This is probably one of my favorite principles from Ready, Fire, Aim…

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

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

Hey, how you doing? Got kind of a cool episode here for you. It's been busy, busy, and I've been loving it, been enjoying it. I am doing a lot of cool stuff. There's going to be some neat updates with this podcast coming up very shortly, which I'm very excited about. Neat updates with the podcast. This is going to be ... I've got a cool gift for you guys. I'm so excited. I think I have found the right person and hired her and, she's doing some amazing stuff for me with this podcast. So, coming soon there will be something pretty amazing.

Hey, I've been traveling a lot lately, and I was on an airplane. I don't know what it is about airplanes. I love putting headphones on. I pretty much have headphones on all the time. People think that I'm really shy and a bit of an introvert, which is slightly true. But anyway, I was sitting on an airplane, and I love getting out a legal pad, just a blank legal pad and a pen. And, I just think. That's it. I just sit there and I just think.

And I'm listening to awesome music. I got these cool noise canceling headphones. I slip them in noise cancel mode, and, I just sit there and I listen to awesome music, and I just think. And I just designing out whatever funnel or offer or marketing thing that I want to.

And so, I was designing out this really awesome funnel, which you guys will all see shortly because I think it's something everyone could benefit from. And so I have been building that, and I've been putting it all together. It's been a lot of fun, but one of the things I was thinking about as I kind of started studying from different books, and I was putting the pad down and grabbing different books. You guys know that I've been talking a lot of about Ready, Fire, Aim lately.

And guys, the way I read books is very weird, and I know it is. It takes me a solid, solid month to get through a single book if I'm actively reading it. If I'm not, I can be on the same book "for like three months", which is so true, and it's kind of sad. But the reason why is because, if you look, I'm holding a page right now. It is marked to death. So much so sometimes you can barely even read the words that are on the page.

Anyway, I don't know if it's necessarily a good thing, but I think about all the things ... That's the reason why, if I want to actually read a book cover to cover, "read it", I have to listen to it. Otherwise, I stop, I think about it, it connects with other ideas, I draw it, I remember three or four quotes from some other thing and I write them down, I hook them into the book.

And you know, that's the way I read books. Because of that, I was a very slow reader in school, and so, all I would do is I would find PDF versions of someone's book, and I'd go load it into like, an eBook reader and play it at like, four time speed. And that's literally how I got through all school. It's because of this. I think it's a cool problem. It's not necessarily a problem. I don't think it's a problem at all, but, it certainly keeps me going very, very slow.

So, I'm on page 119 and, I've been there for a long time...

Anyway so, I was sitting on the airplane, and I had my pen and paper out and, I start reading this paragraph from this section. And the reason I like to do so much is that, I know that when you learn and when you have ideas that come to you. When you combine them with other stuff, that's really how you learn anyway.

And so, I'll see them in my head by drawing pictures. I'll see them in my head by ... I mean, yeah. Little diagrams. I underline certain words, certain things like that. I star things all over the place. Weirdly enough, I imagine myself teaching the principal from stage, a lot.

That is actually, something I do a ton...

So that, by the time you guys are hearing it on the podcast. A lot of times, I've said it already. Both in my head, on stage, sometimes, actually on stage, probably, in two or three Q & A groups that I do every Friday, that some of your guys are a part of. And so, it's very, very in my head. And when I need to, it just bubbles up, and it pops up, and I use it in the future. And, it's honestly, one of the ways that I'll go learn new stuff. Most of the time I don't just learn for just whatever. I don't learn generically. I learn very, very specific for whatever problem I'm on right now.

So, I'm very, very selective and almost protective of myself based on what I'm going and learning and studying because I don't want to get distracted about stuff that I don't need to be using right now, you know what I mean?

Anyway, so I want to read to you this one thing though. This is very, very powerful, and I think it's one of the major reasons why some people ... they're not where they want to be. Anyway, so I want to read this real quick, okay.

So, this is in Ready, Fire, Aim. It's page 118, sorry. It's a few paragraphs down, and this is what it says. "So, though your primary focus should always be on customer service, you're quantifiable goal as a stage one entrepreneur should be to acquire as fast as possible what we call a critical mass of qualified customers, the number of loyal customers you need in order to make all or almost all of your subsequent selling transactions profitable."

Let me say that one more time. "You're primary focus should be on customer service. Although it is, the actual goal is to acquire as fast as possible a critical mass of qualified customers."

Follow me real quickly on this one, okay? So, you're acquiring a critical mass of qualified customers, right? All right. Once you have a good number of qualified customers, you will be in a really good position where almost every new product you come up with will be successful because so many of your existing customers will buy it. Hmm. That's fascinating, isn't that?

So, let's think through that here real quick, okay? I'm like stuttering right now, sorry about that. I've got a billion ideas and my heads getting in front of my mouth, sorry about that. Okay so, first what you're doing is, you're grabbing a ton of customers, just qualified customers, as many of them as you possibly can and, as fast as you can.

What you're doing is, the reason you're doing it is because, you're acquiring the customer with a product so that ... A buyer is a buyer is a buyer is a buyer is a buyer is a buyer, right?

We all know that, right? What he's doing, what he's saying here is the reason you're doing that is because all the subsequent sales that you are trying to make to your existing customers, they're far more successful because they've already bought from you in the first place. That's what he goes into and talks about here.

And he goes through and he talks about ... This is interesting. On the very next page here he ... I hope you guys are okay that I read certain sections and passages to you. I hope that's okay.

Anyway, on the very next page he's talking about a consultant that sent him this email, and he said, "Although your eyes glazed over when you looked at the convoluted formulas in my spreadsheet that modeled allowable order costs, you immediately understood the dynamics of generating long term profits through the development of large circulation, low-cost products sold at a loss on marketing by upselling high-end products through this larger base."

In layman's terms and in English what he's saying is he goes and he's suggesting to this company basically a tripwire funnel. He is going out and that's what I drew right next to it. He says, "Look, here's what you need to be doing. You need to go out and you need to create long-term products through the development of large circulation, low-cost products sold at a loss on marketing by upselling high-end products through this larger base." So, he said, "Go and create this huge ... Acquire as many customers as quickly as you possibly can."

You get them in the door just so that they're in the door, and you might go and you might actually lose a little bit of cash on them. That's fine. Why? Because there is a followup sale. There is an upsell.

Now, because of the funnel world, because of the upsell world that we live in, we know that could happen immediately. This company, though, was talking about it as though they need to go in the hole for quite some time. We know because of funnels, because of tripwire funnels, because of upsells, downsells, all the different things that you can offer. You can make that second sale immediately right after you acquired them. That's why the book funnel works so well. Right?

The two-step tripwire funnel, or the low ticket eComm funnels, where the first product or two in the funnel are loss leaders, where you're going in and you're saying, "Hey, look, just have it. I'm just trying to help you practice take your credit card out when you see my name, my brand, my product. Oh good, you did. Here's something else." And the percentage of people who will buy from you goes through the roof because of that.

I love what he said in this. I think it's fantastic. So, I started thinking through how can I acquire as many customers for my current product that I'm selling right now as fast as I can, because I'm not building a tripwire funnel for a while, and I'm not going to, and it's on purpose, and it's gonna be quite some time before I actually put a tripwire in front of it.

And you guys all know why. I start at the middle of the value ladder. It's the core of the business. We've done a lot of cash so far, which is great, fantastic, but I could not have done that cash if I was focused on a tripwire funnel. I would've done maybe a couple grand vs. nearing a hundred grand. You know what I mean? Which is what we're doing now. It's just awesome. Okay.

You guys know my philosophy on that. It's the start in the middle, move to the back, and then go to the front. Sometimes you can go to the front second, but usually it's third depending on the business. I know some of you guys are in eComm, and you're like, "I'm not gonna do that". That's fine. That's fine. Just figure out a way to charge more money. That's the biggest takeaway that I'm trying to say.

So, here's what I did. As I started thinking through, here's my current webinar numbers, and I started thinking through how do I acquire 1,000 buyers as quickly as I can, as fast as I can. Why? Why? So that when I put a high ticket, back end product in front of them, there are enough customers to make a significant difference in my wallet. Right?

It's the coolest thing, guys. It's the funnest thing. Every time we put a hight ticket application style funnel on the back of an inner circle member's value ladder, it doubles their business. Right? But it only doubles their business if they have a certain number of qualified buyers, when they amass ... What did he call it? He called it a critical mass of qualified buyers. Right?

You have to do that. You have to do it. That's how this whole thing works really, really well. That's when it explodes. That's when it takes off, and there are really, really easy ways to grow big lists quickly. There are really, really easy ways to do this with starting out with not list, with the current list. You know what I mean? Start acquiring the list if you don't have one

Anyway. So, I wanna walk through this right here real quick. These are my current webinar numbers, and I kind of worked backwards on them thinking through how to actually get this done here.

Okay. So, if I want 1,000 buyers and I currently close anywhere from 6% to 15% on the webinar, and I know that's a huge spectrum, but the reason why is because usually it's anywhere from 6% to 10% on the webinar, and then another however many percent during the followup series.

So, I don't totally know the exact number yet. I've only done it live three times so far, but somewhere around there. It goes anywhere from ... I've had it closed even like as 25%, but then on some of them like 6%. You know what mean? So, there's a spectrum, so I'm just gonna say on average.

So, let's say that I want 1,000 buyers, and I close at an average right now of, let's say, 15%. That means I need 6,667 people to hear the pitch. Okay? I'd literally need to pitch ... There needs to on the stack section of the webinar I need almost 7,000 people to actually hear it in order for me to close at 15%. Okay? I get about a 15% to 20% show up rate from those who register, which means I need 33,333 people to register on my registration page.

That's how many people I need to register on the page for 15% to 20% to show up, which allows me to have about 7,000 pitches, which allows me to have about 1,000 buyers. That's about how the numbers shake out give or take a bit because obviously that's fluid.

Now, I'm spending on average anywhere from $4 to $8. It averages out pretty strongly around 5 to 6, actually, $5 to $6 per registrant. So, that means I'll need to spending about $166,000 on ads to get 1,000 buyers. That's actually not bad. For a $1,000 product, that means I'm giving up 16% of my $1,000 to acquire the customer. That's not bad. That's not bad at all.

I'm about to turn on this affiliate program here, and I'm giving away 25%, so you get $250 for every thing that you help me give away, that you help me sell. Let's compare that real quick. So, I started thinking, so I was like, "Wait a second. 16% in ads to acquire an individual vs. 25% to an affiliate. Why would I give 9% extra to an affiliate?" So, I started thinking about it.

This is all on the airplane, and I'm sure the person next to me thought I was a freak because I was writing ferociously. Something about hight altitudes, the pressurized cabin, and fast paced music. I don't know. But anyway.

There's 16% in my ad spend to acquire a customer, 16% of the total revenue to acquire the customer. That's not crazy. What am I ... That's 84% product margin. That's freaking awesome. Tell me another industry that you can get that in.
In school, I was part of a student run business. We built it from scratch. I was assigned to be in the food business.

I am not a cook. I am not good at cooking. I know that...

Other people around me know that. But that's what I was assigned to. We were making 8% to 10% business margin overall, and the professors were freaking out how amazing that was. I was like, "8%?" They're like, "Do you know how amazing that is? That's great. That's huge. Oh my gosh." I was like, "Oh my gosh. I'm not going into the food business. That's good for the food business? Oh man."

Anyway. So, that's the reason I sell what I sell. It's on purpose. It's very much on purpose because I want to choose products where there's high perceived value so that there's more margin so that I can spend more to acquire the customer plus also bring more profit into the business. Does that make sense?

Anyway. So, 16% of the sale is what I give up to acquire a customer when I spending ads. So far, that's about where they're shaking out. And I think that's not 100% always gonna stay there because the ads are getting better, we're finding sources of traffic. We just got offered a huge list to go promote to. But that now goes into the affiliate side, right? So, I could do 16% of the sale for ads or 25% of the sale for my affiliates.

Now, why would I do that? Why would I not just continue to acquire customers just through ads and save the extra 9%? 9% of a thousand bucks, that's starting to make a dent over scale, right? That starts to be a lot of money. Here's why. Speed. If all we care about is average cart value, which right now my average cart value is $997, and cost to acquire the customer, cost to acquire ... Until I read this passage in this book, just this last little bit here, I always thought of cost to acquire as dollars cost to acquire, and it's not. It's also time cost to acquire.

I could go out, and I could keep spending 16% on my ads to actually get people in the door. Right? And it would be good. It would be great. But man, if someone's already amassed a huge group of people and I want just this huge influx of people, why would I not go really quickly, just go and even give up extra margin to get a huge influx of people to come in? Why? Right? I'm acquiring as fast as humanly possible my critical mass of qualified customers so that I can give them the upsell easier. Okay? That's why. That's why.

Cost to acquire is not just about dollars. It's also about time, and I realized that while I was sitting on the plane, and I was like, "Holy crap. Why have I never ever thought of that before?" That might be a no-duh thing for you guys, and it might be, but man, I had never thought of it before.

So, think through, you guys. Think through...

You might be having great ad spend. Everything might be great. Everything might be profitable, but take into account the consideration that you might actually, if you get customers at a faster and faster rate and the time to get them in is drastically reduced, you might just be getting them in that first time so that you have this awesome base to be able to sell your next thing to where your massive profitability is. Right?

This little strategy right here, oh man. In my mind, that takes the place of any source of VC funding that could ever be needed because that's exactly what VC funding does. Let's go get a huge influx of cash from someone. We'll go borrow a ton of money from somebody. Then what we'll do is we'll start spending ad money in different places to acquire the customer.

So, there's a J-curve, right? You go down in the hole, and you owe tons of money, and you're not profitable yet, and you're spending more money than is coming in. That's freaking scary, by the way, which is another reason I hate VC funding. That's freaking scary. And you're spending more money than is coming in, and then eventually the hope is that you guys figure out enough how to acquire a customer as you go to eventually reach profitability where you're making more money than you're spending, then you actually make more money than you ever borrowed, and then you eventually go sell it off and do roll ups and all these different kinds of strategies. Does that make sense?

That's scary in my opinion...

What I just said in my mind takes place of all VC funding. Okay? It's the whole reason the tripwire funnel works. You're getting in there at the bottom of the value ladder. You're not trying to make money. You're trying to break even. You're acquiring the customer, you're training them that you're a good person to buy from, you're training them how to pull their credit card out, you're training them on your culture, you're training them that you're the attractive character, the charismatic leader, that there is a cause, that this is a viable business so that value ladder step number two you're pure profit.

You don't need to reacquire them. These people that are buying from you right now, I don't need to reacquire them they're in my home. You know what I mean? And those who didn't buy, they're on my list. I don't have to reacquire. I own that traffic now. Someone else owned it, Mark Zuckerberg, I paid him some money, he gave me some of his traffic, some of those people joined my list. I now own that traffic, and because of that I control that traffic through ads, and then now I own it. Sorry.

I own the traffic. I was talking about a different strategy. I own the traffic, but now they're on the list, and I can start promoting my upsell thing to them. So, what I've been doing ... That was a lot. Hopefully that's okay. What I've been doing is I've been trying to think through what my upsell is. Okay?

I've had seven MLM CEOs ask me for this product over the past year and a half. Especially this last little bit as we actually launched it, tons of people have been asking for it. I know it kicks butt, and I have a lot of people ask me, "Steven, why did you choose MLM?" Well, it's because I know what I do is extremely blue ocean for that market. Okay? I know that if I go play the card right and I get it front of enough people, if I can just get that first 13%, 17% to just take on this possibility, man, we just changed an industry.

That's what I'm trying to do. That's the reason why. It's because I know there's people in there who are buyers. I know there are people in there who understand funnels, and I want them to come get this product so that it's proven, those people can see it so they understand that this is actually a very viable thing. And it's very much on auto-pilot more than people realize it is when you use what I'm teaching.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing guys, is I'm going through ... And what I've been doing is I started thinking through, the question then became for me as I was sitting there is, okay, how do I create a low ticket, mass circulation product like he was talking about, a low ticket, low cost, mass circulation product that can get pushed out to tons and tons of people to help me acquire a customer even faster and faster and faster. That's the reason were written.

I know Russell could've sold click funnels just by selling click funnels and nothing else, but the speed was greatly increased by putting low ticket, high circulation products in front of click funnels. That's the reason that he's able to shortcut and skirt out everything else.

Anyway, massive, massive, super, super cool stuff. There guys. Hopefully that made sense. If you wanna re-listen to that, go for it. All I was trying to say, though, is actually I worked backwards, started thinking through ... Here's the application part for you guys for this is start thinking through what's the number of customers that I think I need that lets me have a critical mass of qualified customers. What's that number for you?

Start thinking that through. What I would do is I would start thinking through what percent of them do I need to buy the upsell to really make substantial increases in my wallet? That's what I would do. And for me, I know if I just have 100 people, just 10% of the people who are currently buying from me buy again my high ticket thing, that's gonna be a substantial boost in my wallet.

So, my number is 1,000. Not only just because it's 1,000 buyers at $1,000 is a million bucks, but also because I think I can get 5% to 10% of them to get my high ticket upsell thing even if it's only $10,000. And that is awesome. That's awesome.
So, anyway, that's what I'm working on right now.

That's what I've been thinking through is the low ticket, large circulation products. It's not my focus, but I'm trying to detect and be a good detective of the market. I'm trying to figure out what they want those products to be that will help me acquire buyers really, really quickly. I'm focusing solely on my webinar. I'm not moving from it.

Guys, I'm spending 24/7 on a single funnel. It blows my mind when people are building tons of funnels at once. I can see building maybe two funnels, maybe three if these are low impact funnels, but product funnels? Man. To really pull one off, especially if you don't have a big team like I don't ... I'm mostly doing this on my own right now, and I'm trying to find good people. And I got something cool coming up for everyone else, too, about that in the future here.

But start thinking through what those things are. How do I acquire customers quickly. How do I focus on being profitable really quickly out of the gate, which is why I charge what I do, which is why I do it. You know what I mean? That's what I would start focusing on. Start asking that question. Middle of the value ladder, then either go to the top or the bottom based on what the market's telling you to do. And they're telling you what to create on those front ends. You're not coming up with it on your own. They're telling you, and it removes the risk.

And doing it this way removes the need in my mind of having to get VC funding because if you can figure out what those front end products are that acquire tons of people at once ... The reason why I'm not starting with that is because I don't want a ton of customers all at once and then not have the core of my business be proved out yet, so I start in the middle. Right? Then I'm thinking through all those things in the back. Hey, here's how you actually do it.

Anyway. Guys, it was a long episode, and it was kind of deep. Hopefully that was okay. Someone said I've got all the people buying my product right now just to funnel hack me, which is very honoring and very flattering. How's it going guys. That's nice of you. Appreciate it. But someone sent me a message, and it goes, "I only have to buy your product for $1,000 to learn the deeper inner mind of Steve Larson? Heck yeah I'm in." I was laughing about that. That's a scary place, man.
Anyway. Hey, guys. Hope you're doing great.

Go crush it. This is a fun game...

Don't overwhelm yourself with all the steps, just do the one step in front of you. Don't worry about the other hundred that are in front of you. Worry about step 100 when you just finish step 99 and keep it simple in your head and just focus on the one step in front of you. Don't get distracted and build yourself a sweet funnel.

All right guys. Talk to you later. Bye.

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

It’s one thing to have a dedicated sales team, but it’s the big leagues if you can turn your customers into their own sales team

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

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

What's up, guys? Hey, I hope you're doing great. It is a Monday morning, which frankly might be kind of weird, but it's actually my favorite day and time of the week. Call me workaholic, but it's true though. So, I wake up on Mondays just a-smiling, and I jump out of bed, and I'm so eager to get started on the week, and I know that's weird, but whatever. It's true, so I thought I'd just tell you. Anyways, it's Monday morning. In about an hour and a half here, my wife and I, along with our two little girls we are going to the doctor, and we're going to find out what the gender of our new little baby is, and we're very, very excited. We have two little girls already.

I think it's gonna be another girl, and I think I'll be the only guy in the house here, which is fine by me. Anyway, we'll see what it is, and I'll let you guys know as soon as I do, but we're super excited about that. Anyway, I thought I'd just throw a quick podcast out to you guys because I wanted to quickly just let you know about something that I've been implementing lately that I'm real excited about, and honestly my customers are too. You guys know ... I mean, obviously ...

This is starting my ... Let's see, what is this? One, two, three ... This is beginning my fourth week alone of self-employment, and things have gone very, very well. We've done almost 70,000 in sales, and we haven't really even optimized stuff yet.
You know what I mean? I'm only selling once a week, really, and on my webinar, my live webinar, every single week, and I will plan to be doing the live webinar every single week for probably quite some time because it's been kind of interesting.

The first few times I've done it, I haven't changed anything from one script to the next, but especially this last one, I felt it. I felt where I needed to make the changes. I felt where the lag was, so I'm excited. I'm excited to go and I'm going to start switching those things out, but it's been interesting to go through ... There's a billion things I got to get done still, I mean, obviously, who doesn't have a big to-do list?

But I've got this huge whiteboard over here on the side, and it's just chock full of stuff. It's loaded, it's loaded with tons of things that I need to be getting done, and do, and I ... Anyway, the whole thing's been a lot of fun, but it's been neat to go through and prioritize stuff. So number one priority for me, obviously, has been just to sell. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. You guys know I am a huge advocate of the book, Ready Fire Aim, which talks about stage one, zero to one million, that's the only thing that matters. Just sell stuff.

So, I've been selling things like crazy, been fulfilling on them like crazy, and I've been mostly just focusing on the actual course itself that I've been selling and all the little mini things in them. It's been a ton of fun to go through and do that. Lot of work. Holy smokes. When I created the Secret to Master Class Program inside of Russell's two comma coaching, it was from stuff that already existed and I was just organizing it.

And that's how I made the first pass of content. And then what I did though, was I came back around as I was hearing people's feedback. Then I went back through and I created all the extra courses and extra things, and extra trainings that were needed to plug the holes inside people understandings, just to make sure all the bases were covered, you know what I mean?

That's kind of what I've been doing this first time, is I've been going through and I've been building it from scratch, raw, just the very beginning. Zero to a hundred. But then I go back through after I see people going through it, and all their feedbacks, and all their questions, and all ... That's the reason I do live Q and A's with them every single week.

It's so that I can get through and see, like, they're all still struggling with X. They're all still struggling with Y, or Z, you know what I mean? And then I go back through and I do a second round of filming. I do a second round of product creation. I go plug in all the holes, and I go plug in ... And that's exactly what's been going on here.

So I've been ... it's been a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun. It's a ton of work, but my gosh, it's a lot of ... I mean, I was on ... I think I told this to you guys, I can't remember if I did or not, but I was on stage speaking at two different events this last week, back to back, which was kind of nuts.

And this guy walks up to me afterwards, and he goes, "That was fantastic, first of all." And I was, "Thank you." You know, I said, "Thanks. That's awesome." And then he goes, "I was sitting there though, and I was trying to figure out the word for you." I was like, "What did you mean?" He's like, "The word that describes you. There's something about you and I don't know what it is." And I was like, "Okay, what it is it?"

And he goes, "It took me awhile, but I think I figured it out. You're giddy." I was like, "You think I'm giddy?" He said, "Yeah. You're 100% giddy. Are you kidding me? You're standing on ... you're doing the ... It is so easy to see that you love what you're doing. And it's refreshing. Thank you. It's so freaking awesome to watch that."

And I was like, "That's nice of you. I appreciate that." And he's like, "I'm serious though. It's refreshing because most people get up and they're either sick of what they're doing, or they just got one trick or tip and that's kind of it. It's so clear and obvious that you love what you're doing." And I was like, that actually was some really cool feedback. I'm glad that he said that. That was nice of him.

I never consider myself as giddy about what I do. Maybe I choose a different word. But I am having fun with it, and it's been great. Hey, so I've been getting a lot of requests lately about ... you know what, let me get ahead and I'm just going to read this thing first. And then I'll lead into that. So I'm holding a book. This book is fantastic.

I would read this book if I was you. If I was trying to be a funnel builder. If I was trying to be an author, speaker, coach, consultant, if I was in the SaaS world, if I was definitely B2B, I would put this on your to do list. This book ... so it's a book called Behind the Cloud, by Mark Benioff and this is the story of how Salesforce pretty much went to a billion dollar company and changed the whole industry.

That's what the tag line says anyway. And it's amazing. It's a great book. And what it is, it's a series of what they call plays. Play one, play two, play three ... but of the different plays that they made to be able to go and do what they did. And make no mistake, I am 100% trying to change the MLM industry, which is what I've been selling in.

And I have, I don't know, call it a chip off the shoulder attitude, or chip off the shoulder thing. That industry, it's an amazing thing to go through if you're doing it correctly, if you're doing it right, and otherwise it's pretty easy to get categorized into the millions of people that just want to lose their family and friends, which is why they join one, I think.

Anyway, so strong opinions there. Anyway, so I've been getting a lot of requests from people though, about an affiliate program for the course that I've been selling. And of course I'm going to have one. Of course, absolutely, in fact I think it's going to come out ... We technically already finished it. Technically it's already done. Yeah, anyway.

Technically it's already done, but ... Anyway, sorry, I have like 13 thoughts going through my head and I'm trying to organize them in a way that it's going to go together. Anyway, I want to read a section from this book and then tie it back into what I was just saying and talking about. And here it is. Anyway, so this is on page 73 of the book Behind the Cloud.

And what it says ... This section is called Play Number 40, Make Every Customer a Member of Your Sales Team. And I thought, this is awesome. I certainly agree with this 100%. Make every customer a member of your sales team. And this is what it says, "Just as we tapped into every employee as a marketing person ..."

Okay, that's first of all a very powerful line, "Just as we tapped into every employee as a marketing person, we believe that every customer could also serve as a salesperson. Inside every customer there's unrealized potential that by offering training and support, we could build a sales army that is not limited to a finite number of salespeople, but could scale to hundreds of thousands and one day millions of customer salespeople."

I thought that was fascinating. That's very interesting. Now that obviously the reason you do the affiliate stuff, but I was ... I'm never not thinking about what I do guys, I think it's the reason that guy saw me as giddy. But I was walking, I can't remember when it was, it was a few nights ago, I was pacing, and I was thinking, and I was pacing, and I started thinking through ... I helped create one of the original affiliate bootcamp courses that Russell uses to teach people how to do affiliate marketing.

And he and I tag teamed back and forth along with John Parks, and the three of us went through and we taught this frankly, really awesome affiliate ... it's called Affiliate Bootcamp.

And what it does is it teaches somebody how to be an affiliate if they've never been one before, from scratch with no lists. Or if you do have a list, it shows that as well. But the real thing that it's doing is it's showing people how to be an affiliate for ClickFunnels. That's really what it is. It's positioned as generic, but what it's really doing is it goes through and it shows people, "Yes, here's how you promote ClickFunnels for us." It's really to make customer salespeople. Customer salespeople where they love your stuff so much ... And it even goes through in the book, keeps talking about different training and support and stuff like that, enough assets a person needs so they can be a customer salesperson.

And so what I've been thinking through, and actually voxed Russell about this, and I was chatting about it, but I think I'm going to make my own version of Affiliate Bootcamp where I can go through and dive deep and it's a daily thing for just two weeks, but what it does is it shows people how to be an affiliate in the best ways that we've ever seen, that I know how, that we've ever ... From scratch, or with a list. But really what it's doing is it's showing people how to promote my stuff.

I'm creating an army of affiliates that know how to be an affiliate, you know what I mean? And I think that's what the next thing I'm going to do. And it might be weird that I'm telling you this strategy, because I know a lot of you guys will be the ones that go through it.

But I'm just trying to be transparent and show you where my head is on this stuff. Now first and foremost right now, I need to finish actually building, finish building the actual course that I've been selling. And they know that it's been dripping out this first round. In the future it's not going to be a drip course or anything like that, but right now this first one, it is.

And they all know that, and that's one of the reasons why some of them got a deal on it and stuff like that, you know what I mean? Because I'm going through and I'm building it as I'm selling it, at the same time.

Which is nice, because it lets me go through and do the second round of course creation to plug in all the holes, because they're making it kind of with me ... Not so much on their side, they don't really know that's what's going on there.

But that's what I've been doing. And then, so step one, then step two, then I want to go out and ... Man we just got offered huge lists from people to go promote the course to. I mean massive, massive people. I so bad want to tell you some of the names of some of these people.

You guys all know them, they're on TV shows and stuff, which I'm super excited about. But I don't know if I'm allowed to, so I'm not going to yet. You'll all hear about it sometime, I'm sure, but it's not time yet, I don't think, so ... Anyway, that's the whole thing I'm trying to say with this thing, is understand that when somebody buys your course, there's really two things ... Or your program, or your product, whatever it is, whatever you're selling, your offer, there's really two things that still have to happen.

Just because you collected cash does not mean the sale is over. There's two things that need to happen, and this first one, there's a PHAT event this week, it's the last FAT event ever, which I'm kind of sad about. I'm actually really sad about it.

But anyway, I always cover this with them, and then there's a second piece as well, because of what Mark Benioff said. After a customer is acquired, the first thing you have to do with them is you need to help them consume it. I call it a consumption series. It's a consumption sequence, a consumption series, consumption guide.

And what I do, and what I've been building out is as soon as ... Now let's think about this for a second.

So this is a webinar, and there is ... If you guys don't know anything about webinars, webinars there's a headline, and then there's three secrets. So there's three secrets, and secret number one relates to the vehicle related false belief. Secret number two relates to the internal false belief. And then secret number three is the external false belief. A lot of you guys who are indoctrinated inside the ClickFunnels regime, you guys know the stuff, right. You know that. Well all I do is because ... Let's think about this, in the webinar, you're going through and you're talking about secret number one, secret number two, secret number three, right, which is false belief number one, false belief number two, false belief number three.
And then you're going through and you're crafting a story, a sales message, a product in the offer that addresses those false beliefs. You're addressing a product that does that. Let's think about this though.

If that's what's you're promising, secret number one, secret number two, secret number three, why not show exactly in your product where those answers also are. So the first thing that I do, the first of two things, the first thing I do in this consumption guide, is as soon as somebody buys my product, it doesn't matter if it's off of a webinar, it doesn't matter if it's off, like whatever ... I put out to them at least a three day series where the first email or piece of communication or whatever it is, goes and it actually shows where to get what was promised in secret number one, or the vehicle related false belief.

They don't need to be called secrets, they don't need to ... you know what I mean? It doesn't need to be called that same vernacular. I've called them steps, I've called them ... I've called them steps a lot, actually. Tips, I've called ... you know what I mean? It doesn't need to be called those things. And you might sell a widget in a different way with different vernacular.

But they're still vehicle, internal, and external related false beliefs. So the first thing after somebody buys it I send to them is first of all, a fulfillment email. But then what I'm really doing, is sending a consumption guide, where the first email is where to find what was promised and addressed for their vehicle related false belief. Secret number one.

The second email that I send out is ... that's secret number two, and where to find that. So I'll take screenshots of the members area with arrows and put it in the email, and say, "Look, when I told you how I blank without blank, this is where that is. So go click right here and go watch this next part right there." And the reason that I'm doing it is ... there's many reasons. The first reason, is because I need them to consume that information. Number one, they must feel in their brain that I'm fulfilling on what I promised. Duh.

That's what they bought. Of course I should do that. Okay, they bought that. Just out of the ethics of it, please fulfill on what you sell people.

But what I'm also doing is I am indoctrinating them further into my culture. It gives me opportunity to train them to open my emails. It give me opportunity to train them when my stuff comes in that they should open it up, but also it helps me be able to figure out who the rock stars are, who's actually killing it, who the people are that are just doing amazing with my course or my product, whatever it is.

And then I can go back and actually collect them as testimonials and use them in the sales message also for future people. That make sense? That was a lot. Just let me high level recap real quick. So all I'm doing is whatever secret number one, two, and three are, I create a consumption series, number one, two, and three that matches secret number one, two, and three. Does that make sense? And it's all auto, it's all dripped out.

When somebody buys I call it my buyer sequence. They buy, first the fulfillment email goes out. Then we will remind them that they've got to get added to the group. Then we'll remind them, "Here's what we do culturally. Here's the different events that go on. Here's consumption number one, two, and three." I don't call it that in front of them, obviously. Does that make sense?

So that's the first thing that I do. Number one I train them on how to consume my thing. That's the highest level of that. I train them to consume the product. But number two, and this is what ties in. I promise this is not just like a rabbit I'm following over the place. There's a whole point to this. And the point is that the second thing is that I'm trying to train them how to promote my thing also. So number one, here's how to consume it so you're successful with it.

Number two, here's how to promote so that the course you just bought is free for you because you just go get a few people in, and suddenly all the training, all the material, all the follow up, everything is free for you. Does that make sense? Because what I've been doing and ... anyway, that's exactly what Mark Benioff was saying. I'm trying to create customer salespeople. It's not necessarily a huge focus of mine right now but I know it's step two and I know it's coming up, and people are asking for it.

And so I was thinking to myself, what should I do to make this more accessible for people? And so I'm thinking through inside my affiliate area, I'm creating the guide, I'm creating the stuff that will walk them through how to be a generic affiliate, but so that they can go apply it to selling my course for me as well. Does that make sense?

That was a lot of stuff, and I hope that made sense what I'm doing. It's important to train people how to consume your stuff. And then it's important to help them realize ... If you want to make real, true believers, people who've really drinkin' the Kool-Aid, you know what I mean? Those are the people who are out promoting your thing without you asking them to.

And for those of them who aren't, sometimes they for need a few questions answered and so you go create an affiliate program. Go create something that helps people understand. I love Backpack. Backpack's awesome. That's what I'm using, of course. And it's been a ton of fun. And so to make it more accessible for people ... This is the last piece guys, this is like a deep strategy episode guys, hope this is okay.

It's kind of a lot of stuff on this one. But what I've been doing is on the home page ... So it's a webinar, so on the registration page itself, the actual registration page, in the footer I always make sure that I put two things in there. Number one, you've got to make sure you have all the legal crap in there. You're supposed to have that stuff in there.

I have a PO box that I declare as my business address so it's not my actual address. There has to be terms, privacy, contact, support, stuff like that. Specifically terms and privacy and support. Those are the three that should always be in there. I don't know what the current laws are on all those things, but I know that those should be in there.

And then what I do though in the footer is I also always include, number one the login for their actual members area, or whatever they bought because people will always lose the link, so I put it down in the bottom. The second thing though that I always put down there is a link for affiliates. So what it does is it lets me tell people ... because some people just want to go promote the thing and not buy it. And I'm like, "All right, that's kind of ... I think that's a little weird."

But if they scroll down to the bottom, they just click on affiliates, they can get their affiliate link and promote the course, or promote whatever ... you know what I mean?
Anyway, those are the two things that ... And that's what helps close the loop.

That registration page, it is a registration page, but to the person who's looking it's a little bit more than a registration page, and it opens up another loop, meaning the loop is, "Hey, you can go be an affiliate. Grab your affiliate link, and here's how to promote, and here's how to promote my stuff."

But if then they go buy, it's like, "Hey, here's how to consume what you bought. By the way, here's also how you can promote what you ..." Anyway, so that's what I've been doing. I feel like I'm talking in circles now. I'm literally talking about loops. But I hope that makes sense what I'm talking about though.

Find a way to make your customer also your salesperson and you're going to be able to expand a lot faster simply because you don't have to find salespeople, you know what I mean, as hard, as much. It's pretty interesting, I was talking to ... This is the last point, and then I'll get out of here. I was talking to the CFO of ClickFunnels. He's the man. And I asked him once, "What's the biggest expense?" And without any hesitation, he said, "Affiliates."

Just straight up, "It's affiliates. Affiliates cost us a lot of money. We give a lot of money to affiliates." I was like, "That makes sense. That makes total sense." That's what he told me anyway about ClickFunnels that that would happen, you'd do that.

Anyway, I hope that was helpful. I hope it makes sense what I was trying to say here. Well all I'm trying to say is figure out number one, sorry, number one understand that it's not enough to just sell stuff to people, you have to teach them to consume it. But number two, especially once they are consuming it, they're getting indoctrinated, they love promoting stuff, and there's going to be people who just want to promote your stuff anyway.

They're looking for something to give to their audience and might as well make a sweet affiliate program.

Or some kind of thing to help them so that you can arm your people, arm your customers with the correct assets that they need, the correct ... you know what I mean? So I'm tossing in all the ... a whole bunch of swipe files, tons of swipe images, tons of swipe email content and copy. Cool things that they can give away to help them lead gen. Anyway, that all I've got for you guys. And hopefully you can go out and start applying that. I've got to go get ready. We're leaving in about an hour here to go figure out the gender of our new little one. So fun stuff guys. Talk to you later. Bye.

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

The Customer Is NOT Always Right…

What's going on, everyone? This is Steve Larsen. I have a little bit of an unfortunate episode.

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

 Hey guys. I am ... I love podcasting, I love talking with you guys, and it's been fun. I feel like ... especially the last week because I've been traveling, going around all over the place, I've had a chance to meet a lot of you and it's been a whole lot of fun.

Okay, this is gonna be a little bit of a ... I don't know how to say this. I know that what I put out there, there's not many other people who are. I know that. I'm not cocky about it, but I know it. I don't know anyone else who delivers to the level that I have been. I don't know any ... You know what I mean? I'm not saying I'm the best. I'm not saying that I'm ... I'm not drinking my own Kool-Aid. I'm very against that also, but when someone gets sassy with me and saying that I'm not delivering. That's saying that.

I know that I am. That is one of the fastest ways to piss me off. It's funny because Russell's actually the exact same. He and I had many conversations about it when we were ... I put so much heart and soul. I am not with my family right now. I'm not with them for a solid week because I'm going out and doing things that frankly, there's a few things I know that I really wish they had gone better that I didn't get paid what I know I was worth, but I did ... You know what I mean?

That's fine. That's fine. I'm not trying to drink my own Kool-Aid again, but when someone comes out and they start taking advantage and acting like I owe them something that pisses me off faster than anything else on this world. I owe nothing to anybody. You know what I mean? Because it's so deep seeded in my brain to over deliver stuff, I'm fearful. It's a fear I have. Maybe it's a false belief I have that I have to over deliver on a massive scale constantly. Anyway.

I have been chatting with somewhat of an angry customer. They bought one of the $100 funnels. Guys, I took down all of the $100 funnel options. The reason I did it is because I didn't like the client that was being attracted to that. My stuff is worth way more than $100. I don't even start talking with someone to build their funnel unless it's at least a 50 to $100,000 range with royalties in the back.
$100 funnel? Not a huge fan of who that attracts. I'm not saying that everyone's that way. I am not blanket statement. I know that everyone's different.

Everyone's got that, but unfortunately, there's been a few instances where it's attracted an individual that believes that $100 is a billion dollars, and I owe them my life. No. That's extremely cheap. It should be way more than that. You know what I mean?

Anyway, I just wanted to read without actually ... I'm not gonna tell you who it is that was saying this. I'm gonna keep confidences. I'm gonna keep ... But I want to read a little bit of an email strand that's been going on back and forth with somebody who ... Man, I'm trying to bite my tongue, guys. I'm not much of a swearer, but holy crap. Oh, my gosh. There's a few parts I didn't record of this. I was pissed and still am. I'm gonna record it in the heat of this, which may be the best thing. Anyway.

Please understand as I read this, whoever said the phrase that "The customer is always right" got straight A's in school, read about business, but never did it and has no idea what the freak they're talking about. The customer is not always right. They are not always right. If you want to work with your dream client, it also means that you don't work with other clients on purpose. I am probably one of the only people I know who is willing to fire a customer, a customer.

I don't give a crap if you have the money to spend to actually buy my thing or hang out with me. If you're a jerk or an id' or you're a pri', my gosh, I will give you your money back and I will fire you. What a concept. I don't get ... Oh, man ... Okay. I'm gonna reign it back, reigning it back.

I'm not talking like you, the listeners, if you're this individual just so you know, but I'm fired up. I want you to know why and I hope that you ... What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to elevate the customer that you work with and treat yourself well because there are jerks. There are idiots. There are people out there who want to take advantage of you every single straw that they can and protect yourself and be okay with that.

Don't just work with anyone. If you're trying to get cash, I understand that you need to do that. I understand. I did that for a long time, too. But, man, you get to the spot though where you're like, "You know I actually could choose who I work with." It's amazing to do that.

I'm gonna go ahead and read this. I just increased my support so this guy said he sent an email a couple days ago. I didn't see it. I apologize. Emailing me directly, PM'ing me directly, going straight to me on Facebook that's not my support; that's me. You know what I mean? Sometimes people will send messages directly to me. I am not my own support because I'm focusing on building cool stuff. I'm not my own support.

I'm very involved with it, but I'm not. Anyway...

He kept sending me personal messages. I hadn't got a chance to look at my messages for a while. Anyway, he said, "This is the second email in four days. I ordered" ... There was a funnel on there that was for 100 bucks called the smartphone insurance funnel. He said, "I only received one funnel. It was supposed to be three. I didn't receive the marketing course and you weren't funnels to model or the affiliate insurance companies to work with. This is supposed to be a done for you funnels. It's not."

"I hope the MLM funnel system coming out on Thursday delivers what it's promising." I was like, "What on Earth?" ... This is my response, "Hey, man, I'm totally confused. I don't offer what you just described," which is true. I was like, "What are you talking about? I don't give any of that stuff." I said, "The smartphone insurance funnel comes alone, not with three. None of my sales material has ever talked about a marketing course or affiliate companies to work with."

Getting in more details. "I've had an issue with a few idiots stealing my stuff and then posing as me. Pisses me off. They're jerking around with my name and my brand. Can you give me more info so I can nip this?" I was trying to be open and real and just let him know what's going on. Not trying to be, "Thank you for your concern. A customer service representative will get back to you within a few hour." You know what I mean? I hate that crap; just be real. Anyway.

He sent a few screenshots over. I realize that some sales copy that I had written had talked about him getting what he was talking about, but it was never intended ... I was never ... What he bought, never came with these other things, ever. Ever. All the other people that ever got it, it never came with those thi' ... That was not a part of it.

Says that there's a traffic course for 297. Says this, says this and I was like ... He took screenshots. He sent it over. I was like, "Oh, crap. He's right," and I knew that. I admitted it. I said, "Whoa. What the? What's wrong? That was never part of the funnel or the offer. It's just the funnel that I built. I'll go hit it with a hammer." I was trying to keep it light. I said, "Thanks for showing me." I said, "Weirdness. That's weird." That was kind of it. I thought that that was it, but apparently, it wasn't it because that ... I don't know how long. That was a couple weeks ago.

I just got this scathing email...

Holy smoke. I'm gonna go ahead and read it here. I'm gonna switch some names. I'm gonna switch some things so that there is some ... Anyway. I also wanna tell you the story of why I'm telling you this in just a moment. There's a reason for this. I'm not trying to just throw rocks here. Part of me is though. Okay. I'm human. I'm ticked. All right.

She said, "Hey, Steve, I just got off the phone with so and so. He's a so and so here in so and so." Okay. Anyway. "I had to cancel his monthly lunch with some friends." I'm changing stuff here, so you see. Okay? Anyway. He said, "Apparently, it's too cold for finger" ... Anyway. He's kinda throwing some stuff around. I think he was trying to stay up and fluffy, but he definitely did not.

He said, "But I digress. I know you're in the middle of your MLM Recruiting Funnel launch, and I'm sure you're quite busy. I was really looking forward to jumping on board. I love the MLM concept, but I've always thought there's gotta be a better and much faster way to do it. I passed on purchasing the funnel because of this whole smartphone insurance funnel issue, but I'm confident we can figure this out together." I'm like, "Ew, okay."

"In the last email you sent in regards to the smartphone insurance funnel package I purchased, you said you were going to quote, unquote 'hit it with a hammer.' I'm not really sure what that means, but you didn't go into detail, so I guess I'll have to guess/multiple choice style put this, so you can pick. Deal? Awesome."

"Did you mean A) Sorry, sucker. You lose. I got you. That's called bait-and-switch, son. Caveat emptor. Welcome to the big leagues, kid. Or B) You know what, dude? I know. This is totally my fault. I'm so sorry, but I'm not going to do this so to try and make it right, I'm gonna refund you your total purchase. Keep the funnel with the WordPress template. I'm gonna show you I'm a legit dude, and I wanna offer you 50% discount off of my MLM funnel." I don't discount price, so you guys all know that. There's some reasons why. It's because of an offer. I give way more than it's worth.

He says, "I like making things right when I can. Hopefully, you'll get in, and I really look forward" ... He's talking as if he's me. "I look really forward to doing business with you and maybe meeting with you in an event."

"Or C) Hey, what's up, bro? What's with all the" ... Anyway, he's skinning some stuff about his location as trying to be a jest so I'm not gonna say it. He said, "Now you get a taste of what's going on here every year; lol." Of course, he's trying to act like he's cool. "Of course, I'm gonna do what's right here and give you everything I promised. Not just because I'm a super awesome dude, but because I'm honest and have what is sometimes rare in business: integrity. Bam. Not to mention the whole truth in advertising thing. I don't want the FTC all over my rear end." Give me a break.

"Since I'm starting to own my business, I've learned that reputation is what you live by and die by so heading your way is three funnels that I advertise: the traffic course, the upsales, the affiliate companies I recommend, the other goodies and resources. Oh, and I'm a straight shooter man. I want people to know that. Oh, and since you didn't get on the MLM package, you should have. Duh. I understand, so I'm gonna extend the $9.95 intro rate to you again. I want people like you in my group."

"I'm glad we worked everything out. Come by and say, 'Hey, man' at the next events. My man, take your pick. I know this may seem a little silly, but I just need some clarity on some action, so I can ... gonna take. Stay warm. Thanks for the time." Says that.

I was like, "Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh." And I started swearing in the car. Are you freaking kidding me? Are you freaking kidding me? My funnels, besides Russell himself, I don't know a human on planet Earth that has built more than me. I don't say it to be cocky. I say it to be real. My funnels kick butt. I know they do and I'm trying to tell him what he bought and what he's trying to go for ... It doesn't come with those things.

I said, "Ha-ha. It's C, but I'm also a person who works with my dream client. Those other things were not part of the smartphone insurance funnel so I didn't give 'em to you. I'll refund you, but I also don't want you in the MLM stuff if that's the attitude over this." Guys, I'm fired him. Checkmate. "I constantly over deliver my audience and have full, clear conscience about what I do. Your refund is submitted, but it takes a few days. Stay classy, Steve."

Holy crap. Only do stuff with the people that you want to. It doesn't matter. You having the cash to do something with me is not enough payment anymore. You know what I mean? I'm preaching in the choir, you guys. "Sales Funnel Radio" listeners, you guys are all awesome. I love meeting you guys. You're all awesome. You get it. You're into it.

I over deliver. I constantly try to. It is probably a - I don't know - it's a complex I have over this thing, but the customer is not always right. It is not always right. They are not. Whosever said that, this is the most false crap on the planet.

You're saying I gotta bend backwards at all times when I already know my offer does that for them? When I ... No. No. No.

That's not what this is. That's not how I do this. That's not why I do it. I'm telling you this story because there's been tons of moments where someone'll reach out and they act like they are God's gift to me. They are not. They are human. I am human. You said you had money. I said, "I have an offer that I know over delivers and it'll work more than I'm asking you for anyway." I go and I hand it over to 'em and then you act like you own me. No.

You need to do the same thing in your business, guys. I did that for three years. I did not work with my dream client. I worked with tons of start-ups. It's nothing against start-ups, but I was working with people who were not my dream client. I understanding my previous self.

I understand people might not know who you are. I understand y'all gotta start where you are and I know a lot of people here, you are staring out, which is brand new, which is great, but man, understand the customer is not always right. Your offer is your offer. That's what you gave them and that's what they get.
As part of the offer, I make sure I over deliver so that my conscience is so clear, guys. I have no, no at all regrets about what I do, what I sell, who I help, who I don't help and I fire the people that I don't want to work with. Life is short. Work with those you want to.

Your happiness, guys ... I have worked with some clients and it has been an amazing experience. It has been and amazing experience.

When we were building for guys like Marcus Lemonis and huge guys, huge guys. It's so cool because they are where they are because they also understand this. I've never met someone who is really, really big who also drinks their own Kool-Aid. I've never met someone that does that. I've never met anybody who goes out ... Now they might ... I'm not saying they don't know that they're not good. They're very clear on the fact that they know they're good. They are confident.

They have absolutely certainty about their abilities, but they are als' ... There's a difference between that and drinking your own Kool-Aid and throwing it in other people's faces.

There are a few people who make it there, but not as many as you might think. It's funny because a lot of attention goes to those people because they got a lot of publicity and stuff like that, but a lot of the people that I going and I was building with and building for, like huge guys. I've built for some amazing people. They understand that these funnels we build together.

What's sexy about 'em is that they're a system. Set it and forget it. Walk away. One and done. There's some elements to that, but there's this other element that messes the whole thing up called the human element. We all mess up. Every one of us is a human and treat each other that way. Don't you dare go around acting like everyone owes you everything. You're never gonna get anywhere in life. You'll never gonna get anywhere in life. Be humble about it. I try and take that stance from it. Am I always? No. Am I fired up? Oh, my gosh. I am biting my tongue so hard right now.

Every time I've made any leap in my career, you guys, it attracts people that I wanna work with and it attracts people who I might not wanna work with yet. They're not quite in the spot where I'd wanna work with them yet. I'm not talking about money. That's the funny thing. It's this X factor.

I got offered 100 grand to build a funnel a couple months ago for this sure thing. It was getting me royalties for life. It was this killer topic and niche inside of Amazon. I knew I could blow it up. It had nothing to do with money at that point. It had nothing to do with my ability to blow it up. It had nothing to do with my ability. I know I could kill that. I know I could do amazing with it. I hated who the individual was. Not them as a person, but their attitude towards me was ridiculous. I don't know if they were trying to come off super confident because they thought that's what it took to make big deals. I don't know if it was ... I don't know what it was. I have no idea what it was, but I fired him.

You guys, this business and this whole, all of it, life is short. Don't work for clients that you're hating. If you're hating 'em, what a concept. Fire them. Money's not enough. Your life can be very blissful or a living hell based on the client that you have. Not so much the money.

I've seen too many people climb a business, build a business, build something that's amazing; huge value. But they deliver for clients that they actually hate and they wake up every day and they're like, "Oh, my gosh. I hate what I do. I hate my customer. I hate my client. I hate doing what I" ... It's not worth it. It's not worth it.

I'm not saying it's not a lot of money, but really it's not a lot of money over this dispute. 100 bucks over this whole thing? Holy crap. Here you go. Refund. I don't want you as a customer anyway. That kind of attitude? We're done, anyway. You know what I mean?

I know my stuff delivers so it's not about me getting the cash anymore. It's do you wanna go get the result? I know my product delivers. It has nothing to do with the 1000 bucks at that point, which is what I sell it for. It has everything to do with who do I want to work with and surround myself around. That routinely over and over and over again was one of the biggest things. I saw all these huge guys doing. It's not so much even more about ...

When money's no longer option. No, I mean ... is no longer the threat in your life. When money is no longer the thing you're like, "Oh, my gosh. How do I get the next piece of cash?" I get that. I get it, but take that element out. What does your life look like? Who are you around? Are you enjoying it? Are you happy? Is there stuff going ... You know what I mean? That is the long-term play for your life. That makes this whole thing worth it.

You can make cash, guys, using something like the "Expert Secrets" formula for how to create offers. That's incredible. That'll make you money. Making the money when it no longer is the issue, then it's like, "Oh, my gosh. What's the follow-up thing in my life I'm trying to solve? What's the thing? I'm wanna surround myself with amazing people. I'm wanna surround myself with people who give. I'm wanna surround myself with people who want to change the world like I do."

I wanna change the world. I don't know how. I just know I do. I'm trying to figure it on the way. Every single person who gets around me who is trying to take and always take and never give, it turns into this drag. It will slow you down. It will kill your momentum. You'll sit down and you'll ...

Guys, we had people like that several times who popped up in ClickFunnels sphere when I was over there. I can't talk about that stuff. I'm not going to, but man, we always had to take five. We would say a certain phrase, which is: "Some people's children." We would play some freaking Seven Nations Army. We'd dance around. We'd shake it off and we'd say, "My word. I hope that there are better people out there." There are. We know there are.

Honestly, I believe most people are good. I believe ... It's hurt me many times, but my attitude is innocent until proven guilty on pretty much all of humanity, all humanity. Some people ... I know it's a weakness sometimes. I've been taken advantage for it many times, but I would rather error on that side then you treat everyone like they're a contract.

You're not gonna create a real relationship with somebody by saying, "But you said this here and you said that there and you said that." What? You're gonna ... contract your way into a friendship with somebody. Come on. It's doesn't work that way. Anyway. This had nothing to do with funnels, but actually, it has everything to do with funnels.

Go build a business that you not only can make money from, but you like being in. I have never met anyone who is successful in this who doesn't marry their business a little bit. You gotta be a little bit of a monomanic so you're gonna go be a monomanic in an environment that's terrible and toxic and awful and not a fun thing? I've done that many times. It's awful and it's one of the reasons I'm so passionate about not working with people I don't want to. I don't care. I don't give a crap if you have the cash. It's no longer about that.

It's about who do want to work with? What do you want to surround yourself with? What is the environment? What are the people you want to be around? You get really serious about that. What's your environment worth to you?
I'll tell you a good environment will accelerate your success pretty much more than any course or book or anything else in your life. You'll learn how to self-teach. You'll learn how to be self-fulfilling. You'll learn how to do those things on your own because you have the environment to do them, to learn them that creates those kinds of things.

Sadly, weirdly enough, you guys, entrepreneurship is a bit of a lonely game. It can be. Very lonely. I've experienced that many times. I no longer work in an environment where there's people around me. I literally sit at home at a desk and I have to do things to create engagement and because it's a lonely game ... What?

You want the engagement that you are getting to be with things that you don't like? That's a great way to create a miserable life. I've seen it happen many times. A lot of people, they'll go make a ton of money. Then they'll turn back around and talk about how miserable they are. All right. I know everyone knows what I'm talking about. Everyone's seen that before. Everyone's done that. Anyway. I think ... saying the same thing over and over and over again, but don't be afraid to fire people and I don't mean your employees. I mean your clients. Don't be afraid to fire 'em. What's your time worth to you? Life's short. Make sure you guys live in it.

Guys, I'd rather make less money and enjoy the people around me then make tons of money and be completely miserable and lonely. All right, guys. That's all I got. Bit of a different one, but get serious about it because it's a real issue.

Donald Trump--You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired.

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

Check out what 97% of American’s are thinking about before they finish brushing their teeth…

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

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

Steve Larsen: How's it going everyone? I am sitting here with one of my best friends named Colton Woods. Colton, how're you doing?

Colton Woods: Doing good.

Steve Larsen: Awesome. Thanks for being on Sales Funnel Radio.

Colton Woods: My pleasure.

Steve Larsen: Just for real here, though, Colton and I actually ... We created my very first ever successful sales funnel in click funnels was with Colton and it's when...You guys know the story I talk about where when we hid up in the box office seats, we didn't have enough money for click funnels and we hid up there and we planned out the entire business and then during the trial periods since we already planned out the whole business, the whole funnel, all the things and pieces needed with it we clicked the go button on the trial and then during those two weeks we had to go build the whole thing, get customers, and have them pay for the subscription to click funnels before it even started, which is what happened.

That was pretty crazy huh?

Colton Woods: It was awesome.

Steve Larsen: That was fun stuff, so anyway we are actually in Vegas right now and we've been pitching like crazy. It has been a whirlwind of a week I can't believe how fast paced it's been. Got here on Sunday...I just wanted to drop by kind of what's been going on but then also one of my biggest takeaways from this whole week so far.

So on Sunday I got here, and I got here Sunday evening, which was when I...I think I talked to you guys last time, I'm doing this off my phone, I don't have all my podcasting equip and that stuff but hopefully that's okay. So Sunday got here, Monday we did a...So I kind of partnered with James Smiley if you guys remember him from the B2B episode where we went through the actual B2B funnels and now he's been using them and crushing them for like five and six figure deals with funnels and things like that.

So anyways he and I decided to do a Master Mind together here in Vegas so I flew out here and then on Monday though...The Master Mind was on Tuesday, on Monday though we did a four hour one on one session with a private client, which was a lot of fun, we went deep, deep, deep into their business, the different things and we...It was really fun because we identified really quickly what the major levers were in their business that they were not successfully actually taking advantage of, you know what I mean?

The different levers like hey look if you just turn these two points, it looks like that's the only thing you need to worry about and guys that's kind of the fun part about this whole game when you get there.

I tell you guys often, I remember very clearly I was riding my bike home, it's Rexburg, Idaho if you've never been there, there's pretty much this constant flow of tumbleweeds year round it's extremely windy, and freezing and I'm glad I'm not there anymore.

But as I was riding my bike home from classes one day right, and this thought hit me, how come no one's paying me money? And I just had the sudden realizations like well because you're literally asking for money, literally nowhere, no one can even give you money anyway Steven, what are you mad about?

And I realized that I was studying marketing, and I was studying all these things, but I didn't have a business to even apply these things to, and I know some of you might be in that position. Don't get so enamored with the cool marketing tips and tricks and the cutting edge stuff but not even have a business to apply it to. You know what I mean?

That's kind of a backwards thing obviously, so anyway I'd start actually building the business if you're in that space first of all and if you are I mean awesome, awesome, but what we do and what we did is just identify, if you were to number one, walk away from your business would it stand on its own? If you can answer that question like, "Yep, it's standing on its own." Awesome, for how long? Cool so you could walk away for long? That kind of gives you an idea of how free you actually are, and start figuring out ways to replace yourself in the actual company. But then the other thing I would do is start sitting back and start realizing what are the two or three levers?

Really there's only like one or two, honestly, big levers that if I was just to go focus on just this one thing it would increase the cash in my business exponentially.

So that's what we did with this guy on Monday, and he's the man, he actually came to a FHAT event, a Fun Hack-a-Thon event several months ago so it was fun to see him again but we went and we identified...It became very clear as he was speaking what that one lever actually was, and that was one of the most interesting parts and pieces about the whole thing is that it's his business guys but we had to go help him identify what that was. The one lever, the one thing that you should go focus on that really will turn up the cash in your business and help you walk away right?

A lot of the times it needs to be pointed out to you, it's not something that you can just like, you know...Usually not always, you're usually so close to the actual product that you just have no idea what to do next, you know what I mean? So anyway, that's what we did on Monday, it was really fun, super deep dive, have a feeling you know we'll keep seeing him and anyway awesome stuff.

So Tuesday right, so anyway...Monday night, go back, I have bronchitis, I was like super sick, Colton shows up which was awesome, super fun and the very next day Tuesday is the master mind and we decided to pitch something. So I wrote an entire webinar script from scratch, top to bottom Monday night.

So we slept four hours in true funnel hiker fashion, because we were up so late getting this thing done, do the whole thing at launch today we're basically teaching for eight straight hours on stage, it's a small group so I don't know if stage is the correct term for it, it's not like there's a stage, front of the room?

It was a small group, but I was dead, oh my gosh we got to the end...Got to the hotel and just crashed, both looked at each other and were like "We don't even want to do anything else." Wednesday though, was the exact same thing so we wrote and entire new script Wednesday morning and started at like eight o'clock, and pitched it at like three o'clock brand new to room...

There's only like 30 people in the room, I thought there was going to be honestly I thought there was going to be like 60 or 70 people in the room, there was not, there was maybe 30 people. Really it was like I don't know, twenty-ish that actually got to the actual thing, I was like "Dang it."

Man that was solid days work to only pitch 20 people.

Anyway, the point is with the whole thing guys if you just hustle and you just set the date, you will find a way to get it done because you have no other option. Just like set the date, be public about it and then you will figure it out, and you'll figure it out well enough of course will it be perfect? No, but all the little things that are in there that, if you get 80% of it right, okay? And people will obsess and they won't actually get started because they think they need to be 100% right, and that's not how it works, just do the 8...

It's so 80/20 principal for getting crap done gauge is do the 80% that matters, leave the other 20% who cares? Call it character flaws and use it towards your attractive character's advantage. Okay publish about it, okay? Just get crap done, anyway so we're about to jump on an interview in five minutes.

The hotel internet was terrible so we found this cool little satellite place with a little business center with awesome internet, we're about to jump on.

I thought I'd just tell you guys what's been going on this week and I wanted to tell you one of the biggest take aways with this whole thing.

It's been interesting, I usually am not like this massive networking dude you know? I'm pretty reserved, I kind of...I'm not an introvert but I am so freaking obsessed with working it's kind of an issue, and so sometimes I don't want to go out or meet people or anything.

But it's been fun to meet all these people, I got to talk with Seth Green, which was a lot of fun got an invite from him to be on his show and a lot of other people...Anyway it's been a lot of fun guys, lot of different cool interactions, hopefully I'm okay to name drop certain things like that but anyway, it's been fun to go meet these people be hanging around them and I'm trying to do what I invite you guys all to do, which is to continue to reach two levels up, you know what I mean?

If you can think through and think, "Okay, my sphere of influence is this amount." And you won't be brand new, and you're like "Okay, that's fine." This is the same way I launched Sales Funnel Radio.

On purpose, this was a purposeful thing when I actually started this show, okay and I thought "Okay, this little tiny line represents my sphere of influence." Alright now "Look, that guy over there, he has a little bit more influence than I do, he's got a bigger list, he's got people who follow him, he's got more influence." Okay, and then "Look at that guy, he's got, whoa look at how much more influence he has."

And it's like these increasing tiers of influence, and all I did if you go think through it is I thought where I was at the time and I reached two layers of influence up. That's all I did, and I interviewed them and got them on the show. And then when it felt like I got to a different level, I reached two layers up again. Now I'm reaching higher, two layers up again and I invited them to get on the show and invited them to get on the show and this is exactly how...

Guys this podcast is going to scream past 100,000 downloads very soon here, and I wanted to do something cool for it soon, I don't know what it is but just do that, okay? So I'm excited because a lot of these connections...That's why I'm telling you this, a lot of these connections we made this week was...I think it's kind of cool because it made me realize also we're still doing that, and we reached two levels up and we did, two levels up, two levels up, and it's not like out of this huge desire to be like "Oh my gosh, I got to be the best, I got to be in front of tons of people, it's all me, me, me."

No, but I do want to get my message out to as many people as I can right? And so I need to increase my level of influence, how many people know who you are, right? It's not so much who you know, it's who knows you, you know what I mean? You've heard that term?

That's so true, so just reach two levels up, two tiers up. So anyways as we were doing this as we were going through it's been fun to be able to do that and see that, that's what's been going on around us. I just wanted to give you one cool take away also that James Smiley dropped in the middle of the Master Mind and then we got to head out here because there's an interview starting here shortly, it's kind of cool he stood up and he told us a stat.

It was a very fascinating stat, and see if it works for you because it was like 97% of Americans do this right now. He said it was a stat he said that, he said that 97% of Americans think about something that they want to buy as part of their morning routine.

Isn't that interesting? Are you on their list? That's crazy, 97% of Americans think about something that they want to buy pretty much before they're done brushing their teeth. It literally is part of their morning routine, something that they wish they were buying or something they wish they had.

People are buying more than they ever have, people are buying like crazy, it's not a secret and just think through are you constantly in front of them? Are you...Just like I was thinking through on my bike while I was riding home, I was like "Man, I'm not asking for money literally anywhere, from anybody."

Think through where you're doing that and start being more craft-fool on where you put those messages in and are you a part of...Are you standing...Because there's an onslaught of buyers you know like "Stephen I'm not making the cash I want to." Are you actually asking for cash? Go through and start asking what those things are and those pieces are and stay in front of people.

So anyways, we got to head out here but I just wanted to drop a few little things with what's been going on. It's been a fun, fast, furious week and then instead of doing the webinar on Thursday this week I'm doing it on Saturday and we're driving tons of ads to that and we're finding where all the buyers are, it's been fun guys. There's a lot going on right now and really try to hit the ground running after leaving Click Funnels and it's been working. This is only week three, it feels like it's been several months where I have been hauling so fast and it's been a ton of fun.

Anyways guys, talk to you later, go crush it.

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

Click above to listen in iTunes...

Do you KNOW the levers that are driving the offers in your industry?

Hey, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen, and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio, in a hotel room.

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

What's up guys? Oh, my voice just cracked. First of all, I have bronchitis, which is ridiculous. Never had that. It's a terrible feeling, and yesterday my wife and I were talking and she's like, "Are you excited to go speak?" And I was like, "I'm excited." And we realized that I needed to leave today instead of tomorrow, for an extra thing. It's Sunday, and I usually don't travel on Sundays, but I went and actually got on a plane, and I am actually in Las Vegas right now.

I've got two speeches to write and I haven't written any of them. Two speeches to write with two other speeches besides those that are going to be unscripted. And I'm excited about that. I love the off-the-cuff ones because there's usually a lot of things that I learn while I'm talking, which is kind of weird, but anyway.

I've been going for two weeks now on my own webinar, and things are going fantastic, and I've made almost half of my year's salary in the last two weeks, which is amazing, and things are going fantastic. And I don't say that to boast or whatever, but it's going really, really well.

And I spent a ton of time mentally thinking about and crafting, and writing on whiteboards and pieces of paper all sorts of stuff that would help create and put together the sales message that would sell my product for my webinar. That took me a while.

By comparison, I am using the same webinar style format in these next two speeches, which are back-to-back here in Vegas. I'm speaking at two different places. I'm speaking four times, literally one time each day for the next four days, and I haven't written any of the speeches.

I haven't put anything together for them. And so on the flight over here, I was starting to freak out, and I was like holy crap! I've been coaching for a long time now with two comical people. This podcast ... I've spoken at many other places and many other times, both documented and undocumented. You know what I mean?

Well, I'm stressed out about it a little bit. The amount of times I've done it now is certainly something for me to fall back on, but really, it truly is the webinar script. But in the past, I still would spend two or three days running through these scripts, and thinking through the actual ... the false beliefs of the individuals that are going to be there. The stories that will help break and rebuild their beliefs. What I can give them that will help apply now to their life the new way that they see the world. Things like that.

Anyway, I'm excited, but holy crap, I literally have ... I have bronchitis. I'm taking a Z-Pak right now which is insane, and these cough suppressants that make me drowsy, and I'm supposed to think clearly in a way that lets me craft a sales message. This is the crap that you remember later on in the future, because it's not that fun right now. Oh, man. And I certainly wish that I was home, but I'm super thankful for this whole opportunity, and this is going to be awesome.

I was just thinking through how it's so funny that in every opportunity there's always ... I say this on the webinar ... every opportunity that you're given, it's an opportunity, but you also take on a lot of problems. Not crippling problems, but they can be.

They can become crippling problems...

Every time you go off to pursue something ... let's say that you're going to go off and you're going to do some crazy speaking back-to-back in Vegas, or let's say you have the opportunity to go do a webinar, or let's say you have to go do ... whatever it is, whatever it is ... let's say you've got a funnel you're trying to put together.

Opportunities, if you don't take them, they're handed off to other people. They don't leave you. Opportunities go to other people. They move on. They have this way of living and then they'll just go get manifested into someone else's life, and so you have to grab them and take onto them. But every time you do, there's the opportunity. But then there's also a whole bunch of like ... you don't just inherit an opportunity. You inherit problems.

For example, it would be an opportunity ... let's say that you have an Olympian and the Olympian is going around ... or an Olympian to be, a wannabe Olympian, someone who is just starting out. Let's say, they want to go ... I don't know ... do an Olympic event, and they've been practicing this Olympic event for ... let's say it's a sprinter. I have mad respect for that, for especially sprinters. Man, those guys are nuts. That's so, so intense what those guys do.

And they've been practicing and they've been practicing, and every opportunity comes a huge amount of problems with it. It's almost like you level up your problem set. And if you can't figure out the very basic problem of ... like the most junior league things of what I had to do with to run and sprint and learn how to do that stuff, you're not going to get to the next level.

You're not getting to the next level after that. You won't go to the next level after that. And that's exactly how business works. This is how life works in general. Any time there's an opportunity, you do not just get an opportunity. You inherit problems with it, and you will not get the actual fruits of the opportunity unless you solve the problems also. You know what I mean? It's funny to me.

I'll go out and I'll teach people or people like the Funnel Hackathon event which is happening next week. Just crazy. It's so intense right now. I'm speaking my face off right now, but I'm excited. It's going to be a whole lot of fun.

It's always interesting for me to watch. There's always a few people ... I'll go and I'll say, okay, this is what you go do. Instead of just saying, "Oh my gosh. That's really cool. Thanks for sharing that Stephen."

Every once in a while, I'll get somebody who wants to challenge it, as if I'm lying or have some motive to, which I don't know what that would be. And then they start pointing out ... instead of seeing the opportunity, they see the problems that they have to go solve, which is a good thing, but they see them in this crippling way, and then they actually never actually go get anything done, because they cannot get the past. They can't past the fact that they've got to go solve these different problems. And this is over and over and over and over.

And it makes me sad selfishly. I hate when I coach someone like that, when they just continually see all the problems in front of their face.

Yes, they'll have to solve them. Yes, they'll have to go through them. Yes, they'll have to figure them all out. But the saving grace of it is that they don't have to go through all the problems at once.

They happen one by one by one by one. And if I was to sit here ... because I'm not going to lie ... I'm stressed out. I'm a little bit freaked out about what I have to get accomplished. I basically have to write two full webinars by Tuesday. Two completely full, completely different, totally different audiences. Two totally different webinars, the full script, everything, in two days. And then I got to present them back-to-back.

That's intense, man. That's hard. But if I sit here and I think too long about it, it's stressful. It's crippling. It will paralyze me. Why? Because it's a character flaw I had to overcome. But if I sit back, let's start at square one. What are the false beliefs of the individuals there? Then I go through and I just listing a whole bunch of false beliefs and I start naming out what's the vehicle-related one, what's the internal-related one, what's the external-related one.

Then I go through and I figure out what's the combating truth, the combating story. What's the headline to that, the actual things with the actual bonus. Then we start crafting out the external stack. Once that's done, the crux of the whole thing is there, and the rest of it gets really easy. Then we're getting into slide creation.

But this part can take a while, and I'm trying to stay in my creative spot. I am tired. I'm on meds. I do not feel good right now. That's how the whole thing works, you guys. One of my favorite ... I can't remember who said it. I don't remember where it was said, but somewhere ... it's in my head somewhere that somebody said you can measure the success of an individual based on the number of problems that they have solved.

You have got to fall in love with problem solving. If you're like, "Hey, I want to go be an entrepreneur," get ready to solve a new problem every day. That's what it is. And you go look at a guy like Russell Brunson, or you go look at a guy like Frank Kern, all these ... and you see how many problems that they've solved. Not just for themselves, for other people, and that directly equates to success. It will. It can't, it can't not eventually equate to success. When all these people are like ... I've been asked many times, Stephen, how should I start? What should I do? What are the things that I should get done?

If you have no idea where to start, just go start solving problems that other people have and publish about it and document the journey along the way. That's literally what helped launch that webinar that I did. It's such a staggering amount, right out of the gates. It's killing it. It's doing amazing. You know what I mean? It's because I documented the journey of me ... I didn't even have all the problems figured out until literally I finished the webinar slides. The very first one ... two weeks ago. I finished two minutes before the webinar started. Two minutes before.

There was 170 people registered for the thing. It's amazing what ended up happening.

What I'm trying to convey here on this whole thing is that you got to understand that ... Russell always taught me that the formula, the format, that's the thing that saves you. If you're about to go on stage or you're writing a sales script or whatever it is, study formulas, study ... and I don't mean like math formulas. I never did that well with that stuff ever. But the perfect webinar is just a formula, and you start at square one.

And if you're trying to get good at a funnel, you will still have to go through ... and you're like, "Stephen, I'm not doing the webinar, I'm doing a triple high funnel." Great, great, great. You still need to incorporate these kinds of things. This is sales in general. It's not just for webinars. It's for everything. Everything where persuasion is involved.

Anyway, that's all I'm trying to share today is marry the formula of whatever profession you're trying to go for. If there's some opportunity out there you're trying to go for, understand that you're inheriting problems. But what's funny is that if you're just starting out, if there's other people who are farther along the path than you're trying to go down, there's a formula that they've mastered. Go figure out what that is. I don't care if it's a formula for going to bed early and getting up early. You know what I mean?

I don't care if it's a formula for lifting or exercise or eating or whatever it is that you're trying to go do, someone else who is further down the path figured out a pattern.

When you go model an individual to go and actually start learning from that person, what you're trying to do is you're trying to look for the model that they've been doing. You're trying to look for the pattern and I've been practicing this pattern of the perfect webinar script enough times now that I can show up two days before I need to be doing my thing and crank out two completely separate webinars.

That's what I'm trying to say here. Marry the formula. Marry it. Figure out whatever it is. And if it's not the perfect webinar formula, I feel like, oh, I'm really into underwater basket weaving. Okay, then go find the biggest guru on underwater basket weaving and go learn from that individual and sit down and start figuring out, and marry the formula. You know that thing so well.

Too many times I've noticed ... there was a guy I used to chat with a lot. He was one of my early, early, early mentors as a teenager, and he goes, "What are your goals, Stephen? What are your goals?"

I think he was the first guy to really call me Steve...

He kind of helped start that and stick that, because my parents always called me Stephen. Anyway, random. But he'd go, "What are your goals?" And I would sit there and I would think. "Do you have goals?" I'd say, "Yeah." And he'd go, "What are they?" And if I couldn't name them right off the batt, like numbers. Specific numbers. He would be like, "Oh, that's not a goal then, it's just a wish. That's not a goal. That's not your goal. Don't worry about that."

And he would discount it really, really quickly.

All he was doing, all he would be trying to do, is he was trying to tell me that I have to marry the goal.

I have got to attach myself to it in a way that it is ingrained in my brain and I dream about it and I think about it, and I can't get away from it because it is a part of me. It becomes part of my being and my fiber, and I literally embody the goal.

And it's the same thing with whatever the formula is. Whatever the formula is of the industry that you're trying to get into, 100%, you guys. You've got to get really ... and I feel like I'm saying the same thing over and over again now, and I probably am. But that's the point. Too many times I see people like, I'm building a triple high funnel. It's like, cool. What does it look like?

And they'll have no idea...

They know they need a triple high funnel, but they're not studying all the little pieces. They're not getting romantic about all the little pieces that it takes to put one together.

It is a huge brain jog to get one awesome funnel off the ground. Don't plan on a billion funnels you're trying to get out this year. Just do one. Do one amazing one. Study the formula like crazy. There's a million other places I could go spend my time and my money and my energy creating other businesses, things like that right now. I have not moved on past this webinar funnel level. And that's the reason why.

It's amazing. When I spend 24/7 of my time obsessing over a single funnel, it's amazing what happens from there. I know exactly why it's working. I know exactly why it's being successful. I know exactly the issues that it has. I understand very well where it is. But it takes that level of obsession. Don't let anybody tell you ... there's a person once that told me it's not healthy to be a mono-maniac. You got to have balance in life. That's crap. That's crap.

Whoever put the whole façade out there about it's all about life balance, it's all about ... no. Whatever the formula is of the industry you're trying to go to, figure it out, marry it, obsess over it, become a mono-maniac over it. Become unreasonable about the goal. Become unreasonable about understanding the formula and that is here you'll rise above everyone else. Because I think to have life balance. I've got to have life balance the whole way.

Okay, yeah, to some extent totally. But I've never met anyone who has ever been successful in anything who was a dabbler. You know what I mean? I've never met anyone. And it's the reason why ... in kind of a weird way, guys, I will sit there at night sometimes and I will think through the perfect webinar script. Random points of the day. And I'll sit down and I'll start thinking through, because I'm obsessed with the thing.

I know it's the tool that has made millions and millions and millions of dollars in the industry. So why would I not study it like the back of my hand? Why would I not know it as well as anything else?

That's what I'm trying to just put across here. And what's cool about it is as you study it and as you stop studying other stuff, and as you get really, really focused on just this one ... whatever the one thing is that you're trying to get really good at, and start having a not to-do list. There's plenty of things to put on a to-do list. You need to have a not to-do list. I will not do this, I will not do this.

You need to get really good at saying no. Figure out the thing you're trying to go after. Figure out the formula that some other guru out there figured out, and get romantic about the thing, guys.

Commit the whole thing to memory. Obsess over it. Become a mono-manic over it. Study like crazy. Execute, execute, execute. Execute with an expectation that you will fail your face off for quite some time. And what's cool, what starts to happen when you do that kind of stuff, when you actually come out the door, come out the gates with that kind of speed, it's ridiculous.

You'll get good, but then you'll also be able to lean on it. When opportunities start coming to you like crazy, just like I am right now. It's 10:20 at night. I've got probably another hour in me. I'm super exhausted. I need to sleep. I don't feel good. But it's the fact that I have studied this formula and I have executed it so many times now.

As much as Russell and other people? Of course not. But enough that I've developed a confidence with it, that I know I'll be able to stand up. I know I'll be able to close a good percent of the room. That comes with the practice. That comes with obsessively studying the patterns. Obsessively tearing after whatever the industries before ... whatever the gurus before in the industries have paved the path on already.

I study that stuff so that I know that I've proven ... I'm following the same path they've proven it worked, and then I want to take it farther than they did. That requires that I know what they did. Anyway. Hopefully, this episode made sense. I've been going for 18 minutes now and I wasn't planning on doing that.

But I hope that you understand that the format is what saves you in many aspects. Number one, it's what brings you the opportunity you were seeking. But number two, when opportunity starts coming to you and the market starts to see that you know what the heck you're talking about, it is the thing also that saves your butt, because you have put the time in.

Like wrestlers call mat time. You just put that mat time in. Time, time on the mat. Practicing like crazy. Getting that mat time down.

It's the same thing with funnels. Sometimes I don't need to build another funnel. I just start thinking through them. This morning, in my head, I invented a new funnel type and I was in the shower, and I was thinking through all these different cool things, and I was like, how cool it'd be if I did this, this, and this and combined these together.

And when you know the formulas that well, you can start mixing and matching recipes from different things and toss them and mash them together.

And that's all I'm trying to say. Too many times I've seen people come up and they're like I'm going to be a really good funnel building. Awesome. Have you literally been drinking all funnel-related stuff? Like no. Then change your expectations, because you're not going to be an amazing funnel builder. I am trying to be the best funnel builder in the world. Am I? I don't know. No.

But I like to think I am and I'm on my way. And I'm trying to be. And I'm calling the shot. And I'm trying my best. The pursuit of that is what's led me to what has happened, and what has led me to hang out with the people I've been able to, and is what led me to be able to do those things. That's the funny thing about it. Have I actually gotten the thing that I set out to do? No. Be the best funnel building in the world? No.

But the pursuit of it, the honest pursuit of it, and being able to document the journey on the way has allowed tons of doors to open. Don't be afraid to just do it. Don't be afraid to marry the formula. Don't be afraid to be a mono-maniac about it. Don't be afraid that other people are going to ... that's what's going to end up, you guys. You're learning so much stuff. You will gain a little exclusivity. I don't mean always in the positive way either.

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely game because of that. You're literally the only ones that understand your thing. You know what I mean?

Anyway, hopefully it made a sense. A little bit of a babble, but go figure out the formula. Cut out all other formulas. Don't worry about them. Whatever the one is that has proven to take you to the thing that you're really seeking the most. And for a while, I didn't know what that formula was.

I didn't know what ... let me say it again. I didn't know what opportunity I wanted, but I knew which formula I liked the most, which is this webinar one, which is why I chose doing it. I didn't necessarily know which opportunity I wanted to go for, which business, which thing, which funnel, which this, which that. But I loved the way the perfect webinar script and everything else was laid out, which is why I chose that one.

And I have essentially married the thing. That's why everything's happened how it's happened.

Go figure out what that is. Cut out all other options. Act like they don't even exist, and hopefully this is a ... it's kind of a cool episode. Hopefully it's awesome. I'll send another message when I tell you guys ... I'll let you guys know how it goes, and hopefully I won't be dead at that time. I do not feel good. Okay, guys. Talk to you later. Bye.

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

Got a great question from a listener about how to test that a product could do well before you enter the market…

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

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

All right, guys. Hey, I am stoked about today, so, periodically ... wasn't as frequently as of late but recently I actually have been going through and I listen to a lot of the questions people are submitting on salesfunnelradio.com.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, if you go to salesfunnelradio.com and scroll down kind of at the bottom right there, there's a green button, and if you click that you can record a question to me straight off of your browser, an actual audio file. It emails that over to me and I go and I kind of vet through them to see which ones would apply most kind of the group.

Then, I can toss them out here. So, anyways, we've got one of those today though.

This is to a guy named Matt who has a special skill at the Rubik's Cube. So, anyways, I'm gonna play the question here because there's a lot of elements to this and I wanna make sure that everybody understands clearly how awesome of a position Matt is actually in this. But, I don't think he knows that.

Hey Steve, it's Matt here, hope you're well, dude. I've got a question I was hoping you could help me with. I've got an idea for a product or a company, which is teaching people how to solve the Rubik's Cube, but I don't want to be known as the Rubik's Cube guy or the puzzle guy.

Is it silly to think like that? Also, how do I know if it's a product that people actually want before I finally pull the trigger and get something out there? It's yours, dude.

Hey, Matt, thanks so much for the question. When I heard that, I think my eyes rolled back in my head and I was like, oh, yeah, this is the question. I love this question. Great, great question.

First off, just know that you guys can make a course off of anything. No joke. And it doesn't need to be ... if you got a special skill, whatever it is ... it's funny, because reading the book, like Expert Secrets, I think sometimes people might think that you've gotta be some highfalutin suit and tie-wearing briefcase-carrying expert and that's actually not true at all. I don't know if you've seen funnelhackinglive.com.

Yeah, "Funnel Hacking Live 2016" there was a guy, I cannot remember his name, but he's known as the Jump Guy, and he literally teaches people how to jump, no joke. They travel the world. He and his wife, his kids, at the time had not had a home in like five years or something like that, huge amount. Because they liked to go travel around and they live like kings and he literally teaches people how to jump.

That's what he does. And he's taken that on, he's like yeah, he's the Jump Guy. So, basketball players, athletes, whoever, if they want to learn how to jump higher he teaches them how to do that. There's a little course that he sells on it.

I'm trying to tease as many names, hopefully they're okay with me sharing these stories ... there's a lady at one of the first FAT events we ever did, the "Funnel Hackathon Event," and she was there. She was sitting kind of in the back left. I remember where she was sitting, as we were teaching, and I was on stage there and we're sharing those different strategies and stuff, she goes off and she makes like $1.3 million on like a $27 product. It hasn't even been a year.

It's been like eight months, six months, something like that. I'm not good with months. I always, always have to say the months in order by name to figure out what they are.

Anyway, so that's the whole point, though. It doesn't necessarily need to be expensive, although you certainly will ... how many $27 products do you need to sell to make a dent in your wallet? Quite a few, which is why I usually tell people to start with a thousand-dollar product. But, it doesn't need to be something ... if you see a spot where you're like, hey, I've got an expertise here. Don't feel like it's discredited because it's the Rubik's Cube guy, right?

I will tell you I still cannot solve mine. I'm holding it right now. In fact, when he first sent that first message to me I was walking home in the snow. I like that's where I was. So, I was walking home in the snow, and I was like, "Man, I would pay for your course right now. I don't know how to finish solving this thing. I can get like three-fourths of the way through and I cannot get the last, like, layer." I don't know, my head doesn't naturally work like that.

I've always wanted to learn how to do it. So, I was laughing when he said that, like, "Do you think people would pay for that? Do you think X, Y, and Z, whatever?" And Matt had reached out to me previously, so everyone knows, so I said, "Hey, would you ask that for the podcast because I think people would benefit from it?" The answer is 100%. You asked several questions there, you said I don't wanna be known as the Cube guy, Rubik's Cube guy or the puzzle guy.

I get that. That's fine. In order to create a mass movement you certainly would probably need to take on that persona just a little bit, but if you're just trying to toss something out there for some extra cash flow coming in that's totally fine, that's 100% fine.

I don't know that you necessarily need to take on, hey I'm the Cube guy, I'm the Rubik's Cube guy, the puzzle guy, but it certainly will help you the more you're wiling to do that. There are tons of YouTube videos of people trying to figure out how to do it. It's honestly one of the easiest ways to figure out if it's gonna sell really well, right. People are on YouTube for like, two reasons.

One, to be entertained and distracted and the second is like for how-to stuff, how to do this, how to fix that, it's like tutorial-based things. When I actually first started launching the product that allowed me to quit my job, that's actually one of the ways that I knew that it was actually gonna sell so well, is because there's tons of YouTube tutorials.

And, since it's such a hot, hot, hot, hot market that YouTube basically told me it was, I knew it was a safe place for me to go launch my thing in, as long as it was a new opportunity and I was following the Expert Secrets model, I would actually be able to be successful with it.

So, that's one of the easiest, fastest ways for you to actually make sure that you could actually sell with it. It's probably big enough, though. You can check out semrush.com and type in "Other Rubik's Cube people who are seeling that," I mean, there's gotta be people making several grand a month at least selling Rubik's Cube education courses. I'm sure that there are.

So, I actually don't think the question is, "Is it big enough," I think the biggest question you should ask yourself is, How will I defer myself from everybody else? How will I be different? How can I create a new opportunity out of somebody else who's teaching how to do Rubik's Cube stuff?/ somebody else who's teaching how to do something that's similar?

How can I make myself different and differentiate enough so that it feels like a brand new opportunity?

And part of that is you can just have a cooler offer than everybody else. It's not necessarily one of the strongest forms of creating a new opportunity, but by just changing up the delivery of stuff that already exists, you actually can get yourself into a new opportunity enough that you actually can create good cash flow from it.

Here's what I mean. So, I would use the Stack Slide from Expert Secrets, and the Stack Slide if you guys don't know what it is, it's kind of a model and a map for how to create new opportunities. So, what I would do is use that, and the very first step on the Stack Slide is, it's your main thing.

So, it can be an info product, right? Let's say you've adapted this course for beginners and kind of intermediary and advanced people. So, they can get in, they can do their own, wherever they are. If they know how to and they want it faster, or if they have no idea what they're doing like me, they want to get in, just kind of learn, you have a place for each one of them. So, that's kind of the first thing, is the main product.

Then, it's like a tool. What tool could you hand out to them to accelerate how they use your main masterclass? The first thing on the info product? Man, I would ship out Rubik's Cubes. Ship out a Trainer's Cube, and then also like a Speed Cube or something like that, so that people can go through and do your whole thing with them.

Then, think through, like, hey, well, what are the other beliefs someone's gonna have about this that they think that are real but that aren't? What are those things? It's pretty awesome when you start thinking through that way. First, let's think through a vehicle, okay? So, what are all the other gurus who teach Rubik's Cube stuff missing that you could go out and throw rocks at?

That's like the first question for bonus number one on the Stack Slide. You're throwing it at the vehicle that currently exists in the marketplace. What's the current vehicle? If everyone else is trying to get better at the Rubik's Cube, if everyone was trying to get out there and say, "Hey, yeah, this is the thing," what is it that you can throw rocks at to help people realize, wait a second, all these other gurus out there ... I'm shaking the cube like you can see it ... all these other gurus out there are missing this one step, these things right here.

That lets you throw a rock at the current vehicles inside the market, right? And create some product, whether it's info product or whatever, something you ship out to, maybe a workbook, or something, I don't know that lets you differentiate yourself from everything else that's available out there. It's part of the first way that you create a new opportunity.

Then he has to say, okay, internal beliefs. What are some of the internal beliefs someone has? "Oh, it's gonna take forever, oh, this is for someone who's mechanically minded, I'm not mechanically minded." You start thinking through, and if you don't know what those things are, you can either ask the market, which I certainly invite you to do, but you also probably have an idea of what the internal false beliefs are of people who want to get faster at the Rubik's Cube.

The third thing though are the external beliefs. So, external beliefs, what are the things that others would blame for reasons for not being successful? It usually has something to do with time, money, and resources. They're pointing away from themselves, "I can't do this because of that, because of that, because of that." It's no longer about themselves as much, it's I don't have the time, I don't have the money, I don't have the resources.

Usually somewhere around those three. Start thinking through what those are and that's how you put together an offer that makes you different from everybody else that's inside the marketplace and then one of the easiest ways to start testing it?

Man, I would record some super cool tutorials and I would just put them on YouTube for free, and I would see what the response is, and in the description on YouTube ... this is literally how I launched my course, by the way ... in the description I would say, "Hey, if you want more of this kind of thing, or if you want to figure out phase two," you could show them here's the fastest way to solve the first row of a Rubik's Cube, heard from a Rubik's Cube master himself, or something like that.

You go through and say, hey, look, if you want more of this go to, I don't know, solvemyrubikscube.com or I don't know, whatever your URL is, and in there, now you've captured their email address, you've qualified someone who's interested, you've qualified an opt-in, now it's time to qualify a buyer.

So, you go through and you teach them this stuff and you're teaching them for free on YouTube, then you teach them a little bit more at the beginning of a funnel, and then you say, hey, do you want this thing for, I don't know, 10 bucks, 15 bucks, and it's the full course, or whatever. But then there's an upsell, and there's a bump, and there's a downsell, and you could have this really cool tripwire funnel on the front, and quite literally be able to ... anyway.

The answer is absolutely. Absolutely. That's what I would do is I would go through and I would create it that way, and I would somehow figure how to split between ... maybe you don't have a thousand-dollar course on Rubik's Cubes but maybe it is $99. Maybe it's even $500.

I'm known to say no on price points, or to say that it won't work, or whatever, but figure out how much you do want to get paid per course, and maybe it's something like, as part of the value added, whatever, they get on with you once a week and it's a live Q&A section, group Q&A, not one-on-one, charge higher price for one-on-one, but if there's a group Q&A for like a mid-tier, mid-value ladder area that would be awesome. That would be super cool.

Because, I would love to have asked the three questions for how I was trying to solve this thing at the beginning. I kind of gave up after, like, a week. It was awesome, though. When I saw your thing, like, totally man, I would have paid for that. And you could target ads at people who are buying things at like Toys-R-Us or whatever. That certainly in my opinion, in my opinion, could totally be a viable source of cash flow, and I think could be awesome.

That's the whole point for everyone else who is listening in this. Please understand that it doesn't matter what you're an expert at. Okay?

What matter is how well you market it. I know I've brought this up before but it's a quote from Joe Polish, and Joe Polish says, "There is no relationship between being good and getting paid." There's no relationship between being good and getting paid. How many of you out there think and believe and know that you are better than most of your market at what you do?

If you're listening to this podcast I fight that probably all of you guys are better than most of the market at what you do. So, why are you or aren't you getting paid how much you think you are worth? Because of Joe Polish, he said, "There is no relationship between being good and getting paid." You can be the best coder, the best programmer, the best whatever, but that does not mean you're gonna get paid at all.

So, I love the second part of the quote. The second part of the quote is, "There is, however, a huge relationship between being good at marketing and getting paid." Go learn how to package and sell and market the thing you're good at. It doesn't matter what it is. There is most likely a market for it. What's funny is, I'm sure you guys heard the term, "The riches are in the niches." Funny enough, like, it's true. Like, what? Rubik's Cube training? Are you serious? Yeah, I'm telling you, you could make a ton of money with this stuff.

It's funny to see some of the things people come through and make a whole bunch of money on using click funnels, that come through those doors, and it's like, man, are you serious? I'm overthinking this. That guy made that kind of money with this kind of thing? That's awesome, fascinating!

Absolutely. So, think through whatever it is. Don't think your thing is too big or too small or whatever. Let the market tell you. Take your own opinions out of it, and know that you're not the one that's gonna fill your own wallet. Doesn't work that way. So, you have no idea, you have no idea. I don't care what I sell as long as it's moral and it sells. It doesn't matter to me. I'd totally start Rubik's Cube training if I knew how to do that. I have no idea how to do it, though, so tons of power to you, Matt.

Anyway, that's what I would do, though. So, gosh, 100%. Anyone else who's listening to this figure out whatever your thing is, if you're like, I still haven't started, or whatever, if you're having a hard time pinning down what that thing is, start asking people what it is that they think that you're good at. I did that for a while, literally. I was like, what am I good at? What am I good at? I did that, like, three or four years ago, and then when I finally dropped anchor, it was like, I'm gonna try to be the best funnel builder in the world. Am I? Probably not.

Of course not. But, I know I'm probably one of them, and I've worked super, super, super hard to get to that spot and develop that expertise, and there's times when I look around, I'm like, crap, I could go sell Rubik's Cube training. Did I overthink that? You can make ample money. Oh, darn it, it didn't quite put you in to a club but you made 700 grand, darn! You know what I mean?

So, don't be afraid to marry your thing. Don't be afraid of exposing what it is, and understand that there's probably people out there who are already looking for your expertise. There's probably people out there who are wanting what you do. Then figure out how to market it. It's not good enough to be good at it. You'll never get paid that way.

Funny enough, it's the reason why you can buy something on Amazon, or somewhere else and it shows up and it's pure crap. It's because they got good at marketing rather than the actual thing, which is a sad reality. That's the sad flip side of it, but that's also where the power of it lies in, what I'm trying to put across. Figure out how to market the thing.

How do you package it up? How do you sell in a way that's different than everyone else in the market that makes you unique?

Blue ocean, new opportunity, something that is not ever seen that's out there before, and it's one of the easiest ways to make a lot of money quickly, marketing a new opportunity from a submarket that you're taking one step out of. Such small risk. Just that little tiny step out, it's huge. The reason I knew I could be fine with my stuff, I did the exact same things I'm telling you to do.

All right, guys, I'll talk to you later. Hopefully, that helped and Matt, thank you so much for the question, and if you do choose to go do the Rubik's Cube thing, please let me know. I will buy it.

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

Lots going on right now. Here’s what I’m focused on for my current Product launch...

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

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

You guys, I hope the day is going great. It's an early morning here for me. My perfect day gets me up at about 4:00, and then I lift in the morning, and I go get ready and everything, and then I'm either podcasting or something here kind of early in the morning. That's kind of been my routine for the last little bit here and it's been nice, I've actually really enjoyed it.

What's funny about this morning though is I love dead lifting, that's my favorite lift, and I was pushing myself. There were man yells, I was like and I didn't realize it but my wife had gotten up also and she thought I was hurt. She was laying on the couch and she had heard me yelling in the garage. I was getting my swol patrol on baby.

I hope everyone's doing great though. I just wanted to kind of account and report for what happened last week. It was a special week, it was an awesome week. I have been waiting for the last week to happen for years. It was my first week by myself, solopreneur, which is not true, I have a team and people and I've got my own little posse now which is awesome.

Self-employed though for sure, that was the first week and it was crazy, it was total whirlwind. I started putting together a webinar and I went and I sold on Thursday, a week ago last Monday. I woke up and none of the slides were done, the funnel was barely even started, none of the pages were done, I don't even know if there were lists created for this thing.

In fact I had to go catch up and edit a whole bunch of stuff.

I pretty much started from pure scratch, and I know I talked about this a little before but I'm just super pumped about it. By Thursday I had created the slides, which I finished two minutes before the webinar. Ran downstairs, grabbed some water with the bathroom, ran back upstairs to my home office here, my home office here, tossed my computer on my stand, and did the webinar.

On the webinar we did 21 sales, and then another 16 sales in the followup sequence, which was awesome. That was the first round, round one which was great, super exciting.

Obviously now is the time for the so what? What do you do next? That was obviously to a hot list, so I was thinking on going to promote again new hot list, but this week I'm actually turning on ads. I'm getting those things started, and creating the hooks for that, and putting those things together, filming like crazy for the actual course, and it's an intense week again, a lot of stuff happening.

I'm so excited, and it was a lot of fun, and it was super, super encouraging to have that all happen. It's just nuts, again I'm not bragging or anything, I'm just pumped, I'm excited for what happened, and all those pieces that got put in place. That was well over a third of my yearly salary in three days, just nuts.

I remember four years ago my goal, you guys know how at the beginning of every year I go and set a goal. Four years ago my goal was to make $1,000 a month, and I was 37 and the single ... All I'm trying to say is it works, the stuff works. It's fun to actually be running on my own. It hurts a little bit still. I love, love working at Click Funnels, love the environment there. It's weird to be sitting in my home office by myself, which is technically a bedroom, and it's big but it's a lot of fun, but it's a little bit weird.

I am a huge, huge advocate though of different kinds of traffic. What I wanted to go through real quick is walk through what I've been doing the last four months and I know the reason that it opened up with such a big bang. There's two reasons, and the first reason was because I have been ... I know I've kind of talked a little bit about this earlier, but it sets the stage for something else.

I've been treating this a little bit like Tim Ferriss book The 4-Hour Work Week. He released his book very, very slowly over the course of a year, and that's how he put his book out there. He tested stuff slowly here and there, and here and there. That's exactly what I did for the last year and a half, two years almost.

I created a whole second podcast about it with the pure purpose of documenting the journey of me creating the thing. I mean if you haven't started anything you're in this beautiful position guys. If you're like, "I don't have the product yet." You're in an amazing spot. I almost envy the people who don't have anything started yet because of the cool position that you're in.

If you can document the journey of you creating the thing, man you've got tons and tons and tons of content to go put out there. I put 50 episodes out of this other show, 50 episodes before things ever launched. Just documenting the journey of the creation. "Hey, today I did this. Hey, today I did that."

People were falling in love with the thing I was about to sell them before I was ever selling it to them. Does that make sense? I was selling them without them knowing that I was selling it.

It's funny, between the two different audiences, I've never really sold that much stuff here on this show, but they were expecting a sale. It's a much, much smaller audience than this audience here.

It's just fascinating for me to watch the differences between the two of them and anyway, this show gets 300 to 500 downloads a dayish, somewhere around there. The other one only gets one to maybe 150, 200 ish a day, which is still not a bad size.

It's interesting to see the split between the audiences, the way I launched each one of them, the attitudes and the differences between the two. It's been fascinating to watch back and forth on that. Pretty fascinating stuff.

I am a huge fan of paid advertising. I used to think that just by ... There was a time I was getting all these sales but I wasn't spending actually any money on anything, and I thought that was a win. That was extremely juvenile of me to believe that. Instead I should want to spend as much as I can on ads and just destroy everybody else who can't pay to actually acquire a customer, that's the way to true domination with this is paid advertising.

I'm turning on, so Steven what are you doing next? This is what I'm doing next. I've done the first weeks webinar and now this week I'm doing the same thing again, but I'm turning ads on and I'm starting to get another Dream 100 package out the door.

That's what I've been doing. I started that about four months ago, and I started shipping a ton, and a ton, and a ton of stuff to just Dream 100 people. If you have no idea what I'm talking about you should definitely go read DotCom Secrets and Expert Secrets, I believe it's in both books. It's one of the only thing that's in both books. The other one has the attractive character principle.

Excuse me, so what I did is I just did a free training on this a little bit for almost three straight hours. I mean I'm not going to obviously go through this whole thing right now, but just as a quick recap over the top level ... The other guys got three hours that let's me go into a lot of detail of how I did everything and I actually peeled back all of my campaigns and all the things I've been doing because I've had authors, huge people that you all know.

Say yes to promoting my new course. Say yes to promoting the thing that's out there.

I started that four months ago, and so what I did is last Friday I was like I want to go through and actually show everyone how I did these things. It's almost three straight hours of teaching how I actually pulled off the campaigns with this thing.

What I did, step number one, was I went and I actually hired two VAs, and these VAs, they're like data scientists kind of, and I had them go through and I said, "Give me the top influencers in this industry. Give me the top influencers, I want to know who they are."

I said, "I want to know who they are, I want to know obviously their name, phone number, email, their business address, if they're selling any products online, I want to know the size of their Facebook following, I want to know the size of all their social media followings, I want to know do they have any big dominant website out there?"

It was this deep dive and they gave me way more than 100 people, way more than 100.

From those 100, from that list, I went through and I whittled down 100 people that I thought would be really, really cool to reach out to. Basically what I did is I went through and I said, "Look, let me find out a little bit about each one of these people so it's not like I'm sending the same thing to everybody."

I went through and I figured out those things, and then I created these lumpy packages, super lumpy, really bright, fluorescent colored wrapping packages. They stood out like a sore thumb. The first thing I shipped out was this little plastic microphone, and I know it was kind of junky but it was to keep it lumpy, and it was to help me, first of all, vet out to make sure that I actually had got the right addressed from all those people.

I went through and I shipped out that first batch and there was 30 that returned back, which was kind of sad but foreseeing that this might be the case, what I did is as I was dropping the Dream 100 packages into the mail, I took a picture of each individual package in a way where in the picture you could see all the other packages laying around.

They're like, "Holy crap, look at all these packages, these packages are all over the place." They knew they weren't the only one getting this. I started mailing big, big influencers a whole bunch of packages all over the place.

Those pictures that I took, just on my phone, I went back and I went onto Facebook Messenger and I sent them the picture...

I said, "Hey, just saying thanks. This is on the way to you." That was it, I'm not asking anything, I'm not asking for anything, I'm just letting them know I even exist. The letter that I wrote was awesome. I went into super detail with that with everyone, for three hours, it was kind of an impromptu training, I emailed out about it. We had about 40 ish people on I think, which is great.

It was impromptu, I sent it the same day that I was doing it, and for those of you guys who jumped on real fast you guys got the full scoop of this.

It was kind of cool because I was thinking through ... Here's what I really did is four months ago I started thinking through okay, Russell is busy and it's hard for him to give attention to each individual thing that comes through the door. I was thinking how do I open the floodgates a little?

I mean if I was to email somebody like another Russell in another industry, I do not expect that person to even get it. It's hard to get ahold of me, I know that, and I'm not nearly on the level of someone like Russell. It's challenging to get ahold of me, so it's way harder to get ahold of somebody like a Russell or a big influencer or somebody like that so that they can actually see who you are or even the fact that you exist.

I don't send emails and I know that some people defer like that and that's fine but I don't. I want to send them something that's kind of shaking right off the bat, that's kind of jarring, it's a pattern interrupt. What I thought was I got to sell this big influencer on me with the same tenacity that I sell my customers on my product. I need to sell this Dream 100 person on me. What I did was I actually wrote a webinar script for the Dream 100 group.

They didn't know that's what it was, but all I did is instead of tell it all in one shot, I flipped it on it's side so that package number one was origin story, package number two was the story of secret number one, package number three was the story from secret number two, and so on and so forth. Does that make sense?

It's origin story, that's the first package. I wrote out in a letter and told that story with something that was lumpy in there that I could tie into that was slightly cheesy but then also showed them that this wasn't a generic message.

It worked, it worked, and I had people right off the bat reply to me. Not a ton, these are big influencers, but I had two or three reply back and that's great, that's great, that's a success with huge influencers like that. I know that if they just name drop me just a little bit it gets my stuff all over the place.

They get affiliate commissions on something that's converting well and I get to put my stuff out to their list.

The next package I put out was just the story of secret number two from the webinar. The next one is secret number ... I'm sorry secret number one, then secret number two, secret number three, and then finally on the fifth package which is going to go out here in a little while. I paused it for a little bit for a specific reason, just talked about that on the free training I did on Friday.

I paused it for a specific reason I won't dive into here. Everything's going great though, I paused it for other stuff, external things. That's more of how I've been doing the Dream 100 stuff. What's cool is that guys, the perfect webinar script is designed to break and rebuild belief patterns for your customers about your product and you.

I was like, I got to do the same thing to these big guys right? I don't know most the people who reach out to me and that makes me sad, I wish I did, but how do I quickly vet through the people that I want to work with? How do I do that?

I'm not nearly on the level of the people that I'm reaching out to and I'm going out and I'm saying, "Hey, I know you have no idea who I am. Why don't you come promote my thing."

It's like come on, that's from left field, it's almost offensive to come right off the bat and just start asking for the sale like that. That's like dating somebody and asking for marriage the same date, very first date, first date. That make sense?

That's what I've been doing though. Package one, two, three, four, and then package five is me asking for the "sale", which is basically me talking about the affiliate program, it's talking about other people I've been promoting with and for and things like that, and it's been cool to do it that way.

By package two suddenly people, and it was a super cool thing, people were actually writing letters back. Big guys writing letters back saying, "Hey yes, oh my gosh this is so freaking cool, awesome, this is awesome." Then package number three someone it was something that you could wear.

These guys, these huge guys were putting the thing on, taking pictures of themselves and sending it back to me because I kept sending back the pictures over social media.

What was cool about that is that some of those addresses on the original package group that I sent out were not correct, but what it let me do is the people who were still interested, I gave them anticipation, and then they turned around and said, "That address isn't right", or whatever.

Suddenly I got the right address and was able to re-ship stuff out to them. Does that make sense? It's huge to do it that way, super awesome. They're like, "Wait a second, what is this? What is this?" You know that it's been proven that if you're going to go on a vacation, the level of anticipation for the vacation can be equal to if not more, being more excitement, and more adventure, and more awesome feelings as the same amount you'll get on the vacation itself.

The level of anticipation and the feeling you get can be equal to if not more than what you'll actually feel on the vacation itself. It's like taking two vacations guys.

If you can set anticipation up correctly, set it up in the right way, it's one of the nine mental triggers from the book Launch from Jeff Walker. Another one is Reciprocity, so I'm sending them all this stuff.

I'm not asking a thing from them for a while, for packages and packages and packages. It's not expensive, these things are only $8 to $12 maybe per package, there's 100 of them on there, and guys it's amazing what that does.

I was teaching a FHAT event once, funnel hackathon event, it was day three and I invited the man Dave Woodward, I look up to him like crazy, another mentor of mine almost. I really look up to him a lot.

He came in and he runs the affiliate and Dream 100 stuff at Click Funnels.

We interviewed him and people talked with him on stage there. He went through and he started showing some of the packages of what promoted the launch of expert secrets. He went through and started talking about that. People asked, "Hey how much are these packages that you guys are sending out?" Dave's like, "Hey about $25, but they're each bringing in an average of thousands and thousands of dollars."

People are like what? That's kind of what I want to get across is if you guys aren't actually actively creating relationships with people, you can't build the product, have it be done, and then start working on Dream 100 stuff.

It's not that you can't, so let's say you did do that, but man it is so much more effective to actually go out and have a group of people wanting to promote your thing or at least knowing who you are at the time of the launch. That's the benefit of where I am right now with my own thing.

Last week I sold to a hot audience. I'll do it again this week, but we're going to turn on ads but I don't like to actually just depend on ads, I want to make sure that I'm going through and going where the communities are that already exist.

Where are the other people who could benefit from the thing that I'm selling also, who owns those lists? Let's go through and promote with them. Does that make sense?

Massive, massive, massive, huge guys, massive stuff like that because you could spend a ton of time creating the river or just go find the places where there already is a river. You go find the place. Instead of just digging around all over the place, in random places, or maybe there was a river there, you're going back and you're saying where do the rivers actually exist?

Chances are someone owns the river. Well how do I get in? How do I get buddy, buddy with that person? Mark Zuckerberg owns this massive river called Facebook. In order to get in good with Mark he just asks for a little fee for ads. Man, there's other rivers, there's other places, there's other places that have ... It takes a lot of time, money, and energy to actually create an audience, to create a river.

Whenever I see somebody who just does ads alone and not Dream 100 stuff I'm like man, it's not that that's wrong, it's that there are these places that already exist that are probably prime for what you're doing. Don't just lean on ads alone. You go and you actually create relationships and start leveraging what's already out there.

That was 20 minutes of dump. I hope that that's okay. There wasn't much of a story with that, it was more tactile, but hopefully it clears up some of the issues of I see people doing Dream 100 stuff or not, or they get confused with it. I don't totally know why people don't actually go do it.

It's one of the most beneficial things, beneficial activities, massive, massive output for the amount of time you actually put in. I hope that everyone takes it seriously and actually does it because it's a big, big deal, it's a huge deal of what it does for the business, what it does for your credibility.

When somebody's who's on a higher influence level than you are reaches down and says, "Yes, that's great," and drops it on out, not only does it validate you to your people, it validates you to all these other influencers. Now you can go to them say, "Hey look, I did this webinar, I did this JV."

Whatever you did, with this guy, and this guy, and this guy, and they're like wow. Well that guy over there wasn't dumb so you must have something to toss them and then it starts opening the door for all these other people. I'm about to drop the next package here and I'm excited for what it is.

I think it's going to rock some boats a little bit, which I'm excited about, it's meant to. Anyway, great stuff. Please take that more seriously if you haven't and start thinking through where the traffic streams currently exist so you're not have to feel like you're creating one from scratch, that takes forever. All right guys, I will talk to you later, bye.

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

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What I realized I need to change 15 minutes after finishing my first webinar…

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

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

You guys, this is literally episode I think 101 and just so you know here on out, like what I'm going to do is from episode 101 on, is all about me documenting the journey of my entrepreneurial life now. You know what I mean? I'm on my own, I work for myself, which is both awesome and completely terrifying. What I want to do is, I'm just going to be, I want to walk you guys through what it is that I'm doing and why I felt okay to do what I'm doing and take the leap.

I know a lot of you guys want to, and I know a lot of you guys are and already have, which is great. Also, a lot of you guys that are listening are trying to. I've had a lot of messages from you lately, especially from that last episode I put out about my goals, reach out and say, "Hey, Stephen that's awesome. I want to do X, Y and Z." I'm like, "Hey, that's awesome, like keep going at it, keep crashing it." Get public about the goal. I always love doing that episode, look forward to it every year. I've got to wait another 362 days to be able to do it again, 61 days.

Anyway, hey, I just wanted to share something with you guys though. I just did my first live webinar, and it was a smashing success, which is very, very exciting. I have been preparing for this webinar for specifically just working on this one thing for the last three or four days. Here's how I did it. Okay, so last Monday, nothing was built, and so what I did is on day one, I built the registration process, so I went through and I built.

I don't care what it is that you do, I recommend in some way, finding some way to charge $1,000 in whatever industry you are and sale it on a webinar routinely, repeatedly. That seems like the thing over and over again that people seem to make the money, the fastest money with $1,000 product on a webinar. Okay?
I would think through something.

What's one thing that you can go out sell for $1,000, okay? That's what I did, is I followed this step, this formula, which is day number one on Monday, I built the registration process. People would go in, and they could register, so there was a registration page. There was a confirmation page, and then an indoctrination page, okay, where they go through and there's an indoctrination series that people got put on.

Then I like Zoom. I use Zoom with Zapier. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's totally fine, but I just use Zoom, it's a webinar platform, and I love Zoom. Anyway, so what I've done is, day one was the registration process. Day number two, which pretty much took the entire day, because I am a funnel perfectionist, I want to make it look awesome. I probably didn't need to, but really takes a long time day one is coming up with the headline and the three secrets.

Once that happens then I can move on to the next phase, which is building up the actual registration process. Then that was, so that was day number one. Day number two I started focusing mostly on the script and like getting the first parts of those things done.

There was a lot I had to think through with the script, specifically the first thing you have to come up with the script is the offer, so I started coming up with the offer, how to make a sexy offer for a thousand bucks.

On day number three, which was yesterday, I built the membership area and put just something in it, the awesome stuff, totally amazing things. I built the membership area and the order process, so people go through that. There's a way for me to actually get and collect money from people. I also put inside the members area several ask campaigns. I love the book 'Ask' by Ryan Levesque, that is a fantastic book and Russell obviously talks about the ask method as well in a little bit of different light in the book 'Expert Secrets'.

Anyway, there's a lot of other people that talk about that principle, how your success, the things that you want to go do, the things you want to accomplish you don't currently have the creativity inside of you to actually become successful and actually how to make the money that you want to. Get used to asking people in the market what they want and get used to making that, instead of your own thoughts and ideas right?

I created several ask campaigns inside of the members area, so that while they go through and they're consuming the kind of training that I have in there, they also could put certain questions in there they have. Like, "Hey, I'm struggling with X, Y and Z." Now I have a map for the things that I need to go create. Then they're telling me what they want me to make for them.

The reason that's such a big deal is because there's so many times in the past I have way overshot, way overshot the expectation of the customer. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you do that little every time and do it in such massive extents, you actually can cause overwhelm. I'm excited to see what they say, because that's currently running right now.

I went to sleep, sick actually, I had the fever chills, which sucks. You know like the shakes, I hate that, oh my gosh. I had it all day yesterday, and I was trying to work on the webinar and stuff and that was awful. It slowed me down a lot, but I was ... Then I slept few hours, and I got up and I worked on my script on the slides, the actual present, the perfect webinar script.

I worked on it and I finished the first half, the three secrets about one and a half hours before the actual webinar. Which means I had an hour and a half to create an entire stack. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read the book 'Expert Secrets' or go to I think it's perfectwebinarsecrets.com.

You can download a super amazingly valuable $7 thing that can totally change your life.

Anyway, so the stacks amazing, but I had an hour and a half to create a stack, which really I think it was like an hour. Actually, no, no, wait, it was 45 minutes, because there was an hour and a half from it that I was like kind of dying a little bit. Anyway, yeah, okay, cool. I had 45 minutes to create the full stack.

I did not create the kind of stack that I want to have ultimately out there, but I still made one and it was there and it worked. I had 170 people register, so I just want to, I'm not bragging, I just want you guys to know what I'm doing and I'm documenting the journey along the way, so you can follow it. You guys can see what you might do and get ideas on how to move forward also.

Please notice that I did not have the things ready in order to actually sell to get started. I just set the date, I started promoting it. There's 170 people that registered just for my hot list, which is in a different audience, it's a lot smaller.

Anyway, 170 people came and registered and then 100 showed up, which is actually significantly, it's pretty high, that's pretty high show up rate. 100 showed up and then 20 bought right off the bat, which is awesome. There was only about 90 people on when I actually started the actual stacks part, which is like a 20, it's a 22% conversion rate, that's pretty high. That's really high for a webinar, so I'm very, very excited about this whole thing. That's what I've been doing.

Now, as I was giving the presentation, I could tell and I could feel the sticking points. I'm going to go back and I'm going to adjust those sticking points. I'm going to adjust all the different pieces there, and I'm excited to make those adjustments. There's one massive thing that is missing from the webinar I just did, constraint.

This is one of the biggest lessons that I ever learned sitting next to the desk of Mr. Russell Brunson. I know I talk about him a lot, I hope that's fine with you guys, but I just spent the last two years there, how can I not talk about it a little bit? This is one of biggest lessons though and it's one of the things that I've got to go add in, because I could feel that there was a lack of constraint.

If you go look at the funnel hacks presentation, that webinar did $40 million, $40 million dollars in what? Like two years. $40 million in like two years, two and half years something like that, that's crazy you guys. That's ridiculous. $40 million, so I think we can learn from it a little bit. One of the things that he, I heard him say once was that one of the reasons it does so well is because of constraint.

At the beginning of the webinar he talks about ClickFunnels and he talks about the cost of ClickFunnels, how people are paying $97 a month or even up to $297 a month. The reason he does that is to introduce a limit and then as the webinar goes and he's going on, he's going on, he's going towards the very, very last part of the entire webinar. Because he's introduced the limit at the beginning, he can now release the limit for the people willing to take action now.

I think, I'm not near you, but I think I'm seeing a light part above you. There's, yup, there's a halo there, yeah, and definitely choirs of angels. I'm sorry angels of choirs, however that Christmas theme says it. Does that make sense though? You introduce a limit with the purpose of being able to remove it later on for the people who take action. That's a huge, huge secret right there, massive secret and I hope that you understand what I just said there.

I am creating a software. I'm creating, it's amazing, it's brilliant. Oh my gosh, it's something that I want, something that I need. I'm putting a software together that I already need, I already want it. I know it's going to be amazing. It's something that I want anyways, but what's cool about it is that it's going to allow me to introduce a constraint, because I'll probably sell it for $27 a month, $30 a month. I want it to be kind of lower on the price amount, so that lot of people can get it.

It's less about me making money. It has more to do with me being able to introduce constraints on my webinar.

No joke, okay, so think through...

Software is one of the easiest ways you can increase perceived value, that and physical stuff right, there's a whole episode I did a little while ago about that, about how to increase the perceived value of things, very easily. If you're selling electricity or you're selling air, you really got to build that up.

Anyway, so I am very, very excited to build the go and create this thing, because I want to introduce constraints. As you're thinking through your product, there's something to, not something to it, is the tool of marketers scarcity and urgency. Find ways to introduce it. If you feel no natural scarcity and urgency in your own offer, create it, make it. Find out how to have it, because people won't take action unless you help them do it, so unless you help them. Unless you actually put things out there where they're like, "Oh man, I have to act now."

Yeah, humans are naturally lazy, so you've got to do things, you've gotten things you're offering, you've gotten things to your business whatever it is so that there's scarcity and urgency with it. If you're like, "Oh Stephen and I sell pretty well, but it's not like amazingly," or even if you do, start looking through and start dissecting what scarcity and urgency does somebody have to actually take action with your business now? Is there any? Have you crafted it?

There's probably some natural scarcity and urgency, right, you can't spend time with everybody, so you have to choose someone. There's just some natural stuff, but how do you make people go a little crazy for it? You introduce actual scarcity and urgency. In Funnel Hacking Live, right, anyone of you guys have been to the last Funnel Hacking Live events or any events in general where someone's selling, watch what they do really carefully.

There are elements of limits that they put on top of their pitch so that they can release them later on, and so that's exactly what I'm going to be doing here shortly. I'm excited to do that, so I'm going to get going on this. I've got to wire frame it still. I want it to be an app mixed with like a desktop, like in browser or software as well. You could do it off your phone or off of the computer browser, and I'm excited.

I've already found some coders that can do it. I've already found a lot of ... Anyway, it's awesome. I'm excited to do it. It's exciting and it'll be cool, but that's where my head is. I did, I sold 20 people out of 90 people are on there. It's not a bad close right, and then there's going to be, there's a lot of people who couldn't get on it with the ... I am going to close it out here very, very soon and I think I can get at least another 10 people in as well. It's awesome. I mean that's pretty awesome.

That's what I'm doing, that's what I'm thinking about, that's my stuff for the webinar, That's all I really want to tell you guys is, as you are and that's what exactly I just did. I just barely, actually just as a recording episode, the replay just finished. The replay's done, so what I'm going to do now is go create a replay series for all the people who weren't able to get on. Someone said they got on late, they thought it was at another time.

Someone said they got on, they watched, but they couldn't get, the couldn't actually buy it because they were in the car driving and they were listening to the whole thing.

Anyways, I'm going to do a replay series out to all these people, which I'm very, very excited about. I should close at least another 10 people, which is awesome, but that will more than fund the software that I will use to sell everyone else in the future, so there's actual real scarcity and urgency. I mean constraint in order to create scarcity and urgency, but I want to introduce more constraint and I want to introduce more, "Hey, seriously take action now, because I'm not going to be here forever," kind of feeling.

Anyway, there's a whole bunch of more stuff coming up that I'm going to be building and tossing in there. I just thought I'd kind of ... That's the whole purpose of like the next 100 episodes or however long is, well from 101 and on is to for me to document this journey. For me to go through and say, "Look, this is what I'm doing," and it's not just so that you can put me in your ears, which however much I love that. It's so that you can take action on it, and I would love to know what you've done with the things you've learned from this podcast.

I love reading the reviews on iTunes. I'm I asking you blatantly to go and put an iTunes review on there? Yes, I am. Do you guys know there is four to 500 downloads per day of this podcast now, there's a lot of us out here and I would love to know what you guys are thinking about this with complete honesty. I would love it if it was a five star review, but still though even if not, I would love to know what it is that you guys are thinking about this, what things you'd like to hear, what things you'd like to know and let me know.

Go to iTunes, put in a review there and toss it on there, because it means a lot to me. It takes me about an hour per episode to get these things out the door. That's a lot of freaking time, okay, I do it for a lot of reasons, but I love seeing what it actually does for people's businesses and their lives. It's fun for that last episode for me to see a lot of comments come back and see like all the goals you guys are setting, all things you guys are doing. That's the exact same thing with this, is I want to be able to go and keep documenting what I'm doing so that you can model it too.

It's not just me talking to hear myself, although I do think I sound pretty amazing. It's that I want to be able to help you guys whatever it is that you're doing.

Anyway, go to iTunes, let me know, but then stay tuned as well, because I'm going to be documenting the journey of all the things that I'm doing and creating, so you guys can follow along and use it in your own business.

All right guys, I will talk to you later. Go get them, bye.

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

Every year i set a public goal for my income. It’s always weird and kinda challenging but it helps me get clear on what I want. Welp, this is that video. I just ripped the audio from the video. Make sure to get public about your goals…

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

Hey, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen, and I'm super excited for this video. At the beginning of every single year, this is the fourth time I've done it in a row now, every January 1st I go and I find a spot, and I think through what it is I want to get done in the next year.

And then I publicly declare what that thing is. It's one of the scariest things I do. I honestly started it because I was tired of not feeling like, I felt like I was going nowhere in life four years ago.

Financially, I mean. Professionally, it was where I was going with my goals. All those things. I felt like, I don't know.

It was in hopes that by declaring, to go publicly, several things would happen. Number one, I'd hold my own feet to the fire better. Other people did, as well. But really, the thing that I wanted to have happen, is that by me getting serious enough to actually declare, "Here is my goal!" I finally would have a goal. Does that make sense? Like, by getting specific enough on what the goals are that I have, I actually would know what my own goals are. I don't know if that makes any sense.

I wasn't really setting goals. I didn't have those. I didn't have things that there were ... I didn't have any of that kind of stuff. So what I decided to do is, what if I was to go set a goal publicly, and tell everybody. And the interesting thing that happened is exactly what I thought.

Number one, it was scary. Number two, it felt weird publicly to be saying a number. And then, what was kind of interesting is, all these people started kind of coming out of the woodwork and saying, "Stephen you can do this. You've got this. You're the man. Go for it." Stuff like that.

And you know what's funny is, I don't think ever, I've actually hit the goal on target. I don't think ever. And that's okay. The first year I was like, "If I could just make an extra $1,000 a month, it would change our entire life." We had almost nothing. We were living on student loans. It was hard as a man to go through that. I didn't feel like I was being a provider, which was really rough. So it was like, "Man, if I could just do a $1,000 a month." That was four years ago.
Three years ago, the second time I did it was $3,000 a month. I was like, "Oh, man. I hit the thousand a few times, and coming up this next year, I'm going to go for 3,000 a month."

And then this next one, the last one I did was, $30,000 a month, which was significantly higher, obviously. But I'm pleased to say that I actually hit it a couple times. And this is excluding my salaried position. You know what I mean? It was exciting for me to see that. It was exciting for me to see that progress happen.
And so, yet again, here I am. I'm going to set another goal for 2018. I really focus on just one goal.

I'm not really like a, "Let's set a billion goals out there." When I'm onstage, when I'm teaching, when I'm doing the different things I do, one of the things, especially with a lot of my students, one of the things that I see happen over and over and over again is, somebody won't get started, simply because they can't see all the path in between where they are and where they're trying to go.

And that's not how life works. You see the few steps in front of you. You see the peak of the mountain, but you don't see all the trails in between. You don't see that there's a canyon in the middle. You don't see that there's going to be all these different obstacles along the way. That's how life works. There's all these unexpected things that happen.

And so, the reason I like setting these goals publicly like this, is for the sole purpose of ... Like I said, holding my feet to the fire. But, it's fun to know what I'm going to go try and accomplish. And if I don't get it done, I'm going to be personally offended by myself about that. I'll actually get mad about it. I'll actually get mad about not hitting the goal, not reaching what it is I said I would do.

But I also know that's okay, and I sprint as hard as I can towards it. And it's cool. That first year, there was only a couple times I hit $1,000 a month. And it felt like this insurmountable, massive thing. It was like, "Oh, my gosh! This is changing my life!" Then the second year, when it was just $3,000 a month, the same thing. I only hit it a couple times, I think, and it was like, "Holy crap! That's massive!"
What it made me go learn, because I set the goal, was the kind of knowledge I needed to hit those goals.

I don't totally know all the steps and pieces to be able to hit the goal that I'm going for, for this next year. But I know that I'm motivated enough now to go hit it, and people are watching me, which is kind of weird. But, you know, it's how I'm doing it, and it's been working.

So, here's the goal. Okay, so the first year I hit $1,000 a month just a few rounds. Second year, I hit $3,000 a month a few rounds. Last year, I hit $30,000 a month a few rounds. And I decided I would take a leap, a huge leap of faith here and quit my job. And so, I actually, as of yesterday, am no longer employed by anybody. And I am self-employed, which might sound ludicrous, but I'm just following the pattern. I'm following the pattern I see from other people.

I'm following the pattern I've seen the last few years. And I'm self-employed. And that extra little added good pressure, not bad pressure, good pressure, is helping me grow. I can already feel it. It's only day two. I already feel my feet being held to the fire, which would be nice right now. It's pretty cold out.

But I was sitting in a Mastermind. And I was listening to all these other people, and I was listening to how they were talking. I was watching, most of them were all self-employed, and I was watching each one of them and the struggles and the challenges they were going through.

And I was like, I feel like the thing that I need to do to keep my progress going is something that I'm afraid of admitting. And I remember sitting in the room right there, I sat in the room, and I couldn't get the stupid topic out of my head for weeks, that I should probably leave my job. I was like, "I can't. Are you serious?" And I was trying to distract myself from my own head.

And then one day, it was sitting in the Mastermind when I kind of came to terms with it. I was like, "Okay. For me to move forward, I have to leave my job." And I was like, "Oh, my gosh." It scared me. It actually really freaked me out. Because, I understood clearly ... Because of where I worked, click funnels, right, there's like 56,000, at the time we were making this, there was 56,000 active users of click funnels. That lets us see businesses and pretty much every single industry. What's working, what isn't. And as the lead funnel builder there, my role there, I saw a lot of funnels. I knew what worked, what didn't.

What things were good, what things were bad. What was cutting edge versus what are things that are going to stay true forever in this industry and that industry. But not that one, nor this one. You know what I mean? It was cool to see this big broad thing.

And so I was sitting there, and I was like, "I think I have to quit my job. And I think I know what I'm going to go do first. And I'm excited to go do it." And this feeling of, instead of fear, this feeling of almost like, I used to do sprint triathlons, and it was the feeling I'd get before a sprint triathlon. Little bit of nervous feeling. You know that what you're about to go through is actually going to hurt just a little bit. But, you ultimately know it's going to go pretty good. And even though you're going to get banged up, or scraps, or you're swimming in the lake and you're getting hit by a stick that's random in there, someone kicks you in the face. You know what I mean?

That's all the stuff that would happen, and it still would end up being, I look back on all those memories with huge fondness.

This is going to be like that. And I've had people reach out and take time out of their day to tell me that my plan is stupid. And I've had people reach out, take time out of their day to tell me that my plan is awesome. And that tells me right there that I'm heading in the right direction, as well, to get that polarity and get that split between people. So, I'm excited for this. I'm excited for it. I've worked hard towards this.

My goal is a million dollars. That's my 2018 goal, is to get in the two comma club by the end of 2018...

And I'm quite positive I'm going to be able to do it much faster than that, because of the stuff I've identified, where I'm going, what I'm selling. I mean, it is extremely calculated, everything that I'm doing.

And I know life's all about curve balls, so that will probably change a billion times. But for right now, that's what the goal is. That's what the plan is. And I know exactly what I'm going to be doing for the next, especially the next six weeks. It's going to be straight up hustle time. I'm going to put down anything happy, or fun, or relaxing, or whatever.

But I'm excited. And I hope that whatever you guys are doing, that you go set a goal for yourself, and get public about it. I don't care what it is. The important part is to not be afraid to tell people. Funny enough, we all think that by telling people our ideas, our ideas will get stolen. And I've never actually had that be the case. I try and tell everyone what my ideas are.

I try and tell everybody what the things are that I'm doing. And I find that people actually end up adding to the idea, rather than steal it. I mean, there's only been maybe like one or two people, ever, who've actually tried to do the thing I'm talking about. And people don't, because it's not their idea. It's my ownership on my side. And even if they did go pull it off, even if they did go do the thing that I was doing, they still won't do it the same way. I'm the only one. I'm the only me. You know what I mean?

Anyway. So, I'm excited. I'm really pumped. My goal's a million dollars. That's $83,000 a month. And I think I can do it. I've stacked a ton of high ticket sales scenarios and environments at the beginning of the year, to help me get towards that right off the bat. And then I think I know where I'm going to take it afterwards, and I'm excited. It's requiring that I go hire people. And it's requiring that I build a team around me.

And it's requiring that I grow, that I learn how to manage, that learn how to delegate, that I actually have a structure and schedule for my days, personally as a human, as an individual.

And I'm looking forward to the growth. And I know there's some discomfort that's going to come with it, but I'm actually excited about that, as well. I'm ready for the next change. So, this is it guys. Four years ago, my goal was $1,000 a month. And now, I'm going to $83,000 a month. It sounds ridiculous, but I kind of like that. So, I'm going to do it. So if you want to follow me on the journey from here on out, I'm going to be documenting what I do, and showing everyone what I do, so that we can all kind of, I don't know. It's not about me beating my chest. It's about actually, selfishly, everyone else is still kind of holding me to what I said that I was going to go do.

So anyway, I thought I'd come to this park here. It's freezing out. But, that's my goal. 2018, a million bucks. It's crazy. I remember scraping by at the beginning of our marriage. Just like with nothing. We had like nothing. Not even two nickels to rub together. And the ridiculous stress that that pulls in.

I used to think rich people were greedy. That's not true at all. I actually have experienced more of the greedy side when you have no money. And you're like, "Where's my next meal coming from? When am I going to eat? Where's this? Where's that?" And you get like scraping by, clawing. You're getting past everyone, every thing. Don't care about other's emotions. You are just thinking about how to make the next meal. I know that's a stereotype, but it's been my personal experience that it's actually a little bit the other way around.

I'm excited for this, and how it's going to change me, and change my family. It's going to require me to change. I understand that where I am, I probably don't know enough, or have enough, or whatever to get to that next level, but I'm ready. So 2018, here I come. What's your goal? Post your goal down below. I'd love to know what your goals are.

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

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Little did I know (or notice), but very subtle moves by my awesome parents helped to cultivate an entrepreneurial environment…

Welcome to the first episode of me totally on my own not working for anybody else. I'm very excited to be here. Man, I've been dreaming about this for six years. My name is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

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

What's up everyone? Holy crap. I woke up this morning and I thought to myself, "Self, holy smokes. You really did this." Oh my gosh. Then I got up and I lifted and got ready for the day and I'm here. I'm ready to rock. This is going to be fun stuff. What do you do when you have that clean of a slate? It's been a lot of fun though already. I'm excited for this though, I've been dreaming about being on my own, owning my own business, being my own entrepreneur, I've been dreaming about this for probably six years. Really though it's been since like the middle of high school, so I don't know like 15 or 20 years, something like that.

So, I'm excited for what this means. I'm excited for what it's going to require me to do and grow as an individual. I understand that I know that there's things I just don't know. There's stuff that I don't even know that I don't know and I'm excited to go find those things out. I know it'll cause some bruises and cuts and tears, every once in a while I'll get a bloody eye. You know what I mean? I know that. I understand that. It's so funny how many people have reached out and been like, "You're an idiot. Oh my gosh!" There's tons of people who are like, "You can do it. Oh my gosh!" It's been cool to have both sides of it, 'cause to me it means that I'm doing the right thing.

So, when there's that much polarity with it, it's kind of like, you know, if you've offended nobody by noon you're not marketing hard enough. I feel like it's the same thing for you as an individual. If nobody's nay saying what you're doing, you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough. You know what I mean? Anyway. So, I'm excited. I've got my first product launch, well, it's not my first one. I've done a lot of them but it's my first one solo on Thursday, and excited for it and I've been planning this product for a long time.

I've tested it and it's been working like crazy and I've got honestly really two beta groups that I've been doing it with for the last while and it's been killing it.

So, I'm finally ready to go public with it, which I'm very excited about. A lot of people have asked, you know, "How do you feel like you're ready? How do you feel like you're set to do this?" I know there's a lot of people, you guys are listening and you A, might either be hoping to one day get out there and do something on your own, you're dreaming about it and there's something keeping you back or you feel like you're not ready or whatever it is.

Then the other side is I know a lot of guys who listen are actually by yourself and you actually have been by yourself for a while and that's awesome, I'm pleased to have you as well as a listener. I understand we got both sides of the coin here and both sides of the coin as far as how people feel.

It's funny that people like reach out and tell you their opinion about what you're about to do with your own life, you know what I mean? Just expect that. Just expect that especially as you start publishing. Like if nobody has been doing that to you, you probably haven't been telling enough people and there's something weird that happens when you get really clear about what you want and you start moving forward. People start reaching out all over the place.

Number one to say yay or nay, but then number two when you get that clear and you start going out saying, "Hey, this is what I want or don't want" it's funny how stuff kind of just starts to fall in place if you're actually serious about it and you're actually moving on it and you're not waiting for other peoples' blessing to move forward.

You know what I mean? Stuff just will move forward with you, if you are.

So, anyway. That's the deepness of this one. But I was thinking about just how I got raised and things like that and there's a great question that I got from a listener that I'm actually going to toss in right now. I thought it was the perfect question for what it was that's actually been on my mind, 'cause there are a few things that I did as an early kid that I can look back now and be like, "Oh my gosh, there's a few things that look, this helped me be prepared. This helped me get in the correct mindset where I could go do this."

I understand, guys I'm only 29 years old and I understand there's other people who have been far more successful than me by this age and a lot of people who have been far less successful by this age.

I think one of the keys is just to quit watching other people. Who freaking cares! I don't care. It's my life, it's where I am in my spot and I'm in competition with myself. Over and over and over again in Two Comma Club Coaching or any coaching in general that I do, side clients, you know, all over the place, one of the biggest things I see over and over and over again where get fumbled up, is it's good to look at other people, right?

We tell people, we teach people, look go funnel hack this guy.

Go funnel hack this person, this business, this over here. Copy them, model them, go through figure out what is it they actually did, how did they prove that that offer worked? How do they prove that they're attractive character works to that kind of audience, right? But also, please understand that your actual progress in this, right, should not be compared to another individual. Your actual value as an individual cannot be compared. "Oh well they did this by the time they were this age. They did this by the time they were this age."

If you're doing that as far as competition, okay that's great but understand that I've seen a lot of people get crippled by it. Because what they do is they get out there and they start saying things like, "Oh, I must be doing it wrong. I'm never going to make it because I was never Russel's right hand funnel builder." You know what I mean? That's kind of what they do and they come out and they said, I've heard that a lot lately, it's like, oh my gosh, I wasn't planning to be, I wasn't even trying to be in that role for a while. I was just already in motion, they saw that, and they picked me up. You know what I mean?

So, go get in motion. Go do stuff. Be in motion. Don't wait for approval from anybody else. You'll never get anything done. You'll get things done at a very slow rate 'cause you got to get second opinions on all this stuff. It doesn't work that way. Okay? You got to be willing to frankly give people the finger a little bit, which is something I don't do.

Just move on. Like whatever, this is what I'm doing. Get out of my way. This is what I'm going to go do, and then you go do it. I don't know. Maybe I want to SoapBox right now but I'm certainly feeling excited and a little bit euphoric about this whole thing. Obviously there will be rough spots and everyone tries to remind me of that, duh. I get it. But there's also going to be a lot of freaking kick-butt stuff and I've got six mega selling opportunities this next month alone that I've pre-set up to help the jump as I leave. I mean, my goals are huge. I know that. It's going to be great. Do the same thing though in your life.

Whatever it is that you're doing, the funnel that you're trying to put together right now. I was looking at a post the other day and the post was saying, "How many funnels are you going to build this next year in 2018?" I was like, "That is a rough question. Ouch. Who cares how many?" Focus on just one. Just do one. If you do one really good it'll change your whole life. It doesn't matter how many.
I have no idea how many funnels I've actually built. I always tell people that it's like 300 but it's way beyond that. There was a single project that was 86 funnels two times.

Okay?

86 funnels in two different times on a single project. I did it in like three or four days. Another one where it was supposed to be 330, I only ended up getting like 90 of them done but that was in two days. There was another one, like when we built Anthony DiClementi's that was 12 funnels. That was over the span of not that much time. So, it's in reality way past 300. I have no idea. But you know what's funny, is I can look back at the 12 that are killing it.

Don't worry about the number of funnels. I know there's a strategy out there where you try and build a funnel a week, that's okay but you end up getting micro focused or hyper focused I should say, hyper focused on just the funnel that you're trying to get done and not actually making sure the thing converts and you're making money from it.

There is so much mental capacity that is required just to get one kick-butt funnel out the door. Who cares about number two til you get number one done.

You know what I mean? It doesn't matter. Stop caring how many funnel it is. Stop caring about, "I'm going to go get this done, this done, this done, this done." Well, then you're not going to get any of them done well. Okay? Do less better. Do less better. That's one of my favorite... I don't think he actually said that but it's a lesson that I got from him and I wrote it down. Do less better. It's all about saying no to more things than yes to a bunch of stuff. Say no to like everything. Okay?

I do. It's the reason I don't funnel build for other people anymore. The kinds of people I want to funnel build for are like massive companies, huge companies. I would love to build funnels for huge, huge companies because I know with complete confidence that in a few tweaks I can totally change the revenue coming in to them. I could either take away their cost to acquire customers or we could go expand how much each one of them is giving them. I want to go build for massive, massive companies.

So, I say no to like everybody else. I got tons more asks this last week and I get it. That's awesome, that's exciting, and quite honestly I'll probably do you know, some kind of event in the future where people can come in and I'll help them get their funnels out the door that they've been sitting on for a while.

I would love to do that kind of stuff. I want to be involved with that kind of stuff, but the amount of mental mojo that it takes to get one of them, one awesome one out the door is huge. So, don't worry about number two, number three, number fifteen. Don't worry about number 12 til you have number 11 done. Number two, don't give a crap about number two until number one is kicking butt. You know what I mean?

Anyway. So, as you think through the goals, whatever you're trying to do in 2018 whether or not you set goals and new years resolutions all that stuff, I'm off my high and mighty horse now. Let's get to the question from our listener, which I'm super excited about.

Steph Brown: Hey Steve! This is Steph Brown. On your podcast you have given a few stories about how some events in your life growing up helped you on your journey to become an entrepreneur. I'm a mom of three young kids so far, and my question for you is how can my husband and I help to build a solid foundation for our kids so they would be ready to start their own businesses? What are some things your parents did well, what do you wish they would have done? What do you plan on doing with your own kids to help jump start their journey if they decide to become entrepreneurs? Thank you.

Steve Larsen: Hey Steph Brown, fantastic question. Absolutely love the question. I have a four year old and a two year old right now and my wife is pregnant and expecting in June. I've had those same questions, the same kinds of things and it's made me very be introspective lately as I kind of look back and I think through oh my gosh, what are the three things that my wife and I should be doing?

What are the things that my parents did? What are the things that I liked, what are the things I didn't like? Which is what each generation does building on the next. You know? You should look back and figure out what you liked that your parents did or didn't do and go build from it. Say I'm going to do this but not that. So, I totally get it. I'm not telling you how to parent but I totally get it though. In my mind that's how progress happens anyway.

One of things my parents did is my dad grew up on a farm and he knew how to work and he wanted me to know how to work. So, he taught me how. I remember literally every single Saturday as a kid we would go do yard work. It pissed me off. I was so mad about it just week, after week, after week. People would be like, "Yay it's the weekend!" I'd be like, "Crap, I'm going to be picking weeds in the garden for six hours tomorrow." Which is not a joke. We would do that. We'd sit down and be like, "Oh my gosh."

By the time I was eight years old I was mowing our lawn and I was mowing neighbors lawns and had my own little business. So, I was eight years old and I was going around. I think I was eight when I started doing it for other people, I was really young though.

I learned how to ask people for money. I learned how to talk to people, 'cause it's not like they walked over with me to the neighbors and asked with me. It was like, okay, let me know what they say. I would walk over there by myself, scared out of my mind and I would go talk for myself, negotiate for myself as a very young kid.

That was invaluable. I had no idea how much that would add to my life, later on down the line. As we continued to grow up though, we would do things like paper routes. My parents were not like ... We were far from poor. We were not wealthy though either. We had more than enough, we were middle class, very taken care of. It was awesome. My dad was an executive at IBM.

He ran his own couple businesses for a while. He's a rockstar. He taught me how to learn. He taught me how to work.

What I noticed they would do is they would set up these little scenarios for me to learn, these scenarios for me to own the projects. I think they understood, 'cause I'm the oldest of six kids, and they understood that my personality requires that I have ownership in stuff and it's been that way my whole life.

So, when someone else would stand up and tell me what to do it took me a long time to be willing to understand that they're not trying to boss me around, sometimes they are my boss or sometimes they ... You know what I mean, so from a young age they understood quickly that I needed to have ownership in things.

So, I'm excited to do that for my kids 'cause I've been thinking through what kind of cool projects I could give them where it's like, "Hey, children I want this outcome" and I give no instruction on how to get it done. Right? I love the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People when he's talking about his kids taking care of their lawn and their grass was brown 'cause the kids were still learning how to do stuff. There was trash all over. It was disgusting.

People were like, "Why don't you just do it on your own and make it look nice?" His response was, "Because I'm raising kids not growing grass." Right?

This is not meant to be a parenting show or anything like that but I'm looking back though, identifying the things that it was. There was a summer where ... My dad worked from home actually. He had a home office. I grew up in Littleton, Colorado, which is a suburb of Denver. Skied like crazy growing up and very outdoorsy. I backpacked my face off all over the mountains. Anyway, really enjoyed it. Lots of fun. There was a summer though that my dad was like, "Hey, children" and I was the oldest so mostly he was talking at me.

He said, "Stephen come on in." I went and I sat down in his office and a lot of times it was almost like an interview when I was sitting with him, and I sat down with him and he's like, "I want to make you the yard manager." I was like, "Okay, what does that mean?" I had been mowing lawns and doing the trimming and weeding and all that stuff for some time but he's like, "I want to make you the yard manager."

What he did, and this was one of the best lessons I ever had in my entire childhood ever, okay? I can't wait to do it with my kids. It's one of the reasons we bought the house that we did so that there's a yard, so that there's projects that need to be done. I am not trying to hire a maid. I am not trying to hire a yard guy. I have two little yard people right now that are in training, my two little kids. A third one on the way. That's how I'm looking at it because I expect them to work.

I don't care how much money I make, they will have no idea that ... Anyway, I'm very firm on that. I know people who are like, "Let's give you a better life than I had." Yeah, okay, but I'm trying to teach you how to fish. I'm not trying to give you fish. So, what my dad did though is he sat down and he goes, "I want to make you the yard manager." What he did was he's like, "Here you go Stephen, I'm going to give you a budget. Every single week I'll give you a certain amount of money and you will go hire out your siblings for specific tasks and at the end of the week send me an invoice and I'll pay you and then you take whatever was over on the top."

Now, that might sound funny to you but it was one of the coolest things I ever did. He gave me no other instruction. Right? He gave me nothing else and I was like, "Well how much money?" He's like, "Well you come up with the amount. Let me know how much it is." I was like, "Crap." That was one of the things that he was very, very good at is whenever I had a question this was one of the best things he ever did with me, he always asked me what I thought before he ever told me what he thought.

I would have to go come up with the answer on my own. Do a Google search or ask friends, talk to people. Try and figure out what's the answer that I think it is and then I would take it to him and check it with him. He did that for tons of stuff. Totally pissed me off for a lot of my childhood but was one of the best ways that I learned how to solve problems on my own or at least take a stab at them. Then I'd go check them with now, the market. You know? Or now, a guru or a mentor or a friend or something like that. You know what I mean?

So, what I did though is my dad said, "Okay, go figure out the amount." So. What I did is I literally wrote a contract. I sat down with my siblings and I interviewed them and I hired them to like okay, I'm hiring you younger brother of mine to mow the lawn. They would be applying for the position because it paid $11 a week, something like that.

Trimming was $6 a week and weeding around the garden, weeding around the sides of the house it depends where you were 'cause the weeds were different depending on what part of the yard you were in and how crappy of an experience it was.

Fertilizing was twice a season and aerating was this amount and I foresee these expenses and I foresee this. I had to come up with a plan. I think I was like 14 when I did that, 15, something like that. I can't remember how old but I was in my middle teens and I had already been running kind of a side business doing this stuff for other neighbors.

I had a paper route. I was extremely active. I was actively trying to make money as often as I could as a kid. I was that kid that was like, "What can we sell to the other kids on the street in the neighborhood so that we can make money?"

They'd go buy cases of soda and we'd sneak onto a gold course and we'd go sell it for a little bit more. We would take backpacks, we'd put backpacks on, put our swimsuits on and we'd go dive, which is totally disgusting. We'd go dive into the ponds at the golf course and get all the golf balls off the bottom. We'd clean them up and go sell them back to golfers. That's the kind of kid I was.

I was always trying to sell stuff. I never realized that business was the thing that I was doing. I always thought entrepreneurship was like this nasty thing where you try and make as much money as you want. You know what I mean? I was totally wrong. It was totally false belief. I don't really know where I picked that up but I had to break that eventually.

But anyway, so that's what I did though. So, my siblings would go out and I ran it like a business. That's what my dad was trying to get me to do. He's like, "Look, it's your thing. How do you want to run it?" He's like, "It's not on me anymore." He transferred all the ownership to me and he said, "Do it how you want to but here's the outcome I want. I want the grass looking good." That was it. So, I had to learn how to do sprinkler monitoring, you know, the systems.

I had to learn how to do all this stuff and hire people out and at the end of the week my siblings were going be like, "Okay. Pay up." I'd be like, "Crap. I don't have the money." So, I'd go ask my dad and be like, "Dad can I get the money?" He'd be like, "Yeah, just write up an invoice." I didn't know what an invoice freaking was. He didn't tell me. He's like go look it up. So, I went and I looked it up and I made up what I thought was an invoice and I sent it over to him and he was like, "Okay sounds good."

Before we even started with this I would send over an estimation of what I thought the weekly cost would be and be like, "Okay, think you could pull it off for that amount?" If an employee of mine, a sibling of mine, if an employee of mine didn't do their task that week I had to pick up the slack. I had to go do the job and I wouldn't pay them, I'd keep the portion for my own. So, I'd keep a management fee for myself to keep it all going and then my siblings would do all this other work on the side. Interesting experience. I mean, absolutely amazing.

I totally took to it. I had full ownership over it. I took full ownership of it and I loved it. It was a great experience and it taught me management. It taught me delegation. It taught me that no job was below me. You know what I mean? I learned how to work my face off through that thing alone, and later on I was like hand digging trenches for sprinkler lines and putting up ... Like, I later on was insulating on my own and dry walling, patching and painting our whole garage on my own. You know what I mean?

It taught me how to learn and work and solve the problem directly in front of me so that I didn't lean on another person to get it done.

"That sounds hard". It's like, "No, what would you do first? What would be the first step?" "Well I'd probably do this. Then I'd do this, then I'd do that." Then I'd go check it, the whole system I was thinking of with another person but I didn't wait to start. It wasn't contingent on somebody else. It's totally this problem solving mentality that my parents instilled in me and that's kind of what I'm doing also.

It might be weird to do it for a four and two year old but sometimes my little kid, like yesterday I can't remember what she asked me but she asked me something, I said, "I don't know, what do you think?" Obviously I had an opinion but that's not why I did it. That super helped me like crazy. Yeah, that yard manager thing was killer. That was absolutely amazing and obviously if you don't have a yard or whatever, or you have yard people, you can fire them or I'm sure there's other ways you can instill that or do that. That was amazing and that experience taught me a ton.

I had side businesses my entire childhood growing up. For me to say, "This is the first time I've ever launched a business on my own" that's not true at all. I'm 29, I've been doing this for probably 21 years now. Have they all been very successful? No. Most of them haven't but I know what doesn't work and I know more of what does, and I know how to launch stuff. I know how to put plans together and I know how to manage and orchestrate people and put them all together and things like that.

That's really what that taught me how to do, was how to orchestrate. How to delegate. How to not be the only person. My dad just, hey, here's the outcome I want and here's maybe a few pointers but after, I'd go try and find out the answer on my own. You know what I mean? That was ridiculously valuable.

The other thing they did with me is they always fed me, clothed me, paid for school field trips, all that kind of stuff but any entertainment on my own, I mean, I paid for my own car insurance as soon as I started driving. My own gas, any movies I wanted to go to. You know, we'd get clothes at the beginning of each semester or before school would start again but after that though if I wanted anything extra I was really on my own.

I'd go figure out how to do it. That was awesome. That was awesome to do it that way, because I got out of the mentality at a very early age, "Oh, I can't afford that" and I started getting into the mentality at a very early age, "Man I really want that cool cork gun" I remember thinking that and I totally saved up and I got one and I figured out how to get creative.

I sold all sorts of crap to make money in order to go get toys. I did that a lot, tons growing up. Tons of times.

Anyway. It taught me how to problem solve like crazy and keep me in good stress. Anyway. I am a huge advocate of good stress. Obviously there's distress and if i can tell that my little ones are entering a state of distress it's time to cut it out and time to intervene for me. I'm not telling anyone how to parent, please know I'm not a parenting expert, but that's when I would intervene though. That's when I do intervene, when I can tell they're entering a state of distress where the stress is no longer a growing and enabling style stress. You know? Like going to the gym. It's a bad kind of stress. It's the stress that's destructive. It's going to kill confidence. I don't want to kill confidence.

I want them to have confidence to be problem solvers on their own, that they'll be self sufficient adults and they know how to do things on their own.

I think particularly my mom wishes that I wasn't such an individual so that we would chat more and maybe ask more questions to her and stuff like that but they raised me to be a very self sustaining individual and to solve my own problems. It's not that they won't help, it's not that I can't chat, it's not that ... But it is primarily squarely, all of life, everything that I am, everything that I'm doing, everything that I'm being is on my shoulders and that was instilled in me at a very young age. I appreciate that. There were times where it sucked and there were times were it was not ... Oh man, but I carried that.

While I wasn't very book smart in school at first I did learn how to learn and ended up getting almost straight A's throughout the remainder of college afterward because of the confidence they helped instill inside of me. Does that make sense?

Anyway. It's interesting, as I'll hire people out or VA's or whatever, it's not that I can sit back and be like, "Oh, that's the kind of childhood you had" but I can sit back and go like, "Wow, you have very little confidence in your abilities." Sometimes I'm a little bit withdrawn on what I am able to do also for fear of looking like I'm being giddy, and I hate that in the internet marketing world. It drives me crazy.

I'm not about to go take pictures of me laying across cars and crap. It's just not my personality. I would rather ... Anyway. It's funny 'cause I can tell though, there was a time when I was trying to hire ... You guys will meet her here soon 'cause I want to interview her, she's a rockstar of an ads driver, Facebook ads driver. I don't want to learn how to do Facebook ads.

It's not a peak I'm going for. So, what I've been doing is finding these rockstar people and I went, and I've talked about this before, but just to recap I went and I created this cool contest and whoever was able to drive the most converting traffic to one of my pages, that's who I hired to be my Facebook ads person forever.

Just because it was a competition, one person backed out. I was like, "Cool." So, then there was only two left. This is after I vetted out a huge list of lots of people. Then I went and I talked to the remaining two and I was like, "Okay, person A and person B this is the competition. Okay, I'm going to give you guys each $500. Whoever can drive the most converting traffic, you now have a job." I put a little pressure and there's nothing wrong with that, and it was awesome. Viva la Capitalism okay? That's what I'm all about.

They were both pumped that it was a competition but the second I could tell was not going to be self sustaining.

The kinds of questions that were coming from person B were questions that I didn't know the answer to, I don't know Facebook ads. I'm like wait a second, "You tell me what's best. I'm hiring you." It's the same thing that my dad would do with me. That's exactly what I said. It was interesting. I was like, "Huh, I can tell this person's going to be more of a liability on my time." I was like, "I don't know. You go do it. That's your job. That's why I'm hiring you."

It's not on my shoulders, it's on yours. I'm paying you to figure that out. "Well what about this, this, this, this, this?" I was like, "I have no idea what even half of you just said 'cause I'm not trying to learn Facebook ads. I'm trying to be the best at funnel building, what you do with a customer afterwards.

Offer creation. That's what I'm trying to be the best in the world at." You know?

So, I got rid of person B because person A was just executing. Person B was asking a billion followup questions before they even got started. I was like, "Ugh." But anyway, that's part of it. So, anyways. This has been a long episode.

I hope that's okay. They've all kind of been a little bit long lately. It's funny though how much ... It ticked me off like crazy that a lot of times it wouldn't be like, "Well here's the answer" and sometimes it would be. But a lot of times it was, "What do you think Stephen?" I'd be like, "Just tell me the answer! I don't want to go think! Don't do that. Don't make me think." But it taught me how to problem solve at a very young age, how to take responsibility. Anyway. So, you asked the question what I wished they would have done, which is a great question.

While all those other things were awesome, I have incredible immense respect for my parents. I have absolutely zero bad feelings about the way I was raised. I'm completely thankful for both the good and the bad, the hard and the good. Everything that happened, both amazing and rough, for the way I was raised and I feel like that's powerful for each adult to eventually come to terms with. If you're okay with that. Man, this is like deep crap. This is not like a normal funnel episode. I am excited to make this change though.

I had a very, and this is probably going to shock a lot of people, I was extremely shy as a kid. I'm not just saying that. Out of the 600 people in my senior graduating high school class, 600 people, I was rated and voted as the nicest kid. You know when they're giving like the most likely to do this, the most likely to do that, I was voted the nicest kid award out of 600 people. Nicest kid.

It shocked the crap out of me, because in my head I was not that way. I was a little rage machine I just didn't know how to deal with it. But I had a huge fear of other people, I had a massive fear of adults. I was very shy. I'm excited to help instill greater confidence in my children.

You'll notice that I love Setema Gali, I think that is his last name. He says something all the time, he's like, "Confidence is for kids." As an adult, especially as an attractive character you have to mean and exude absolute certainty, absolute certainty the evolved version of confidence. Okay? Again, no regrets. Nothing else.

But I am looking forward to helping my kids have more confidence and help them be able to make ... I'm trying to figure out how to say that. But yeah, I think that'd be it. I just don't want my kids to be shy, and if they are that's fine. I'm not trying to change them or whatever, you know, but that would have been very nice. I had a fear of speaking, which is funny 'cause that's what I do all the time now. Stage, podcast, all over the place.

But I had a huge fear of speaking and so eventually I had to face that fear on my own and I started doing things like door-to-door sales, musicals, stage presentations, things like that in high school at a very young age so I could get around that 'cause I started learning that about myself.

But anyway. That's it. Long episode answering that question. Thank you very much Steph Brown for that. Shout out to you and thanks for ... If anyone else wants to get a question on here I do love hearing what it is that you guys have questions on and they often bring up kind of cool topics kind of like this one.

Anyway. If you wanted to go to SalesFunnelRadio.com and there's a green button down on the bottom right and if you click that button you can record a voicemail to me straight off your browser. It won't take you anywhere else or anything and it automatically emails that over to me, the voice file and everything so I can toss it right in the episode. Obviously I kind of vet through them. Start with the phrase, "Hey Steve" and then ask your question in 30 seconds or less and that's how we do it.

Alright guys. Hope you guys are doing great. That was some serious massive introspection. It was kind of a long one, I apologize. But great question though. There was a lot in my childhood that had to do with what I'm doing now and thanks for bringing that up and making me realize all that. That was helpful. Thanks Steph. Guys, thanks everyone else for listening. Go crush your 2018. I had a special episode coming out next, which I'm very, very pumped about. The next few are going to be really awesome. Alright guys, talk to you later. Bye!

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