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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No joke, okay, so think through...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click above to listen in iTunes...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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