe it. And I'll talk to you guys later, bye.

Whoo hoo!

Hey, there's more marketing resources than there are seams of the sea, am I right?

Okay, maybe not, but there is a lot.

How do you know if you're paying for good ones?

Recently I went to my business bank statement and I counted 51 internet tools and resources that I use to run my business every day and actually keep my team size small.

If you wanna see the list, I actually filmed an individual video teaching you why I use each tool and the strategy behind it. And then I dropped a link straight to the source right below it.

If you wanna see the list and see what you can use yourself, go to bestmarketingresources.com. That's bestmarketingresources.com.



Dec 4, 2018

Hey, what's going on everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. It's kind of a special, unique episode.

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

What's up, guys?

Hey, I am here at the JW Marriott over in Phoenix, Arizona at the Traffic Secrets event. It's been a ton of fun to watch Russell go in and teach traffic, which is interesting, I mean think about it...

The dude's running an almost near billion dollar company and doesn't know how to run a Facebook ad... BUT he's doing a traffic event.

The perspective of somebody like that that's really, really interesting. And so the things he's been teaching have been quite fascinating.

The trip here though was pretty crazy:

We're getting on an airplane, I was flying to Salt Lake. We get on this airplane at Salt Lake and everyone goes and they sit down obviously it's a full flight, totally loaded up.

The time for us to take off comes, and then it goes, and we're still sitting there. The plane hasn't even moved at all.

Pretty soon the captain comes on like all cliche captains; you know, "How you doin’ everybody?" It sounds like the microphone is in his face. Anyways he goes, "The update is that there's no update. I'll tell you when there's an update." I was like, "Okay, that was weird."

A few minutes later, he gets back on and says, "Hey look, the luggage guy was filling up the airplane and there was a huge bulge coming out of the side of the airplane. And no one can figure out what it is. The maintenance guy is here and they can't figure out what it is... so we'll give this a few more minutes here. We'll see what needs to happen." And he leaves, and we're all just sitting there like, "What on Earth?"

... And it's funny because a few minutes later he comes back on. (We now should've taken off like, 20-30 minutes ago.) "Hey, no one can figure out What the heck the bulge is coming out of the side of the airplane. We've got to get off and change airplanes. It will probably be another 10-15 minutes because that plane's not even here yet... go to gate C10."

Those kind of scenarios are always fun because that is when adults turn into children, right?

People start doing things like, "Oh, are you serious, ugh!"

I was like are you freakin' kidding me? Like, "Let's see, Alive? Or dead with bad plane? Alive? Dead with bad plane?" It was like, "Come on, are you serious? What are the alternatives here? There's not many alternatives. Not many options. Chill out."

Anyway, super funny!

So I get to the actual event and last night, at like 5:00 a.m. somebody pulled the fire alarm for the entire JW Marriott - which is extremely alarming to wake up to!

It reminded me of several basic training days. It's like "Whoa!" You wake up real fast  and you're like, "What's up???" And again, it's when adults become big kids and start complaining like crazy.

I'm not saying you can't ever have a negative feeling towards things that are going on in life, but there's been this pattern that I started seeing in my coaching, and things that are going on in life. I'm not saying not to feel emotions, but holy crap, if you can't handle something unexpected in life, and react to it well... If you can't be response-able - "able to respond," like the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says...

If you're not response-able I don't think you're gonna be a good entrepreneur.

The set of problems that I woke up to today was different (and not foreseen) to the problems I woke up to yesterday. And that's the game of freaking entrepreneurship.

So many people get so mad about stuff like, "Well, I didn't think it would be this way." "Give me a refund, this kind of treatment is unacceptable..." I'm like, "Really? Are you kidding? You could die." Like, "Shut up you big baby. Literally, you're a big baby." ...I always laugh at that.

I'll be coaching somebody, and I'll be like, "Alright, hey, now it's time for you to start publishing," and they'll be like, "Oh man!" And they start doing all this crap... "

 

“Are you freaking kidding me? In the last episode, I talked about  Cash causing frameworks, and you're not willing to do it?  Holy crap!"

It was interesting because I was sitting listening to Myron Golden... You know, I was doing my One Funnel Away Challenge stuff. I got up early, I went into the event room. No one was in there, just a few people setting up. I did my One Funnel Away Challenge coaching. Which is a challenge where I help people get a funnel out the door in one month...

I wanted to sit around with the lights, and I wanted to sit around with all the noise and the music in the background and do my coaching right there...

(Sorry, there's a big something coming. I'm gonna walk this way.)

...But it was interesting because Myron Golden walked up. And he goes, "Dude, I just read the most impactful book that I've ever read in my life since Expert Secrets." And when somebody says a phrase like that you know it's time to shut up and listen...

He said,  "It was a book called You Squared."  It's not long. It's actually a super short book, and I believe the audiobook is on YouTube for free. I'm excited to go listen to it.) But the basic principle and premise of it...

(Sorry for the sound of that guy right there. I'm trying to walk away from him.)

...The basic principle of it is this, and it's so funny because this is exactly what I've been noticing is the reason people don't have success.  They don't have success simply because they're so fixated on seeing beginning to end.

Myron walked up and he said, "The reason people are not successful yet is because... (There were several things that he said but the biggest thing that I remember...) He said, “The biggest reason they're not successful yet is because they have not decided to be yet."

And you might be "Okay, okay, I've got it, and that doesn't sound very deep." But just think about it right? "They haven't decided to be successful yet." The word decide means to make an incision and cut out all other options.

*Bird song*(What's up birds? You sound cool.)

...If you decide to be successful, you don't care what the paths are. You don't care about the roadblocks along the way. You don't care what things you're gonna hit. There's going to be unexpected stuff.

The reason I wanted to be an entrepreneur, when I started realizing what marketers really do, is because I had an early mentor of mine tell me, "Stephen, to be a marketer is to solve new problems every day that you did not have the day before."

To be an entrepreneur is to have a new set of problems every day.

If you have an unexpected thing that pops up in your life and you're like "Oh wah, are you serious? This is unacceptable. How come no one told me about this? The startup guide didn't include this piece for me."  Man, you are the freaking problem!

Does that make sense?

It's the way that you're seeing this thing. You haven't married the outcome yet.

#Step one: You figure out what you want. You put a stamp out there - stamping the ground. "Bam, this is what I want." You declare it, "This is it. Boom, this is what I'm going for." And then what you do is you just start taking steps.

The most common thing I see that stops people in the game is this... In order for you to actually totally get this I want to tell you a little story real fast okay?

I'm not that big of a hunter, but I love to shoot guns. Growing up, my dad took me hunting a couple of times. I love shooting .30-06. I like shooting big, heavy rounds. He's a lefty and I'm a righty. So I'd go out with this .30-06 with the bolt action on the opposite side which was really weird when you fired.

We'd go out to this little spot. He gets me up super early, you know. It's way before the sun is even out. It's pitch black, it's freezing, and we go up to these super high mountains, and we get out of the truck, and we start walking for a little bit. Then we'd stop, and sit down. I can't see a thing.  I mean it is like pitch, pitch black. I can't even see my hand in front of my face; it's so dark.

I'm sitting there and it starts to get super cold. When the sun is about to rise is when it is the coldest because all the cold starts to rise as the sun kinda chases it off the ground.

So you're sitting there for hours, and because you're not moving, it starts to get super cold as all that cold starts to come off the ground - and you know the sun's about to come up in a little bit. And sure enough, a  little bit of light comes. If I extend my hand all the way, I can see it now.

As we're sitting right there suddenly, the light starts to pop up just a little bit. And there's actually a peak, on the opposite side of where I'm sitting. I didn't even know it was there. The sun just barely hits the top of the peak. It was beautiful, it was absolutely amazing.

The sun keeps going up, and the line where the light is popping up keeps going down, down, down, down. Suddenly I realized, we are sitting on the edge of this gigantic, beautiful valley. This huge, amazing valley. I had no idea it was there.

I sat there for hours while I watched this thing pop up. And that experience always stuck with me. (I did not get an elk that day, which sucks but someone in our party did.)

Anyway, so this principle I want you to know is like the major core mentality that all successful entrepreneurs have...

I don't know what step #4 even is for me right now. I don't, okay? I know the macro level moves I'm moving. But there's a crap ton of micro things I don't even know exist, that I've never had to deal with yet. That I've never had to solve... But I know how to learn. I learned how to learn.

There's this amazing person who knows everything named freakin' GOOGLE. And I can just go there and I can Google. It's gonna be right there. I can go to this amazing individual called YouTube. And you know what? I can learn so much on YouTube. It's insane how much I can learn on YouTube.

Most of my early clients, I knew that what they were asking me to do was possible, but I didn't know how to do it. I knew others were doing it, but I didn't know how to do it. So what does that mean? It means I'm the variable.

So I would go out, and I would say, "Yes, client, I can do X, Y, and Z for you." Then I would go to YouTube, and I would figure out how to do it.

Literally, that's how I actually started.

I did that a ton for years. Having to have a deliverable forced me to learn quickly. Forced me to learn only the most valuable pieces I needed to move the ball forward...

The 80% that mattered versus the 20% to perfection. Don't worry about that last 20% okay?

I don't care what step four is for me on this micro level. I don't care about it until I've taken step three. I hardly even know how to put my foot down in step two right now. That's the whole point though, okay?

Most of the time, I've noticed... this is like the overlaying pattern I've seen. There's really two things that I've seen when I'm coaching somebody new in this game. I've now brought well over 2,000 people through this process of building a funnel and getting it out the door.

The first mentality I've noticed is that people are waiting to take action for them to see beginning to end.

Man, I didn't see the whole freaking valley forever. Hours, and hours, and hours of sitting there freezing my butt off, uncomfortable stuff okay? You never see beginning to end in this game, you don't.

One other thing real fast on that:

Stop learning generally.

I've said that before on this podcast. I'm just saying it again, it's just on my mind. All these things wrap together again.

It's like, "Man, I've got to stop learning generally. If I don't need SEO, why in the heck am I learning it?"

For me to place the very next step I need to take today, do I need to learn SEO? Most likely not, right? Most likely I don't need to put my foot right there.

There might be some other crazy, crazy thing way down the road, and even then I'm not gonna be the one doing it. Why on earth am I gonna study something like SEO?

If it's your thing, great.. but only if it's the very next step you need to take.

It would shock you guys how much I don't study books. It would shock you guys how much I don't just consume crazy amounts of podcasts anymore. It was good at the beginning. It was great, but as soon as I knew what I wanted as soon as I knew what I was going for it all became about learning with the intent to place the very next step in front of me.

I don't care how much other cool information is out there. It doesn't do anything, okay?

Knowledge is not power, knowledge applied is power.

And so I'm gonna apply it with the most intense force that I can with just the next thing. So I practice "Just in Time Learning." I place my foot down, Bam I just learned just for that thing just in time for me to place that foot in the next place.

Funny enough, as soon as I take step number one, a new step three always appears. It kinda comes into the light just a little bit. Not clearly, but then there's a new step one. I'm like, "Oh, okay. Let me place that foot  as best as my foot can be placed." Boom, there it is. "Oh, let me place a new foot down, Boom. Ah, wait, I don't know how to do that. That's okay, let me go read about this on YouTube."

My foot's off the ground. I'm not placing the foot yet, foot's still up there. Let me go see, oh, okay I know how to place that one. And pretty soon, you start walking at a pretty brisk pace. And the better you get, you start to sprint, you start to run.

Some of you guys have said "Stephen, you haven't even been graduated from college for three years yet. How the heck are you doing that?" That's how.

I don't just learn for the sake of freaking learning. I learn for me to go towards the goal. I don't care about the path it takes to get to the goal. It's gonna look like that okay? Stop waiting for it to be straight. Doesn't work like that okay?

So again, first thing I noticed from people is they want to see beginning to end. Doesn't happen that way, okay? Doesn't happen that way. You come to me, and you try and find anyone that it's happened that way for.

The second thing: The number one  excuse that I get for not taking action is "Stephen, well how does that work for my product?" Man, freaking-A alright. If you're selling anything or you're getting leads, I don't care if the point of sale is on the freaking internet or if it's off of it. I don't care if you're just trying to make contact a little bit... but if you're selling anything, anything...

I don't care if it's your product or if it's somebody else's. I don't care if it's info, if it's real estate it's real business, if it's brick and mortar stuff. I don't care if it's B2B, I don't care if it's retail...

If you're selling anything at all these are the principles that make things sell.

It doesn't matter if it's your product. Doesn't matter if it's someone else's product. Doesn't matter if someone else owns it. Doesn't matter if it's affiliate, okay? Guys, oh my gosh that one freaking drives me nuts...

Stop thinking you're unique. You are way less unique in your business than you think you are.

It's not a bash, it's the truth.

My stuff, there's like a 30% area where it's my pure genius. The other 70%...

Man, who was it that said, "If you think you're a hot shot, just look around and realize you've been standing on the shoulders of giants all along"? It's some quote like that. That's the truth.

 

That's the truth that you gotta understand. You are not unique. You are unique, but I'm saying your business, your product, it's not really that unique. You're not really that much of an exception to what I'm talking about because you're not at all, okay?

So don't think like, "Oh, I've got to see it from beginning to end." First of all, that's garbage, no one follows that. No one follows that.

It was literally the night before we sold the original Two Comma Club Coaching program that we actually outlined the offer.

People were registered for the thing. People were ready, we already did the first full day. It was the second day, the night before that second day where we actually, "Okay, what should we sell them?"

Just move, start swinging the bat. Too many of you guys have been focused on figuring out what the material of the bat is made out of. Who cares! Swing, Swing, Swing! Swing, and realize that you are NOT this like crazy exception to the things we're talking about, you're not.

"Well, I think my scenario is different." Bull crap, Bull crap! I'm gonna make you feel uncomfortable and call that right now. That's a lie, and it's been a lie that you've been romancing so that you won't have to take action.

What I've noticed is that in each one of my coaching programs it's always usually around anywhere from week two to six that's where I get the most push-back because those are the places where I force people to take the most action. So they start doing things like "Well, how much time does it take the average person to do this?"

That's a symptom of you having a belief you're literally trying to find a way to release yourself from the good pressure you're feeling. You're trying to find a way to NOT do the thing and keep your pride on the way out.

"Well people said that it takes about three months, and I only have two months and two weeks, so I'm not a good fit." You're trying to find a way to keep your pride and exit at the same time. Just saying, done it a lot.

I've coached thousands of people through the process now.

"Well Stephen, I don't know, how do you actually go create the product?"

Man, I guaran-freakin'-tee if you just go out and freaking Google that you're gonna find the answer.

If I start answering every person's little, tiny, baby question that could have been answered by Google!

I  teach you to be a self-solver.

My goal is to teach you a level of self-dependency. I want you to be self self-sufficient. There's a ton of stuff I can teach on all these different things, but the problem I've found is that people will use it as an excuse to not take action.

Or they'll use it as an excuse to try and keep their pride and justify their actions or their inaction for doing things: "Well Stephen, I can't see beginning to end." "Well Stephen, I don't think that this is gonna be..." "I don't think my product and my scenario Is a fit for what you're talking about." Yeah? Bull crap! Garbage, not true at all.  

A little tough love Stephen Larsen coming out right now because I'm so sick of people using those excuses. And I'm getting sick enough of it that I'm gonna get pretty forward about it.

I was coaching this morning for the One Funnel Away Challenge in the event room again. (We're just on a break, so I'm gonna go back in here in just a few seconds.)

 

...But someone asked like three times "Well I just don't know how this works for affiliate marketing" or  "Well, I'm in MLM so it's not really that way." "Well, I'm in retail so it's not really that way." I was like "Ugh freaking-A!"

I'm talking about sales -  this is human psychology.

Do you have a brain? Yes, you do. So does that person, and that person. Everyone in the audience does. These are things and principles that cause human persuasion and action in general.

 

You are not an exception to the rule. You are way less an exception to the rule than you've romanticized.

And I'm just saying it because I care about you guys. You are my audience, I protect you like crazy. That's my mentality.

A lot of people want to get on the show or stuff like that and I'm like "Meh, NO!" Because you guys are my tribe. I've sacrificed like crazy to try and reach out to you guys so you can hear my voice and my message. And so that's my message today:

#1: Your business is way less an exception to the rule than you want to think it is.

#2: Don't think you need to see beginning to end.

#3: Understand that these really are frameworks that cause cash.

#4: The variable, if somebody else is doing it successfully... if somebody else is out there making it happen, but you're not - then you're the problem.

Something in the way that you perceive the framework is the problem. It's coming from your head, between your ears.

Just telling you a little tough love.

I appreciate you guys, you're amazing.

If you have appreciated this episode and I spoke some tough, hard truth in this one - so I would love your honest feedback.

First, we're gonna put this on YouTube - then we repurpose it for lots of other platforms so you guys to consume on those platforms if you want to.

Anyway, please let me know, be brutal about it,  I would love to hear it.

Thanks so much guys, we'll see you guys later, bye.

Boom, thanks for listening. Please remember to write and subscribe. Hey, you want me to speak at your next event or Mastermind?

Let me know what I can share that would be most valuable by going to stevejlarsen.com and book my time now.

 

Nov 30, 2018

Boom! What's goin' on everyone?

It's Steve Larsen. This is Sales Funnel Radio, and today I'm gonna teach you guys about cash causing frameworks.

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business, using only today's best internet sales funnels.

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

Whazzup, guys? I'm excited for today. This is an episode I ripped from a Facebook live. I did it off the whim, but it ended up really, really awesome.

I was just doing it to the group, The Science of Selling Online - if you're not part of that group, it's a free group. It's where I just kind of can geek out a lot of times. If you like this stuff, there's more of that on that group.

So, anyway, I went live, I wanted people to understand...

A lot of people ask me things like, "Well, Stephen, how do you know this is gonna work?"

Or "Stephen, it seems you're able to know a little bit, (not that you can predict the future, and I'm never, you know) like  you understand what the numbers would mostly be and where kind of success will kind of come out of before you go do it?"

And I'm like, "Well, yea, it's 'cause I'm just following the framework."

And so, what I wanna do is just riff a little bit here, so you guys understand. I made the decision early on. I remember kind of where I was...

There was a lot of colleagues of mine in college that were studying different areas, you know, like, "I'm gonna study marketing or study this, or study that, or study supply chain or systems, or whatever." And I remember thinking to myself, I wrote this down guys, this was an actual goal of mine  five, six years ago. I wanted to learn how to be a consultant to small businesses.

I wanted to start businesses and sell businesses.

Guys, it is hilarious to be that I'm doing that now, which is crazy. And I realized though that the talent and the skill that I wanted to learn was I wanted to learn how to make it rain in a company. And that's what this episode is about. That's what this episode is gonna teach you.

There's a very specific method that I have used to do that, okay. And I know what it is. It has not been an accident, okay. I did a lot of making accidents and mistakes in areas - it's not that I don't anymore, but, man, I know why it's working. This episode will teach you why that is. It's one of the biggest gifts I can give you. Thank you so much for being a follower.

Let's cut over to that now. If you guys did like it, again, please rate and subscribe. That really means a lot to me. I love reading those ratings. It actually makes my day. It means a lot.

Anyways, guys, thanks so much.

Hopefully, you'll enjoy this episode. This is life-changing stuff right here, and I hope that you do what I did, take it seriously and write down what it is you wanna do.

I wanted to learn how to make it rain in a company. I wrote it down, and you have to do that part of it. Anyways, this is how it all happened. Thanks, let's cut over.

What's up, my friends, how you guys doin'? If you guys are just barely gettin' on, I haven't done Facebook live in the group here for a little bit. We have grown since I last went on from like 2,200 members, we're almost at 4,000. It's crazy.

So, welcome and real quick, I just wanna teach you guys some cool stuff on why my stuff works so well and why I can see other people's doesn't. I'm just gonna be honest about it, okay. That's cool? Give me a little hashtag replay though if you guys are brand new in here and you guys are just barely getting in.

If you guys are live though, welcome, welcome. What's up? Just chillin' to this song again, many I freakin' love it. Alright, here we go.

Hey guys so I just, I've been doing a lot of, been doing a lot of Facebook lives. I've been doing a lot of training in general. Yesterday I did two back to back webinars. It was two back to back webinars in ClickFunnels - which is a ton of energy...

If you've never done that; it's hard to just one, and if you do them right, I'm not gonna lie, it's gonna sound gross, but I'm like sweating, I'm exhausted, with just on one. Two of them back to back is murder. Absolute murder.

I was talkin' to one of my friends, Dave Lindenbaum. It's funny, he's like, "Yeah, two suck." He's like, "I've done three, but I would not wish that on my worst enemy. You are so wrecked by the end."

I did two back to back webinars yesterday, and the one Funnel Away challenge.  I was spent. I was absolutely spent by the time I went to sleep. It was like 1 a.m.

Anyway, so I, guys real quick I just wanted to walk through a principle here, and I know it's the reason why I'm succeeding in this stuff. And this might sound weird for me to say that, might sound weird for me to go ahead and teach it, but anyway...  

Is it cool if I go through that a little bit? We all got thick skin here. I can just say what needs to be said. Is that alright? You guys cool with that? Cause I, I wanna teach a few things here.

There's a few patterns for why I know my stuff is working and working very, very well. And I think there's a few ways,  a few reasons. Some of it comes from the internal, and the way I approach myself on this stuff.

First of all, can you guys hear me okay? You guys got me alright here? Yeah, okay, Dan said "Cool. Okay just say it."

Alright, there's a few things for how I approach things individually in my own mentality and my mindset with this stuff. However, there's a few things though that for the way I approach the business.

I look at myself, and I look at the business as two separate things. I mean really, we're very similar. Who's that rapper that said, "I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man." Who? I can't remember who the rapper is that said that. But I look at myself that way a little bit. Like, I am the business, man, rather than a businessman. (It's gonna kill me. I can't remember who that was.)

In my business, I compete on a lot of differences. I compete on differences.
I compete with strengths. Personally, when it comes to me though, as the attractive character, I compete with mostly just differences, not so much strengths.

Someone's always better, faster, stronger, than me personally. Someone's always quicker. Someone's always a better writer. So I don't compete with strengths when it comes to my personality, I really compete with differences.

When it comes to the business though, it really is mostly just strengths. When it comes to offers, it's back to differences though. I don't know if that makes any sense at all what I'm saying there, but there's a relationship there though, you guys gotta get used to.

One of the reasons why my stuff does well and one of the reasons why my stuff has accelerated so quickly is because there's a few different principles that I follow:

Guys,  I'm the worst cook ever, but if I'm gonna bake a cake, how do you bake a cake? Just tell me right now, what are some of the things that you use to go bake a cake? How do you go do that? What are some of the things that I do? What's the process? How do I bake the actual cake? How do I put it together?

Someone said it's, someone said Jay-Z, someone said Kayne, so I don't know, it's one of those two.

Right, how do I bake a cake?   I'm gonna get flour, I'm gonna get sugar, I'm gonna get eggs, that's as far as I know. There's probably some chocolate in there somewhere... I really have no idea how to bake a cake, but there's a way to do it, right.

There's a process to baking a cake. There's a process of putting it in the oven for how long it's gonna be in there. There's a process behind that.

How am I gonna get good at a sport? I'm looking at Brazilian jiu-jitsu right now. I really wanna fight Russell. He and I wanna roll, and I'm stoked about it. So I'm gonna go take jiu-jitsu for the next year, and then  I'm gonna try and choke him out... and he's gonna try and choke me out. It'll be fun. But there's a process for that. There's a process to learn that kind of sport and discipline.

There's a process for me to go learn how to freakin' walk. There's a process for me to learn how to be on the internet. And when you understand that! People are like "Oh yeah, I get it." But that's not the way people act.

When I look on the internet, and I see what people are doing on the internet, most the time they're just doing stuff, and that's better than doing nothing, but they're not adhering to any kind of framework. There's no pattern in what they're following. There's not a frame, and there's no system, there's no format or formula. They're just kinda doing stuff.

Because of that, it's really easy for me to look at and be like, "Oh yeah, that's why you're failing."

I don't mean that in a negative way. That's not negative at all; it's just the truth. Frameworks are what save you in this game. Frameworks are what save you in anything in life.

Funny enough,  I call it art versus science - there's more science to this game then there is art - which should be very relieving for you to hear. There is more science than art. Which means I don't need to be as much of a creative genius as much as I do just learning some of the frameworks that make success happen. And I'm not just talking mentality stuff.

I have a hard time with that sometimes. When I say mindset training, that's such an overused term. It gets fluffy, and I don't like it. But like, learn the framework. Learn the process, learn how to go and actually...

If I'm gonna do a webinar, if I'm gonna make an eBook, if I'm gonna write something, if I'm gonna do that, if I'm gonna be an Olympic skier, if I'm gonna go and I'm gonna learn how to ride a bike... anything in life has a pattern for success. It's like 80% framework, 20% art - which is awesome. It was so relieving when I finally realized and understood that.

So what I'm looking for when I go funnel hack somebody, what I'm looking for when I go and I'm looking at an influencer and I'm seeing how they're behaving.

I can close my eyes and I see. This is why I can speak without notes, because in my mind, in my brain, I can close my eyes and I can follow a framework inside of my head, and I know the next step.

Which means the decision making power of "What do I say next?" is kind of gone. I just know that now I need to be talking about this next thing and now what's coming up. I know, "Now I need some testimonials, I've told enough stories.Let me just dig back into my bag of stories. Which story would fit as a testimonial for that scenario best? Bam, that one! Insert here.”

Now, what's next? "Okay, let's go call to action, let's go here." In my head, I'm just following frameworks. That's the secret.

When I'm building a funnel, it's the same process every freaking time regardless of product, price, industry. It doesn't matter, it's the same process, and that's what people get stuck up on.

I do a lot of coaching. I've already coached today for three hours I think. Yeah, I do a lot coaching, and I'm about to go on for another hour and a half here, soon. Probably about 20 minutes. And what's frustrating for me is when somebody thinks that they are an exception to that rule. YOU ARE NOT! You are not! Okay?

And what happens when somebody believes they're an exception to the rule, what I've noticed, is that they don't believe that it's 80% framework, 20% art. That's why this is the Science of Selling Online - I explicitly took out the term Art - because it's more science than art.

It's a little bit of creativity and your own flare but it's not the majority. And when somebody thinks it's the majority, that's when they fail.

'When I'm funnel hacking somebody, I'm not just funnel hacking what products are they selling and how are they selling them? I'm looking to see the framework that they introduced the product to the market with. I'm looking for the framework:

What's the pattern? What's the formula? What's the step by step by step? Do this, then this, then this, then this - then add a little bit of flare of your own at the end.

It's so relieving to understand that and it's so relieving to feel and know and understand that because it means I don't have to be what college was trying to teach me to be. It's the exact opposite. I don't need to be a creative genius to have a lifestyle and success off of the internet or any business in general.

I don't need to be a creative genius. I don't need to make something brand new, completely prolific, something that nobody's ever seen before to make money. That's not true. That's the biggest fallacy ever in the game, and that's been the weirdest thing for me to realize.


Hindsight's 20 20, right? But forever, as I looked backwards, I'd be like "Oh man, and I'm starting to see those patterns." Forever the issue was, I walked around for years, my friends, trying to answer the question, "What product should I sell?"  - When all along the market was trying to tell me what it wanted me to sell it. That's all I'm tryna figure out all the time.

So when I'm funnel hacking somebody and I'm lookin' at that red ocean,  I'm steppin' back and sayin' "Oh, interesting." What I'm doing is I'm trying to see what product the market wants me to give it. I don't even have to have that answer. I don't even have to know what the product is. I don't even have to know.

Guys, I was the number one affiliate for this book, and a lot of it was because of that offer that I gave you guys. I didn't know what the offer was gonna be when I started selling it. You all gave me the answer.

Did you just hear what I said?

I sold 375 books, you all gave me the answer. We decided together what it is that you wanted to include in the offer when you bought this book through my link. I just gave it back to you.

The same principle is true for your own products, not just affiliate stuff, not just for your coach, not just for your info products, I don't care.

There is such a smaller amount of art and creative genius in this game than people realize. So what you need to get good at is learning to be attentive and see the patterns.

The reason I got to be a good funnel builder and so fast at ClickFunnels is because I can close my eyes, and in my head, I see the framework for the perfect webinar funnel.

I see all the elements in a perfect webinar script. In my head, I can see the framework of an awesome, epic upsell video. I know the framework in that script. It's a framework. I don't have to come up with what to say, I just know I need to have elements that talk about that, that, that, that, that, that, that... Plug it in, play, bam, done!  You guys gettin' this? It's not just to trial close, I'm actually asking.

'Cause what I want you to understand is that it is the Science of Selling Online - which is the name of the group - and it's the name for a reason:

It was gonna be The Science and Art of Selling Online, but I took out Art because the game's easier than you might be thinking it is. It is easier than you think it is!

It took me like three years, and 17 business tries to understand that  - because everybody in college, all the books, all these gurus, and all the people around, a lot of them...

Not all of them, there were one or two particularly who were not, and they were teaching me the correct way to do it and when they were teaching me to use the market to gather the data on what to sell rather than tryin' to come up with it on my own...

There was nothing like, "No input, zero, zero, zero, zero." Like I could not come up with something. I was like "I'm not really a creative genius kinda guy." Which might shock a lot of you guys. Like "Hey Stephen, you totally are. You're this crazy creative guy." I'm not! I'm following a pattern, that's it.

So I know that there's a few products coming out here soon that I'm excited to get out to you guys. There's a few products coming out that I haven't announced yet that I'm really pumped about... but I am using the market and I'm asking things in a way to start slowly pulling out and harvesting, "that's what they want, that's what they want, that's what they want" and you are literally building the very offer that I hope to give back to you.

Now I'm gonna go make the product obviously, and the product's gonna be freaking epic, but as far as what it is, you should not be doing a lot of that deep dive work on your own. In fact, it's better if you don't. It's way better if you don't. It's far better if you don't.

And the reason is, is because you don't fill your own wallet. I've said that multiple times, but like your opinion doesn't matter. You're not the one buying your thing. So if you're like, "Oh Stephen I don't know if I like that product yet?" You're not the one buying it!  You don't fill your own wallet. So you gotta get outta your head and be like, "Alright, fine, what do they want? What does the market want? What is it that they're asking? Give that - learn what that is?  What are they asking? What are they telling me that they want?”

Guys, the game gets so easy when you realize that it's just about learning the frameworks.

So if there's some piece of advise I could give, besides that, it would be this:

Choose frameworks, choose models to go learn that result in cash as a rule not an exception.

Did you hear what I just said?

I am not interested in learning and this is the other reason why I've been doing so well with stuff is because I don't want to learn frameworks and rules and science of things where I am an exception to the rule and that's what causes money.

It's the reason why I don't go learn Facebook ads, guys. Because for me to learn the framework to make a successful Facebook ad, I could go learn it, I know I could, I know I could be really good at it, okay. But I don't go study that personally, and yeah it might be your thing, which is great, but I don't because there are sometimes these little tricks I feel like I have to go play in order to make it work super well, I don't wanna learn the tricks.

I wanna learn the rules that result in cash not exceptions to the rule that result in cash. So go learn frameworks.

That's the reason why I obsess over webinars so much.

As a rule, if I do this and I tell an origin story and I come up with a good hook and I got the origin story which is a great intro, then I got three secrets which attack your vehicle, internal and external related false beliefs and I go through and I have some testimonials there.

Then I go through stack slide where I present the actual offer. Then I go through closes where I tell reasons why you should act now and I go through and I put that in a thing called a webinar funnel...

As a rule, it typically results in cash and because of the numbers and because the way it works out, they're very easy to make profitable.

When I was working at ClickFunnels, I watched Russell, I was like, "Huh..." We launched things so quickly there. I started asking the question, "That wasn't even like done yet. How come that worked? Huh, that actually didn't look visually that good yet, why did he make a million dollars in three weeks on that? Interesting. Why is it that he had 8,000 options on that page, half of it's broken, how come it still worked and it was with Facebook ads and people who probably didn't even really know who he is that much. How did that work over there?"

It's because he has frameworks in his head that result in cash as a rule not an exception to a rule.

I do NOT learn frameworks where I have to have an exception to a rule in order to make money.

Too many times people are tryna look for the flash in the pan, the little thing that is cool... but it's fleeting and it leaves. And that's why it doesn't work ...cause you spend all this time... right. Those things work as like little tiny add-ons when you already know the base thing that causes money. Is this making sense?

When you learn that rule and that framework to the rule. When you learn the system; the formula that causes cash rather than the exception to the rule that causes cash.

Right, the only time where I can learn that is when I already have this base down. When I got that 80% down. Then I can go learn that little 20% real fast, right take fast and quick money off the top. Then I can take fast and quick money right off the top and then it gets super easy, super, super easy.

So anyways, I'm really stoked about this. I hope you guys understand what I'm tryna get across here:

Stop learning flash in the pan stuff.

Stop learning things where it doesn't result in cash as a rule.

I don't study things that are like, how should I say this? I study:

>Becoming an attractive character.
>Offer creation.
>Sales itself.
>The psychology of sales.

The internet could die tomorrow and I know I'm gonna be okay because of the framework about sales that I know that's in my head.

I know that someone could put me on a stage right now and I will over deliver and I will probably sell more than everybody else that's on there who's been selling for a long time but doesn't have a framework and hasn't been studying this.

Those are bold claims and I totally get it and I understand that. You have to understand the reason why is because of the framework I'm following in my head.

This One Funnel Away Challenge thing that I've been doing, right, funny enough looking back, I'm only supposed to be going like 20 to 30 minutes on them. I'm not trying to go a long time - that's not my goal...

But there's so many little pieces that I'm trying to help people understand when it comes to learning these frameworks and understanding that it's more about science then it is art... It's more about understanding formulas that cause cash then it is learning exceptions to rules that cause cash... So, I've been going for like 50 minutes in 'em.

I'm  literally just following a script in my head. I know where I'm leading it. I know where I'm able to actually follow a little bit of a rabbit tangent, but how to bring it back in. It's only come because of the insane sickening volume, right, the amount of time just doing it. Mat time. Time on the mat. How much time have I spent on that mat? How much, right!

Sometimes, I can't remember who told this story. They told a story about two different fighters or even people at the gym.  I can't remember what the story exactly was, I remember the principal and what he was using an example:

So take two people at the gym. Person A goes to the gym and they go to the water fountain they talk to somebody for a little while. Then they go over to the elliptical machine and they set up their settings for a while. Then they'll be on there for a few minutes kinda warming up. Then they'll go talk to somebody else for a while. Then maybe they'll go over to the restroom and the locker room for a little while. Then they'll come back over, and then they do one or two sets of this and they leave. That's person A.

Person B comes in, they actually spend a little bit less time but it's so hyper-focused it's ridiculous.  They're working hard, they're extremely sore. Every set they're almost dropping it. They're going to failure every single time.

Who's gonna be more successful? Obviously the person who's gonna be more successful is the person who's killing it.

I'm tryna get mat time. I want as many times on the mat as possible for me to just be actually swinging to hit the ball NOT prepping to hit the ball. So that's why I go do things. That's why I have these little mantras in my head. One of them is 'Mat Time.'

One of the people on a webinar yesterday, they did not get as many people on as they were supposed to, which kinda sucked.  I was like, I could call it off. But in my head, 'Mat time.' That's all I said to myself and no questions asked, I just stepped forward and just did it. 'Mat time' and I just did it because I need more time on the mat.

I need more time moving forward on it. I am perfecting my craft. It's hours and hours and hours of doing the thing.

Too many times people are like, "Well, I did it once and it didn't really work." Well, like yeah! It's 'cause you freaking did it once.

How many times did it take you to learn to ride a bike? You guys gettin' this? You have to study frameworks - which is awesome, it's debunking a lot of the mystic. I hate the whole mystic and mentality that people are promoting about entrepreneurship where it's people like lookin' off in the sunset and they believe, I don't know, they're like god's gift to humanity and that they're the change to the world.

Yeah, they can change the world, but frankly, they're just making value and people are paying them for that value.  Learn the framework behind it. Don't be allured by the art behind it. Don't be allured by trying to become this creative thing and adding your own flare and that's actually the way to failure. Just learn from people who are doing it and have done the thing. That's it.

Learn from the people who are doing it and have done the thing and have done the thing long enough that they've created their own frameworks.

My wife and I were talking about this two or three nights ago. It's kinda fun, she and I are just sittin' around the kitchen table and we were talking about it. And I said, “One of the things that’s made me successful with this is that I realized that I needed to follow the person that has the biggest cheese. Who actually has been doing the thing super, super long.”

When I go and I find that person and I see the people who have the biggest cheese, what I'm looking for is I'm looking for the person who has dived into yesteryear's experts... This is the reason I follow Russell...

Listen to what I'm about to say! This has been one of the biggest shortcuts ever, and it's the reason why I've only been playing the game for like four years and you all know who I am. This is it right here:

I became cognizant of this probably about a year and a half ago...

What I did is I went and I found and I started paying attention to people who consumed yesteryear's experts like an animal.  Straight up animal. Just a freaking beast and they consumed it and they learned yesteryear's experts, the frameworks that they were using.

 

And what happened is when they consumed them and they became an expert, they got so good at the yesteryear's experts and their frameworks, that they started creating their own versions of the framework. That's what you're looking for!

I'm not just looking for somebody who understands that 10 or 20 years ago this is how it was happening. I don't care if it's business or some skill you're learning or a hobby. I'm looking for somebody to go follow and learn from who has been in the game so long or has consumed the game so much that they are literally producing their own frameworks that have equaled success because it's a shortcut to having to learn yesteryear's experts and the frameworks that have come through.

I was talking to my wife about this and I was teaching her this. I was like, "That's where the big secret has been."

So,  I wanna go learn Brazilian jiu-jitsu,  I wanna go learn and fight. I wanna do that. And so what I did is I went and I found somebody, right. I talked to Russell. Russell's huge into that sphere. I talked to somebody who knows that area and my question to him is: "Who has the biggest cheese?” That's actually what I asked him and he knew what I was talking about 'cause he knows that's how I run.  And he goes, "There's a guy you need to go learn from and he said who ya lookin' at?" And I said "This person, this person, this person." He said, "They're good. That person's great over there too, but you need to go learn from this guy because he's been in the game so freaking long."  I understood immediately what he was talking about.

You're tryna find the freaking Yodas. You're trying to find the ninjas. You're trying to find the individuals and the people who are like, they've been in it so, so, so long that they've been producing their own frameworks successfully.

That's the reason why there's stick figures in Russell's books and that was the sign to me that I knew I needed to follow him like crazy. He has distilled down, literally dozens of experts, down to his own stuff and then is producing his own frameworks.

So now when it comes to marketing and funnel education, my coach, I only listen to Russell. That's it.

When it comes down to listening to, actual like hardcore like sales scripts and sales tactics, I only listen to Grant Cardone. Why? Cause that dudes got mat time, holy crap.

When it comes to building systems in my business that make things run on autopilot, I only listen to Alex Charfen. Why? Because that dude has got mat time and he has followed other experts and he has his own frameworks that he's developed.

The framework is what not only makes you cash but it's also a symbol that the individual typically knows what the heck they're talking about.

Why do you guys like following me? It's because I like to do those funnel drawings. A lot of you guys found me that way. I like to go in and distill down, listening to all these people and seeing it and coaching over 1,800 people personally in this process for two or three years.  That's a lot of mat time. And so I see the patterns that cause success. I see the patterns that cause failure.

The ones that routinely cause failure are the art ones and the ones that routinely cause success is the people who take their emotions out of it, realize that they are not are not their feelings, get past their feelings and they just do the science of it:

They're like, "You know I didn't wanna publish, but  I'm freaking doing it 'cause he said to." And they're just doing that. And they're just following the people who have their own frameworks. They're just doing the success and science-based ones. You guys gettin' this? Cool. Rock on. Go watch what I'm doing because that's how I execute.

We'll see you guys later, bye.

Boom! Just try to tell me you didn't like that.

 

Hey, whoever controls content controls the game. Wanna interview me or get interviewed yourself? Grab a time now at SteveJLarsen.com



Nov 27, 2018

Boom! What's going on everyone?
It's Steve Larsen, this is Sales Funnel Radio... and today I'm going to teach you how to pull off a quiz funnel.

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today, and now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

What's up, guys?

I've actually been super stoked about this episode. So recently I've been doing this inside of my own funnels, which I'm very excited about. Now if you think about this, actually I'll just tell you...

One of the first products I was a part of when I first started working over at ClickFunnels was a... it's so funny, I say that phrase all the time. It's because there were so many projects going on all the time! Anyway, this was one of them towards the beginning.

I went through, and I started doing a deep dive of the top converting quizzes that were going on in other people's funnels. It was cool because Russell already knew what a lot of them were so he gave me a whole bunch of lists.

At the end of the quiz, it asked for the individual's information to get the opt-in and start a free mini-course, or start a whatever... or send them to a free plus shipping something.

One of the most successful funnels, before I worked with Russell, was a medical quiz,  though it wasn't for medical stuff...

It was the funnel hacking of me doing that quiz that made my first big funnel successful. My big first success story which I used as a case study when I applied for ClickFunnels -  which is kinda cool.

It was a quiz, and after they'd answered all these questions, it said, "Hey do you want your results? Put your email in here." And basically, depending on what they'd said inside the quiz, they were sent a specific email to invite them to a free plus shipping offer... and then you know how it goes after that. Up sales, all kinds of cool stuff.

So they sent traffic to that quiz, and I knew they were making a ton of money. It was kinda cool because of those first ClickFunnels projects was all these quizzes.

What I did is, I copied all of the quizzes as I went through them, I took the questions, and all of the possible answers for every single quiz and I put them on this sweet Excel sheet. I compared side by side, all the question ones, all the question twos, and so forth — the questions, and then all the possible answers.

It was funny because I started noticing all of these trends. All these trends in all of the quizzes. I'm kind of a patterns guy, which you guys can probably imagine by now.  I started looking through, and there's patterns. I was like, "Holy crap! Check this out."

All of the question number ones and twos are kinda asking the same area of stuff.

Interesting, question three and four-ish, around that part of the quiz, it transitions, and they're all asking this kind of stuff.

Then I get down to question six and seven,(most of them did not have more than seven questions... sometimes eight, but it was usually no more than that), and it was all the same kind of question throughout.

I was like, this is fascinating. Why is this happening? And  I started deep diving. I ended up writing this outline seeing the patterns of what was going on inside of each one of these quizzes. I actually went through my computer, and I found it, Woohoo!

So I'm going to go through and read this thing. I want to walk through some of the highest converting quizzes.

The reason I'm doing this right now, is because, if you guys had a chance to come to my recent live funnel build, (some of you guys were able to be on, which was really fun), I was teaching about how when you get a funnel out the door, I always start by focusing on hot traffic first. That is the easiest way to get money off the table.

Then you take that money, and you dump it into ads. Now your customers have funded the rest of the entire business.

I've never put a dollar of my own into my business EVER because of that principle - that play. I think of them as football plays. By running that marketing play. I've done that multiple times.

Now, when the hot traffic starts to dry up a little, and I need to go from hot to warm and expand the pot, there's multiple ways for me to do that. I could change who I'm targeting... there's a little bit of that that goes on when you start to widen the pot when you go from a hot audience to a little bit more of a warm audience. That's one option...

I could change the ad.

I could change what's going on in the funnel.

I could change the sales message.

I could adapt or change some of the offer.

But that's a lot of stuff to go switch.

One of the easiest things that I could do, rather than change the ad, or change the audience, or part of the sales message, is to merely change what people see when they click on your ad.

So instead of them seeing an opt-in page, I put something in front of that that lets me warm up the audience before I ever ask for an opt-in. And that's exactly what I've done here, and that's exactly what I wanted to walk through with you guys. That's why I do these quizzes and these little baby quiz funnels.

It lets my audience get warmed up to me before I ask them to opt-in or even go towards my main thing. In this instance, I'm using it in front of a webinar funnel.

So, what ended up happening is I went in, and I found out this crazy formula, and I was like, "Holy crap!" and ended up writing this dummy quiz for ClickFunnels so that we could change what people are seeing when they went to clickfunnels.com. It was a bunch of fun.

This was years ago; I don't remember what happened to this, However, I dug it back up, and I was like, "Holy crap, this is good stuff!"

So, first of all, I want to walk through just a few of the actual quizzes. Just a few of them that are funnel hacks (or quiz hacks) that I went through so that you guys can see some of the format and some of the patterns inside of here...

This comes from Revolution Golf Quiz:

The first question they ask: #1: Aare you a man or a woman? The reason I'm asking is because men and women tend to suffer from different consistency killers.

This is a quiz in front of a golf product.

Q#1: Are you a man or woman?

Q#2: What is your age range?

A:
>I'm over 50.
>Between 30 to 50.
>Under 30.

Q#3: What's the length of your average drive?

A:
>Less than 150 yards.
>150 to 200.
>200 250.
>Over 250.

Q#4: What's your playing level?

A:
>I'm a beginner.
>I'm an expert.... whatever.

And you go through and you declare your skill level.

Q#5: In relation to your full swing, what are you having the biggest challenge with?

A:
>Poor contact.
>Directional control.
>Major consistency issues.

Q#6: People in your scenario usually suffer from one of these three things. Which of these do you suffer from the most?

A:
>Hitting thin shots.
>Fat shots.
>Bottom or low ones.
>I miss the center of the ball.
>Hitting weak shots.


And they go through and they answer this stuff. And what's interesting is by the end of it, it says, "Well based on your answers, you probably should have X! Put your email address in and we'd like to send you your results,  we'll also send you a free course, or a free report, or a free something."

It just literally forwards to the beginning of the funnel. So think about that for a second.

Okay, the next one, next one. This one's for tennis, it's called Fuzzy Yellow Balls:

Q#1: Are you male or female? (I was like, huh, where have I seen that before?)


Q#2: How old are you? (Where have I seen that before?)

Q#3: What's your current skill level rating?

Q#4: How hard do you typically hit your first serve?

Q#5: When you try and hit it harder, some of the most common issues are these, which one are you?

A:
>I hit into the net.
> I hit it long.
> I don't hit it cleanly.

Q #6: People in your scenario typically suffer from one of these three things, which one are you? Which of the following best describes you?

There were seven questions in this quiz, not six. But it's the same kind of theme.

I was like, "Huh, wait a second…”

And I go onto the next one. This one is about fat loss.

Q #1: Are you a man or woman? (I was like, what the heck?)

Q#2: What's your age range?

Q#3: When it comes to body shape people tend to suffer from one of these three things, which one are you?

Q#4: When it comes to food cravings, which food do you give into most?

A:
>I give into sweets.
> I give into chocolate.
> I give into carbs.
> None of the above.

Q#5: When it comes to eating habits, which one do you have?

Q #6: When it comes to stress, most people do this, which one are you?

(This quiz had ten questions, it was the biggest one... But most of them don't.)

And what I started realizing was that there was a pattern going on... a heavy pattern of the way you approach somebody inside of a quiz.

So I went through and I kind of formulated...

You guys know I'm kind of a geek when it comes to this stuff. Ok, not kind of! I'm a straight out freakin' nerd in this stuff, and I'm proud of that. It's what makes me good at this. I obsess...

A little while ago, I went and I printed out all of the follow-up sequences from the five most profitable webinars I've ever seen Russell do. There was paper all over my floors,80 sheets all over the place. I studied deeply the patterns between each one... Well, I did the exact same thing for the quizzes.

I started deep diving, I didn't have things printed out all over the floor, but I started diving deeply into the format, the formula and the pattern of what was making these quizzes successful.

Now there's some fluidity between these. Some of them were six questions, some were ten. But it's this pattern of questions. It's this pattern of thought. It's this pattern that I noticed these quizzes were pulling a customer through that made it most effective.

So I want to walk through this with you real quick and teach you exactly what I've been doing:

The first series of questions have to do with self-identifying - but with really low barriers.

Q#1: Are you a man or woman?

You don't have to study to answer that question. You don't have to go to a study hall to figure that out. Are you man or woman? Why would I ask somebody that? What does it have to do with anything when it comes to hitting my golf ball? When it comes to tennis? When it comes to fat loss? It might, and that's why it works.

And there's one of the reasons I love this so much is because I'm just getting people to make little micro commitments, little micro answers. They're not huge questions. Are you male or female?

Q#2: What age range are you?

I'm like, "Oh snap, this is not hard to answer." And that's part of the reason why it works so well.

The first few questions get somebody into the habit of clicking. This is huge. Get somebody into the habit of clicking.

Q #3:(or phase #3) they have them self-identify questions based on the subject: Are you a man or a woman? What's your age range? Have you ever built a funnel before?

It's self-identifying questions based on the subject itself. "Have you ever tried to lose weight? Are you a tennis player? How long have you been playing tennis for?" They're self-identifying, that's what is so key about this.

One of the biggest hurdles you have to overcome in a sales message...

If you heard one of my previous episodes, I talk about why it's important to cause an identity shift in an individual. The reason why these quizzes work so well is because you're are literally having them call out their own identity to you.

You are not saying, "Oh you look like this." You're having them declare it and say, "Check it out. This is who I am." This is very cool because it puts them in a place of vulnerability. Not like risky kind, not like where it feels like they're being threatened, they hit a phase of vulnerability, but they're the ones doing it. And you're gonna see this as we move forward.

So I have them answer, #1: Self-identifying questions; Male or female? Age?

Next thing: Self-identify questions based on the subject: "Well, I am a funnel builder." It's their current state, according to the subject. "I am a tennis player.  I do play golf. I am trying to lose weight. I am, whatever..."

The next category, you have them declare their level of skill, or achievement based on the subject:

"Well, this is what I usually hit in golf. This is my handicap." In tennis, I don't know tennis very well, but it said, "What's your current rating?" And it had you go through and list that what rating level you are. Does that really have that much to do with the fact that they probably know you could use their product anyway? No, the only reason they're doing that is so you can go in and self-identify and be like, "Hey check it out, this is where I am."

Ooh, cuz now what they're starting to do, is we move into questions where they are declaring where they are not.

So the third category is: Self-declare a level of skill, according to the topic. This is where I am:  “I have been trying to lose weight. These are the programs I've used." Or, "This is when I'm binge eating. These are the kinds of things I binge eat."

The next category is one of the biggest, and it's one of the reasons why I've noticed that quizzes work so well, or don't. And here it is: You start declaring the biggest challenge. They are self-declaring their biggest challenge pertaining to the subject:

"Oh man, when I hit the golf ball, I notice I top it."  Or "I hit it right on the center, but it's not consistent with direction." Or "I hit too far underneath it and the thing pops really high."  

"When I'm playing tennis, I notice I hit too much into the net." Or "I hit too far over." Or "I'm just not consistent when I'm doing a diet. I've noticed that in the evening time is when I get the cravings the most."

It asks about the cravings, and you go through and self-select your freakin' problem. That is so crazy! Because in classic marketing folklore, the way this is done, a lot of people they go create the freaking problem. That way they can sell you the solution. Well, in the quiz, they're self-declaring their problem. You don't have to create it.

They go through and click saying, "Check it out, I'm here. I'm right here, I declare this is who I am. This is where I am in the subject, and this is the thing that I'm sucking it up at."

Guys, this is massive! The psychology behind this is absolutely monstrous. I'm so glad I found this.

The next thing, okay, so now think about what we've done here.

#1: They've self-declared, "This is who I am. This is where I am. This is what I'm struggling with."

#2: The next category we go into is an educate and clarify section: "Oh man, those who are in your scenario, who are saying these kinds of responses, typically suffer from one of these three things." 'Suffer' is a keyword.

They're declaring their own issue, but now you're going to have them go in and declare,  "People in that scenario usually suffer from one of these three things, which one do you think you're at?" Oh man, now how many walls have they self-dropped by this point? They've dropped a lot.

These are normal things you're doing in any sales script, which is why I geeked out over this so much when I first did it. I was like "Holy crap, this is like a mini sales letter in a six-question quiz." It's crazy! It's amazing how effective these things are. It's the reason why I'm using them again.

The next thing, I've noticed in a lot of these quizzes, this is like the final thing, usually, there's one aspect that's crazy random. It's one of the final things, super, super ridiculously random - has nothing to do with anything:

Oh, thanks for taking the quiz; by the way...

Let's say you're talking about the golf quiz; they go through, and they click:

> I hit the ball.
> I top the ball.
> I top the ball way too many times.
>There's no consistency.

#Final Question: Were you wearing blue jeans when you did that?

"Oh man, is that the issue?"

A lot of times I've noticed is that one of the final questions in some of those effective quizzes is kind of a random one that's meant to be like, "Well, you wouldn't think this matters, but it actually does."

With the diet one: "Well, I don't know, was it a full moon last Thursday?" And you're like, "Crap, it was!" And it puts them in this state of curiosity.

You've brought them through in a very small amount of questions:

#1: Here's who I am.

#2: Here's where I am.

#3: Here's what I'm struggling with.

#4: Random Question: (yeah, I drank a liter of water before working out. Maybe that's the reason why I didn't lose any weight.)

You've gone through and produced this aspect of curiosity right before you say, "Could I email you your results? Put your email in right here."

Now it's logical. I can see why, it's logical, it's easy for me to justify giving you my contact, giving you my email address, giving you whatever. Going in and contributing to the marketing relationship at this point.

I'm really excited about this because what we've just made one of these quizzes. I'm super excited to see how it plays out.

So instead of sending traffic to the opt-in page, we're sending traffic to the quiz. Which is cool, because at the end of the quiz, I created a "Ta-da" an offer.

The offer that I've created is:

#1: Hey if you'd like to, I'd really like to be able to give you the results for your quiz.

#2: I want to give you a free mini-course that we've created to help people that are in your scenario. If you just put your email in, it'll send out to you over the next three to five days.

#3: We'd like to give you a free ticket to a web class, and if you just click right here and put your email in, it'll send you over to the ticket page to you can redeem your free ticket.

So go ahead and put your email in right now and that's what you'll get. It's all free. We just want to help you from where you are to where you want to be.

That's basically kind of the script that I'm doing.

This is what we're really doing.  I'm super excited. As soon as this ends, I'm going to finish the last two things I need to launch the quiz.

So anyway, I'm excited about it. I'm really pumped about it because all that stuff that I'm doing right before the opt-in, is to help create a relationship with a more warm style audience instead of the hot one that we've been selling to already.

It's allowed me to go and expand out. When I've done these kinds of things in the past, that's what the benefit has been. Without having to change the sales messaging and go in and adapt the offer, or even really change out much of the audience or really even switch out much of the ad, I can just add in, literally, a single page in front of the entire funnel, drip out a mini-course, (which, go figure, every single thing in that mini-course is reminding them to go redeem their free ticket to the web class).

I'm training them to open my stuff. I'm training them to go through and realize, "Oh man, this guy's eyes are massive, but I could probably trust him." And that's one of the reasons why I'm doing it. To create a relationship ahead of time. To create value ahead of time.

Now I've contributed so much to the relationship for free, the dialogue that I've noticed, and I've seen is: "Man, if this is his free stuff, I wonder what his paid stuff is like?" And then they go check it out. And that's been really helpful.

So I just wanted to dive in a little bit. I know it was kind of a long episode and a  bit of a deep dive and hopefully, you guys understood that as I walked through it. If not, I honestly, I would re-listen to this.

I'm really excited about this, though. This is one of the major keys, and one of the marketing plays that I'm running to drop in that next load of cash.

When we first started ads, we were putting a dollar in and getting three or four dollars back out and, as is expected with paid advertising, you start to get ad fatigue. So we're putting a dollar in now and then we get about two dollars back out, and I want that average to be a little bit higher. So this is one of the easy next plays I'm running to go get that back up and start talking to a broader audience. To get a relationship with people, and invite them to come back to the web class.


So I'm excited guys. Hopefully, you enjoyed that? If you did, please rate it in iTunes. I love watching those reviews. I appreciate it. It means a lot to me, and I love reading them. It's kind of a boost for me to be honest.

It's a lot of work putting these episodes out. We repurpose this thing to 22 platforms. It's nuts! So it means a lot to me.

I'll see you guys next episode. Bye.

Boom. Just try to tell me you didn't like that. Hey, whoever controls content, controls the game. Wanna interview me or get interviewed yourself, grab a time now at stevejlarsen.com.



Nov 23, 2018

Boom!

 

What's going on everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio. Today, I'm gonna teach you guys some of the most common mistakes when it comes to opt-in pages.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt - completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business - using only today's best internet sales funnels.



My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. What's up, guys?

 

I'm excited for today. I'm excited for this. I actually, I've been looking forward to this one. I created recently a whole course about opt-ins - it's a free course! If you go to freeoptincourse.com, there you go. There's the golden nugget of the entire episode.  

 

Freeoptincourse.com takes you through a live funnel build that I did to teach people how to get an opt-in. Now you might laugh at that a little bit. You know, it's like, "Hey this is sales funnel radio." The whole thing starts with the opt-in though - this is a give and take relationship.

 

I remember in college I wrote an e-book, actually two of them. I was so excited. I went and got this e-book written. I got it back from the ghostwriter, and I didn't like it - so I rewrote the whole thing. I was so pumped about it.

 

This was pre-ClickFunnels, I was using WordPress to build essentially a funnel.  I didn't know how to do that though, so I was like hacking out (with the little coding knowledge that I know) WordPress. It was so finicky, it was terrible.

 

It was another one of those experiences for me where I was spending inordinate amounts of time putting together this funnel. It was crappy, and I kind of knew that. And I was like, "Ah, maybe it'll still work though." I patched together a payment processor. I patched together an email autoresponder. It was really hard. I was so stoked about this thing.

 

This was back in the day when I believed that a sale happens because of the product. If you guys have been following me at all, you know that's not true.

 

The sale happens because of a sales message, not the product. Those are two very different things.

 

No one buys because of the product. They buy because of the message.

 

Well, this was before I knew that. This was before I knew any of that stuff. I was so stoked. This e-book was targeted at students, which was first of all stupid because they're all broke.

 

I spent all this time putting this thing together. I think it took me two days just to create the sales letter to just to get people to opt-in or whatever. Guys, I launched this thing, and nobody even opted in.

 

I had so many failures with this stuff way back in the day.

 

I was excited guys. I was proud. I was like, "Yeah, check this out. This is my product". I knew it was really good - it was the reasons why I was doing so well in school. I was putting awesome knowledge in this thing. Honestly really really awesome.

 

But I was so convinced that the product is the reason you opt-in. I was so convinced that the product is the reason somebody buys.

 

So what I wanna do real quick is I wanna walk through the more common mistakes that I see when it comes to creating opt-ins.

 

If you can't get opt-ins, you're already dead in the water. Especially when it comes to putting a sales funnel on the internet - you're already dead in the water.

 

If you can't even get somebody to opt-into your free thing, how you're gonna get them to buy?

 

So what I wanted to do is I wanted to walk through... I wrote a little list here, so you'll see me look up and down here a few times, but I wrote a little list here just thinking through like, "Yeah, these are the most common things that I see as mishaps for why people opt-in or not opt-in."

 

A little while ago, somebody sent me a message, "Hey will you critique my funnel?"

 

So just so you guys know, I'm always willing to critique somebody's funnel. If you guys want me to do that, you can go to stevejlarsen.com. Stevejlarsen.com is where I can critique your funnel. I sell one-on-one hour coaching sessions. We can dive through whatever you want to.



...So there was a guy that I was doing it for, and it was a bunch of fun. I really enjoyed it.  I love these guys. They were so cool. Mad, mad admiration for them. It was some guys over in Hollywood. And it was really really fun. And they worked with a lot of actors. Any, anyways it was really cool.

 

So they sent me out this squeeze page. And I start looking through this squeeze page and their funnel. And the very first thing that I noticed was how many places I could click. And I started looking through the page. (And, you know, I'm not gonna say who it was or whatever) I was looking through it, and there were so many places that I could click. There were so many places that  I could exit. That's one of the defining differences between what a funnel versus a website.

 

Let's think about this. If I have a squeeze page; the goal of the squeeze page is to get someone's contact information so that you can continue to market to them, upsell them, serve them, and add value.

 

If you're not adding value they're gonna unsubscribe anyway. So make sure you're always adding value. However, you're gonna go in, and you're gonna grab somebody's email.

 

Well, the thing is, if I go and I get on a page, and you can look at your squeeze pages now. You can look at your opt-in page. And if you guys don't know what I'm talking about, a squeeze page, an opt-in page, landing page, those are all kind of synonymous terms. Reverse squeeze page/ landing page.

 

There are subtle differences between all of them, but the main premise, the main idea is you're going to get somebody to give you their email address, or some contact info to start the marketing relationship. That's really all it is.

 

Well, I was looking at this guy's squeeze page, and the problem was that it wasn't a squeeze page -  it was a classic website that happened to have an opt-in box on it, and they were treating it like a squeeze page.

 

They were driving a lot of traffic. These guys were spending a ton of money driving traffic to this page. Off the bat, I immediately knew what the problem was.

 

I was looking at their conversions rates, and I was looking at all this traffic coming in. I was looking at their numbers. And the numbers were telling the story.  I mean they were having like maybe 1%- 2%, of people opt-in for the free thing. That's like, "Something is wrong." You should be getting at least 30% in my mind for a good squeeze page.

 

I was looking at Affiliate Outrage. It's a free program. Is it a squeeze page? It is. You might be like, "Well Steven you have a full course you're offering on the back." Yeah, but it's still a squeeze page. I just looked, 71% opt-in rates just in the last week! It's been launched for a while - so it's very exciting to have those kinds of numbers.

 

A lot of my other squeeze pages right now are getting around 62% opt-in rate. I have another one right now; it's like a content funnel. Anyways, it's different. But it's got, it's got a 40 something percent opt-in rate. Which is crazy you guys. Super cool.

 

There are principles behind this. And the first principle I want you guys to know about is that one of the biggest mistakes people make, classic mistake, is: "It's not a squeeze page." They build a website page.

 

Meaning, I go on the page, and if you have links at the top, that's not a squeeze page. You just built a website with a funnel editor. You can totally build a website in something like ClickFunnels. I've done it, I've done it a couple times now.

 

If you have more than one exit from the page, meaning; they should either have to put in their email address, and press submit - or literally close the tab. That is a landing page. Squeeze page.  I'm gonna call them "squeeze pages." Kind of synonymous though. That's like the classic classic blunder though.

 

At the bottom, when it comes to all the legal terms and stuff, I literally put terms and privacy. That's it. And a copyright. That's it. You know. A business address.  I put the legal crap on there. But besides terms and privacy, I don't put anything else on the bottom. I definitely don't have anything on the top of the page.

 

The only way to move forward is to give their email, or whatever contact you're asking for. That's how a squeeze page works. It's the definition of it - it squeezes. Give me some info, and I'll give you some sweet value. That's like the classic number one blunder. Now if you've been a funnel builder at all, you're like, "Duh, Steven I get that."

 

Number two, the one that I see people mess up the most is there's literally just no curiosity. That's it. I look; there's no curiosity. The headline, you've not asked any open loops. The headline is not giving any kind of alluring promise. There's no alluring promise to it. The headline is like the most important aspect.

 

The first time I ever build a squeeze page was with my buddy in college. He and I were doing an affiliate marketing thing. We decided we were gonna leave a class and never come back 'cause it was so boring. We spent probably three hours just on the headline. It almost got to a frustrating pace. It was like, "Come on; we gotta move along faster." But like we really wanted this thing to work.

 

At ClickFunnels we spend two to three days just on the headline It's that important. So if you're just writing 'em on a whim, that's typically the biggest reason I see that people's squeeze pages don't work. They might just have one exit - which is great, it's what you should have - but there's no curiosity on the page.

 

You've literally have answered every one of the questions that you brought up on the same page, therefore why should I opt-in?

 

You wanna increase your conversions? You wanna double conversions? The easiest thing to do is to go in and make open looped statements where they're like, "Hey, what is the answer to that?" It calls out the right person, so they have to opt-in. It's like, "Yes, show me more!" Or "Yes, I wanna know." Or "Yes, give me that free report." Or "Yes, I want the free course." Does that make sense? It's the curiosity.

 

Curiosity drives the human brain nuts. We have to have closed loops. It drives us crazy. In western culture, everything down to our music and our melodic tones resolve - because we need that closure.  A lot of eastern music doesn't. It's totally western culture to have closure.

 

We need closure. Even if it's not real. Even if it's fake. In our lives, people seek closure. Man, that's human psychology. You can use that. So I create curiosity in my squeeze pages, primarily through the headline.

 

Open it up, and say like, "Are you getting the most out of blank, blank, blank, blank, blank, blank? Click down below for the free report. Click right here to take the quiz. Oh, here's your quiz results. Do you want the quiz results? Email/ button!"

 

As soon as I stop the camera right here that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to finish a sweet quiz we're putting in front of one of our funnels now.

 

And that's how I know it will work is because I ask an open-ended question and people can't handle but to actually try to pursue the answer. That lets me get their stuff. That lets me start pushing through the funnel and begin the marketing relationship.

 

Curiosity. Stop telling all of your stuff on the squeeze page. That's not the reason it exists. Remember the function that it exists for. A squeeze page only exists to start the relationship. Not for you to teach all your stuff or make you look like a rockstar.

 

Number three, this is a classic blunder, it kind of ties into the second one. Too much info. Just too much info. Way too much information. You're telling all kinds of stuff throughout it. You're literally bathing them in information. There's selling the opt-in, but then there's just like, telling stuff.

 

If you wanna go see some good examples, again, these are free courses, but if you go to affiliateoutrage.com, watch how hard I'm selling the opt-in. It's a big page. I know it's a big page. But you can see I'm selling, it's a squeeze page. I'm telling a little bit more information than I would normally ask somebody to do, but watch what I'm doing. I present an offer:

 

There's actually a full offer on that page - for something that's free.

 

There is social proof up the butt. There's so much!

 

There are testimonials.

 

There are video introductions to all of the course creators, and all of the people who are in there.

 

BUT... it's very open-ended. I'm not actually resolving any of the questions that I bring up in there. I'll ask questions like:

 

"Well, Steven, how much is this?" "It's free, click here to get it."

 

"Well, Steven, how long is this available?"  "Don't really know. Just kind of testing it out. People have really gotten a lot of results from this. Until then, make sure you get it, so I don't close it out."

 

And it goes back, goes back, goes back, goes back. Opt-in, opt-in, opt-in, opt-in.

 

Here's the issue; so many people instead of continuing to create open loops throughout the page, they start teaching on the squeeze page, and then they wonder nobody's opted in. I

 

t's all about scarcity and urgency. It's all about creating that curiosity. The easiest ways to do that? "Man, don't tell them too much. Don't tell them too much."

 

I had the incredible opportunity to go hang with Trey Lewellen for a little while. Trey, I and his awesome girlfriend were all hanging out. And we were working on his webinar funnel. And he had an incredible squeeze page. It was extremely short. It was literally a headline, an opt-in, and a button. That was it.

 

The headline, an input field, and a button. That's all he had on that front page. And it was cool to see how high his numbers were.

 

And that works really really well when you're talking to a hot audience. When people know who you are. And it works really well, it can work in general, like it depends on what you're doing. Like I don't wanna just say like this big blanket statement; "Oh, small squeeze pages that don't work very well." Or "They do work well." I'm not gonna make a blanket statement. Every scenario is different.

 

But by simply going in and adding in a few testimonials or adding in the Facebook comments element so people can comment straight on there and it stays on there for all the future users who will visit that page - that's all native in ClickFunnels. That's really really powerful.

 

He showed me some screenshots back, and they had like a 50% increase in opt-ins because of it. It was crazy. I can't remember the exact number but it was outrageous. It was a huge increase in the opt-ins.

 

And, anyway, so I want you to know like, there was hardly anything on the page. He opened the loop. There was an input field and a button. That's it. That's like the classic squeeze page.

 

The next thing I already alluded to it, is social proof.

 

Guys, there's been some very fascinating launches in history where somebody will go in, and they'll sell a course with this massive sales letter with all the sales material. And they'll make tons of money. And it's like, "Wow! cool." And they'll close out the cart. Then they just focus on the students that came in; getting them results and gathering testimonials.

 

Then they'll reopen the cart with no sales letter, just the huge sickening amount of testimonials and social proof. And they'll do just as much money with that page as they did with the sales page. Social proof is massive. Massive.

 

You guys wanna know the cool way to get social proof? Go do a free course. What I'm saying is, you could literally just go like on Facebook for two hours and teach something. Pull that video. Download that video. Boom! Now you got a course.

 

Go to your audience,  and say, "Hey, I'm gonna make that a $57 thing in the future. If you want though I could give it to you free now. I'll give you the recording. Give you also some other cool things,"  - make a little mini offer out of it.

 

"So it'll be $57 or literally, just take out your phone, flip it sideways, and just tell me what that's meant to you. Tell me what value you've gotten from me in the future, or in the past. Tell me, answer the question what's it like to work with Steve?"

 

I've done that multiple times now and gathered easily probably 50, 60 testimonials in a week. And then I just go and I'll liter 'em throughout my pages. I know my stuff is good.

 

One of my squeeze pages on a site right now, I've brought it from 45% opt-in rate up to 65%, and it's maintained at 62%. And one of the biggest things I did was I just added a huge amount of social proof. Huge amount of social proof. And that was it. That was really one of the only major changes I actually added to the page. That was it.

 

Social proof is massive. And it's a very easy thing to do. You don't need tons of it. But if you can get like two or three that's perfect.

 

So you got your headline, you got an input, you got a button, some social proof. Done. And that's it.

 

Lots of curiosity. Some scarcity and urgency. I recommend putting a countdown clock on there. Make it an evergreen countdown clock. Countdown clocks make people do crazy stuff. Just put it on there. You don't even have to explain it. You'll get more opt-ins. It's true.

 

So anyways, I recommend also with your guys' squeeze pages that what they're opting in for is so obviously valuable that giving you an opt-in seems like child's play. And what I've noticed is when I do that it starts to increase the reciprocity they feel for me in the future.

 

So anyways, just to run through the list again:

 

#Number one, classic example is somebody who doesn't really understand funnels yet will come in and there's just too many exits. Way too many exits.

 

I recommend using something like an exit pop. I don't care. "What Steven, you want exit pops?" Yeah, I don't care about bothering people one more time before they leave - I may never see them again. An exit pop. Works miracles.

 

I love exit pops. It definitely increases my conversions by a lot. Exit pops are awesome. Too many exits.

 

#No curiosity. You literally are telling everything. It's all about creating open loops. That's what gets them going.

 

#Too much information. If you are gonna put a lot of stuff in there and if it is gonna be a big one, like I was saying, you can go look at affiliateoutrage.com to see this format that I follow.

 

The more of those kinds of things I added in my conversions went up.

 

But everything I put on the page has to do with back to the opt-in. I'm not selling the thing down the road. I'm just selling the very next step I want them to take. opt-in, rather than, "Hey, there's a course down the future that's gonna be this amount" Or "Hey, why don't you get coaching from me?"

 

I'm not selling that crap. I'm only selling the very next step. Just like in an email. The email doesn't sell the product, it sells whatever link is in the email, and then they click on the link, and they go to the page. Then the page sells whatever the very next step is.

 

Too many people sell the thing that's down the road rather than the next step. Easiest way to kill your crap. Don't do that.

 

Same with the squeeze page. You're just selling the opt-in. That's it. The page sells the opt-in. The page sells getting their email address. The page sells getting and going and clicking to the very next step - not what's on the next step. It just that step.  So too much information.

 

#Having no social proof. Which is, I just let you know a cool way to go get it.

 

# Not having a countdown clock.

 

Those are classic very easy ways.

 

#Videos can help, but sometimes I see the way people create a video is an actual hinder to the opt-in. I don't recommend having a video for your opt-in. If your thing requires some explaining to do, maybe, but man it's gotta high pace. It's gotta be exciting to watch. I don't recommend having videos.

 

Affiliate Outrage is probably the only one where I have a video; it took me a while to craft it and make it feel the way it did. Anyway, it's not a normal thing for me to go do because most of the time I find that videos on squeeze pages slow down the rate of opting in. They slow down the rate of consuming, and so I'll put a video on the next page.

 

If I'm doing a reverse squeeze page, if you don't know what that is go look at The Funnel Hacker Cookbook, then maybe you'll put a video on there. But it's not a normal play for me. It's not a normal thing that I  do.

 

So, if you're like "Hey, I can't get more opt-ins" and if you have a video, just take the video off and just try it. You know do a little split test and see what happens? You most likely will get a higher opt-in rate 'cause it won't slow the momentum down so much.

 

Anyway, guys, hopefully, you found this list helpful? I know this was a little more of a tactical episode here, but just know that this is a pretty basic skill in the funnel building world.

 

If you wanna be a funnel builder, get good at creating squeeze pages and list building. That's really what it is. Lists are the only asset on the internet, not the funnel, not your product, not your sales message - it's the list.

 

The list is what will save you if the bottom falls out from under something.

 

The list is the real asset on the internet. Not the product, not the sales message, none of that. All that stuff is transferable. You can take those other places. The list though that's the real thing that you want.

 

So if you wanna be a funnel builder, you gotta get good at opting in. You gotta get good at getting people to opt-in. You gotta get good at delivering value up front. You gotta get good at pulling people and helping them realize, like, "Oh, logically I see what I should give you my email."  

 

Anyway, so I just hope this is helpful to you. Go back to your squeeze pages, and use the list I  went through to look at your squeeze page and play devil's advocate. Like, "Man, yeah, you're right, this does suck."

 

Make sure it's mobile-optimized.

 

A lot of times it's harder to create a converting opt-in page than the actual order page. It's such a delicate place. It's the first time a lot of people will even see you or hear about you or know who you are. That's why I spend so much time on them. Even though, a lot of times, there are not many words on it. It's such a delicate first encounter. You have to make sure that it's awesome.

 

So that's why I wanted to make this episode for you guys today.

 

Make sure you go back, check this stuff out.

 

The funnest thing to go do is start running through people's pages for them for free. Last story here, then I'll end...

 

I can't remember who it was; it was someone related to Harmon Brothers. In the same building that they work out of. And they had this, crap I can't remember, this was a long time ago. I decide, I just wanted to start building more relationships.

 

So I literally opened up my computer, and I started going to these different pages and funnels that I could tell were good, but not quite there yet.

 

They weren't funnel builders, but they had a good product, and I just started recording my screen critiquing people's pages. Then I would just send their support the critique and wait to see what happens.

 

It wasn't uncommon for me to start getting feedback from CTOs, saying "Wow, that was really helpful. Thanks so much." Like, "Oh, yeah, ain't nothin’. By the way, I'm Steven, how you doing?" And that was a really easy way for me to go in and actually create a lot of relationships. I did that a lot.

 

I don't think I've ever told you guys that. Anyway, it's fun. Just go practice. Do it to your own stuff, do it to other people's stuff.

 

Hopefully, you guys enjoyed the episode. Talk to you guys later. Bye.

 

Aww, yeah! Hey, obviously a funnel's already dead if you can't get even get anyone to opt-in.

 

So I spent four hours teaching an audience how to get high opt-ins when they work, when they don't work.

 

If you want access to that member's area, where you can watch those replays, just go to freeoptincourse.com to create your free members account now.



Nov 20, 2018

Boom, what's going on everyone?

It's Steve Larsen, this is Sales Funnel Radio, and today I'm gonna teach you guys how to use the sales letters to go find good interns.

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today, and now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

What's up, guys? I'm excited for this!

Okay, so it's about a week, I don't know, a week and or two ago, we were looking at all the leads coming into our funnel.

Right now I've got anywhere from 500 to 1,500 opt-ins every week to see my webinar - that's where we are right now, that's where the numbers are shaking out.

What's interesting is the automation of the funnel itself is selling a percentage of those people, but there's a huge percentage of people who don't actually go buy because they have one last question. They need to talk to somebody.

And literally, the volume is just something I can't handle.

What was interesting is, we found out, we were looking at... I went to BYU Idaho...

They're not far away from here, they're like five and a half hours away from here...

We just found out that they added a sales program to their majors, right. You can actually go and get an emphasis in sales now, which is awesome, super cool - first undergrad I've ever heard to go do that.

So, turns out, they're having their career fair super fast, so we went to work. I opened up FunnelScripts, and I was like okay, a sale is a sale regardless if there's money involved, right?

I sell somebody on a movie I wanna to go see. I sell somebody on this is where I wanna go eat. I sell somebody, right? Sales is everywhere.

And honestly, if you're not getting what you want in life, it's because you're not a good salesman. It's true! I'm not talking about just for money. I'm talking about anything.

It's kind of funny, I went into FunnelScripts and I opened up the short sales letter script and I started filling it out all of the little pieces to sell a student to taking an internship with me.

I was like, “Hey, if we're getting 1,500 leads every single week, what can we do to get these people, if they just have one question left, how can we get them to come the rest of the way and actually purchase?"

So, what we did was, we went back to college. And we went to this career fair, and I decided, how cool would it be to use some direct response. You know, like the old school direct mail kind of principles, right?

I went through and I wrote a sales letter on yellow paper, right? And anyway, this is it.

So, I just wanna go through and I'm just gonna read this thing to you guys so you can see how persuasive this was - because the result was amazing. The result was incredible.

It was kinda funny at first to stand there. We actually brought this exact same set up that you see here if you guys are on YouTube:

We got the big Sales Funnel Radio paparazzi wall and that's what we put up.

We got this big banner made.

We made these Capitalist Pig T-shirts - that are going to be made available to anybody soon. I'm super excited about it.

People are PMing me like crazy. They say 'Capitalist Pig' on the front and its like a piggy bank and there's a dollar sign for the eyes. It says 'Capitalist Pig' and then on the back it says 'Sales Funnel Radio'. It's super cool!

Anyway, a lot of people were asking for 'em. So, we figured we might as well make 'em publicly available to all of you soon. It's not gonna be like a thing we have open forever, just gonna open and close kinda stuff just 'cause I'm not really in the T-shirt biz so, kinda when time permits, I'll sell that shirt and then not. Anyway, I'm excited though.

And we have an 'It's Monday Baby' shirt coming out soon.

Anyway, so we were wearing the Capitalist Pig shirts I should be wearing it now, that'd be kinda cool.

We had this setup, we had the high ticket sales banner here the Sales Funnel Radio thing, and the crown jewel of it all, in my opinion, was this script.

And what was cool about it is like this thing, I'm selling them to take an interview. I'm selling them to not just do the internship, but I just want them to go take the interview. I'm selling the next step in the process. Get on an interview. So this is what I did...

I went into FunnelScripts and literally an hour before it started, I was doing the One Funnel Away challenge stuff which, I know a lotta you guys are in... Anyway, that's over now. That first month, that's over now. I thank you guys so much for being a part of it, really appreciate it. But I was doing that...

And about thirty minutes prior to this career fair starting, I opened up Funnel Scripts and I was like, "Hey I'm gonna go and I'm gonna write a sales letter to get somebody to come fill these closer positions."

There's a lot of people out there that are already experts at it, but I thought it'd be kinda neat to go take some college students and do that. Which is super cool. Anyway, this is it:

"Attention graduating or interning BYUI students, get a paid internship, with on-the-go training which you'll actually use after you graduate."

'Cause like the headline right there, that's it right there. Just like I would in a webinar, right? "Attention audience, attention audience," and then a headline, "Get a paid internship with on-the-job training which you'll actually use after you graduate." Holy smokes, right? What do they want?

That's a promise of a paid internship with on-the-job training. And then what's the fear here? "Oh man, I'm not gonna actually use that when I graduate." No, you actually will use this if you graduate. If you know how to sell, you're gonna use that everywhere in your life, the rest of life.

And then I wrote it as if it was first person button lingo.

For buttons lotta times we'll use first person language. "Yes, give me Secret MLM Hacks. Yes, give me "insert product", whatever." So, I wrote it in that manner. "Yes," in quote marks:

"Yes, I'm ready to learn the one skill that makes me more valuable to the marketplace. A real skill that is transferable to any profession I end up in and keep control of my income." What? Thank you, FunnelScripts!

"I understand that when I act now I'll become a high-paid sales closer of the Sales Funnel Radio high-ticket closing position and get....," and here's my offer...I wrote an offer for the interns, it's an intern offer:

Number one: salary plus commission - We're paying 'em like eight bucks an hour just to keep them moving, right? And then we pay commission. We're the one paying for all the leads...

I'm the one serving up all the leads to 'em, so, anyway we give them 10% of whatever they close, at any price point.

Right now at the recording of this, I have products anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000, and then $30,000 to $150,000 products. I'll give them 10% of whatever they close, I don't care. So, "salary plus commission."

Number two: A choice of part or full time. A choice of your own hours. A chance for full-time hire. A chance to learn on the job. An amazing reward program which we have - which is really cool.

"I also understand that when I act now I also get the top converting sales scripts in today's market."  - I'm just gonna write a sales script. I'm gonna use the four question close from Expert Secrets. That's what I'm gonna teach 'em on.

 

“Pre-qualified leads to set up for you.”

"Remote work available" - I'm trying to think if I was a student again, what was super frustrating to me? Working with hours... They're my target market, right? I'm just laughing at this, and the whole reason for this entire episode is because I want you to understand it doesn't matter who you're selling or what you're selling or who you're trying to convince, sales are involved.

The concept of offer creation the concept of sales letter writing is something that pays you wherever you go. I don't care what you're selling, or if there's even money involved with it. It will "pay you" whatever you want.

Basically, I said they get everything for free instead of the public price of $15,000, which is what it normally would be to the public at like a two or three-day event.

I'm gonna teach them one-on-one with a lot of this stuff to make sure that they're awesome closers, right?

"To your professional success Stephen Larson - interview for one of the three positions now."

Wait, there are three positions? Wait, there's scarcity and urgency... Right, it's the same principles throughout.

Anyway, there are a few other things inside here which are pretty awesome. But it's the same principles as you would any kinda sales letter.

What I did is I went through and I starting thinking through how I would, so I designed this banner the day before, and funny enough we were able to get it actually printed, which is awesome. But I just want to walk through the banner really quick here. Check this out, so I'm actually gonna unhook the camera. First time in Sales Funnel Radio history! Check this out, so it says:

"Sales Funnel Radio. 200K+ downloads." - By the way, that's cool. That just happened. 200,000 downloads of Sales Funnel Radio. Thank you very much by the way.

Big ol' picture, why? 'Cause I'm trying to add a little bit of authority in it and most people, they looked at the banner, they looked back at me, look at the banner, look back at me. Like, "That's you!" Like, "Yeah!"

I specifically created the marketing to get an intern so that it would offend the right people and attract the right people.

It's very key, so many people are apologetic in their marketing. Saying, "High-Ticket Sales" right there, big across the front, "High-Ticket Sales", right there. Guys, it's fascinating how many people that repelled. Good! Good! This thing did most of the work for us.

And then I went through and I started lacing out all of the benefits: rOh,

"Salary + commission", "part or full-time," "remote work," "reward program," "choose your own hours," "chance of full-time hire", "on the job training," "pre-qualified leads," right? "We just need more closers," right? That's what I say at the bottom there.

I said, "Apply here. There are only four positions available." I think on the sales letter it said three, but anyway, I don't really care. I just need scarcity and urgency and need 'em to be hungry.

Hunger is the thing I can never teach anybody. So I'm trying to farm out those who are hungry. Then, just like we would with a progress bar on a landing page or an application, I needed to do some kind of a progress bar.

So check this out, there's already a sense of fulfillment. I'm trying to give them a dopamine hit because they've already completed step one.


Right here, check this out:

Step number one, go apply.

Step number two, get the script, which I'm going to teach them, it's really simple.

Step number three, close the lead.

That's it, that's all they gotta do.

At the very bottom, I added testimonials to people I've trained in the past. Super cool! "Orlando. What's up, dude? Shout out to you." He said, "My highest gratitude to Steve when I started two weeks ago, I did $30,000 at my first presentation yesterday." It's a true story, super epic.

Another one from Angela Florence! "What's up? Shout out to you." Said, "I'm a quiet person, but when I went to Stephen's training I closed over 50% of my leads the first time ever trying."


So I went through and I just wanted people to understand this is a real thing. So let me just secure the camera again here. Bam! There we go.

What I want people to understand is if you want to do this, it's a script I'm gonna teach you. They're not cold leads, they're coming in and...

Anyway, so I'm excited about this and it's been really cool. And as a result in just a few hour period that we were there, we ended up getting, I think, 24 people asking. Two of them were an obvious "Absolutely Not," so we went down to 22. And then we've been following up and closing back and I think we're gonna grab six or seven of them, which is awesome.

So what we've been doing to the business now, and this is why this is making Sales Funnel Radio...

If I'm looking at the funnel, and I got more leads coming in then I can handle, this is an obvious, easy position to add in the back, people just closing other people, just pulling them on in:

"Hey, what's up? Hey, how's it going? Hey, hey, hey, hey." It's an obvious, very, very easy position to go fill. It's commission, and even then, eight bucks an hour.

If my course is a $1,000 or $1,500 you only gotta sell one, like, a month to pay for themselves. If they can't sell one a month, I guarantee ya, I'm not keeping them. It's just how it works if they're that bad.

It's not like they're cold leads. They're just following up with people who have already opted-in to get the info, right? They're literally answering the last final questions before someone buys.

Anyway, so it's very hard for me to not justify doing this. So what we've been doing is we've been going in and setting up the back-end systems. So when somebody comes in and they buy, or when somebody comes in and they're like, "Yeah, I need one or few more, one or two last questions set up before I go buy." We got these back-end systems that are being set up there:

We got a phone system, which is awesome. It's tracking all the stuff.

We use Zoho, Zoho is the CRM that I like to use, and it's simple, it's awesome, it's powerful. That phone system updates Zoho, the contact in there, with any updates.

On the  ClickFunnel side, we have an internal form for the sales agent to fill out when they're on the phone with the person, which gives the sales agent credit and then takes the sale and opens up all the marketing automation for anybody as if they bought straight off of the webinar.

So super cool, with very few adjustments. I truly think this is going to double the revenue because we're gonna have people who are actually getting their questions answered.

Now the one thing that I know that will kill the sale is if I educate the salesmen too much. They'll start talking their way out of the sale. Literally, talk their way out of the purchase. And so I'm being careful to just teach a script, not the product.

The point for any backend sales closer is not to teach the product, it's to get the sale. It's super fun, guys, I'm literally going in and I'm using the four question close. That's right from Expert Secrets, and I will tell you firsthand that's the script that ClickFunnels uses. That's exactly what Russell's high-ticket salesmen use as well.

So if you want to see what that is, by the way, you can:

Number one, go look at it inside of Expert Secrets, it's toward the back.

Number two, go to Affiliate Outrage, and Derek Wilson, the high-ticket closer at ClickFunnels right now - he's the man. He's using that script and if you go to Affiliate Outrage, he did a whole little mini-course for Affiliate Outrage for the community for free, just to show people a little bit more of what he does, and he walks through the script.


So that's what we're doing. That's exactly what I've been plugging in and it's been a whole bunch of fun. It's interesting what's happening to the business because of the possible new revenue.

So we've been going in and we're creating these new things in the back and in the front to capture more leads, capture more phone numbers, make it so all the systems are talking to each other and it's just full automation and super seamless. It's exciting. It's really fun.

So I thought it'd be kinda cool just to share with you what happened and it was honestly on a whim. I went and I slept on a kitchen floor of my brother. He lives over there on campus.

Colton went and found an old relation over there as well. Right, an old friend and it was super haphazard. We just showed up and we just did it and it was super fun. And we got a bunch of people asking.

I was shocked at the level of talent. Man, when I was in college, not long ago, there were not many people trying to do sales, and it was interesting to see how many people had already, not just wanted it, but there were a few students who knew they wanted it so bad they dropped all their classes and they were just they were just trying to find someone's product to sell.

I was like, what the heck. And there's a lot of them. I thought we'd get like two or three rock stars. It was actually the opposite. There was two or three that weren't rock stars and I was shocked about that.

So don't be afraid to grab some interns. Don't be afraid to add in a closer system, phone system at the end of your funnels. A lot of times, all you gotta do is change the selling environment, meaning take them off the Internet, close them right there and then.onestly, a lot of times I've seen people do that, they'll double their company.

I've seen a lot of inner-circle members do that. Adding in a high-ticket thing or adding in a phone person to close leads. Does that make sense?

So anyway, that's all I'm trying to help you guys understand.

As far as Sales Funnels go, that's the next place that my funnel is reaching out. The funnel, we're extending it to a phone closer scenario. That's how we found the closers. Those are the script we're using. Those are the systems we're using to plug in back and forth. It's been really epic and super excited about it. So I will keep you updated on how it's going, but we've got to college interns now. How freaking cool is this?

So with the content team, with the rest of us all in there, it has the potential to be like 15 people working on this thing now, it's like freaking awesome. Like legit, I should probably wear shoes sometimes.

Alright, thanks so much, if you enjoyed this episode, please go share it, please like it, please subscribe if you haven't. It really means a lot to me and it means a lot to the community.

Thank you so much again for over 200,000 downloads by the way. I almost get as many downloads a day as I did my very first month of the show. It's humbling for me to see that. It's humbling for me to see how far this has all come.

Anyway, the value that it's been able to be to everybody and myself as well and really mean it and very much just want to thank everybody.

Thanks so much for all you guys who came to OfferMind as well, that is definitely something I'll do again in the future, so you guys can figure out exactly the sales message and offer that the market is asking you to sell them. That's very key, and I know that will pop out another time. Just make sure you stay tuned and guys.

Thanks so much. I'll see ya. Bye.

Whoo! Hey, there's more marketing resources than there is sand in the sea, am I right? Okay, maybe not, but there's a lot. How do you know if you're paying for good ones?

Recently I went to my business bank statement, and I counted 51 Internet tools and resources that I use to run my business every day and actually keep my team size small.

If you want to see the list, I actually filmed an individual video teaching you why I use each tool and the strategy behind it, and then I dropped the link straight to the source right below it.

If you want to see the list and see what you can use yourself, go to bestmarketingresources.com. That's bestmarketingresources.com.



Nov 16, 2018

Boom! What's going on everyone. It's Steve Larsen. This is Sales Funnel Radio and today I'm gonna do Part Two of my Coaching Contract.

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine-to-five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

What's up guys? Hey, I had to chop us into two different episodes because it was a little bit longer. So anyway, this is the second half. I'm gonna pick right up where I left off. I'm going through 14 different rules that I make somebody follow when I decide and agree to coach them, or consult for them. So you're gonna start hearing these rules.

If you've not heard Part One, I'd go back and listen to that before you listen to this. It'll make more sense.

This is a result of me watching, not only just the marketing patterns that make somebody successful but the attitudes that have made someone successful.

What it is that they've been willing to enter into when I say, "Hey, here's the marketing piece. Hey cool, check it out... " And they're like, "I don't know if I'm willing to do that?" And 'why' they say that... or 'why' they're willing to dive in? So these are cool!

These are rules that I've written off the top of my head.

So just sort of a recap; I go in, and  I make them agree to a few things. This is a relationship, okay? So they're gonna do some things and then when they do, I will do these other things as well, okay?

I don't just go 100% without them going a hundred also. I match and I lean into the level that they are willing to be leaning as well.

Alright, hope you guys enjoy this. Let's cut right over to this...

This next part. I'm gonna go a little faster here.

Number Seven: "If you earnestly attempt to answer all questions on your own, then I will coach you to the answer."

This is a big one.

You guys remember there was a podcast episode I did a little bit ago called, My Greatest Asset. If you've not watched it, it went nuts. There was like 700 views within the first two hours on that video before I ever released it as an episode. That was crazy. That episode was freakin' awesome.

And what's interesting is one of the biggest issues that I find with people's attitudes is that they're like, "Well, I don't know where to find the answer for that?" Man, freakin' Google exists, alright? "Well, Steven, I just don't know how to do this and this anymore." YouTube it!

Holy crap, there's never been a time when there's been so much information readily available for everybody with such a lack of discipline on how to get it.

It drives me nuts, okay? So they're never allowed to just ask me.

This comes from a specific person in my history...

There was a leader that I had over a whole group of us, and anytime we had a question, he wouldn't ever answer it.

We were like, "Um, so what do we do about this, this, and this?" He was like, "Yeah, what would you do about that?"  And it drove us nuts! We'd be like, "Whoa, we don't know that's why we were gonna ask you!"  It's frustrating.

We were all so mad at the dude forever. And  he's like, he's like, "Oh man, yeah I wonder where you can find that out?"

For like six months, the dude never answered a question of ours, and it drove me nuts. Eventually, he told us, "Guys, my goal is to make you self-sufficient, not give you all the answers."

That was a huge lesson that has served me ever since that experience. That was eight or nine years ago. He was awesome. He changed my life just with that one lesson.

So when people come to me, if it's like a super tactical thing, I might help answer the question for them, but when it's a dumb question...

Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question? That's a stupid quote, okay! There is such a thing as a stupid question. It's the question that someone took no thought to try and answer on their own before they asked somebody else! Does that make sense? That's stupid. Stupid questions exist. Earnestly attempt to answer.

Number Eight: "You gotta buy success with your own time."

Somebody complimented me once on something I had done, and I said, "Oh, thanks. I bought it with my time." And they're like, "What do you mean?" I'd have lost a bunch of weight, and somebody was like, "Oh man, you're looking great." I was like, "Oh thanks, I bought the results with my time."

It was a super weird response, and I knew it was. They're like, "What do you mean?” I was like, "Well, you know, while most people are doing this, this, and this, I was exercising, or not eating." Does that make sense?

I found out like some people who are in this course that I was doing they were spending like maybe 10 minutes a day on what we were teachin' 'em and then they were like, "This doesn't work!" I was like, "You're not working." It's so stupid.

Does 10 minutes a day sound like obsession? No, and if you can't get obsessed over what you're learning or you're trying to do? You're probably not in the right thing.

It's easy for me to dominate in this game because I'm obsessed about the game. No one needs to make me obsessed with the game, you know. I mean no one 's like, "Alright, today, item number one on today's agenda, obsession."  It's just there, alright, it's just there - it's inside.

Number NIne:  "Take imperfect action viciously. Just run man."

I'm not waiting to teach people the next step for when they have 100% perfection in the thing. I wait till I can see they're at like the 80% level. Meaning, in the level of understanding or the funnels.

If the funnels 80% good, just go! Like yeah, could we keep tweaking it, but let's just go. I go at 80%.

Number Ten: "Don't freak out at the clock."

This is a big one. When people freak out at the clock, this is what happens: The first time I was ever doing that 2 Comma Club Coaching thing, it's a year-long program... and two months in, there was this slew of people who started asking me, "Steven, how long do we have this for?" I was like "Why are you asking this right now? You've been in for two months, and you're killin' it. You have all these assets ready, and we're finally ready to go build funnels."

This happened the week we were supposed to start puttin' the funnel together, start writing a webinar script, or whatever - slightly bigger tasks. I was like, "Why are they asking this?"

What was funny about that is I started realizing that where we were in the course was where all the things started coming together and they had to start building crap - meaning they weren't just watching videos anymore. They weren't just answering something in a workbook - they were doing the thing. It was time to stop studying how to drive a car and get behind the wheel-  the engine's on, it's a stick shift, and that things in gear - they're ready to let off the clutch and start going.

I was like, "Why are you asking this?" and I realized, "Oh crap, it's because of where we are - the work is starting now.”

 

So I try to get people to take action imperfectly and not freak out over trying to make everything amazing. Don't freak out over the clock - if it's taking longer than what you expected it to be. "Yeah duh! It always does."

One of my favorite quotes is: It'll take you longer than you think, but not as long as you fear. That has stayed in my mind - it's been a motto of mine for a long time.

It's like an exponential curve; no progress/ no cash, no progress/ no cash, a little progress/ a little cash, lots of progress/ not much cash, lots of progress/ not much cash, lots of progress/ lots of cash! It's this exponential curve that just pops right out of the gate. Super exciting, very, very cool.

Number 11: “If you chose to be uncomfortable every day, then I will promise to help create environments for positive stress.”

This is a big one.

There's eustress, and there's distress - not all stress is the same.

When I'm looking at my three-year-old and my five-year-old, and I'm trying to craft a learning environment for them. If I can see they start exiting eustress and entering distress, I know I need to stop.

 

Meaning, I have a chore list for 'em, and I'll ask them to do this, this, this, and this... And to a three and a five-year-old, some of the things on that chore list might be kind of challenging, and I get that - I'm watching them.

Eustress comes from euphoria - it's positive stress. It's stress that is growth stress. It's sculpting, and it's shifting, it's good for the individual.

Distress, that's destructive - that's the negative kind. Bad anxiety, right? Really, bad. It's when someone feels overwhelmed, overloaded - they're gonna die. They start entering into destructive habits. That's destructive. That's distress.

I want eustress for my customers all the time. And that's one of the reasons why my stuff is awesome, but also why my stuff is sometimes hard for people to take in... Cause I know that they must grow as an individual, not just a funnel.

They must grow as an individual to even pull off the funnel, right? That's what it is to become an attractive character. There are things inside of you that you need to work on, overcome, focus on, expand, or contract.

I try and do something challenging and uncomfortable every single day. This morning I did not want to lift. I did not wanna exercise this morning. Holy crap, a lot of stuff going on for me right now. I was like, "I don't want to." I didn't really wanna lift, but I thought about this, and I was like, "Alright, let's do it!"

Number 12: "Be brutally honest about where you are. If you're brutally honest about where you are, then I will applaud your progress."

If anyone of you guys goes out and rents a freakin' Lamborghini, takes a picture in front of it and puts it on their Facebook profile page to become a "professional." I'm gonna slap ya - especially if you're a student, consultant, or client of mine - or something like that. Nope!

Be brutally honest about where you are. That's one of the fastest paths to progression I've ever seen in my entire life.

Every time I've done that and I've been honest about where I am, and where I am not - being okay with that when someone asks me, that's cool, that's awesome. People like to follow you more because of that than anything else - it's really fun.

Alright, next one, almost done here.

Number 13:  “If you will kill all parts of your old self or the elements of your old self you need to kill.”

There might be all of your old self you need to kill, or there may be pieces of you that you gotta leave behind when you move forward...  that's fine, that's part of the game.

I always laugh at songs... There are these popular songs out today, I hate listening to the radio 'cause the rhythm is the same. It's the same pattern for all their songs. I love music. I studied a lot of music theory in high school. I was a music theory guy for a while, and so I hate radio music most of the time 'cause it's all the same junk.

It's funny; there are songs making fun of the top label songs. They're all the exact same four chords, and they're all, anyway, anyway, whatever. I forgot where I was going with that I love the topic of music.

Anyway, anyway, yeah, there's parts of your old self you gotta go kill - and be okay with that. That's 100% okay.

It can be challenging for an individual to do that. It can be challenging for people to leave behind parts of themselves, right? One of the biggest mistakes I made when my wife and I got married is I thought like, "Well, I gotta be a husband now."  So I sold my full kit drum set. That was stupid. I sold my longboard. I sold all the crap that made me, me - thinking like, "Well, I'm an adult." And that's garbage. I'm not talking about that kind of crap. I'm talking about fears and things inside of you that you gotta get rid of. You might have to kill other parts of you, in general, to move on to the next phase - and that's totally fine.

I don't lean too hard into that one specifically because people know that answer themselves. I'm not gonna know that about them - only they will know that.

Number 14:  “If you will lean into my training/ coaching/ my consulting, (or whatever it is), then I will also lean in.”

 

I don't carry the ball. I teach you how to carry it.

I don't carry the player and the ball. If I can see you're running hard and you're actually doing stuff, and you drop the ball, I might pick it up, but I don't ever pick up the player and ball. Does that make sense?

So if you will lean in, I will as well. I will match your intensity.

So I just wanted to walk through the rules that I have (there's more, but those are the ones off the top of my head).

There are rules that I have whenever I coach somebody, or I enter into consulting.

A lot of it has to do with what I've seen in the past actually works when somebody makes a successful funnel.

When somebody says things like, "You know Stephen, I really need this to work. Is it gonna work this time? Are you gonna be there to help me?"

A lady reached out once and said, "Hey, I wanna buy your product, but will you be there to motivate me when I am feeling down?" And I said, "Absolutely not." And she goes, "Excuse me?" I said, "I am not here to motivate you. Motivation comes from within. You make your own motivation."

Motivation sucks, right? Discipline is greater than motivation. I'm not here to motivate you. I'm here to teach you how to do stuff.

If you can't bring motivation to the table the moment I leave, (or let's say I can't be on a call one week), you die internally. There's nothing inside of you to depend on. You've haven't created anything inside of you. You haven't callused the mind enough in your own way. You've not created enough of a relationship with you to move forward and do the crap on your own.

What the heck happens when the program ends, and you're left thinking, "Did I learn anything?" You did everything, but I had to motivate you to do it.

I do not believe in motivating people.

You might, you might get motivated by what I say, and that's great. I get motivated when I listen to a whole bunch of motivational videos on YouTube -  which I listen to frequently. But I know that motivation is like willpower, it dies. It's like a muscle - eventually, it gives out. Motivation is weak. Discipline is greater than motivation.

So as you go through and you start thinking about this and as I've kind of walked through these rules, the biggest thing I'd suggest to you is to figure out what disciplines you'd like to take on?

 

Don’t make a shopping list full of disciplines you wanna go take on at once - just do one. Like, "Hey, for the next six months, I'm going to perfect and be a master at this one area."

I like the Tim Ferriss method; he sits back, and he goes, "What's the one thing I could go do that would make everything else obsolete?" I like to sit back and think to myself, "What would that be?" So I'll give you a personal example real quick here, and then I'll end the episode:

I realized that I could die behind my computer, and that might sound weird to you. I'm not trying to be like a Debbie Downer on this, but crap man, like I work my face off. I work a lot.  I don't work a freakin' nine-to-five. Nine-to-five is when I'm at the desk, I'm working all the time though - and I don't always want to be.

And so I started thinking, "Oh man,  let's just start with self-care." So six months ago, I was like, you know what I'm gonna start with self-care. There was a specific where I decided, I'm gonna go focus in on this, and I'm gonna get better at this.

In high school, I lost 45 pounds. I lifted for nine months. I didn't like how I looked so I lifted every day. I lost 45 pounds, and got all the way down to 6% body fat -  one more percentage of weight is considered unhealthy. I started doing Sprint Triathlons like crazy... Well, I got married, went to college, financial pressures, and all those things created more stress, and I started putting that weight back on.

One day at ClickFunnels, I saw a picture of myself and I was like, "Oh crap,  well, I'm not gonna be embarrassed about it, but I'll just own the scenario that I'm in. Let's kill that side.” And so I went through, and I started looking at all these different things, and I've lost maybe 10 to 15 pounds which is awesome.  I've enjoyed it.

But what I had to do is find out what that one domino was that Tim Ferriss talks about that knocks down everything else? And so what I realized was it's the time that I go to sleep.

If I go to sleep at a responsible time - I get up early. I like when I get up early because I can have an hour or two for just workin' out. I love to work out - Do I need two hours? No, but I do like to go a solid hour, hour and a half - it's just fun. I enjoy it. It's one of my favorite things.

I built a full gym in our garage - that things awesome! Holy crap, I got all the toys - really fun in there. And when I lift and when I work out in the morning, then I go, and then I can eat better. I'm more motivated to eat well when I've worked out in the mornings. I'm like I don't wanna lose the results I just worked for in the morning. So then I eat better which makes me drink more water, which makes me... right?

And it all starts the one activity that I can control that easily makes it likely that I will do that schedule the next day is what time I go to sleep.

I don't believe in nighttime hustle anymore. There are very few times when I'm willing to do it anymore, but it's because I work better, have more clarity of mind, I get more crap down when I follow that. Does that make sense?

Does that have anything to do with funnels? Yes, everything to do with funnels. Does it have anything to do with building pages? No, but it has everything to do with the way I build pages.

And that's part of what I do that has made some people  feel a little bit uncomfortable with what I do, it's like, "I thought you were a funnel coach?" It's like, "Yeah I am, but for you to be good at it, we gotta work on you as well." So these are the rules. I do the same things myself.

There are times where I'll walk around and be like, "Man, Stephen, dude, Larsen, you are Betty Whiting right now. Man, you are complaining, you're a freakin' idiot, okay? You are whining, you're a complainer, you baby," and I'll self-talk like crazy and I coach me through the same process that I'm coaching my people through.  It's cool how effective it's been. And I've been doing it a lot (especially the past several months) and really, really enjoyed it.

So anyways guys, hopefully, you like this episode. Definitely a longer one. I wanted to be able to drop this out to you guys though. These rules are very, very helpful. There's many more - those are off the top of my head.

When you enter a relationship with somebody else in a coaching scenario be very cognizant of NOT just what they're teaching you, but where they're coming from - it'll help guard you so that you're are getting the coaching you should have.

A lot of you guys reach out to me and ask me if I can coach you. I'm not doing open coaching for anyone right now. I do fulfillment-style coaching for Russell for the One Funnel Away Challenge. I'm a 2 Comma Club Coach over there as well. I consulting, I fly out a lot and do that as well. If you're interested in that kind of thing, go to, stevejlarsen.com, and you can see that's how to get in contact with me for consulting.

Anyways guys, thank you so much, I appreciate it. And we'll talk to you later.

Hope you guys enjoyed the episode. If you liked this, number one, I would go back and re-listen to it and write the rules down. People will ask if I can give them the PDF or the doc I've been holding up? No, I think you need to write them down - it'll help you memorize 'em and learn 'em.

So I'm not gonna give it and release it to anybody. Go write them down though on your own, and then please share the episode. It really means a lot to me.

Guys, thanks so much we'll talk to you later, bye.

Hey, thanks for listening. Please remember to rate and subscribe. Got a question you want answered live on the show? Head over to SALESFUNNELRADIO.COM and ask your question now.



Nov 13, 2018

Boom, what's going on everyone?

 

It's Stephen Larsen. This is Sales Funnels Radio.

 

Today, I'm gonna teach you guys about my coaching contract.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business. Using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

What's up, guys? I'm super excited about this. I've actually been looking forward to this quite a bit...

 

So I am knees deep in the One Funnel Away Challenge at ClickFunnels right now. I have the complete honor and privilege of being the guy to literally daily basically go in and hold people's feet to the fire.

 

It was like two or three days before I actually started the challenge, I started thinking about every other scenario where I was coaching people.

 

I've coached well over 1,800 people through this process now.

 

Many have become millionaires, many have made hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a ton of people made money for the first time in their entire life ever as an entrepreneur. And I'm very proud of that when I say that.

 

And what's interesting, and what's been really cool about this is that I've been able to go through and figure out more about the patterns of why it worked, or why it didn't... And not just from a funnel perspective.

 

I've been really, I don't know if introspective is the right word? You guys know I'm a kinda introspective individual in general, but I've been able to go through and look, not just from a marketing standpoint...

 

Meaning not just from a sales message, or an offer, or this is what this guy did in this funnel that's why he made the million, but I've been able to step back and look more deeply into the individual, and look at some of the attitudes some of these people would of have about what I was teaching them.

 

So I thought it would be kinda neat in this episode to go through and teach you guys some of the rules that I've created as I continue to do more coaching. And if they don't abide by these rules, I don't wanna coach them. It's so cut and dry...

 

So, I just wanna teach you guys what those are, so you understand the mentality that I'm coming from, and why I have patience in some areas, and why I have absolutely zero, unapologetic, no patience at all in other areas. And so, I thought it would be kinda neat to go through and do this.

 

Now when I first started, this was like two or three years ago, that was the original 2 Comma Club Coaching program - which is coming up on two years. Holy crap! That's crazy.

 

Anyway, so I went, and I started looking at all the different patterns of how that got started. I remember when I first started as that coach we were coming up with the 2 Comma Club Coaching program, I was like, "This is so cool. Who's gonna do this?" And then I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm built for this man. Let me do this. This would be so cool".

 

And what was interesting, first of all, I was so excited, I was so stoked, I was so shocked to be the original 2 Comma Club Coach and get put in those roles, and it's just a bunch of fun. I really enjoyed it.

 

I guess it was an episode ago that  I talked about the way a customer comes into your product often determines if they're successful with it afterward.

 

It's not just a pre-frame. You can pre-frame somebody for a sales message, that's not what I'm talking about at all. I'm talking about pre-frame for your actual product success. So, it's almost the exact same kind of thing. So, this has become a pre-frame. I have them written down in front of me here... these are some of the pre frames.

 

Like I said a second ago, when I first was that 2 Comma Club Coach, I went in, I remember I was so stoked. I was very nervous. I remember the first coaching session came up. If you guys watch, it was a three-day launch that we did - it was called The Seven Day Launch - but it was three days on stage.

 

I got on stage with Russell doing a part of it, and it was really fun to go and drop out these different questions and back and forth, back and forth, and then suddenly realize there are 600 students, and I'm the only coach. Whoa, right?

 

I was like "Holy crap! How I'm gonna do this? Alright here we go!"

And I was starting to get all pumped up, and I was trying to get jazzed about it.

 

And what was fascinating about that is I remember that I went in with the belief and the expectation that I would be coaching simply on marketing. I thought that I was gonna go on and I was gonna teach funnels, sales messages:

 

"Here's how create the offer. Here's great places to get traffic. Here's how you create a publishing or content machine. Here's how you become the attractive character. Here's how you have a cause and a new opportunity." All of these pieces, I thought that that was what I would be mostly coaching on.

 

And it wasn't until a while later that I realized that that's not actually what happened.

 

A few weeks into the program somebody asked me a question that wasn't on one of these areas.  There are these live Q and A's that I do for four straight hours every Friday. Four straight hours, live Q and A with the person in front of the rest of the group. I would be diving into their stuff with them. Diving in, diving in, diving in, diving in.

 

And what was interesting was a few weeks in, I started getting questions about, "Well Stephen, I'm a little bit scared to do that?" And I was like, "Uh alright, that doesn't mean you still shouldn't, alright?" "Well, Stephen, I don't know what to say?" Or "I'm not actually that good on a camera yet?”... And what's funny is a lot of the questions... they weren't about marketing!

 

I think that's the thing that was most shocked me about what happened when I started doing this stuff.

 

Most of the questions had nothing to do with marketing. They had everything to do with beliefs. They had everything to do with mindset. (I hate the word mindset, we'll call it attitude.) It had everything to do with attitude. I think the term mindset is overused - people just make it fluffy.

 

Anyway, they had everything to do with the way the individual was approaching the task, rather than the task itself: Here's marketing, rather than here's how you actually how you attack it. Here's how to actually do it and pull off what it is I'm teaching.

 

And so what's interesting, what's been cool, is that I went in thinking and studying and geeking out and obsessing over the marketing because that's what was I was gonna go teach...

 

But in reality, about half the question that I still get today, have nothing to do with marketing. They had everything to do with the individual's beliefs.

 

So I've made it a goal in my coaching to teach people to do to themselves what I'm trying to teach them to do to their customers.

 

Meaning, if I can get an individual to look at their customer base and go, "You know what, these are like three or four or five or six or seven false beliefs that all these customers have about me and my product and what we're doing."  If I can get someone to identify that, the rest of that is cake.

 

Now, we can start structuring belief shifts. Basically, I'm gonna change the way the individual believes. (There's some serious freaking power in the marketing game you gotta be careful with it, okay?)

 

But, if they're doing that to the customer - what if I could teach them to do that to themselves? Now that's hard to do... Because let me ask you a question real quick. "Hey you, right now, listening or watching this. What are your false beliefs?" You don't have false beliefs! There's no such thing as a false belief? You believe it, right?

 

"Hey, what are your false beliefs?" "I don't have any. They're my beliefs!" Right? So, it's a little bit harder to do.

 

I teach how to find false beliefs. I teach them how to break and rebuild and shift belief patterns for their customers, but I also help the student identify their own belief patterns, false belief patterns. The objections and complaints of the student themselves.

 

I help them come to understand, "Look! Check it out. You have a false belief in this area about what I'm teaching. You don't think it's gonna work, you are fighting me on it. You're either complaining, or you've thrown up an objection. You don't wanna do it anymore... you're throwing in the towel."

 

If I get an individual to point out to themselves the false beliefs they have about the game that they're in... Guys, their progress goes through the freaking roof. It's insane.

 

They learn how to self-doctor. They learn how to self-medicate (not the right word). They learn how to self-assess... there we go. They learn how to self-assess,  "What's actually the barriers and the obstacles that have been keeping them where they are?"

 

This is huge to understand. This is a massive, massive concept.

 

So, some of the things that I do now... Like, part of the reason I have that mannequin... You guys have seen me bring in that mannequin? If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's a few episodes ago...

 

But, I have a mannequin, and it's a punching bag in the shape of a guy. And on that mannequin, I started writing down things that people are afraid of. But it ended up being me writing the things that I'm afraid of or me writing down the things that freak me out, or me writing down the things that are telling me about me that aren't true.

 

I have things on there like: "Shame. Guilt. Not good enough. Fear. Imposter. Dummy." I got "Loser" on the front of it. I've got all these things that are negative that are constantly pushing in on me.

 

I don't want you to ever look at somebody who's on stage, somebody super successful, or an entrepreneur, and think,  "Man, they got it all together." No! If they look like that, they've just gone through a long disgusting road full of mud that has been through this incredible, massive, self-altering, self-discovery, that you haven't gone through yet. That's all it is.

 

Yes, they made a lot of cash on the way, but first, they had to qualify to make that cash. So that's what I've been learning how to do in the past especially year is go in and help a student identify their own crap.

 

"Look, let me help you call yourself out on your own BS here. You got some crappy beliefs. That's a false belief! That's a false belief! That's a false belief, and it's not right. It's not true. It's not real. What story have you been telling yourself that's been keeping that belief alive?"

 

We go through, and they'll write it down, and they're like, "Here's all my fears and here's how I'm gonna overcome it." That's actually the very first day on the One Funnel Way Challenge. They go in, and they write down all their fears, how they're gonna overcome the things... and don't make a big old laundry list that'll stress you out.

 

It's so funny guys, my business has grown to the extent that I have.

 

That's been my biggest realization in the past six months. Like, "Holy crap!" The game's been even more fun for me because I've noticed that as I get more discipline, as I add positive restraint, (positive constraint in my body, in my mind, in my behaviors, in my habits), I actually become more wealthy or I bring in more cash, or I can help more customers. It's the weirdest relationship ever.

 

And so, with all that preface in mind, I what to read my rules to you. That's why I take this so seriously. I am not a friend to my students. I let them know first, that that is the rule: "I am first your coach. I'm not your friend.”

 

I'm not here to make it fluffy. If you're wrong, I'm gonna tell you that you're wrong.

 

If I can see you can handle more, I will push you, and I will make it uncomfortable.

 

That's all about what I believe as a strategic hardship - because of what it crafts the person to be, and what it crafts the individual to become and do. And so that's why I'm going through this right now.

 

What I've noticed is that when somebody follows these rules, I'm allowed to come in with my side of what I will give to them. If they follow the rule I will award them with more of me. And so these are some of the rules that I created for the One Funnel Way Challenge as well. But, if they do this, then I will do this. I call it my coaching contract, and we released it to everybody.

 

I just want you guys to know what some of these things are so that you're able to go in and see like "Oh, my gosh, that's why it worked when I worked with Stephen. That's why it didn't work when I worked with Stephen." Or "That's why it's never worked yet in general regardless of who I've gone to."

 

And please know it comes from a place of love. I'm just a product of the product that I'm trying to teach you guys about. I had to get honest with myself. I had to look at myself and go, "Stephen, you're dumb." I had to get honest, I had to be open, I had to be real.

 

I was 35% body fat in high school, I was a big kid: "Stephen, you're fat," and be open about that and be honest. "Okay, I accept that. That's okay, my self-worth is not based on that." I own where I am and bask in the reality of where I am? That is one of the biggest keys.

 

So, as you go through here and you understand, I'm very intense as a coach, and it's because I believe this changes peoples lives. And that's part of what motivates me to do it, and it's part of why I don't care if I offend your attitude a little bit. If it's truth, it's truth okay? If it offends you, it means it's probably ultra true.

 

So anyways, guys, I'm just gonna walk you guys through this right here real fast okay?

 

This is the sub-headline: I am first your coach (like I was just saying), I am not your friend. Man, this is such a big one. People get offended by that, but I don't really care.

 

Rule Number One: "If you will do the work then I will show what work matters."

 

I hate fluffy work. I hate busy work, I will never give you any. I will show you the path. I will show you exactly what it is that you need to be doing and what you should not do.

 

Number Two: "If you will show up hungry, then I will match your hunger. I will NOT push harder than you do."

 

If you guys went to Funnel Hacking Live 2017, (I hope you guys are all coming this next year because it's going to be ridiculous. Oh my gosh.) Sean Stevenson gave a speech in 2017, and he talked about the motto of the Coast Guard.The Coast Guard has this interesting motto. Here's the scenario:

 

A helicopter goes up into the ocean, there's a sea full, there are fifty people in the ocean, and the helicopter can only save like 16. Who do you save? That's a tough question. That's a tough question.

 

And I'm not trying to be all Debbie Downer here when you think about this, but I just want you to know what do you do? So their motto, and what they do, part of their motto, is they say that they "Only save those that are swimming to them, who are actually making an attempt."

 

You can't save somebody, you are not a savior to your customer, you're not. You can only help those who are willing to help themselves.

 

The biggest thing that I cannot teach an individual, I have tried to find ways, I can't figure it out. I cannot teach somebody to be hungry. I can't. If they don't want it, there's nothing I can do. It's not about going 50/50, it's about goin’ 100/100. 50/50 sucks, that's a stupid rule! I need all of their devotion, and I will match the level of their devotion.

 

Part of the reason why some people will be like, "Well, I don't know, Stephen.. did he fulfill for me?" I'm like, "Well, you never did anything that I told you to do on day one." I'm just being open, I'm gonna be real and real honest with you. If it offends ya, okay! Does that make sense?

 

Someone's like, "Well, this ClickFunnels game... Sales... in general. I don't know if this really works?" Like "No! You're just not working, okay?"

 

Number two, the rule is, "If you just are willing to show up hungry, then I will match your hunger." Because I can't teach hunger, I cannot teach somebody to be hungry.

 

The difference for any employee, or any entrepreneur, the difference in attitude in any area of life, is if they show up hungry, more doors open for them. If they don't, doors close. And that's exactly how it happens in every opportunity in your life. Opportunities don't stick around. They get passed onto the next person. If you're not hungry, they don't stick around to you.

 

That's rule number two. Show up hungry, then I will match your hunger.

 

Rule Number Three: "If you will NOT use your current or past situation as an excuse...

 

This is a heavy one. You guys like these? These are not normal rules - every one of them has a lesson behind them...

 

"You are not allowed to use your current or your past situation as an excuse, and when you do, I will help you call you out on your BS."

 

I need you to understand this one - it's a huge one.

 

Too many times I've noticed people will be like, "Well, my situations a little different..." No, it freaking isn't. It's different to you, but it's not different than the hardships, or the level of intensity that somebody else is in who is doing it.

 

"Well, my situation is a little bit different now, I don't have the time." Bull Crap, okay! I don't believe that one EVER! That one drives me nuts.

 

"I don't have the time." Or "I don't have the money." Yeah? Garbage! Stupid! I don't believe you! Prove it?

 

Go in, show me a time study of what you're doing in your life? I don't believe you, and I will NOT believe you.

 

If you ever walk up to a mic and you ask a Q and A like that, "Well, I just don't have time to pull this off." I will publicly make fun of you. That one drives me up the wall. No one's even saying this to me right now, but it's clearly a nerve. That one drives me nuts!

 

I was in college, fourteen credits baby. Almost getting straight A's every semester. I was in the army - Holy crap, that is a huge time commitment. Married, kids, doing my own funnels on the side, that's where I freaking learned funnels with two to three hours a day. That's all I could squeeze out - that's it.

 

Those were the most productive, ferocious three hours of my day. I made sure to give my best self.

 

I'm not talking family, time or things like that. But, every other thing that I had to go do. My best self was given to me learning funnels. I knew it was the way out.

 

So anyway, you're not allowed to use your current or your past situation as an excuse. Drives me up the wall! Absolutely not. It is a catalyst, NOT a hindrance.

 

If you do that, then I will help you call you out on your own BS.

 

What's nice about that is that a second set of eyes can help you better. That's what my role is, to go in and help you see look, you got this belief pattern that I think is really hindering you.

 

And sometimes we're so close to our thing, I'm the same way. Guys I have spent $75,000 this year on coaching, okay? And it's for that reason. It's so that somebody else can help call me out on the BS I can't even see myself 'cause I'm so freaking close to it. That's the benefit of it.

 

So sometimes people are like, "Wait, if I don't use my current or past situations as an excuse, you will help me call me out on my own BS? How is that?" I was like "It's actually a blessing." Anyway, that's number three.

 

Number Four: "If you will NOT make someone else responsible for your results, then I will promise I will NOT do any of this for you."

 

Now, that one might sound a little weird. Let me just explain that one:

 

If you will not make someone else responsible for your results - which means you own every success and every failure. Every time you did not do what you were suppose to that day. Does that make sense? I need people to understand this one. You are responsible for everything that happens in your life - even if you actually weren't responsible for it. Even if it wasn't a responsibility of yours to bear.

 

I can't remember, there was some situation that happened here at our home. Was it my responsibility in the first place? No, but I took responsibility. I was trying to take responsibility for anything: "No, yeah, that's totally my bad." Yeah, oh we had to cancel pictures 'cause it was raining, that wasn't it, but I'm just thinking... "Oh man, that sucks. Yeah, I should have looked at the weather." Wasn't my fault freaking rain came out. But, it's extreme ownership.

 

There's a good book called Extreme Ownership, it talks about this kind of concept, and if you come in with extreme ownership, I promise to NOT do it for you. That's a huge one.

 

Most of the time I see a lot of the coaches just so that they can help get results for the individual, they will actually go and start doing the task for the student. And the problem with that is that when the coach leaves, the student has not learned how to go through that mental jog on their own.

 

So, anyways, Number four, it's actually a big blessing as well.

 

Number Five: "If you'll be polite to your naysayers, then I agree to make a safe house for you."

 

I'm not here to belittle people. I'm not here to just shove down, "Man, you suck, you suck." I hate that, that's not my style at all. I'm real. I'm honest, I'm open, but I'm also a safe haven.

 

And so that's part of what I come to people's relationships with when I start doing coaching for them (or any kind of consulting). I should say coaching/ consulting contract, not just coaching. Anyway...

 

Okay, naysayers are actually a catalyst for you, NOT a hindrance.

 

When they come in, they're a natural byproduct of anyone who's actually in motion. Naysayers are a natural byproduct of anybody who's in motion. And so WHEN they come to you... "WHEN," NOT "IF"...

 

When they come to you, and they start saying things like, "I don't think you can do that. Isn't that risky? Why don't you just get a job?"

 

I've heard that one a ton: "Why don't you just get a job?"

 

You just go to them, and you just pat their little heads, and you say "Ah, bless you, my small minded person." And just walk on.

 

It’s a test when somebody says that to you, and you do not go nuts on them.

 

I did that, and I made that mistake for a while. At the beginning of this game, too much of my personal value was hindered on what I thought other people thought of me - and that was not correct.

 

Number Six: "If you will only compare you to you, then I will only compare you to you."

 

This is a fascinating one.

 

One of the biggest reasons I see that people fail in any kind of game ever that they go play. Meaning, in business, entrepreneurship or anything, is that they start comparing themselves to somebody else.

 

Now, you can use the results of an individual to motivate you. But do NOT ever base your self-worth on the results of somebody else.

 

When you start to do that, you are actually basing your self-worth on a ideals. And the issue with that is that ideals change with every moment. Every blink of the eye, the ideal has changed.

 

So, it's like pop culture. You can't define what it is to be cool in pop culture, because it changes every single freaking minute. And then when someone says "Well, I'm not cool..."

 

The problem with it is that there's no way to measure progress because it changes all the time. So there's no way to measure progress.

 

Instead, if the person just measures themselves against themselves - their history - their past - and where they've come from - it's an accelerant. It's an accelerant and they go nuts. They sprint forward like crazy.

 

They can look up, they can look up, and they can see, "Oh crap! Check it out. Oh, that's so cool. That guy's done that. I wanna do that." And then they put their head down, and they only compare them to them - and where they were yesterday. That's the only competition you really have. It's YOU against YOU "yesterday."

 

It's YOU "today" versus YOU "yesterday" - that's the only competition that's really there.  

 

And when you base your sense of self-worth on that rather than where somebody else is, "Oh man," I've noticed that really speeds people along in the process in general.

 

Hey, wish you could geek out with other real funnel builders, and even ask questions while I build funnels live?

 

Oh oh, wish granted...

 

Watch and learn funnel building as I document my process in my funnel strategy group. It's free, just go to the scienceofsellingonline and join now.



Nov 9, 2018

Boom! What's goin' on everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio.

 

Today I'm gonna tell you guys, and try and convince you that you should never hire a marketer.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today, and now I've left my nine-to-five to take the plunge, and build my million-dollar business.

 

The real question is, "How will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch?" This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along, as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business - using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

What's up, guys? I'm excited for this episode, I've been thinking about this quite a bit here.

 

Recently, I had a guy reach out to me, it was over on.. I don't remember who..

 

I have tried to find it on my phone, actually, but he reached out, (and this has happened many times), and I just wanted to address it, because it seems to be something that happens often.

 

The guy reached out, and he said, "Hey, I appreciate what you're doing, I watch the show..." First of all, thanks for watching the show, and he said, "I watch the show, and I was just wondering, could I give you, maybe, 20, 30% of my business to come in and be the marketer for it?"

 

And when I see that, I cringe for many reasons.

 

#1: That's not an attractive opportunity for me at all, 'cause it means I'm gonna be the guy making it rain, and getting paid only 20% for what I bring in - so that's NOT a deal...

 

Why would I be attracted by that? I'm not going to be, right?

 

It's kind of like when people come up to me, and they say things like, "Hey, Stephen, look, I've got this great idea, will you do it? Will you come in, you build the funnel, I'll give you 50% of it."

 

And I'm like, "Why don't I just do the whole idea on my own, and keep 100%?"  You know what I mean?

 

An idea itself is not an asset. Ideas are not assets. Ideas are not value, right?

 

So, if you just have an idea, and you try and go bring somebody in like that, that's not attractive. They might as well just go and do it on their own.

 

So, number one, that's the first, like, "Ewww!" That I had when I saw it. I was like, "That's not a deal to me."

 

But the second thing that I notice is, 'cause this question actually comes to very frequently: "Stephen, will you take 20, 30% of my company, Stephen, can I give you 50% of my company? Stephen, will you do that?"

 

And what's funny, what's interesting about this topic, is that there's a fundamental issue that is actually going on when somebody asks that question. You should never ask that question - EVER - especially for the role of marketing.

 

One of my early one-on-one mentors said, that if you think about a business as a car:

 

Finance - is the guy sitting over in the passenger seat, planning how far you can get with what gas you've got? He's the guy on the side going, "This is what we can do. This is what we can project."  Finance, very future focused. This is gonna be the future.

 

Supply chain -  they're the ones hanging out the window. They're the ones who are testing to see how much gas is left in the actual tank? They're the ones seeing when the next gas station is coming up? How far can we actually get based on resources? Where do we get the next resources?

 

The supply chain is very past focused, "This is what we've needed in the past."

 

The marketer - is in the actual driver's seat. They're the ones goin', "You know what - let's go over there. I think that there's gold over there! Let's go that way." Marketers are the ones that drive the entire company.

 

I'm gonna get a lot of pushback when I say that, but it's very, very true. There's no cash... your business is dead! What brings in cash? Marketing!

 

Money is the byproduct of marketing.

 

When I see somebody come out, and they say things to me, like, "Hey Stephen, would you please be the marketer of my company?"

 

What that says to me, that is an individual who has been solely married to the fact that they think that their product is what gives them money. It is not! The product is not.

 

Now that might be the exchange of what actually pulls the money to you, but that's not how sales are done!

 

When I see somebody ask that kind of question, I know that there's a fundamental misunderstanding of what actually is causing the cash to come in.

 

It is not about the product.  That is not what's actually bringing in cash.

 

So when somebody comes in, and they something like, "Hey, would you come and be the marketer?" That tells me they have no idea why their product is selling. They have no clue why they're actually being successful, or not successful.

 

They have no idea what levers are really going on inside the company... where if they just turn this lever, and push away that one, money would start coming in a little bit more, right?

 

I know when I consult for companies, I know that there are always, ALWAYS three or four levers that I could just go turn, and money is the result of it.

 

And it's mostly because us entrepreneurs, we get so focused on being the technician... we get so focused on, "Hey, I got a sweet product. This product right here is incredible, this product's amazing." And you're like, "Yeah, you're right, that's true, you know what, you're right, that's true. Not many of you have done that." But it's not the reason somebody goes and purchases, right?

 

Very few people will ever go buy something just because it's brand new and never been done, right? That's important, that's attractive, that's sexy... But the reason people buy has everything to do with the actual sales message, and the ability to tell stories.

 

When somebody comes to me and says, "Stephen, take a percentage of my company to be the marketer." What it's telling me, is that they actually have no idea what stories are selling. They have no idea why they're actually bringing in cash on their own. And it's scary. That's a freaky place to be in - and I understand it.

 

So, number one, "What do you do if you're in that kind of scenario right now?”

 

For the individual who reached out and asked that question, (which, first of all, "Thank you very much, I'm honored, but the answer's, No") -  I've got a few things here...

 

If you're in that scenario, and you're like, "Man, I just realized when listening to Stephen, I have no idea why my stuff sells."

 

The first thing you need to start doing is to go back to your existing customer base, and start asking 'em at what point they realized this would be a good decision for them?

 

And if they point to a feature, you keep digging until they point to a story - that's very key.

 

Go back to your existing customer base, if you have a business right now, and you go back to your existing customer base, and you ask them:

 

 

  • "What made you purchase?"

 

 

 

  • "Why was that feature important to you?"

 

 

  • "Oh, interesting, so it was important to you because of this. Now, what was going on in your life at the time?"

 

  • "Now, what was it that I said where you realized, 'Oh my gosh, this guy's not a scammer?"

 

And you just keep digging, and you keep digging, keep digging. Ask a lot of people. Man, I'm gonna ask like 50 of your customers.

 

Go in and ask 'em,  and what you'll start to see is a pattern around whatever story it was that you were telling. It might take some digging on your side.

 

Now, if you DON'T have a product, if you don't have anything selling, you might be in somewhat in this scenario, at a bit of an advantage, because you're gonna be able to go in and just start telling stories. Not about the product - it's storytelling, okay? That's what selling is. You're telling stories.

 

Every commercial, every ad, every infomercial, infographic, anything. Anything that persuades you is story-based.

 

So what I want you to do, is I want you to start going out and start telling stories to people. And when you're able to measure which stories cause the biggest "Whoa!" That's the story you should be using. And that's exactly how it works.

 

Whenever you start seeing a story - or start telling a story to somebody, and they're like, "Wait, what website was that? Wait, where did you get that? Wait, what tool was that? Wait, what product was that?" When they start asking questions like that, they're in heat. That's a person with a wallet, who wishes to be lighter.

 

They're walking around like, "How do I buy this thing, I really, really need it."

 

I can't remember what product it was I just did that too recently, but I was listening to somebody, and they're like, "Yeah, just do this, this, and this, and I got this cool product." I was like, "I need that too!" And it was a cool story, I wish I could remember the specific experience. I just remember that just happened to me recently...

 

When you start to see those stories having that kind of an effect on an individual, you make notes of 'em.  Earmark that story.

 

When I launch a product, one of my favorite strategies is just to just start telling stories on a podcast, or other people's podcasts, or a youtube channel, something like that. And what I'm doing, is I'm testing stories.

 

I'm trying to see like, "Okay, which of these stories is causing  a positive buying reaction?" I don't care if it's from me or not, yet, I'm just trying to see if the story sells. The story is what's selling.

 

I don't even have to have a product yet, and I can get people to start purchasing.

 

And again, there can be, obviously, a very ethical and moral bridge to cross there, and make sure you don't cross that. Stay ethical, stay moral with this stuff, okay? But that's truly what's causing the actual purchase to happen.

 

So, the first two things:

 

Number one, coming to me and saying, "Do you want 20 to 30% of my business to be a marketer?" No! No! Because that means you don't know what you're selling, and you don't know why it's selling.

 

You might know what, but you don't know why. You don't know why the thing is actually selling.

 

Number two, right? The point I was just making right there -  It means that the person whose business it is doesn't know stories that are selling. (And those are obviously very tied, those first two.)

 

But honestly, what I wanted to do real quick here, and I just wanted to give you guys a little piece of advice on who you should hire.

 

I'm not just saying like, "Don't hire a marketer." What I'm really doing is I'm trying to help you understand who you should hire. Don't hire a marketer!

 

Every time I've built a funnel for somebody, quick story...

 

One of the first roles I had at ClickFunnels was to build Russell's personal clients funnels - His personal clients who came to him, and these are hotshots, right?

 

You can imagine the kind of guys that Russell is willing to say yes to. They're hotshots, they're big guys, they're extremely successful, very well-known.

 

I was the guy on the side, just hammering these things out. Just pounding out tons, and page, after page, after page, funnel after funnel.

 

And what was super interesting about it is that, literally, just about every single time I was done building the funnel, and it was a success, and we got this huge influx of cash for them.  

 

We were like "Sweet. Well, hey, that was a great project, appreciate it, your funnel's done now, keep running traffic to it." Then we would just, like, walk away - and the funnel would die almost every single time.

 

I can think of one instance where that wasn't the case.

 

I remember at one time, though, I think was running eight different company's funnels. It was eight! It was ridiculous!

 

So I'd be going in, and I'd be like, "Alright, this over here, we're in the health industry. Over here, we're in the camping industry. Over here, we're in the this, we're in the that..." All these broad areas...

 

I’d be looking at numbers and tweaking. I was like, "Russell, they need this…. Russell, ah, ah!" And I was pulling my hair out.

 

It's hard enough just to get an individual to build one funnel in their life.

 

You literally are one funnel away from the life you'd like. That's why we say that all the time - it's not a cute saying. It's very true.

 

Imagine doing eight at the exact same time? My brain's already on fire, but it was like extra ablaze. It got really, really stressful.

 

What we realized was that we had done so much of the marketing for them, figuring out which stories do sell... and not just what the stories are, but how to tell them.

 

There were so many things we'd figured out for them, and they had not had the epiphany yet on why those things were working. So then, when we left, they didn't know the three levers they should just keep turning, and cash would pop out the bottom.

 

So we literally stopped working with companies where the CEO was not also the marketer. 'Cause there's a business owner, a marketer, and an entrepreneur. A lot of times, especially as the company grows, that they're not always the same people.

 

I don't like working with companies where the CEO is not also the entrepreneur and the marketer. There's a sweet spot for me where I like working with that kind of company.

 

We'd go in, and I'd start working with a CMO, and I'd build these funnels, and we'd put them out, and THEN, I'd have to re-sell the entire concept again from the ground up to the entrepreneur, the CEO, or the business owner.

 

So there's a combination there that I like to work with that is very, very attractive to me. I know that I can go blow those types of companies up.

 

It's not that I can't make it work for other companies. It's just that there's so many holes to jump through that it's ridiculous. Lots of red tape. Especially when the organization starts getting bigger. So I don't like to work with anybody who's not the ultimate decision-maker.

 

If I build funnels with people, it's so rough when that business owner is not also the marketer.

 

And it makes sense - because the marketer's the one driving the sales. They're the one figuring where the next vein of gold is, but if they're not also the entrepreneur, the CEO, or business owner - it's hard. You're constantly re-selling the organization on what you're doing, rather than having the leader/marketer be like, "Rawr - let's do this!"

 

Never outsource your marketing!

 

We always joke that outsourcing your marketing is like outsourcing your sex life... You're not gonna do that.

 

Selling is the sex of business. The relationship is the fulfillment afterward. That's the big joke with it - we say that a lot.

 

The whole key, that's what I'm trying to say, is that when you go in, and you're not working with somebody who's the ultimate decision-maker in some form or fashion - who cannot control, or influence, or maintain their organization, and you are re-selling everybody, that is a terrible funnel-building scenario to be in.

 

I've been in it enough times to know when it looks like that might be what's going on, okay? So, does that make sense? There are multiple reasons why I say no, okay?

 

I just want you to know, real quick, who you should hire.

 

My goal of Sales Funnel Radio is to turn you into a marketer. Marketers make cash.  Money is the byproduct of marketing. Marketing is the thing that gets you guys money coming in. Loving customers who continue to buy after they make that first purchase. I want to turn you into a marketer.

 

I'll probably do a podcast episode soon... in fact, I might do it after this one, where we'll just go over definitions so you guys can understand:

 

  • What marketing actually is?

 

  • What advertising actually is.

 

  • Does that make sense?  

 

They are very different and unique scenarios.

 

  • When I learned the difference between a product and an offer - my life changed.

 

  • When learned the difference between selling and marketing - my life changed.

 

  • When I learned the difference between selling and closing - my life changed.

 

  • When I learned the difference between advertising and marketing - my life changed.

 

They are all very different. Do not think they're the same. They're completely different things.

 

So the person you should hire…?

 

You need to think of it almost like a web... That's how I think of it.

 

If you are the main marketer, especially if you're small. Especially if you're just starting out in this game. (Now, if you're big, this also applies to you as well.) But the issue is, "You are the marketer... now, WHAT is marketing?"

 

Marketing is the act of changing beliefs with the intent of a purchase to happen.

 

That's all marketing is.

 

That's my own definition, but as I've just gone further and further in this game - that's what it is.

 

Marketing is not necessarily an ad. Marketing is not necessarily Facebook ads. It's not necessarily logos.

 

For a long time, I spent time asking myself the question, "What is marketing itself?" The essence of marketing itself, what is it? "It's Belief." It's the act of changing somebody's beliefs. It's the act of changing the way somebody sees the world.

 

You might do that through some kind of educational thing. It might be through some comedy ad. There are many ways to pull that off... but all you're doing at the core of marketing is shifting someone's paradigm. That's it.

 

You're changing the way they see the world.

 

That should be up to the main business owner/ CEO/ entrepreneur/ business owner/ the main decision maker. In my mind, that should be the same person as the marketer. I don't know why you would ever hire out the marketing department.

 

Everybody's in the marketing department. Everybody in your company should be in the marketing department! You're just changing beliefs. In my opinion, my very strong opinion, that mission should be down to every person in the company.

 

Anyway, so as got the main marketer, you go out and I start trying to figure out who you need to hire? That might mean a Facebook ads person. That might mean a creative individual, meaning like they create creatives like pictures, and logos, and stuff like that. That's not marketing, but it's a piece of it, right?

 

Honestly, a lot of the people that I hire for my content creation team, they aren't marketing, but they're part of my marketing engine. They're part of my engine that changes people's beliefs, their relationship with me, and my products. That's what marketing is.

 

So Facebook ads - that's not marketing - but it's a piece of it.

 

Creating logos, slogans, business cards - that's not marketing, but it can be a piece of it if you're tossin' in a little story.  

 

I think the biggest waste of space EVER, is when you go into those arenas...

 

I went to a basketball game with my siblings and my dad - it was a few years ago for Christmas. We went to a basketball game, and we walk into this huge, huge stadium.  I think it was in Phoenix. I can't remember who they were playing.

 

There's the people. There's the players. The stadium is all lit up and everything...  but what else is out there? Banners, right? You got people's names - that's it! "Chase." "Coca-Cola."

 

That's NOT marketing, that's advertising. Does that make sense? Very different. They're very different.

 

I live in a world called Direct Response Marketing; meaning that the marketing I create is intended for the person that I hope buys. It goes direct to the consumer - right to the individual. That's the world that I live in - because my dollars are measurable.

 

I know that when I spend this amount of money, like 99% of the time, I get a customer, right? It's measurable. I don't have to go get big dumps of cash coming on in...

 

So, when you think about yourself, when you think about your business - when you think the way it's structured... You've got your market, you are the marketer; meaning the stories are coming from you. You're the attractive character of your business.

 

If you're the attractive character of your business, you better freakin' be the marketer - because the marketing stories that you're gonna be telling will most likely be about the attractive character.

 

Then you might have a Facebook person,  an audio person (if you're doing something like a podcast)  a video person - all these are pieces of marketing, but not marketing itself!

 

That's the whole point I'm trying to get down to.

 

So when somebody reaches out to me, and they say something like, "Will you come out and be the marketer?" I'm like, "Yeah, but I'll probably bring a whole team with me and I'm just gonna be the storyteller." That's what it really means to be the marketer. Anyways, that's all I'm trying to say with this.

 

It's funny because I've been asked multiple times, "Do you know any good marketers that I could hire?" Guys, you can't find good marketers to hire. I was talking with... I think it was Trey Lewellen, when I was over with him, hangin' out, and he and I were laughing about this very concept. He and I were talking together and saying how funny it is.

 

He's like, I keep getting asked, "Do you know any good marketers to hire?" And he said the same thing. He goes, "I always laugh when someone asks me that. You can't hire good marketers because they've figured out how to make money so easily that they're just working for themselves."

 

There's no such thing as hiring a good marketer - which means you need to become one yourself! Does that make sense?

 

I could find a good copywriter, I could find a great ads person, I could find a great... BUT it's dang near impossible to find a good marketer - because they're not hireable.  Good marketers are not on the market. They're not looking for anything.

 

You can tell when somebody is a good marketer because usually, they're turning down every opportunity. They're so focused on what they're doing. they get the game - they understand it. There's are enough clicks that happen' "Oh my gosh, are you serious, that's how it works?" They're just doing it on their own anyway.

 

It's funny, 'cause I've had multiple requests for that in the past little bit. People have reached out, and they're like, "Okay, well, if you're not hireable, do you know any other good marketers I could hire?"  “No!” I know a lot of people that you could probably train up, but in reality, they're not gonna be as obsessed about your product as you are - so just learn how to be a marketer. Just learn how to do it. It's not something to outsource.

 

I can find someone in finance, I can find a supply chain, I can find someone in fulfillment. Marketing is that thing, you don't outsource.

 

You can't find a good marketer, they're not looking. They don't care how good your opportunity is, they're already knee-deep in their own.

 

I hope this episode was helpful to you, and I hope that what it did, is it helped re-create some of the relationships between what marketing really is, your company.

 

Money is the lifeblood of your business. Cashflow is the lifeblood of your business. What's tied to that directly? Marketing! You don't outsource that. You could outsource the ads, all these different pieces I was talking about, but don't think you're being attractive by giving away percentages of your company to good marketers.

 

A joint venture, something like that, maybe? But, they're not motivated by that, okay? They're just not out there on the job board. There's no such thing as a poor marketer. There isn't! Which is why it's hard to hire 'em! Because they've figured out the game. There's no such thing as a poor marketer.

 

If somebody is poor, they're either new, or they're not a marketer. That's it.

 

If you figure it out, there's just a few tweaks to make the game real easy. That's what this whole podcast is meant to try and help you learn and understand.

 

I know this one was a bit of a rant - I was kind of all over the place a little bit, but hopefully, you got the idea:

 

"Don't hire a marketer! You are the marketer."

 

You try and hire a marketer, it's not gonna work. Be the marketer, hire out specific roles in your campaigns. That's it. That's what you hire. Don't try and find a good marketer... or hold out on your own business because you're trying to find a good marketer. It doesn't work that way.

 

Alright guys, thanks so much.

 

Hopefully, you enjoyed the episode, if you guys liked it, please share it. It really means a lot to me, it really makes me excited and feels good when I see your reviews.

 

It means a lot to me when I see that you guys have shared it. This is something I've dumped a lot of my own money into, just to get some of these lessons out, 'cause I wanna help share, so it really means a lot to me when you kind of pay it back, pay it forward so to speak.

 

Anyways guys, thanks so much, hope you guys enjoyed it, and I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.

 

Bye. Boom! Thanks for listening. Again, please remember to write and subscribe.

 

Hey, you want me to speak at your next event or Mastermind? Let me know what I can share that would be most valuable by going to stevejlarsen.com, and book my time now.



Nov 6, 2018

Boom, what's goin' on everyone. It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sale Funnel Radio.

 

Today, I'm gonna teach you guys about my RSVP funnel.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

Alright guys, hey!

 

Now technically there's not really an RSVP funnel that exists. But what I wanted to do, is I wanna walk you guys through the process that I went through to actually grab all these people who are coming to my event, The OfferMind and actually get them to RSVP, get a ticket, and the process behind it.

 

So what I decided to do, when we were doing that 30-day book series or the 30-day book launch, alright, (you still can get it 30days.com/stephen)

 

During a certain amount of time, if you got the book I gave you a free ticket to my OfferMind which is coming up very soon. I'm super excited about all of it, holy crap.

 

I'm deep in the woods right now doing the 30-day challenge with Russell. It's been fun to see you guys in there, and I really appreciate you guys being inside of that.

 

But in the midst of everything that's going on I've also been preparing for OfferMind.

 

Right now we have over 150 people who are coming - which is very, very exciting. So we've been creating this event in the middle of me doing this stuff with Russell and the One Funnel Away Challenge, and it's been a bunch of fun.



So anyway, I wanna cut over to a Facebook Live where I showed the strategy behind creating this little RSVP funnel. Basically how I built it; so I draw it out and then actually show the actual pages and kinda go back and forth to the audience a little bit with some questions.

 

I think it'll be really helpful because this funnel doesn't exist. I'm not funnel hacking an RSVP funnel from somebody else. The game is far more malleable than people might think it is. As soon as you understand the big Lego blocks, as soon as you understand the pieces...

 

I've always imagined funnel building as like adult Legos. And I can take a piece out. I can move it and put it over there, and as long as these pieces are compatible, boom, I can sink it on and it'll be awesome. I kind of made up a funnel for the purpose that I needed it for and what I wanted to do.

 

What's kind of unique about this episode is, I wanted to show ya that I do this a lot, but I've never really shown that. I never really realized I've never shown that. So anyways, it's not a sales funnel. This is more of a fulfillment funnel, right. And so, there are still sales that are collected in there, but it's not the purpose of it.

 

And so I wanna show you guys how I kind of created the funnel for the purpose that I needed something for. So anyway, I think it'll be great, I think it'll be a lot of fun for you to see how I did that. We'll cut on over, I think the first thing in there, I'm being a goofball listening to music but anyway, watch how I draw it out.

 

First thing I do is a write down exactly what I'm trying to figure out. And then I put pages together to be able to map out a funnel and that's what I built and that's what you'll see.

 

So anyways, guys thanks so much.

If you guys go to OfferMind.com, it is not what you are about to see in this video - since then I’ve changed it into a sales funnel to sell event tickets.

 

So anyway, guys thanks so much. We'll cut on over there, I hope you enjoy it, bye.

 

♪ Bam-Ba-Lam Whoa, Black Betty ♪ ♪ Bam-Ba-Lam Whoa, Black Betty ♪ Alright, we were listening to a different song a second ago and it's the wrong song to go live to, you know what I'm sayin. So anyway, gotta look at the camera over here.

 

Hey, what's up guys, I'm super excited. I get to actually tell you guys a little bit about The OfferMind and how to make sure you get your ticket. This is good stuff right here.

 

(Answering FB Comments)“What's up, Amy Farmer, wow, how's it goin?” Christopher Voss, which by the way, I just opened your package which is absolutely hilarious. Check this thing out everyone, this is hilarious. That thing is huge. It's massive. I have every shape and size I could ever hope for with it too. That's funny. I'm gonna save that. I'm gonna save that and. I don't know I think I might put that in the actual OfferMind room. I guess I'll put it on the doors. We're gonna put it on the doors, Christopher Voss, that's awesome.”

 

What's up! Okay, I am super excited for this, I was supposed to get this out yesterday. I worked on it the second half of the day, and then my wife came in and started knocking and she was like, “Hey, you're supposed to be at the dentist.” And I was like “Oh, crap!” So I ran to the dentist. The receptionist acted like she had to go check to see if there was space for me and then when the dental hygienist walked around the corner to take me back she was like, “Uh yeah, this is super slow, you coulda walked in at any time.” And basically, the receptionist was being kind of a jerk to my wife. Anyways kind of a funny story, anyway.

 

Hey, so it didn't get out yesterday. So I just finished it. Now one thing, I just wanna teach you guys somethin' real quick here, okay. Before I actually dive in and show you guys how to get your free ticket. For those of you guys who bought your book through my link. An absolute unanatomical butt ton of you have been reaching out, (that's a technical term), asking if you can buy a ticket and the answer is “No, not right now.”

 

Let me get my whiteboard. We went and we rented this room, We rented this room that was a 150 person space room and I was like, “This is super cool, I bet we'll have maybe 50, maybe 100 people.” Okay, I sold 375 books. That's a lot of tickets!

 

I was like, “We gotta double the size of the room.” And then 'cause I know some of you guys are International and you don't want to make the trip over (and I totally get it) I said I'd give you guys the recordings.

 

(Goes to Whiteboard) Okay, now the funnel that I just built is not in the Funnel Hacker Cookbook. The Funnel Hacker Cookbook is fantastic. This is a fantastic book. It’ll shortcut a lot of the learning time on what funnels work in what scenarios. However, you have to understand that when I say that I build 500 funnels when I worked at ClickFunnels, that's true - but only maybe 100 of those were actual revenue funnels. A lot of them were more what I call fulfillment funnels.

 

A fulfillment funnel is something that can be used internally. It's kind of like what I just created right now. So when I create a funnel that doesn't exist, there are not many people I can funnel hack. You have to think of this scenario that I'm in right now. I created an event funnel, but it's not actually a standard event funnel. This is the hard part.

 

Yesterday, I had to think through how to actually design this thing. When you think 'em through, you think through what the main objective is. In this case, I need people to RSVP. That's the main objective. I need people to RSVP because we are negotiating back and forth with the actual event person to extend the actual size of the room. Ya know what I'm sayin'? It's been a bunch of fun. Anyway, it's been a bunch of fun.

 

It's not necessarily to sell tickets, I just need people to RSVP. Holy crap guys, tons of people have been asking to buy tickets. Lot of people at ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels execs, which is really fun. There might be several surprise ClickFunnels people there which is very, very cool. They've been asking, “Hey maybe I could swing in.” I was like, “Absolutely!” I'm not gonna charge 'em, relationship-wise why would I? I'm just, “Yeah, dude, come on by.” Right, you know what I'm sayin’!

 

Anyway, there are two things I need to do here…

 

Some of you guys want extra time with me, so there's the option to do that. On the second night, there's gonna be a private VIP dinner where we can just hang out and network, and you guys can ask any question that you want, little more of an intimate setting - that'll be cool.

 

There is the, oh, did you guys see, I haven't shown you guys the shirts yet, the Capitalist Pig shirts I went and got created - super stoked for those. So many fun things are going on.

 

So   two things that I'm trying to get done here. There are two objectives.

 

#Number one if you got a ticket, if you got the book through my link, I need you to RSVP in general.

 

#Second thing though, is if you want to upgrade to a VIP, so you can sit close.

 

(Phone Rings:) “Stupid phone calls, I freakin' hate 'em.” I never answer my phone! Don't ever try and call me, I don't answer for anybody except my wife. Even then she and I Vox.

 

Anyway, so of course, I'm the offer creation guy. There's a specific offer around becoming a VIP in general. But think about what I'm trying to do with this. The funnel that I'm creating…

Good funnels have one objective, that's the reason a funnel works. Each page has its own specific focus. Each page, just one thing.

 

The thing that makes something turn from a funnel back into a website is when you have multiple exits from a page. A funnel works because it’s a funnel - there's only one way to progress forward. There's only one way to move on.

 

So what I created was kind of a hybrid between a website and a funnel at the same time. Does that make sense?

 

So think about this for a second... And this is one of the reasons why so many people whose funnel will not do well...  They will create too many exits inside of their funnels.

 

Here I have two objectives:

 

#Number one: I need everybody to come through and RSVP.

 

#Number two: Then some of you guys, if you want more of my time while you're here, you can upgrade to a VIP ticket. So there needs to be some kind of a breakout.

 

Does that make sense?

 

So when I go through this and I'm actually creating and designing something that hasn't existed before, what's I'll do is I'll take elements inside of the Funnel Hacker Cookbook - I helped to write a lot of this, but I don't open this up anymore... but what I'll do is I'll go through and I'll think through, “Okay I need a page to do this... I need a page to do that... I need a page for this…” and I will design and I will make up a funnel as I go. I've done this many times.

 

So the first page, what I did is I created a page that said, “Hey, check it out, you got two options here. Number one you could just straight up RSVP, or number two you can upgrade to VIP.”

 

There are two buttons below the video. The first button says, “Hey, Stephen I don't want to upgrade, just give me my RSVP ticket.” I'm like, it's totally fine, understand that you're not going to sit towards the front, that's okay....

 

When you RSVP through this funnel, I encourage you to RSVP slowly so you can see what I did with this. I did not just slap together a page. This is a full funnel that I've built in the last 36 hours.

 

So this is the first page, and I built it as a sales page. That means ClickFunnels is not looking for data on it. Does that make sense? If it's opt-in page, and there's not an email form on the page, sometimes that can trip out of the ClickFunnels editor.

 

So I build it as a sales page because there's no requirement. It's literally a shell. I can put whatever I want in there, and I can direct people wherever I want to. Does that make sense?

 

So this first page is just a “sales page” page type. It's a sales page.

 

I'm gonna walk you guys through the actual funnel here in just a second here. So stick with me for just a second.

 

The next page, here's the VIP upgrade - this is an order form page type. Now that means that ClickFunnels is gonna look for credit card details. It's gonna look for email contacts.

 

All profiles inside of ClickFunnels are email based. All contacts are email based inside of ClickFunnels. If there's not an email, the contact profile does not exist so I have to make sure that it has those kinds of things in there so it's like, “Sweet.”

 

Then after that, there's a thank you page, just merely to confirm the fact that the purchase has gone through. It always makes me a little nervous whenever it skips those pages. You can do it without it, but I always like to.

 

Anyway, right, here is the order confirmation page. And then after that is the RSVP page. So what I did is I said, “Check this out, if you want to upgrade to VIP, all you do is you click here” and it will shoot you straight over to this page right here. You'll just go right over.

 

If you click this button though, it’ll sidestep the actual payment step and shoot you right over here. When you do upgrade though, there's an email that gets sent out. Again pushes ya right back to the RSVP page. All roads lead to this RSVP form.

 

And then I was like, you know what, I could use a software like Eventbrite. I could integrate with that. Eventbrite or EventDay, they are great software for events - especially when they get kind of biggish like this one. But instead, let's just use Zapier. So what I did is I set up a Zap so that there are two different Zap inputs.

 

I'm just telling you guys the structure of how I built this so you can guys can see more of how I pulled it off.

 

So if this Google Sheets, there's two Sheets that are goin' on. The first Sheet is I need to be able to collect and separate out just those who upgraded to VIP. So there's a Zap, a Zapier. And whenever you upgrade on this page right here, it goes into a specific tab.

 

There are two different tabs - so it's the same Google Sheet, one tab is the VIP people, and one tab is the standard RSVP people. So one side, upgrades right there. And it shows all the data right there. That's awesome because I am making you guys t-shirts.

 

I'm making you swag. We're getting lots of crazy cool stuff. I hate crappy swag, I hate cheap swag.

 

That's one spot. So this one tab inside right here that's just VIP. That's comin' right over here from this upgrade piece.

 

There's a second tab though. I'll put it on this side of here just so you guys can, so you guys can see better. “All funnel building is with crappy drawings on a whiteboard. And very imperfect boxes.”

 

The second one though is from this - it's a Wufoo form. Honestly, I didn't need the Wufoo form. I could use something else. I just made it because it's super fast. You can use the standard input fields inside of ClickFunnels, but there are a few things that I really like about Woo-fu. It's so fast, so anyway.

 

So what I did is as soon as you fill out this RSVP form, and I tell you, “Look, I'm gonna ask your t-shirt size.” That also sends to the same Google Sheet, but just on a different tab. Does that make sense? That way I have gone Google Sheet where I can look up everybody's information, their name, their email, when they bought, what time they bought - meaning the book. Have they been verified? Meaning did I verify the fact that they actually did get a book through my 30-day link, or are they trying to be sneaky and get on in... We're gonna not allow that obviously.

 

This event is pretty packed already. So anyways, if somebody shows up without a ticket, we can't accept you. You'll get turned away at the door.

 

But anyway, it's exciting, very very exciting. She's like, “Well I think we can extend the room to maybe like 300.” I was like, “Lady, there are 386 confirmed tickets.” Alright, this is big, right, it's huge. I just barely got Russell's AV team, the same one that sets up the 2 Comma Club Coaching events and the Funnel Hacking Live events - you know like the stage.

 

Man, when you walk into a stage at an event room, you need to go to a different place. It should transport you mentally to a different state the moment you walk in. I hate crappy event setups.

 

So if you guys have been listening and paying attention to me at all, I always teach with affiliate cash that's straight affiliate cash. Never take profit from it. I take all affiliate cash and I dump it right into something else so the asset creates an asset.

 

So this is a lot of cash that this affiliate thing pulled in, which is awesome. It means I can afford to hire the really really expensive extremely nice stage setup, very nice AV, incredible videographers. And this is exactly what I'm goin' for. So I'm excited to have you guys.

 

So if you are interested in it at all, I'm excited, I'd love to have you guys if you wanna upgrade to VIP. I just want to show you guys how the whole thing works.

 

So now I'm actually gonna move over to my computer here…

 

And because we're at Funnel Hackers and I teach you guys how to funnel hack, I did take a piece of paper and tape it to the top of the URL so you don't try and sneak on there ;-)

 

Shortly, like immediately after this video ends, I'm gonna email all you guys who bought the books through my link. I'll send you guys this RSVP funnel. It's basically an RSVP funnel. It's not necessarily an event funnel, but I have all the details in there. It'll have all the pieces that you guys need. It'll have where it is, the times, the dates. At the bottom, there's always an FAQ section.

 

Anyway, what I wanna do real quick is let me flip the camera and I'm gonna walk you guys through the actual funnel so you guys can see it.

 

Now that you saw the layout, now you saw the draw out of it on that whiteboard of what it looks like and what's happening and what's going on. Now you guys actually can see the funnel. Check this out. Alright cool. This is the OfferMind.

 

You guys like that with a piece of paper on the top? I know you... Because you're like me! ;-)

 

(Replying to FB Comments)

“Alright. What does that weigh? The same as a crap ton? Yeah, an anatomical butt ton is about the same amount as a crap ton. Exactly right, Dan.”

 

Alright, so this first video is incredible. Anyways super cool. “Discover what offer and sales message your market has been asking to pay you for.” This is a different way to think about this whole game. This stuff I'm gonna share with you guys, no one teaches it. It's not in like, it's not in a book. Someone was asking me like, “Stephen where'd you learn all your stuff for your offer stuff?” I was like, “Well I've coached 18,000 people in the process, built 500 funnels and tons of millionaires have been created because of it.” You see what I'm sayin'? I'll just stand in front of a   anyway. I don't know a book. That's why I'm writing a book.

 

Anyway, this video is fantastic. I encourage you to watch it. (Video on the 1st page)

 

Reading The Copy: Thank you for buying the 30 Days book through my link. You have a limited time to RSVP.”  

 

It's because we need time to get your swag. You have to RSVP by the end of Sunday at midnight or I can't keep your free ticket. You understand? Does that make sense?

 

Meaning I'm saying, I'll be forced to just send you the recordings. I encourage you to come to the event. There's something about being in a room that has changed my life. I love going to events.

 

Here's all the details, “who, what, where, when, why, how, where it is.”

 

Here's those two buttons I'm talkin' about. Look I don't wanna upgrade. You're like, alright. Or you're like hey yeah, I do wanna upgrade. I'll there in a second. What's your gonna get. Of course, I'm gonna make this. I am the Offer Creation guy. It's VIP has its own, anyway. It's got its own offer. What you get:

 

  • The private networking dinner with me on the second night. Location, time to be determined. And I'll tell you guys exactly why that is (That's a strategic reason) in the future.

 

  • You'll be the first to get the event recordings as well.

 

  • The paparazzi wall picture with me.

 

Guys, there's gonna be like three or four hundred people there. And I want you to be there. I'm really excited to have you, anyway. I'm pumped to have you. If you're VIP though, I can guarantee that we'll be able to take pictures and spend some extra time together.

 

If you're not, I can't guarantee it. I'm not saying I won't, but it's just a lot, it's a lot of people.

 

It's only me on stage for two days. I'm used to doing them okay. The FHAT event was three days, pretty much just with me the entire time. I'm not nervous about the energy output - usually, the audience gets tired before I do.

 

But anyway, to upgrade it's 197. There are only 60 VIP places available. That's how the room is going to be set up. It's not a hoax. There are 60 spots.

And anyway, a little bit more on why I'm doing what I am.

 

And then I've got a whole bunch of testimonials in here.

 

Now people ask me a lot of times, they're like, “Stephen, what if I'm launching something that I've never done before and I don't have any testimonials.” I get it, have I done an OfferMind before? No, I haven't.

 

FB COMMENT: “Can I have the link to this funnel?” No, I will email those people who bought the book through my link. They are the ones who are getting this funnel. We're not opening up public purchases for tickets because there's literally no space.

 

It depends on how many people who bought the book don't RSVP. So that's why you have to RSVP by the end of this Sunday night because every messaging platform is exploding right now,  “Stephen, I didn't buy it, can I still get the ticket? Can I still come to the event, can I still come to the event?”  Like, “No, it's a spacing issue. Literally, it's a fire marshal issue at this point.” It's gonna be super fun, I'm so excited about it.

 

I'm naturally an introvert. Events for some reason with people like you guys, I get excited about. But anyway, this will be a bunch of fun, so anyways. So no I can't give you the link, I'm not gonna, that's why the paper's there so you can't find the link.

 

But some people have asked me like, “Stephen, what do you do when when you are selling something that you don't have specific testimonials for?” What you do is you switch the question. And the question is, “What is it like to work with Stephen?” Or “What is it like to learn from him on other courses?” And that, you can get testimonials around.

 

Check this out. Alright, so these are all videos, each one of these specifically, just super cool...

 

Hey, I need more women testimonials. Look these are all guys! That's why I put the one up here. She, this is amazing, oh my gosh, the one from Angela, this is absolutely incredible. I kinda have a lot of guys in here which is awesome. Fellas, you're looking great - but the women tend to sell that a little bit more.

 

FB COMMENT: “No. You're definitely not an introvert!” Not in front of you. In front of everyone else, I definitely am.

 

Still not convinced? So some of us like to go consume testimonials, not through video. This is awesome. “Highest gratitude, Steve Larsen.”

 

Check this out, this guy, he went and he got, anyway, this guy did 30 grand his first shot with it.

 

FB COMMENT: “I found the secret link, Steve. Sorry, but I'll keep the secret, not gonna give it away.” Cool. We're gonna verify everything because it's not fair that people actually did get my the book through my link if someone sneaks in, you know what I mean.



So anyway...  HEADLINE: “What Are You Most Excited For?” Then I pulled in other comments people are excited about.

 

And down at the bottom, I took a page from the lesson and the book of Funnel Hacking Live, and I went and I grabbed both FAQ topics from Funnel Hacking Live to make sure I hit all the topics that they use.

 

And then all the topics from Dana Derricks, tons of them, you know what I mean.

 

So anyway, cool. Sweet, so that's it. So that's the first page. So you're gonna come up here, and any one of these like, “Yeah I wanna upgrade” or whatever. Right, it shoots you back up here to the top, one of these.

 

So you say, “Hey, let me upgrade.” Right if you go, let me go upgrade, it will come right here. And you come in and like the 60 spots available. I'm gonna shut that off afterward.

 

Any way you fill it out, it's super simple, especially an event funnel guys, it's like the FAQ section is important to have on the bottom of literally every single page. That's a super, super key thing there.

 

Anyway, here's the next page afterward. “Boom! Welcome to OfferMind VIP.” Now, these are simple pages. The first page is always the hardest one to create. It's the one I spent literally an entire day on. Here's RSVP form, check that out. Yeah, there's the Capitalist Pig shirts!

 

When you guys show up, I will give you guys the Capitalist Pig shirt which I'm super stoked about it. I went and I got one created. It's actually Russell's designer that got it all set up which is super cool. He designed it and put it all together and I've got the same printer that ClickFunnels uses for their shirts as well which is awesome.

 

So anyway. It's cool! I bought capitalistpigshirts.com. In the future, I'll sell 'em like out there and stuff and we'll do swag drops and stuff like that. But for right now I'm not gonna be able to do that. And then if you're VIP I'm giving you guys an “It's Monday Baby!” shirt which we're designing right now which look so cool  - so anyway. That's just for VIPs though. Anyways, guys, there's a bunch of other stuff as well…

 

I just wanted to deep dive real fast, or shallow dive I guess, into what I'm doing on there.

 

So when you go in and start looking at the page, make sure you look at, I want you to see like what I did.

 

Does an RSVP funnel exist? Not really, but what I'm trying to say is that this game is far more fluid when you understand the marketing behind what makes things work.

 

I was very afraid to do anything outside the mold of funnel building when I first started funnels.

 

Three or four years ago I was like, “Well that's, this page here, didn't exist before. Or over here, this element is different than the one they had. It's not gonna work.” Like “No, No, No, No!” We need to understand what's really happening behind it. This game's far more fluid than you might expect.

 

Boom! f you're just starting out, you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies also, right. That's also good.

 

But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them. That's what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula.

 

So I created a special mastermind called an OfferMind to get you on track with the right offer and more importantly the right sales script to get it off the ground and sell it. Wanna come?

 

The small groups are on purpose so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days. You can hold your spot by going to offermind.com. Again that's offermind.com.



Nov 2, 2018

Boom! What's going on everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio.

 

Today, I'm gonna teach you guys why branding comes second.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today, and now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

Alright you guys, I know that I'm probably gonna ruffle some feathers with this episode. I totally get that. I totally understand. I'm not trying to, but I  feel so strongly about this that if someone gets offended like, “Hmm... Okay! You know, alright... sounds good!”

 

So it was about six years ago, I had the unique opportunity of going and pitching some actual investors to invest in a business plan that I'd written. Now, this is before I ever had considered the fact that maybe VC funding wasn't always the best route... depending on what you were doing.

 

Maybe I didn't need to get funding. Maybe I didn't need to give up ownership in a company just to get it going, right?

 

And what was interesting is.... that was before I learned about any of this stuff.

 

I've always been very active in this sphere though... And so I was doing what I thought was best.

 

So what I did is... I remember we went and we wrote, I think it was like a 30-page business plan for the real estate space. It was with a buddy of mine, and he and I (as well as a few others), we came up with this plan.

 

It was this really cool real estate strategy. His dad was a kind of a real estate mogul, kind of. He was taking us under his wing a little bit, and he was showing us some cool, neat ways to (I think it was storage units) off-set costs with these clever strategies.

 

And it was cool - it was really cool.

 

Anyway, so we were excited about it; we're like, "Sweet! What if we just asked for the amount of investment that it would cost for us to go get a down payment on one of these properties? Let's just try it."

 

And cool enough, the professor we were doing this class with was facilitating the whole process. So the professor went and he actually grabbed these investors, so we did it in front of a live panel of investors.

 

We had a cool and unique opportunity of going in, and we did the exact process that you see on Shark Tank...without as much drama.

 

There was no slow motion, and there wasn't any slow-mo 'staring at each other looks' before anyone said anything - like on CNBC. But it was still awesome.

 

I remember we sat there, and we got to watch as each group would present their business plan; how much they believed their company was worth, give a percentage of the company away in exchange for an investment amount. Then watch them as they would defend why that was an awesome idea, and why they should get the cash, and why they had great numbers. You know, things like that.

 

It was really, really cool and I learned a lot and understood how all of that works. And it's really helped me even in my funnel building, funny enough. Even though I don't go that route.

 

So what was interesting is like, as I started doing that stuff they told us, "Hey, if somebody goes in and it truly is amazing - they will actually invest." And I was like, "Sweet, alright!"

 

Well, we get up there, and we start talking and stuff like that, and I remember that there were these different elements in creating this. It was like a 30-page business plan. It was very, very professional looking. We did everything from a SWOT analysis, (if you guys know what that is). All the standard stuff that you're supposed to do when creating a business plan and analyzing a market.  Which is 100% different than I do it now. Anyway, very fascinating...

 

I don't think any of us got any kind of investment. We did really well all of one of us. It was awesome in front of that board. Anyway, none of us got any kind of investment or anything like that. But we did that actually multiple times because of what I had studied.

 

I actually really do appreciate the college I went to on all this stuff. They did a great job for what they had, right? No one really teaches direct response marketing. That's kind of something you have to go learn on your own, you know what I mean? There's not like a major for that. No one's teaching that stuff, you know what I'm saying. For what they had it was awesome, I get it...

 

There were multiple occasions though where we pitched. I wrote a ton of business plans in college. And they were all very, very similar. We would go in and we would - there was a format we were following, and then we would go, and we would present it, whether it was just a professor or kinda like a dummy panel or a real panel. We did that many times, multiple times.

 

I started getting good at defending ideas back and forth for that. And when we actually started doing it for real... Colton and I, sitting over there, we actually went - we did it with a business that he and I were doing. We ended up winning the business competition in our college, and they sent us off to another college to go do it. We totally didn't win, but it was a good experience. It was a bunch of fun, and we learned a lot.

 

Now you say, "Stephen, what does that have to do with branding?" Well, there was always a moment in creating these business plans where you're like," Crap, I got this idea. What represents my idea? We need a logo. What's our slogan? What's our mission statement? What's this, what's that?" And we would spend so much time on those things that it actually ended up being a distraction of what actually caused value in that company. I see so much of the same pattern now...

 

The reason why I have such a war against branding is because it doesn't matter for a long time. It really doesn't.

 

Most of the time when I go, and I start creating something like a brand, man I go to a site, and I will buy a little logo that I think looks cool. I'll switch the colors around, so it looks somewhat okay, and in 15 minutes I have a logo! I do that all the time.

 

There's only like three or four logos I've ever had professionally created. But it's not until there's cash raining that I even think about that stuff.

 

What's interesting about that is that issue of branding comes up very frequently. In fact, you can see this on Shark Tank all the time. There was a lady I was watching, it was on Shark Tank. She came up, and she had the product there in front of her. I love watching Shark Tank. She had the product there in front of her.

 

She had a beautiful display... an amazing display with her stuff. There was the slogan; "This is what we're gonna do that's different." And cool, that was awesome... But then here comes the dreaded question they always ask, "Now, tell us what your numbers are." They go, "Well, we just started this three months ago." And you always see the faces.  You're like, "Oh, crap!" I'm sure they just add those in because of straight drama. They never invest in them. And it's because it's not worth anything.

 

And you hear the way entrepreneurs who are brand new defend their products. And they always, well not always, but a lot of times their defense comes back to things like branding: "Well we got a great logo. We got a great color scheme. We got a great..."

 

It's not uncommon to hear that kind of a phrase when somebody's defending their idea. "Well we got the logo done, we got the... " This has happened many times.

 

I told you guys it took me about 17 tries to really get a business right. Many of those early 17 tries before I knew what I was doing, I would spend literally two or three days looking through different logos trying to figure out which one was the best to represent the company, rather than, "How do we sell the thing?" Totally different question! It's so funny how different it is.

 

There's so many stories that are running through my head about this topic. Recently, somebody reached out, and they said, "You know what, Stephen? You could do a lot better if your personal branding was better. I'm a personal branding expert." I was like, "Cool. I REALLY don't care!" And they're like, "What are you talking about?" This like a year ago, and I was like, "I REALLY don't care. Personal branding doesn't mean a thing to me for a while." And they're like, "No, the personal branding is what represents you." I was like, "No, my products represent me. My stories represent me. My podcast represents me. My branding does not."

 

I just barely got this backdrop. We just barely got these sweet intros and outros.  Does branding matter? Yes. But not for a long time. Not for a while.

 

You can go back listen to Russell Brunson's courses. You can go back and see lots of guys courses that are out there, and they all say the same thing.

 

This is when branding actually matters. If you got hot traffic, warm traffic, cold traffic. Branding tends to matter more to hot traffic. Hot and warm, kind of in that realm. When you get to a warm/ cold - that kind of scenario -where people don't know who you are anyway, it really doesn't matter as much as we wish it did. It's the reason why I build the pages, and just kind of like, "Alright, let's ship it."

 

We went through, and we grabbed the top 100 funnels that are converting the most in ClickFunnels. For the most part, they're all pretty butt-ugly funnels. I mean like really! And almost all of them. It was like 95 of the 100 - absolutely not design pretty. Absolutely not. Does this make sense what I am saying? Does this make sense what I'm trying to say with this whole thing?

 

I've been geeking out on an author lately. He's become one of my favorite authors. His name is Christopher Lochhead. I think that's how you say his last name. Anyway, he talks about how, for a small 'e' entrepreneur, branding comes so far down the road. In fact, actually, let me grab the quote right here; it's super awesome. I read this on a plane. I like to either read or write on a plane.

 

Anyway, he says' "Quite bluntly, branding, in the absence of category creation is bs." He doesn't say "BS...", He says "Quite bluntly though, branding in the absence of category creation is bs." He says, "Categories make brands." Categories make brands.

 

Branding comes after category creation.

 

If you are like, "Hey, you know what, I'm gonna go into..." I don't know, think about anything where there's super high competitive. Let's say you're gonna go into the BizOp space. Let's say you're gonna sell wealth. And let's say you're gonna go sell real estate. And let's say in order for you to be successful in real estate, you're like, "I'm gonna become a real estate agent." Does that make sense?

 

You're gonna be wealthy because you're gonna go into real estate and you're gonna go into real estate by becoming a real estate agent - sweet.

 

Now, if you are doing literally the exact same thing as everybody else, why on earth are you going to make a brand? That's not going to set you apart very well. What sets you apart is figuring out how to be different than everyone else.

 

I'm not saying branding different. I'm saying what are you physically doing differently to collect leads than every other agent? What are you physically doing differently to close leads that's different than every other agent? What are you physically doing that's different to follow up, to up-sell... if you do up-sell? Does that make sense?

 

Then think about branding, right? You don't have a freaking business. Why would you spend money on something like a brand? Do you know what I mean?

 

There have been multiple times where I'll go in, and I'm not going to name names, but start looking, kay. And you go in, and these people have these beautiful personal brands... And I can't figure out what the heck they sell? Start diving in deeply, and you find out they don't even have a product yet. But man, they have spent five thousand dollars hiring the great people to make them look awesome. And I'm like, "Sweet! That is a lot of smoke and mirrors."

 

Again, I'm not trying to throw rocks, but I don't really care if you feel it because I'm so forward on this topic. Categories make brands.

 

It's kind of like in the book, Expert Secrets The idea is not to choose a niche. The idea is to create a niche. Another word for a niche is "market" or "category."

 

Go create a market that doesn't exist. Go create a category that's never existed before. Do something, come up with a category that truly is unique. And the way you move people into that category is by using what I've called the purple offer.

 

You use elements from the red - so there's a place of security for them (and you) 'cause it's like it's proven. But then you lace in these other things from this category that's never existed before... from things that have never existed before, and you start moving them this way.

 

There's a super cool... I think it was another Shark Tank thing. These guys were like mechanical engineers. They were extremely smart. I think they had gotten at their least Masters or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering or something like that. I think the company's called Pop Cards.

 

I have one over there. I got one for my wife for her birthday. They're super cool.

 

What they figured out is that they could use cool machine lasering and stuff like that to create these 3D pop-up cards. And people are like, "Why did you get that much education to create a card company?" That's a good question, right? Why would you ask that? You look at these things and they're gorgeous. It's absolutely, it's breathtaking.

 

You open these things up, and it's extremely intricate. A lot of math involved in what they've done. Anyway, super, super cool what they've done. They created something that's never been done before. "NOW let's think about branding!" Does that make sense? So it's in that order that I like to do it.

 

First create the category that's never existed before, now the brand.

 

Music even, I was just talking about this with Russell yesterday. There is a band I really, really like. I've followed their music for years. I found out that he likes a song from them too. I was like, "What's up, that's really cool.” And I messaged him and said the reason why they're so big and so popular, (their name is Odezsa). The reason they are so popular, and they're such a big deal is because they kind of created a category of music that's never existed before - so they were the obvious owner of it. Then they made branding.

 

You look at all their branded stuff and it's amazing, it's incredible. But they didn't have any of that branding before they launched. It doesn't matter. What matters is figuring out which category, which niche, which market you can create to be the first in... and then next go to the branding.

 

So anyways, without saying the same thing over and over again, that's the main point of this podcast. That's the reason why when somebody's like, "What should my logo be?" I'm like, "I don't freakin’ care." I will never have a business card. I don't understand them. Why do I need a business card? Why do I need these little tiny things, unless it is part of a little marketing campaign - that I've done...

 

Last year at Funnel Hacking Live, I made my dad business cards... but with a QR code that was his bait. They scanned the QR code and got his cool free bait, and it started them into the funnel. That makes sense right? But just a freaking name and email... Man, they could get on my Facebook profile.

 

Anyway, so that's my whole beef with it. When someone's like, "Oh, man, this page, you could design it better. You could do this over here." I'm like, "You know what? This page gets 65% opt-in rate. I don't really care to touch it."  And I know it's NOT because of how it looks that it's converting. Guys,  I'm trying to clear the smoke on my opinions on this topic 'cause several people have reached in asking about it. It's not a personal attack or anything, but literally from a sales or marketing standpoint. Marketing is NOT branding. It's not.

 

Marketing is the act of changing beliefs with the intent for a purchase to happen. That's all marketing is. I'm changing someone's beliefs with the intent for them to make a purchase. That's what marketing is. Branding is NOT marketing, it's not. Facebook ads are not marketing. They can be part of it, just like branding can be part of marketing, but it's NOT marketing.

 

I'm trying to get clear on these definitions with people. I actually might do a definitions podcast here soon - which I think would be really, really cool. Just so that you see where I operate from and why my stuff is working. I know the three or four terms that I focus on that make the money flow. And when I take my eye away from 'em, and I start looking at things like branding - that's when my money usually starts decreasing.

 

For all the hot traffic, for all the follow-up sales, for repeat purchases - branding can start to matter more for sure. Absolutely. People will want that kind of professional feel depending on what you are doing. They want to know that it was created with intent - that it's not haphazard. But when it comes down to a lot of my front-end stuff... That's why I didn't upgrade the podcast for a long time.  Do you know what I mean? It didn't matter, it didn't matter for a long time.

 

Recently, I've gone through, and we've done a pretty strong rebranding of a lot of my front end stuff. We've got chatbots in place now. Everything's tied together. A lot of value ladder steps, I'm getting them into place in both businesses, especially in one of them - where it's a lot more automation - I'm going in, and I'm creating systems and processes to remove me.

 

Now it's time to think about branding.

 

Now, it's time to think about creating more of that feeling and that experience as well. We're upgrading the package that we ship out to people when they buy products. The actual physical box, we've got logos we put on it rather than just a normal envelope. For a while, a normal envelope was fine.

 

People will act like branding is like this lock-gate for them to make money. It's not, and it's not the reason someone's not buying from you. It's not.

 

Go back to the sales message. Go back to the fundamentals. Do I have a sales message that's compelling? Do I have an offer that over-delivers both to the customer and my wallet? Because you don't have to compete on price when you have a good offer.

 

And then when those are all confirming that they're great and the cash is coming in... when you can go do all the tweaks you want to on the funnel  - and it's still working. You got cool sustainable traffic. Then think about a little rebrand and branding itself.

 

So anyway guys, I hope that's helpful to you. And hopefully, it clarifies a little bit about why I look at things that I do. When I'm building a page, I'll kind of make it, so the layout makes it easy to consume the text - so you can see more of the sales message. But that doesn't have anything to do really with colors. It really doesn't.

 

Thanks, guys so much. Hopefully, that makes sense to you, guys? Remember categories make brands. Branding in the absence of category creation and in the absence of niche or market creation is bs. It's a waste of time. It's not the reason why things convert.

 

All right guys thank you so much.

 

Hopefully, you guys enjoyed the episode and we'll see you in the next one, bye. Woohoo! Hey, thanks for listening.

 

Hey, many of you don't actually know that I made my first money online as an affiliate marketer. If you want to know how I funded my entire company without using any of my own money EVER, you can learn to do the same for FREE at affiliateoutrage.com.



Oct 30, 2018

Boom! What's going on everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel radio.

 

Today I'm gonna show you guys my 5 phases of funnel building.

 

I spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to sales funnel radio.

 

What's up? Hey, I'm excited for this video today! I've actually been thinking about this quite a bit here.

 

Now when you think about building something like a sales funnel...

 

The first time I ever heard about building something like a sales funnel, I was like oh my gosh, I got to write copy. There's the copy piece. I should find some images. I should do some videos. I should do the actual pages themselves. The actual product itself. How I'm gonna promote it?

 

There's all the stuff that goes into it. It can get incredibly stressful. So what I wanted to do right quick is...

 

For those of you guys who are listening, just know that on YouTube - I'm gonna draw this so you guys can see a little bit of my funnel building process.

 

So this is this is interesting. I teach a lot of the stuff at events, and multiple times right, somebody will stand up and be like, "Hey, hey, how should I go about doing upsell, and this, this, and this for my product?"

 

I'm like "Why you even thinking about that? You don't even have a main product yet."

 

Too many times we get too involved in questions we don't really need to answer yet!

 

But there are questions that DO matter from building a funnel.

 

Sometimes people are so concerned about what makes the car engine run that they don't even know how to drive the car. You know what I mean? It's like there's a whole bunch of things out there - and you don't need to know that yet.

 

So literally, my purpose in this episode, is I just wanna walk you guys through the very simple funnel building process that I have and why it works - and how to screw it up.  This is really it, I mean this is truly it.

 

Now if you think about it, there are five steps here:

 

The first thing I need to go do is kind of a research period. Check this out... check this out- and I'm gonna explain this kind of as I go along here.

 

The first thing that I do, is I go and I have to make sure that I know what my customers are already buying and how they're buying it.

 

We call it the "what and the how." You guys may have heard of this before, It's the "what and the how," though.

 

So, I go in, and I look at a red ocean meaning if I'm gonna go sell... I don't know? Pencils. I'm looking at pencils or pens, they're over my desk over there...

 

Let's say I'm gonna go sell pens. Who else is selling pens and how are they selling them? Who as far as businesses go, but also the customers; they're like "Hey, this is how I like to hear about my pen purchases. This is how I like to go and purchase my pens." You know what I mean?

 

So we answer the "what and the how?" What am I gonna sell? What are the people selling and how are they selling it? We call it the red ocean when there's lots of competition inside of one place.

 

So I'm gonna go inside, and I'm gonna look at the red ocean. I'm gonna look at the red ocean, and specifically what I'm doing is I'm looking for "the what and how."

 

I'm just gonna write that down again, red ocean, and I'm looking for like I said, "the what and how." I'm gonna draw a bit of line here. That's like phase number one here.

 

Phase number 0ne, red ocean - just research who is already selling the things that I'm interested in selling, and how are they selling them? That's all I'm answering.

 

So the second thing - now that I know a little bit about the actual red ocean and again remember, I know the what and the how that's all I'm looking for. The second thing I can go and start looking into... It's literally the second phase of, funnel building for me is the actual sales message writing. Not products creation. This is super key.

 

There are multiple products in my early years of doing this where I did it wrong. I would start building products before I knew how to sell them. Stupid! Dumb!

 

And when I say that out loud, you're like, "Well yeah, of course, you wouldn't do that." Yeah, well that's what everybody does! They come in, and they start making these products without any knowledge on how to actually go out and sell the thing - meaning the sale script - the sales message.

 

Products don't sell themselves. A product never sells itself.

 

When you go out, and you say, "Oh, the product's so good you've got to get in front of people." The actual cases where that's true are so rare. That is the exception NOT the rule - and I do not build a business based on exceptions. I look only on the rules. So don't go do that.

 

So the second thing, I go and I start building is the actual sales message. Once I've got the sales message down, the way I know I can move onto product creation mode is when there are literally wallets flying through the air at me.

 

Meaning when my sales message is so compelling that people are like, "I have to have that where do I pay you?" And I actually do collect money. Meaning people vote with their wallet, and they tell me, "Yeah, that's a really great idea. Let me give you money," and I actually have money in my hands.

 

That's when I go actually create the product.

 

And you might be like, "Stephen that's kind of weird. It's like a bait and switch thing.”  No, no, no, no, no! I always tell them, "Hey, this isn't ready yet. We got the beta version. If you pay this discounted price, you can get the beta version coming out soon.” And then I go build it real fast.

 

There are so many companies that do it that way.

 

And what's cool about that is that you are using the market's opinion to create your products. That's huge. That's a massive benefit that you have. It removes like 90% of the risk of the entrepreneurial game.

 

This game is not risky if you just do it in the right way.

 

Going out and creating a product, then trying to figure out how to sell, then trying to figure out what markets should buy it, that's risky.

 

And that was all the ways that college taught me to build stuff  - which is really weird. Anyway...

 

So "red ocean" - when I know the "what and how" is similar to the thing I'm gonna be selling. Then I go and create a sales message.

 

And my aim is to be different, not better - we talked about that a few episodes ago. I'm trying to be different, not better. Super key.

 

And then number three, I actually start building the product.

 

Now, for me actually make a sales message there has to be some idea of what the product's going to be in the first place, but I don't need to actually build the thing! Does that make sense? Very important distinction right there.

 

Then when I'm to going out, and I'm actually building the product. That's when I actually I move onto step number four, (and I'm gonna want more whiteboard space here.) You guys see that light over there on the side? Oh man, this' so funny - guess you'll see all my home studio stuff anyway. Whatever I'm gonna keep going, is that cool? Alright, sounds good.

 

Alright, number four, what I do here is I start building the funnel. Now in order to actually get sales in the first place, I might need somewhat of a funnel up, but I don't obsess over it.

 

So back in step 2 when I build the sales message, I'm running the sales message. I'm actually getting cash coming in, there's some sort of funnel that needs to be up, but I just don't obsess over it. Does that make sense?

 

It wasn't for like four months/ five months, into one of my major products that I started actually going in and adding all the little pieces and glaze - all the features and all the little cool things that ClickFunnels has inside. Does that make sense?

 

'Cause most people go in, and that's the first thing they do. They're the like, "And then we could have this page, we have this page, this page..."

 

And the issue is that if those are the things that make your product sell (the little tweaks, the little features, that little split test that gave you an extra half a percent conversion increase.) If that's what's making you profitable, your offer and your sales message are not sexy enough - they're not good enough!

 

I don't want to bank on a feature to make my business profitable.

 

My products, my sales message, should be really freaking good. And the funnel is just an accelerant.

 

All the features, all those little things are just an accelerant for everything. Does that make sense?

 

So, then I go in, and I start building the funnel. Meaning I add in all the glaze, I add in all the cool stuff.

 

The last thing I go to, as far as funnel building phases, the final phase is traffic. Lots and lots and lots and lots of evergreen traffic sources, all over the place. Traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic.

 

Now the reason I drew these columns is because I wanna make a very important distinction here. In every single one of these, (let me just erase some part here) in every single one of these, I feel like I say this phrase all time...

 

But I was at an event, I was teaching, and somebody said, "Hey Stephen, I know what my red ocean is." I was like, "Sweet." They said, "I've got a converting sales message." I was like "Cool" (or it was converting at least well enough.) I was like, "Cool."

 

And they were like, "I've built the entire product." They were like, "I have a sweet funnel, and I've got a sweet little doohickey, and you know the features and all that stuff inside it." And I was like "Sweet."

 

Then they were like, "Where do I get traffic?" And I was like "Oh my gosh! Are you're serious?"

 

You have to understand that for each one of these, if you go all the way down here, and then you're like, "Where's my traffic coming from?" You've waited too long. You shouldn't have started building the funnel. You shouldn't have started building the product until you know this piece.

 

When it comes down to it, traffic is money, traffic is money. Flow... eyeballs... getting attention. Attention is money. Attention is cash.

 

If you step back, the product is just a reason to collect cash. The sales message is just a reason to collect cash. Traffic is the cash. Traffic is the thing. If you can drive traffic that's epic. Oh my gosh, that's so cool.

 

These are the 5-phases that I build in.

 

First I do this, and then second this, and third I do this, and fourth I do this, and fifth I do this (pointing at whiteboard). Those are the different phases.

 

I don't start any of the phases until I know the answers to those five.

 

So there's really two different blocks here going on. So I'm gonna draw a line right here... (drawing on a whiteboard)

 

So it's two different things you want on here. Everything on the top here I'm just gonna learn, so I'm just gonna put an "L" for that.

 

I'm gonna learn in the red ocean - I'm gonna figure out "the what and the how," that's all wanna know.

 

In the sales message piece, I'm gonna learn, "What gets people so motivated that they're actually giving me cash?" So when I have cash in hand, I'm gonna learn how the other people around ocean are selling. I'm gonna go learn what their sales messages are. I'm not writing sales page yet, I'm just learning. It's a research phase.

 

This whole top part is a research phase.

 

When I go out, and I'm building a product, I find out how these other guys built similar products.

 

And obviously, if you guys have been following me for any amount of time you know that in this phase I go out with my create what's called a purple offer  -and that makes me completely unique.

 

But I still need to figure out what people are already buying. I want to be prolific, but I don't wanna be risky. So I'm still gonna go find things out there that are already selling and stem out of similar things, you know what I'm saying? Anyway...

 

So I'm gonna go research best ways to build the products.

 

I'm gonna go research the best funnels that are out there that would be a good model for what I'm starting to see actually go sell.

 

I'm gonna go research all the different traffic methods - the best ones that are out there - evergreen traffic methods. The traffic methods that are gonna bring in a whole bunch of people once. Maybe traffic methods that are a little bit like slow growth ones.

 

I have a podcast episode I suppose like 20 episodes ago called, My 4 Favorite Traffic Methods. I think it's was called... go look at that! That's what I'm looking at specifically.

 

Look at what I've been doing this past a little bit in this podcast, in the show I've been going in, and I've been doing a little bit of a deep dive on each one of these five categories.

 

I'm trying to go like 30000 foot view again, not getting in the weeds on you guys on this stuff. I'm going 30000 overview again. I'm going through, and I'm looking at a 30000 overview, "This is how all the pieces map together."

 

I'm going in:

 

Research phase - What and how.

 

Research phase - Figure out the sales messages. What hooks? What stories can I tell to get people so excited that they get up and they're like take my money and they're throwing their wallet?

 

Next, Research phase - How can I build the products? How can I build the offer? How can I craft a purple offer? How can I craft something that both brings in a kind of risky, prolific, imaginary things (something no nobody's ever done that piece before), but then add the security of what people are currently buying? That's why I call it the purple offer;  Red Ocean +Blue Ocean = Purple Ocean.

 

Research phase - What different funnel types are people liking to buy through?

 

Research phase - What kind of traffic's out there? Does that make sense?

 

Then there's the actual execution:

 

Once I know those things, then it is okay for me to go build a funnel. Then it's okay for me to go out and actually start moving to the building phase.

Too often people research and build in the exact same steps. Don't do that.  It's scary. It's risky.

 

The first thing you're doing is you're going in and researching; you're learning learning learning. Then once you've got all that down, then you build -  in that order. Step one, two, three, four, five. And five just continues with five five five five five - 'cause you're going to need "more traffic, more traffic more traffic, more traffic." Does that make sense?

 

I just wanted to walk through that with you guys real quick.

 

So again this 3000 overview.

 

If you guys have been watching what I have been doing the last little bit, the sole purpose of it has been going through, and teaching like, "Hey, look here are the things you go collect from the red ocean before you can move on."

 

There's a podcast episode, I think it's right before this one, walking through red ocean stuff that you should have before you actually go out and move on.

 

The sales message - I do tons of stuff on sales message. If you just rewind 30 episodes and start watching, you'll see I've been diving in and seeing what you guys react to the best so that I know like, "Hey, that was the best way to teach that concept."

 

We are doing a ton of building a product stuff; that's the whole purple offer thing that I talk about. Building the actual funnel, that's what I'm known for.

 

And then traffic, I go back to my four favorite traffic methods.

 

Anyway, you can start to see that, and I just want you to know how the pieces all fit together, 'cause I'm starting to get some questions of people, like, "Sweet, Stephen, I've built this thing, but how do I get traffic for it?"

 

Like, "Oh my gosh! The traffic is where you get paid - why did you not look at that before you started building?" And I get it - they're just new mistakes that you wouldn't know about without being in the game for a little bit.

 

I did the exact same thing with my very first product. I didn't look at a red ocean, kind of did, not really. I definitely didn't look at a sales message. I focused solely on building the product thinking that's what actually causes money. It's not!

 

I focused very heavily on the funnel - so those two (pointing to whiteboard). There's products/ funnel, product /funnel, product/ funnel.

 

I remember the day when it was done - and I was like "IT'S DONE!" I was like, "Babe this is huge! The next question we're gonna answer is what island will we buy? Oh my gosh, this is gonna be so cool!" And nobody bought -  because I didn't answer, "How do we get traffic?"

 

And I did not answer, "What sales message?" There was no targeting of "who" I'm actually targeting with the red ocean.

 

And anyway, so hopefully it's been helpful to you guys! I just wanted to go through and kinda do that 30000 overview.

 

So anyways guys, short episode, but this is incredibly impactful. This is like powerful, powerful stuff.

 

In fact, this is the model that we would follow at ClickFunnels. I was the funnel builder over there.

 

Red ocean - we knew very well who we were selling to. The what and how. Also who you're selling to comes from the red ocean. We knew the who, we knew who our customers very very well.

 

The sales message - honestly that's actually where we would start because we knew this piece so well. We would start at the sales message and we would start the building. It's cool to watch.

 

I always noticed Russell Brunson was willing to move forward with actually crafting the offer; he'd have kinda have an idea of what the offer would be. Kinda an idea of what the funnel would be. Kinda an idea of where the traffic come from...

 

But this was the lock gate: If he could not think up a good hook... if he could not think up a good story... he did not move on to offer. It's: Hook/ Story/ Offer.

 

But he did not move on to offer until he knew what hook and story were. And then we'd move on. As soon as we knew that, "Boom!" Then it was like, "Kick Stephen into gear." And I would start building; funnel, funnel, funnel.

 

Now that we knew what it was - we started crafting the offer and started pulling pieces together.  I start working with John, and we start working. Anyways, it's a supercool melody of all these actions going on. It takes a lot to get a funnel up, and I totally get that.

 

I encourage you to never do more than one. Don't move on from it until you can literally walk away and have several pieces automated.

 

So anyway. Guys, this is just how I build funnels, not businesses.

 

I just wanted to walk through and share with you guys the relationship between these pieces - and what to do to learn from each of these pieces.

 

Then when you can have license to start - not guaranteeing it'll work - obviously there's always tweaks inside of it, but when can you actually move on to the build phase - and when you are building - what order do you do it in.

 

So anyways, I just wanted to walk through that with you guys. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for reviewing and ratings inside of iTunes - I've loved watching that. It's so fun. It's been very motivating for me.

 

The YouTube channel, you guys have just blown it up. Love reading your comments! It's actually super, super motivating - means a lot to me. I put a lot of work into this; we've got a 7-man team just creating content - that's how it is. So it's actually very very motivating when we hear good feedback! So thanks so much guys.

 

Catch you later. See you next episode, bye.

 

Oh yeah wasn't that awesome?

 

Hey, just real quick, a few months ago Russell asked me to write a chapter for a secret project he was doing. I had to write a chapter for a book, and this was the prompt - this is the letter I got from him... He said:

 

"Hey Steven, let me ask you a quick question. You suddenly lose all your money, along with your name and your reputation. You only have your marketing know-how left. You have bills piled high and people harassing you for money over the phone.

 

You have a guaranteed roof over your head, a phone line, internet connection, and a ClickFunnels account for only one month.

 

You no longer have your big guru name, your following, your JV partners - other than your vast marketing experience, you're an unknown newbie...

 

What would you do from Day 1 to day 30 to save yourself?”

 

Russell Brunson.

 

If you want to see my answer, and a bunch of other marketers that also had to answer that in this amazing book and summit - Just go to 30days.com/Stephen

 

Again, you can see the entire summit, you can see the book, you can see what we wrote and each of our detailed plans. Just go to 30days.com/Stephen. That's 30 as in "3" "0" - 30days.com/Stephen Guys enjoy.

Oct 29, 2018

Boom! What's going on everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio.

 

Today, I'm going to share with you guys my latest source of free leads.

 

I spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now, I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million-dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt? Completely from scratch. This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. What's up, everyone?

 

Hey, I'm excited about this. This is actually - I'm going to actually cut over to a video real quick that I did inside of my group. And what I want to do is share with you guys, is how I added almost 3,000 people to my list in the last, I don't know, it's only been like seven weeks. I'm not promoting at all. I'm not. Anyway, it's been really, really cool.

 

I want to share with you guys what I've been doing, and it's a video that I did in my Facebook group. I walked through the strategy itself. So you're going to see me there, I think I'm jamming out to music for a little bit. But anyway, I think you guys will really like it.

 

It's been super, super helpful. It lets me tie in some automation where I can grab leads out on Facebook and push them into my ClickFunnels list automatically and straight into action funnels - which is super epic.

 

So before I spoil it, let's cut over there so you guys can see it in action. Bye.

 

So every day I go in, and it's my habit, every single day I jump on in, and I bring people into the group.

 

And what I'm doing... (Replies to FB comments) Hey, what's up, how's it going? James, how you doing, dude? How's it going, Carrie?

 

So every day, I go in, and I approve people into the group.

 

When I first started, there was this big rush because I had launched and the hot traffic always comes in. But it's consistently brought in anywhere from 20 to 30 to 40, sometimes 50 people a day.

 

Now we're hitting like a 100 people a day trying to join the group - which is awesome!

 

(Jamming to music) Makes me want to go longboard.

 

Man, I used to bomb hills growing up on my longboard - barefoot. Like 45mph with my brother following me behind in a car so he could clock how fast I was going. It was stupid- don't do that.

 

Alright, let me pause that (pauses music).

 

Okay, so I've been going in, and you have something that you're selling, it's all about list building strategies. Even before we have something to sell, it's all about list building strategies...

 

The only asset that is actually on the internet, the only asset you have in general is the list... not the product... not anything else.

 

And I just barely went through this.

 

About three or four months ago, I went in, and there was a company I was doing stuff with, and it turns out that they were not a good company. They were like stealing from people and crap - and I had no idea.

 

And because I had a list, I could pick up, and I could move to something else, and it was not a big issue.

 

If I didn't have a list, if I didn't have a following, it would have been an issue.

The list is the asset. The list is the ONLY asset!

 

And so what's interesting is when you have something to sell, then it's all about putting more people into the pipeline...

 

There's only 3 ways to grow a company. And I can't remember, who said this, I think it was Jay Abraham -I think so. He said, "There's only 3 ways to grow a company. Let's write them down here, so we all got them.

 

3 ways to grow:

 

#1: The first way to grow a company is just to get more customers.

 

#2:  the second way to grow a company is you just get them to pay more money.

 

#3: The third way to grow a company is you just get them to pay more money, more frequently.

 

That's it! That's all it is.

 

So when you have something that you are actually selling ... you've got a product up here, and the product is like, "Whoo check it out, I've got a sweet product" - that's the only way you can grow it:

 

#More customers.

 

#More money.

 

# More money, more frequently - or money more frequently, i.e., increase the frequency that they're actually paying you.

 

So that's what I have been doing.

 

The reason that I ask for people's email address before I let them into my group is for several reasons from a business standpoint:

 

#1: It's a symbol to me that they are willing to exchange something for the value I give.

 

If someone can't give me their freaking email address, (you guys know the value I drop in this group) I'm not going to let them in the group. If they're like, "You know what, I'm going to see if this is worth it?" "No! Wrong order!" I don't even care.

 

I had 102 people ask to join the group today,  and when I whittle out all the people who didn't give me their email or didn't agree to not self-promo, it went from 102 people down to 72. And that's pretty accurate - it's about a third.

 

A fourth, to a third of the people who ask to join the group every day, I'm rejecting. I'm like, "Nope, you're gone. Nope, you're gone. Nope, you're gone. Nope, you're gone." Isn't that interesting? So I'm rejecting them. I'm getting rid of them. That's one of the first barriers to entry I have.

 

Six months ago, seven months ago, the only way I was building a list was by pushing people over to a squeeze page, but what I do now is I ask people for their email address as a symbol to me that they're willing to contribute to this relationship.  Because what I drop in this group...

 

A lot of you guys have stated that this should be a paid group, and I know that. This is a place for me to geek out and nerd out when I learn stuff. I'm like, "This is sick." There's no one for me to talk to. You know what I mean?  I don't work at ClickFunnels anymore, so you guys are, like “for me."

 

It's like "Oh man, I want to be able to share some of this cool stuff that's going on."

 

And so anyway...

 

#1: It's a sign to me that they're willing to contribute to the relationship, so I ask number one, for their email address. That's the first reason why.

 

The second reason why I ask for people's email address is because of this...

 

Now I want to share something cool with you guys, and a cool resource I've created for you guys.

 

I don't think a lot of you guys know about it yet - that's the reason why I'm telling you guys. This is why I'm doing this, okay?

 

(Facebook comments)"We are your coworkers now."

 

It's so funny, you guys. I go in, and I start reading all the responses.  It takes me a minute every day to go in and read.

 

They agree to give me their email address and agree to not self-promo. I'm not trying to keep people's opportunities away from them. I just don't want the group to become a massive spam fest. That drives me nuts. I've been in so many other groups like that.

 

I'm part of way too many groups that I need to get out of, where it's just like, promo, promo, promo, promo, promo and I'm like “Holy crap!" Or spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam. Okay, clearly the dude had no idea what he was doing and wrote that sales message where it literally was just spamming me.

 

Now, I love spam, not just the food. It's actually pretty good with eggs and rice. Awesome stuff. Good Polynesian style, right there. But the actual spam itself for marketing, I like to read that stuff. I like to go in and see what they're doing. Especially when I can tell it's been running for a while - then something in there is working.

 

But, man, like if it's not targeted correctly, then I freaking hate spam as much as everyone else.

 

So what I've been doing, is I've been going in and asking people not to self-promo. And some of you guys have been great. I really appreciate it. Anyway, if somebody is spamming, you know I kick them out, and I ban them for life. I've done that to many people.

 

So, thank you guys for being awesome.

 

I'm not trying to create this scary place where you can't post anything. But some people are obviously trying to get in and farm from the group. That's not the purpose of the group.

 

I'm just trying geek out and show cool things and teach the science of selling online, you know what I mean?

 

So anyways, that's the reason I ask people not do the self-promo thing.

 

#2: The second reason why I ask people for their email address is I'm list building.

 

If we go through and think about what I'm doing up there now that I have the products -  now it's more about building the list itself. I always keep that moving and keep that growing.

 

So I wanna share with you guys what I do with the emails I collect. Is that cool? Is it alright if I over deliver?

 

(Looking at FB comments) How you guys doing? I haven't really looked at the chats yet, How you guys doing? 'Sup Nick, how's it going? "We'll keep you sane." Hey, thank you so much. "Would you get a dog?" Probably not. Uh, what's up, Jeffrey - how you doing dude? 'Sup Daniel, how you doing? Zack, oh what's up, Zack! 'Sup guys!

 

Hopefully, you guys are doing fantastic here.

 

I wanna share with you guys what I have been doing with the email addresses - 'cause I haven't actually launched the thing that I'm asking for yet. I just wanted to see if it'd work, and it is.  So now I just gotta build the thing. It's totally Steve Larsen style. Okay, so this is it...

 

So I wanna share with you guys real quick...

 

If you guys go to bestmarketingresources.com - I went through my actual business bank statement, and I listed out all the resources, tools and software that I pay for, it's over 50 of em'.

 

Two or three are the ones turn in a massive 80% of the revenue, and some of them are just these cool little things that either save me time, money, energy or resources. Some of them make money.

 

So anyway, what I decided to do was actually go in and film a strategy video for each one of the resources I use so that you can see why I use them. Then my affiliate link is right underneath, so if you got value from it, it's right there for you.

 

It's a cool place where you can just see what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it.

 

For Example:

 

>What are the resources I use for content?

 

>What are the resources I use for my team management?

 

> What are the resources I use for funnel building?

 

>For content creation?

 

>For any other aspect...?

 

So I went through, and I categorized all of them and filmed a strategy video for you guys. So you can see me talk more about the tools...

 

But I just wanna share with you guys what I'm doing with these emails:

 

Yeah... yeah... Aw yeah. We need some (turns music on). Okay cool! Ready? This is epic. Check this out. Okay. Alright!

 

Now, if I'm right here in The Science of Selling Online, I'm in the actual group right here. Check this out. I go in, and I clean out... I gotta look at the screen, my computer screen, not my phone screen. (Going into Group Funnels Software)

 

Alright, I go in, and I clean out all the emails. There was a 102 this morning, after all the people who didn't give their email, which is not a good sign for me, like crap, this is a two-way relationship not one way, right?

 

I do not believe the customer is always right, whoever said that is dumb. So I find the right people. That's one of the ways I farm out and know if they're gonna be right. They could have just given me their freaking email.

 

So I go in, and I farm out all the people. I decline all the people that are not actually gonna be in, who don't give their email, and then I decline all the people who don't agree not to self-promo. And then this is what I do. Boop! What! What is going on? Oh, My Lanta.

 

It's getting all these people automatically, what? Check this out!

 

So it takes a moment, it's going in and its grabbing in all these emails. Check this. This is nuts - the craziest list building thing ever,

 

I have added almost 3000 people to my list - FOR FREE, because of this strategy. Boom!

 

Now it's gonna stop. Now I'm gonna come right up here, and I gotta be careful of this because it will show the emails. I'm trying to be careful about people's data...

 

But when I click "view data," boom! Look at all that data.

 

Now I gotta go, and I gotta click on a Google Sheet, and I'm gonna push all that data, all 72 of those, bam, over to a Google Sheet.

 

Bam, it's on a Google Sheet now.

 

And what I did was I set up a Zapier, and so the Zapier goes in, and it collects any data to add it to that Google Sheet automatically.

 

It goes, and it adds to, it pushes the data into a ClickFunnels list. Boosh!

 

Okay, check this out... this is what's really going down...

 

If any of you guys have an FB group -  easiest list building ever!

 

So I've got the Facebook group right here, and I'm asking questions and asking for peoples emails. When they fill out their email, I go in, and I click on the special button.

 

If you guys wanna know what it is, go to bestmarketingresources.com, and look at the Group Funnels strategy video. It will teach you everything that I'm doing more in depth, and it will also give you some cool goodies if you use that link below - I think I think so.

 

Anyway, alright, it's called Group Funnels.

 

What's cool is that it auto accepts everybody who's left in there and parses all that data, and pushes it over to a Google Sheeta and sorts it.

 

Then what I do is I have a Zapier, (and Zapier's free up to a certain level, and I think you can do this for free as well.) I go in and a Zapier, as soon as the Google Sheet has new data, it automatically pushes that data through Zapier.

 

ClickFunnels just barely started accepting incoming data. This is a huge deal because it means I can automatically add people into a ClickFunnels list and put them on an Actionetic sequence.

 

The next thing, now that I know its working and people actually into the group, and they love this stuff, now it can go in, and I can actually create, an onboarding sequence when people join my Facebook group.

 

You guys have to make like explosion noises with me, okay! That's freaking nuts!

 

I have added 3000 people to my list FOR FREE  (I have not paid for them) in the past like seven, eight weeks alone. That's nuts. I didn't pay for any of em.

 

Now the cost is having like a sweet,

 

 The cost is time adding to the group. But that's what's been intense because I can go in and I can do all of these things inside of Actionetics. I can do all of the things inside of ClickFunnels. I can do all the things that I need to be able to onboard them.

 

So the next thing that I've been doing, if you think about my value ladders, which are over here on this side of the board... I'm not gonna show it all to you, but on this side of the board is the actual value ladder that I'm building out right now.  Watch what I'm doing, and you'll see how I'm doing it.

 

All this stuff, all the content creation that I'm doing is down here at the bottom, and then I've got "this product" and "this product," and "this product."

 

This series is meant to introduce everybody to:

 

#My podcast.

 

# The blogs.

 

# Affiliate outrage,

 

# The free opt-in course...

 

If you don't know what that is, go to freeoptincourse.com it will teach you guys how to get opt-ins which is awesome.

 

All the stuff that I have for free to get you indoctrinated - then also pushes you up to different varying levels inside my value ladder. This is an introductory funnel. And it's because of the sick Group Funnels software and Zapier that I've been able to do this. It's been its been freaking nuts!

 

I've been testing it for the last few months here and its been working out really well-  it's now a symbol to me, go build that onboarding sequence.

 

In the next little while, you guys will see me do that - which is awesome.

 

Doing things like OfferMind is a strategic move for me.  I'm not just like, "Hey, I should do an event."  Watch what I'm doing and how I do it. I'm doing things like... you don't even know about some of the other things.

 

So anyways, will see just watch what I'm doing, I'm running 6 different campaigns. I like to run them like football plays.

 

I know if I run them:

 

#People get results in their businesses and in their lives.

 

#My cash goes up - which is awesome.

 

# My following increases.

 

Everything that you want in a business, right? These three things happen.

 

# I get more customers.

 

# I can charge more money.

 

#I get more money more frequently.

 

It’s the same like six marketing campaigns that I'm running!

 

I'm not talking about Facebook ads. Facebook ads are not campaigns. That's not a campaign. That's why I've been asking for people's emails!

 

Watch really carefully what I'm doing because there's a value ladder that I've been building out and the pieces are now in place so we can go full circle with the whole thing. What's up? That's awesome.

 

Hey, wish you can geek out with other real funnel builders, and even ask questions while I build funnels live?

 

Oh, wish granted!

 

Watch and learn funnel building as I document my process in my funnel strategy group. Its free, just go to thescienceofselling.online and join now.



Oct 23, 2018

Boom, what's going on everyone?  It's Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna talk to you guys about talent.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five, to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt - completely from scratch. This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me, and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business - using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

What's up?

 

Hey, I'm excited for this episode - really excited about it!

 

When I go through, and I start thinking about different episodes, I write down a whole bunch of different ideas.  Then, funnily enough, a lot of them start combining. This one's gonna be 3 different episodes combined - I just wanna say real fast what it really is...

 

I was mowing the lawn a bit ago... and I some people have said like, "Don't ever mow your own lawn. You should never fold your own laundry. You should never..."

 

And I get what they're saying, but for me, that's the time when I am listening to a lot of podcasts. I'm listening to books. I'm listening to audio stuff - most the time...

 

Sometimes I just listen to music and chill out - it depends what's been going on.  But this particular time was only maybe six weeks ago? I mean it wasn't that long ago...

 

I was mowing the lawn, and I was thinking. I was thinking a lot about what this guy was saying... I don't remember what exactly I was listening to, but I remember the idea came in, which is the important part...

 

I stopped, and I was like. "Oh, my gosh, I am where I am because of sheer talent, not positioning." Isn't that interesting? I am where I am because of sheer talent not because of positioning.

 

I was like that's really fascinating!

 

It might sound like I'm showboating a little bit, but I'm good funnel builder, okay? I'm really good at building offers.

 

What I realized is that I've done fantastic jobs at positioning products, positioning a business - but not positioning me. And that's the thing I've been seeking the most this year since I left Clickfunnels. I've been trying to figure out the best place to position myself in the ecosystem that I'm in. And that's just as important as your talent itself.

 

I've been thinking about this like crazy - it's been the biggest question. I was at a Mastermind, and I asked a question like, “I'm trying to figure out what I do to serve the market?” And they misunderstood what I was saying.

 

I'm not trying to figure out "WHAT I do to serve the market?" - I know what that is - I've been trying to figure out the best place to position myself the market? The best place to go and sit inside of it.

 

Recently, it was actually was last week as I'm recording this, anyway (I batch my content, right I drink my own Kool-Aid)...

 

Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to go and do some consulting for Trey Lewellen - so super cool, guys! I got to go, and this was super nuts for me, you guys.

 

I was going out and listening to Trey Lewellen's stuff like way before ever working for Russell or being at ClickFunnels.

 

So to go full circle, and then be invited to go in and consult on webinars, like that was such an incredible honor.

 

We were at the Dream 100 Event, and Trey was... (it's gonna sound like I'm showboating, but this is me trying to position myself, okay?)

 

Trey was told that I'm "the best at webinars" - which was super nice. It was incredibly nice of him.

 

Anyway, he came straight to me. Right there in the room, he said, "Can I get you to come to my webinar?" I said, "Sure!" And I flew out there and went to his house.

 

The whole way there I was like. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh..." You know! I'm watching the current webinar like crazy - it was actually for his girlfriend Jennifer, she was awesome.

 

I was going in and watching this webinar, watching the webinar, watching the webinar.

 

When you spend that much time on a craft, it's really easy to see where a ball might be being dropped, and that was no different here. I immediately saw what the issue was, and it was cool to be able to go in and do my consulting thing.

 

When I do consulting for somebody... like I did it for an insurance company a little while ago it, was like 12 hours straight - some people need that, some people don't need as much as that...

 

Trey Lewellen's obviously a rockstar already - so there were just some finer points as far as a webinar gets delivered. It was really really cool to be able to go in and help him and help what they were doing. It was only six hours, but it's still a long time, right?

 

It's just me straight, and a whiteboard like teaching and pulling things out of him into certain frameworks that I know sell well. It was really interesting, and it was cool because afterwards, it was very honoring... If anyone's like "Stephen, you're showboating." Okay, whatever...

 

I wanna share with you guys the lessons I'm learning along the journey, that's part of this podcast. So I'm documenting the journey right now - so this is me documenting...

 

Trey and his girlfriend took me back to their house, and we grabbed pizza and hung out around this firepit in their backyard. Beautiful house! Holy crap nice house! I know you'd expect that obviously. But it was a crazy, super nice house. Oh my gosh!

 

Anyway, so we're sitting there, and he said, "You know what's interesting?..."

 

I'm trying to teach you guys the lessons I've been learning along the way, cause I got something specific I'm going for. Now think in terms of what I have just said before, right: "I am where I am because of sheer talent and not positioning," 'kay?

 

So we're sitting there around the fireplace in the backyard, and he says, "Dude you know what's interesting about what you do? There's literally not a business in this world that does not need what you do! This whole offer creation thing, it's ridiculous. I didn't know that's what you did. That was amazing. That was amazing!"

 

I was like, “Thanks, dude, that means a lot."

 

So I brought up the topic, I said, "The thing I've been focusing on, the thing I've been trying to figure out is which vehicle delivers what I do the best to the market?"

 

Cause you guys know I can get a bit technical on these podcast episodes, this is just my free stuff right - the real stuff that I do, you know... I tell pretty much everything, but I can't tell some things on a podcast. In fact, there's a lot I can't tell and its part of the reason why I'm doing this episode.

 

I'm gonna share with you guys what the plan is moving forward.

 

I went to this Mastermind one time, this was years ago... I was sitting in the audience looking at all the people that were going on stage, and this is not to judge anybody, this was years ago. I don't want anybody to think like, "Was he talking about me?"

 

But I sat there, and I was looking at the people on stage, and I realized, "That guy has no idea why he's making money." The next person would get up, and I'd think, "That lady has literally no clue on why her customers follow her, huh?" We all see that in each other's businesses.

 

That's one of the benefits of a Mastermind, right! You go to those things so that you can have other people who are also experienced in the same realm-ish come in and show you like, "Hey, what if you tried this, and this, and this and this?"

 

Masterminds don't work if people bring pride into it: "Well, of course, I knew that!" You know that doesn't work that way!

 

With Trey, he and I were teaching each other. If we both played the pride game neither one of us would have learned from each other, and that's what's cool about it.

 

And what's fascinating is I started realizing like, "My gosh, the funnel building game I set up to try and be the best at it." Am I? Of course not, I don't know? I'm not, okay... I've built a lot of them...

 

But what's fascinating is, remember: so I was mowing the lawn, and I realized "My gosh I am where I am because of talent not because of positioning," and then I was remembering back to that Mastermind: "Holy crap a lot of these people are where they are because of positioning, not talent." And I was, "Whoa! Right, I gotta get more serious on where I'm positioning myself."

 

And some of you guys might be laughing at that, but like I've always just had a mindset to provide sickening value, be incredibly valuable, and the money follows. And that's so true. That's how I've run everything in my business.

 

So what I've been doing what I've been doing is designing out  (maybe like three months ago I first started actually writing it), and I have it written out on my whiteboard my actual value ladder. Right over there, okay!

 

It's the value ladder that I'm building. It's the value ladder that I'm going for now. I'm not just funnel hacking somebody's product, I'm not just funnel hacking somebody's market - I'm funnel hacking somebody's business.

 

And if a business is just a series of systems right, I gotta funnel hack the business itself also. Meaning how do they fulfill on what they've promised.

 

If you look at this, some of you guys are gonna be like, "Well, duh Stephen, I've seen that before in the past." And I get that.

 

But if you look the most successful E-com businesses that are out there have a very similar business model. Their products are similar, what's different is the message - but the business model is very similar.

 

Supplements - the business model of a supplement business, the funnel, the business part of it, the marketing of it, the messaging of it, the offer of it - they're very similar.

 

You're not just funnel hacking a product, you're not just funnel hacking a message - but the business itself, the systems how you actually fulfill on it, how you support it right - those are all very similar as well.

 

And so I was thinking through like, that's really what's been going through my head, "What model?" and I've been very cognoscente of this question for the last like, I dunno like probably four-five months now.

 

"Which model fulfills what I do best for a market?"

 

And so what I've been doing is going through and figuring out what that is, and I've been drawing it. I've been drawing the value ladder.

 

Now way back in the day when I learned what the value ladder was, I started teaching it to other people because the concept is amazing. It was far more effective than these 30 days business plans I supposed to write for these professors or real businesses that I was asking for money from.

 

I've done that, it sucks! I much prefer a value ladder. The issue that I've noticed...

 

I was on stage one day teaching about value ladders. This guy stands up and goes "Well, I've drawn this value ladder, and I already know what this product is gonna be on this step, and I know what this product is gonna be on this step, but I don't know what the product is gonna be on this step?"

 

And I said, "I don't think you need to know what that is yet, right? A lot of your markets can help you define what that is." And he was like, "But I can't start my business until I have a complete value ladder." I was like, "Man that's such garbage, that's not true!"

 

The issue, right value ladders - they're amazing, they're incredible, but they can also be this huge hindrance when people put so much stock into them. When people take no input from their market at all. That's when value ladders become a crippling event.

 

So I always start a value ladder off by building in the middle of the value ladder - the mid-tier products.  Then I usually like to go up. I like to go to the expensive side, and then after that, I create the downside.

 

Now the very bottom, the cheap stuff for me, I always create it last. That's usually how I do it.

 

So you have to understand what I've been doing is...

 

Some people have been asking me, "Stephen, so what have you really been doing for the last while since you left Clickfunnels?"  Well running my other business - which has been doing fantastic. We'll put a dollar in ads we get two dollars back out, and it's been awesome. It's been so cool.

 

First of all been running that business, been building the value ladder products in funnels for their respective places, I've been doing a lot of that stuff, but what I've also really been doing though is starting to see and look where I should position me, not just my business, in the ecosystem of the funnel world.



What would be the stupidest thing for me to go do right now? Uh, try to be the funnel guy, right? Man, Russell's the funnel guy. He popularized that entire concept. Why would I ever try to be the funnel guy? I'm not gonna be the funnel guy. That's dumb!

 

Even though I built a bunch of them, do you see how that's stupid positioning for me to go try and do that? Does that make sense?

 

That's what I'm trying to help people understand and see, they're like "Stephen, go be the funnel guy," and I'm like, "No, that's dumb! I'm not gonna be the funnel guy. There already is an amazing funnel guy."

 

I'm not gonna be the same guy, That's stupid, right! I literally would be doing the exact... literally the exact definition of fighting for scraps." Plus I'm not gonna try and be the funnel guy. Anyway, I'm not gonna do that.

 

So what I've been trying to do is figure out which category to go develop, for me to step in to?  And I think I know what the answer is. I'm not gonna just drop that here right now. I want you guys to experience it with me while I create it.

 

For those of you guys who have been in my world for a little bit and you've been a part of these different things that I've been doing, you're gonna start watching me actually build this thing out. It's what I've been doing, and it's what been going on behind the scenes.

 

So the whole point this episode is I'm just trying to help you understand that sheer talent is not the thing that gets you paid, right! It's not. It can...

 

It's also a long road; there's also a lot of pros that come with it. A lot of awesome pros that come with that. You can go and get freakishly good at the actual thing, and people get to know you for that, and you can charge money for it. There's a lot of pros at becoming amazing and paid - just because you're good.

 

But that's not the reason why you can continue to get paid.

 

It's not actually the reason you get paid in general either. You can go get paid, but the con, the con of trying to be the best is that it takes for freaking ever, right! It takes a long time.

 

I've been doing this game for, I think it's about five years now, specifically this kind of thing - five years now. The first thing I ever built on the internet was about five years ago, a little more than that. I don't think we had my first kid yet, so it was a little more than five years ago.

 

If you're like, "Man, Stephen, I don't wanna go spend five years." That's great, then that's fine you don't have to.

 

Instead of being the best, be the first - that's what Seth Godin teaches. And I absolutely love that you can be the best, or you can be the first. Those are the only options: you can be the best or the first.

 

What I teach, teaches you how to do both you can actually do both of them together.

 

...but what I realize is, "Oh my gosh, I gotta position me a little bit more." So what I've been doing is positioning myself as the offer creation guy.

 

I just got another testimonial from a guy. I'm so excited about it. It was so cool. This guy reached out, and he said, "Hey, I got your product, super awesome, and I made $30,000 my first stage pitch." I was like, "What's up!"

 

Got another one last week, I think it was last week - Yeah. She wrote in, and she goes, "What's up, I sold over 50% of the room on my very first event. Thank you so much for that tactic and what you taught, that's what I did." I was like, "What's up, okay!"

 

It doesn't matter what you're selling. It doesn't matter about the product. It doesn't matter if you do it from a stage, or if it's on an e-book. It doesn't matter right if its a physical thing, or if its a supplement. It can be B2B or retail. It's the same principles throughout.

 

It really just meant a lot to me. And more and more it's been like, "Oh my gosh, this is the place I gotta go." So that's the whole point of this episode. I'm trying to figure out how to position myself and it's a moving, slightly moving target. I kinda know where it is, and as I move, it gets more clear.

 

If it sit back, and it's the exact same thing with anything in life, if I sit back, and I'm like, "oh, I just don't know what it is yet, so I haven't moved yet," nothing appears that way for me.

 

And so I've been actively, over this whole year, pursuing what that kind of is - and it's become more and more and more clear, and more and more and more open. I'm like, "Holy crap this is it!"

 

I love the book Innovator's Dilemma; there's a paragraph in there that is freaking awesome. He basically says that suppliers and customers must discover new markets together. That's what I'm doing!

 

That's why I haven't been like, "That's it!" Because I've been discovering what it is that people really need with the customer - which means I need to be with the customer. Which means I need to be creating products and being with the customer, you know what I mean?

 

So for those of you guys that are coming out to the OfferMind which is in a few weeks here, you're gonna watch me - that is what I'm doing. I know exactly what I'm teaching. I know exactly what you guys need to hear, but I'm doing it...

 

I'm trying to see how to deliver it in a way where I can see in your eyes, "Whoa!" That "A-ha, oh my gosh, wow." When I can get that feeling of what I just taught, you get that honor feeling, "Whoa."

 

Regardless of what you think about whoever the president of the US is, or regardless if you think whatever this leader, that leader, that whatever... if they walked in the room, you'd still be like, "Whoa, that's so-and-so. Whoa!" Like right, I need that emotion when you see what I'm teaching.

 

And when I've got that emotion, when you see what I'm teaching then I can put it in a book, does that make sense?

 

I know the concepts.

 

So people have asked me,  "Stephen, how come you haven't written a book on it yet?”  It's 'cause it's not just about the concepts. I gotta make sure that you ingest them. I gotta make sure the way I teach them... I gotta make sure the stories that I'm telling to convey the concepts are actually good.

 

There's no other way for me to get good at knowing what those are without constantly teaching it. Just bam, teach it, teach it, teach it, teach it, teach it, right! Over and over and over.

 

I've become more and more clear as I've done so. Then it's good for book, because a lot of what I say comes across right with my body language.

 

I don't have that luxury in a book, which means it needs to be ultra clear, you know what I mean? That's the reason why.

 

So if you watch what I'm doing in OfferMind... What's the purpose of OfferMind? Now I'll let you answer that. What's the purpose of things down below that - that'll help me clarify and figure out more of what's in the books right. That'll help me clarify, and it's so interesting.

 

There's a book, it's by, technically it says Ryan Deiss, but really it's Perry Belcher. It's a book called The Science of, no no. I'm thinking of the science sign one. I'm thinking about my group. It's called the Secret Selling System.

 

If you listen to the event that created the Secret Selling System. It's insane - the depth that you get from the event is way more - it's like way more.

 

It's like when people go, "Well I watched the movie, and then I went and read the book, the book was way better." The book's always gonna be better because your imagination gets to play. The movie is just one person's interpretation of what's going on in the book.

 

Exact same thing when a book gets created from an event; the way it was written was one person's interpretation of what happened at the event, you know what I mean?

 

The amount of the times something gets translated, like purposes and emotion, things get lost, right!

 

And so what I'm doing and the reason I'm saying all this stuff to you guys and I'll end this now, but if you guys read this book, The 30 Days book -You Suddenly Lose Everything, What Do You Do to get it back From Day One to 30?  What's fascinating about this is you will notice the patterns of creation that are actually shown inside this book right, and if you go in and start reading this thing you'll notice there's a pattern of creation.

 

There's a pattern of what to create when at what points, and that's what I've been doing, trying to figure out how to develop what I'm doing, and where to position me so that the positioning is what creates value, not just my talent. I want the talent too also, but it was that thing that I realized, and that was what Trey was telling me.

 

That's what I realized when I was mowing the lawn. It's what I realized when I was watching all these people at different Masterminds years ago, I was like "Huh, they're there because they positioned themselves in this place and then they got good."

 

I was like, "Hmm, I am where I am because I got good, and then I'm trying to figure out where to position what I do." You need both, talent is not enough in anything.

 

Talent is not enough, you still gotta position yourself right - and so that's what I've been doing a lot. And I just wanna get you to be thinking about that.

 

So anyway, hopefully, that's helpful to you? Hopefully, you like this episode? It's something really powerful to be thinking about.

 

I want you guys to be purposeful about how you create where you're positioned. That's really what I talk about when I talk about market design or category design, same thing.

 

Anyway, guys thanks so much, hope you guys enjoyed the episode today if you guys liked it, please share, I really appreciate it. The minutes on YouTube have been insane. The reviews on iTunes have been incredible, and I just thank you guys a lot, that really means a lot to me - it actually motivates me a lot.

 

So anyways I appreciate it a lot -talk to you guys later, bye.

 

Aww yeah!

 

Hey, obviously a funnel's already dead if you can't even get anyone to opt in, right?

 

So I spent four hours teaching an audience how to get high opt-ins; when they work, when they don't work.

 

If you want access to that members area - where you can watch those replays - just go to freeoptincourse.com to create your free members account now.



Oct 19, 2018

Boom, what's going on everyone? It is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

Today I'm gonna talk to you guys about product evolution.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is how will I do it without V.C. funding or debt, completely from scratch. This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

What's up, guys?

 

Hey, I'm excited for today, got the whiteboard with me if you guys are watching on YouTube. If you're out listening on iTunes or some other place, welcome. I'm so excited about this.

 

This episode specifically has been a long time in the making. I'm very excited about it. I have gone through and I have I spent the last hour and a half just thinking through it alone. Let alone the months prior.

 

I've been trying to figure out how to describe this very critical lesson. And I don't know another way to be able to describe this except for like two or three stories. So I gotta tell 'em here really quick…

 

What I'm trying to do is…

 

I first want you guys to know right, this episode specifically is all about how I create good products. I'm not talking about offers, I'm talking about products. Products and offers are totally different. And I'm here to talk about product creation.

 

Now I had the good pleasure in one of my semesters in college... I'll never bag on college. I think it's good. It's not how you make money though, but it does open up the noggin a bit, right?

 

So anyway, one of my semesters in college was kind of cool 'cause the professors walked up and they said, "Hey, check it out. You have no classes this entire semester. Your only task is to make as much money as you physically can." That's what the whole semester was…

 

They assigned us a random industry. And I got stuck in the food industry. If you guys know me personally, you know I am not a good cook. I was like “Crap, I don't wanna be in food, put me in the knick-knack. Put me in you know, the e-com space. I was like food, seriously?”

 

But it ended up being the best education I got the entire time I was in college. And it was fascinating.

 

At the beginning what they did was they put us into groups of like 15. So we're in these small groups, and we went on this retreat. They brought us up and super high mountain place for like three days and, we just did a whole bunch of like team building stuff.

 

I always made fun of that stuff, but if you guys ever heard of the terms Form, Storm, Norm, Perform? Meaning you're gonna get with a group of people, people are gonna unofficially be assigned roles.

 

You're gonna fight with each other and then finally the team can actually start producing, right. Well, we did that in that three day period. And that was one of the reasons they did it so fast with us.

 

Anyway, so we go in, #1: we start brainstorming cool product ideas.

 

We went through and we started writing out ideas for the name of the business, for what the product is gonna be, what the price point should be.

 

We were all over the place just coming out with this crazy deep dive of what we think would be best to sell.

 

Well, when we came back out of our high mountain escapade, it wasn't challenging or anything, it was a lot of fun though. When we came back they said, "Hey, you know what's helpful is to start asking your customers about what is it they wanna buy." And they started teaching us about design thinking.

 

Design thinking, meaning: here's how to actually think in order to design cool stuff. And they started teaching us these really cool processes. It was really really fascinating, it was a ton of fun.

 

And among those techniques were different brainstorming methods - different ways to go through and create products with customers. Which is where a lot of what I know comes from. It's really really cool.

 

Well, I remember there was this really fascinating point where they started telling us we had to keep a journal of what we were learning each day. And I found the journal, and I just read it for the last little while … and this thing is full full full full full, okay. And super awesome.

 

I started reading the journal entries and what I was writing, and I'm so glad I took it seriously 'cause like there's some good crap in here. It's fascinating to see what they were teaching us.

 

It was a combination of how to be creative, mixed with what they call data-driven decisions.

 

And I'm not the first person to ever say that at all. But that was when I was like, “Oh yeah, that makes total sense. Why would I not make decisions based on data? That makes sense. There's security in that…”

 

Remember, I'm specifically talking about product creation here.

So I'm gonna go through 3 separate things on how to actually create products.

 

Some of these stories, some of you guys may have heard in the past, but I don't think I've ever done an episode where it’s kind of laced altogether.

 

So first of all, remember I'm not talking about offers. I'm not talking about offers at all. I'm talking about product creation and how to make sweet products that make people be like, "Oh my gosh, that's so freaking cool."

 

The first time I ever learned about this was data-driven decisions, right. Meaning I can go out, I can see what other competitors are doing - essentially funnel hacking, right?

 

I can start asking and see what other markets are doing; what other products are doing, how they're making money?  Very very data-driven - obviously data-driven decisions.

 

What was interesting is like as we started pushing forward and as we started learning these cool techniques and methods, I started having these really massive “aha's” on what actually created good products.

 

I've told this story in the past, but … so the guy, the professor that was assigned to our group, was not allowed to intervene with us at all. Only when we asked specific questions. So it was very much like, “Let's throw you off a cliff and see what you do in free fall.” And the whole semester was like that. It was a bunch of fun.

 

Anyway, so I was voted to be the CEO at the beginning, and what was cool is I got a lot of really cool interactions with him. He kind of became one of my first unofficial mentors, and I spent a lot of one on one time with him.

 

He was fantastic. He was the CEO of Denny's and of Pizza Hut. The guy invented stuffed crust pizza,... ahhhhhh!  He was the man. He was super cool.

 

Well, one day he walked in and he goes, "Okay, this is what we're gonna do. I'm gonna teach you guys more ways to brainstorm effectively." And so walked in this room and there's like toys, like child toys all along the tables. Child’s toys all over the place.

 

There's Play-Doh, Silly Putty, there's Lincoln Logs and K'nex. There's Legos - there's toys all over the place. Any kind of toy you can imagine, all over the place. The room is filled with 'em. And we're like, “What the heck?”

 

This professor was awesome; next to him was a squirt bottle. There was one person that was the scribe, and they'd stand up and write down on the board the problem we were trying to solve.

 

We were like, “Okay, here's the problem -we're trying to solve this.” And we would start writing different solutions down. He would watch like a hawk and when somebody said something that was like a negative reaction…

 

Let's say we're gonna figure out how to solve world hunger, and somebody's like “Oh yeah, let's feed the world with Big Macs!” And I'm like, “Eh, I don't know if that's a good idea.”

 

Any kind of negative reaction, he would take the squirt bottle and shoot it in our face and yell, "Bad kitty!" And he would start spraying it at us. The guy was crazy, he was awesome though. He's the man...

 

What he was trying to teach us... and I wrote this down in the journal. I said: “Ridiculous ideas are essential in the creative process.” That's what I wrote down.

 

“Ridiculous ideas are essential in the creative process!”

 

And what was fascinating about this process is that we would start with an idea… We found out the market wanted empanadas. I didn't even know what that was…

 

I was like “Okay, right.” What if? How could we sell it this way? How could we sell it this way? And when we actually started realizing that when we started brainstorming, this really interesting stream of events started happening.

 

We started listing out tons of our own ideas - which is great, but to do this we had to get inside this creative zone where there was no judgment.

 

I’ve found that that is one of the major reasons why people I’m coaching now do not move forward; they’re afraid that their ideas are stupid. They're afraid that they're gonna be exposed as a fraud.

 

There's some imposter syndrome going on. Like, "Oh my gosh, people are gonna find out that I'm really not this amazing individual."

 

I was like, “Well, you're literally creating a new identity. Of course, you're gonna feel that way, right?” I've totally had imposter syndrome in my life, I totally get that.

 

But what's interesting about this is you have to give yourself license to go to the crazy zone. You have to give yourself license to be able to go into these spaces. The areas where like “Hey, you know what? Let's write some crazy stuff down.”

 

When I was doing the FHAT events, the funnel hack-a-thon event at Clickfunnels, one of the ways I would teach them...

when we sold the original 2 Comma Club Coaching Event it was the night before we were gonna sell something we sat at a board... it was Russell, Dave, Brent, Melanie, and myself, I think that was all in the room... and we  just started writing down cool things that we could offer for this package.

 

We wrote everything down that was crazy. I want you to know that we use this. We wrote everything down that was nuts:

 

  1. They're gonna come for this three-day event.

 

  1. They're gonna fly into this crazy place called Boise, Idaho.

 

  1. They're gonna stay on Russell's pajamas.

 

  1. They're gonna brush their teeth with Stephen's toothbrush in the morning. Oh yeah, they're gonna love that, oh my gosh.

 

We’d go in and we write down all these things that are like, nuts, right? They're ludicrous, and we write that down. All this stuff, and then we'd go back and we'd cross out all the stuff that's totally unrealistic.

 

Okay…

 

  1. They're probably not gonna stay in Russell's pajamas...

 

  1. You know what, they're not gonna use Stephen's toothbrush, that's a little weird...

 

  1. You know what, his wife's not gonna make breakfast for them...

 

  1. They're not gonna stay at his house. It's a little bit crazy…

 

But what we're left with at the end this was a product or an offer, you can use this for products or offers - ('cause remember they are different) that is prolific. That is new, that no one's ever really done before. But is also from a place of security. It's really interesting.

 

So data-driven decisions, super impactful. Super powerful. Should be amazing, but there is a hindrance inside of it…

 

You guys have heard this story before as well, alright...

 

My wife was pregnant, we literally were driving to the hospital to have our first baby...

 

Just before I move on... the whole point of this one is I want you to know product creation very much involves data-driven decisions. Very much involves data-driven decisions.  

 

...Said in another way, “Funnel Hacking.”

 

That's data-driven decisions. That's where you farm data. You see what's already being done.

 

Moving onto the next one... Number two of three here.

 

My wife and I we were going to the hospital to have our kid...

 

The flaw with data-driven decisions is that when you go in and you start doing things like an ask campaign, right…

 

I was texting Noah Keegan in the hospital. We're about to have our first kid, and I was like, “Hey dude, what's up man?” He had this offer where you could text him before you actually bought. (I know I've just told this story recently so just to recap for those of you guys that didn't hear it, right.)

 

I was texting him, I was like, “Hey dude, I've got all this data…” That's basically what I told him. “I've been asking all these people and I wanna go launch this business, do you think that's a good idea?”

 

I can't tell you how many times I get asked that on stage in the Q & A section. "Do you think that's a good idea?" I get asked that all the time. I Five years ago, I asked that same question to Noah Keegan.

 

I was like, “Hey what's up?” And he goes... I should probably ask him about this. See I don't know if he remembers it, maybe not. But it was about five years ago. My kid's almost five…

 

Anyway, he texts back and he goes, "I don't know."

 

I was like, “What do you mean you don't know? I've asked all these people that this is a great product idea, and I said is this a good product idea and they said yes, so, therefore, I should go do this product, is that right? I should probably go do this?”

 

And, he's like, "Man, I don't know." And I got all frustrated - and so did he.

 

I was like, “Dude, all these people have said ‘Yes.’ I've collected tons of data, I've done my homework. Should I launch it?” And he goes, "Dude, I don't know. I let people vote with their wallets not their mouths."

And I was like... it's interesting, right?

 

So the data is important. It shows you where the yellow brick road stopped, right. It shows you where you need to get to, but it's not what creates something that's prolific. It doesn't get you that extra step out.

 

It doesn't help you create that next brick. It just helps you know that you're creating something that is somewhat secured. Does that make sense? This is a huge thing to understand.

 

… ‘Cause most people that do this will be like, "Do you think this is a good product?" And then they go ask like their friends, family or someone. They're like, "Hey check this out, my parents said this was a good idea. Do you think this is a good idea?"

 

I’m like, “Are they gonna be the ones buying it in the first place?” “Erm...Well, No." “Then why the heck are you asking them?” It makes no sense to ask if that's a good product if they're not the ones gonna be buying it anyway! Right?

 

You're not the one buying your own product, so your opinions only matter “this amount.” (small gesture) Does that make sense?

 

The market is the one that pays for it. You don't fill your own wallet, right? So data-driven decisions have massive massive flaws inside of it, as far as creating prolific products. Huge, huge flaws inside of that.

 

Next one I want you to understand - this comes from a book I've really been enjoying lately called Niche Down. Really really awesome. Right at the very beginning of the book…

 

I can't agree more with what this guy is saying. I was laughing so hard when he said this. One of the things I've been saying a lot lately is that your whole goal in product creation, and your whole goal in funnel building, your whole goal in market creation, is to be different, not better.

Different not better. Alright.

 

When I ask people, “How come I would buy your thing over the next guys?” And they default to, "Well, 'cause we have a better this, we have a better that, we have a better this over that." I immediately already know they're gonna be strapped for cash.

 

It's not enough of a reason for someone to jump. It's gonna become a feature war really fast. It'll become a price and a feature war super fast:

 

Your goal is to become different, not better.

 

And I was laughing because this book right, Niche Down, says, "It comes down to leveraging the exponential value of what makes you different rather than leaning on the incremental value of what makes you better."

 

And I was like “Hallelujah!” I was sitting on a plane when I read that, and I was like “Wooo! That's exactly it! That's 100% exactly what I'm trying to say.”

 

Your product should be different, not better.

 

It's a very subtle way to think about that.

 

I was on a Q & A for 2 Comma Club X a little bit ago, and that's exactly what I said and I was like, “It's about being different, not better.” And I think that that's a better way, it's an easier way, fast way, to understand what it is that we're trying to share all the time.

 

It's about being different, not better.

If I'm like, “Oh, this is a better widget.” That's gonna be rough, that's gonna be really really rough. Anyways, let me move on here…

 

The third thing here is this game, (again remember I'm talking about products, I'm not talking about offers and I'm not talking about markets or categories)And you feel like Stephen, that is a lot of vocab. I understand that, and I understand a lot of my podcast lately has been definitions - which can be freakin' annoying and boring…

 

So I'm trying to keep it engaging, trying to keep you very involved with this and hopefully, you guys have been enjoying this? But I want you to understand that it’s not about going out and creating something that is brand new, totally prolific - something that nobody's ever seen before, you know what I mean? That's what college taught me until I got to this semester here…

 

So in that business where I was in that food semester, right, where I was creating that business, we ended up doing two to three grand a week in sales to poor college students. We did quite well. We made a lot of money in that.

 

I had a lot of false beliefs and fears melt away as we started building that. And it was awesome, super cool.

 

At the end of it you go and you donate all that money out to charity and such, and so it was a bunch of fun. So anyway, we went and we made a sizeable amount of money. And I sat back after that semester was over, it was easily the most impactful one that I had in college, and I sat back and I remember thinking like, “How can I teach what I just learned?”  Because I was already very aware that I needed to coach other people for me to speed up my personal progress. It's one of the reasons I do these episodes…

 

And what I did, I actually wrote a chapter of a book. I didn't finish it, but this is it guys, I freakin' found it, how cool is this? It's awesome, it's only like 60-ish pages, but I was just trying to write down and encompass the things that I learned.

 

I should probably put this in the new book I'm writing now.

 

I'm writing an offer creation book which I'm super stoked 'cause there's not really a book out there like that…

 

So anyway, it was it was; “How a group of college students used these 5 rules to get our business off the ground in a week for 3K a week.” Which is awesome, right!

 

And I went through and I wrote it down and one of the points that I wrote…

 

I'm just laughing because I just barely found this thing in like some cupboards and stuff. And I went and I found it and I was like “Oh, check this out!” And there's this whole idea that I was trying to put across.

 

Most of the time what people say you need to have, right, this totally brand new thing, something that's completely prolific. But that's not the case at all. I call that The Product Big Bang Theory.

 

Bam, this brand new thing that's never been seen before just pops out, boosh. Product Big Bang Theory. Product Big Bang Theory is like so risky! It's like blue oceans that are truly blue, that truly nobody has actually seen before. Those kinds of products exist. But they’re risky to create.

 

The product is cool, the product serves a real purpose, the product actually solves things, but it is not marketable. Does that make sense?

 

It's very hard to make money on a truly blue ocean. 1991 is when the internet became publicly available for the public. It was being used way before that, right? The infrastructure, the whole economy, there was no infrastructure available for something like the internet for such a long time.

 

The book Innovator's Dilemma talks about this very concept. It’s by Clay Christensen from Harvard. That guy's amazing! It's the exact same concept. You can go too blue.

 

So it's not about product Big Bang Theory - it's about product evolution.

 

Again, talking about products, not markets. Products, not offers.

 

It kind of ties in with data-driven decisions: you're gonna go and you're gonna funnel hack and you're gonna figure out how far somebody has carried that product and then you're gonna figure out what you can add to it to make it different, not better.

 

Does that make sense?

 

I know I've dived into this quite a bit, and this is kind of a more technical episode, and I'm trying to make sure that like people understand what I'm trying to teach when I share this kind of stuff.

 

It's about:

 

  • Product Evolution, not product Big Bang Theory.

 

  • Using data-driven decisions to make you different, not better.

 

Most of the time people make data-driven decisions, they take data to make them a little bit better than the competition. That's great to do once you already own a category - but it is not the way to dominate a category.

 

You must craft something that has never existed, a category that's never existed and then use a product evolution to actually get people into that new place. That make sense?

 

That was deep, probably too deep. I've done a lot of episodes and I can feel there's not enough story in this one, but hopefully, that makes sense to you guys?

 

This is the whole idea:

 

  1. We take market data, meaning you ask people that hopefully will purchase from you.

 

  1. You add, right, you add the ridiculous ideas - that equals good products. Attractive products - products that are talkable.

 

That's basically it. That's how I do what I do:

 

  • I see how far people have gone.

 

  • I come and I add ridiculous ideas on top of it.

 

  • I take away the things that are just not realistic.

 

  • And I'm left with good products that people are like, “Crap that was awesome, no one's ever done that before.”

 

And I'm like, “I know because I've done my research.” I've gone through and I'm like “Hey check this out. Oh, this is what everyone's doing, this is how everybody's delivering that product.”

 

Then I just go in and I lace in my own crazy, I lace in my own prolific zone.

And when I add those two together, that's honestly what leaves me with good products. (I'm talking about products again, not offers.)

 

Anyway, guys hopefully this is helpful to you?

 

This is a deeper episode, I don't really like to go this deep on that. And I promise I'll go more story based so that they're more interesting to listen to, but hopefully that makes sense to you? Hopefully, you see why I do what I do in this stuff... And what's going through my head when I start to see someone's product, or their offer, or whatever they're doing.

 

This whole game's so much more formalized and more formulated than I think people realize…

 

It's not a scary thing - there's just a formula behind it. And once you learn the formula, it's not that hard.

 

Dedicate yourself to learning the process. Fall in love with the process, fall in love with the personal process that you're going through as you develop into a character that can create and own that product.

 

Most people are not the person they need to be in order to deliver the product to the market. So fall in love with the process of it. Don't judge yourself, it's okay.

 

Start learning to enjoy as you move forward and start moving down the road…

 

I got one last quote here, okay. Oh crap, let me grab it. I dropped the book thinking that I was done here and I'm not. Check this out. I don't remember who said this:

 

"Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius."

 

That's awesome. "Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius." '

 

So just act.

 

I'm not trying to cause analysis paralysis in anybody:

 

  1. Create your first iteration of the idea.

 

  1. Go try and sell it.

 

  1. See what happens.

 

  1. Then take what they did and didn't like an make adjustments.

 

  1. Then relaunch.

 

  1. Then take the adjustments, and go relaunch again.

 

  1. Then adjustment and relaunch. That's all the game is…

 

That's all the game is. Pretty soon, you got it. That's the reason why we say “You're just one funnel away.” 'Cause honestly you are:

 

  • If you know you got a good idea.

 

  • If you know the market's telling you “Yes.”

 

  • If you know there's a place for you to do things differently, not better.

 

Then just keep rinse and repeating, rinse and repeating, and suddenly it'll hit.

 

Some of my products right now, like the Secret MLM Hacks one, that's the third time. The beginning of this year was the third time I've launched that product. Isn't that fascinating?

 

Anyways guys, thank you so much, appreciate it. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed this episode? I know it was a little bit deep and I promise they will not be that crazy in the future. I just had to get this one out because a lot of people ask.

 

Alright guys thanks so much, I'll talk to you later, bye.

 

Boooom, if you're just starting out, you're probably studying a lot. That's good.

 

You're probably geeking out on all the strategies also, right? That's also good.

 

But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them, right?

 

That's also what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula. So I created a special mastermind called The OfferMind to get you on track with the right offer, and more importantly the right sales script, to get it off the ground and sell it. Wanna come?

 

They're small groups on purpose - so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days. You can hold your spot by going to offermind.com. Again, that's offermind.com.



Oct 16, 2018

Boom, what's going on everyone? It is Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna talk to you guys about food stamps.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is how will I do it without VC funding or debt - completely from scratch. This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business, using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

What's up, guys?

 

Hey. Alright. Right off the get go, okay, just gotta tell you I'm probably gonna offend some people, and I'm gonna speak a lot of opinions on this thing, but I wanna share with you guys really how I was able to get through like the first year or two of failing entrepreneurship.

 

There's nothing wrong with being in that failure zone, by the way, right. I think that's one of the things that people get self-conscious about. They're like, "I'm not a successful entrepreneur yet, or I've been going in the game for a while now, and I haven't really made anything." I totally get it, first of all.

 

In college, my wife and I, we were freaking poor. I mean, we just, we were literally living paycheck to paycheck, but really it was loan to loan. Because like I was just getting student loans.

 

I was supposed to get paid by the Army, and through some stupid crap, I ended up getting paid half of what I was supposed to the entire time I was in it. And so I was like crap, "I at least wanted some security with that vehicle, with that job, right, of being in the Army." And it wasn't that way.

 

And I will tell you, looking back, that was one of the biggest blessings I've ever had in my entire life. The fact that we did not have enough, okay, the fact that we did not have any money.

 

What happened was when we first got married, a lot of you guys know the story, right. I found out that my lady was eating one meal a day behind my back just because we didn't have enough cash - and I didn't realize that she was doing that. That really cut me to the core.

 

I kept coming home every day, I was like, "Why, she's still in bed?" I was like, you know, "What's up, you okay?" and she's like, "Yeah. Oh, it's nothing."

 

She's already been graduated - I wasn't graduated yet. And I'd come back the next day, and she'd still be in bed. We had just barely gotten married like a few weeks ahead of time, and I was like, "Is it me? What's up, you okay? Are you alright?" And she's like, "No, no, it's totally fine. It's totally fine. We're good."

 

And I'd come back the next day, the same thing. Next day, same thing. Next day, same thing. It was like, "What is going on?" She told me that she'd only been eating one meal a day and as a man, that wrecks you. Right? That'll destroy anybody, but especially most men tend to get their identity based on what they do.

 

Many women tend to get their identity based on their environment. That's a huge stereotype.

 

So for me, it wrecked me, okay.  I was super, super sad about everything that was going on. Not just sad, but like, my self-esteem dropped. I was having a hard time functioning in classes knowing that my wife was so weak at home, and I was in classes. I mean, really think about that.

 

The scenario was really, really intense.

 

So about two years prior, I was living in North Carolina. I was on one of those missions - I was one of those missionaries riding a bike around. We talked to a bunch of people - I was one of those guys in a suit, tie, little badge. I mean, I'm sure you guys have seen them around, right? I loved it, great time of my life...

 

Well, I was put in a lot of spots and a lot of areas where it was people's sole plan to live on food stamps. It was their plan, and they literally would not show up to work so they couldn't make enough money so that they could get on food stamps.

 

That, in my opinion, is extremely wrong.

 

I know this is where I'm gonna ruffle feathers. But if you don't like it, this is my channel, you can leave. I'm gonna tell you what I think. Capitalist pig baby, alright, here we come. Okay, here we go...



I'm gonna be sensitive to this 'cause there are tons of people who need it, and that's great. But when it's your freakin' plan to suck on other people's hard work, I do not agree with that. The door is right over there, actually! And I'm serious about that.

 

With that mindset, of seeing tens of thousands of people where that was their plan, okay, I was like what? Like, you're going to go on welfare, that is your career path?

 

I'm just letting you guys know, that's my backstory, that was where I was coming in from to the scenario with my wife from. The scenario of, "I will never do that." If I get hurt, if something happens to me, sure. If I need it, legitimately, but after I've done everything that I can. That's my personal opinion on it.

 

I think it is wrong to have a plan that way. You're getting something for nothing, I don't agree with it.

 

So again, if I've offended you, I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry. I really believe that.

 

So I came into our new marriage, our relationship, with that mindset. And I'm like holy crap. I need to do something now. I just didn't know, I had no idea that's what was going on.

 

And so the moment I found out, first of all, it crushed me, and then I had several choices...

 

And I am so thankful for how I chose. I try not to get emotional on this one, okay. It was one of the hardest things I've ever gone through in my life. I called my dad, and he taught me... I worked multiple jobs my entire childhood, okay. I started mowing lawns when I was eight years old. I know how to work, and I know how to work hard.

 

I know how to do crap that I don't want to do. Which is a huge lesson of itself. That's totally thanks to my dad, he's the man, he's totally taught me everything on that, okay.

 

When I got into college, I called my dad, and I was like "Hey," (super not with the culture of how I was raised), I was like, "Hey, could you give me money?" And he said "No."

 

A lot of you guys have heard this story here, but I'm just giving a little more detail behind it because of where I'm trying to take us. Just follow me here for a second...

 

He said "No." He said, "If I give you this money, you will not exhaust the resources you didn't know you had." That's huge. That's huge. That's when he told me that.

 

I was like, "Oh, crap!" So my back's against the wall, and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna make this. I can go get on welfare stamps... we certainly qualify for that. I could go get loans. I could get a job, but then I'm probably gonna do bad in my classes.

 

What's hard is in a college town, people were working for $3 an hour just because there's so much labor available. Everyone's trying to get jobs. And that's totally accurate.

 

My wife got a job finally, after trying super hard trying to find something, for $3.50 an hour. $3.50 an hour! Dude, guys, crap was hitting the fan. You understand?

 

When people are like, "We don't have any money," like, I get it, okay, I have been there. Or like, "I don't have any time," - I was in college, I eventually joined the Army, we had kids - freaking I had no time either. And I get it, and I get it...

 

And the answer is to not, don't turn on freaking Netflix. You gotta look at your discretionary time and where you're spending it and squeeze every ounce of it out that you can.

 

And the choices that I had, I could get food stamps, I could get loans, I could get a job... but that probably wouldn't even pay for our bills anyway. So I was like, "Crap. We can't even get a freaking job for more than $3 an hour." That was legit. Which means I couldn't do anything in class anymore.

I was like I gotta do something...

 

My wife, she went and she started looking into this WIC program which is like food stamps. And she looked into it. She and I had a conversation, and it was very, very challenging. We were like, "What if we don't get on the food stamps?"

 

I'm not saying that people don't need it. But what I'm saying is the willingness to go through it and figure it out without taking the out. Man, that will turn you into something you're not...

 

And so, we decided we wouldn't take them - which was very challenging. It meant additional suffering, you understand? It meant additional, being willing to go through crap.

 

When people tell me things like, "I don't have time." Bull crap, I don't believe you. "I don't have money," - then you've not become resourceful yet.

 

I actually feel so thankful when people are like, "I don't have enough money," - like "Oh good, you have a trial. Good. Lean into it." I'm so thankful for the scenario that you're in. That's how I feel about it.

 

They're like, "Oh, I don't know how to do this?" Perfect, YouTube it. "I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to do that, I don't have enough money." I'm like, "Oh my gosh." Like, you gotta call your own BS out. Because I have like "this much" sympathy.

 

It's one thing to be in active pursuit and fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, right... Then I want to swoop in and be like, "Alright, structure this way and do it this way." It is only because I've done it 100 times, right. Out of desperation. You know how much crap you figure out when you got a few minutes for.

 

Case in point, right. I remember when I was in basic training, which certainly, there are far more intense programs than basic training, I understand that. But we were in a special scenario. We were in the last spot on the base where there had not been renovated yet.

 

It was really far away from any kind of mess hall, any chow hall. And so they had to drive the food into us.

 

Well, a lot of the time they wouldn't end up actually driving any food into us. We couldn't actually go to any chow hall. So we ended up getting about half of the calories of everybody else who was in basic. It was crazy.

 

There'd be like a pancake, little tiny sausage, and there'd be like half an egg because that's all the truck could fit in to feed any entire 200 person platoon.

 

Man, I lost 15 pounds I did not have at that time. I got wicked skinny. And oh man, it was so, so challenging, right. Going through that kind of garbage, super, super helpful. Really, really helpful when you start going through those things.

 

What I'm trying to say is, I have learned to be thankful for the trial - not that I always remember to be thankful in the middle of it - that's very, very different.

 

What I'm trying to help you guys understand and see is that whatever the trial is, whatever the challenge is...

 

And that's one of the reasons why I went into the Army. It was part of my, it was part of what I, "I'm gonna be a tough guy," right. I wanna go do that. Yell at me, I want that. Let me throw some grenades. Let me like shoot some machine guns and stuff. I wanted that kind of thing. And I did for a long time and most of my childhood...

 

But it also became the way to get paid.

 

But then we get in, and we find out that we're only gonna get half of what we're actually promised. I was like, "We're still in the freaking same situation. What is going on?"

 

But now I've lost half of my time again because if I'm not doing full-time school, like 14 credits, I am doing Army crap. "How do we eat?" It was years of that. Years of it.

 

I decided that I would lean in. There were some things that happened to me and some mentalities that were taught to me by being in the Army, by being in uncomfortable scenarios that taught me to lean in.

 

We say, "Embrace the suck!" all the time. "Embrace the suck." Embrace the suck, right. And that's totally what I started learning how to do.

 

So while we were just barely surviving, the loans luckily came in. I mean we were down to... like sometimes it was super tight. And then the next semester worth of loans would come in, and I'd be like, "Oh gosh, oh thank you."

 

It was a huge deal for me to go and get a $97 subscription to ClickFunnels every month. It was a huge deal for me to try and find a way to get to Funnel Hacking Live. It was a huge deal for me. Does that make sense?

 

It was a very stressful scenario... And it was prolonged! It's not like it was short. We leaned into it. It was three years before my funnels started working - before all the things started...

 

I remember I got that first $1500 check. It was not a lot, but like, on a monthly basis- 'cause I built these funnels for companies, and they were working, and I was like "Oh my gosh. Babe, let's like, take a drive somewhere. We can afford the gas." You know what I mean.

 

I was so elated. That changed everything. Just a thousand bucks a month. It's like, "Oh my gosh, this is so crazy." It was so nuts.

 

I'm a very introspective pattern driven individual- so now, looking back... Obviously, hindsight's 20/20 - but I want to encourage you to not study food stamps. I wanna encourage you to study money.

 

Don't study food stamps, study money.

 

And funny enough, I had to do that outside of college, even though I was in a marketing degree. I was in getting a business degree in marketing. And I was like, "I'm not learning how to make money here." And what's funny, the training is not, it's typically not vocational training. It's not any kind of training that's out there or any courses or any classes or anything like that.

 

Colleges don't teach you how to make money - they don't know how to make money. Most of the time, teachers, you know what I mean, they're not making much either. They can't teach you that. Don't learn from poor people how to make money. That's stupid.

 

You gotta look outside of your network most of the time to start learning how to make money.

 

The scariest moments come when you don't know what to do next. I have been there on a yearly basis. I did that for a while. There are two quotes that I like a lot. One of them is by Julian Barnes, which I think is like the same Barnes as Barnes and Noble Barnes, which is awesome.

 

It says, "The more you learn, the less you fear. The more you learn, the less you fear."

 

It's actually written on my wall over there. "The more you learn, the less you fear." And so what I decided to do was to get obsessed over the study of money.

 

I decided to do that shortly after joining the Army and realizing that I was only gonna make half of what I was told I was supposed to. It was very frustrating. Very frustrating.

 

But I decided to make, I decided to study money. Which meant I had to look in places that were not obvious in front of me.

 

And that's when I started actively seeking money making guys out, and that's when I first ran into a guy named Russell... and I was like "He looks like he's 12 years old, should I even believe what he's saying? Does he know?"

 

And that's when I started getting in the habit of learning from rich people. "How do I make money?" I'm not gonna ask poor people that. That's like going to the gym and asking someone overweight how to lose weight. I hate that.

 

Anyway, so what I'm trying to say is "the more you learn, the less you fear."

 

Most of the time, people just don't know how a dollar's actually made. We know how to do that very traditionally from our parents with a "time for dollar model," but when you learn how to do a "value for dollar model," - that's the model to go study.

 

The other one I really like is; "Competence leads to confidence."

 

Competence leads to confidence. And that's the whole purpose of this episode, and the only reason why I'm saying this is because we just launched the Affiliate Outrage program. It's completely free.

 

The reason I did it is because affiliate marketing is great training wheels for the business game in general. You don't have to worry about making the product. You just worry about what actually sells stuff.

 

Most of the time I see people, and they're like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go learn how to do this game, what product can I sell?" Wrong question!

 

Ask, "What's the sales message that sells? What's the sales message that sells?" And then worry about the product.

 

That's why I like affiliate marketing because the product side's taken care of for you. You can just focus on the sales message. You can just focus on marketing - just sell.

 

Just because somebody made the product does not mean you get to skip creating the marketing.

 

That's why I like affiliate marketing. It's like training wheels for this game.

 

So that's why I launched Affiliate Outrage. Affiliate Outrage is free. Affliliateoutrage.com. There's no upsells, nothing else in there. It'll get you off the ground and doing this kind of stuff.

 

I also launched the OfferMind. Almost 400 tickets already are out for that - which is crazy cool. I'm excited to see you guys here in Boise soon.

 

I gave away free tickets when you guys bought Russell's new book through my affiliate link, just as a thank you - which is awesome. I'm trying to do a few free things.

 

My customer who I really serve, I charge 30 grand a day to go in, set up, and design the actual sales message, design the offer, design the actual funnel, right.

 

I don't build the funnel, but I create all the assets ahead of time. I charge 150 grand to do it for actual.

 

My customer who I actually serve and exchange with - they're expensive because I'm good, and my crap works - I know it does... And you have hopefully seen that.

 

...But I don't want to neglect the fact that I have an affinity for, I have empathy... because I've been there in the trenches. You're still in the mud, and you're like, "That extra $1000 would change my life." I know, I have been there. And so that's the reason why I've been doing these different things.

 

So if there's anything I can... It's out of passion - this episode.

 

I want you to obsess over the study of money.

 

It's not normal - it's not taught. You don't stumble on the study of money. The fastest ways for you to learn how to make cash - study marketing. That's why I sink my teeth into it. Marketing is the activity where money gets exchanged.

 

Money is the by-product of marketing. That's why I study marketing. That's why I'm a marketer. That's why I'll always be a marketer. I'm a marketer first before any product I'm actually selling. Always, marketer. I am a marketer. I am excited about that.

 

That does not mean logos. Does not mean color schemes, slogans, business cards. That's not marketing.

 

It doesn't even mean Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads, that's not marketing.

 

And if you're like what are you talking about? That's exactly why I'm saying you need to study it... That's not marketing.

 

Anyway, so, what I'm trying to say is: if you're in that phase, first of all, I feel ya. I've been there. I was there for years. I totally get it. I want you to lean into the challenge. I want you to lean in to and let it sculpt you.

 

Many of you would not follow me if I did not have the background that I do. That's super key to understand. Be willing to live the very hook that you are going through. You are the future hook.

 

The fact that I went through 17 businesses before one went off - that's so bonding. That lets me be followable.

 

Understand that even if something's not working, you are still crafting the foundation and framework for you to get massively paid in the future. Lean in is what I'm telling you. Lean in.

 

I got that coin on my desk, many of you've seen it now. It's: "the obstacle is the way." The coin says: "The obstacle is the way - The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." That's what the coins says. It's one of my favorite quotes. It stays on my desk for that reason.

 

Whatever I know I need to be doing, but it looks the most sucky - that's what I make sure I lean into.

 

So I'm begging you not to study how to game this food stamp way. Don't study food stamps. Study money. Study how money gets made.

 

Funny enough, I have the biggest time getting over the internal hurdles about studying money for the longest time. I felt like I was being greedy.

 

It's really weird when I look back to when I read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which I'm sure many of you have... Rich Dad, Poor Dad, is like the gateway drug for most entrepreneurs - it totally was for me. That and like Four Hour Work Week and a few others.

 

But anyways, Rich Dad, Poor Dad talked about three asset classes. There's business, there's paper assets, and real estate, or real assets in general. Those are the three.

 

This was my thought: "I'm not gonna go do business because I don't want to be greedy, I'm not greedy." That was literally my belief pattern, guys. You understand like only five years ago. Seven. I remember when I read that. Seven years ago. That was my belief pattern:

 

"I'm not going into business because I don't want to be greedy."

 

How stupid of a belief is that? Right? Plus, "I'm not really a professional guy. I don't even own a briefcase." I don't really like to put suits on too often. I'm not wearing shoes right now. I don't like to in general. That was my belief. How stupid, how stupid? That's a dumb belief.

 

Learn to call out the BS that you're telling yourself.

 

So I was like man, I'm gonna go into the financial markets area, and I borrowed 15 grand to go through these courses. I found out down the road that they knew they were outdated strategies... and I was like, "Oh, that's exciting."

 

Then I went into real estate. Not business 'cause I don't want to be greedy. That was my thought. That was the reason, you guys. That was literally the reason.

 

Then I was like, "Fine we'll do the business game, but I'll just go do sales 'cause I don't wanna make a product. I don't wanna be the entrepreneur 'cause entrepreneurship..."

 

I actually had my wife tell me about three months into marriage, she said: "How come every time someone starts to ask you what you want to do and it's entrepreneurship, you're like really weird about it?"

 

It'd be fun actually to bring her in. I can hear her vacuuming right now, if you can pick it up on the mic, you probably can.

 

She's with our kids, she's awesome. Total rockstar. She's incredible. Sacrificed like crazy for all of us. And inadvertently for the rest of you as well. She's amazing. She'll be at funnel hacking live, I'm really excited. She's gonna come this year.

 

I am super stoked about all this game. I'm excited for all this stuff. I want you to understand this game.

 

When I started coaching, especially when I started coaching a lot of two comma club coaching, stuff like that, if you guys are in those programs. I went in with the anticipation and with the belief that I would be coaching people on marketing. I spent maybe 40% of the time actually coaching on marketing.

 

I had no idea that I would be spending the majority of my coaching time on just people's mentalities and their beliefs and their attitudes towards money. That's been the big massive hurdle.

 

I'm like "You can do this.” They're like "I'm not good enough." "You can do it." "Okay, maybe I'm a little bit good enough." I'm like, "You can do this." "Alright, fine, I'll go do it."

 

I do that kind of crap more.  I shouldn't call it crap. I'm not saying it's crap. Stuff. I do that kind of stuff way more than talking about marketing strategies.

 

I had no idea that I had done those things to myself along the way to even pull off the marketing strategies that I teach and do.

 

So I'm trying to help you understand. If there's anything that you can study to really make you move forward, you gotta study money.  Don't study the way out.

 

There's an amazing quote by Will Smith, he says, “There's no reason for plan B because it distracts from plan A." Totally agree with that. I don't have a plan B, "I'm all in on A, baby." I just want a plan A, that's it. I don't want a plan B. I don't even want to think about a plan B.

 

Too many times people are like, "What's plan A? What's plan B? What's plan C?" Like, that's freaking distracting: "Well, I'll go try this entrepreneurship game. If it doesn't work out, we can always do food stamps."

 

If you think about it, it is very hard to fail in this country. It's extremely challenging to fail in America. I could get government housing, I could get food stamps.

 

You are not going to die. It's hard to die. You have to try. There are so many freaking safeties in our society now. Mediocrity is celebrated:

 

"You're good enough, you're trying, you're doing everything. Just be happy with where you are." Bull crap! No, I don't want the mediocre life. And I don't want you to get seduced by that mindset.

 

Mediocrity is celebrated and it's very hard to fail truly in our society. There are so many lock aids, you could do bankruptcy, you could do government housing, you could do the food stamps, there's a lot of things you can do before you really truly actually hit rock bottom in America.

 

But because of that, people get soft in their heads -they got no discipline in their head. Man, I'm totally on a soap box now. Reeling it in, baby. Here it comes:

 

It is very, very, very, very easy to win in this game now. It's so easy for me to dominate. It's shocking!

 

I was voxxing Dave Woodward the other day. It was like two nights ago. I just won the affiliate contest for 30 Days -which is exciting. How cool is that? ...Using the exact same principles, I teach you guys. And I won that contest by a lot, which is fun and very, very exciting.

 

And I was voxxing him, and he goes, "Hey, congrats man. That was really cool. You could do a whole course just based off of what you did here because that was brilliant." And I was like "Hey, thanks man, I really appreciate that." I said, “You know what's fascinating…” and I told him exactly what I just told you guys:

 

"I thought I'd be teaching all this marketing stuff. I can't even get people to that part because it's so in their heads."

 

There's such a lack of discipline. It is so easy to dominate in this space because of the lack of discipline.

 

If you have the smallest inkling of being able to go through things that are just a little uncomfortable you're gonna be fine, you're gonna be fine.

 

I encourage all of you guys to start orchestrating challenging things in your life to callous the mind.

 

I invite you to lean in to your obstacles. I invite you to say, "You know what, I'm totally cool with a little bit of discomfort in my life. I'm willing to experience voluntary pain." Not like a freaking masochist...

 

I'm saying, "What things which are not comfortable can you orchestrate in your life to get going and moving off the ground?"

 

This was as much about studying money rather than food stamps as anything else. Right, just being willing to just run forth and be uncomfortable along the whole way.

 

Okay, I feel like I'm opening a different can. I just opened one can and that was a good can. Just drink that down, I'm ready to come over here to another can, but I'm not gonna keep going here.

 

I just want you to know, like I want you to feel me on this, "Do not study the out. Do not study plan B." Who cares? "Don't study food stamps. Study money."  

 

Be willing to go through stuff that's a little challenging. If you're going through it, I applaud you. I'm excited for you because of what it will let you do in the future.

 

If you let it, it can sculpt you into something you could not have become on your own.

 

Anyway, this is a bit of a firey episode, but I'm totally against people planning for plan B. I don't agree with it at all. I think it's stupid.

 

It's like, "Man, well, maybe, you know, I'll go get in the Olympics but, you know, instead I could just go be blah..."

 

You're literally trying to plan "the out." I don't give my customers the out because I know my products are good. I don't give myself the out.

 

I know I've talked a lot about Darren Hardy. You know he's got a good book, Willpower Doesn't Work. Really, it's environment. So I orchestrate events, things in my life, things that are uncomfortable with the purposeful intention of getting uncomfortable.

 

Willpower doesn't work. If your like, "Hey, I'm gonna go will myself into becoming this person Steve was talking about." Uh-uh!

 

That's why we invite you to buy other coaching and products and things like that because you need an environment. Environment is where things really switch, not willpower.

 

Willpower's like a muscle. It will literally actually fail after a while.

 

Anyway, hey guys, I appreciate you guys taking the time, and I appreciate you guys being here.

 

Thanks for letting me have a little bit of real talk with this. This has been a fun episode. This is one I've been wanting to say for quite a while. Do not study food stamps, study money.

 

Those kinds of things are what actively increase you as an individual.

 

The personal development you experience through entrepreneurship is ridiculous, better than any personal development course I've ever taken in my entire life. Entrepreneurship.

 

Anyway, guys, thank so much. Appreciate ya, love ya all, and very much think about where you guys are because I've been there and I have a lot of empathy for it.

 

A lot of you guys are extremely successful too, which is great. You've probably have resonated with a few things I've ranted about here.



Anyway, guys, thanks so much. I'll see you guys at the OfferMind - those of you who are coming.

 

And go through Affiliate Outrage program if you wanna learn more about kinda the training wheels of marketing itself. Things to get paid for,  but not get distracted over product creation.

 

And I will see you guys next episode. Please, please, please, share and review the episode. It helps me a lot, and I actually do go read the reviews. They keep me motivated.

 

Hey, thanks for listening. Many don't know that I actually made my first money online as an affiliate marketer. If you wanna know how I funded my entire company without using any of my own money EVER, you can learn to do the same for free at AffiliateOutrage.com



Oct 12, 2018

Boom, what's going on everyone?

 

It's Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna talk to you guys about the most important shift that must take place in every sales message for it to be effective.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt? Completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

What's up guys? I'm excited for today. I've spent the last few days at Russell Brunson's Inner Circle - which is a lot of fun.

 

The way it works is we all get up, and we'll give, we'll teach for a little bit cool things that we've all been doing. And then we'll ask for whatever we need, right?

 

And so I got my slides done, I was super excited about it. Honestly going to Inner Circle's like Christmas morning for me. It's probably the place I like to spend the most time, and I just absolutely love it.

 

It was right before and Russell sent me a message, and he goes, "Hey did you want to teach some of your offer creation stuff for a little over an hour? I got a little spot to fill. We could give you some extra time there, and honestly, I'd love to see the stuff."  I said, "Sounds good."

 

So I was like, "Oh crap, I gotta remake all this stuff." So I went and I remade this cool presentation to go through and share a lot of these things.

 

And one of the stories in there, I wanna walk through it, I wanna share with you guys the most important element in a sales message.

 

Now a lot you guys know, I talk about door-to-door sales a lot. For me, that was like one of the best educations I ever had in my entire life - door-to-door sales. I did not see that at the time. I did not know that at the time. But I was hoping that I would learn sales in the toughest environment - which was literally one of the major reasons why I did door-to-door.

 

I know I bring it up a lot, but it's because it was so impactful for me. Now a lot of you guys know too that I've told this story right in the past, I'll get to this whiteboard here I have in a moment. But in the past, what's been fascinating is I was so obsessed with products, right?

 

I would write eBooks, I would put things together, and I was, "What product can I sell? What product can I sell? What product can I sell?" And it led me down this path of learning what products are cool... BUT it also led to actually having zero cash in my pocket...

 

So back to the door-to-door thing; I had the exact same fixation when I was doing door-to-door sales. I would go around and for the first half of the summer I was the number two salesman as a first year.

 

I was good, right and I'd be closing people. I was like, "Pest control, pest control, pest control, pest control, pest control."

 

Customers started asking things like, "ell does it kill bug? Does it kill my ants? Does it kill the wasps? Do you guys take care of the mice? Do you do this, do this, do this...?"

 

The technician came after me and obviously fulfilled on that and I just was selling it, I was the sales guy obviously.

 

And what was funny was that when you look at the way I was selling, the first half of the summer for me, I was getting two to three sales a day - which as a sales guy, door-to-door, for that price point - that's not bad. That's not bad.

 

If you do that consistently, that's pretty good.

 

What's funny though is that about halfway through the summer it shifted from going from two to three sales a day to two to three sales a week. I was wrecked. I mean it destroyed me.

 

If I did not do so well the beginning half of the summer, my wife and I would have been bankrupt by the time we hit the end of the summer. We pretty much broke even the rest of the entire summer. And I was like, what happened here? What's going on?

 

One of the major things that I was getting distracted on was the product itself.

 

About two months into the beginning of summer, people started asking me questions: "Does it do this, does it kill that? What about this, does it do that?" Blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah, and I ended up falling in the rabbit hole, and I shouldn't have.

 

I got on this huge spree of learning about the product more: "Oh these are the chemical compounds inside of our pest control. Oh, this is the organic version and the chemical compounds of that one. Oh, here is why it works on wasps. This is why it works on ants. This is why it works."

 

And I got so far into the why - literally down to the molecular level. I knew exactly why this pest control is killing that bug... because it is jacking up their nervous system... right! Weird details that don't matter.

 

I got so obsessed over it.

 

It was not until afterwards, when I started learning about sales that I found out that I was talking myself out of the sale.

 

Anytime anybody asked me a question where they just needed a simple answer, "Does it kill my bugs?" "Yeah." But I was like, "Yes, booof!" And I'd just like barf all over him. "Here and this and that, and this and that, look at me, I'm smart, look at me I'm smart!"

 

I went back to college and I started learning more about eBooks, I started trying to sell things online. I started getting more into the internet game. And I got back to that same fixation - believing that the product and what made the product is what did the sale.

 

Now there's this interesting stat and correlation, even at ClickFunnel's high ticket selling. A lot of internet marketers, a lot of business owners today, they try to not have their high ticket salesmen know that much about the product...

 

It's not because they're trying to be shady or sneaky or anything like that, it's because there's a danger that salesmen will start to talk themselves out of the sale.

 

They will literally start explaining all the features. They will literally start explaining all the little details, and it ends up killing the sale.

 

So I went in, and I got to teach a little bit about this and tell different stories about it to the Inner Circle.

 

There's one specific concept about the sales script that I wanted to walk you through.

 

First of all, I just wanna make the point, people don't buy because of the product. They buy it because of the sales message. They're completely separate activities. They're completely separate disciplines. Sales message versus a product.

 

And for so many years - the reason why I knew it took me 17 tries, (it's something like that), to have a successful product is because it was the first time that I actually decided, "Holy crap, I'm still gonna make a sick product. I'm gonna make something that's totally awesome, but I'm gonna first fixate on a sales message that gets people excited." Then make a product to fulfill what that sales message is talking about - in that order.

 

That's one of the biggest reasons why my stuff started working!

 

So we got that split, 'kay...

 

Product versus sales message. Very different. Super unique roles. Very unique responsibilities. Very unique in the way you create them. Very different disciplines themselves on how to make them. Product creator versus a sales scriptwriter, very different.

 

Sales script though, that's why they buy it. They don't buy it because of the product, they buy it because of the sales script. Have we established that? Sweet, okay.

 

Now what I wanna do is I'm gonna take that sales message, and what I wanna do is I wanna identify inside of this... it's one of the major key reasons why somebody ends up purchasing.... And it's one of the key reasons why the sales message is more important than the product.

 

And again, I'm not telling you not to go create awesome products.

 

Check this out though:

 

If we got a red ocean over here... (So for you guys on iTunes... I'm just gonna draw it, and all I'm gonna talk it out here, so you guys, you're not missing out on anything, right?) For me drawing it helps me explain it, that's the reason I use these whiteboards in these videos now so much, 'kay. Just so you know...

 

I got a red ocean over here on the side, and let's say over here, I'm trying to lead them over to this blue, right? Here's the blue ocean. Can barely see that - there we go. There's the blue ocean over there on that side, and there's a bridge.

 

There's basically a bridge that happens to get them over from one ocean to the next.

 

And what I wanna talk about, and the purpose of this and the reason I wanna do this episode is to teach you why they actually start moving towards the blue.

 

Guys, most people are lazy. They're not ambitious, they're lazy. So, what gets a lazy person out of their comfy couch over in the red ocean where they are more than taken care of? There are so many providers, there are so many companies selling that red ocean.

 

Lots of times that red ocean person is highly taken care of, right? They're highly, highly taken care of. Because that person's willing to believe more for them than that person. Does that make sense?

 

The task of getting someone off their duff and over to a blue, that's not an easy thing. And that's the reason why I'm doing this is because I want you to understand what causes an individual to get up and start walking to the blue.

 

What gets them up over here -  and even better, what gets them to run? What gets them to spring over to... do do do, there's a little run. (So I never graduated past stick figures, I don't really intend to.) But anyway, what gets them to run over to that blue?

 

That's literally the purpose of today's episode, and that's why I'm trying to share this with you guys.

 

So let's look at sales psychology here for just a moment in general...

 

If I walk up and I'm like, "Hey what's up? Hey, buy this marker." The first thing that you're going to do is you are going to talk about, I'm sorry. The first thing you're gonna do, internally you're gonna start questioning how good the marker is itself. That's usually the first thing that a person starts to do.

 

What I'm going through here is typically the order the brain experiences the sale in.

 

The first objection that somebody typically has

is the product or vehicle itself. So that's the first thing, right. Number one usually is a product base.

 

Why would I get up and off the couch if I don't even think that the blue could have a possibility of being awesome, or what I need, or cool? Does that make sense?

 

So the first objection, they're not even gonna get up out of their chair and over in that red ocean, they're not gonna get, right, out of their chair, they're sitting over there in that boat. Whoo, whoo, right, that red ocean over there. They're in their boat - they're in a nice houseboat. They're not gonna get up and start walking over to that driver wheel until they at least know that the blue ocean is even worth checking out, right?

 

That usually leads to product based objection. "Well, is that marker any good? Well, when I erase that marker, is it gonna be helpful? Well, does that makes sense? Well, well, well, well, well, does that make sense?"

 

So, now that's the super key to understand, the first objection is usually about the product.

 

The reason somebody will abandon the red and move to a blue is because literally... there's a lot of reasons. But one of the biggest ones is just fear of missing out. FOMO. It's one of the fears of missing out. "Oh there's something better over there. Oh it's a better deal over there. Oh there's something over here...."

 

This blue ocean is all about creating things that are different, not new. Does that make sense? It is a new ocean, but one of the easiest ways to create a new ocean is by creating things that are different, not better. That's what I was trying to say. You're trying to be different, not better. Anyway, that's the first thing.

 

The second thing, the second thing that people have a crisis over, the second thing that people have an objection over, has everything to do with their internal beliefs. Identity, is what I'm talking about.

 

Usually it has to do with insecurities and identity. So insecurities, insecurities and identity. Meaning they're gonna say, "Oh you know what, Steve? I prefer chalk anyway, so. And that's a little bit of a product based one...

 

There might be someone who's like, "Well my grandfather used chalk and his grandfather used chalk, I will never use a marker..." you know what I mean?

 

It sounds silly, but people are doing that with your products - you understand?

 

A lot of this is subconscious, and when you go in to address each one of these things, and the way the brain experiences a sale, it makes you a way better salesman - a way better marketer, a way better product creator, and a way better blue ocean creator.

 

I'm gonna come back to what gets somebody to actually start moving across here. It's the major key of this entire episode. I'm trying to help you guys understand...

 

The third thing that people have an objection/identity over is a lot about resources.  A lot of external things, things that are away from them: "Oh, that does seem cool. Oh, you know what, that product, I do believe that product is really good." And if I can get them to there, they graduate to the next one, right...

 

If I get them to understand the product is really cool, then they graduate to internal based objections. Their internal based objections; insecurities, identity crises. "Well, it doesn't represent me to do this... it doesn't represent me to do that."

 

I really wanna get into tough mudders and Spartan races and things like that... I'm really excited about that. Why? I'm convinced that that's a cool product, BUT it's really because I believe that's part of my identity. "I've never done one." Fascinating, isn't it?

 

..."But it's me. I'm a tough guy," right? And that's kind of what people start to do. "I'm a tough guy." Therefore that fits my identity, therefore I'm gonna start moving towards it, right?

 

People might say, "Okay, but what time are the races at? Oh, but what kind of shoes should I have? Oh but what kind of training should I do ahead of time? Oh what...?"

 

Does that makes sense? It's a resources based category. It's external - So I'm gonna say resources.

 

So those are the three, right? Those are the three. You're gonna have usually in this very order.. this is the order that the brain experiences it. And the brain does not move on to the next one until it feels like it has been justified. Until it feels like that objection has been answered.

 

You experience them in this order, and you graduate them in this order:

 

First I'm gonna have a product based objection.

 

Next I'm gonna have an identity based objection, right, an insecurity, "I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, there's no way I can do that. My family's never done those kinds of things before, I should not do that as well." Does that make sense?

 

I hear this a lot of you guys when you're like, "But my father was poor and his father was poor, and their father was poor, and therefore I will be poor." It's like, "Wait a second, that is an internal insecurity." That's an identity insecurity. That's is an identity based false belief. That makes sense?

 

"I've been a farmer, therefore... "(I'm just picking on whatever, 'kay?) "I'll go to college because they went to college." Anyway, it's a very hard one to break.

 

The third one is that resources based one: "I don't have enough time, I don't have enough money, I don't have enough energy, I don't have enough support from spouse."

 

Those are things that are away, things that have nothing really to do with the product that you're trying to sell. But they come up as excuses. Does this make sense? (I need more stories in this as I'm telling it, I can feel it right now. 'Cause I'm going straight to fact, which is not good. But I'm trying to help you guys understand this piece of it, 'kay?)

 

The most hard one to break is the identity based one. This one right here. Product based insecurities = they're not that hard. Everyone's seen a new product they've never seen before. We are conditioned, guys, America is buying things and the world is buying things at a faster pace. Increasing on an increasing rate, right?

 

We buy stuff, we're used to seeing new products. It doesn't take a long time to get over product based objections. It doesn't. If your product's great, it takes a little product education, right? And because it's new, that's usually a big section inside of something like a webinar. This is secret number one, the product based objections right there. But it's not altogether that hard.

 

The path is not altogether that challenging to break someone's beliefs about the new product that you're trying to sell them to...

 

The challenge comes, right and the third one as well...

 

Resource-based objections, man every product has resource based objections!

 

It doesn't matter whatever you're selling. You're gonna hear the objection, "Well it's too expensive, I don't have time enough to do that. I don't know if my wife's gonna like that. I don't know if..." Right! Every freaking product has those objections.

 

The third category, resource-based objections are the easiest to break. But they're often the ones that people go to the first when they write their scripts. Isn't that funny? It should be the third thing, not the first...

 

'Cause you get into a features battle if you keep going into the resources one too much.

 

Anyway, the most challenging one, the most challenging one for people to overcome is number two. It is insecurities, and specifically, identity.

 

Guys the thing that gets people off their butt from a red ocean and sprinting to a blue, is identity.

 

The easiest way to create the feeling needed to get up out of the red and run to the blue? Some of you guys might kind of cringe when I say this, 'kay? Please don't think less of me. "Identity crisis," 'kay? The identity crisis...

 

If I can have somebody experience somewhat of an identity crisis and realize "I have to be over here in this blue ocean, I have to." It melts tons of resource-based false beliefs. It melts tons of beliefs about product itself.

 

If I can affect somebody to have an identity crisis, they will leave their security.

 

For them the red ocean is security. They will leave a security of a red ocean and their identity - and be like, "This is who I am."

 

Guys, so much of humanity, we're all in this identity discovery. We all are trying to discover who we really are in this life, right? You understand that you can use this for really crappy stuff... you could be totally unethical what I'm talking about with this. You have to understand though, that this is the hinge in a sales message.

 

If I can get somebody's identity slightly challenged by using that red ocean, right, they're gonna jump, and they're gonna sprint... they're gonna run over to that blue.

 

It's kind of like, there's a lot of people who will go through the Funnel Hacks webinar at ClickFunnels... they will buy Funnel Hacks, and they'll get six months of ClickFunnels.

 

They'll go through the onboarding process to get their free Funnel Hacking t-shirt, and they will never log in again. Ever. They'll never log in again...

 

Why? Why would somebody do that? Identity. Why? "Because I'm a Funnel Hacker." The cost of being a Funnel Hacker and having that t-shirt is worth the $97 a month to them.

 

"You're right, Russell, I hate websites. I hate VC funding." Think of all the rocks that he's throwing, right? Those are part of the identity = things that we are and are not: "I will not take on VC funding. I will not take on debt. I will not, right! I will bootstrap it, I will do it the right way, I will not cheat."

 

All those phrases we've all heard before - that is "identity" - what we are and what we are not.

 

And when you can clearly identify an identity, right... When you can get people to shift and remove and destroy and shed their old identit. And as they buy your product, take on a new identity... That is one of the easiest ways to sell stuff. Seriously, it's one of the easiest ways.

 

There was a headline, a very famous headline that said: "My weird Funnel currently making me 17 grand a day, and how to ethically knock it off in less than 10 minutes." That was the headline. When I saw that, I was like, "Cool, I'm sold." But when there was an identity shift involved in it, I had to buy it. Does that make sense? I was sold on the product, right?

 

I can't remember what I was selling... This has happened multiple times in my life. Especially, pest control was a great example. I would go in and I would sell one spouse, but I would not close them, meaning I had no cash in hand.

 

The person was sold, they're like, Awesome, totally want it, why don't you just come on back." How many of you guys have done this, right? "It's totally awesome, oh this product seems so great Stephen, I'm super excited about it," I'm like, "Yeah, it is great. Okay, just sign here." "Well, I've got to talk to my spouse." That is a resource based! I did not get there, they're only 2/3 sold. I could not get past that last objection.

 

The person was sold, but they're stopping on resource-based objections, right? And I would come back, and I'd be like, "Sweet! Oh, this sale's a drop in the hat, sale's a drop in the hat, sale's a drop in hat. And I would come back, and I walk back, and it was like an abrupt, rude, very forceful "No." I was like, "Huh?"

 

That happened all the time.

 

If I did not close them there, I hardly ever closed them on the followup, EVER.  And a lot of it had to do with my own skill at the time. ( I'm way better now.) But that's part of the whole reason of it.

 

If I can get somebody to actually shift their identity, shed their identity and move forward, man, guys the game's so easy.

 

A lot of you guys follow me because you like what I've done. A lot of you guys follow me because you've actually lived or are living the same kind of story that I've gone through. You started with nothing, you didn't have much, right? You were trying to bootstrap it the whole way, you're working in wee hours of the morning, or super late hours of the night...

 

I know like 90% of you guys listening to this right now, watching this right now, you're in that category or you have been in that category. It's what makes me attractive. Why? "Identity." That's the whole purpose of this episode. I'm just trying to help you guys understand that...

 

So start thinking through ways you can give yourself and give your customers a brand new identity.

 

I call my people a specific title. That's the name of our group, right? They shed their old... I call them The Mavericks. Renegades, I call them a lot of different names, 'kay? But it's because it's who I am. Man, I'ma fighter, I don't care ruffling feathers, I love breaking rules, 'kay?

 

And I attract people in that way, or I attract people who want to become that way, right? And what it's doing is it's making them shed their old identity.

 

And what happens when someone takes on a new identity? A lot of resource-based objections seem to get dwindled somehow. They're not as important as they used to be.



Even if you don't totally understand everything about the product itself, a lot of those vehicle-based objections start to melt away.

 

Identity shift is the hardest but the most important thing that you can focus on giving your people inside of a sales message. That's what I'm trying to say. That's what I'm trying to get out to you guys so you understand a part of it.

 

I love ClickFunnels. It is so part of my identity. Do you know how hard of a sale it's going to be for somebody if they decide to try and get me out of using ClickFunnels? Like "Good luck.." you know what I mean?

 

Do you imagine getting me out of it? "No." I don't care. It is so ingrained in my identity.

 

I'm pretty sure if you peel back my heart right here, there's gears, right? There's a red gear and a blue gear. And that's what's keeping me going. And it's because of that. I've taken on this identity. And my identity got seated as part of the product itself.

 

I want you guys to understand that part of it...

 

So start thinking through ways, and if this is a little bit more of a technical one, relisten to it... Listen to this episode several times, there's a lot  that I dropped in there.

 

I'm trying to help you understand what gets somebody to abandon the red. Yes, a good product can do that. Yes, overcoming objections for resources, that can totally do that as well. But the one thing that they will not sidestep  is their identity.

 

The one thing that will get them running is their identity.

 

I really wanna go do these tough mudder things. I'm super excited about it. Do you know the buying frenzy I have been on the cusp of because of that, right?

 

How many you guys have been there? When you're like, "Man, I really need something new in my life..." or "Man, I really need this..." or "Man, I really need variety..."

 

We've all been there before. Watch yourself. You're having an identity crisis!

 

"Oh. I didn't want to just be known for the guy sitting behind the desk." It's what I'm freaking going through, right?

 

I really wanna go do other things.  I'm very aggressive in nature, physically. I lift super hard every morning. "Why?" It has as much to do with my identity as anything else. Does that make sense?

 

Half the reason I joined the army was because of identity, right? My belief that I'm a tough guy is what sold me into joining the military...

 

Watch what you've done in your life, and start seeing like, "Oh it's part of my identity." As far as positive and negative. "It's my identity, it's my identity 'cause of this, identity 'cause of that. Identity, identity."

 

Identity is freaking huge, and we are all in a constant pursuit to self-discovery. And if you aid in that self-discovery process in the middle of your sales script and literally have an identity shift inside your sales script... That is what gets somebody to get off their butt and start running to a blue ocean without even totally knowing what is all about the product.

 

Not even having totally all their objections about resources answered. Does that make sense?

 

This is a huge deal.

 

Anyway, hopefully this helpful to you, and it's kind of a deeper episode again, but if you like this, please share it, okay. '

 

...Cause then from there, then we go in and we start matching products sideways and we go create a purple offer from there. And it's just this big old mapping guide, and it's very formulated - it's awesome.

 

Anyways, guys, I am very thankful for each one of you. Thank you so much for the follow as well.

 

We have the OfferMind which will be coming up soon. We have 397 tickets sold. They're free tickets that we gave away when you got the book through my link - which is awesome! I appreciate it. 397. What? Holy crap. It was gonna be like a little 30, 40 person thing. This is now a real event. I'm super excited!

 

The same AV crew that ClickFunnel uses for their events have just agreed to come in and do it for us as well. So it's super exciting - this is a legit event. I hate bad stages, I hate bad lighting, I hate bad audio, video, I hate bad sound and music. It's gotta be loud, I want it to be a rock concert. Anyway, so I'm super excited they just agreed - it's gonna be super awesome.

 

It'll be here in Boise. For those of you guys who are not in it, just be watching, we'll be releasing out more tickets soon. We're mostly just getting a head count right now. We have 397 tickets given away so far, which is awesome. And not many told me they can't come. So it's gonna be cool. It'll be loud, it'd be fun. Don't plan on sleeping! I'm excited to see you guys there.

 

So anyway, guys thanks so much.

 

Hopefully, this episode was helpful, and I'll talk to you guys in the next one, bye.

 

Whoo! Hey, there's more marketing resources than there are seams of the sea - am I right? Okay, maybe not - but there's a lot.

 

How do you know if you're paying for good ones?

 

Recently I went through my business bank statement, and I counted 51 internet tools and resources that I use to run my business every day. And actually keep my team size small.

 

If you wanna see the list, I actually filmed an individual video teaching you why I use each tool and the strategy behind it. And then I dropped the link straight to the source right below it.

 

If you wanna see the list and see what you can use yourself, go to bestmarketingresources.com. That's bestmarketingresources.com.

Oct 9, 2018

 

"marketing resources" "list of marketing tools" "advertising effectiveness"

 

I get asked A LOT what my favorite this or that is. SO I decided to document what they are and keep them on all one page. Here's the scoop

 

With the help of some amazing marketing resources, I’m able to run a mean lean team. I’m bringing in the money while buying back some of my time and optimizing my business.

 

What I’m going to share with you works.

 

I’m not some guru who only makes an income from telling other people how to make money.

 

My business makes me more money than the coaching I do.  I’m walking my talk.


LEARNING TO COUNT

 

Let me tell you a story…

 

When I went through my basic training in the army, you’d get a bonus if you signed up for AIT - which means Advanced Individual Training.

 

My family was pretty broke at the time, so it seemed like a good thing to do.

 

I was an ammo specialist. I was an 89 bravo, and my role was to learn pretty much every round of ammo (except for nuclear) that the military had.

 

As part of the training, I had to spend weeks memorizing ammo stats and nomenclature. So that when someone said, "Hey, we need this many rounds of 556 and 762  or go get some freakin' grenade launcher ammo."  I’d know what to grab. It was cool.

 

However, what was challenging for me was that everything was dumbed down to a third-grade-level because a lot of people come straight out of high school.

 

So they spent two freakin' days teaching us how to COUNT.

 

I was so bored that I actually started getting depressed for the first time in my life.

 

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

 

One day, during the training, we were sitting in the chow hall and there was this guy who was in my platoon sat across from me.

 

Anyway, we're all chatting and this guy tells me that he has a Ph.D. which was a pretty unusual thing for someone to have in that situation.

 

I was like, "That's crazy! No way. What’s your Ph.D. in?"  And he starts to tell me that he wrote a report and I handed it into a guy who's a Ph.D. teacher and that he really liked the report, “So I have a PhD."

 

The rest of the soldiers around us were like, "Wait a second dude, you need to clarify what you just said."

 

He said, "Yeah man, I wrote this report, it was super cool and I handed it up to this guy who teaches some classes at Ph.D. levels, and he really liked it - so I got a Ph.D."

 

And he started trying to convince me and the rest of the soldiers that he had a Ph.D.

 

I was like, "Are you kidding me? You don't have a freaking Ph.D., dude. Do you have a certificate?"

 

And he's like, "No, but I have the equivalent of a Ph.D. brain." I am extremely smart."

 

And he just kept saying, "I am extremely smart. I can tell you all kinds of things." I said, "Oh, yeah, like what?" What? Tell me stuff dude, tell me!"

 

Because anytime someone says that, you instantly start to wonder if they really are... you know what I mean?

 

The reason I’m bringing up this story up is because this happens in marketing all the time.


I’M NOT LISTENING

For a long time, one of the biggest strategies on the Internet wasto go write an ebook full of the top resources for different areas. But really it was just a big list of affiliate links!

 

Now there’s nothing wrong with affiliate links, #affiliateoutrage.

 

However, someone who has just put together a list without having any experience of the subject is a crappy person to listen to.


For example, if I ever start to give you style guidance - you have my permission to ignore me.

 

If I start standing up and start talking to you guys about something that I don't have mastery in. Don't listen to me. I'm not gonna do that anyway, because I'm super conscious about it.

 

But if you’re trying to learn offer creation or funnel building - well, that’s kinda my jam. That's what I'm known for, and that's what I’ve done EVERY DAY for years - so listen up.


BEST MARKETING RESOURCES

 

(Did you notice that seamless segue ;-))

If you’re thinking, "Steven, what the heck are you talking about? Well, I want you to know that I’ve launched a  really cool resource called Best Marketing Resources.

 

It’s my hub for all of the resources that I use to pull off my business.

 

It took for freakin' ever for me to create this thing.

 

I created it because people always ask me, “Stephen, what's your favorite tool for ----- (fill in the blank)?"

So I decided to make a hub where I just put all of my favorite tools in one place. I literally went through my business bank statement and counted them up.

 

It’s like a living breathing list of marketing tools that I’m gonna keep constantly updated with the most up to date resources that I use in my business.

 

And EVEN BETTER THAN THAT…

 

Each tool has its own video that shows you how I use it in my business.

 

I teach the exact strategy of how I use that tool in my company. So you get to see exactly how to use it and WHY I have so much love for it.

 

Underneath each video is a link directly to the resource.  

 

A lot of them are my affiliate links - but if that annoys you, you just gotta get over. You don’t have to use them, but if I’ve provided value - why wouldn’t you?




CHEESE AND MARKETING

 

The reason I created the Best Marketing Resources hub is that if you're trying to learn something, them it’s best to learn from a person who’s actually doing the thing they’re teaching.

 

The person who has what Russell calls, “THE BIGGEST PIECE OF CHEESE”

 

There are some people, and I'm not gonna name names, that give me advice in certain realms that they have no mastery over. I listen out of politeness, but I will not do anything with what they've told me.

Why would I listen to somebody telling me how to run a marathon when they’ve never run a marathon themselves?

 

Why would I listen to some an internet marketer telling me how to have huge success with X, Y, and Z when they're never done it themselves?

 

I wouldn’t right, that’d be crazy!

 

I'm not going to listen to anybody who doesn't have the result already that they're trying to teach me.

 

And that's the reason why this whole Best Marketing Resources was such a passion project for me. You’ll get a butt-ton of value just from watching the videos.

 

Even though the tools may change, the core of marketing never does.

 

When I first started, I had 51 tools listed - now there’s way more than that.

There are marketing resources for ALL THE THINGS:

 

  • Funnel Building

 

  • Creative and Publishing

 

  • Fulfillment

 

  • Team Management

 

  • Funnel Hacking

 

  • Education

 

  • My Favorite Charities (in case you wanna make the world a better place while you’re crushing it.)

 

I don't recommend anything unless I'm using it, or completely endorse it and know that it's incredible.

 

So you can have faith knowing that this is the stuff I actually use and do.

 

Don't think that you need to have all of them in order to make money on the Internet. You just use them as you you need to. But I just wanted to make a place where people would know:

 

  1. This is actually being used.

 

  1. This is what is actually making money.

 

  1. Here's Steven's strategy, and this is how he uses these marketing resources.

BY THEIR FRUITS YOU WILL KNOW THEM

 

I'm trying to help you understand that you need to be careful who you're listening to. Be careful of the advice coming in.

 

If someone says "I wouldn't use that resource." But there not freakin' doing what you want to do, then “Shut up.”  If someone says, “I don't know that I would do it the way you are…."  And they work at McDonald's, don’t listen to their advice.

 

If they don’t have a big piece of cheese in that areas. Nothing against them, but...  DON’T TAKE THEIR ADVICE!

 

If that person hasn't been doing something long enough for that tree to have fruit coming off it, why on earth would you listen to them?

 

Listen to those who have the Ph.D. equivalent in the area that they’re trying to teach - and make sure that it’s not just an imagined one.

 

Until Next Time - Keep Crushing It!

 


There are more marketing resources than there are seams of the sea, am I right? Okay, maybe not, but there's a lot.

 

How do you know if you're paying for good ones?

 

Recently I went to my business bank statement, and I counted 51 Internet tools and resources that I use to run my business every day - so that I can keep my team size small.

 

If you wanna see the list, I actually filmed an individual video teaching you why I use each tool and the strategy behind it, and then I dropped the link straight to the source right below it.

 

If you wanna see the list, then see what you can use yourself, go to bestmarketingresources.com.


Oct 5, 2018

Offer creation is for any product or service in any industry at any price point. It has nothing to do with building a funnel and can be done offline, online, or in person...

 

If you have a great offer, you can sell anything…

 

But how do you create an offer that makes any product so sexy that people will rush give you their money?

 

With my offer creation process, you can sell anything including a pair of socks.

 

Without a plan to sell, product creation is a waste of time.

 

It’s a simple formula that I use to draft an outline and figure out what my offer will be.

 

The thing that drives me crazy is when someone says, "Ah, this doesn't apply to me because I'm in retail. This doesn't apply to me because I'm in B2B. I sell things on Amazon, I can't make offers."  *IT DOES* Anyone can use this process.

 

Companies fly me out to do a solid eight hour day with them to craft a detailed plan of what their offer is going to be. We create the sales message behind it, the best funnel for that offer, and the sales message to their market.

 

These consulting days are awesome fun and... REALLY EXPENSIVE. However, you don’t have to pay $30,000 for me to share my formula with you - because I ’m gonna share it right now…

 

There's obviously the bigger, deeper process that I’d go through when I'm about to launch a product, but I want you guys to see how I would craft an offer around socks.

 

Hop over to YouTube, if you’d like to see how I went through the process live with my Science of Selling Online group.




WHY I WON THE “30 DAYS” AFFILIATE CONTEST

 

When I was preparing my affiliate offer for Russells  30 Days book, I knew that my offer was gonna be better than anybody else's out there.

 

And when the results came in, I had nearly 2x the sales of my closest competition. The reason for this is because of the way I craft offers.

 

If you’d looked at all the promo emails that were sent out during that campaign, you’d have noticed that it was the same freakin’ email.

 

There's nothing wrong with prewriting emails if you're gonna get just people to promote in general, then sending pre-written emails is a good

But if you actually want to get serious, then because sending out a white email that’s the same as everyone else's is the epitome of a freaking red ocean!

 

Understanding the red ocean is not just what people are selling and how they're selling it.  You also need to look at the actual messaging and the funnel they're selling it with.

 

If you're blasting out the exact same material, then you’re still in that red ocean - and that’s not where the money is made

 

FISH SLAP THE CRAP

 

I don't care if you're selling your own products, or promoting somebody else's. I'm gonna teach you how to create your offer from a marketers perspective.

 

I'm not here to slap people around by saying  "Oh, that's crappy, that's crappy! Don't do that!" But I am here because I wanna share with you that there is a total junky way to do this, and a real way that actually provides value.

 

I'm a firm believer in something that Todd Brown said. He said, "If you have nothing else of value to say, then you need to end your funnel."

 

DUDE! WHAT ELSE…?

 

I had only been at ClickFunnels for about two months when Russell turned around, and as with all great ideas, he said:

 

"DUDE! You know Stu McLaren?" "He's got this thing coming up called TRIBE and I wanna promote it 'cause it's really good. What else could I give with that product?"

 

Until that time, I had never considered the fact that you would create an offer around an affiliate link.

 

Russell doesn't promote many people's products, but when he does, he is very methodical.

 

So I wanna walk you through the process that I watched Russell use, and that I now use myself, as well.



TOOTHPICKS AND JUMP ROPES

 

The reason I chose socks for this example is to show that this process works for anything however ludicrous. You could even use it for toothpicks. In fact, it works for any product at price-point in any industry.

 

Here’s an example:

 

In the morning I like to jump rope to warm up like boxers do  - Rocky style. So I bought a jump rope off Amazon. It's one of those speed ropes. It’s super cool. And what excited and tickled me pink was that you also got:

 

  • A two-week program showing you exactly how to use your rope.

 

  • A cool little bag.

 

  • Some spare parts.

 

  • An invitation to a special community.



It was a freaking jump rope and it literally had an offer created around it!

 

 

 

They had crafted this amazing offer around a jump rope.

 

I want to show you that there are multiple ways to create an offer, regardless of what you sell.

 

I want you to see the structure and the questions that I ask, in order to create an offer.

 

It might be helpful for you to go watch on YouTube, but I’ll do my best to explain the process here too.



MAKING SOCKS SEXY

 

 

 

Every time a person buys a product they also get a set of problems.

 

If I can identify future problems that the product cause you can build an offer around them.

 

For example:

 

#1: The first thing you need to do to create the offer is to list out the potential problems. What are the future issues your customer may run into when they buy socks from you? (These answers are from the live audience)

 

  • Maybe their feet are too warm.

 

  • They don’t know how to put them on.

 

  • Dry feet.

 

  • How to keep them clean?

 

  • Stinky feet.

 

  • Knowing which size to buy?

 

  • Athletes foot.

 

  • Holes.

 

  • Too tight after first wash.

 

  • Sensitive Skin

 

  • Foot Care

 

 

 

I'm trying to choose a ridiculous example so you guys see how easy this is.

 

#2: Once you’ve identified the potential problems you can ask, “How could I solve that problem?”

 

If you don't know what the problems are, then just go look at reviews.




 

  • For Stinky Feet: I could add some shoe pourri ;-) Or send them a about what kinds of shoes cause your feet to sweat.

 

 

  • For What Size to Buy: I could send 2 pairs, or add a ruler for them to send in a custom sock size. In reality, you could have like three different sizes, but it's perceived customization.

 

  • For Foot Care:  What if I interviewed a few foot doctors, and made a Little Known Doctors Order's Foot Care Guide - Yeah, we’d need a sexier name, but you know what I mean...



...By the beard of Zeus, the cat's meow, and the bee's knees, that's a freaking offer!

 

Total value = a lot. What’s the real price of it? A pair of socks like everybody else.

 

You could actually charge a little bit of a premium and nobody's actually gonna compete with you on that.

 

Following this process is one of the easiest ways to create your offer.

 

I've got an offer creation book coming out on this very concept.

 

Another major benefit of following this process is that you actually end up creating your entire sales message along the way by matching false believes and problems to the products in your offer. That's why my freaking stuff sells so well.

 

Wish you could geek out with other real funnel builders and even ask questions while I build funnels live? Ha ho, wish granted:

 

Watch and learn funnel building as I document my process in my funnel strategy group. It's free, just go to thescienceofselling.online and join now.

 

Oct 3, 2018

What's going on, everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna share with you guys how I was able to make the transition from employee to entrepreneur boss.

 

I spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now, I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best Internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

 

What's up, guys?

 

Hey, so as I started getting ready to make the jump, I wanna talk to you guys real quick about something that was really, it was hard for me. It was challenging for me. It was my biggest fear.

 

One of my buddies I'm talking to, well before I left, but I told him I think I need to leave my nine to five. (You can apply this to yourself regardless of what you do, right?)

 

I was like, "Okay, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I gotta think about, I gotta think about how I'm gonna handle this." And he goes, "What is your biggest fear?  Is your biggest fear that you're not gonna make enough money? What is the fear?"

 

And I said, "No, actually, my fear is not about the revenue.  I've been a part of a lot of these funnel things now and launched enough kind of on the side while I've been here. I think I've got that part." (Not to say that I'm amazing, you know. Anyway, you get what I'm saying.)

 

"The part that is freaking me out the most, the part that's freaking me out the most is that I'm gonna be sitting by myself alone looking at a wall with no one to crack the whip. You know what I mean? I'm gonna be sitting there by myself in an isolated room."

 

In ClickFunnels environment, there's energy. There are people running around over the place. There's "Hey, let's do this" and "Let's do that."

 

So even if there was a day when I felt kinda tired, I don't know if I wanna do this right now. I still had other people and other processes and things and place to pull me along and to hold me accountable.

 

And I said the thing that was freaking me out the most when I left was that I'm not gonna have that.  

 

I was talking to my wife about this. It was the biggest fear I have; do I have the discipline to continue to show up every day like I'm going to war?  Do I have the discipline to show up day in and day out to show up and act like, "Okay, today, the goal is to make a sale." You know what I mean?

 

Do I have the discipline to just do revenue-generating activities and not get distracted by things that are easier? Instead of like going in and trying to make the sale, "What's more comfy for me?" You know what I mean? You guys know what I'm talking about?

 

So  I just wanna share with you guys how I'm able to go in and stay structured, personally, day in and day out.

 

Now I'm not perfect like this, and I don't want you to think that I am. I'm not.

 

I really only listen to like two or three people. I listen to Russell Brunson's stuff. I learned marketing from him. I learned business structures from Alex Charfen. And I listen more about closing and what to do with cash when you have it from a lot of Grant Cardone stuff. And those are kinda my three. That's about all I listen to.

 

Sometimes, I listen to some Pat Flynn. Pat Flynn on Smart Passive Income. His podcast, that was one of the first shows I ever listened to that started teaching me about this world.

 

Anyway, so there's a few people I listen to, but really, it's just them -which gurus did they learn from, which books did they study, which courses did they go to to learn how to be where they are, right?

 

When I'm done diving through all their stuff, I just go the next level deeper with them. And that's kinda how I make sure I put the blinders on and not get distracted with my education. So it's been kinda cool.

 

So this was a serious fear of mine though, right? When I leave, how will I maintain discipline? Will I? And it's funny now that I'm thinking about it, but that was eight months ago, nine months ago, and that's kind of a weird thing to be afraid of, but not really...

 

And funny enough, one of the things I would teach at the funnel event, (the Funnel Hackathon Event -  FHAT) was this very thing.

 

Funny enough the thing that people was asking about after a while, after like the first day and a half, I've had another day and a half with them, pretty much every question turned into, "How do you keep your energy so high, Stephen? How do you stay checked in so often, Stephen? How do you... "

 

And I was like, "Why are you guys asking me this?" I didn't say that. But I was thinking it was like, "Why does everybody ask me that question?" It almost frustrated me.

 

I was like, "Well you just freakin' do it? You don't overcomplicate it - you just do it."

 

But it's funny because like as I started leaving, I put my foot in my mouth because I realized, "Oh my gosh, I have the same fears." As I started leaving nine to five, I was like, "Holy crap! How am I gonna do that? How am I gonna stay motivated?"

 

So I just want to teach you guys just a few things that I do to keep myself checked in, day in and day out. Again, I'm not always perfect at it. No, but I'm like 99% on certain aspects of it. Other parts, I'm like 50%. Other parts, I'm not so good at - and I'll get better.

 

There's a guy; I can't remember who it was... He was getting a Ph.D., and what he chose to study was Will. He choose to study willpower. In fact, I think I have his books somewhere over there. Anyway, I'm gonna keep going here though. Let me tell you the lesson.

 

Here's the lesson, what I learned from it:

 

He went in to study and do a Ph.D. dissertation on willpower, and what causes humans to have such high will, right? And he ended up getting like depressed about his studies by the time his study was over because he found out that basically, willpower doesn't work.

 

In fact, I think that's the name of the book, Willpower Doesn't Work.

 

He found out that willpower is a terrible thing to put your faith into. Willpower is a terrible thing for you to bank your success on. And I thought how interesting is that? He said the thing that does work though is environment.

 

Think about this, okay? Walk with me for a second on this...

 

If I go ahead and I start saying things like, "Man, I need to be better," 'cause a lot of guys say that to me when they hear my episodes. "Oh man, I need to be better. I need to be so much better. I need to be doing this. I should be doing that. I need to stop doing those things. I need to stop doing that."

 

The first step is recognition of what you need to change personally in order to become what you're supposed to be. So you gotta recognize it, right?

 

"Oh man, I'm gonna do this. Oh, look at that. I don't like this part about me. Or I do like this part. I'm gonna go change that. Or if I just did this differently my business would boom."

 

The problem is that you were literally basing all those decisions on your own willpower.

 

It's one of the major reasons why on January 1st, we all come out of the gate with this massive New Year's resolution goals-  "I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna change the world. I'm gonna be over here, and I'm gonna do that."

 

And by week two, we can't even name what the goal was anymore. You know what I mean?

 

He said, so rather than focused on will, rather than focused on willpower, you need to focus on environment. And with that in mind, that's one of the ways I've been able to keep such high intense pressure, right?

 

Pressure makes diamonds baby. I don't want to take pressure off me. I want good pressure, right? There's bad pressure too. I don't want bad pressure. I want good pressure. I want the pressure that creates diamonds.

 

I want the pressure that creates me into a better person. I want the kind of pressure that forces out the bad parts of my character. I want that kinda pressure in my business, in my personal life. That's good pressure. But if I just use willpower on it, eventually, it's gonna get really uncomfortable for me.

 

I'm the source of the willpower. It's not sustainable. What's sustainable is environment. Willpower, you gotta get rid of that crap after a while. It's a good kickstart, but it's habits and environment that'll help you win.

 

And that's what the guys was saying in his study. It has everything to do with environment.

 

And so there is a specific place, physically, that I need to be in when it's time to work out.

 

There's a specific place, physically, that I need to be in when I'm gonna sleep.

 

It's the reason why I don't do study, and I don't do work in bed, right?

 

I know lots of you guys would just roll over and grab the laptop and start right there. I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to isolate.

 

There are certain environments where certain things happen that they should not happen in other places. It's part of the way that I've been able to structure this stuff. Environment plays a huge role.

 

When I walk into my office door right there, I can't explain it, I don't know what it is, but I'm on. I'm ready. And it's because of training myself that way; this is my environment to produce. This is my environment to go to war. This is my environment to be a killer, right? It's my environment. I've trained myself that way.

 

I don't sleep in here, I eat in here a lot (if I remember to). But I make sure that there is a specific environment for the core activities of my life.

 

Down right below, I'm in the second floor of our house right now, literally right below me is my gym - in the third car garage of our gym. The third car spot bay is a home gym that I built.

 

It's so funny like how well this has worked. When I walk out there, and I put my feet on that mat -I got that thick hard gym mat, and I got a full weight set. All the dumbbells, the bench press, it's a full setup. Got a squat rack, all of it.

 

I got that dummy Poverty. You guys have seen him. I brought him on here a couple of times and different places.

 

Willpower is no longer what I'm betting on in order to work out. I've already done 80% of the work which is just to show up and do what that environment is conducive of. Work out, right?

 

A lot of guys have asked me like, "Stephen, how do you come up with your podcast ideas?" I set up this screen, I got two lights right here and I got this camera on this tripod. And sometimes, it's when I'm sitting down with this setup ready, and I'm standing in front of the camera and I pace.

 

I will pace back and forth, and I was kinda going like this, "Okay, what it is that the community needs? What is it that they've been asking? What's something that I can share and be valuable?" I'm kinda going back and forth...

 

I don't wait to set this stuff up. I don't wait to have all of my ideas in place to set up my equipment. I just set up my equipment. And now, I'm in the environment and the flow starts. Does that make sense? This is one of the biggest things I could tell you.

 

If your spouse is like, "Hey, why don't you come work on the couch while there's a movie going?" Very few people can sit there and actually be productive, I mean truly - without watching the movie. Very few. It's because that's not the environment it was meant for.

 

Now, when all we have is a couch, and I didn't have a specific office, (technically, this is a bedroom - it's a big one though), there was literally the same seat or two in our couch that I would sit. It's the same seat. And it was a certain time.

 

It was about 5:30 in the morning, I'd get up. And if I wasn't gonna bike in and be in the office at 6 AM, I sat right there 'til about 8:30 and I just work on my own funnels. That was my environment.

 

Here's another one. Something I said I'd do, I tried desperately hard, I'm still not amazing at this. Like last night, my flight came in at like 2 AM. It's ridiculous by the time I get to sleep...

 

Anyway, I was flying like crazy over the weekend. So I'm so tired my voice is kinda shot, so I'm so sorry.

 

But anyway, I don't set my phone as the major alarm clock anymore as much as I can. In hotels, sometimes I can't help this. But I set my phone, if it's the alarm clock, I set it across the room. Because willpower, when I'm tired, does not work. The alarm goes off, and I wouldn't even think about it...

 

There have been times where I've snoozed like four times before I've consciously remembered, "Oh my gosh, I set my alarm for this time because I had to get this thing done." You know what I mean?

 

I don't wanna bank on willpower. I'm gonna bank on environment. And so I set that clock across the room.

 

Now I have a specific $7 alarm clock that's really freaking annoying. You know, beep-beep-beep. Like I hate that thing. Oh my gosh. But I set it up across the room, sometimes in another room to get up and start moving, get that blood pumping.

 

Sometimes, I just stand there, like, "Why am I awake again? Oh yeah, 'cause I gotta do this, this, this." Does that make sense?

 

Environment. Huge, huge, huge, massive accelerant right there.

 

If you can start to control the environment and the things that you do in those environments, massive, massive, accelerant.

 

Sometimes, one of the issues that I found is that people will try to relax in the same environment that they work in. That's very hard for me to do. 'Cause when I'm here, I'm going to war. That's what my mentality of it. I'm here to conquer. I'm here to dominate. I'm here to get filthy freaking rich and then give it all away when I die to charities. You know what I mean?

 

Like that's it. That's what I'm doing. Solving legitimate massive problems, right? Provide a huge incredible value. Get rich, and solve huge humanitarian issues. That's my goal guys. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. That's why I'm doing all these stuff. I really want that, okay?

 

But I can't be in a relaxing environment in the same environment where I am trying to do that. Where I'm pacing around - and I've got Vitamin C caffeine running through my veins - I've got dubstep step music going through my headphones, and I'm in front of my whiteboard trying to solve something. That's hard for the human brain to do. So I just separate environments.

 

That's one of the major answers to the question, "Stephen, how do stay so productive?" It's because I dedicated certain spots to do certain things and not do certain things. You understand? Massive help. Massive help.

 

I cannot do all of my relaxing things in the same place I'm doing my work, intense things.

 

I'm not going to eat my meals on the gym mat where I work out. You know what I mean? Like, no, that's crazy. Well, like, shoot, there are certain places we eat meals. Kitchen table, right? The countertop, whatever. And that's usually where it happens. We do that with the way we eat, we do that with the way we sleep, do that with the way you work. Do that with the way that you take care of yourself, your self-care.

 

Anyway, so that's one of the first answers, I would say. You guys start controlling your environment.

 

If you feel like, "I've been doing this stuff so long with no traction." It's probably 'cause of your habits. It's probably where you're trying to be successful and control your environment, 'cause willpower doesn't work. It's all about environment. That's the first thing I would say.

 

The second thing I would say is that I am not very good at time. I'm just not. I'm not good with time. And so one of the tricks that I noticed...

 

I was doing some trial runs to see if I could handle having a lot of discipline at home. I remember a Christmas time right before I left ClickFunnels. It was either Christmas or Thanksgiving, right before I left my nine to five...

 

I was like, "Let's do a trial run." Do I have the discipline to produce for like nine straight hours? I'm not gonna take a freaking lunch break - that's stupid. I could eat while I work. So I'm gonna get up and let's just act like a normal nine to five, or eight to five. Really, it's nine to six. That's about how long, but nine to six. And no breaks.

 

I don't really get up. I get up to go to the bathroom, get water, food, but I eat it all right back here and I just stay at it.

 

I don't know how you guys take lunch breaks. Somebody gets you to, let's go to lunch. Like, no "No, I'm not gonna go to lunch." Anyway, side rant right there. But I'm not gonna go to lunch.

 

Anyway, it's funny how many people ask, "Let me buy lunch." Like what if you bought it through Uber Eats and sent it to my house? I'm cool with that. Anyway, I'm not gonna go to lunch with you. Why would I waste two hours? Not that it's a waste, but it is for me. You know what I'm saying?

 

Like, in that environment, I'm in the zone. You know what I mean? When 9 AM hits, I'm ready to rock - hopefully, earlier than that. But anyway, so the first thing: environment - 'cause environment is the thing that does work.

 

The second thing though is while I was doing that trial run on, I think it's during the Thanksgiving break, so I didn't have work anyways. But I was like, "Let me do it here and see if it actually works out." Here's what's interesting about that...

 

Because I did not have, I didn't need to be in the chair, I didn't need to be behind the computer, the work always has to be behind the computer, but whatever the work is because I didn't have a certain time, there's nobody else I was accountable to...

 

The first two days, I was really good at coming in at like 9 AM. I was really good at coming in. Then it was like 9:15. And then like 9:20, and then 9:30, and then 9:40, right?

 

And then I would end the day as disciplined either.

 

When I was at ClickFunnels, I'd work about until six, have dinner with the family then I come back, stop at 10, so I can get up early. I'll stop at 11, I'll stop at 12. No, let's just push to 2. You know what I mean?

 

Like the schedule thing, I suck at time management. I do, and I'll admit it. I'm not ashamed at that. But a business can't run like that...

 

So this is one of the tricks that I've used a lot. I have used many times. I actually used to use this in college. I hated doing early morning classes, but I noticed that when I started my classes at about 10 o'clock in the morning, I would do almost nothing from the time I got up to the time my class happens at 10 o'clock. And it was like that for a whole semester.

 

I was like, "Huh, what if I chose to do 7:45 AM classes every morning? Let's see what happens. Let's check it out."

 

It was a little more painful sometimes, especially when I was like little late on an assignment, or not late but like pushing up to the edge, which is pretty much every assignment.

 

So I would get up at seven and just haul. Just push, just go super fast to campus. Go flying into class. But I noticed that when class was over at 8:45, I would make fantastic use of the time since I was already up. I was already awake. I was already doing stuff.

 

But on the days when I didn't have class until nine, I would just sleep in a little more. I wouldn't do anything else with the day. And so one of the things that have been really, really powerful for me, is I set appointments early in the day every day.

 

If I don't have an appointment, I make sure that I have a sense of accountability to something or someone. And now I'm practiced at it.

 

You guys know I was in the army for a while, right? I went and enlisted, and when I was done, I came out as an officer. And I remember when I went to basic training, there some guy who was 15 seconds late to this formation that we were doing And he didn't have all those crap with him.

 

We were doing something. I can't remember what it was. We hold our M16s with us. We had our weapons and shooting range or something like that, and we're gonna go on like six days or something...

 

Anyway, the dude didn't have all these crap together. And so the drill sergeant put everybody in a front leaning rest position. He just goes, "Attention! Front leaning position, move."

 

Then what you do is you just hold the push up position. That's it, with all of your gear on. And you put your M16 across the top of your hands. You have two liters of water on you, 40 pounds in your pocket, and you just hold the push up position.

 

We held that thing forever, while we waited for the dude to pack in front of the rest of the platoon. We just sat there. Hands shaking, you start freaking out. You try to self-talk, like "Yeah, you got this."

 

What they teach is that if you are the weak link, if you do not show up on time, if you cannot get your crap done, you actually are making the rest of team suffer.

 

They would not make the guy was late. They would not make the guy who was not packed. They would not make the guy who was late on the run get punished. They would make everybody else get punished for his mistake.

 

There's some psycho-ness to that if you think about it. But there's a really powerful crap behind it too. And it's the state that I try and stay in.

 

I got a little bit of a team now. I got like six VAs on my content team. I got other team members that I'm starting to look out for and grab as well. And if I don't have my crap together, if I can't get my butt in the chair at the right time I'm supposed to, if I can't get the stuff to the people that I need to, I literally am making the rest of the team unable to be successful in what I've asked them to do. I literally set up my team for failure if I do that.

 

That's not fair - that's not fair to them. It's not fair to what I'm trying to get done. And it's because of me; it's on me. You understand?

 

And so one of the things that's super, super helpful if you have a hard time getting where you need to be, just set appointments. Be active, have appointments.

 

There have been times where I've set appointments with people for the sake of having the appointment. That's it. Just getting up, just being where you need to be. The body and mind can handle far more than you think it can.

 

And so when I sit down and I'm like, "Oh man, I really don't wanna do this thing. I really don't wanna do that. I feel a little bit lazy. Let me just relax tonight..."

 

I'm not saying I don't relax. I really have been a lot, actually. It's been really cool. I've been really level-minded lately. I've been doing a lot of meditating, which have been very helpful also. Using that muse headband thing, it's been super helpful. Maybe we'll toss the link out to that somewhere. But that's been really, really helpful for me...

 

But what's been cool is by strategically just having a full, having a calendar where I'm accountable and responsible to somebody at a certain time in the morning.

 

I don't wanna feel like an idiot, and so I get my crap together, and I do it. Does that make sense?

 

So you can use, like, if you know you're like, "Hey Stephen, I'm really bad a time management too." Great, that's fine - you have two options:

 

#1: Get really good at time management - that could take a long time.

 

#2: If you're one of the people who's like, "I don't wanna feel like I'm an idiot or I don't wanna feel like I'm letting somebody down..." Man, use that fear to your advantage.

 

Start setting up things in your life to create barriers, to create constraints.

 

I get up, I exercise in the morning, most of the time, and I was traveling. That's why I got back super late. Holy crap. So I don't know. But my normal day, I get up, I go, and I lift really, really hard...

 

There's a future date that I'm preparing for, even though it's not for another four or five months, I don't wanna look like an idiot at it. That's one of the motivating factors I have for me for working out every day.  I remind myself of that. I really don't wanna be late today. I don't like to be a freaking idiot at this thing that is coming up. (I'll tell you guys what it is when we move on, but that's what I'm doing.)

 

I've been working my face off. I work the entire weekend, no breaks, working straight for 21 straight days. You know what I mean? I could take a break. You know what though? We got people coming over, we got this, or I got an interview.

 

That's why I have interviews at Tuesdays at 9 AM. I do another people's shows. It's mostly for me to get my butt in the seat.

 

So I'm giving you several things, several tools that work with here. Because funny enough, if you just...

 

More than half of success is just showing up. I know I'm gonna dominate what I'm going for because most people are too afraid to even show up. If I'm just here, then I'm the only option for people to consume.

 

If I'm just here, and I have my products out there, I'm the only option for people to buy when they wanna buy something. Does that make sense?

 

The game is really easy now. The game's super easy now. It's really easy to dominate a space. The incredible, ridiculous lack of discipline in society now mixed with such an abundance of education, of knowledge.

 

YouTube, and Google, and I can find out the answer to anything I want, pretty much, just by freaking searching it; if you couple that with this extreme lack of discipline...

 

Man, like, I want everyone to change. I want everyone to be like killing it, but if they're not willing to, it's like all easier for me to just go dominate a marketplace, right?

 

So I'm trying to give you guys a few different tools to understand how I do what I do. To show up, just be there. Just get in the freaking seat, right?

 

#1: willpower doesn't work.

 

#2: Set things early in your day for the sake of being where you need to be.

 

#3: You have got to have a full schedule.

 

That doesn't always mean like you're hanging out with other people and you're like, "Hey, I'm gonna do this or I'm gonna do that or whatever." But I pack my day.

 

Entrepreneurs are not very good at judging how much time it takes to get something done, right? We're not. But I would rather expect and run like crazy to get this list of crap done and get like 70% of it done than just be realistic and try and do this one thing today. You know what I mean?

 

I wanna stay hungry. I'm trying to stay hungry. Pack the day. Idle time, that's bad. That's bad. Pack the day. Have a ton of crap going on. Keep a full schedule. That's one of the ways that I push so hard as well.

 

There's stuff I've agreed to. I'm not totally sure yet how I'm gonna fulfill on it, but one thing I've noticed is that every time I take on stuff like that, I personally have to grow in order to match the opportunity I've been given.



If I just push hard at it, I never know the answer ahead of time, but I always find it in the middle of looking. Meaning, I have to actually be walking then I find the answers on how to get something done. Huge lesson to that.

 

Some of you guys are religious. I'm religious. Moses and the red sea, baby. That thing did not start splitting until he was walking in the freaking water, right? Go back and look at it. He didn't split that thing and then wait for it to go. The dude got wet before it moved, right? It's the same thing.

 

You got to be willing to get uncomfortable in order for your goals to happen. There's a level of personal fulfillment required, right? The level you develop will be at the level of your success on the other side as well.  

 

I'm trying to share with you guys little tiny things I've done to help make sure I've been successful along the way.

 

I am terrible at some things in my life. And that's cool. Whatever. Everybody is, right? But rather than be like, "Oh, I'm so crappy at this or this... let me just take this whip and just whip myself all the time. I suck at this. Time management, you piece of crap. You got me bad. I can't do what I want to in life..."

 

Instead, I call out my own crap.

 

I figure out exactly what I can craft around my life to create a positive constraint. Positive constraint. Positive constraint. Not all constraints are bad.

 

And when you're willing to submit to something like that, you learn the discipline to actually execute on those things.

 

That's why I'm doing what I am. That's why I can do what I can.

 

So again, just to recap real quick.

 

#1: Willpower doesn't work. It's all about setting up good environments. These are very simple things that I've done.

 

#2:  If you have a hard being in places you're supposed to be, set appointments just for the sake of getting there. That has helped me tremendously. I've used that multiple times. Multiple times.

 

On Tuesday, I have to be somewhere at nine. On all Fridays, I have to be somewhere at nine. Thursdays, not yet, but my discipline's really good. I've been a lot better at that stuff now.

 

So anyways, I work my face off when I finally get there. So instead, what if I just work on getting there? Mondays, there's a place I have to be right at nine.

 

Wednesdays, I can't remember. But I think it's kinda like flex time. Anyway, right?

 

So again, willpower doesn't work. It's all about environment. Number two, you have got to set up things to get you where you're supposed to be even just for the sake of being there because more than half of success is just showing freaking up. Because no one else is gonna do it. Not many people do it.

 

When you're the only option, guess what? You get paid.

 

#3: You gotta stay busy. You gotta pack that schedule, you gotta keep it busy, you gotta stay full and be productive.

 

I would rather make mistakes of ambition rather than mistakes of sloth. I am not a man to make mistakes of sloth. I will not be that character.

 

There have been so many freaking things that have not worked out that I've launched. Who the freak cares? I don't care. Because I've been in the act of just being in motion. Just being in motion causes amazing productivity, causes ideas to come.

 

Some people are like, "Stephen, how are you gonna ever run podcast materials? Stephen, how did you come up with that idea? Stephen, what books can I go read to learn, offer creation like you have?"

 

Man, I don't know. Those are things that I've learned while in the act of doing them. Some things you can't learn from a book.

 

So anyways, just know that those are three of the things that I do to stay productive.

 

My fear of, "Am I gonna have the discipline to stay hungry when we make that first six figures?”  -Which came really quick, same with the second one.  

 

Last month was really awesome. Am I ever gonna sit back and go, "You know what... we did really good." That is the scariest mentality. Oh my gosh. I am fighting complacency. I'm doing everything I can to not get complacent.

 

I can find great funnel builders. I can find great copywriters. I can find and train good marketers. I can find and train. You can learn how to do a lot of this stuff. I can teach you how to do a lot of stuff.  The thing that nobody can teach you that you have got to get serious about is hunger. How can you stay hungry?



It's challenging at first, and you're not gonna find the answer. You might try like this little tweak here, that little trick there. It might take you some time to figure your own system. But if you are not hungry, I can't have you, alright? If you're not hungry, it doesn't matter what I try to teach you.

 

If you're not hungry, I mean, like. "backed against a wall, you're gonna figure out a way" hungry. If you can't do that, it doesn't matter what you're trying to do. You're not gonna make it. That's why I'm trying to do this episode.

 

I've had the shocking amount of people reach out and be like, "How do you keep the mentality you do?" I was like, "Well, I just make sure I stay hungry. I just make sure I stay hungry."

 

I could pay myself a lot more right now, but I'm scared to do so. I kinda want to double or triple how much I pay myself for now, but like I'm nervous because I wanna make sure that I'm hungry. Will I maintain that hunger?

 

I don't have mechanisms in place yet to maintain that next level of responsibility. That's what I'm thinking about. I'm like, "Crap. I don't know that I can stay hungry?" That's more important to me.

 

There was a product that I was being offered percentage of. And I said 'no' to it. And it shocked a lot of people. Like why would you say no to that? And I said that because (I don't think I actually would have), but my fear of not staying hungry is so strong. It's got me everything. It's the reason why I've done what I have. I'm hungry.

 

My fear of not being hungry outweighs my fear of I don't know what to say in this podcast episode.

 

My fear of becoming complacent, my fear of that vastly outweighs my fear of I've never done a webinar before, and I've never written a script before, and I've never... Scary, right?

 

My fear of oh man, I've never introduced Russell on stage; that pales in comparison to my fear of becoming complacent.

 

And I'm begging you to not become complacent.

 

If you've gotten squishy and fussy and you've gotten too nice a life - you gotta get uncomfortable. You gotta get uncomfortable. I try and do something that freaks me out as regularly as possible.

 

There's a really good quote that I've heard. It's from David Goggins... He said the worst thing that can happen to a man is for him to become civilized. And I kind of believe that. I'm not here to be comfy You know what I mean?

 

It is not an easy task to create a freaking blue ocean. You're like, "Stephen, I got this great product, and I got this great offer around it, and I got this great marketing message around it. And I got this great thing around it, but I just don't know, like I'm really nervous..."

 

If you're not willing to become the character you're not gonna give birth to a blue ocean.

 

Be willing to be uncomfortable. That's part of the price. Funny enough though, it's really not that freaking scary once you do it. It's just like riding a bike for the first time or the first time I was driving shift, driving stick in a highway. You know what I mean?

 

It's like learning to walk. Like anything else, just downplay it, cause you should. 'Cause it's not as scary as you think it might be.

 

Anyways, it was a long episode. But I just want you guys to know a little bit more about how I do what I do and the mentality that I'm trying to stay in at all times.

 

#I'm trying to stay hungry.

 

# I'm trying to say yes to things that I should say yes to.

 

# I'm trying to create positive constraint in my life. I

 

# I'm trying to make sure that what I'm doing with my personal discipline is on purpose. There's intention behind it. That it actually is counteracting and adhering to my personal defects, my character defects.

 

I have character flaws; everybody does. But sometimes, people use that as a crutch to not do stuff. You should use that as a crutch to do stuff. Just create things around it. Create positive constraints and craft success environments, right?

 

Some people, they might look at celebrities on TV and be like, man, they're so lucky. "They're so lucky." Did you sit on your freaking couch for years doing nothing with your life? You know what I mean?

 

Are you are comparing where you are to that person? How much discipline does that person have that you don't? I beg you to learn discipline. I beg you to get it. I'm not perfect at it. I'm really not. But I'm trying.

 

Those are some of the tricks I've used in my personal life to maintain speed, right? And now that a lot of the speed with the business has been set up, I have this massive realization...

 

I was at Alex Charfen's event last week. I realized that I have done so much, sprinting and running and setting systems and processes and marketing and revenue and pulling stuff up in the business setting,  that I've been neglecting my own needs on a few things. So I'm gonna go start leasing those things back in.

 

There's no such thing as perfect balance. I believe in obsession.

 

So before I keep going on the soapbox, it's been a long episode...

 

Those are some of my tricks guys. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

 

If you guys like this podcast episode, please go rate and review it on iTunes or YouTube. That actually means a lot to me and helps the show a ton. And thanks so much.

 

Bye guys. Oh, yeah. Obviously, our funnel's already dead if you can't even get anyone opt in, right? So I spent four hours teaching an audience how to get high opt-ins when they work, when they don't work.

 

If you want access to that member's area, we can watch those replays. Just go to freeoptincourse.com to create your free member's account now.



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