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

Today I'm gonna show you guys my 5 phases of funnel building.

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

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

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

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to sales funnel radio.

What's up? Hey, I'm excited for this video today! I've actually been thinking about this quite a bit here.

Now when you think about building something like a sales funnel...

The first time I ever heard about building something like a sales funnel, I was like oh my gosh, I got to write copy. There's the copy piece. I should find some images. I should do some videos. I should do the actual pages themselves. The actual product itself. How I'm gonna promote it?

There's all the stuff that goes into it. It can get incredibly stressful. So what I wanted to do right quick is...

For those of you guys who are listening, just know that on YouTube - I'm gonna draw this so you guys can see a little bit of my funnel building process.

So this is this is interesting. I teach a lot of the stuff at events, and multiple times right, somebody will stand up and be like, "Hey, hey, how should I go about doing upsell, and this, this, and this for my product?"

I'm like "Why you even thinking about that? You don't even have a main product yet."

Too many times we get too involved in questions we don't really need to answer yet!

But there are questions that DO matter from building a funnel.

Sometimes people are so concerned about what makes the car engine run that they don't even know how to drive the car. You know what I mean? It's like there's a whole bunch of things out there - and you don't need to know that yet.

So literally, my purpose in this episode, is I just wanna walk you guys through the very simple funnel building process that I have and why it works - and how to screw it up.  This is really it, I mean this is truly it.

Now if you think about it, there are five steps here:

The first thing I need to go do is kind of a research period. Check this out... check this out- and I'm gonna explain this kind of as I go along here.

The first thing that I do, is I go and I have to make sure that I know what my customers are already buying and how they're buying it.

We call it the "what and the how." You guys may have heard of this before, It's the "what and the how," though.

So, I go in, and I look at a red ocean meaning if I'm gonna go sell... I don't know? Pencils. I'm looking at pencils or pens, they're over my desk over there...

Let's say I'm gonna go sell pens. Who else is selling pens and how are they selling them? Who as far as businesses go, but also the customers; they're like "Hey, this is how I like to hear about my pen purchases. This is how I like to go and purchase my pens." You know what I mean?

So we answer the "what and the how?" What am I gonna sell? What are the people selling and how are they selling it? We call it the red ocean when there's lots of competition inside of one place.

So I'm gonna go inside, and I'm gonna look at the red ocean. I'm gonna look at the red ocean, and specifically what I'm doing is I'm looking for "the what and how."

I'm just gonna write that down again, red ocean, and I'm looking for like I said, "the what and how." I'm gonna draw a bit of line here. That's like phase number one here.

Phase number 0ne, red ocean - just research who is already selling the things that I'm interested in selling, and how are they selling them? That's all I'm answering.

So the second thing - now that I know a little bit about the actual red ocean and again remember, I know the what and the how that's all I'm looking for. The second thing I can go and start looking into... It's literally the second phase of, funnel building for me is the actual sales message writing. Not products creation. This is super key.

There are multiple products in my early years of doing this where I did it wrong. I would start building products before I knew how to sell them. Stupid! Dumb!

And when I say that out loud, you're like, "Well yeah, of course, you wouldn't do that." Yeah, well that's what everybody does! They come in, and they start making these products without any knowledge on how to actually go out and sell the thing - meaning the sale script - the sales message.

Products don't sell themselves. A product never sells itself.

When you go out, and you say, "Oh, the product's so good you've got to get in front of people." The actual cases where that's true are so rare. That is the exception NOT the rule - and I do not build a business based on exceptions. I look only on the rules. So don't go do that.

So the second thing, I go and I start building is the actual sales message. Once I've got the sales message down, the way I know I can move onto product creation mode is when there are literally wallets flying through the air at me.

Meaning when my sales message is so compelling that people are like, "I have to have that where do I pay you?" And I actually do collect money. Meaning people vote with their wallet, and they tell me, "Yeah, that's a really great idea. Let me give you money," and I actually have money in my hands.

That's when I go actually create the product.

And you might be like, "Stephen that's kind of weird. It's like a bait and switch thing.”  No, no, no, no, no! I always tell them, "Hey, this isn't ready yet. We got the beta version. If you pay this discounted price, you can get the beta version coming out soon.” And then I go build it real fast.

There are so many companies that do it that way.

And what's cool about that is that you are using the market's opinion to create your products. That's huge. That's a massive benefit that you have. It removes like 90% of the risk of the entrepreneurial game.

This game is not risky if you just do it in the right way.

Going out and creating a product, then trying to figure out how to sell, then trying to figure out what markets should buy it, that's risky.

And that was all the ways that college taught me to build stuff  - which is really weird. Anyway...

So "red ocean" - when I know the "what and how" is similar to the thing I'm gonna be selling. Then I go and create a sales message.

And my aim is to be different, not better - we talked about that a few episodes ago. I'm trying to be different, not better. Super key.

And then number three, I actually start building the product.

Now, for me actually make a sales message there has to be some idea of what the product's going to be in the first place, but I don't need to actually build the thing! Does that make sense? Very important distinction right there.

Then when I'm to going out, and I'm actually building the product. That's when I actually I move onto step number four, (and I'm gonna want more whiteboard space here.) You guys see that light over there on the side? Oh man, this' so funny - guess you'll see all my home studio stuff anyway. Whatever I'm gonna keep going, is that cool? Alright, sounds good.

Alright, number four, what I do here is I start building the funnel. Now in order to actually get sales in the first place, I might need somewhat of a funnel up, but I don't obsess over it.

So back in step 2 when I build the sales message, I'm running the sales message. I'm actually getting cash coming in, there's some sort of funnel that needs to be up, but I just don't obsess over it. Does that make sense?

It wasn't for like four months/ five months, into one of my major products that I started actually going in and adding all the little pieces and glaze - all the features and all the little cool things that ClickFunnels has inside. Does that make sense?

'Cause most people go in, and that's the first thing they do. They're the like, "And then we could have this page, we have this page, this page..."

And the issue is that if those are the things that make your product sell (the little tweaks, the little features, that little split test that gave you an extra half a percent conversion increase.) If that's what's making you profitable, your offer and your sales message are not sexy enough - they're not good enough!

I don't want to bank on a feature to make my business profitable.

My products, my sales message, should be really freaking good. And the funnel is just an accelerant.

All the features, all those little things are just an accelerant for everything. Does that make sense?

So, then I go in, and I start building the funnel. Meaning I add in all the glaze, I add in all the cool stuff.

The last thing I go to, as far as funnel building phases, the final phase is traffic. Lots and lots and lots and lots of evergreen traffic sources, all over the place. Traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic.

Now the reason I drew these columns is because I wanna make a very important distinction here. In every single one of these, (let me just erase some part here) in every single one of these, I feel like I say this phrase all time...

But I was at an event, I was teaching, and somebody said, "Hey Stephen, I know what my red ocean is." I was like, "Sweet." They said, "I've got a converting sales message." I was like "Cool" (or it was converting at least well enough.) I was like, "Cool."

And they were like, "I've built the entire product." They were like, "I have a sweet funnel, and I've got a sweet little doohickey, and you know the features and all that stuff inside it." And I was like "Sweet."

Then they were like, "Where do I get traffic?" And I was like "Oh my gosh! Are you're serious?"

You have to understand that for each one of these, if you go all the way down here, and then you're like, "Where's my traffic coming from?" You've waited too long. You shouldn't have started building the funnel. You shouldn't have started building the product until you know this piece.

When it comes down to it, traffic is money, traffic is money. Flow... eyeballs... getting attention. Attention is money. Attention is cash.

If you step back, the product is just a reason to collect cash. The sales message is just a reason to collect cash. Traffic is the cash. Traffic is the thing. If you can drive traffic that's epic. Oh my gosh, that's so cool.

These are the 5-phases that I build in.

First I do this, and then second this, and third I do this, and fourth I do this, and fifth I do this (pointing at whiteboard). Those are the different phases.

I don't start any of the phases until I know the answers to those five.

So there's really two different blocks here going on. So I'm gonna draw a line right here... (drawing on a whiteboard)

So it's two different things you want on here. Everything on the top here I'm just gonna learn, so I'm just gonna put an "L" for that.

I'm gonna learn in the red ocean - I'm gonna figure out "the what and the how," that's all wanna know.

In the sales message piece, I'm gonna learn, "What gets people so motivated that they're actually giving me cash?" So when I have cash in hand, I'm gonna learn how the other people around ocean are selling. I'm gonna go learn what their sales messages are. I'm not writing sales page yet, I'm just learning. It's a research phase.

This whole top part is a research phase.

When I go out, and I'm building a product, I find out how these other guys built similar products.

And obviously, if you guys have been following me for any amount of time you know that in this phase I go out with my create what's called a purple offer  -and that makes me completely unique.

But I still need to figure out what people are already buying. I want to be prolific, but I don't wanna be risky. So I'm still gonna go find things out there that are already selling and stem out of similar things, you know what I'm saying? Anyway...

So I'm gonna go research best ways to build the products.

I'm gonna go research the best funnels that are out there that would be a good model for what I'm starting to see actually go sell.

I'm gonna go research all the different traffic methods - the best ones that are out there - evergreen traffic methods. The traffic methods that are gonna bring in a whole bunch of people once. Maybe traffic methods that are a little bit like slow growth ones.

I have a podcast episode I suppose like 20 episodes ago called, My 4 Favorite Traffic Methods. I think it's was called... go look at that! That's what I'm looking at specifically.

Look at what I've been doing this past a little bit in this podcast, in the show I've been going in, and I've been doing a little bit of a deep dive on each one of these five categories.

I'm trying to go like 30000 foot view again, not getting in the weeds on you guys on this stuff. I'm going 30000 overview again. I'm going through, and I'm looking at a 30000 overview, "This is how all the pieces map together."

I'm going in:

Research phase - What and how.

Research phase - Figure out the sales messages. What hooks? What stories can I tell to get people so excited that they get up and they're like take my money and they're throwing their wallet?

Next, Research phase - How can I build the products? How can I build the offer? How can I craft a purple offer? How can I craft something that both brings in a kind of risky, prolific, imaginary things (something no nobody's ever done that piece before), but then add the security of what people are currently buying? That's why I call it the purple offer;  Red Ocean +Blue Ocean = Purple Ocean.

Research phase - What different funnel types are people liking to buy through?

Research phase - What kind of traffic's out there? Does that make sense?

Then there's the actual execution:

Once I know those things, then it is okay for me to go build a funnel. Then it's okay for me to go out and actually start moving to the building phase.

Too often people research and build in the exact same steps. Don't do that.  It's scary. It's risky.

The first thing you're doing is you're going in and researching; you're learning learning learning. Then once you've got all that down, then you build -  in that order. Step one, two, three, four, five. And five just continues with five five five five five - 'cause you're going to need "more traffic, more traffic more traffic, more traffic." Does that make sense?

I just wanted to walk through that with you guys real quick.

So again this 3000 overview.

If you guys have been watching what I have been doing the last little bit, the sole purpose of it has been going through, and teaching like, "Hey, look here are the things you go collect from the red ocean before you can move on."

There's a podcast episode, I think it's right before this one, walking through red ocean stuff that you should have before you actually go out and move on.

The sales message - I do tons of stuff on sales message. If you just rewind 30 episodes and start watching, you'll see I've been diving in and seeing what you guys react to the best so that I know like, "Hey, that was the best way to teach that concept."

We are doing a ton of building a product stuff; that's the whole purple offer thing that I talk about. Building the actual funnel, that's what I'm known for.

And then traffic, I go back to my four favorite traffic methods.

Anyway, you can start to see that, and I just want you to know how the pieces all fit together, 'cause I'm starting to get some questions of people, like, "Sweet, Stephen, I've built this thing, but how do I get traffic for it?"

Like, "Oh my gosh! The traffic is where you get paid - why did you not look at that before you started building?" And I get it - they're just new mistakes that you wouldn't know about without being in the game for a little bit.

I did the exact same thing with my very first product. I didn't look at a red ocean, kind of did, not really. I definitely didn't look at a sales message. I focused solely on building the product thinking that's what actually causes money. It's not!

I focused very heavily on the funnel - so those two (pointing to whiteboard). There's products/ funnel, product /funnel, product/ funnel.

I remember the day when it was done - and I was like "IT'S DONE!" I was like, "Babe this is huge! The next question we're gonna answer is what island will we buy? Oh my gosh, this is gonna be so cool!" And nobody bought -  because I didn't answer, "How do we get traffic?"

And I did not answer, "What sales message?" There was no targeting of "who" I'm actually targeting with the red ocean.

And anyway, so hopefully it's been helpful to you guys! I just wanted to go through and kinda do that 30000 overview.

So anyways guys, short episode, but this is incredibly impactful. This is like powerful, powerful stuff.

In fact, this is the model that we would follow at ClickFunnels. I was the funnel builder over there.

Red ocean - we knew very well who we were selling to. The what and how. Also who you're selling to comes from the red ocean. We knew the who, we knew who our customers very very well.

The sales message - honestly that's actually where we would start because we knew this piece so well. We would start at the sales message and we would start the building. It's cool to watch.

I always noticed Russell Brunson was willing to move forward with actually crafting the offer; he'd have kinda have an idea of what the offer would be. Kinda an idea of what the funnel would be. Kinda an idea of where the traffic come from...

But this was the lock gate: If he could not think up a good hook... if he could not think up a good story... he did not move on to offer. It's: Hook/ Story/ Offer.

But he did not move on to offer until he knew what hook and story were. And then we'd move on. As soon as we knew that, "Boom!" Then it was like, "Kick Stephen into gear." And I would start building; funnel, funnel, funnel.

Now that we knew what it was - we started crafting the offer and started pulling pieces together.  I start working with John, and we start working. Anyways, it's a supercool melody of all these actions going on. It takes a lot to get a funnel up, and I totally get that.

I encourage you to never do more than one. Don't move on from it until you can literally walk away and have several pieces automated.

So anyway. Guys, this is just how I build funnels, not businesses.

I just wanted to walk through and share with you guys the relationship between these pieces - and what to do to learn from each of these pieces.

Then when you can have license to start - not guaranteeing it'll work - obviously there's always tweaks inside of it, but when can you actually move on to the build phase - and when you are building - what order do you do it in.

So anyways, I just wanted to walk through that with you guys. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for reviewing and ratings inside of iTunes - I've loved watching that. It's so fun. It's been very motivating for me.

The YouTube channel, you guys have just blown it up. Love reading your comments! It's actually super, super motivating - means a lot to me. I put a lot of work into this; we've got a 7-man team just creating content - that's how it is. So it's actually very very motivating when we hear good feedback! So thanks so much guys.

Catch you later. See you next episode, bye.

Oh yeah wasn't that awesome?

Hey, just real quick, a few months ago Russell asked me to write a chapter for a secret project he was doing. I had to write a chapter for a book, and this was the prompt - this is the letter I got from him... He said:

"Hey Steven, let me ask you a quick question. You suddenly lose all your money, along with your name and your reputation. You only have your marketing know-how left. You have bills piled high and people harassing you for money over the phone.

You have a guaranteed roof over your head, a phone line, internet connection, and a ClickFunnels account for only one month.

You no longer have your big guru name, your following, your JV partners - other than your vast marketing experience, you're an unknown newbie...

What would you do from Day 1 to day 30 to save yourself?”

Russell Brunson.

If you want to see my answer, and a bunch of other marketers that also had to answer that in this amazing book and summit - Just go to 30days.com/Stephen

Again, you can see the entire summit, you can see the book, you can see what we wrote and each of our detailed plans. Just go to 30days.com/Stephen. That's 30 as in "3" "0" - 30days.com/Stephen Guys enjoy.

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

Today, I'm going to share with you guys my latest source of free leads.

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

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

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

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

Hey, I'm excited about this. This is actually - I'm going to actually cut over to a video real quick that I did inside of my group. And what I want to do is share with you guys, is how I added almost 3,000 people to my list in the last, I don't know, it's only been like seven weeks. I'm not promoting at all. I'm not. Anyway, it's been really, really cool.

I want to share with you guys what I've been doing, and it's a video that I did in my Facebook group. I walked through the strategy itself. So you're going to see me there, I think I'm jamming out to music for a little bit. But anyway, I think you guys will really like it.

It's been super, super helpful. It lets me tie in some automation where I can grab leads out on Facebook and push them into my ClickFunnels list automatically and straight into action funnels - which is super epic.

So before I spoil it, let's cut over there so you guys can see it in action. Bye.

So every day I go in, and it's my habit, every single day I jump on in, and I bring people into the group.

And what I'm doing... (Replies to FB comments) Hey, what's up, how's it going? James, how you doing, dude? How's it going, Carrie?

So every day, I go in, and I approve people into the group.

When I first started, there was this big rush because I had launched and the hot traffic always comes in. But it's consistently brought in anywhere from 20 to 30 to 40, sometimes 50 people a day.

Now we're hitting like a 100 people a day trying to join the group - which is awesome!

(Jamming to music) Makes me want to go longboard.

Man, I used to bomb hills growing up on my longboard - barefoot. Like 45mph with my brother following me behind in a car so he could clock how fast I was going. It was stupid- don't do that.

Alright, let me pause that (pauses music).

Okay, so I've been going in, and you have something that you're selling, it's all about list building strategies. Even before we have something to sell, it's all about list building strategies...

The only asset that is actually on the internet, the only asset you have in general is the list... not the product... not anything else.

And I just barely went through this.

About three or four months ago, I went in, and there was a company I was doing stuff with, and it turns out that they were not a good company. They were like stealing from people and crap - and I had no idea.

And because I had a list, I could pick up, and I could move to something else, and it was not a big issue.

If I didn't have a list, if I didn't have a following, it would have been an issue.

The list is the asset. The list is the ONLY asset!

And so what's interesting is when you have something to sell, then it's all about putting more people into the pipeline...

There's only 3 ways to grow a company. And I can't remember, who said this, I think it was Jay Abraham -I think so. He said, "There's only 3 ways to grow a company. Let's write them down here, so we all got them.

3 ways to grow:

#1: The first way to grow a company is just to get more customers.

#2:  the second way to grow a company is you just get them to pay more money.

#3: The third way to grow a company is you just get them to pay more money, more frequently.

That's it! That's all it is.

So when you have something that you are actually selling ... you've got a product up here, and the product is like, "Whoo check it out, I've got a sweet product" - that's the only way you can grow it:

#More customers.

#More money.

# More money, more frequently - or money more frequently, i.e., increase the frequency that they're actually paying you.

So that's what I have been doing.

The reason that I ask for people's email address before I let them into my group is for several reasons from a business standpoint:

#1: It's a symbol to me that they are willing to exchange something for the value I give.

If someone can't give me their freaking email address, (you guys know the value I drop in this group) I'm not going to let them in the group. If they're like, "You know what, I'm going to see if this is worth it?" "No! Wrong order!" I don't even care.

I had 102 people ask to join the group today,  and when I whittle out all the people who didn't give me their email or didn't agree to not self-promo, it went from 102 people down to 72. And that's pretty accurate - it's about a third.

A fourth, to a third of the people who ask to join the group every day, I'm rejecting. I'm like, "Nope, you're gone. Nope, you're gone. Nope, you're gone. Nope, you're gone." Isn't that interesting? So I'm rejecting them. I'm getting rid of them. That's one of the first barriers to entry I have.

Six months ago, seven months ago, the only way I was building a list was by pushing people over to a squeeze page, but what I do now is I ask people for their email address as a symbol to me that they're willing to contribute to this relationship.  Because what I drop in this group...

A lot of you guys have stated that this should be a paid group, and I know that. This is a place for me to geek out and nerd out when I learn stuff. I'm like, "This is sick." There's no one for me to talk to. You know what I mean?  I don't work at ClickFunnels anymore, so you guys are, like “for me."

It's like "Oh man, I want to be able to share some of this cool stuff that's going on."

And so anyway...

#1: It's a sign to me that they're willing to contribute to the relationship, so I ask number one, for their email address. That's the first reason why.

The second reason why I ask for people's email address is because of this...

Now I want to share something cool with you guys, and a cool resource I've created for you guys.

I don't think a lot of you guys know about it yet - that's the reason why I'm telling you guys. This is why I'm doing this, okay?

(Facebook comments)"We are your coworkers now."

It's so funny, you guys. I go in, and I start reading all the responses.  It takes me a minute every day to go in and read.

They agree to give me their email address and agree to not self-promo. I'm not trying to keep people's opportunities away from them. I just don't want the group to become a massive spam fest. That drives me nuts. I've been in so many other groups like that.

I'm part of way too many groups that I need to get out of, where it's just like, promo, promo, promo, promo, promo and I'm like “Holy crap!" Or spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam. Okay, clearly the dude had no idea what he was doing and wrote that sales message where it literally was just spamming me.

Now, I love spam, not just the food. It's actually pretty good with eggs and rice. Awesome stuff. Good Polynesian style, right there. But the actual spam itself for marketing, I like to read that stuff. I like to go in and see what they're doing. Especially when I can tell it's been running for a while - then something in there is working.

But, man, like if it's not targeted correctly, then I freaking hate spam as much as everyone else.

So what I've been doing, is I've been going in and asking people not to self-promo. And some of you guys have been great. I really appreciate it. Anyway, if somebody is spamming, you know I kick them out, and I ban them for life. I've done that to many people.

So, thank you guys for being awesome.

I'm not trying to create this scary place where you can't post anything. But some people are obviously trying to get in and farm from the group. That's not the purpose of the group.

I'm just trying geek out and show cool things and teach the science of selling online, you know what I mean?

So anyways, that's the reason I ask people not do the self-promo thing.

#2: The second reason why I ask people for their email address is I'm list building.

If we go through and think about what I'm doing up there now that I have the products -  now it's more about building the list itself. I always keep that moving and keep that growing.

So I wanna share with you guys what I do with the emails I collect. Is that cool? Is it alright if I over deliver?

(Looking at FB comments) How you guys doing? I haven't really looked at the chats yet, How you guys doing? 'Sup Nick, how's it going? "We'll keep you sane." Hey, thank you so much. "Would you get a dog?" Probably not. Uh, what's up, Jeffrey - how you doing dude? 'Sup Daniel, how you doing? Zack, oh what's up, Zack! 'Sup guys!

Hopefully, you guys are doing fantastic here.

I wanna share with you guys what I have been doing with the email addresses - 'cause I haven't actually launched the thing that I'm asking for yet. I just wanted to see if it'd work, and it is.  So now I just gotta build the thing. It's totally Steve Larsen style. Okay, so this is it...

So I wanna share with you guys real quick...

If you guys go to bestmarketingresources.com - I went through my actual business bank statement, and I listed out all the resources, tools and software that I pay for, it's over 50 of em'.

Two or three are the ones turn in a massive 80% of the revenue, and some of them are just these cool little things that either save me time, money, energy or resources. Some of them make money.

So anyway, what I decided to do was actually go in and film a strategy video for each one of the resources I use so that you can see why I use them. Then my affiliate link is right underneath, so if you got value from it, it's right there for you.

It's a cool place where you can just see what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it.

For Example:

>What are the resources I use for content?

>What are the resources I use for my team management?

> What are the resources I use for funnel building?

>For content creation?

>For any other aspect...?

So I went through, and I categorized all of them and filmed a strategy video for you guys. So you can see me talk more about the tools...

But I just wanna share with you guys what I'm doing with these emails:

Yeah... yeah... Aw yeah. We need some (turns music on). Okay cool! Ready? This is epic. Check this out. Okay. Alright!

Now, if I'm right here in The Science of Selling Online, I'm in the actual group right here. Check this out. I go in, and I clean out... I gotta look at the screen, my computer screen, not my phone screen. (Going into Group Funnels Software)

Alright, I go in, and I clean out all the emails. There was a 102 this morning, after all the people who didn't give their email, which is not a good sign for me, like crap, this is a two-way relationship not one way, right?

I do not believe the customer is always right, whoever said that is dumb. So I find the right people. That's one of the ways I farm out and know if they're gonna be right. They could have just given me their freaking email.

So I go in, and I farm out all the people. I decline all the people that are not actually gonna be in, who don't give their email, and then I decline all the people who don't agree not to self-promo. And then this is what I do. Boop! What! What is going on? Oh, My Lanta.

It's getting all these people automatically, what? Check this out!

So it takes a moment, it's going in and its grabbing in all these emails. Check this. This is nuts - the craziest list building thing ever,

I have added almost 3000 people to my list - FOR FREE, because of this strategy. Boom!

Now it's gonna stop. Now I'm gonna come right up here, and I gotta be careful of this because it will show the emails. I'm trying to be careful about people's data...

But when I click "view data," boom! Look at all that data.

Now I gotta go, and I gotta click on a Google Sheet, and I'm gonna push all that data, all 72 of those, bam, over to a Google Sheet.

Bam, it's on a Google Sheet now.

And what I did was I set up a Zapier, and so the Zapier goes in, and it collects any data to add it to that Google Sheet automatically.

It goes, and it adds to, it pushes the data into a ClickFunnels list. Boosh!

Okay, check this out... this is what's really going down...

If any of you guys have an FB group -  easiest list building ever!

So I've got the Facebook group right here, and I'm asking questions and asking for peoples emails. When they fill out their email, I go in, and I click on the special button.

If you guys wanna know what it is, go to bestmarketingresources.com, and look at the Group Funnels strategy video. It will teach you everything that I'm doing more in depth, and it will also give you some cool goodies if you use that link below - I think I think so.

Anyway, alright, it's called Group Funnels.

What's cool is that it auto accepts everybody who's left in there and parses all that data, and pushes it over to a Google Sheeta and sorts it.

Then what I do is I have a Zapier, (and Zapier's free up to a certain level, and I think you can do this for free as well.) I go in and a Zapier, as soon as the Google Sheet has new data, it automatically pushes that data through Zapier.

ClickFunnels just barely started accepting incoming data. This is a huge deal because it means I can automatically add people into a ClickFunnels list and put them on an Actionetic sequence.

The next thing, now that I know its working and people actually into the group, and they love this stuff, now it can go in, and I can actually create, an onboarding sequence when people join my Facebook group.

You guys have to make like explosion noises with me, okay! That's freaking nuts!

I have added 3000 people to my list FOR FREE  (I have not paid for them) in the past like seven, eight weeks alone. That's nuts. I didn't pay for any of em.

Now the cost is having like a sweet,

 The cost is time adding to the group. But that's what's been intense because I can go in and I can do all of these things inside of Actionetics. I can do all of the things inside of ClickFunnels. I can do all the things that I need to be able to onboard them.

So the next thing that I've been doing, if you think about my value ladders, which are over here on this side of the board... I'm not gonna show it all to you, but on this side of the board is the actual value ladder that I'm building out right now.  Watch what I'm doing, and you'll see how I'm doing it.

All this stuff, all the content creation that I'm doing is down here at the bottom, and then I've got "this product" and "this product," and "this product."

This series is meant to introduce everybody to:

#My podcast.

# The blogs.

# Affiliate outrage,

# The free opt-in course...

If you don't know what that is, go to freeoptincourse.com it will teach you guys how to get opt-ins which is awesome.

All the stuff that I have for free to get you indoctrinated - then also pushes you up to different varying levels inside my value ladder. This is an introductory funnel. And it's because of the sick Group Funnels software and Zapier that I've been able to do this. It's been its been freaking nuts!

I've been testing it for the last few months here and its been working out really well-  it's now a symbol to me, go build that onboarding sequence.

In the next little while, you guys will see me do that - which is awesome.

Doing things like OfferMind is a strategic move for me.  I'm not just like, "Hey, I should do an event."  Watch what I'm doing and how I do it. I'm doing things like... you don't even know about some of the other things.

So anyways, will see just watch what I'm doing, I'm running 6 different campaigns. I like to run them like football plays.

I know if I run them:

#People get results in their businesses and in their lives.

#My cash goes up - which is awesome.

# My following increases.

Everything that you want in a business, right? These three things happen.

# I get more customers.

# I can charge more money.

#I get more money more frequently.

It’s the same like six marketing campaigns that I'm running!

I'm not talking about Facebook ads. Facebook ads are not campaigns. That's not a campaign. That's why I've been asking for people's emails!

Watch really carefully what I'm doing because there's a value ladder that I've been building out and the pieces are now in place so we can go full circle with the whole thing. What's up? That's awesome.

Hey, wish you can geek out with other real funnel builders, and even ask questions while I build funnels live?

Oh, wish granted!

Watch and learn funnel building as I document my process in my funnel strategy group. Its free, just go to thescienceofselling.online and join now.

Boom, what's going on everyone?  It's Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna talk to you guys about talent.

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

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

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

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

What's up?

Hey, I'm excited for this episode - really excited about it!

When I go through, and I start thinking about different episodes, I write down a whole bunch of different ideas.  Then, funnily enough, a lot of them start combining. This one's gonna be 3 different episodes combined - I just wanna say real fast what it really is...

I was mowing the lawn a bit ago... and I some people have said like, "Don't ever mow your own lawn. You should never fold your own laundry. You should never..."

And I get what they're saying, but for me, that's the time when I am listening to a lot of podcasts. I'm listening to books. I'm listening to audio stuff - most the time...

Sometimes I just listen to music and chill out - it depends what's been going on.  But this particular time was only maybe six weeks ago? I mean it wasn't that long ago...

I was mowing the lawn, and I was thinking. I was thinking a lot about what this guy was saying... I don't remember what exactly I was listening to, but I remember the idea came in, which is the important part...

I stopped, and I was like. "Oh, my gosh, I am where I am because of sheer talent, not positioning." Isn't that interesting? I am where I am because of sheer talent not because of positioning.

I was like that's really fascinating!

It might sound like I'm showboating a little bit, but I'm good funnel builder, okay? I'm really good at building offers.

What I realized is that I've done fantastic jobs at positioning products, positioning a business - but not positioning me. And that's the thing I've been seeking the most this year since I left Clickfunnels. I've been trying to figure out the best place to position myself in the ecosystem that I'm in. And that's just as important as your talent itself.

I've been thinking about this like crazy - it's been the biggest question. I was at a Mastermind, and I asked a question like, “I'm trying to figure out what I do to serve the market?” And they misunderstood what I was saying.

I'm not trying to figure out "WHAT I do to serve the market?" - I know what that is - I've been trying to figure out the best place to position myself the market? The best place to go and sit inside of it.

Recently, it was actually was last week as I'm recording this, anyway (I batch my content, right I drink my own Kool-Aid)...

Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to go and do some consulting for Trey Lewellen - so super cool, guys! I got to go, and this was super nuts for me, you guys.

I was going out and listening to Trey Lewellen's stuff like way before ever working for Russell or being at ClickFunnels.

So to go full circle, and then be invited to go in and consult on webinars, like that was such an incredible honor.

We were at the Dream 100 Event, and Trey was... (it's gonna sound like I'm showboating, but this is me trying to position myself, okay?)

Trey was told that I'm "the best at webinars" - which was super nice. It was incredibly nice of him.

Anyway, he came straight to me. Right there in the room, he said, "Can I get you to come to my webinar?" I said, "Sure!" And I flew out there and went to his house.

The whole way there I was like. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh..." You know! I'm watching the current webinar like crazy - it was actually for his girlfriend Jennifer, she was awesome.

I was going in and watching this webinar, watching the webinar, watching the webinar.

When you spend that much time on a craft, it's really easy to see where a ball might be being dropped, and that was no different here. I immediately saw what the issue was, and it was cool to be able to go in and do my consulting thing.

When I do consulting for somebody... like I did it for an insurance company a little while ago it, was like 12 hours straight - some people need that, some people don't need as much as that...

Trey Lewellen's obviously a rockstar already - so there were just some finer points as far as a webinar gets delivered. It was really really cool to be able to go in and help him and help what they were doing. It was only six hours, but it's still a long time, right?

It's just me straight, and a whiteboard like teaching and pulling things out of him into certain frameworks that I know sell well. It was really interesting, and it was cool because afterwards, it was very honoring... If anyone's like "Stephen, you're showboating." Okay, whatever...

I wanna share with you guys the lessons I'm learning along the journey, that's part of this podcast. So I'm documenting the journey right now - so this is me documenting...

Trey and his girlfriend took me back to their house, and we grabbed pizza and hung out around this firepit in their backyard. Beautiful house! Holy crap nice house! I know you'd expect that obviously. But it was a crazy, super nice house. Oh my gosh!

Anyway, so we're sitting there, and he said, "You know what's interesting?..."

I'm trying to teach you guys the lessons I've been learning along the way, cause I got something specific I'm going for. Now think in terms of what I have just said before, right: "I am where I am because of sheer talent and not positioning," 'kay?

So we're sitting there around the fireplace in the backyard, and he says, "Dude you know what's interesting about what you do? There's literally not a business in this world that does not need what you do! This whole offer creation thing, it's ridiculous. I didn't know that's what you did. That was amazing. That was amazing!"

I was like, “Thanks, dude, that means a lot."

So I brought up the topic, I said, "The thing I've been focusing on, the thing I've been trying to figure out is which vehicle delivers what I do the best to the market?"

Cause you guys know I can get a bit technical on these podcast episodes, this is just my free stuff right - the real stuff that I do, you know... I tell pretty much everything, but I can't tell some things on a podcast. In fact, there's a lot I can't tell and its part of the reason why I'm doing this episode.

I'm gonna share with you guys what the plan is moving forward.

I went to this Mastermind one time, this was years ago... I was sitting in the audience looking at all the people that were going on stage, and this is not to judge anybody, this was years ago. I don't want anybody to think like, "Was he talking about me?"

But I sat there, and I was looking at the people on stage, and I realized, "That guy has no idea why he's making money." The next person would get up, and I'd think, "That lady has literally no clue on why her customers follow her, huh?" We all see that in each other's businesses.

That's one of the benefits of a Mastermind, right! You go to those things so that you can have other people who are also experienced in the same realm-ish come in and show you like, "Hey, what if you tried this, and this, and this and this?"

Masterminds don't work if people bring pride into it: "Well, of course, I knew that!" You know that doesn't work that way!

With Trey, he and I were teaching each other. If we both played the pride game neither one of us would have learned from each other, and that's what's cool about it.

And what's fascinating is I started realizing like, "My gosh, the funnel building game I set up to try and be the best at it." Am I? Of course not, I don't know? I'm not, okay... I've built a lot of them...

But what's fascinating is, remember: so I was mowing the lawn, and I realized "My gosh I am where I am because of talent not because of positioning," and then I was remembering back to that Mastermind: "Holy crap a lot of these people are where they are because of positioning, not talent." And I was, "Whoa! Right, I gotta get more serious on where I'm positioning myself."

And some of you guys might be laughing at that, but like I've always just had a mindset to provide sickening value, be incredibly valuable, and the money follows. And that's so true. That's how I've run everything in my business.

So what I've been doing what I've been doing is designing out  (maybe like three months ago I first started actually writing it), and I have it written out on my whiteboard my actual value ladder. Right over there, okay!

It's the value ladder that I'm building. It's the value ladder that I'm going for now. I'm not just funnel hacking somebody's product, I'm not just funnel hacking somebody's market - I'm funnel hacking somebody's business.

And if a business is just a series of systems right, I gotta funnel hack the business itself also. Meaning how do they fulfill on what they've promised.

If you look at this, some of you guys are gonna be like, "Well, duh Stephen, I've seen that before in the past." And I get that.

But if you look the most successful E-com businesses that are out there have a very similar business model. Their products are similar, what's different is the message - but the business model is very similar.

Supplements - the business model of a supplement business, the funnel, the business part of it, the marketing of it, the messaging of it, the offer of it - they're very similar.

You're not just funnel hacking a product, you're not just funnel hacking a message - but the business itself, the systems how you actually fulfill on it, how you support it right - those are all very similar as well.

And so I was thinking through like, that's really what's been going through my head, "What model?" and I've been very cognoscente of this question for the last like, I dunno like probably four-five months now.

"Which model fulfills what I do best for a market?"

And so what I've been doing is going through and figuring out what that is, and I've been drawing it. I've been drawing the value ladder.

Now way back in the day when I learned what the value ladder was, I started teaching it to other people because the concept is amazing. It was far more effective than these 30 days business plans I supposed to write for these professors or real businesses that I was asking for money from.

I've done that, it sucks! I much prefer a value ladder. The issue that I've noticed...

I was on stage one day teaching about value ladders. This guy stands up and goes "Well, I've drawn this value ladder, and I already know what this product is gonna be on this step, and I know what this product is gonna be on this step, but I don't know what the product is gonna be on this step?"

And I said, "I don't think you need to know what that is yet, right? A lot of your markets can help you define what that is." And he was like, "But I can't start my business until I have a complete value ladder." I was like, "Man that's such garbage, that's not true!"

The issue, right value ladders - they're amazing, they're incredible, but they can also be this huge hindrance when people put so much stock into them. When people take no input from their market at all. That's when value ladders become a crippling event.

So I always start a value ladder off by building in the middle of the value ladder - the mid-tier products.  Then I usually like to go up. I like to go to the expensive side, and then after that, I create the downside.

Now the very bottom, the cheap stuff for me, I always create it last. That's usually how I do it.

So you have to understand what I've been doing is...

Some people have been asking me, "Stephen, so what have you really been doing for the last while since you left Clickfunnels?"  Well running my other business - which has been doing fantastic. We'll put a dollar in ads we get two dollars back out, and it's been awesome. It's been so cool.

First of all been running that business, been building the value ladder products in funnels for their respective places, I've been doing a lot of that stuff, but what I've also really been doing though is starting to see and look where I should position me, not just my business, in the ecosystem of the funnel world.

What would be the stupidest thing for me to go do right now? Uh, try to be the funnel guy, right? Man, Russell's the funnel guy. He popularized that entire concept. Why would I ever try to be the funnel guy? I'm not gonna be the funnel guy. That's dumb!

Even though I built a bunch of them, do you see how that's stupid positioning for me to go try and do that? Does that make sense?

That's what I'm trying to help people understand and see, they're like "Stephen, go be the funnel guy," and I'm like, "No, that's dumb! I'm not gonna be the funnel guy. There already is an amazing funnel guy."

I'm not gonna be the same guy, That's stupid, right! I literally would be doing the exact... literally the exact definition of fighting for scraps." Plus I'm not gonna try and be the funnel guy. Anyway, I'm not gonna do that.

So what I've been trying to do is figure out which category to go develop, for me to step in to?  And I think I know what the answer is. I'm not gonna just drop that here right now. I want you guys to experience it with me while I create it.

For those of you guys who have been in my world for a little bit and you've been a part of these different things that I've been doing, you're gonna start watching me actually build this thing out. It's what I've been doing, and it's what been going on behind the scenes.

So the whole point this episode is I'm just trying to help you understand that sheer talent is not the thing that gets you paid, right! It's not. It can...

It's also a long road; there's also a lot of pros that come with it. A lot of awesome pros that come with that. You can go and get freakishly good at the actual thing, and people get to know you for that, and you can charge money for it. There's a lot of pros at becoming amazing and paid - just because you're good.

But that's not the reason why you can continue to get paid.

It's not actually the reason you get paid in general either. You can go get paid, but the con, the con of trying to be the best is that it takes for freaking ever, right! It takes a long time.

I've been doing this game for, I think it's about five years now, specifically this kind of thing - five years now. The first thing I ever built on the internet was about five years ago, a little more than that. I don't think we had my first kid yet, so it was a little more than five years ago.

If you're like, "Man, Stephen, I don't wanna go spend five years." That's great, then that's fine you don't have to.

Instead of being the best, be the first - that's what Seth Godin teaches. And I absolutely love that you can be the best, or you can be the first. Those are the only options: you can be the best or the first.

What I teach, teaches you how to do both you can actually do both of them together.

...but what I realize is, "Oh my gosh, I gotta position me a little bit more." So what I've been doing is positioning myself as the offer creation guy.

I just got another testimonial from a guy. I'm so excited about it. It was so cool. This guy reached out, and he said, "Hey, I got your product, super awesome, and I made $30,000 my first stage pitch." I was like, "What's up!"

Got another one last week, I think it was last week - Yeah. She wrote in, and she goes, "What's up, I sold over 50% of the room on my very first event. Thank you so much for that tactic and what you taught, that's what I did." I was like, "What's up, okay!"

It doesn't matter what you're selling. It doesn't matter about the product. It doesn't matter if you do it from a stage, or if it's on an e-book. It doesn't matter right if its a physical thing, or if its a supplement. It can be B2B or retail. It's the same principles throughout.

It really just meant a lot to me. And more and more it's been like, "Oh my gosh, this is the place I gotta go." So that's the whole point of this episode. I'm trying to figure out how to position myself and it's a moving, slightly moving target. I kinda know where it is, and as I move, it gets more clear.

If it sit back, and it's the exact same thing with anything in life, if I sit back, and I'm like, "oh, I just don't know what it is yet, so I haven't moved yet," nothing appears that way for me.

And so I've been actively, over this whole year, pursuing what that kind of is - and it's become more and more and more clear, and more and more and more open. I'm like, "Holy crap this is it!"

I love the book Innovator's Dilemma; there's a paragraph in there that is freaking awesome. He basically says that suppliers and customers must discover new markets together. That's what I'm doing!

That's why I haven't been like, "That's it!" Because I've been discovering what it is that people really need with the customer - which means I need to be with the customer. Which means I need to be creating products and being with the customer, you know what I mean?

So for those of you guys that are coming out to the OfferMind which is in a few weeks here, you're gonna watch me - that is what I'm doing. I know exactly what I'm teaching. I know exactly what you guys need to hear, but I'm doing it...

I'm trying to see how to deliver it in a way where I can see in your eyes, "Whoa!" That "A-ha, oh my gosh, wow." When I can get that feeling of what I just taught, you get that honor feeling, "Whoa."

Regardless of what you think about whoever the president of the US is, or regardless if you think whatever this leader, that leader, that whatever... if they walked in the room, you'd still be like, "Whoa, that's so-and-so. Whoa!" Like right, I need that emotion when you see what I'm teaching.

And when I've got that emotion, when you see what I'm teaching then I can put it in a book, does that make sense?

I know the concepts.

So people have asked me,  "Stephen, how come you haven't written a book on it yet?”  It's 'cause it's not just about the concepts. I gotta make sure that you ingest them. I gotta make sure the way I teach them... I gotta make sure the stories that I'm telling to convey the concepts are actually good.

There's no other way for me to get good at knowing what those are without constantly teaching it. Just bam, teach it, teach it, teach it, teach it, teach it, right! Over and over and over.

I've become more and more clear as I've done so. Then it's good for book, because a lot of what I say comes across right with my body language.

I don't have that luxury in a book, which means it needs to be ultra clear, you know what I mean? That's the reason why.

So if you watch what I'm doing in OfferMind... What's the purpose of OfferMind? Now I'll let you answer that. What's the purpose of things down below that - that'll help me clarify and figure out more of what's in the books right. That'll help me clarify, and it's so interesting.

There's a book, it's by, technically it says Ryan Deiss, but really it's Perry Belcher. It's a book called The Science of, no no. I'm thinking of the science sign one. I'm thinking about my group. It's called the Secret Selling System.

If you listen to the event that created the Secret Selling System. It's insane - the depth that you get from the event is way more - it's like way more.

It's like when people go, "Well I watched the movie, and then I went and read the book, the book was way better." The book's always gonna be better because your imagination gets to play. The movie is just one person's interpretation of what's going on in the book.

Exact same thing when a book gets created from an event; the way it was written was one person's interpretation of what happened at the event, you know what I mean?

The amount of the times something gets translated, like purposes and emotion, things get lost, right!

And so what I'm doing and the reason I'm saying all this stuff to you guys and I'll end this now, but if you guys read this book, The 30 Days book -You Suddenly Lose Everything, What Do You Do to get it back From Day One to 30?  What's fascinating about this is you will notice the patterns of creation that are actually shown inside this book right, and if you go in and start reading this thing you'll notice there's a pattern of creation.

There's a pattern of what to create when at what points, and that's what I've been doing, trying to figure out how to develop what I'm doing, and where to position me so that the positioning is what creates value, not just my talent. I want the talent too also, but it was that thing that I realized, and that was what Trey was telling me.

That's what I realized when I was mowing the lawn. It's what I realized when I was watching all these people at different Masterminds years ago, I was like "Huh, they're there because they positioned themselves in this place and then they got good."

I was like, "Hmm, I am where I am because I got good, and then I'm trying to figure out where to position what I do." You need both, talent is not enough in anything.

Talent is not enough, you still gotta position yourself right - and so that's what I've been doing a lot. And I just wanna get you to be thinking about that.

So anyway, hopefully, that's helpful to you? Hopefully, you like this episode? It's something really powerful to be thinking about.

I want you guys to be purposeful about how you create where you're positioned. That's really what I talk about when I talk about market design or category design, same thing.

Anyway, guys thanks so much, hope you guys enjoyed the episode today if you guys liked it, please share, I really appreciate it. The minutes on YouTube have been insane. The reviews on iTunes have been incredible, and I just thank you guys a lot, that really means a lot to me - it actually motivates me a lot.

So anyways I appreciate it a lot -talk to you guys later, bye.

Aww yeah!

Hey, obviously a funnel's already dead if you can't even get anyone to opt in, right?

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

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

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

Today I'm gonna talk to you guys about product evolution.

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

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

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

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

What's up, guys?

Hey, I'm excited for today, got the whiteboard with me if you guys are watching on YouTube. If you're out listening on iTunes or some other place, welcome. I'm so excited about this.

This episode specifically has been a long time in the making. I'm very excited about it. I have gone through and I have I spent the last hour and a half just thinking through it alone. Let alone the months prior.

I've been trying to figure out how to describe this very critical lesson. And I don't know another way to be able to describe this except for like two or three stories. So I gotta tell 'em here really quick…

What I'm trying to do is…

I first want you guys to know right, this episode specifically is all about how I create good products. I'm not talking about offers, I'm talking about products. Products and offers are totally different. And I'm here to talk about product creation.

Now I had the good pleasure in one of my semesters in college... I'll never bag on college. I think it's good. It's not how you make money though, but it does open up the noggin a bit, right?

So anyway, one of my semesters in college was kind of cool 'cause the professors walked up and they said, "Hey, check it out. You have no classes this entire semester. Your only task is to make as much money as you physically can." That's what the whole semester was…

They assigned us a random industry. And I got stuck in the food industry. If you guys know me personally, you know I am not a good cook. I was like “Crap, I don't wanna be in food, put me in the knick-knack. Put me in you know, the e-com space. I was like food, seriously?”

But it ended up being the best education I got the entire time I was in college. And it was fascinating.

At the beginning what they did was they put us into groups of like 15. So we're in these small groups, and we went on this retreat. They brought us up and super high mountain place for like three days and, we just did a whole bunch of like team building stuff.

I always made fun of that stuff, but if you guys ever heard of the terms Form, Storm, Norm, Perform? Meaning you're gonna get with a group of people, people are gonna unofficially be assigned roles.

You're gonna fight with each other and then finally the team can actually start producing, right. Well, we did that in that three day period. And that was one of the reasons they did it so fast with us.

Anyway, so we go in, #1: we start brainstorming cool product ideas.

We went through and we started writing out ideas for the name of the business, for what the product is gonna be, what the price point should be.

We were all over the place just coming out with this crazy deep dive of what we think would be best to sell.

Well, when we came back out of our high mountain escapade, it wasn't challenging or anything, it was a lot of fun though. When we came back they said, "Hey, you know what's helpful is to start asking your customers about what is it they wanna buy." And they started teaching us about design thinking.

Design thinking, meaning: here's how to actually think in order to design cool stuff. And they started teaching us these really cool processes. It was really really fascinating, it was a ton of fun.

And among those techniques were different brainstorming methods - different ways to go through and create products with customers. Which is where a lot of what I know comes from. It's really really cool.

Well, I remember there was this really fascinating point where they started telling us we had to keep a journal of what we were learning each day. And I found the journal, and I just read it for the last little while … and this thing is full full full full full, okay. And super awesome.

I started reading the journal entries and what I was writing, and I'm so glad I took it seriously 'cause like there's some good crap in here. It's fascinating to see what they were teaching us.

It was a combination of how to be creative, mixed with what they call data-driven decisions.

And I'm not the first person to ever say that at all. But that was when I was like, “Oh yeah, that makes total sense. Why would I not make decisions based on data? That makes sense. There's security in that…”

Remember, I'm specifically talking about product creation here.

So I'm gonna go through 3 separate things on how to actually create products.

Some of these stories, some of you guys may have heard in the past, but I don't think I've ever done an episode where it’s kind of laced altogether.

So first of all, remember I'm not talking about offers. I'm not talking about offers at all. I'm talking about product creation and how to make sweet products that make people be like, "Oh my gosh, that's so freaking cool."

The first time I ever learned about this was data-driven decisions, right. Meaning I can go out, I can see what other competitors are doing - essentially funnel hacking, right?

I can start asking and see what other markets are doing; what other products are doing, how they're making money?  Very very data-driven - obviously data-driven decisions.

What was interesting is like as we started pushing forward and as we started learning these cool techniques and methods, I started having these really massive “aha's” on what actually created good products.

I've told this story in the past, but … so the guy, the professor that was assigned to our group, was not allowed to intervene with us at all. Only when we asked specific questions. So it was very much like, “Let's throw you off a cliff and see what you do in free fall.” And the whole semester was like that. It was a bunch of fun.

Anyway, so I was voted to be the CEO at the beginning, and what was cool is I got a lot of really cool interactions with him. He kind of became one of my first unofficial mentors, and I spent a lot of one on one time with him.

He was fantastic. He was the CEO of Denny's and of Pizza Hut. The guy invented stuffed crust pizza,... ahhhhhh!  He was the man. He was super cool.

Well, one day he walked in and he goes, "Okay, this is what we're gonna do. I'm gonna teach you guys more ways to brainstorm effectively." And so walked in this room and there's like toys, like child toys all along the tables. Child’s toys all over the place.

There's Play-Doh, Silly Putty, there's Lincoln Logs and K'nex. There's Legos - there's toys all over the place. Any kind of toy you can imagine, all over the place. The room is filled with 'em. And we're like, “What the heck?”

This professor was awesome; next to him was a squirt bottle. There was one person that was the scribe, and they'd stand up and write down on the board the problem we were trying to solve.

We were like, “Okay, here's the problem -we're trying to solve this.” And we would start writing different solutions down. He would watch like a hawk and when somebody said something that was like a negative reaction…

Let's say we're gonna figure out how to solve world hunger, and somebody's like “Oh yeah, let's feed the world with Big Macs!” And I'm like, “Eh, I don't know if that's a good idea.”

Any kind of negative reaction, he would take the squirt bottle and shoot it in our face and yell, "Bad kitty!" And he would start spraying it at us. The guy was crazy, he was awesome though. He's the man...

What he was trying to teach us... and I wrote this down in the journal. I said: “Ridiculous ideas are essential in the creative process.” That's what I wrote down.

“Ridiculous ideas are essential in the creative process!”

And what was fascinating about this process is that we would start with an idea… We found out the market wanted empanadas. I didn't even know what that was…

I was like “Okay, right.” What if? How could we sell it this way? How could we sell it this way? And when we actually started realizing that when we started brainstorming, this really interesting stream of events started happening.

We started listing out tons of our own ideas - which is great, but to do this we had to get inside this creative zone where there was no judgment.

I’ve found that that is one of the major reasons why people I’m coaching now do not move forward; they’re afraid that their ideas are stupid. They're afraid that they're gonna be exposed as a fraud.

There's some imposter syndrome going on. Like, "Oh my gosh, people are gonna find out that I'm really not this amazing individual."

I was like, “Well, you're literally creating a new identity. Of course, you're gonna feel that way, right?” I've totally had imposter syndrome in my life, I totally get that.

But what's interesting about this is you have to give yourself license to go to the crazy zone. You have to give yourself license to be able to go into these spaces. The areas where like “Hey, you know what? Let's write some crazy stuff down.”

When I was doing the FHAT events, the funnel hack-a-thon event at Clickfunnels, one of the ways I would teach them...

when we sold the original 2 Comma Club Coaching Event it was the night before we were gonna sell something we sat at a board... it was Russell, Dave, Brent, Melanie, and myself, I think that was all in the room... and we  just started writing down cool things that we could offer for this package.

We wrote everything down that was crazy. I want you to know that we use this. We wrote everything down that was nuts:

1. They're gonna come for this three-day event.

1. They're gonna fly into this crazy place called Boise, Idaho.

1. They're gonna stay on Russell's pajamas.

1. They're gonna brush their teeth with Stephen's toothbrush in the morning. Oh yeah, they're gonna love that, oh my gosh.

We’d go in and we write down all these things that are like, nuts, right? They're ludicrous, and we write that down. All this stuff, and then we'd go back and we'd cross out all the stuff that's totally unrealistic.

Okay…

1. They're probably not gonna stay in Russell's pajamas...

1. You know what, they're not gonna use Stephen's toothbrush, that's a little weird...

1. You know what, his wife's not gonna make breakfast for them...

1. They're not gonna stay at his house. It's a little bit crazy…

But what we're left with at the end this was a product or an offer, you can use this for products or offers - ('cause remember they are different) that is prolific. That is new, that no one's ever really done before. But is also from a place of security. It's really interesting.

So data-driven decisions, super impactful. Super powerful. Should be amazing, but there is a hindrance inside of it…

You guys have heard this story before as well, alright...

My wife was pregnant, we literally were driving to the hospital to have our first baby...

Just before I move on... the whole point of this one is I want you to know product creation very much involves data-driven decisions. Very much involves data-driven decisions.  

...Said in another way, “Funnel Hacking.”

That's data-driven decisions. That's where you farm data. You see what's already being done.

Moving onto the next one... Number two of three here.

My wife and I we were going to the hospital to have our kid...

The flaw with data-driven decisions is that when you go in and you start doing things like an ask campaign, right…

I was texting Noah Keegan in the hospital. We're about to have our first kid, and I was like, “Hey dude, what's up man?” He had this offer where you could text him before you actually bought. (I know I've just told this story recently so just to recap for those of you guys that didn't hear it, right.)

I was texting him, I was like, “Hey dude, I've got all this data…” That's basically what I told him. “I've been asking all these people and I wanna go launch this business, do you think that's a good idea?”

I can't tell you how many times I get asked that on stage in the Q & A section. "Do you think that's a good idea?" I get asked that all the time. I Five years ago, I asked that same question to Noah Keegan.

I was like, “Hey what's up?” And he goes... I should probably ask him about this. See I don't know if he remembers it, maybe not. But it was about five years ago. My kid's almost five…

Anyway, he texts back and he goes, "I don't know."

I was like, “What do you mean you don't know? I've asked all these people that this is a great product idea, and I said is this a good product idea and they said yes, so, therefore, I should go do this product, is that right? I should probably go do this?”

And, he's like, "Man, I don't know." And I got all frustrated - and so did he.

I was like, “Dude, all these people have said ‘Yes.’ I've collected tons of data, I've done my homework. Should I launch it?” And he goes, "Dude, I don't know. I let people vote with their wallets not their mouths."

And I was like... it's interesting, right?

So the data is important. It shows you where the yellow brick road stopped, right. It shows you where you need to get to, but it's not what creates something that's prolific. It doesn't get you that extra step out.

It doesn't help you create that next brick. It just helps you know that you're creating something that is somewhat secured. Does that make sense? This is a huge thing to understand.

… ‘Cause most people that do this will be like, "Do you think this is a good product?" And then they go ask like their friends, family or someone. They're like, "Hey check this out, my parents said this was a good idea. Do you think this is a good idea?"

I’m like, “Are they gonna be the ones buying it in the first place?” “Erm...Well, No." “Then why the heck are you asking them?” It makes no sense to ask if that's a good product if they're not the ones gonna be buying it anyway! Right?

You're not the one buying your own product, so your opinions only matter “this amount.” (small gesture) Does that make sense?

The market is the one that pays for it. You don't fill your own wallet, right? So data-driven decisions have massive massive flaws inside of it, as far as creating prolific products. Huge, huge flaws inside of that.

Next one I want you to understand - this comes from a book I've really been enjoying lately called Niche Down. Really really awesome. Right at the very beginning of the book…

I can't agree more with what this guy is saying. I was laughing so hard when he said this. One of the things I've been saying a lot lately is that your whole goal in product creation, and your whole goal in funnel building, your whole goal in market creation, is to be different, not better.

Different not better. Alright.

When I ask people, “How come I would buy your thing over the next guys?” And they default to, "Well, 'cause we have a better this, we have a better that, we have a better this over that." I immediately already know they're gonna be strapped for cash.

It's not enough of a reason for someone to jump. It's gonna become a feature war really fast. It'll become a price and a feature war super fast:

Your goal is to become different, not better.

And I was laughing because this book right, Niche Down, says, "It comes down to leveraging the exponential value of what makes you different rather than leaning on the incremental value of what makes you better."

And I was like “Hallelujah!” I was sitting on a plane when I read that, and I was like “Wooo! That's exactly it! That's 100% exactly what I'm trying to say.”

Your product should be different, not better.

It's a very subtle way to think about that.

I was on a Q & A for 2 Comma Club X a little bit ago, and that's exactly what I said and I was like, “It's about being different, not better.” And I think that that's a better way, it's an easier way, fast way, to understand what it is that we're trying to share all the time.

It's about being different, not better.

If I'm like, “Oh, this is a better widget.” That's gonna be rough, that's gonna be really really rough. Anyways, let me move on here…

The third thing here is this game, (again remember I'm talking about products, I'm not talking about offers and I'm not talking about markets or categories)And you feel like Stephen, that is a lot of vocab. I understand that, and I understand a lot of my podcast lately has been definitions - which can be freakin' annoying and boring…

So I'm trying to keep it engaging, trying to keep you very involved with this and hopefully, you guys have been enjoying this? But I want you to understand that it’s not about going out and creating something that is brand new, totally prolific - something that nobody's ever seen before, you know what I mean? That's what college taught me until I got to this semester here…

So in that business where I was in that food semester, right, where I was creating that business, we ended up doing two to three grand a week in sales to poor college students. We did quite well. We made a lot of money in that.

I had a lot of false beliefs and fears melt away as we started building that. And it was awesome, super cool.

At the end of it you go and you donate all that money out to charity and such, and so it was a bunch of fun. So anyway, we went and we made a sizeable amount of money. And I sat back after that semester was over, it was easily the most impactful one that I had in college, and I sat back and I remember thinking like, “How can I teach what I just learned?”  Because I was already very aware that I needed to coach other people for me to speed up my personal progress. It's one of the reasons I do these episodes…

And what I did, I actually wrote a chapter of a book. I didn't finish it, but this is it guys, I freakin' found it, how cool is this? It's awesome, it's only like 60-ish pages, but I was just trying to write down and encompass the things that I learned.

I should probably put this in the new book I'm writing now.

I'm writing an offer creation book which I'm super stoked 'cause there's not really a book out there like that…

So anyway, it was it was; “How a group of college students used these 5 rules to get our business off the ground in a week for 3K a week.” Which is awesome, right!

And I went through and I wrote it down and one of the points that I wrote…

I'm just laughing because I just barely found this thing in like some cupboards and stuff. And I went and I found it and I was like “Oh, check this out!” And there's this whole idea that I was trying to put across.

Most of the time what people say you need to have, right, this totally brand new thing, something that's completely prolific. But that's not the case at all. I call that The Product Big Bang Theory.

Bam, this brand new thing that's never been seen before just pops out, boosh. Product Big Bang Theory. Product Big Bang Theory is like so risky! It's like blue oceans that are truly blue, that truly nobody has actually seen before. Those kinds of products exist. But they’re risky to create.

The product is cool, the product serves a real purpose, the product actually solves things, but it is not marketable. Does that make sense?

It's very hard to make money on a truly blue ocean. 1991 is when the internet became publicly available for the public. It was being used way before that, right? The infrastructure, the whole economy, there was no infrastructure available for something like the internet for such a long time.

The book Innovator's Dilemma talks about this very concept. It’s by Clay Christensen from Harvard. That guy's amazing! It's the exact same concept. You can go too blue.

So it's not about product Big Bang Theory - it's about product evolution.

Again, talking about products, not markets. Products, not offers.

It kind of ties in with data-driven decisions: you're gonna go and you're gonna funnel hack and you're gonna figure out how far somebody has carried that product and then you're gonna figure out what you can add to it to make it different, not better.

Does that make sense?

I know I've dived into this quite a bit, and this is kind of a more technical episode, and I'm trying to make sure that like people understand what I'm trying to teach when I share this kind of stuff.

It's about:

• Product Evolution, not product Big Bang Theory.

• Using data-driven decisions to make you different, not better.

Most of the time people make data-driven decisions, they take data to make them a little bit better than the competition. That's great to do once you already own a category - but it is not the way to dominate a category.

You must craft something that has never existed, a category that's never existed and then use a product evolution to actually get people into that new place. That make sense?

That was deep, probably too deep. I've done a lot of episodes and I can feel there's not enough story in this one, but hopefully, that makes sense to you guys?

This is the whole idea:

1. We take market data, meaning you ask people that hopefully will purchase from you.

1. You add, right, you add the ridiculous ideas - that equals good products. Attractive products - products that are talkable.

That's basically it. That's how I do what I do:

• I see how far people have gone.

• I come and I add ridiculous ideas on top of it.

• I take away the things that are just not realistic.

• And I'm left with good products that people are like, “Crap that was awesome, no one's ever done that before.”

And I'm like, “I know because I've done my research.” I've gone through and I'm like “Hey check this out. Oh, this is what everyone's doing, this is how everybody's delivering that product.”

Then I just go in and I lace in my own crazy, I lace in my own prolific zone.

And when I add those two together, that's honestly what leaves me with good products. (I'm talking about products again, not offers.)

Anyway, guys hopefully this is helpful to you?

This is a deeper episode, I don't really like to go this deep on that. And I promise I'll go more story based so that they're more interesting to listen to, but hopefully that makes sense to you? Hopefully, you see why I do what I do in this stuff... And what's going through my head when I start to see someone's product, or their offer, or whatever they're doing.

This whole game's so much more formalized and more formulated than I think people realize…

It's not a scary thing - there's just a formula behind it. And once you learn the formula, it's not that hard.

Dedicate yourself to learning the process. Fall in love with the process, fall in love with the personal process that you're going through as you develop into a character that can create and own that product.

Most people are not the person they need to be in order to deliver the product to the market. So fall in love with the process of it. Don't judge yourself, it's okay.

Start learning to enjoy as you move forward and start moving down the road…

I got one last quote here, okay. Oh crap, let me grab it. I dropped the book thinking that I was done here and I'm not. Check this out. I don't remember who said this:

"Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius."

That's awesome. "Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius." '

So just act.

I'm not trying to cause analysis paralysis in anybody:

1. Create your first iteration of the idea.

1. Go try and sell it.

1. See what happens.

1. Then take what they did and didn't like an make adjustments.

1. Then relaunch.

1. Then take the adjustments, and go relaunch again.

1. Then adjustment and relaunch. That's all the game is…

That's all the game is. Pretty soon, you got it. That's the reason why we say “You're just one funnel away.” 'Cause honestly you are:

• If you know you got a good idea.

• If you know the market's telling you “Yes.”

• If you know there's a place for you to do things differently, not better.

Then just keep rinse and repeating, rinse and repeating, and suddenly it'll hit.

Some of my products right now, like the Secret MLM Hacks one, that's the third time. The beginning of this year was the third time I've launched that product. Isn't that fascinating?

Anyways guys, thank you so much, appreciate it. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed this episode? I know it was a little bit deep and I promise they will not be that crazy in the future. I just had to get this one out because a lot of people ask.

Alright guys thanks so much, I'll talk to you later, bye.

Boooom, if you're just starting out, you're probably studying a lot. That's good.

You're probably geeking out on all the strategies also, right? That's also good.

But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them, right?

That's also what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula. So I created a special mastermind called The OfferMind to get you on track with the right offer, and more importantly the right sales script, to get it off the ground and sell it. Wanna come?

They're small groups on purpose - so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days. You can hold your spot by going to offermind.com. Again, that's offermind.com.

Boom, what's going on everyone? It is Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna talk to you guys about food stamps.

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

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

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

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

What's up, guys?

Hey. Alright. Right off the get go, okay, just gotta tell you I'm probably gonna offend some people, and I'm gonna speak a lot of opinions on this thing, but I wanna share with you guys really how I was able to get through like the first year or two of failing entrepreneurship.

There's nothing wrong with being in that failure zone, by the way, right. I think that's one of the things that people get self-conscious about. They're like, "I'm not a successful entrepreneur yet, or I've been going in the game for a while now, and I haven't really made anything." I totally get it, first of all.

In college, my wife and I, we were freaking poor. I mean, we just, we were literally living paycheck to paycheck, but really it was loan to loan. Because like I was just getting student loans.

I was supposed to get paid by the Army, and through some stupid crap, I ended up getting paid half of what I was supposed to the entire time I was in it. And so I was like crap, "I at least wanted some security with that vehicle, with that job, right, of being in the Army." And it wasn't that way.

And I will tell you, looking back, that was one of the biggest blessings I've ever had in my entire life. The fact that we did not have enough, okay, the fact that we did not have any money.

What happened was when we first got married, a lot of you guys know the story, right. I found out that my lady was eating one meal a day behind my back just because we didn't have enough cash - and I didn't realize that she was doing that. That really cut me to the core.

I kept coming home every day, I was like, "Why, she's still in bed?" I was like, you know, "What's up, you okay?" and she's like, "Yeah. Oh, it's nothing."

She's already been graduated - I wasn't graduated yet. And I'd come back the next day, and she'd still be in bed. We had just barely gotten married like a few weeks ahead of time, and I was like, "Is it me? What's up, you okay? Are you alright?" And she's like, "No, no, it's totally fine. It's totally fine. We're good."

And I'd come back the next day, the same thing. Next day, same thing. Next day, same thing. It was like, "What is going on?" She told me that she'd only been eating one meal a day and as a man, that wrecks you. Right? That'll destroy anybody, but especially most men tend to get their identity based on what they do.

Many women tend to get their identity based on their environment. That's a huge stereotype.

So for me, it wrecked me, okay.  I was super, super sad about everything that was going on. Not just sad, but like, my self-esteem dropped. I was having a hard time functioning in classes knowing that my wife was so weak at home, and I was in classes. I mean, really think about that.

The scenario was really, really intense.

So about two years prior, I was living in North Carolina. I was on one of those missions - I was one of those missionaries riding a bike around. We talked to a bunch of people - I was one of those guys in a suit, tie, little badge. I mean, I'm sure you guys have seen them around, right? I loved it, great time of my life...

Well, I was put in a lot of spots and a lot of areas where it was people's sole plan to live on food stamps. It was their plan, and they literally would not show up to work so they couldn't make enough money so that they could get on food stamps.

That, in my opinion, is extremely wrong.

I know this is where I'm gonna ruffle feathers. But if you don't like it, this is my channel, you can leave. I'm gonna tell you what I think. Capitalist pig baby, alright, here we come. Okay, here we go...

I'm gonna be sensitive to this 'cause there are tons of people who need it, and that's great. But when it's your freakin' plan to suck on other people's hard work, I do not agree with that. The door is right over there, actually! And I'm serious about that.

With that mindset, of seeing tens of thousands of people where that was their plan, okay, I was like what? Like, you're going to go on welfare, that is your career path?

I'm just letting you guys know, that's my backstory, that was where I was coming in from to the scenario with my wife from. The scenario of, "I will never do that." If I get hurt, if something happens to me, sure. If I need it, legitimately, but after I've done everything that I can. That's my personal opinion on it.

I think it is wrong to have a plan that way. You're getting something for nothing, I don't agree with it.

So again, if I've offended you, I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry. I really believe that.

So I came into our new marriage, our relationship, with that mindset. And I'm like holy crap. I need to do something now. I just didn't know, I had no idea that's what was going on.

And so the moment I found out, first of all, it crushed me, and then I had several choices...

And I am so thankful for how I chose. I try not to get emotional on this one, okay. It was one of the hardest things I've ever gone through in my life. I called my dad, and he taught me... I worked multiple jobs my entire childhood, okay. I started mowing lawns when I was eight years old. I know how to work, and I know how to work hard.

I know how to do crap that I don't want to do. Which is a huge lesson of itself. That's totally thanks to my dad, he's the man, he's totally taught me everything on that, okay.

When I got into college, I called my dad, and I was like "Hey," (super not with the culture of how I was raised), I was like, "Hey, could you give me money?" And he said "No."

A lot of you guys have heard this story here, but I'm just giving a little more detail behind it because of where I'm trying to take us. Just follow me here for a second...

He said "No." He said, "If I give you this money, you will not exhaust the resources you didn't know you had." That's huge. That's huge. That's when he told me that.

I was like, "Oh, crap!" So my back's against the wall, and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna make this. I can go get on welfare stamps... we certainly qualify for that. I could go get loans. I could get a job, but then I'm probably gonna do bad in my classes.

What's hard is in a college town, people were working for $3 an hour just because there's so much labor available. Everyone's trying to get jobs. And that's totally accurate.

My wife got a job finally, after trying super hard trying to find something, for $3.50 an hour. $3.50 an hour! Dude, guys, crap was hitting the fan. You understand?

When people are like, "We don't have any money," like, I get it, okay, I have been there. Or like, "I don't have any time," - I was in college, I eventually joined the Army, we had kids - freaking I had no time either. And I get it, and I get it...

And the answer is to not, don't turn on freaking Netflix. You gotta look at your discretionary time and where you're spending it and squeeze every ounce of it out that you can.

And the choices that I had, I could get food stamps, I could get loans, I could get a job... but that probably wouldn't even pay for our bills anyway. So I was like, "Crap. We can't even get a freaking job for more than $3 an hour." That was legit. Which means I couldn't do anything in class anymore.

I was like I gotta do something...

My wife, she went and she started looking into this WIC program which is like food stamps. And she looked into it. She and I had a conversation, and it was very, very challenging. We were like, "What if we don't get on the food stamps?"

I'm not saying that people don't need it. But what I'm saying is the willingness to go through it and figure it out without taking the out. Man, that will turn you into something you're not...

And so, we decided we wouldn't take them - which was very challenging. It meant additional suffering, you understand? It meant additional, being willing to go through crap.

When people tell me things like, "I don't have time." Bull crap, I don't believe you. "I don't have money," - then you've not become resourceful yet.

I actually feel so thankful when people are like, "I don't have enough money," - like "Oh good, you have a trial. Good. Lean into it." I'm so thankful for the scenario that you're in. That's how I feel about it.

They're like, "Oh, I don't know how to do this?" Perfect, YouTube it. "I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to do that, I don't have enough money." I'm like, "Oh my gosh." Like, you gotta call your own BS out. Because I have like "this much" sympathy.

It's one thing to be in active pursuit and fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, right... Then I want to swoop in and be like, "Alright, structure this way and do it this way." It is only because I've done it 100 times, right. Out of desperation. You know how much crap you figure out when you got a few minutes for.

Case in point, right. I remember when I was in basic training, which certainly, there are far more intense programs than basic training, I understand that. But we were in a special scenario. We were in the last spot on the base where there had not been renovated yet.

It was really far away from any kind of mess hall, any chow hall. And so they had to drive the food into us.

Well, a lot of the time they wouldn't end up actually driving any food into us. We couldn't actually go to any chow hall. So we ended up getting about half of the calories of everybody else who was in basic. It was crazy.

There'd be like a pancake, little tiny sausage, and there'd be like half an egg because that's all the truck could fit in to feed any entire 200 person platoon.

Man, I lost 15 pounds I did not have at that time. I got wicked skinny. And oh man, it was so, so challenging, right. Going through that kind of garbage, super, super helpful. Really, really helpful when you start going through those things.

What I'm trying to say is, I have learned to be thankful for the trial - not that I always remember to be thankful in the middle of it - that's very, very different.

What I'm trying to help you guys understand and see is that whatever the trial is, whatever the challenge is...

And that's one of the reasons why I went into the Army. It was part of my, it was part of what I, "I'm gonna be a tough guy," right. I wanna go do that. Yell at me, I want that. Let me throw some grenades. Let me like shoot some machine guns and stuff. I wanted that kind of thing. And I did for a long time and most of my childhood...

But it also became the way to get paid.

But then we get in, and we find out that we're only gonna get half of what we're actually promised. I was like, "We're still in the freaking same situation. What is going on?"

But now I've lost half of my time again because if I'm not doing full-time school, like 14 credits, I am doing Army crap. "How do we eat?" It was years of that. Years of it.

I decided that I would lean in. There were some things that happened to me and some mentalities that were taught to me by being in the Army, by being in uncomfortable scenarios that taught me to lean in.

We say, "Embrace the suck!" all the time. "Embrace the suck." Embrace the suck, right. And that's totally what I started learning how to do.

So while we were just barely surviving, the loans luckily came in. I mean we were down to... like sometimes it was super tight. And then the next semester worth of loans would come in, and I'd be like, "Oh gosh, oh thank you."

It was a huge deal for me to go and get a $97 subscription to ClickFunnels every month. It was a huge deal for me to try and find a way to get to Funnel Hacking Live. It was a huge deal for me. Does that make sense?

It was a very stressful scenario... And it was prolonged! It's not like it was short. We leaned into it. It was three years before my funnels started working - before all the things started...

I remember I got that first $1500 check. It was not a lot, but like, on a monthly basis- 'cause I built these funnels for companies, and they were working, and I was like "Oh my gosh. Babe, let's like, take a drive somewhere. We can afford the gas." You know what I mean.

I was so elated. That changed everything. Just a thousand bucks a month. It's like, "Oh my gosh, this is so crazy." It was so nuts.

I'm a very introspective pattern driven individual- so now, looking back... Obviously, hindsight's 20/20 - but I want to encourage you to not study food stamps. I wanna encourage you to study money.

Don't study food stamps, study money.

And funny enough, I had to do that outside of college, even though I was in a marketing degree. I was in getting a business degree in marketing. And I was like, "I'm not learning how to make money here." And what's funny, the training is not, it's typically not vocational training. It's not any kind of training that's out there or any courses or any classes or anything like that.

Colleges don't teach you how to make money - they don't know how to make money. Most of the time, teachers, you know what I mean, they're not making much either. They can't teach you that. Don't learn from poor people how to make money. That's stupid.

You gotta look outside of your network most of the time to start learning how to make money.

The scariest moments come when you don't know what to do next. I have been there on a yearly basis. I did that for a while. There are two quotes that I like a lot. One of them is by Julian Barnes, which I think is like the same Barnes as Barnes and Noble Barnes, which is awesome.

It says, "The more you learn, the less you fear. The more you learn, the less you fear."

It's actually written on my wall over there. "The more you learn, the less you fear." And so what I decided to do was to get obsessed over the study of money.

I decided to do that shortly after joining the Army and realizing that I was only gonna make half of what I was told I was supposed to. It was very frustrating. Very frustrating.

But I decided to make, I decided to study money. Which meant I had to look in places that were not obvious in front of me.

And that's when I started actively seeking money making guys out, and that's when I first ran into a guy named Russell... and I was like "He looks like he's 12 years old, should I even believe what he's saying? Does he know?"

And that's when I started getting in the habit of learning from rich people. "How do I make money?" I'm not gonna ask poor people that. That's like going to the gym and asking someone overweight how to lose weight. I hate that.

Anyway, so what I'm trying to say is "the more you learn, the less you fear."

Most of the time, people just don't know how a dollar's actually made. We know how to do that very traditionally from our parents with a "time for dollar model," but when you learn how to do a "value for dollar model," - that's the model to go study.

The other one I really like is; "Competence leads to confidence."

Competence leads to confidence. And that's the whole purpose of this episode, and the only reason why I'm saying this is because we just launched the Affiliate Outrage program. It's completely free.

The reason I did it is because affiliate marketing is great training wheels for the business game in general. You don't have to worry about making the product. You just worry about what actually sells stuff.

Most of the time I see people, and they're like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go learn how to do this game, what product can I sell?" Wrong question!

Ask, "What's the sales message that sells? What's the sales message that sells?" And then worry about the product.

That's why I like affiliate marketing because the product side's taken care of for you. You can just focus on the sales message. You can just focus on marketing - just sell.

Just because somebody made the product does not mean you get to skip creating the marketing.

That's why I like affiliate marketing. It's like training wheels for this game.

So that's why I launched Affiliate Outrage. Affiliate Outrage is free. Affliliateoutrage.com. There's no upsells, nothing else in there. It'll get you off the ground and doing this kind of stuff.

I also launched the OfferMind. Almost 400 tickets already are out for that - which is crazy cool. I'm excited to see you guys here in Boise soon.

I gave away free tickets when you guys bought Russell's new book through my affiliate link, just as a thank you - which is awesome. I'm trying to do a few free things.

My customer who I really serve, I charge 30 grand a day to go in, set up, and design the actual sales message, design the offer, design the actual funnel, right.

I don't build the funnel, but I create all the assets ahead of time. I charge 150 grand to do it for actual.

My customer who I actually serve and exchange with - they're expensive because I'm good, and my crap works - I know it does... And you have hopefully seen that.

...But I don't want to neglect the fact that I have an affinity for, I have empathy... because I've been there in the trenches. You're still in the mud, and you're like, "That extra $1000 would change my life." I know, I have been there. And so that's the reason why I've been doing these different things.

So if there's anything I can... It's out of passion - this episode.

I want you to obsess over the study of money.

It's not normal - it's not taught. You don't stumble on the study of money. The fastest ways for you to learn how to make cash - study marketing. That's why I sink my teeth into it. Marketing is the activity where money gets exchanged.

Money is the by-product of marketing. That's why I study marketing. That's why I'm a marketer. That's why I'll always be a marketer. I'm a marketer first before any product I'm actually selling. Always, marketer. I am a marketer. I am excited about that.

That does not mean logos. Does not mean color schemes, slogans, business cards. That's not marketing.

It doesn't even mean Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads, that's not marketing.

And if you're like what are you talking about? That's exactly why I'm saying you need to study it... That's not marketing.

Anyway, so, what I'm trying to say is: if you're in that phase, first of all, I feel ya. I've been there. I was there for years. I totally get it. I want you to lean into the challenge. I want you to lean in to and let it sculpt you.

Many of you would not follow me if I did not have the background that I do. That's super key to understand. Be willing to live the very hook that you are going through. You are the future hook.

The fact that I went through 17 businesses before one went off - that's so bonding. That lets me be followable.

Understand that even if something's not working, you are still crafting the foundation and framework for you to get massively paid in the future. Lean in is what I'm telling you. Lean in.

I got that coin on my desk, many of you've seen it now. It's: "the obstacle is the way." The coin says: "The obstacle is the way - The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." That's what the coins says. It's one of my favorite quotes. It stays on my desk for that reason.

Whatever I know I need to be doing, but it looks the most sucky - that's what I make sure I lean into.

So I'm begging you not to study how to game this food stamp way. Don't study food stamps. Study money. Study how money gets made.

Funny enough, I have the biggest time getting over the internal hurdles about studying money for the longest time. I felt like I was being greedy.

It's really weird when I look back to when I read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which I'm sure many of you have... Rich Dad, Poor Dad, is like the gateway drug for most entrepreneurs - it totally was for me. That and like Four Hour Work Week and a few others.

But anyways, Rich Dad, Poor Dad talked about three asset classes. There's business, there's paper assets, and real estate, or real assets in general. Those are the three.

This was my thought: "I'm not gonna go do business because I don't want to be greedy, I'm not greedy." That was literally my belief pattern, guys. You understand like only five years ago. Seven. I remember when I read that. Seven years ago. That was my belief pattern:

"I'm not going into business because I don't want to be greedy."

How stupid of a belief is that? Right? Plus, "I'm not really a professional guy. I don't even own a briefcase." I don't really like to put suits on too often. I'm not wearing shoes right now. I don't like to in general. That was my belief. How stupid, how stupid? That's a dumb belief.

Learn to call out the BS that you're telling yourself.

So I was like man, I'm gonna go into the financial markets area, and I borrowed 15 grand to go through these courses. I found out down the road that they knew they were outdated strategies... and I was like, "Oh, that's exciting."

Then I went into real estate. Not business 'cause I don't want to be greedy. That was my thought. That was the reason, you guys. That was literally the reason.

Then I was like, "Fine we'll do the business game, but I'll just go do sales 'cause I don't wanna make a product. I don't wanna be the entrepreneur 'cause entrepreneurship..."

I actually had my wife tell me about three months into marriage, she said: "How come every time someone starts to ask you what you want to do and it's entrepreneurship, you're like really weird about it?"

It'd be fun actually to bring her in. I can hear her vacuuming right now, if you can pick it up on the mic, you probably can.

She's with our kids, she's awesome. Total rockstar. She's incredible. Sacrificed like crazy for all of us. And inadvertently for the rest of you as well. She's amazing. She'll be at funnel hacking live, I'm really excited. She's gonna come this year.

I am super stoked about all this game. I'm excited for all this stuff. I want you to understand this game.

When I started coaching, especially when I started coaching a lot of two comma club coaching, stuff like that, if you guys are in those programs. I went in with the anticipation and with the belief that I would be coaching people on marketing. I spent maybe 40% of the time actually coaching on marketing.

I had no idea that I would be spending the majority of my coaching time on just people's mentalities and their beliefs and their attitudes towards money. That's been the big massive hurdle.

I'm like "You can do this.” They're like "I'm not good enough." "You can do it." "Okay, maybe I'm a little bit good enough." I'm like, "You can do this." "Alright, fine, I'll go do it."

I do that kind of crap more.  I shouldn't call it crap. I'm not saying it's crap. Stuff. I do that kind of stuff way more than talking about marketing strategies.

I had no idea that I had done those things to myself along the way to even pull off the marketing strategies that I teach and do.

So I'm trying to help you understand. If there's anything that you can study to really make you move forward, you gotta study money.  Don't study the way out.

There's an amazing quote by Will Smith, he says, “There's no reason for plan B because it distracts from plan A." Totally agree with that. I don't have a plan B, "I'm all in on A, baby." I just want a plan A, that's it. I don't want a plan B. I don't even want to think about a plan B.

Too many times people are like, "What's plan A? What's plan B? What's plan C?" Like, that's freaking distracting: "Well, I'll go try this entrepreneurship game. If it doesn't work out, we can always do food stamps."

If you think about it, it is very hard to fail in this country. It's extremely challenging to fail in America. I could get government housing, I could get food stamps.

You are not going to die. It's hard to die. You have to try. There are so many freaking safeties in our society now. Mediocrity is celebrated:

"You're good enough, you're trying, you're doing everything. Just be happy with where you are." Bull crap! No, I don't want the mediocre life. And I don't want you to get seduced by that mindset.

Mediocrity is celebrated and it's very hard to fail truly in our society. There are so many lock aids, you could do bankruptcy, you could do government housing, you could do the food stamps, there's a lot of things you can do before you really truly actually hit rock bottom in America.

But because of that, people get soft in their heads -they got no discipline in their head. Man, I'm totally on a soap box now. Reeling it in, baby. Here it comes:

It is very, very, very, very easy to win in this game now. It's so easy for me to dominate. It's shocking!

I was voxxing Dave Woodward the other day. It was like two nights ago. I just won the affiliate contest for 30 Days -which is exciting. How cool is that? ...Using the exact same principles, I teach you guys. And I won that contest by a lot, which is fun and very, very exciting.

And I was voxxing him, and he goes, "Hey, congrats man. That was really cool. You could do a whole course just based off of what you did here because that was brilliant." And I was like "Hey, thanks man, I really appreciate that." I said, “You know what's fascinating…” and I told him exactly what I just told you guys:

"I thought I'd be teaching all this marketing stuff. I can't even get people to that part because it's so in their heads."

There's such a lack of discipline. It is so easy to dominate in this space because of the lack of discipline.

If you have the smallest inkling of being able to go through things that are just a little uncomfortable you're gonna be fine, you're gonna be fine.

I encourage all of you guys to start orchestrating challenging things in your life to callous the mind.

I invite you to lean in to your obstacles. I invite you to say, "You know what, I'm totally cool with a little bit of discomfort in my life. I'm willing to experience voluntary pain." Not like a freaking masochist...

I'm saying, "What things which are not comfortable can you orchestrate in your life to get going and moving off the ground?"

This was as much about studying money rather than food stamps as anything else. Right, just being willing to just run forth and be uncomfortable along the whole way.

Okay, I feel like I'm opening a different can. I just opened one can and that was a good can. Just drink that down, I'm ready to come over here to another can, but I'm not gonna keep going here.

I just want you to know, like I want you to feel me on this, "Do not study the out. Do not study plan B." Who cares? "Don't study food stamps. Study money."  

Be willing to go through stuff that's a little challenging. If you're going through it, I applaud you. I'm excited for you because of what it will let you do in the future.

If you let it, it can sculpt you into something you could not have become on your own.

Anyway, this is a bit of a firey episode, but I'm totally against people planning for plan B. I don't agree with it at all. I think it's stupid.

It's like, "Man, well, maybe, you know, I'll go get in the Olympics but, you know, instead I could just go be blah..."

You're literally trying to plan "the out." I don't give my customers the out because I know my products are good. I don't give myself the out.

I know I've talked a lot about Darren Hardy. You know he's got a good book, Willpower Doesn't Work. Really, it's environment. So I orchestrate events, things in my life, things that are uncomfortable with the purposeful intention of getting uncomfortable.

Willpower doesn't work. If your like, "Hey, I'm gonna go will myself into becoming this person Steve was talking about." Uh-uh!

That's why we invite you to buy other coaching and products and things like that because you need an environment. Environment is where things really switch, not willpower.

Willpower's like a muscle. It will literally actually fail after a while.

Anyway, hey guys, I appreciate you guys taking the time, and I appreciate you guys being here.

Thanks for letting me have a little bit of real talk with this. This has been a fun episode. This is one I've been wanting to say for quite a while. Do not study food stamps, study money.

Those kinds of things are what actively increase you as an individual.

The personal development you experience through entrepreneurship is ridiculous, better than any personal development course I've ever taken in my entire life. Entrepreneurship.

Anyway, guys, thank so much. Appreciate ya, love ya all, and very much think about where you guys are because I've been there and I have a lot of empathy for it.

A lot of you guys are extremely successful too, which is great. You've probably have resonated with a few things I've ranted about here.

Anyway, guys, thanks so much. I'll see you guys at the OfferMind - those of you who are coming.

And go through Affiliate Outrage program if you wanna learn more about kinda the training wheels of marketing itself. Things to get paid for,  but not get distracted over product creation.

And I will see you guys next episode. Please, please, please, share and review the episode. It helps me a lot, and I actually do go read the reviews. They keep me motivated.

Hey, thanks for listening. Many don't know that I actually made my first money online as an affiliate marketer. If you wanna know how I funded my entire company without using any of my own money EVER, you can learn to do the same for free at AffiliateOutrage.com

Boom, what's going on everyone?

It's Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna talk to you guys about the most important shift that must take place in every sales message for it to be effective.

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

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

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

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

What's up guys? I'm excited for today. I've spent the last few days at Russell Brunson's Inner Circle - which is a lot of fun.

The way it works is we all get up, and we'll give, we'll teach for a little bit cool things that we've all been doing. And then we'll ask for whatever we need, right?

And so I got my slides done, I was super excited about it. Honestly going to Inner Circle's like Christmas morning for me. It's probably the place I like to spend the most time, and I just absolutely love it.

It was right before and Russell sent me a message, and he goes, "Hey did you want to teach some of your offer creation stuff for a little over an hour? I got a little spot to fill. We could give you some extra time there, and honestly, I'd love to see the stuff."  I said, "Sounds good."

So I was like, "Oh crap, I gotta remake all this stuff." So I went and I remade this cool presentation to go through and share a lot of these things.

And one of the stories in there, I wanna walk through it, I wanna share with you guys the most important element in a sales message.

Now a lot you guys know, I talk about door-to-door sales a lot. For me, that was like one of the best educations I ever had in my entire life - door-to-door sales. I did not see that at the time. I did not know that at the time. But I was hoping that I would learn sales in the toughest environment - which was literally one of the major reasons why I did door-to-door.

I know I bring it up a lot, but it's because it was so impactful for me. Now a lot of you guys know too that I've told this story right in the past, I'll get to this whiteboard here I have in a moment. But in the past, what's been fascinating is I was so obsessed with products, right?

I would write eBooks, I would put things together, and I was, "What product can I sell? What product can I sell? What product can I sell?" And it led me down this path of learning what products are cool... BUT it also led to actually having zero cash in my pocket...

So back to the door-to-door thing; I had the exact same fixation when I was doing door-to-door sales. I would go around and for the first half of the summer I was the number two salesman as a first year.

I was good, right and I'd be closing people. I was like, "Pest control, pest control, pest control, pest control, pest control."

Customers started asking things like, "ell does it kill bug? Does it kill my ants? Does it kill the wasps? Do you guys take care of the mice? Do you do this, do this, do this...?"

The technician came after me and obviously fulfilled on that and I just was selling it, I was the sales guy obviously.

And what was funny was that when you look at the way I was selling, the first half of the summer for me, I was getting two to three sales a day - which as a sales guy, door-to-door, for that price point - that's not bad. That's not bad.

If you do that consistently, that's pretty good.

What's funny though is that about halfway through the summer it shifted from going from two to three sales a day to two to three sales a week. I was wrecked. I mean it destroyed me.

If I did not do so well the beginning half of the summer, my wife and I would have been bankrupt by the time we hit the end of the summer. We pretty much broke even the rest of the entire summer. And I was like, what happened here? What's going on?

One of the major things that I was getting distracted on was the product itself.

About two months into the beginning of summer, people started asking me questions: "Does it do this, does it kill that? What about this, does it do that?" Blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah, and I ended up falling in the rabbit hole, and I shouldn't have.

I got on this huge spree of learning about the product more: "Oh these are the chemical compounds inside of our pest control. Oh, this is the organic version and the chemical compounds of that one. Oh, here is why it works on wasps. This is why it works on ants. This is why it works."

And I got so far into the why - literally down to the molecular level. I knew exactly why this pest control is killing that bug... because it is jacking up their nervous system... right! Weird details that don't matter.

I got so obsessed over it.

It was not until afterwards, when I started learning about sales that I found out that I was talking myself out of the sale.

Anytime anybody asked me a question where they just needed a simple answer, "Does it kill my bugs?" "Yeah." But I was like, "Yes, booof!" And I'd just like barf all over him. "Here and this and that, and this and that, look at me, I'm smart, look at me I'm smart!"

I went back to college and I started learning more about eBooks, I started trying to sell things online. I started getting more into the internet game. And I got back to that same fixation - believing that the product and what made the product is what did the sale.

Now there's this interesting stat and correlation, even at ClickFunnel's high ticket selling. A lot of internet marketers, a lot of business owners today, they try to not have their high ticket salesmen know that much about the product...

It's not because they're trying to be shady or sneaky or anything like that, it's because there's a danger that salesmen will start to talk themselves out of the sale.

They will literally start explaining all the features. They will literally start explaining all the little details, and it ends up killing the sale.

So I went in, and I got to teach a little bit about this and tell different stories about it to the Inner Circle.

There's one specific concept about the sales script that I wanted to walk you through.

First of all, I just wanna make the point, people don't buy because of the product. They buy it because of the sales message. They're completely separate activities. They're completely separate disciplines. Sales message versus a product.

And for so many years - the reason why I knew it took me 17 tries, (it's something like that), to have a successful product is because it was the first time that I actually decided, "Holy crap, I'm still gonna make a sick product. I'm gonna make something that's totally awesome, but I'm gonna first fixate on a sales message that gets people excited." Then make a product to fulfill what that sales message is talking about - in that order.

That's one of the biggest reasons why my stuff started working!

So we got that split, 'kay...

Product versus sales message. Very different. Super unique roles. Very unique responsibilities. Very unique in the way you create them. Very different disciplines themselves on how to make them. Product creator versus a sales scriptwriter, very different.

Sales script though, that's why they buy it. They don't buy it because of the product, they buy it because of the sales script. Have we established that? Sweet, okay.

Now what I wanna do is I'm gonna take that sales message, and what I wanna do is I wanna identify inside of this... it's one of the major key reasons why somebody ends up purchasing.... And it's one of the key reasons why the sales message is more important than the product.

And again, I'm not telling you not to go create awesome products.

Check this out though:

If we got a red ocean over here... (So for you guys on iTunes... I'm just gonna draw it, and all I'm gonna talk it out here, so you guys, you're not missing out on anything, right?) For me drawing it helps me explain it, that's the reason I use these whiteboards in these videos now so much, 'kay. Just so you know...

I got a red ocean over here on the side, and let's say over here, I'm trying to lead them over to this blue, right? Here's the blue ocean. Can barely see that - there we go. There's the blue ocean over there on that side, and there's a bridge.

There's basically a bridge that happens to get them over from one ocean to the next.

And what I wanna talk about, and the purpose of this and the reason I wanna do this episode is to teach you why they actually start moving towards the blue.

Guys, most people are lazy. They're not ambitious, they're lazy. So, what gets a lazy person out of their comfy couch over in the red ocean where they are more than taken care of? There are so many providers, there are so many companies selling that red ocean.

Lots of times that red ocean person is highly taken care of, right? They're highly, highly taken care of. Because that person's willing to believe more for them than that person. Does that make sense?

The task of getting someone off their duff and over to a blue, that's not an easy thing. And that's the reason why I'm doing this is because I want you to understand what causes an individual to get up and start walking to the blue.

What gets them up over here -  and even better, what gets them to run? What gets them to spring over to... do do do, there's a little run. (So I never graduated past stick figures, I don't really intend to.) But anyway, what gets them to run over to that blue?

That's literally the purpose of today's episode, and that's why I'm trying to share this with you guys.

So let's look at sales psychology here for just a moment in general...

If I walk up and I'm like, "Hey what's up? Hey, buy this marker." The first thing that you're going to do is you are going to talk about, I'm sorry. The first thing you're gonna do, internally you're gonna start questioning how good the marker is itself. That's usually the first thing that a person starts to do.

What I'm going through here is typically the order the brain experiences the sale in.

The first objection that somebody typically has

is the product or vehicle itself. So that's the first thing, right. Number one usually is a product base.

Why would I get up and off the couch if I don't even think that the blue could have a possibility of being awesome, or what I need, or cool? Does that make sense?

So the first objection, they're not even gonna get up out of their chair and over in that red ocean, they're not gonna get, right, out of their chair, they're sitting over there in that boat. Whoo, whoo, right, that red ocean over there. They're in their boat - they're in a nice houseboat. They're not gonna get up and start walking over to that driver wheel until they at least know that the blue ocean is even worth checking out, right?

That usually leads to product based objection. "Well, is that marker any good? Well, when I erase that marker, is it gonna be helpful? Well, does that makes sense? Well, well, well, well, well, does that make sense?"

So, now that's the super key to understand, the first objection is usually about the product.

The reason somebody will abandon the red and move to a blue is because literally... there's a lot of reasons. But one of the biggest ones is just fear of missing out. FOMO. It's one of the fears of missing out. "Oh there's something better over there. Oh it's a better deal over there. Oh there's something over here...."

This blue ocean is all about creating things that are different, not new. Does that make sense? It is a new ocean, but one of the easiest ways to create a new ocean is by creating things that are different, not better. That's what I was trying to say. You're trying to be different, not better. Anyway, that's the first thing.

The second thing, the second thing that people have a crisis over, the second thing that people have an objection over, has everything to do with their internal beliefs. Identity, is what I'm talking about.

Usually it has to do with insecurities and identity. So insecurities, insecurities and identity. Meaning they're gonna say, "Oh you know what, Steve? I prefer chalk anyway, so. And that's a little bit of a product based one...

There might be someone who's like, "Well my grandfather used chalk and his grandfather used chalk, I will never use a marker..." you know what I mean?

It sounds silly, but people are doing that with your products - you understand?

A lot of this is subconscious, and when you go in to address each one of these things, and the way the brain experiences a sale, it makes you a way better salesman - a way better marketer, a way better product creator, and a way better blue ocean creator.

I'm gonna come back to what gets somebody to actually start moving across here. It's the major key of this entire episode. I'm trying to help you guys understand...

The third thing that people have an objection/identity over is a lot about resources.  A lot of external things, things that are away from them: "Oh, that does seem cool. Oh, you know what, that product, I do believe that product is really good." And if I can get them to there, they graduate to the next one, right...

If I get them to understand the product is really cool, then they graduate to internal based objections. Their internal based objections; insecurities, identity crises. "Well, it doesn't represent me to do this... it doesn't represent me to do that."

I really wanna get into tough mudders and Spartan races and things like that... I'm really excited about that. Why? I'm convinced that that's a cool product, BUT it's really because I believe that's part of my identity. "I've never done one." Fascinating, isn't it?

..."But it's me. I'm a tough guy," right? And that's kind of what people start to do. "I'm a tough guy." Therefore that fits my identity, therefore I'm gonna start moving towards it, right?

People might say, "Okay, but what time are the races at? Oh, but what kind of shoes should I have? Oh but what kind of training should I do ahead of time? Oh what...?"

Does that makes sense? It's a resources based category. It's external - So I'm gonna say resources.

So those are the three, right? Those are the three. You're gonna have usually in this very order.. this is the order that the brain experiences it. And the brain does not move on to the next one until it feels like it has been justified. Until it feels like that objection has been answered.

You experience them in this order, and you graduate them in this order:

First I'm gonna have a product based objection.

Next I'm gonna have an identity based objection, right, an insecurity, "I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, there's no way I can do that. My family's never done those kinds of things before, I should not do that as well." Does that make sense?

I hear this a lot of you guys when you're like, "But my father was poor and his father was poor, and their father was poor, and therefore I will be poor." It's like, "Wait a second, that is an internal insecurity." That's an identity insecurity. That's is an identity based false belief. That makes sense?

"I've been a farmer, therefore... "(I'm just picking on whatever, 'kay?) "I'll go to college because they went to college." Anyway, it's a very hard one to break.

The third one is that resources based one: "I don't have enough time, I don't have enough money, I don't have enough energy, I don't have enough support from spouse."

Those are things that are away, things that have nothing really to do with the product that you're trying to sell. But they come up as excuses. Does this make sense? (I need more stories in this as I'm telling it, I can feel it right now. 'Cause I'm going straight to fact, which is not good. But I'm trying to help you guys understand this piece of it, 'kay?)

The most hard one to break is the identity based one. This one right here. Product based insecurities = they're not that hard. Everyone's seen a new product they've never seen before. We are conditioned, guys, America is buying things and the world is buying things at a faster pace. Increasing on an increasing rate, right?

We buy stuff, we're used to seeing new products. It doesn't take a long time to get over product based objections. It doesn't. If your product's great, it takes a little product education, right? And because it's new, that's usually a big section inside of something like a webinar. This is secret number one, the product based objections right there. But it's not altogether that hard.

The path is not altogether that challenging to break someone's beliefs about the new product that you're trying to sell them to...

The challenge comes, right and the third one as well...

Resource-based objections, man every product has resource based objections!

It doesn't matter whatever you're selling. You're gonna hear the objection, "Well it's too expensive, I don't have time enough to do that. I don't know if my wife's gonna like that. I don't know if..." Right! Every freaking product has those objections.

The third category, resource-based objections are the easiest to break. But they're often the ones that people go to the first when they write their scripts. Isn't that funny? It should be the third thing, not the first...

'Cause you get into a features battle if you keep going into the resources one too much.

Anyway, the most challenging one, the most challenging one for people to overcome is number two. It is insecurities, and specifically, identity.

Guys the thing that gets people off their butt from a red ocean and sprinting to a blue, is identity.

The easiest way to create the feeling needed to get up out of the red and run to the blue? Some of you guys might kind of cringe when I say this, 'kay? Please don't think less of me. "Identity crisis," 'kay? The identity crisis...

If I can have somebody experience somewhat of an identity crisis and realize "I have to be over here in this blue ocean, I have to." It melts tons of resource-based false beliefs. It melts tons of beliefs about product itself.

If I can affect somebody to have an identity crisis, they will leave their security.

For them the red ocean is security. They will leave a security of a red ocean and their identity - and be like, "This is who I am."

Guys, so much of humanity, we're all in this identity discovery. We all are trying to discover who we really are in this life, right? You understand that you can use this for really crappy stuff... you could be totally unethical what I'm talking about with this. You have to understand though, that this is the hinge in a sales message.

If I can get somebody's identity slightly challenged by using that red ocean, right, they're gonna jump, and they're gonna sprint... they're gonna run over to that blue.

It's kind of like, there's a lot of people who will go through the Funnel Hacks webinar at ClickFunnels... they will buy Funnel Hacks, and they'll get six months of ClickFunnels.

They'll go through the onboarding process to get their free Funnel Hacking t-shirt, and they will never log in again. Ever. They'll never log in again...

Why? Why would somebody do that? Identity. Why? "Because I'm a Funnel Hacker." The cost of being a Funnel Hacker and having that t-shirt is worth the $97 a month to them.

"You're right, Russell, I hate websites. I hate VC funding." Think of all the rocks that he's throwing, right? Those are part of the identity = things that we are and are not: "I will not take on VC funding. I will not take on debt. I will not, right! I will bootstrap it, I will do it the right way, I will not cheat."

All those phrases we've all heard before - that is "identity" - what we are and what we are not.

And when you can clearly identify an identity, right... When you can get people to shift and remove and destroy and shed their old identit. And as they buy your product, take on a new identity... That is one of the easiest ways to sell stuff. Seriously, it's one of the easiest ways.

There was a headline, a very famous headline that said: "My weird Funnel currently making me 17 grand a day, and how to ethically knock it off in less than 10 minutes." That was the headline. When I saw that, I was like, "Cool, I'm sold." But when there was an identity shift involved in it, I had to buy it. Does that make sense? I was sold on the product, right?

I can't remember what I was selling... This has happened multiple times in my life. Especially, pest control was a great example. I would go in and I would sell one spouse, but I would not close them, meaning I had no cash in hand.

The person was sold, they're like, Awesome, totally want it, why don't you just come on back." How many of you guys have done this, right? "It's totally awesome, oh this product seems so great Stephen, I'm super excited about it," I'm like, "Yeah, it is great. Okay, just sign here." "Well, I've got to talk to my spouse." That is a resource based! I did not get there, they're only 2/3 sold. I could not get past that last objection.

The person was sold, but they're stopping on resource-based objections, right? And I would come back, and I'd be like, "Sweet! Oh, this sale's a drop in the hat, sale's a drop in the hat, sale's a drop in hat. And I would come back, and I walk back, and it was like an abrupt, rude, very forceful "No." I was like, "Huh?"

That happened all the time.

If I did not close them there, I hardly ever closed them on the followup, EVER.  And a lot of it had to do with my own skill at the time. ( I'm way better now.) But that's part of the whole reason of it.

If I can get somebody to actually shift their identity, shed their identity and move forward, man, guys the game's so easy.

A lot of you guys follow me because you like what I've done. A lot of you guys follow me because you've actually lived or are living the same kind of story that I've gone through. You started with nothing, you didn't have much, right? You were trying to bootstrap it the whole way, you're working in wee hours of the morning, or super late hours of the night...

I know like 90% of you guys listening to this right now, watching this right now, you're in that category or you have been in that category. It's what makes me attractive. Why? "Identity." That's the whole purpose of this episode. I'm just trying to help you guys understand that...

So start thinking through ways you can give yourself and give your customers a brand new identity.

I call my people a specific title. That's the name of our group, right? They shed their old... I call them The Mavericks. Renegades, I call them a lot of different names, 'kay? But it's because it's who I am. Man, I'ma fighter, I don't care ruffling feathers, I love breaking rules, 'kay?

And I attract people in that way, or I attract people who want to become that way, right? And what it's doing is it's making them shed their old identity.

And what happens when someone takes on a new identity? A lot of resource-based objections seem to get dwindled somehow. They're not as important as they used to be.

Even if you don't totally understand everything about the product itself, a lot of those vehicle-based objections start to melt away.

Identity shift is the hardest but the most important thing that you can focus on giving your people inside of a sales message. That's what I'm trying to say. That's what I'm trying to get out to you guys so you understand a part of it.

I love ClickFunnels. It is so part of my identity. Do you know how hard of a sale it's going to be for somebody if they decide to try and get me out of using ClickFunnels? Like "Good luck.." you know what I mean?

Do you imagine getting me out of it? "No." I don't care. It is so ingrained in my identity.

I'm pretty sure if you peel back my heart right here, there's gears, right? There's a red gear and a blue gear. And that's what's keeping me going. And it's because of that. I've taken on this identity. And my identity got seated as part of the product itself.

I want you guys to understand that part of it...

So start thinking through ways, and if this is a little bit more of a technical one, relisten to it... Listen to this episode several times, there's a lot  that I dropped in there.

I'm trying to help you understand what gets somebody to abandon the red. Yes, a good product can do that. Yes, overcoming objections for resources, that can totally do that as well. But the one thing that they will not sidestep  is their identity.

The one thing that will get them running is their identity.

I really wanna go do these tough mudder things. I'm super excited about it. Do you know the buying frenzy I have been on the cusp of because of that, right?

How many you guys have been there? When you're like, "Man, I really need something new in my life..." or "Man, I really need this..." or "Man, I really need variety..."

We've all been there before. Watch yourself. You're having an identity crisis!

"Oh. I didn't want to just be known for the guy sitting behind the desk." It's what I'm freaking going through, right?

I really wanna go do other things.  I'm very aggressive in nature, physically. I lift super hard every morning. "Why?" It has as much to do with my identity as anything else. Does that make sense?

Half the reason I joined the army was because of identity, right? My belief that I'm a tough guy is what sold me into joining the military...

Watch what you've done in your life, and start seeing like, "Oh it's part of my identity." As far as positive and negative. "It's my identity, it's my identity 'cause of this, identity 'cause of that. Identity, identity."

Identity is freaking huge, and we are all in a constant pursuit to self-discovery. And if you aid in that self-discovery process in the middle of your sales script and literally have an identity shift inside your sales script... That is what gets somebody to get off their butt and start running to a blue ocean without even totally knowing what is all about the product.

Not even having totally all their objections about resources answered. Does that make sense?

This is a huge deal.

Anyway, hopefully this helpful to you, and it's kind of a deeper episode again, but if you like this, please share it, okay. '

...Cause then from there, then we go in and we start matching products sideways and we go create a purple offer from there. And it's just this big old mapping guide, and it's very formulated - it's awesome.

Anyways, guys, I am very thankful for each one of you. Thank you so much for the follow as well.

We have the OfferMind which will be coming up soon. We have 397 tickets sold. They're free tickets that we gave away when you got the book through my link - which is awesome! I appreciate it. 397. What? Holy crap. It was gonna be like a little 30, 40 person thing. This is now a real event. I'm super excited!

The same AV crew that ClickFunnel uses for their events have just agreed to come in and do it for us as well. So it's super exciting - this is a legit event. I hate bad stages, I hate bad lighting, I hate bad audio, video, I hate bad sound and music. It's gotta be loud, I want it to be a rock concert. Anyway, so I'm super excited they just agreed - it's gonna be super awesome.

It'll be here in Boise. For those of you guys who are not in it, just be watching, we'll be releasing out more tickets soon. We're mostly just getting a head count right now. We have 397 tickets given away so far, which is awesome. And not many told me they can't come. So it's gonna be cool. It'll be loud, it'd be fun. Don't plan on sleeping! I'm excited to see you guys there.

So anyway, guys thanks so much.

Hopefully, this episode was helpful, and I'll talk to you guys in the next one, bye.

Whoo! Hey, there's more marketing resources than there are seams of the sea - am I right? Okay, maybe not - but there's a lot.

How do you know if you're paying for good ones?

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

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

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

"marketing resources" "list of marketing tools" "advertising effectiveness"

I get asked A LOT what my favorite this or that is. SO I decided to document what they are and keep them on all one page. Here's the scoop…

With the help of some amazing marketing resources, I’m able to run a mean lean team. I’m bringing in the money while buying back some of my time and optimizing my business.

What I’m going to share with you works.

I’m not some guru who only makes an income from telling other people how to make money.

My business makes me more money than the coaching I do.  I’m walking my talk.

LEARNING TO COUNT

Let me tell you a story…

When I went through my basic training in the army, you’d get a bonus if you signed up for AIT - which means Advanced Individual Training.

My family was pretty broke at the time, so it seemed like a good thing to do.

I was an ammo specialist. I was an 89 bravo, and my role was to learn pretty much every round of ammo (except for nuclear) that the military had.

As part of the training, I had to spend weeks memorizing ammo stats and nomenclature. So that when someone said, "Hey, we need this many rounds of 556 and 762  or go get some freakin' grenade launcher ammo."  I’d know what to grab. It was cool.

However, what was challenging for me was that everything was dumbed down to a third-grade-level because a lot of people come straight out of high school.

So they spent two freakin' days teaching us how to COUNT.

I was so bored that I actually started getting depressed for the first time in my life.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

One day, during the training, we were sitting in the chow hall and there was this guy who was in my platoon sat across from me.

Anyway, we're all chatting and this guy tells me that he has a Ph.D. which was a pretty unusual thing for someone to have in that situation.

I was like, "That's crazy! No way. What’s your Ph.D. in?"  And he starts to tell me that he wrote a report and I handed it into a guy who's a Ph.D. teacher and that he really liked the report, “So I have a PhD."

The rest of the soldiers around us were like, "Wait a second dude, you need to clarify what you just said."

He said, "Yeah man, I wrote this report, it was super cool and I handed it up to this guy who teaches some classes at Ph.D. levels, and he really liked it - so I got a Ph.D."

And he started trying to convince me and the rest of the soldiers that he had a Ph.D.

I was like, "Are you kidding me? You don't have a freaking Ph.D., dude. Do you have a certificate?"

And he's like, "No, but I have the equivalent of a Ph.D. brain." I am extremely smart."

And he just kept saying, "I am extremely smart. I can tell you all kinds of things." I said, "Oh, yeah, like what?" What? Tell me stuff dude, tell me!"

Because anytime someone says that, you instantly start to wonder if they really are... you know what I mean?

The reason I’m bringing up this story up is because this happens in marketing all the time.

I’M NOT LISTENING

For a long time, one of the biggest strategies on the Internet wasto go write an ebook full of the top resources for different areas. But really it was just a big list of affiliate links!

Now there’s nothing wrong with affiliate links, #affiliateoutrage.

However, someone who has just put together a list without having any experience of the subject is a crappy person to listen to.

For example, if I ever start to give you style guidance - you have my permission to ignore me.

If I start standing up and start talking to you guys about something that I don't have mastery in. Don't listen to me. I'm not gonna do that anyway, because I'm super conscious about it.

But if you’re trying to learn offer creation or funnel building - well, that’s kinda my jam. That's what I'm known for, and that's what I’ve done EVERY DAY for years - so listen up.

BEST MARKETING RESOURCES

(Did you notice that seamless segue ;-))

If you’re thinking, "Steven, what the heck are you talking about? Well, I want you to know that I’ve launched a  really cool resource called Best Marketing Resources.

It’s my hub for all of the resources that I use to pull off my business.

It took for freakin' ever for me to create this thing.

I created it because people always ask me, “Stephen, what's your favorite tool for ----- (fill in the blank)?"

So I decided to make a hub where I just put all of my favorite tools in one place. I literally went through my business bank statement and counted them up.

It’s like a living breathing list of marketing tools that I’m gonna keep constantly updated with the most up to date resources that I use in my business.

And EVEN BETTER THAN THAT…

Each tool has its own video that shows you how I use it in my business.

I teach the exact strategy of how I use that tool in my company. So you get to see exactly how to use it and WHY I have so much love for it.

Underneath each video is a link directly to the resource.  

A lot of them are my affiliate links - but if that annoys you, you just gotta get over. You don’t have to use them, but if I’ve provided value - why wouldn’t you?

CHEESE AND MARKETING

The reason I created the Best Marketing Resources hub is that if you're trying to learn something, them it’s best to learn from a person who’s actually doing the thing they’re teaching.

The person who has what Russell calls, “THE BIGGEST PIECE OF CHEESE”

There are some people, and I'm not gonna name names, that give me advice in certain realms that they have no mastery over. I listen out of politeness, but I will not do anything with what they've told me.

Why would I listen to somebody telling me how to run a marathon when they’ve never run a marathon themselves?

Why would I listen to some an internet marketer telling me how to have huge success with X, Y, and Z when they're never done it themselves?

I wouldn’t right, that’d be crazy!

I'm not going to listen to anybody who doesn't have the result already that they're trying to teach me.

And that's the reason why this whole Best Marketing Resources was such a passion project for me. You’ll get a butt-ton of value just from watching the videos.

Even though the tools may change, the core of marketing never does.

When I first started, I had 51 tools listed - now there’s way more than that.

There are marketing resources for ALL THE THINGS:

• Funnel Building

• Creative and Publishing

• Fulfillment

• Team Management

• Funnel Hacking

• Education

• My Favorite Charities (in case you wanna make the world a better place while you’re crushing it.)

I don't recommend anything unless I'm using it, or completely endorse it and know that it's incredible.

So you can have faith knowing that this is the stuff I actually use and do.

Don't think that you need to have all of them in order to make money on the Internet. You just use them as you you need to. But I just wanted to make a place where people would know:

1. This is actually being used.

1. This is what is actually making money.

1. Here's Steven's strategy, and this is how he uses these marketing resources.

BY THEIR FRUITS YOU WILL KNOW THEM

I'm trying to help you understand that you need to be careful who you're listening to. Be careful of the advice coming in.

If someone says "I wouldn't use that resource." But there not freakin' doing what you want to do, then “Shut up.”  If someone says, “I don't know that I would do it the way you are…."  And they work at McDonald's, don’t listen to their advice.

If they don’t have a big piece of cheese in that areas. Nothing against them, but...  DON’T TAKE THEIR ADVICE!

If that person hasn't been doing something long enough for that tree to have fruit coming off it, why on earth would you listen to them?

Listen to those who have the Ph.D. equivalent in the area that they’re trying to teach - and make sure that it’s not just an imagined one.

Until Next Time - Keep Crushing It!

There are more marketing resources than there are seams of the sea, am I right? Okay, maybe not, but there's a lot.

How do you know if you're paying for good ones?

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

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

If you wanna see the list, then see what you can use yourself, go to bestmarketingresources.com.

Offer creation is for any product or service in any industry at any price point. It has nothing to do with building a funnel and can be done offline, online, or in person...

If you have a great offer, you can sell anything…

But how do you create an offer that makes any product so sexy that people will rush give you their money?

With my offer creation process, you can sell anything including a pair of socks.

Without a plan to sell, product creation is a waste of time.

It’s a simple formula that I use to draft an outline and figure out what my offer will be.

The thing that drives me crazy is when someone says, "Ah, this doesn't apply to me because I'm in retail. This doesn't apply to me because I'm in B2B. I sell things on Amazon, I can't make offers."  *IT DOES* Anyone can use this process.

Companies fly me out to do a solid eight hour day with them to craft a detailed plan of what their offer is going to be. We create the sales message behind it, the best funnel for that offer, and the sales message to their market.

These consulting days are awesome fun and... REALLY EXPENSIVE. However, you don’t have to pay $30,000 for me to share my formula with you - because I ’m gonna share it right now…

There's obviously the bigger, deeper process that I’d go through when I'm about to launch a product, but I want you guys to see how I would craft an offer around socks.

Hop over to YouTube, if you’d like to see how I went through the process live with my Science of Selling Online group.

WHY I WON THE “30 DAYS” AFFILIATE CONTEST

When I was preparing my affiliate offer for Russells  30 Days book, I knew that my offer was gonna be better than anybody else's out there.

And when the results came in, I had nearly 2x the sales of my closest competition. The reason for this is because of the way I craft offers.

If you’d looked at all the promo emails that were sent out during that campaign, you’d have noticed that it was the same freakin’ email.

There's nothing wrong with prewriting emails if you're gonna get just people to promote in general, then sending pre-written emails is a good

But if you actually want to get serious, then because sending out a white email that’s the same as everyone else's is the epitome of a freaking red ocean!

Understanding the red ocean is not just what people are selling and how they're selling it.  You also need to look at the actual messaging and the funnel they're selling it with.

If you're blasting out the exact same material, then you’re still in that red ocean - and that’s not where the money is made

FISH SLAP THE CRAP

I don't care if you're selling your own products, or promoting somebody else's. I'm gonna teach you how to create your offer from a marketers perspective.

I'm not here to slap people around by saying  "Oh, that's crappy, that's crappy! Don't do that!" But I am here because I wanna share with you that there is a total junky way to do this, and a real way that actually provides value.

I'm a firm believer in something that Todd Brown said. He said, "If you have nothing else of value to say, then you need to end your funnel."

DUDE! WHAT ELSE…?

I had only been at ClickFunnels for about two months when Russell turned around, and as with all great ideas, he said:

"DUDE! You know Stu McLaren?" "He's got this thing coming up called TRIBE and I wanna promote it 'cause it's really good. What else could I give with that product?"

Until that time, I had never considered the fact that you would create an offer around an affiliate link.

Russell doesn't promote many people's products, but when he does, he is very methodical.

So I wanna walk you through the process that I watched Russell use, and that I now use myself, as well.

TOOTHPICKS AND JUMP ROPES

The reason I chose socks for this example is to show that this process works for anything however ludicrous. You could even use it for toothpicks. In fact, it works for any product at price-point in any industry.

Here’s an example:

In the morning I like to jump rope to warm up like boxers do  - Rocky style. So I bought a jump rope off Amazon. It's one of those speed ropes. It’s super cool. And what excited and tickled me pink was that you also got:

• A two-week program showing you exactly how to use your rope.

• A cool little bag.

• Some spare parts.

• An invitation to a special community.

It was a freaking jump rope and it literally had an offer created around it!

They had crafted this amazing offer around a jump rope.

I want to show you that there are multiple ways to create an offer, regardless of what you sell.

I want you to see the structure and the questions that I ask, in order to create an offer.

It might be helpful for you to go watch on YouTube, but I’ll do my best to explain the process here too.

MAKING SOCKS SEXY

Every time a person buys a product they also get a set of problems.

If I can identify future problems that the product cause you can build an offer around them.

For example:

#1: The first thing you need to do to create the offer is to list out the potential problems. What are the future issues your customer may run into when they buy socks from you? (These answers are from the live audience)

• Maybe their feet are too warm.

• They don’t know how to put them on.

• Dry feet.

• How to keep them clean?

• Stinky feet.

• Knowing which size to buy?

• Athletes foot.

• Holes.

• Too tight after first wash.

• Sensitive Skin

• Foot Care

I'm trying to choose a ridiculous example so you guys see how easy this is.

#2: Once you’ve identified the potential problems you can ask, “How could I solve that problem?”

If you don't know what the problems are, then just go look at reviews.

• For Stinky Feet: I could add some shoe pourri ;-) Or send them a about what kinds of shoes cause your feet to sweat.

• For What Size to Buy: I could send 2 pairs, or add a ruler for them to send in a custom sock size. In reality, you could have like three different sizes, but it's perceived customization.

• For Foot Care:  What if I interviewed a few foot doctors, and made a Little Known Doctors Order's Foot Care Guide - Yeah, we’d need a sexier name, but you know what I mean...

...By the beard of Zeus, the cat's meow, and the bee's knees, that's a freaking offer!

Total value = a lot. What’s the real price of it? A pair of socks like everybody else.

You could actually charge a little bit of a premium and nobody's actually gonna compete with you on that.

Following this process is one of the easiest ways to create your offer.

I've got an offer creation book coming out on this very concept.

Another major benefit of following this process is that you actually end up creating your entire sales message along the way by matching false believes and problems to the products in your offer. That's why my freaking stuff sells so well.

Wish you could geek out with other real funnel builders and even ask questions while I build funnels live? Ha ho, wish granted:

Watch and learn funnel building as I document my process in my funnel strategy group. It's free, just go to thescienceofselling.online and join now.

What's going on, everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna share with you guys how I was able to make the transition from employee to entrepreneur boss.

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

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

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

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

What's up, guys?

Hey, so as I started getting ready to make the jump, I wanna talk to you guys real quick about something that was really, it was hard for me. It was challenging for me. It was my biggest fear.

One of my buddies I'm talking to, well before I left, but I told him I think I need to leave my nine to five. (You can apply this to yourself regardless of what you do, right?)

I was like, "Okay, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I gotta think about, I gotta think about how I'm gonna handle this." And he goes, "What is your biggest fear?  Is your biggest fear that you're not gonna make enough money? What is the fear?"

And I said, "No, actually, my fear is not about the revenue.  I've been a part of a lot of these funnel things now and launched enough kind of on the side while I've been here. I think I've got that part." (Not to say that I'm amazing, you know. Anyway, you get what I'm saying.)

"The part that is freaking me out the most, the part that's freaking me out the most is that I'm gonna be sitting by myself alone looking at a wall with no one to crack the whip. You know what I mean? I'm gonna be sitting there by myself in an isolated room."

In ClickFunnels environment, there's energy. There are people running around over the place. There's "Hey, let's do this" and "Let's do that."

So even if there was a day when I felt kinda tired, I don't know if I wanna do this right now. I still had other people and other processes and things and place to pull me along and to hold me accountable.

And I said the thing that was freaking me out the most when I left was that I'm not gonna have that.  

I was talking to my wife about this. It was the biggest fear I have; do I have the discipline to continue to show up every day like I'm going to war?  Do I have the discipline to show up day in and day out to show up and act like, "Okay, today, the goal is to make a sale." You know what I mean?

Do I have the discipline to just do revenue-generating activities and not get distracted by things that are easier? Instead of like going in and trying to make the sale, "What's more comfy for me?" You know what I mean? You guys know what I'm talking about?

So  I just wanna share with you guys how I'm able to go in and stay structured, personally, day in and day out.

Now I'm not perfect like this, and I don't want you to think that I am. I'm not.

I really only listen to like two or three people. I listen to Russell Brunson's stuff. I learned marketing from him. I learned business structures from Alex Charfen. And I listen more about closing and what to do with cash when you have it from a lot of Grant Cardone stuff. And those are kinda my three. That's about all I listen to.

Sometimes, I listen to some Pat Flynn. Pat Flynn on Smart Passive Income. His podcast, that was one of the first shows I ever listened to that started teaching me about this world.

Anyway, so there's a few people I listen to, but really, it's just them -which gurus did they learn from, which books did they study, which courses did they go to to learn how to be where they are, right?

When I'm done diving through all their stuff, I just go the next level deeper with them. And that's kinda how I make sure I put the blinders on and not get distracted with my education. So it's been kinda cool.

So this was a serious fear of mine though, right? When I leave, how will I maintain discipline? Will I? And it's funny now that I'm thinking about it, but that was eight months ago, nine months ago, and that's kind of a weird thing to be afraid of, but not really...

And funny enough, one of the things I would teach at the funnel event, (the Funnel Hackathon Event -  FHAT) was this very thing.

Funny enough the thing that people was asking about after a while, after like the first day and a half, I've had another day and a half with them, pretty much every question turned into, "How do you keep your energy so high, Stephen? How do you stay checked in so often, Stephen? How do you... "

And I was like, "Why are you guys asking me this?" I didn't say that. But I was thinking it was like, "Why does everybody ask me that question?" It almost frustrated me.

I was like, "Well you just freakin' do it? You don't overcomplicate it - you just do it."

But it's funny because like as I started leaving, I put my foot in my mouth because I realized, "Oh my gosh, I have the same fears." As I started leaving nine to five, I was like, "Holy crap! How am I gonna do that? How am I gonna stay motivated?"

So I just want to teach you guys just a few things that I do to keep myself checked in, day in and day out. Again, I'm not always perfect at it. No, but I'm like 99% on certain aspects of it. Other parts, I'm like 50%. Other parts, I'm not so good at - and I'll get better.

There's a guy; I can't remember who it was... He was getting a Ph.D., and what he chose to study was Will. He choose to study willpower. In fact, I think I have his books somewhere over there. Anyway, I'm gonna keep going here though. Let me tell you the lesson.

Here's the lesson, what I learned from it:

He went in to study and do a Ph.D. dissertation on willpower, and what causes humans to have such high will, right? And he ended up getting like depressed about his studies by the time his study was over because he found out that basically, willpower doesn't work.

In fact, I think that's the name of the book, Willpower Doesn't Work.

He found out that willpower is a terrible thing to put your faith into. Willpower is a terrible thing for you to bank your success on. And I thought how interesting is that? He said the thing that does work though is environment.

Think about this, okay? Walk with me for a second on this...

If I go ahead and I start saying things like, "Man, I need to be better," 'cause a lot of guys say that to me when they hear my episodes. "Oh man, I need to be better. I need to be so much better. I need to be doing this. I should be doing that. I need to stop doing those things. I need to stop doing that."

The first step is recognition of what you need to change personally in order to become what you're supposed to be. So you gotta recognize it, right?

"Oh man, I'm gonna do this. Oh, look at that. I don't like this part about me. Or I do like this part. I'm gonna go change that. Or if I just did this differently my business would boom."

The problem is that you were literally basing all those decisions on your own willpower.

It's one of the major reasons why on January 1st, we all come out of the gate with this massive New Year's resolution goals-  "I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna change the world. I'm gonna be over here, and I'm gonna do that."

And by week two, we can't even name what the goal was anymore. You know what I mean?

He said, so rather than focused on will, rather than focused on willpower, you need to focus on environment. And with that in mind, that's one of the ways I've been able to keep such high intense pressure, right?

Pressure makes diamonds baby. I don't want to take pressure off me. I want good pressure, right? There's bad pressure too. I don't want bad pressure. I want good pressure. I want the pressure that creates diamonds.

I want the pressure that creates me into a better person. I want the kind of pressure that forces out the bad parts of my character. I want that kinda pressure in my business, in my personal life. That's good pressure. But if I just use willpower on it, eventually, it's gonna get really uncomfortable for me.

I'm the source of the willpower. It's not sustainable. What's sustainable is environment. Willpower, you gotta get rid of that crap after a while. It's a good kickstart, but it's habits and environment that'll help you win.

And that's what the guys was saying in his study. It has everything to do with environment.

And so there is a specific place, physically, that I need to be in when it's time to work out.

There's a specific place, physically, that I need to be in when I'm gonna sleep.

It's the reason why I don't do study, and I don't do work in bed, right?

I know lots of you guys would just roll over and grab the laptop and start right there. I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to isolate.

There are certain environments where certain things happen that they should not happen in other places. It's part of the way that I've been able to structure this stuff. Environment plays a huge role.

When I walk into my office door right there, I can't explain it, I don't know what it is, but I'm on. I'm ready. And it's because of training myself that way; this is my environment to produce. This is my environment to go to war. This is my environment to be a killer, right? It's my environment. I've trained myself that way.

I don't sleep in here, I eat in here a lot (if I remember to). But I make sure that there is a specific environment for the core activities of my life.

Down right below, I'm in the second floor of our house right now, literally right below me is my gym - in the third car garage of our gym. The third car spot bay is a home gym that I built.

It's so funny like how well this has worked. When I walk out there, and I put my feet on that mat -I got that thick hard gym mat, and I got a full weight set. All the dumbbells, the bench press, it's a full setup. Got a squat rack, all of it.

I got that dummy Poverty. You guys have seen him. I brought him on here a couple of times and different places.

Willpower is no longer what I'm betting on in order to work out. I've already done 80% of the work which is just to show up and do what that environment is conducive of. Work out, right?

A lot of guys have asked me like, "Stephen, how do you come up with your podcast ideas?" I set up this screen, I got two lights right here and I got this camera on this tripod. And sometimes, it's when I'm sitting down with this setup ready, and I'm standing in front of the camera and I pace.

I will pace back and forth, and I was kinda going like this, "Okay, what it is that the community needs? What is it that they've been asking? What's something that I can share and be valuable?" I'm kinda going back and forth...

I don't wait to set this stuff up. I don't wait to have all of my ideas in place to set up my equipment. I just set up my equipment. And now, I'm in the environment and the flow starts. Does that make sense? This is one of the biggest things I could tell you.

If your spouse is like, "Hey, why don't you come work on the couch while there's a movie going?" Very few people can sit there and actually be productive, I mean truly - without watching the movie. Very few. It's because that's not the environment it was meant for.

Now, when all we have is a couch, and I didn't have a specific office, (technically, this is a bedroom - it's a big one though), there was literally the same seat or two in our couch that I would sit. It's the same seat. And it was a certain time.

It was about 5:30 in the morning, I'd get up. And if I wasn't gonna bike in and be in the office at 6 AM, I sat right there 'til about 8:30 and I just work on my own funnels. That was my environment.

Here's another one. Something I said I'd do, I tried desperately hard, I'm still not amazing at this. Like last night, my flight came in at like 2 AM. It's ridiculous by the time I get to sleep...

Anyway, I was flying like crazy over the weekend. So I'm so tired my voice is kinda shot, so I'm so sorry.

But anyway, I don't set my phone as the major alarm clock anymore as much as I can. In hotels, sometimes I can't help this. But I set my phone, if it's the alarm clock, I set it across the room. Because willpower, when I'm tired, does not work. The alarm goes off, and I wouldn't even think about it...

There have been times where I've snoozed like four times before I've consciously remembered, "Oh my gosh, I set my alarm for this time because I had to get this thing done." You know what I mean?

I don't wanna bank on willpower. I'm gonna bank on environment. And so I set that clock across the room.

Now I have a specific $7 alarm clock that's really freaking annoying. You know, beep-beep-beep. Like I hate that thing. Oh my gosh. But I set it up across the room, sometimes in another room to get up and start moving, get that blood pumping.

Sometimes, I just stand there, like, "Why am I awake again? Oh yeah, 'cause I gotta do this, this, this." Does that make sense?

Environment. Huge, huge, huge, massive accelerant right there.

If you can start to control the environment and the things that you do in those environments, massive, massive, accelerant.

Sometimes, one of the issues that I found is that people will try to relax in the same environment that they work in. That's very hard for me to do. 'Cause when I'm here, I'm going to war. That's what my mentality of it. I'm here to conquer. I'm here to dominate. I'm here to get filthy freaking rich and then give it all away when I die to charities. You know what I mean?

Like that's it. That's what I'm doing. Solving legitimate massive problems, right? Provide a huge incredible value. Get rich, and solve huge humanitarian issues. That's my goal guys. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. That's why I'm doing all these stuff. I really want that, okay?

But I can't be in a relaxing environment in the same environment where I am trying to do that. Where I'm pacing around - and I've got Vitamin C caffeine running through my veins - I've got dubstep step music going through my headphones, and I'm in front of my whiteboard trying to solve something. That's hard for the human brain to do. So I just separate environments.

That's one of the major answers to the question, "Stephen, how do stay so productive?" It's because I dedicated certain spots to do certain things and not do certain things. You understand? Massive help. Massive help.

I cannot do all of my relaxing things in the same place I'm doing my work, intense things.

I'm not going to eat my meals on the gym mat where I work out. You know what I mean? Like, no, that's crazy. Well, like, shoot, there are certain places we eat meals. Kitchen table, right? The countertop, whatever. And that's usually where it happens. We do that with the way we eat, we do that with the way we sleep, do that with the way you work. Do that with the way that you take care of yourself, your self-care.

Anyway, so that's one of the first answers, I would say. You guys start controlling your environment.

If you feel like, "I've been doing this stuff so long with no traction." It's probably 'cause of your habits. It's probably where you're trying to be successful and control your environment, 'cause willpower doesn't work. It's all about environment. That's the first thing I would say.

The second thing I would say is that I am not very good at time. I'm just not. I'm not good with time. And so one of the tricks that I noticed...

I was doing some trial runs to see if I could handle having a lot of discipline at home. I remember a Christmas time right before I left ClickFunnels. It was either Christmas or Thanksgiving, right before I left my nine to five...

I was like, "Let's do a trial run." Do I have the discipline to produce for like nine straight hours? I'm not gonna take a freaking lunch break - that's stupid. I could eat while I work. So I'm gonna get up and let's just act like a normal nine to five, or eight to five. Really, it's nine to six. That's about how long, but nine to six. And no breaks.

I don't really get up. I get up to go to the bathroom, get water, food, but I eat it all right back here and I just stay at it.

I don't know how you guys take lunch breaks. Somebody gets you to, let's go to lunch. Like, no "No, I'm not gonna go to lunch." Anyway, side rant right there. But I'm not gonna go to lunch.

Anyway, it's funny how many people ask, "Let me buy lunch." Like what if you bought it through Uber Eats and sent it to my house? I'm cool with that. Anyway, I'm not gonna go to lunch with you. Why would I waste two hours? Not that it's a waste, but it is for me. You know what I'm saying?

Like, in that environment, I'm in the zone. You know what I mean? When 9 AM hits, I'm ready to rock - hopefully, earlier than that. But anyway, so the first thing: environment - 'cause environment is the thing that does work.

The second thing though is while I was doing that trial run on, I think it's during the Thanksgiving break, so I didn't have work anyways. But I was like, "Let me do it here and see if it actually works out." Here's what's interesting about that...

Because I did not have, I didn't need to be in the chair, I didn't need to be behind the computer, the work always has to be behind the computer, but whatever the work is because I didn't have a certain time, there's nobody else I was accountable to...

The first two days, I was really good at coming in at like 9 AM. I was really good at coming in. Then it was like 9:15. And then like 9:20, and then 9:30, and then 9:40, right?

And then I would end the day as disciplined either.

When I was at ClickFunnels, I'd work about until six, have dinner with the family then I come back, stop at 10, so I can get up early. I'll stop at 11, I'll stop at 12. No, let's just push to 2. You know what I mean?

Like the schedule thing, I suck at time management. I do, and I'll admit it. I'm not ashamed at that. But a business can't run like that...

So this is one of the tricks that I've used a lot. I have used many times. I actually used to use this in college. I hated doing early morning classes, but I noticed that when I started my classes at about 10 o'clock in the morning, I would do almost nothing from the time I got up to the time my class happens at 10 o'clock. And it was like that for a whole semester.

I was like, "Huh, what if I chose to do 7:45 AM classes every morning? Let's see what happens. Let's check it out."

It was a little more painful sometimes, especially when I was like little late on an assignment, or not late but like pushing up to the edge, which is pretty much every assignment.

So I would get up at seven and just haul. Just push, just go super fast to campus. Go flying into class. But I noticed that when class was over at 8:45, I would make fantastic use of the time since I was already up. I was already awake. I was already doing stuff.

But on the days when I didn't have class until nine, I would just sleep in a little more. I wouldn't do anything else with the day. And so one of the things that have been really, really powerful for me, is I set appointments early in the day every day.

If I don't have an appointment, I make sure that I have a sense of accountability to something or someone. And now I'm practiced at it.

You guys know I was in the army for a while, right? I went and enlisted, and when I was done, I came out as an officer. And I remember when I went to basic training, there some guy who was 15 seconds late to this formation that we were doing And he didn't have all those crap with him.

We were doing something. I can't remember what it was. We hold our M16s with us. We had our weapons and shooting range or something like that, and we're gonna go on like six days or something...

Anyway, the dude didn't have all these crap together. And so the drill sergeant put everybody in a front leaning rest position. He just goes, "Attention! Front leaning position, move."

Then what you do is you just hold the push up position. That's it, with all of your gear on. And you put your M16 across the top of your hands. You have two liters of water on you, 40 pounds in your pocket, and you just hold the push up position.

We held that thing forever, while we waited for the dude to pack in front of the rest of the platoon. We just sat there. Hands shaking, you start freaking out. You try to self-talk, like "Yeah, you got this."

What they teach is that if you are the weak link, if you do not show up on time, if you cannot get your crap done, you actually are making the rest of team suffer.

They would not make the guy was late. They would not make the guy who was not packed. They would not make the guy who was late on the run get punished. They would make everybody else get punished for his mistake.

There's some psycho-ness to that if you think about it. But there's a really powerful crap behind it too. And it's the state that I try and stay in.

I got a little bit of a team now. I got like six VAs on my content team. I got other team members that I'm starting to look out for and grab as well. And if I don't have my crap together, if I can't get my butt in the chair at the right time I'm supposed to, if I can't get the stuff to the people that I need to, I literally am making the rest of the team unable to be successful in what I've asked them to do. I literally set up my team for failure if I do that.

That's not fair - that's not fair to them. It's not fair to what I'm trying to get done. And it's because of me; it's on me. You understand?

And so one of the things that's super, super helpful if you have a hard time getting where you need to be, just set appointments. Be active, have appointments.

There have been times where I've set appointments with people for the sake of having the appointment. That's it. Just getting up, just being where you need to be. The body and mind can handle far more than you think it can.

And so when I sit down and I'm like, "Oh man, I really don't wanna do this thing. I really don't wanna do that. I feel a little bit lazy. Let me just relax tonight..."

I'm not saying I don't relax. I really have been a lot, actually. It's been really cool. I've been really level-minded lately. I've been doing a lot of meditating, which have been very helpful also. Using that muse headband thing, it's been super helpful. Maybe we'll toss the link out to that somewhere. But that's been really, really helpful for me...

But what's been cool is by strategically just having a full, having a calendar where I'm accountable and responsible to somebody at a certain time in the morning.

I don't wanna feel like an idiot, and so I get my crap together, and I do it. Does that make sense?

So you can use, like, if you know you're like, "Hey Stephen, I'm really bad a time management too." Great, that's fine - you have two options:

#1: Get really good at time management - that could take a long time.

#2: If you're one of the people who's like, "I don't wanna feel like I'm an idiot or I don't wanna feel like I'm letting somebody down..." Man, use that fear to your advantage.

Start setting up things in your life to create barriers, to create constraints.

I get up, I exercise in the morning, most of the time, and I was traveling. That's why I got back super late. Holy crap. So I don't know. But my normal day, I get up, I go, and I lift really, really hard...

There's a future date that I'm preparing for, even though it's not for another four or five months, I don't wanna look like an idiot at it. That's one of the motivating factors I have for me for working out every day.  I remind myself of that. I really don't wanna be late today. I don't like to be a freaking idiot at this thing that is coming up. (I'll tell you guys what it is when we move on, but that's what I'm doing.)

I've been working my face off. I work the entire weekend, no breaks, working straight for 21 straight days. You know what I mean? I could take a break. You know what though? We got people coming over, we got this, or I got an interview.

That's why I have interviews at Tuesdays at 9 AM. I do another people's shows. It's mostly for me to get my butt in the seat.

So I'm giving you several things, several tools that work with here. Because funny enough, if you just...

More than half of success is just showing up. I know I'm gonna dominate what I'm going for because most people are too afraid to even show up. If I'm just here, then I'm the only option for people to consume.

If I'm just here, and I have my products out there, I'm the only option for people to buy when they wanna buy something. Does that make sense?

The game is really easy now. The game's super easy now. It's really easy to dominate a space. The incredible, ridiculous lack of discipline in society now mixed with such an abundance of education, of knowledge.

YouTube, and Google, and I can find out the answer to anything I want, pretty much, just by freaking searching it; if you couple that with this extreme lack of discipline...

Man, like, I want everyone to change. I want everyone to be like killing it, but if they're not willing to, it's like all easier for me to just go dominate a marketplace, right?

So I'm trying to give you guys a few different tools to understand how I do what I do. To show up, just be there. Just get in the freaking seat, right?

#1: willpower doesn't work.

#2: Set things early in your day for the sake of being where you need to be.

#3: You have got to have a full schedule.

That doesn't always mean like you're hanging out with other people and you're like, "Hey, I'm gonna do this or I'm gonna do that or whatever." But I pack my day.

Entrepreneurs are not very good at judging how much time it takes to get something done, right? We're not. But I would rather expect and run like crazy to get this list of crap done and get like 70% of it done than just be realistic and try and do this one thing today. You know what I mean?

I wanna stay hungry. I'm trying to stay hungry. Pack the day. Idle time, that's bad. That's bad. Pack the day. Have a ton of crap going on. Keep a full schedule. That's one of the ways that I push so hard as well.

There's stuff I've agreed to. I'm not totally sure yet how I'm gonna fulfill on it, but one thing I've noticed is that every time I take on stuff like that, I personally have to grow in order to match the opportunity I've been given.

If I just push hard at it, I never know the answer ahead of time, but I always find it in the middle of looking. Meaning, I have to actually be walking then I find the answers on how to get something done. Huge lesson to that.

Some of you guys are religious. I'm religious. Moses and the red sea, baby. That thing did not start splitting until he was walking in the freaking water, right? Go back and look at it. He didn't split that thing and then wait for it to go. The dude got wet before it moved, right? It's the same thing.

You got to be willing to get uncomfortable in order for your goals to happen. There's a level of personal fulfillment required, right? The level you develop will be at the level of your success on the other side as well.  

I'm trying to share with you guys little tiny things I've done to help make sure I've been successful along the way.

I am terrible at some things in my life. And that's cool. Whatever. Everybody is, right? But rather than be like, "Oh, I'm so crappy at this or this... let me just take this whip and just whip myself all the time. I suck at this. Time management, you piece of crap. You got me bad. I can't do what I want to in life..."

Instead, I call out my own crap.

I figure out exactly what I can craft around my life to create a positive constraint. Positive constraint. Positive constraint. Not all constraints are bad.

And when you're willing to submit to something like that, you learn the discipline to actually execute on those things.

That's why I'm doing what I am. That's why I can do what I can.

So again, just to recap real quick.

#1: Willpower doesn't work. It's all about setting up good environments. These are very simple things that I've done.

#2:  If you have a hard being in places you're supposed to be, set appointments just for the sake of getting there. That has helped me tremendously. I've used that multiple times. Multiple times.

On Tuesday, I have to be somewhere at nine. On all Fridays, I have to be somewhere at nine. Thursdays, not yet, but my discipline's really good. I've been a lot better at that stuff now.

So anyways, I work my face off when I finally get there. So instead, what if I just work on getting there? Mondays, there's a place I have to be right at nine.

Wednesdays, I can't remember. But I think it's kinda like flex time. Anyway, right?

So again, willpower doesn't work. It's all about environment. Number two, you have got to set up things to get you where you're supposed to be even just for the sake of being there because more than half of success is just showing freaking up. Because no one else is gonna do it. Not many people do it.

When you're the only option, guess what? You get paid.

#3: You gotta stay busy. You gotta pack that schedule, you gotta keep it busy, you gotta stay full and be productive.

I would rather make mistakes of ambition rather than mistakes of sloth. I am not a man to make mistakes of sloth. I will not be that character.

There have been so many freaking things that have not worked out that I've launched. Who the freak cares? I don't care. Because I've been in the act of just being in motion. Just being in motion causes amazing productivity, causes ideas to come.

Some people are like, "Stephen, how are you gonna ever run podcast materials? Stephen, how did you come up with that idea? Stephen, what books can I go read to learn, offer creation like you have?"

Man, I don't know. Those are things that I've learned while in the act of doing them. Some things you can't learn from a book.

So anyways, just know that those are three of the things that I do to stay productive.

My fear of, "Am I gonna have the discipline to stay hungry when we make that first six figures?”  -Which came really quick, same with the second one.  

Last month was really awesome. Am I ever gonna sit back and go, "You know what... we did really good." That is the scariest mentality. Oh my gosh. I am fighting complacency. I'm doing everything I can to not get complacent.

I can find great funnel builders. I can find great copywriters. I can find and train good marketers. I can find and train. You can learn how to do a lot of this stuff. I can teach you how to do a lot of stuff.  The thing that nobody can teach you that you have got to get serious about is hunger. How can you stay hungry?

It's challenging at first, and you're not gonna find the answer. You might try like this little tweak here, that little trick there. It might take you some time to figure your own system. But if you are not hungry, I can't have you, alright? If you're not hungry, it doesn't matter what I try to teach you.

If you're not hungry, I mean, like. "backed against a wall, you're gonna figure out a way" hungry. If you can't do that, it doesn't matter what you're trying to do. You're not gonna make it. That's why I'm trying to do this episode.

I've had the shocking amount of people reach out and be like, "How do you keep the mentality you do?" I was like, "Well, I just make sure I stay hungry. I just make sure I stay hungry."

I could pay myself a lot more right now, but I'm scared to do so. I kinda want to double or triple how much I pay myself for now, but like I'm nervous because I wanna make sure that I'm hungry. Will I maintain that hunger?

I don't have mechanisms in place yet to maintain that next level of responsibility. That's what I'm thinking about. I'm like, "Crap. I don't know that I can stay hungry?" That's more important to me.

There was a product that I was being offered percentage of. And I said 'no' to it. And it shocked a lot of people. Like why would you say no to that? And I said that because (I don't think I actually would have), but my fear of not staying hungry is so strong. It's got me everything. It's the reason why I've done what I have. I'm hungry.

My fear of not being hungry outweighs my fear of I don't know what to say in this podcast episode.

My fear of becoming complacent, my fear of that vastly outweighs my fear of I've never done a webinar before, and I've never written a script before, and I've never... Scary, right?

My fear of oh man, I've never introduced Russell on stage; that pales in comparison to my fear of becoming complacent.

And I'm begging you to not become complacent.

If you've gotten squishy and fussy and you've gotten too nice a life - you gotta get uncomfortable. You gotta get uncomfortable. I try and do something that freaks me out as regularly as possible.

There's a really good quote that I've heard. It's from David Goggins... He said the worst thing that can happen to a man is for him to become civilized. And I kind of believe that. I'm not here to be comfy You know what I mean?

It is not an easy task to create a freaking blue ocean. You're like, "Stephen, I got this great product, and I got this great offer around it, and I got this great marketing message around it. And I got this great thing around it, but I just don't know, like I'm really nervous..."

If you're not willing to become the character you're not gonna give birth to a blue ocean.

Be willing to be uncomfortable. That's part of the price. Funny enough though, it's really not that freaking scary once you do it. It's just like riding a bike for the first time or the first time I was driving shift, driving stick in a highway. You know what I mean?

It's like learning to walk. Like anything else, just downplay it, cause you should. 'Cause it's not as scary as you think it might be.

Anyways, it was a long episode. But I just want you guys to know a little bit more about how I do what I do and the mentality that I'm trying to stay in at all times.

#I'm trying to stay hungry.

# I'm trying to say yes to things that I should say yes to.

# I'm trying to create positive constraint in my life. I

# I'm trying to make sure that what I'm doing with my personal discipline is on purpose. There's intention behind it. That it actually is counteracting and adhering to my personal defects, my character defects.

I have character flaws; everybody does. But sometimes, people use that as a crutch to not do stuff. You should use that as a crutch to do stuff. Just create things around it. Create positive constraints and craft success environments, right?

Some people, they might look at celebrities on TV and be like, man, they're so lucky. "They're so lucky." Did you sit on your freaking couch for years doing nothing with your life? You know what I mean?

Are you are comparing where you are to that person? How much discipline does that person have that you don't? I beg you to learn discipline. I beg you to get it. I'm not perfect at it. I'm really not. But I'm trying.

Those are some of the tricks I've used in my personal life to maintain speed, right? And now that a lot of the speed with the business has been set up, I have this massive realization...

I was at Alex Charfen's event last week. I realized that I have done so much, sprinting and running and setting systems and processes and marketing and revenue and pulling stuff up in the business setting,  that I've been neglecting my own needs on a few things. So I'm gonna go start leasing those things back in.

There's no such thing as perfect balance. I believe in obsession.

So before I keep going on the soapbox, it's been a long episode...

Those are some of my tricks guys. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

If you guys like this podcast episode, please go rate and review it on iTunes or YouTube. That actually means a lot to me and helps the show a ton. And thanks so much.

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