I believe that there are three major roles in every business.
They all work together and they all talk together, but they are three VERY different systems.
Last week, I shared WHY building funnels for other people used to freak me out…
The worst thing I could ever do is…
… and they do NOTHING with it.
If I cannot engineer success into those who I'm selling, I should not sell to them.
But now, I’ve reached a point at which I’m finally happy to say…
I’m officially building people's funnels.
But I can ONLY do it because of the fulfillment systems I’ve set up - that practically *FORCE SUCCESS*
I’ve found a NEW way to blend the Done-For-You and the Done-With-You worlds.
So…
It's been under some VERY strict guidelines that my offer evolved and I’m about to give you a sneak-peek 😉
(... and you’ll discover WHY funnels are like Michael Bublé???)
MY OFFERLAB PRODUCT FULFILLMENT
If you want to join My OfferLab, there are #2 things you need to understand…
Not that you need to be a Steve Larsen, eyes massive, yelling around all over the place funnel freak…
Like, "No, no, no, no, no. Let me be ‘the nerd’. Let us be the nerds, but you still gotta be involved.”
The reason I'm bringing this up is 'cause there are A LOT of people who jus sell and sell…
And then they wonder why their business died???
A: They didn’t get any actual success stories for people that they're were selling to.
That's my *NIGHTMARE*
I'd rather be more strict and let fewer people in - and then, have a higher success rate.
So when someone walks up to me and asks, "I want you to build my funnel."
I'm like, "Sweet!"
And then I send them to my funnel.
THE #3 ROLES IN EVERY BUSINESS
We spent ages building the OfferLab funnel - it’s one of my favorite funnels EVER and I’m gonna explain to you WHY this is such a BIG deal.
Now, there are a lot of varying opinions on what I’m about to say next and they're all true, depending on the lens you're looking through…
So the first thing is you have to understand is that…
I believe that there are three major roles in every business.
(…. now, of course, there are in-between roles, and there are micro roles of that role, and you can go as far with this as you want!)
But these 3 roles are the reason that funnels work for EVERY business...
Now, you're like, "Man, that is really, really simple, Stephen."
And, Yep, you’re right, it is!
So here’s a question for you...
Q: Guess which part of these #3 roles a funnel is involved in?
A: All of them!
And you can automate ALL of those pieces - especially with ClickFunnels.
...but they're three very different systems.
Okay, check the first part is this...
PHASE #1: LEADS
Can you imagine the terror that would be around in my life if I did not have a system around fulfilling?
We had 70 people join OfferLab at OfferMind…
70 people = 70 funnels.
Most people have never thought about building that many funnels - so I have to have a system around that.
I've had A LOT of fun doing this program with A LOT of amazing people already.
Anyway…
And of course, “It is Monday, Baby!!!”
I like Trello as a project management tool but it's too breakable.
I like Monday because it's harder to jump off or break as a user - there are less moving parts in Monday.
I use Monday to manage…
People get so jacked up with this game 'cause they're like, "I built the funnel."
But because they don't think of Leads/ Sales/ Fulfillment in terms of three separate individual events - they get kinda messed up.
It can ALL be in ClickFunnels or whatever, but there are still three separate phases in the sales cycle.
Now, I'm telling you, don't apply to My OfferLab unless you're actually serious... or if you want us to be calling you - because we're gonna, okay?
I'm going to share my screen real quick…
This is probably one of my favorite funnels we've ever built ever - it's so incredible.
So we have...
The biggest thing I can do in this first phase is to work on my follow-up systems.
So I have an eight email series that teaches them really powerful, cool stuff over the next eight days and reminds them to come back and finish the application.
So that's the funnel - that's my system for the lead in this scenario.
PHASE #2: THE SALES SYSTEM
Sooo…
Q: What happens when someone actually fills out the APPLICATION page?
A: I like to use a thing called Pipedrive - which is similar to Trello, but it's meant specifically for my program director.
When somebody applies, you see real live applications that have come in here in the past a little bit.
Inside Pipedrive, there are different categories…
... and then there's ONE more that I'm NOT gonna share with you 😉
.
But Pipedrive is NOT just to track our sales, it’s also a CRM that contains...
All the program details and EVERYTHING you’d expect an admin to keep track of per client is kept under the customer’s individual profile.
So we actually track each individual lead as it progresses left to right, from lead to onboard.
When a NEW person hits the onboard queue, Austin gets a message that says, "So and so would like to join the program and they've paid."
Here’s what happens next...
We have a locked internal page that no one except us knows the URL to - when we add their email - it automatically fires this big long string of things - which automates a HUGE portion of our fulfillment.
It's an internal funnel.
I started building internal funnels at ClickFunnels for the FHAT Event.
We'd sell a plac and then fill out an internal form that would…
Before I was a funnel builder, my job was to go in and build product processes for other companies - it’s one of the ways I made money in college when my funnels weren't working yet.
I used to tie software together for other companies.
So that's the marketing fulfillment, but now I need to go in and I need to actually fulfill for real inside of Monday.
PHASE #3: THE FULFILLMENT SYSTEM
Q: How am I gonna track each individual person as they go?
I am NOT gonna share a lot of this part with you…
So underneath the Program Admin Tab (on the left side) is all the stuff that we would need from an individual person…
And on the right side, we track if something is…
This is our master copy - so we clone the master and there's a whole bunch of other fields that we fill out…
This is all the stuff that we ask during the onboarding call.
I love the info products space - but one of the BIGGEST issues is that people don't track where their people are.
INFO - PRODUCT FULFILLMENT
When it's time to actually start building their funnel, we have individual people with their specific agencies and roles….
(…. we have a HUGE huge checklist.)
The checklist allows me to tie multiple people's agencies together in my process.
I'm having them conform to how I know the funnel is best built.
And then, once we start building the funnel, the client’s ONLY focus is to go do the third thing - which is campaigns.
We need to know their message and their offer + a lot of other things that we ask them.
And then once we start building their funnel, they don't just sit back. I teach them how to launch something.
And then they get assigned to a specific launch person.
Guys, I did EVERYTHING I can to force someone to be successful with this!!!
There are actually four specific people I like to listen to, follow, or outsource completely to - and I brought them into the program.
And I hand people off to them as part of the program to *FORCE SUCCESS*
I got so tired of people saying…
I can't either, man.
Let me go get the person I use, here you go.
Don't even worry about it - I got you the person that does that too. Bam! Part of the program. Just sign here. She's gonna come in hook you up with sweet people.
Yeah, I know. It's a pain in the butt. If you don't wanna be a freak of nature, like myself, which I encourage you to not be, you should do the ‘WHO’, not the ‘HOW’…
“Here's who I use for my content - by the way, he's gonna go create your podcast intro for you, as part of the program itself. Boom! “
And so we take this thing that was extremely convoluted and all over the place…
And with the power of processes in these three key areas, we actually make it so that not only can I sell somebody…
Our fulfillment is airtight and there’s personal hand-holding through the program.
The member’s area is NOT just for general education, they filling out a specific form they get access to at the beginning - so that they can send over all the stuff that our funnel team needs.
But then once the funnel team's running, that's NOT why they have success.
IT’S NOT JUST A FUNNEL...
Q: You know you can make money without ClickFunnels, right?
Oh, I said it! I mean, it sucks doing it that way - #UseClickFunnels.
BUT…
The funnel isn't WHY you make money.
The funnel is like a catcher's mitt catching the ball - something still has to throw the ball.
So while my funnel team is building the funnel (building the catchers mitt), I teach…
Or…
That's WHY it's OfferLab is explosive.
It's because of the process that we take somebody through.
And one of the BIGGEST Key Takeaways I wanna drop is this…
Processes are stronger than talent - a system is stronger than talent.
BUILDING MY DREAM CAR & SYSTEMS
I won the Dream Car Award - so I got myself a Toyota Tundra...
Q: How can Toyota, (when they're building their awesome, sweet, new Tundras), take somebody who's just out of high school and put them on an assembly line to help build the truck?
A: It's because they have airtight, insanely simple, ‘anyone can use it’, ‘turn this lever’ systems.
I'm not trying to belittle it, but you understand, I'm trying to show you the power of it.
When you're building these funnels, understand that the funnel truly is NOT the business.
The funnel is the revenue system, you still have to build the business.
For, we pretty much, the last two weeks Austin, Coulton and myself have been trying to BREAK THE SYTEMS WE’VE BUILT to making sure that the fulfillment on my team and my funnel team is airtight…
So now for a very open shameless plug…
If you’d like me to build your funnel - I can now do that for you.
But there’s a lot that goes behind it - it’s not just a stupid dumb Done-For-You service.
So head over to myofferlab.com if you’re interested.
It’s a super passion-filled thing for me.
And, finally…
ARE YOU AN UNDISCOVERED MICHAEL BUBLÉ?
I was driving my kids around looking at Christmas lights…
I'm a goofy dad, and so we had Michael Bublé playing - I was going nuts on them singing at the top of my lungs "Jingle bells," and they were like, "Daddy!"
Anyway...
I was driving up this hill thinking "Man, Michael Bublé's got some mad pipes. That's some really good singing - he’s so talented."
And then I was like, "I wonder how many other amazing, talented singers are out there that are better than him, but we'll never know about because they have no idea how to get the noise around of their own talent?"
You know what I mean?
They're so good, they could be better than Michael Bublé, and we'd have no clue 'cause they don't know how to market themselves.
It’s the same with funnels…
Once you're good enough at your thing for it to be sellable, your role changes.
Keep doing the things that get you to awesome, but then, you gotta get into…
I think of it like wings on a plane...
Sales are the fuselage and there’s a wing on one side for the leads, got another wing on the other side for the fulfillment, so it all flies together as a plane - but without one part, it all sucks.
Alright, I'm gonna stop ranting.
Let me know if you have any questions …
But that’s how we built the fulfillment behind OfferLab.
It looks complicated, but it is not.
It's funny because I've heard a lot of people say in the past, "Your solution should be simple."
Tell that to Henry Ford!!!
While driving a car is simple, under the hood is NOT that simple, and the same thing is true for anything that's simple in life.
Usually, it's complexity that creates simplicity for the end-user.
So I feel like we've built an engine, but for the individual drivers throughout the whole funnel process - their process is so simple...
… they’ve just gotta click and drag.
I hope to see you guys inside of OfferLab.
Alright!
I've been asked, "Steve, you were the lead funnel builder at ClickFunnels, why aren't you offering a funnel building service for people in businesses?"
Okay, that's a fair question.
Check this out…
Back in early 2016 when I joined ClickFunnels as an employee, there were only about 12,000 users of ClickFunnels compared to the 100,000 now.
And there were only like 40 employees compared to the 400 that there are now.
Okay? What does that mean?
It meant Russell and I were literally the only funnel builders *period*.
...it was literally just he and I.
About a year into my employment at ClickFunnels though, other funnel building team members started getting hired, we finally had a copywriter, a designer, etcetera.
It changed my whole world as we now had a funnel team.
So before I offered funnel building services, I wanted to make sure I could not only find my team but that it was also air-tight.
What I did not tell you, and what I've NOT been public about was that my team has already been building funnels for other people for over a year now...
... and so finally, I will tell you that we are ready.
We've been building other sales funnels for a while, I just have not announced it until now.
If you want me and my team to build your company a professional sales funnel, come get more info at myofferlab.com.
Make sure you use the “MY” … myofferlab.com.
It comes with a live three-day event just with me, so I can teach you
….as well as a year of coaching from myself and my staff.
Get more information and apply at myofferlab.com.
When you think about it, all businesses need to be able to do three things…
And your professional business needs a professional core offer and funnel to deliver it.
We've already been doing this for a year with students who have businesses that are…
...you get the point?
Not only will we build the funnel, but I’m also actually going to hook you up with the very people that I use to send various types of traffic to my own funnels.
I want you to be taking care of post-funnel build.
If you're tight on money, it's totally fine - we have various payment and funding plans which are also available.
Come learn more and apply at myofferlab.com.
Just be aware that we're actually building you a professional sales funnel, and my team and I actually have very limited capacity in what we can handle monthly.
So skip the line of people shouting the most popular question I'm asked which is, "Steve will build my funnel?"
The answer finally is, "Yes," just go start at myofferlab.com now.
"product fulfillment" "business systems" "business systems and processes" OfferLab, My OfferLab
I believe that there are three major roles in every business.
They all work together and they all talk together, but they are three VERY different systems.
Last week, I shared WHY building funnels for other people used to freak me out…
The worst thing I could ever do is…
… and they do NOTHING with it.
If I cannot engineer success into those who I'm selling, I should not sell to them.
But now, I’ve reached a point at which I’m finally happy to say…
I’m officially building people's funnels.
But I can ONLY do it because of the fulfillment systems I’ve set up - that practically *FORCE SUCCESS*
I’ve found a NEW way to blend the Done-For-You and the Done-With-You worlds.
So…
It's been under some VERY strict guidelines that my offer evolved and I’m about to give you a sneak-peek 😉
(... and you’ll discover WHY funnels are like Michael Bublé???)
MY OFFERLAB PRODUCT FULFILLMENT
If you want to join My OfferLab, there are #2 things you need to understand…
Not that you need to be a Steve Larsen, eyes massive, yelling around all over the place funnel freak…
Like, "No, no, no, no, no. Let me be ‘the nerd’. Let us be the nerds, but you still gotta be involved.”
The reason I'm bringing this up is 'cause there are A LOT of people who jus sell and sell…
And then they wonder why their business died???
A: They didn’t get any actual success stories for people that they're were selling to.
That's my *NIGHTMARE*
I'd rather be more strict and let fewer people in - and then, have a higher success rate.
So when someone walks up to me and asks, "I want you to build my funnel."
I'm like, "Sweet!"
And then I send them to my funnel.
THE #3 ROLES IN EVERY BUSINESS
We spent ages building the OfferLab funnel - it’s one of my favorite funnels EVER and I’m gonna explain to you WHY this is such a BIG deal.
Now, there are a lot of varying opinions on what I’m about to say next and they're all true, depending on the lens you're looking through…
So the first thing is you have to understand is that…
I believe that there are three major roles in every business.
(…. now, of course, there are in-between roles, and there are micro roles of that role, and you can go as far with this as you want!)
But these 3 roles are the reason that funnels work for EVERY business...
Now, you're like, "Man, that is really, really simple, Stephen."
And, Yep, you’re right, it is!
So here’s a question for you...
Q: Guess which part of these #3 roles a funnel is involved in?
A: All of them!
And you can automate ALL of those pieces - especially with ClickFunnels.
...but they're three very different systems.
Okay, check the first part is this...
PHASE #1: LEADS
Can you imagine the terror that would be around in my life if I did not have a system around fulfilling?
We had 70 people join OfferLab at OfferMind…
70 people = 70 funnels.
Most people have never thought about building that many funnels - so I have to have a system around that.
I've had A LOT of fun doing this program with A LOT of amazing people already.
Anyway…
And of course, “It is Monday, Baby!!!”
I like Trello as a project management tool but it's too breakable.
I like Monday because it's harder to jump off or break as a user - there are less moving parts in Monday.
I use Monday to manage…
People get so jacked up with this game 'cause they're like, "I built the funnel."
But because they don't think of Leads/ Sales/ Fulfillment in terms of three separate individual events - they get kinda messed up.
It can ALL be in ClickFunnels or whatever, but there are still three separate phases in the sales cycle.
Now, I'm telling you, don't apply to My OfferLab unless you're actually serious... or if you want us to be calling you - because we're gonna, okay?
I'm going to share my screen real quick…
This is probably one of my favorite funnels we've ever built ever - it's so incredible.
So we have...
The biggest thing I can do in this first phase is to work on my follow-up systems.
So I have an eight email series that teaches them really powerful, cool stuff over the next eight days and reminds them to come back and finish the application.
So that's the funnel - that's my system for the lead in this scenario.
PHASE #2: THE SALES SYSTEM
Sooo…
Q: What happens when someone actually fills out the APPLICATION page?
A: I like to use a thing called Pipedrive - which is similar to Trello, but it's meant specifically for my program director.
When somebody applies, you see real live applications that have come in here in the past a little bit.
Inside Pipedrive, there are different categories…
... and then there's ONE more that I'm NOT gonna share with you 😉
.
But Pipedrive is NOT just to track our sales, it’s also a CRM that contains...
All the program details and EVERYTHING you’d expect an admin to keep track of per client is kept under the customer’s individual profile.
So we actually track each individual lead as it progresses left to right, from lead to onboard.
When a NEW person hits the onboard queue, Austin gets a message that says, "So and so would like to join the program and they've paid."
Here’s what happens next...
We have a locked internal page that no one except us knows the URL to - when we add their email - it automatically fires this big long string of things - which automates a HUGE portion of our fulfillment.
It's an internal funnel.
I started building internal funnels at ClickFunnels for the FHAT Event.
We'd sell a plac and then fill out an internal form that would…
Before I was a funnel builder, my job was to go in and build product processes for other companies - it’s one of the ways I made money in college when my funnels weren't working yet.
I used to tie software together for other companies.
So that's the marketing fulfillment, but now I need to go in and I need to actually fulfill for real inside of Monday.
PHASE #3: THE FULFILLMENT SYSTEM
Q: How am I gonna track each individual person as they go?
I am NOT gonna share a lot of this part with you…
So underneath the Program Admin Tab (on the left side) is all the stuff that we would need from an individual person…
And on the right side, we track if something is…
This is our master copy - so we clone the master and there's a whole bunch of other fields that we fill out…
This is all the stuff that we ask during the onboarding call.
I love the info products space - but one of the BIGGEST issues is that people don't track where their people are.
INFO - PRODUCT FULFILLMENT
When it's time to actually start building their funnel, we have individual people with their specific agencies and roles….
(…. we have a HUGE huge checklist.)
The checklist allows me to tie multiple people's agencies together in my process.
I'm having them conform to how I know the funnel is best built.
And then, once we start building the funnel, the client’s ONLY focus is to go do the third thing - which is campaigns.
We need to know their message and their offer + a lot of other things that we ask them.
And then once we start building their funnel, they don't just sit back. I teach them how to launch something.
And then they get assigned to a specific launch person.
Guys, I did EVERYTHING I can to force someone to be successful with this!!!
There are actually four specific people I like to listen to, follow, or outsource completely to - and I brought them into the program.
And I hand people off to them as part of the program to *FORCE SUCCESS*
I got so tired of people saying…
I can't either, man.
Let me go get the person I use, here you go.
Don't even worry about it - I got you the person that does that too. Bam! Part of the program. Just sign here. She's gonna come in hook you up with sweet people.
Yeah, I know. It's a pain in the butt. If you don't wanna be a freak of nature, like myself, which I encourage you to not be, you should do the ‘WHO’, not the ‘HOW’…
“Here's who I use for my content - by the way, he's gonna go create your podcast intro for you, as part of the program itself. Boom! “
And so we take this thing that was extremely convoluted and all over the place…
And with the power of processes in these three key areas, we actually make it so that not only can I sell somebody…
Our fulfillment is airtight and there’s personal hand-holding through the program.
The member’s area is NOT just for general education, they filling out a specific form they get access to at the beginning - so that they can send over all the stuff that our funnel team needs.
But then once the funnel team's running, that's NOT why they have success.
IT’S NOT JUST A FUNNEL...
Q: You know you can make money without ClickFunnels, right?
Oh, I said it! I mean, it sucks doing it that way - #UseClickFunnels.
BUT…
The funnel isn't WHY you make money.
The funnel is like a catcher's mitt catching the ball - something still has to throw the ball.
So while my funnel team is building the funnel (building the catchers mitt), I teach…
Or…
That's WHY it's OfferLab is explosive.
It's because of the process that we take somebody through.
And one of the BIGGEST Key Takeaways I wanna drop is this…
Processes are stronger than talent - a system is stronger than talent.
BUILDING MY DREAM CAR & SYSTEMS
I won the Dream Car Award - so I got myself a Toyota Tundra...
Q: How can Toyota, (when they're building their awesome, sweet, new Tundras), take somebody who's just out of high school and put them on an assembly line to help build the truck?
A: It's because they have airtight, insanely simple, ‘anyone can use it’, ‘turn this lever’ systems.
I'm not trying to belittle it, but you understand, I'm trying to show you the power of it.
When you're building these funnels, understand that the funnel truly is NOT the business.
The funnel is the revenue system, you still have to build the business.
For, we pretty much, the last two weeks Austin, Coulton and myself have been trying to BREAK THE SYTEMS WE’VE BUILT to making sure that the fulfillment on my team and my funnel team is airtight…
So now for a very open shameless plug…
If you’d like me to build your funnel - I can now do that for you.
But there’s a lot that goes behind it - it’s not just a stupid dumb Done-For-You service.
So head over to myofferlab.com if you’re interested.
It’s a super passion-filled thing for me.
And, finally…
ARE YOU AN UNDISCOVERED MICHAEL BUBLÉ?
I was driving my kids around looking at Christmas lights…
I'm a goofy dad, and so we had Michael Bublé playing - I was going nuts on them singing at the top of my lungs "Jingle bells," and they were like, "Daddy!"
Anyway...
I was driving up this hill thinking "Man, Michael Bublé's got some mad pipes. That's some really good singing - he’s so talented."
And then I was like, "I wonder how many other amazing, talented singers are out there that are better than him, but we'll never know about because they have no idea how to get the noise around of their own talent?"
You know what I mean?
They're so good, they could be better than Michael Bublé, and we'd have no clue 'cause they don't know how to market themselves.
It’s the same with funnels…
Once you're good enough at your thing for it to be sellable, your role changes.
Keep doing the things that get you to awesome, but then, you gotta get into…
I think of it like wings on a plane...
Sales are the fuselage and there’s a wing on one side for the leads, got another wing on the other side for the fulfillment, so it all flies together as a plane - but without one part, it all sucks.
Alright, I'm gonna stop ranting.
Let me know if you have any questions …
But that’s how we built the fulfillment behind OfferLab.
It looks complicated, but it is not.
It's funny because I've heard a lot of people say in the past, "Your solution should be simple."
Tell that to Henry Ford!!!
While driving a car is simple, under the hood is NOT that simple, and the same thing is true for anything that's simple in life.
Usually, it's complexity that creates simplicity for the end-user.
So I feel like we've built an engine, but for the individual drivers throughout the whole funnel process - their process is so simple...
… they’ve just gotta click and drag.
I hope to see you guys inside of OfferLab.
Alright!
I've been asked, "Steve, you were the lead funnel builder at ClickFunnels, why aren't you offering a funnel building service for people in businesses?"
Okay, that's a fair question.
Check this out…
Back in early 2016 when I joined ClickFunnels as an employee, there were only about 12,000 users of ClickFunnels compared to the 100,000 now.
And there were only like 40 employees compared to the 400 that there are now.
Okay? What does that mean?
It meant Russell and I were literally the only funnel builders *period*.
...it was literally just he and I.
About a year into my employment at ClickFunnels though, other funnel building team members started getting hired, we finally had a copywriter, a designer, etcetera.
It changed my whole world as we now had a funnel team.
So before I offered funnel building services, I wanted to make sure I could not only find my team but that it was also air-tight.
What I did not tell you, and what I've NOT been public about was that my team has already been building funnels for other people for over a year now...
... and so finally, I will tell you that we are ready.
We've been building other sales funnels for a while, I just have not announced it until now.
If you want me and my team to build your company a professional sales funnel, come get more info at myofferlab.com.
Make sure you use the “MY” … myofferlab.com.
It comes with a live three-day event just with me, so I can teach you
….as well as a year of coaching from myself and my staff.
Get more information and apply at myofferlab.com.
When you think about it, all businesses need to be able to do three things…
And your professional business needs a professional core offer and funnel to deliver it.
We've already been doing this for a year with students who have businesses that are…
...you get the point?
Not only will we build the funnel, but I’m also actually going to hook you up with the very people that I use to send various types of traffic to my own funnels.
I want you to be taking care of post-funnel build.
If you're tight on money, it's totally fine - we have various payment and funding plans which are also available.
Come learn more and apply at myofferlab.com.
Just be aware that we're actually building you a professional sales funnel, and my team and I actually have very limited capacity in what we can handle monthly.
So skip the line of people shouting the most popular question I'm asked which is, "Steve will build my funnel?"
The answer finally is, "Yes," just go start at myofferlab.com now.
Here's a walkthrough of how my offer evolved after something I realized while building funnels for Russell (and his clients)...
Fulfillment is NOT one of the pieces that’s often exposed in a marketer's world.
We MUCH prefer to talk about something that (on the surface) can seem waaay sexier…
Have you guessed???
Yes, marketers LOVE…
And MORE SAAAALES!
But the reality is…
If you don't have great fulfillment - you’ve got a short road ahead of you.
This all dates back to my ClickFunnels days - you may have heard the story, but *Listen Up* ‘cause I want you to understand where this epiphany came from…
MY OFFER CREATION #RUSSELL’SWATCHINGME
I remember sitting with Russell as he coached his Inner Circle…
We were in the old office where we sat almost back-to-back…
We were a little bit off-center, but we were only feet away…
I had two monitors…
And on the left one, (if we both had nothing on the screen) ...his face would reflect off of his monitor onto mine…
Straight into my face!!!
I always tried to keep something on the screen - so that Russell wasn't looking at me.
I mean, what would you do if you were sitting right next to that guy???
...it was stressful for me for a little bit.
Anyway, when Russell was coaching his inner circle - they were usually nine hours burner days.
He coached really hard…
Eventually, he sat back, muted the mic, turned off the video, and took a deep breath.
I was like, "How are you doing, man?"
He's like, "That was A LOT!”
I was like, "Yeah, and you're still going... It's funny man, you're saying the same thing to every single person!"
And he goes, "I know, isn't that crazy?"
I said, "Yeah, it is crazy. Every business is pretty much the exact same."
(That's what really helped me realize that this works for every business. I was listening to him coach, pretty much every business scenario you could think of)
So we decided to create a program where, instead of getting bits and pieces of Russell's brain, there was a sequential order.
I spent six months going through 12 years of Russell's material…
Last Funnel Hacking Live, (maybe it's two ago)???...
Russell screenshotted my spreadsheet - it was HUGE!!!
It was five full *very small font* spreadsheets - which actually became the basis of the first Two Comma Club coaching program…
I was the only coach for 675 students...
For a whole year, I worked with the students.
And as part of their membership, they came to a three-day live event.
Now, I'm telling you this because this LIVE EVENT very much influenced the way I do OfferLab today.
(... and if you don't know what OfferLab is, I'll tell you in a second.)
So what happened is…
I've ALWAYS had this itch to get on stage (I even dream about it)...
So I asked Russell, Please put me on a stage!, I really wanna do the 3-day event."
And he's like, "Okay, sounds good."
We decided that he would teach the first time - so that he could test all the material... and then I would teach all the follow-up events.
And so that's exactly what happened.
Russell taught the first event and tested all the material - then I taught the others - it was a lot of fun.
(Russell and I talk about how we ran the FHAT events together in the NEW rewrite of Expert Secrets.)
People paid 18 to 30 grand-ish, (something like that), to be in the room for three days.
And the focus was on webinars.
I know that there's all this disbelief around webinars…
Well…
Webinars work REALLY well, which is why I do them constantly and for EVERYTHING.
So when I started realizing that I needed to ClickFunnel for my own personal growth, I was like, "Hey man, I don't really wanna go, but I need to."
And luckily, Russell was super cool about it; he was like, "I get it completely, go."
And so I left.
When I left, Russell didn't wanna keep being the guy that would fulfill on those live events...
A three-day live event as the CEO of ClickFunnels - that's rough.
And so, the FHAT event stopped.
I did the final FHAT event three weeks after I had left ClickFunnels.
I'm not saying good or bad - that's not the point of this.
I'm saying that because I was so heavily involved in going through 12 years of Russell's stuff, (it took me six months to do it, organize it, then we launched it and then I coached it on the back-end)...
OfferLab is heavily influenced by that experience because I saw:
It was 675 students in just the first round…
So by the time I was no longer coaching that program and it was re-launched as the Two Comma Club X...
A LOT of people had come through.
… which really helped me to understand more about what people struggle with.
I was the lead funnel builder at ClickFunnels for two years…
Q: What do you think people want from me?
A: A Funnel.
People blow me up on Instagram all the time, "Would you build my funnel? Would you build my funnel? Would you build my funnel?"
And I never really had the platform to do that.
So...
I'm leaving ClickFunnels, it's my final day and as I'm walking out the door, I turn to Russell and I go, "Dude, any final advice?"
Can you imagine?
Oh my gosh, that was so stressful, I had...
I don't recommend things that way...
… it was only because of what I’d been doing - you know what I mean?
Anyway, as I'm walking out, Russell’s like, "Dude, I got some advice for you on your final day."
I took my phone out and said, "Do you mind if I record it?"
He said, "Sure."
So I turned on voice memos, and I said, "Okay, go."
And Russell starts talking...
He's like, "Well first, I would do this and then I would do that and then I would do this and then I would do that."
His recommendation was, "Dude you're a great funnel builder. Can you imagine how cool it would be if you created an agency similar to the Harmon brothers?"
He and Dave Woodward suggested that I create kind of a really, really, really high ticket agency building funnels for corporations…
i.e, people that come to ClickFunnels asking for a funnel and ClickFunnels are like, "We just facilitate the software."
I was like, "I don't really wanna do that. I don't wanna create an agency."
And so, I didn't do it.
Here’s WHY I didn’t want to build an agency…
It was because of an experience that Russell and I had when we were building funnels for Marcus Lemonis of the TV show, The Profit.
What most people don't realize is that I was not necessarily hired to build ClickFunnels' funnels. I was actually more hired to help Russell build his personal clients' funnels.
And so for the first six months, all we really did was build a whole bunch of really big people's funnels - that's the reason why I got to go do that.
It had nothing with me, it was Russell getting the deals - I just helped build.
And so about six months in, Russell has this conversation with Marcus…
(***You guys are getting the inside scoop here, is that alright? I mean come on, it's gonna be alright, okay!)
This is what happened…
Russell and Marcus are talking on the phone and I'm sitting right there.
Russell is pacing around saying things like:
"Dude we built you a Ferrari and no one's touched it. It's sitting gassed up in your driveway. No one's touched the funnel. What's going on, man? We spent all this time. It's an amazing funnel."
And then the next person, same thing, next person, same thing, and the next person, same thing.
And pretty soon I started thinking, "What is the issue here?"
Q: Can any of you fathom Russell and I building a funnel for you and then you don't do anything with it????
Seriously think about that - that's what was happening!!!
So I started asking myself, "Why is this happening?"
And Marcus said something to Russell on that phone call that I will NEVER forget - 'cause it kind of burned in my brain.
And it's the reason why I didn't wanna build a funnel agency for MASSIVE corporate clients when I left ClickFunnels.
Marcus said, "Russell, we know the funnel's amazing, but no one knows what to do with it."
*CLICK*
I was like, "WHAT!**?!!"
Russell and I just kinda sat there dumbfounded…
That night, Russell Voxed me and goes, "Dude, here's what I'm thinking, man..."
(I should go back and find the Vox)
He goes, "Here's what I'm thinking. It's really fun building funnels for these giant people...."
(Hopefully, I have the license to tell you guys this.)
But…
As we started looking back, we realized that A LOT of 'em didn't have the education on what to do with the funnel.
There are a ton of funnels that no one's done anything with.
Q: How many of you guys have built a funnel that has never made any money?
Case and point, bam, right there, okay!
Q: Do you think Marcus Lemonis is an idiot?
A: No.
Q: Is he a marketer?
A: Yeah - (though not really in the sense that we would talk about it. He's more of a general marketer than a direct marketer).
… I have a lot of personal opinion about general marketing - which you’ll know about if you listen to my Sales Funnel Radio show at all 😂 😂 😂
There was a time, (as an employee of ClickFunnels), where I was running eight business’s funnels at the same time because there was never a hand-off - we couldn't...
We built these funnels and we couldn't hand them off because people didn't know what to do with them.
*This is what was really going on*
There's a reason I'm a good funnel builder…
... but besides that, we'd just used our phones, man.
(I was a ‘head editor’ of the yearbook and a designer in high school.)
For the first year, there was nobody else - it was literally just Russell and me - that's the point I'm getting at!!!
Every once in awhile, he'd bring in some person who was a great designer or maybe hire a copywriter…
But besides that, I'd take the first pass at copy and he'd clean it up or destroy it all.
And then…
We’d just take our phones out and make a video right there
That's why we get so frustrated when someone's like, "But I don't have all the stuff that you do."
You’ve got your PHONE!!!
… that's *INSANE* power.
So stick with me, cause I got a really powerful lesson I wanna share with you. Let me run for a moment…
So, I'm leaving ClickFunnels and Russell and Dave are like:
"Dude, go build a suite agency like the Harmon brothers. Really, really, really high ticket funnel builds for really high-end clients. You know how to do it, obviously."
And I was like, "Urrrr..."
Because my mind went back to the murderous hand-offs when Russell and I built funnels for other people…
Oh my gosh, it sucked!!!
Very few people actually ever took their funnel and did amazing things with it.
Very few people ever did ANYTHING with the funnels Russell and I built.
So finally, that night Russell Voxed me and goes...
"Hey dude, let's just build ClickFunnels funnels from now on. I'm tired of this client work."
I was like, "Dude, I agree. I'm so tired of running other people’s funnels and their businesses."
So we stopped.
...that was 2016, almost 2017 - right at the turn of the year, probably October, November time.
We stopped building funnels for other people and just started focusing on ClickFunnels stuff.
And that's when things like…
...started appearing - that's why that happened.
But all the while, guess what people were approaching me (as Russell's funnel builder) and especially Russell …
Q: What do you think was the #1 request we got?
A: Yep, you guessed it - Funnel Building!
...that's all EVERYONE wants.
So I kept all of this in my head and I was like…
I don't wanna do ‘done for you’…
Done for you says, "I'm gonna build this amazing thing for you."
I hate done for you services - I don't offer them.
...that's the reason I don't do them.
But as the “Funnel Nerd,” how can I create something where…
Are you getting this?
That's why this is so BIG - it's like running a whole business for them.
I don't just mean traffic either - it’s the actual 'how do you run the funnel' - there's a skill set to running the actual funnel itself - and that's the reason why I've NEVER offered funnel building services.
However, a year ago, I started asking myself, "What are the BEST ways to hand-off a funnel?"
Done the right way, the hand-off is the best part...
But done the *WRONG* way, clients look at you like:
"Oh, I don't even have a license - thanks for building me a Ferrari."
We built maybe 50 client funnels, no joke - so this was NOT a one-off pattern…
This was a *Real Issue*
I was like, "Well, what's the issue if it's happening to every single person?"
After studying the patterns, I realized that the problem was threefold…
Our clients just didn't have the skill-set to be a marketer - in the sense of a marketer who runs a sales funnel online as we build it.
They had no idea about any of the stuff need to run a Ferrari of a funnel - which meant they had…
... I mean we're talking babies in this stuff - you know what I'm saying?
#Babies #Babies #Babies.
So this was playing on my mind, and about a year ago, I was thinking and I was like…
“What can I do? How can I create more value? I wanna add more value. I wanna sell some more stuff.”
I remembered back to the days when Russell and I were doing these events and I was like:
"Man, there's still nothing I do that is more effective than that three-day immersive event."
… it's the reason why I tell everyone to go to OfferMind.
Live events are still the best thing I do.
It's the reason I tell people to go to that two-day event before Funnel Hacking Live, #SubtleBlatantPitch 😉
It's the reason why OfferLab has a three-day event.
It's because, for me, it’s sooo powerful to able to sit side by side with somebody to look at their stuff and see…
Did they get what I just said or not?
... and then I can help them nail it.
I’d begun doing more BIG corporate style client work and Roger Love from Hollywood reached out, "Hey, come do this stuff for us."
So I get on the plane and we're talking with Roger 'freaking' Love, (if you don't know who he is, look him up - he's the voice coach for all actors).
It's funny, while I was chatting with him he stands up and goes…
"Jennifer Aniston just texted me, I gotta get over there, hold on, let's pause this for one hour..."
I was like, "Okay!"
So anyway, he gets up to leaves and he's like, "They're on set right now with Steve Carell, they need my help."
I don't know if I'm supposed to say that again…
But the problem was that I'm going in and I'm teaching this stuff and then at the end, people are still like, "Cool, how do we do it?"
And I'm like, "You gotta build the funnel..."
And they're like, “ But I don’t know how???”
... it sucks right!!! *NOT GOOD*
So about six months ago, I started asking myself:
"What would it take to build a fulfillment machine, the likes of which has never been seen before in our industry?”
I didn't want DFY because you all know what I think about that…
I'm not gonna build a crappy funnel on purpose - just so that people are comfortable running iy.
I'm gonna build a sick funnel and in order for them to drive it, you've’ve gotta learn to be a better driver.
So there's gotta be a combo between ‘Done With You’ and ‘Done For You.’
I'm such an advocate of the machine that we have built because of the history I have with….
I invented a NEW category of fulfillment - it's not ‘Done With You’ and it's not ‘Done For You’ - it's in the middle.
My team builds the nerdy part but there's enough client nvolvement -so that when we hand of the funnel they know how to run it.
This is what happened…
I wrote down a list of all the things I teach:
… blah blah blah blah.
It was a HUGE list - then, I went back and I started crossing everything off that you could either…
And I was left with ONLY three things…
***I'm talking through the lens of a business owner.
'Cause these corporate clients I'd been dealing with always ask, "Well how do we build the funnel?"
And I'm like, "Ah, crap!"
So l decided to approach funnel creation from their perspective...
There are a few decisions I have to have their input on in order to build their funnel.
For example:
It's funny, someone approached me on a ship and asked, "Will you come build this funnel?"
I was like, "No."
She's like, "Are you serious?"
I said, "Yeah, I don't do done for you."
She was like, " I'm really looking to just drop the money to somebody and then they can just build it for me."
I was like, "Yeah, I don't do that."
She's like, "I'll pay you a ton."
I was like, "I don't really care, I don't want that kind of client, it's not so much about the money, it's about who I work with."
And if you want your business to succeed, *YOU* should have that kinda strict attitude too.
Offers are a two-way relationship, which is an episode I just dropped last week…
Anyway, I started thinking about how could we fulfill on helping people build their funnels WITHOUT going down the DFY route?
I know I've been going for a little bit, but I just wanted you to know...
And so, this is the announcement…
I am officially building other people's funnels for them now.
Here’s how…
Alright, I've been asked, "Steve, you were the lead funnel builder at ClickFunnels, why aren't you offering a funnel building service for people in businesses?"
Okay, that's a fair question.
Check this out…
Back in early 2016 when I joined ClickFunnels as an employee, there were only about 12,000 users of ClickFunnels compared to the 100,000 now.
And there were only like 40 employees compared to the 400 that there are now.
Okay? What does that mean?
It meant Russell and I were literally the only funnel builders *period*.
...it was literally just he and I.
About a year into my employment at ClickFunnels though, other funnel building team members started getting hired, we finally had a copywriter, a designer, etc.
It changed my whole world as we now had a funnel team.
So before I offered funnel building services, I wanted to make sure I could not only find my team but that it was also air-tight.
What I did not tell you, and what I've NOT been public about was that my team has already been building funnels for other people for over a year now...
... and so finally, I will tell you that we are ready.
We've been building other sales funnels for a while, I just have not announced it until now.
If you want me and my team to build your company a professional sales funnel, come get more info at myofferlab.com.
It comes with a live three-day event just with me, so I can teach you
….as well as a year of coaching from myself and my staff.
Get more information and apply at myofferlab.com.
When you think about it, all businesses need to be able to do three things…
And your professional business needs a professional core offer and funnel to deliver it.
We've already been doing this for a year with students who have businesses that are…
...you get the point?
Not only will we build the funnel, but I’m also actually going to hook you up with the very people that I use to send various types of traffic to my own funnels.
I want you to be taking care of post-funnel build.
If you're tight on money, it's totally fine - we have various payment and funding plans which are also available.
Come learn more and apply at myofferlab.com.
Just be aware that we're actually building you a professional sales funnel, and my team and I actually have very limited capacity in what we can handle monthly.
So skip the line of people shouting the most popular question I'm asked which is, "Steve will build my funnel?"
The answer finally is, "Yes," just go start at myofferlab.com now.
The offer is a two-way agreement, not a beg-session to get anyone to buy from you.
Here's when I STOP customizing my offers…
My friends, I'm pumped for this - grab a pen and paper - 'cause this can simplify your business.
A while back, there was an interesting post in my group…
Here's what went down…
Someone purchased a service, product or whatever, and after they bought it - they didn't like the fulfillment.
So they went back to the seller and said, "Hey, Mr. Seller, I don't like this..." and the seller said, "Oh, so sorry about that," and gave their money back.
And this actually made the customer mad.
I was a little bit confused by this response because something similar happened to me...
There was a guy who paid me for a one-hour consultation, (I don't really sell that anymore... ), but he scheduled it during the speeches at Funnel Hacking Live.
And so I was like, "Oh crap, sorry about that."
I reached back out and said, "Hey I'm so sorry,” and I just refunded his money.
I was like, "Hey, here you go."
Here’s the thing, the refund didn’t make him happy - in fact, guy was livid and made tons of nasty posts all over the place.
The dude finally got so loud that I blocked him
Originally, I was confused by his reaction so I reached out and asked...
… that's crazy!
I'm NOT obligated to spend time with you. I can give you your money back and I no longer have an obligation, right?
So, let’s go back to the post…
THE CUSTOMER ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT!
The guy was super frustrated... he was so mad about getting a refund, and I was like, "I guess there's a pattern here."
So let me tell you exactly how I respond…
It was a good enough response that Mr. Russell actually liked it.
Here’s how I started…
After digging into this, I kinda understand the story.
Now you paid somebody...
… and instead of getting more as you wanted, they refunded you.
I said…
Buying is a two-way relationship; I create an offer, set a price and a value, and use the offer as the anchor of the relationship, NOT the money.
The offer is the anchor, NOT the money.
This is a *BIG* mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make.
So let me teach you something really cool here that will help simplify your business...
When a customer uses their money as the anchor of a relationship, it forces the seller to dance at the customer's will.
This violates the very first step of my offer creation formula - The Who.
Just because someone has money doesn't mean I should sell them.
That's NOT the only qualifier for you to sell to somebody.
The offer is my agreement with the customer. If I keep changing the offer to each person, it equals a dizzying level of customization. That's WHY I don't change my offers for each person. If so I charge significant levels higher.
In my mind, it sounds like the seller is just doing what they thought was fair, and like myself was unwilling to change their offer, so, they refund you - that's not spitting in your face.
The customer is NOT always right.
Whoever started that whole thing, "The customer is always right," in my opinion, that person has NEVER had a successful business!
Or they worked in an industry that was 100% customization, you know what I mean (and even then the customer is not always right)?
'Cause…
The customer is NOT always right.
I don't want to fight the doctor if I'm about to go in surgery
‘Doctor, cut here and not here."
The customer is ALWAYS right????
That's a stupid phrase… overall, it's just NOT true.
And a lot of your businesses will be simplified by removing that belief and that vernacular…
"The customer's always right..." No, they're not, you are too - that's why you're the seller.
An offer is a two-way agreement, you can't keep customizing the offer per person - that's why we have a value ladder.
HOW TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE BY SAYING ‘NO!’
One of the major reasons why you don't customize everything is because of how hard it is on your actual business.
It is hard for me to ALWAY be changing the offer - because it makes it hard for me to create business systems.
You have to understand the major functions of a business - and there are a lot of different theories/ competing beliefs around this…
But I'm just going to draw the major functions of any business.
There's a lot of great books with different views... “There are varying points... there are four points. No, there are five points of any business. No, there's six points of any business.”
However, they're all around the same area for EVERY business.
This is the reason why funnels work for any company. Every company has to be able to…
Again, various places have differing opinions, but it's basically that…
A business is nothing more than a series of systems that generate and fulfills a lead.
*THAT’S IT*
… it's NOT some fishy hokey-pokey thing.
It has nothing to do with some clever slogan... I don't have a mission statement, 'cause “Urrrgh!”
Anyway...
For example: Say I go generate a lead by creating an offer
Let's say that I'm selling some widget…
One of the reasons why some of my webinars have done so well in the past and I've only touched them once, (and it's been over a year and a half since I've touched one of the largest ones)...
The reason why that works is that I'm not sitting here continually changing the offer.
I change it for a while and I'm like, "Okay, this feels like a safe place for it to land!"
… I stop touching the offer.
*DON’T TOUCH THE OFFER*
PRODUCT CUSTOMIZATION - WHEN TO *STOP*
Most businesses have a good enough offer to…
But as marketers, we tend to get so focused on changing the offer that we forget about the next step…
Take it from the guy who's the self-proclaimed offer guy, stop changing your offer so much.
PHASE #2
Find the person who fits the offer - that's way easier than constantly changing your offer.
So back to my Facebook Group…
This guy gets frustrated and says, "Oh my gosh. You're not willing to change the offer for me? And you gave my money back to me?"
Like, “YEAH!” (ALL CAPS)
Any time as any level of real genuine customization, it sucks!
That’s one of the reasons why a lot of entrepreneurs feel like their business wheels are spinning - they don't have a business.
You can't make a business where it's constant 24/7 100% pure true customization for every person that comes in.
Now, if your business is…
… there's still a system you can build around that.
I'm talking about when you're NOT customizing on purpose, and you keep changing all the stuff inside your offer.
After a while...
STOP!
It's extremely hard to create a consistent powerful lead machine when your offer's changing all the time. It's very hard to convert if your offer isn’t consistent...
I’ll change my offer for a while… but after a certain point, it's like…
*STOP*.
The next phase is to become good at finding people who fit the offer, instead of convincing EVERYBODY that they fit your offer.
(I'm hoping this is not too techy)
I want to…
The offer is NOT just a marketing tool - for me, it acts as an anchor.
Think of it this way...
(I hope I'm not talking in circles here with this, but this is such a key thing!)
HOW TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE BY FINDING THE ‘WHO!
I've had several people who reach out and be like, "You're not willing to do this, extra thing for me?"
I'm like, "No, you knew the agreement. The agreement was I was gonna provide this, this, this and this at this price, at this time frame."
And it's funny…
We call it an offer, but it's also an agreement between the buyer and the seller.
BAM! (Write that down!!!!)
Here’s the equation…
BUYER + SELLLER + OFFER = AGREEMENT
Let me illustrate this another way...
There's a place where my wife and I take our car where we know they're gonna act like our car is gonna fall apart in a second!
... and then, they try to charge us like three extra grand for repairs that don't matter.
You know what I'm saying? 😉
So we don't take our car to those people anymore!
Instead, if we ever need even simple maintenance or an oil change, we take it to another spot… because the guy is ALWAYS fair with us.
A lot of times car places say…
(It's very clever on their part by the way.)
They're like, "Here's my offer. I will fix these things for these prices."
After they start on the work of the car, if I want something else done on I have to pay more money… and it's assumed.
It's the same thing with your offer!
... does NOT mean it's different, right?
I will charge MORE something is outside of the offer - it makes sense.
I have to do MORE.
DO YOU HAVE A BUSINESS?
Trey Llewellyn is an absolute animal. I look up to him - he's a beast, and I’ve gotten to know him a little bit more recently.
We're both pretty darn busy but I think we both watched each other a from afar.
#SBB (Steve Before Beard)
Trey is an e-com genius - the guy makes tons of money.
Anyway, Trey found is that every time you add a new SKU, (a new product, a new offer to your business), you increase the complexity of your fulfillment systems by 17X.
Every new SKU increases the complexity of your fulfillment systems by 17X.
So, my friends, the reason I'm going through this is NOT just for the individual who posted in my group kinda having a hard time…
It's to help *you* understand the role of the offer in your business systems, NOT just marketing.
A consistent offer allows you to have consistency across all major functions of a business - which allows you to create systems - which allows you to remain strategic.
Here is the difference, check this out...
ARE YOU CUSTOMIZING YOURSELF TO DEATH?
When I was in college, I started learning how to drive traffic, lots of it.
I got pretty good at driving just tens of thousands of clicks to certain things and it's actually opened a ton of doors for me - it was a lot of fun.
Under that one service, me and my buddy had a waiting list of 15 businesses…
Contrast that to about two years later (after I knew what ClickFunnels was) and I started doing funnels for other people…
I found myself with a 12 business waiting list, but my service was different every time.
It was mind-numbing...
Not the boring kinda ‘mind-numbing’ - it was too much and was crippling to me.
I see A LOT of people being overwhelmed because they don’t know when to STOP customizing a product…
"I'm doing this... and I'm doing this ...and I'm doing this... and I'm doing this… and this!"
Here’s the rub…
You're confusing the number of opportunities that you're running at with success.
That's NOT true at all.
Go look at like some of the people who are making the most money, they have one main offer, that’s it.
Alex Hormozi = GymLaunch
BAM!
They did that one thing till (I think) they crossed $10 million... then they added the next thing.
It’s the same in my business…
HERE’S WHAT I’M NOT DOING
People ask:
Q: "Stephen how come you haven't launched like a mastermind yet?"
A: Don't worry, I will, but...
Q: “Stephen, how comes you haven't written a book yet?"
A: Man, I'm focusing on the one thing on my value ladder, okay?
That's the other reason we have a value ladder, we say…
"Alright, okay, market place, okay community…”
... but also the things that I'm willing to fulfill on.
Here's the offer and here's the exact thing I'm saying yes to…
I've had many people reach out and they're like…
“Stephen what can I buy from you?"
Man, go to capitalistcoaching.com, and you'll see EVERYTHING you can buy from me right now...
That's all the stuff I'm willing to do and fulfill on at that price point…
And it's ALL set up for a specific…
...that I know will 'cause the fastest success story.
At the top of my value ladder, my application funnels at are real application funnels.
It is NOT me just trying to get anyone who has the money - people actually apply - ‘cause I'm legitimately trying to see if they are ‘a good fit’ for me.
A lot of people ask…
A: It's because I know that there are certain things that I should and should not be doing and if I constantly have a changing offer it affects…
And instead of focusing on *ONE* ‘dream who,’ - I get a lot of different ones coming on in from all walks of life.
*I DON’T WANT THAT*
I want one main type of ‘who’ = one main type of dream customer.
It also affects my ability to create or NOT create a value ladder.
TESTING MY OFFER
You have to understand, there’s a timeline for when I launch a new offer…
... but there comes a moment where I stop and say, "I will no longer change, this offer is what it is... and my role progressing forward is NOT to keep changing the offer."
I launch and start changing the offer (which includes the message), and then once I've got it validated, I update to continually find ‘the dream who.’
FINDING ‘MY DREAM WHO!’
Q: How do I find my Dream who?
A: With additional traffic sources.
I have four major awesome traffic sources that I like and use, and I just dump in between them.
Q: How do I get those traffic sources to find it?
A: I have a list of Launch campaigns and Evergreen campaigns to get those traffic sources and those ‘dream who's’ to actually see my offer - bam, bam, bam.
Anyway…
I did not do a lot of storytelling in this one, it was a little bit more of a tactical episode here but it's because…
If you keep changing your offer, past the testing period, by kowtowing and bowing to everyone just to get the sale…
You literally...
Drop your ability to have faster and greater success rates with your customers.
So, set your offer and understand this is NOT about you going, "I will do whatever it takes to get the sale.”
I will NOT do *anything* for a sale - because of ALL the things I've been talking about here.
The offer is an agreement between me and the seller, it is NOT me begging the seller for a purchase.
Alright, hopefully, this has been a helpful episode - this is a very key topic and one that I'm definitely passionate about!
Partly it's because I went through 34 tries (over about 5- years) without a big success.
And looking back, I can see that…
...and it was one of the MOST painful lessons I ever went through!
If you do wanna go see the things that I have available... if you’re like…
...which I get many of you guys reaching out about - go to capitalistcoaching.com, and you'll see all those things right there.
It is literally my value ladder with clickable links to the things that it's referencing.
There are some things on there (just so you know) that are not actually available yet... or where we're just focusing on the current students.
I find that most people have zero clarity on their business - so how can a customer have any clarity on what you're offering?
They can't - it's very hard!!!
It sets this weird precedence (or no precedence at all) for what you actually will or *won't* provide,
Hard to have a life when you keep changing your offer. You will literally be tied to the business if you keep changing your offer.
If you guys got any value from this please tag me on social media and let me know…
"Steve, that was fresh to death, that was awesome!"
Let me know what you liked about it - I'm trying to just provide epic value for you.
#StayTuned
There are some fun surprises coming up in the next few episodes thatI'm very very pumped about!!!
Alright!
*You* reading this right now, you're in one of two scenarios.
Either…
You're currently selling a product and you've got a slick sales funnel and traffic...
There are ads and you have content, bringing in new customers. You have upsells, downsells, and phone sales.
You've almost automated it, making money while doing everyday things.
Either that's all set up and going…
OR…
The second option is you don't have any of that, and you're still trying to make this work and tie all of these pieces together.
If you want my help, just go to capitalistcoaching.com and see where you can get started.
It took me a long time to get the skills for all this to get moving…
... there's A LOT.
And the path to move forward is different for each person.
So I created capitalistcoaching.com for you to check out where *you* need to start.
Whether you're just starting out with…
OR…
If you're like one of our BIG corporate clients who just need to add more revenue and scale your offer, go to capitalistcoaching.com.
I don't really believe in shortcuts, but I do know you can speed up the path on the journey
Figure out the BEST place to start by going to capitalistcoaching.com now
We have a whiteboard of the funniest support tickets over the years…
This is a collection of the rude, hilarious, and shocking things that have come through support…
And today, I thought it would be kinda funny today to share some of the MOST entertaining support tickets with you.
So with my 2 amigos, Coulton and Austin, I’m gonna walk through the customer service requests that have…
… and left us downright flabberghasted!
Our goal is NOT to offend…
However, FAIR WARNING - this blog does contain the *TRUMP* word 😉 - so if you’re easily offended…
LOOK AWAY NOW!
We're NOT making fun of anybody but there are some things that people…
… that are SURPRISING!
It's almost like a contest to see what the funniest one is.
Again, we’re not trying to be offensive, but we thought it'd be kinda funny to share some of these comments with you.
You’ll also find out WHAT HAPPENS when I answer customer support tickets myself 😉
(... and before you write in, there’s a deliberate mistake in this blog - can you spot it??? 😂)
Let's get to it.
HOW TO DO CUSTOMER SUPPORT (KINDA)
Just so you know…
When I first started doing this (about two years ago), it was just me… and Russell was like:
"Hey, for your first hire, make sure you find somebody who can help you with…
A: Support
B: Revenue Generation Activities.
I was like, "Oh," and I hired Coulton.
And we've gone through several customer service software systems.
Coulton: Yeah.
Steve: Anyway, it's been fun. It's been an interesting drive. How many support tickets do you think we get in a month?
Coulton: Hundreds. 😂 There's A LOT nowadays.
Steve: Really?
Coulton: There's quite a few, yeah. It's definitely gone up.
Steve: How many hundreds?
Coulton: What do you think, a couple hundred?
Austin: Yeah, I'd say 150 - 250.
Steve: A month?
Coulton: Yeah.
Steve: Wow! You guys have a lot of questions. That's great, I'm glad that you guys write on in, that's good - we're not discouraging that at all…
BUT…
Every once in awhile, there's that 1% (not the good kind who everyone talks about) who are having a bad day...
You know people get a little tough behind their computer screens and they wouldn't say what they would normally say in front of you online.
It's usually Austin or Coulton (especially Coulton), that kinda usually hits that and gets the flack for it.
Coulton: It's probably 'cause I'm a patient dude and, yeah. I'm not easily pissed off, so maybe that's why.
Steve: Yeah, yeah, this would be awesome to hear.
Austin: We're gonna ease into things here.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #1
First one on the list…
Now, I totally get this one, but at the same time, this is a better question for Steve, like seven, eight, nine years ago.
Steve: Yeah.
Austin: You know what I'm saying?
Where Steve's at now…
Steve’s time is the most precious gem in the business right now.
So, yeah, it's just NOT doable.
Steve: No, it's not.
Yeah, it's funny how many people kinda get kind of frustrated and they're like:
"Why don't you just look at my funnel?"
People get really mad about that.
It's like, "I would, but there's a line of 100, yesterday."
Coulton: You honestly got to give them a little bit of credit, they don't know everything that's going on.
But then I'm also like, "Do you not see…”
...all the crap that's going on there? You should probably have a pretty good idea that he's got A LOT going on.
Austin: Busy man. 😂
Steve: And I totally get that if you don't ask the question, you're definitely not gonna get it.
So it's like, "Okay, you should ask."
… but it is shocking how frequent that one comes in.
Coulton: Yeah.
Steve: Is that among the top ones?
Coulton: I think it's just 'cause it's so shocking.
Austin: It's one of those ones that stick out.
Coulton: Yeah, yeah.
Steve: Like over and over?
Coulton: Yeah.
Steve: What was the most recent one?
Coulton: You know, honestly, a couple of weeks ago, I think…
We got one that was just like, "Hey, can you just look over my funnel real quick? It's only gonna take five minutes."
I get that it can be quick, but it's also not gonna take five minutes.
Austin:
Also, his knowledge is worth thousands.
Coulton: Yeah. 😂
Steve: For *FREE* Yeah. No man!
What's this next one you guys put on? You wanna go for it?
Coulton: Oh, this one's awesome.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #2
People think that Steve is answering the support tickets himself.
My favorite part about that is, (I don't know if you've seen this, Austin???)...
But literally, I'll respond back to something and my name is under there...
But they'll respond and be like, "Thank you so much, Steve. That was so awesome." Or "Thanks for the help, Steve" or "Thanks for looking at it, Steve."
And I'm like…
"I don't know where you're getting Steve from."
Austin: Sometimes I just act like Steve.
So…
If Steve's answering your support tickets, know that it's me.
Steve: Yeah.
There are many times when I'll act like I'm my assistant, even though I don't have one yet.
I'm not trying to be rude, but if I answer one thing, there's ALWAYS three things that come back.
It's like the comments have babies, they multiply.
“This is Steve's assistant - thank you so much for reaching out. If you have a question, reach to goanswerme.com.
That's pretty fun.
Coulton: You know what's funny, I've had people that say that they're someone's assistant and because of you, I now ‘double-question’ that.
Guaranteed it's NOT their assistant, it's probably actually them.
Steve: It usually isn't.
I learned this from Russell…
I was in on a Saturday answering a bunch of tickets (before I left ClickFunnels) and Russell walked in and he goes, "What are you doing man?"
I was like, "Oh, well, I'm working on my own business right now. Hopefully, that's not weird.
I've been answering social media questions coming in for six hours."
And Russell goes, "Dude, I totally get it and I've got the best cure for it…
And you're NOT honestly gonna like it, but are you willing to do it?"
I said, "Yeah, what is it?"
Russell laughed and said, "You don't have to answer."
And I was like, "What?"
And he goes, "I know, right? The giver in you wants to go in... just don't answer anyway.”
Coulton: There's just NOT enough time.
Steve:
You just gotta be a Time Nazi a little bit.
Austin: Next on the list…
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #3
Steve: Yeah... Starting time? Locations?
Austin: This is a good lesson that I learned from you…
You're REALLY good at qualifying your customer, the type of buyer you want, and you let the funnel do the selling.
If the funnel doesn't sell them, they're not a good customer.
And so, when dates are…
...and someone asks, "When is the date?" - the simplest question!!!
NOT A GOOD FIT!
“What's the name of this event?”
And they're responding to something that says, "OfferMind"... (that happens a bit).
Austin: Yup.
Steve: Yeah, that one's funny 'cause we're not the funnel - the funnel's the funnel, and that's how we look at it.
Anyway, yeah.
Coulton: I'm pretty sure I actually got that question the day before, too.
How do you not have stuff set up and ready for that?
Steve: It's in every footer of every page…
That one's kind of funny coming in.
Austin: You gotta take this next one.
Coulton: Yeah, this next one, I was gonna say.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #3
Steve: I've had this one several times, several times.
Just so you guys know…
The internet is mean and you gotta have a little bit of a thick skin - you've gotta grow one.
And this is one of the first major support tickets I got, like ever, so it crushed my little soul at the time.
This guy reached out…
He goes…
And I was like, "Oh".
Anyway, I’ve had that one several times.
It's very interesting if you have any level of success, some people immediately think that you're a scammer.
It's like, “oh, I guess Apple's a scam, Google's a scam.”
I don't know, anyway, so weird. That happens, but whatever...
Coulton: That's sad.
Austin: Bring it on, baby.
Steve: Bring it on!
It'll happen as you guys get bigger...
Actually, talking about this one is one of the reasons...
So, Russell had this podcast episode a few weeks ago - it's almost like the negativity comes in waves.
He's like, "Oh that sucked a little bit," and then it's like boom, the internet comes back again, then it goes away.
It's the naysayers have a convention
... I don't know what it is.
It's like a drum circle convention and they go like, "Let's go attack this guy today," and it's crazy.
There was this week that the internet was really mean and Russell - and I were chatting about it.
He's like, "It's just the internet testing to see if you really believe what you say you do."
You treat it that way 'cause it's A LOT easier.
Coulton: That's good.
Steve: Yeah.
Coulton: That's a cool way to think about it.
Steve: Dude, do you wanna do the next one?
Coulton: Next one?
Steve: This one's good.
Coulton: Oh man, this is actually probably one of my favorites…
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #4
It’s like three consecutive emails - so it's like the first response is, "Where the heck is the product?"
...and then ‘cause we don't respond within an hour... (Honestly, who responds within an hour? I don't know, but…”
Steve: We can't. Who knows?
Coulton: We don't.
Austin: Yeah, we don't do that.
Steve: ClickFunnels just added live support, just now, you know?
Coulton: Yeah.
Austin: Two hours later, they're like, "I'm gonna a refund if you don't give me the access to product..."
...and then by the time I look at it the next day or whatever, they're like, "Oh sorry... "
Steve: Oh here it is.
Coulton: “I responded to the email that actually had access to the product, so my bad.”
Austin: And when we're building the funnels, we're very diligent.
I even noticed today, you always spot check when it's done.
Little things like the fulfillment email, to make sure links are in there, to make sure account credentials and so on, and so forth.
Yeah. We're super good with our fulfillment emails.
Steve: We're really good at it.
Yeah. It's funny because the part that kills me is when people go on the social media pages and groups and say:
"Steve Larsen, I've messaged your support two times now and I can't find this thing."
And then in the comment right underneath it, they go:
"Never mind, I found it. Everyone, please disregard."
But in that time, they've gone and given one-star reviews on the freakin' pages, and you're like:
"What is wrong with you?"
Oh my gosh, it's an autoresponder - it goes out immediately, so funny.
Coulton: Yeah. I get it if you didn't get the fulfillment email.
Steve: Sure.
Coulton: It totally makes sense - that happens, I understand.
Sometimes you gotta check your spam, see if it's in there.
But when they actually respond to the fulfillment email itself, which happens more often than not...
Steve: The auto email goes out, and *then* they respond to the auto email saying:
"Where is the link to the member's area?"
...and it's in the email they're responding to!!!
That one's funny.
Austin: The lesson there is to read every email that we send.
Steve: Yeah, I won't waste your time.
Coulton: Don't skip a word.
Steve: We're time Nazis.
Coulton: Go for the next one?
Austin: Next up…
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #5
Coulton: I love that one.
Austin: Simple answer, "No!"
Steve: “We're trying to build the ClickFunnels killer. Can you review the software in the funnel to sell it?”
Coulton: Every time I see that I lean over to Steve, and I'm like, "Bro, somebody wants you to review their next ClickFunnel software killer."
Steve: Oh my gosh, yeah.
Austin: Big marketing tip is to understand your audience, understand who you're trying to sell it to.
I don't think you're gonna sell a ClickFunnels killer to this guy.
Steve: Very, very funny. Yeah, that one's funny. Can you review my software? I forgot about those.
Coulton: I mean, Russell did make a shirt that has gears in the heart, red and blue, after what Stephen said about ClickFunnels.
I don't think you're gonna get any reviews from Steve...
Yeah, it's not gonna happen.
Steve: Actually, I will get on and help you create that…
Anyone know any good viruses? Viruses, anyone?
Oh, man.
Austin: I feel like the next two kinda go hand in hand.
Coulton: Yeah, I can read those.
Steve: Go for it. Yeah. Yeah.
Coulton: This is my next favorite…
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #6
Austin: It's just a thought.
Steve: Yeah, and it’ll be two paragraphs, usually. They're long and you don't know hat they're asking.
Coulton: Yeah. I'm like... You know how many times I've responded, I'm like, "So, what exactly do you need from us?"
Steve: Is that how you say... You actually say...
Coulton: Sometimes I do.
Steve: "How does this involve us?"
Coulton: I'm like, "I'm not sure what you're asking, can you help reframe that, please?"
And that goes along with the next one, which is…
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #7
Coulton: They're like, "Hey, I need this thing."
Austin: “The link isn't in there!” and it's like, “Where is there?”
Steve: What link? Yeah, what did you buy?
Coulton: “I can't log in…” and I'm like, "Oh that's cool, what can you not long into?"
Like, I have no idea what you're talking about, you know.
Steve: They'll respond and be like, "Stephen, send me my bonuses you promised."
What bonuses?
We launch A LOT of stuff - there's no context there
Austin: Yeah, the clearer the questions, the faster we get back on support tickets.
Coulton: I've even seen somewhere it's just literally the subject line, there's no body-text at all.
There's nothing in it! Literally just the subject line - “Where's the link?” And I'm like...
Steve: Just go to Google… and there's a link! Here you go.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #8
Steve: Oh, I gotta go for this next one 'cause this one is so funny to me.
This one is hilarious- people will ask me questions. In fact, this happened last night, and I won't say who it is 'cause he's very famous.
Someone reached out and they wanted to know about a thing in their ClickFunnels account.
They'd be like, "How do I fix my billing in my account?”
Talk to ClickFunnels - we're NOT ClickFunnels.
Austin: And piggybacking off that...
Steve: That happened yesterday. Yeah. I was wondering what those were…???
Austin: They get really confused as well.
Steve: Yeah, they CC us and ClickFunnels at the same time so then we see these threads, as ClickFunnels support agents chat back and forth, and we're just seeing it, and we're like, “Yeah....”
I forgot about that.
I thought you were asking something, that was somebody else.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #9
Coulton: That kinda leads into the OFA Challenge.
We get a lot of people that are like…
Steve: ...and they didn't actually buy through our link!
Coulton: That's probably a good thing to go over now…
Just open up an incognito window, whatever it may be, and clear your cache.
Austin: Yeah.
Coulton: Those different things that help make it so you actually go through Steve's link instead of the last person's link that you may have been on.
Austin: Yeah. If you want the goods, opt-in to the affiliate pages in an incognito browser.
Coulton: Yeah, there you go, that's the trick.
Steve: Or, one I will personally get is...
I literally have thousands, no joke, of unread Facebook Messenger messages.
I don't even open Facebook Messenger anymore.
I'm not saying I'm proud of that or that's the right way to go, but it's just the reality of where we are right now growing the business.
We're staying lean and mean, but people will reach out and be like,
I'm like, ‘I'm not even an admin on the page. Why are you reaching out to me? I don't have that.’
I'm just a coach that's contracted in, talk to ClickFunnels.
Austin: It's funny.
Coulton: I feel like the next one, we've already...
Austin: You can field it.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #9
That one's funny - especially when it's like a...
Coulton: a $57 dollar product.
Steve: Yeah, when it's like a $57 dollar product.
They'll be like, "You're not building my whole funnel for me?"
I don't have any done for you services, 'cause I don't really believe in it.
Austin: Read what you're getting.
Steve: Yeah. Exactly what's in the offer is what we deliver.
Steve: Yeah. That's funny.
Coulton: Oh, man.
Austin: I feel like you gotta take the next one, as well.
Steve: OH, Yeah!!!
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #10
As a marketer, one of the roles that you have is to generate noise.
And one of the easiest ways to generate noise is to realize that, there are two ways to do it...
So if somebody like Trump, (who, I don't care what you think about him, and I don’t have any political agenda here)...
But…
Q: Would you say Trump has a lot of noise right now?
A: He's got tons of noise, right?
That's why we created this thing called MakeAffiliatesGreatAgain.com.
MakeAffiliatesGreatAgain.com was meant to be a spoof and ride off of the noise of "Make America Great Again."
And…
Why not make it even more controversial and noise bound by putting a Trump toupee in the logo?
Just me doing that alone, I mean, it is so funny how many people got offended, which is very shocking also.
We sent out the announcement email about that and I can't tell you how many people have reached back out and were like:
"You said the word, TRUMP. I now know what kind of person you are, goodbye."
And that was it - “Bye!”
And I was like, "Okay see you."
I like to respond to that like, "Alright, bye".
You don't see what I'm doing here?
I didn't give any political agenda, nor will I ever...
Anyway, so funny, just the fact of ...
"Oh, he's the spawn of Satan, and because you said his name, you clearly are, too. I know who you are."
And then gone.
That happens frequently, which is funny…
So we decided to make ads about it.
Coulton: I don't know if you guys caught that???
Literally, I don't know how many times we've created products and done funnels that are just riding the wake - literally just right behind the noise.
It works great.
Steve: So good.
Coulton: You guys gotta watch him on that - see what he's doing, you can take a ton from it.
Steve: You just kinda align with it, yeah.
Austin: Also piggybacking off that, I've got plenty of offers from people who I don't necessarily agree with something that they do...
Steve: No.
Austin: But I get value from what I buy. That's all I care about. So yeah, no need to get buttered on stuff if you don't agree with it.
Steve: Yeah, did you say butter?
Austin: Yeah, I don't know - sorry iTunes
I'm of the mindset that if something can provide you value, that's all that should matter.
Steve: Totally. I've bought a lot of products, where frankly, I don't go through much of the actual product - it's merely so that I can see how they're selling it, and that's been worth the price I've paid alone.
You understand one of the reasons we don't do a lot of $7 and $57,(we don't do a lot of price ranges around that strategically), is because typically, (and I don't wanna offend anyone when I say this)...
But you'll find that the MORE expensive prices you charge, the better the person is, (like the situation in their life) to act.
So if you go for something that's like a dollar, a lot of times you'll find that it's people who don't have a lot of money, understandably, and I'm not making fun of that.
But there's a lot more of the starving mentality.
And they look at you as an enemy if the bonus, for some reason, (the zeros and ones threw up that day and got sick) and a bonus didn't show up in 15 seconds…
And they reach back out and are like, "Burn in hell, you're crazy, oh my gosh!" Right?
And you're like "What…??? Holy crap, your spam filter caught it, it sent."
Anyway, it happens.
Austin: This next one, this was a personal favorite of mine - this is recent.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #11
We had someone recently that reached out...
It was just a hard pitch…
...EVERYTHING!
… and wanted to help Steve launch an info product, and teach him how to launch an info product.
Like, he's never done it before.😂
Steve: It's like the people who reach out asking if they can build a website - #NO!
Austin: Yeah, I thought that was a good one. You put a lot of effort into it, but...
Coulton: It's a lot of effort, but it's kind of like the Dream 100 thing that you get to that are like obviously they don't know you at all.
Like, yeah, like you even said, Russell gets wine bottles all the time… and he talks about how he doesn't drink, ALL THE TIME.
Yeah, he still gets them.
Austin: Know your audience.
Coulton: Do a little research, you'll find out, yeah.
Steve: Listen to an episode.... which you all are obviously are. [chuckle]
Would you wanna take the next one? This happens to you A LOT.
Austin: This is Coulton's favorite.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #12
Coulton: So we literally get... I don't know, I feel like it's like three affiliates a day.
It is a crazy amount of people signing up for the affiliate program to sell our products.
And so they send in their W8 or W9, whatever it may be, and it just blows my mind that they fill everything out, and then there's one blank spot…
That one blank spot is the most important blank spot…
.... and that’s the signature.
It says "Sign here."
And I think it's even on the page multiple times, "We cannot accept it if it's not signed."
Steve: There's a place where you sign...
Coulton: If we needed to show that somewhere for some purpose - how are we gonna prove that it's even you at all, you know what I mean?
Steve: So they don't sign it and they just send it right in or something?
Coulton: Yeah, so they don't...
And I get it - it's kind of hard, 'cause you gotta print it out, you gotta sign it.
But we do have tech nowadays and you can digitally sign it.
It makes it a lot easier.
Austin: Here's a little hack, write your signature on a piece of paper, scan it and save it as a picture on your computer, and you can just put it on any PDF.
Nice and easy - DONE!
Coulton: And even if you have a Mac, Preview lets you sign...
You can sign the trackpad, and then it saves it as your signature.
You can put it on any document you want.
Steve: It comes with Macs.
Austin: And what's nice is when you sign your forms, we can get you paid quicker. So that's the incentive there.
Steve: Can't pay unless you do it.
Austin: Yep.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #13
Aka… why I don’t do customer service!
Steve: This guy reached out to me, (this happened like two or three weeks ago)...
And it was one of these situations where the bonus hadn't been sent immediately.
And so he reached out and his first message was, "You're clearly a scam".
So I'm just tired of like, I'm not gonna defend... I'm not gonna play small...
Anyway, I got feisty back.
I suck at support because I yell at back at people - I just do.
(... it's one of the things that makes me a good coach for ClickFunnels 'cause I don't put up with people's junk.)
Which is why Coulton is such a godsend.
I would yell at people in a support ticket.
Q: "How do I add a funnel?"
A: "CLICK ‘ADD FUNNEL! HAVE YOU GOOGLED IT???? It's literally ORANGE and BIG… it has "ADD FUNNEL" right there at the top of the page!!!"
So I would get kind of flustered and frustrated with some people, (it's just my personality and that's okay)… we all come together as a team on this.
But this guy came out swinging…
"You're clearly a scam, and your company sucks," or something like that.
So I reached back out and I said:
"Well, you're NOT exactly the dream client either."
(I don't think I told you guys about this one...)
And he goes, "Wow, you're know how to reel 'em in."
I was like, "Actually, I know how to keep him away too."
Anyway, I should stop there…
It went on for a while, and finally, I was like, "Look, I'm not here begging for clients. And it's part of the reason why we built a company that we love working for our people."
...it didn't end well!
When you come out swinging, saying that we’re scammers, (especially with like a $7 thing), we are totally fine refunding and just saying:
"Stay out of our world."
You know what I mean?
Coulton: 100%.
Steve: And we're not saying to you guys here on the show, 'cause you guys all know this show, you love it - you've been following the journey.
But there's A LOT of people who reach out and they're just predestined to have this predisposition for ridiculous negativity.
And we did not start this to become life coaches, you know what I mean?
We started this to offer what our offer is.
So you gotta be careful with that. That's actually very key to this whole thing.
Coulton: Mm-hmm. What's that gonna do for you?
Steve: I don't know.
Coulton: Looking at it that way, it's not gonna help you get any farther.
Steve: It's crazy, yeah. The next one?
Austin: The last one! Coulton, I feel like you should tackle this one.
Coulton: Oh, I think this was actually my conversation. Let's see, oh yeah, this was a while ago. I totally forgot about this one.
Steve: This has happened frequently though.
Coulton: It has.
Steve: Happened on the Trump one.
Coulton: The first time it happened, I was kind of surprised. I was like, "Really? Alright."
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #14
So I literally got an email from somebody asking to unsubscribe them from the email list and I'm like "Okay, that's weird,” but I have to ask…
Steve: Which, legally, we have to have in there by the way.
Coulton: Right? It works. Yeah. I mean I unsubscribe from emails I don't want all the time.
So she wrote back and it was awesome.
She's like, "Why would I ever click on anything in an email that has 'hacks' in the subject line?"
Austin: Which, to her credit, to her credit... Right?
Steve: But to a hacker, if you put the word 'hacks' in and everyone knows what you're doing...
Coulton: I know, right? Like, "I'm a hacker, I'm gonna put 'hacks' in my headline."
Steve: They don't do that.
Coulton: Then my next thought is, is how did she get on the email list in the first place? Where did you go to put your email in???
It was probably a page that said Secret MLM Hacks - I'm just saying.
Steve: We use the word "HACK" and "SECRET" - EVERYWHERE!
Coulton: Yeah. I don't know, it blew my mind.
Steve: And she got mad and wouldn't unsubscribe...
So then you said, "Well, I guess you'll just keep getting the emails then."
Coulton: I'm like, "Well, I'm sorry. You have to unsubscribe. So I guess you'll just keep getting emails. That's cool with me, but... "
Yeah. If you don't like it, unsubscribe.
Austin: Man, I don't know...
Steve: Any others? Any other all-stars that have come across in the past little bit?
CUSTOMER SUPPORT FUNNY #15
Austin: We get pitch after pitch after pitch after pitch. They're always unique in their own way.
Steve: They're kind of surprising though, some of them.
Some people will say, "Well, I'll teach you how to make an offer."
It's like, “You don't even know what we do!!!!”
The Instagram ones are hilarious - I get a lot of those.
Coulton: "Let me help you build it," or "You're not getting enough engagement."
Austin: Also…
If you're trying to get Steve's attention, spell his name right, please. Please spell his name right.
Steve: Yeah, S-T-E-V-E-N? Oh, man.
Coulton: That's awesome.
Steve: Yeah, there's been a few really funny parts about that.
And finally...
WE LOVE YOU!
Just all in all, guys, we want you to know, we wanted to walk through this, but what we're not trying to create here is a feeling that someone has...
We're not downplaying any questions anybody has.
Questions are a good thing, but I also do believe that there's such thing as a stupid question.
That whole thing they tell you in school is dumb…
"There's no such thing as a dumb question."
Yes, there is!
A dumb question is one that you took no thought to try to answer on your own.
It's not meant to be rude, it's just that's just how entrepreneurs think.
You can search this massive vault.
Never in the history of the world has ever been so much information present, but such a lack of learning how to access it or how to actually get after it.
...and we're just going through these 'cause it's honestly... this is kind of the watered-down version.
We get a lot of garbage from people who clearly hate our guts.
...so some of this might be a little bit of a steam-blowing-off episode as well, but yeah.
Coulton: But it's a very small portion of it. You guys do an awesome job overall, it's just there's those ones that come in that really stick out.
Steve: We'll always try to over-deliver, too.
That's really what I've tried to build the name that we've developed here is by over-delivering.
... and I always encourage you to do that to anybody that you go serve.
We do that in fun, little surprising ways as well…
Doing this show costs us a lot of money, frankly - and it’s one of the ways that we try to over-deliver.
One final thing...
BUSTING THE CUSTOMER SUPPORT MYTH
Somebody mentioned once, "If you had amazing fulfillment, you'd never need support!"
That is so false.
That person has never actually sold anything EVER - that is a theorist talking.
That person got straight As in school.
Because it's NOT true.
Every once in a while, something does happen with email and it doesn't show up and something doesn't work...
And it's not that we're trying to scam anybody, something in a system jacked up somewhere and we wanna fix it as much as the other person wants to receive it.
Anyway, we're very, very thankful for you guys.
Thanks for following the journey.
THE END OF SALES FUNNEL RADIO
We thought it'd be kind of fun as Sales Funnel Radio will be ending at episode 300, as far as our involvement here with it…
And I wanted to make kind of a fun episode...
I mean how many support tickets we've gotten total? I mean in the last two years.
Coulton: I have no clue.
Steve: 'Cause we were on that other system for a while, which was terrible - I like the new one.
Coulton: Are we on 20,000-something? 20-something-thousand?
Austin: I feel like that's pretty fair, yeah.
Steve: Yeah, and it has nothing to do with fulfillment.
Some people are just wondering a genuine question, and they're like, "Oh I'll go reach out like this..."
...and NOT realizing that it's probably the least effective way to try to get my attention.
So anyway. Yeah, anyway.
Coulton: Sometimes it just takes less time to actually just look into the problem and figure it out.
Steve: The FAQs at the bottom of the page that we always put there.
You entrepreneurs watching this right now, make sure that you make it easy for people to reach out to you.
WHEN IS THE PURCHASE OVER?
My wife and I bought this water machine about two months ago, it is still not installed.
The installation process with this company has been so horrendous that I love the product, but I'm looking at it and I'm trying to not hate the product simply 'cause I can't use it.
Make sure that the fulfillment you’re delivering is as smooth and seamless as it possibly could be.
It always could be better.
The purchase is never over at the checkout, at the card swipe.
Your customers have gotta...
That's the best thing you can do post-purchase to ensure the success of your company.
So make it easy for your customers... and people who aren't...
Anything else?
Austin: That's all I have.
Coulton: Cool.
Steve: Awesome, guys. Get rich, get back. We'll see you guys in the next episode.
Alright!
*You* reading this right now, you're in one of two scenarios.
Either…
You're currently selling a product and you've got a slick sales funnel and traffic...
There are ads and you have content, bringing in new customers. You have upsells, downsells, and phone sales.
You've almost automated it, making money while doing everyday things.
Either that's all set up and going…
OR…
The second option is you don't have any of that, and you're still trying to make this work and tie all of these pieces together.
If you want my help, just go to capitalistcoaching.com and see where you can get started.
It took me a long time to get the skills for all this to get moving…
... there's A LOT.
And the path to move forward is different for each person.
So I created capitalistcoaching.com for you to check out where *you* need to start.
Whether you're just starting out with…
OR…
If you're like one of our BIG corporate clients who just need to add more revenue and scale your offer, go to capitalistcoaching.com.
I don't really believe in shortcuts, but I do know you can speed up the path on the journey
Figure out the BEST place to start by going to capitalistcoaching.com now.
Consistent publishing can feel like a chore. Lemme show you how I position my shows to attract future buyers.
WASSUP?
Check out my NEW background!
*SPOILER ALERT* … it’s for my new show!
ONE FUNNEL AWAY STORIES #THE BEGINNING
Today, I wanna share with you WHY I believe it makes sense for me to create another show... (or *ahem* #3) 😉
My friend, welcome back, I'm excited for you to be here.
Six weeks ago, (or something like that), I was at Russell Brunson's Inner Circle, and I was thinking to myself, "What can I teach that would be valuable for the room?"
For a while, I’ve had this theory about why ClickFunnels exploded.
So I just wanna do a quick and dirty on this to teach you my theory, and then I want you to see why it makes sense for me to create another show.
Now, I understand that One Funnel Away is 100% a trademark of ClickFunnels.
I had to do some fancy footwork and work with them in order to be able to use their logo on my show.
You cannot just go out and just create stuff with other people's intellectual property.
That's NOT what I'm telling you at all.
HERE’S MY THEORY
We all read these books like:
... and all these books teach that there’s a red ocean and that your entire goal is to create a blue ocean.
So, if that's true...
What is ClickFunnel's red ocean?
If ClickFunnels is a new opportunity, what was the old opportunity?
That was the question that's been on my mind for a while!
So I started asking…
I started thinking back to the stories that I had heard Russell tell, and I was like:
"Oh, my gosh, the market, the ocean that ClickFunnels was born out of was the website market."
And if you are like, "I don't know about that."
Go back and listen to the Funnel Hacks Webinars…
Q: What is it that ClickFunnels was fighting against?
A: Websites.
HOW CLICKFUNNELS WAS ALMOST ABANDONED
Now, the story goes...
ClickFunnels was almost an abandoned project
(If you’re thinking, "Stephen, how does this relate to a new show?" I'll get to that in just a moment, just stick with me for a second.)
... the product was amazing, but they were still trying to figure out how to sell it because...
… are two separate activities.
Anyway, Mike Filsaime reaches out to ClickFunnels and says,
"Hey, you got that new thing ClickFunnels, come on my stage and come sell it."
Russell's like, "I don't know man, people aren't buying it right now."
Mike said, "Come on man, I’ve already told everyone you're going to."
So Russell agreed to do it…
This was the fifth or sixth time that Russell had tried to create a sales letter for ClickFunnels.
There’s a key lesson right there...
Even Russell's first few launches for ClickFunnels didn't work out.
#Mind-blowing.
So think about this…
Russell goes to Mike Filsaime's event; he makes tweaks and adjustments to the actual offer, and suddenly - there's a stage rush.
People are running to get an account with ClickFunnels.
Q: What made the big difference? Why did it work so well that time?
A: ...
Russells messaging had become anti-website.
He's like, "Hey, websites, I'm gonna fight against you."
And ClickFunnels starts blowing up.
On the flight back, Russell Brunson grabs his phone and says, "Hey, I've figured it out - we're all gonna get rich. The metrics are there - we're gonna do this thing."
Over the next little bit, he pretty much starts shutting everything else down to go all and focus on ClickFunnels - which blows up and becomes what it is today.
FIND YOUR NEXT MARKET?
Now, eventually, ClickFunnels started running out of dream buyers in ‘the website space’…
(Russell’s NOT trying to sell EVERYONE in the website space - he's selling to a little bit of the red ocean where his blue ocean customer exist.)
Q: So what does Russell do?
A: He goes out and finds the next market.
Q: Who else does ClickFunnels sell to?
A: ...
I remember one particular day... (this is when I worked for him still), Russell came back into his office and he goes, "Dude!"
He’d just come from back from speaking and pitching ClickFunnels at Grant Cardone's event for the first time - so it was the first 10X event…
As he’s about to get on the plane, someone runs up to him and says:
"Oh man, you did so awesome, all these people bought ClickFunnels - the only reason I didn't buy is that you didn't say it was for B2B people."
And Russell was like, "Oh, my gosh it totally is for B2B people, are you serious?"
Q: So what did we do?
A: We added B2B to all the categories on our sales letters.
So you have to understand…
My theory is that ClickFunnels’ growth is so immense because when they started running out of traffic a market they did NOT try to find more people in the same ocean…
They didn't make the customer circle of the original market even bigger…
Instead, they just found a new source of hot, hot, hot, mega ridiculous insanely hot traffic in a NEW market!
When you run out of buyers, you don't go cooler in your messaging, you find a NEW market.
POW!
Replay that a *MILLION* times! 😉
This is a BIG lesson.
When you're running out of people to sell to, don't cool down your messaging.
Because that's...
HOW TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS
When people say, "I'm running cold Facebook ads..."
I’m like, “Hopefully, not!”
That's NOT how ClickFunnels grew.
Q: Did you know that ClickFunnels didn't even have Facebook ads running for the first year?
Instead, they made all that money, this huge amount of change, just doing EXACTLY what I'm teaching you right here...
They found somebody who had a big pot of their dream customers in different spaces…
You don't try to cool down your messaging to capture more and more of the same market…
… you switch markets.
You go and you find your dream customer who's attending a different market…
I don't wanna get too deep into this, but a market is NOT a person.
If someone asks, “Who's your dream market?”
There's no such thing.
A market is a location not a person.
You need to find your dream person who's frequenting another location - that's exactly how ClickFunnels exploded and blew up...
ClickFunnels slowly adapted their sales message to tons and tons of markets.
I dropped this theory out at the Inner Circle.
I was like, "Hey, I've had this theory, what do you think - 'cause I can't disprove it."
Everyone loved it which was great.
HOW DO MARKETS THRIVE?
Now you may be thinking..,
“So Stephen, what does this have to do with launching a show?”
Let me explain..,
If One Funnel Away has blown ClickFunnels up bigger than anything else they've ever done ever, *ALMOST*... we have to understand a few things about markets...
The reason I'm saying this is because there's A LOT of markets that don't survive.
Let’s take the example of Beanie Babies, Pogs, or disposable camera accessories...
Q: Who wants to go in with me on disposable camera accessories? Anybody?
A: No, it's dumb!
Q: Why would you say that it's stupid to go to the disposable camera accessories market?
A: A] That market is freaking small. B] There’s no money in it. C] There's no story around it. People don't believe 'em.
You see what I'm saying?
There are things that keep a market alive and things that kill a market.
And I wanna make sure that who I'm attaching myself to is a market that is strong…
... and that's what I teach you at OfferMind.
That's why I need you to come to OfferMind next year -'cause while I lead as The Offer Guy (and I am)...
What I really teach you how to do (and what makes offer creation simple) is market positioning.
When you know how to position yourself in the market, the offer is easy.
So the reason why I'm doing the One Funnel Away Stories show, (and the reason WHY I've been forking out my own cash to go do this), is because…
Most markets don't ever figure that out - which is why they die.
I'm hoping this not too much of a super techy episode, but I need you to understand why I'm doing this.
WHY THE ONE FUNNEL AWAY STORIES SHOW?
Q: Why on earth would I try to do this?
A: The One Funnel Away Challenge is so powerful for brand new users - so I wanna make sure that the success stories that people are having become the forefront of the One Funnel Away Challenge.
There are tons of reasons why.
Why wouldn't I do that?
I'm a marketer baby, my role is NOT to create noise, it is to align with where noise is.
*Put that on a T-shirt*
As a marketer, my job is to find where the noise currently is...
Q: Where's the noise?
A: One Funnel Away.
Q: Does it work?
A: Oh, yeah, (when people actually do it).
IS CLICKFNNELS ONLY FOR INFO PRODUCTS?
I just interviewed a guy who uses ClickFunnels to fill his private horse training business - (he fixes people's horses is what he told me).
I’ve also interviewed a...
Gone are the days of people saying ClickFunnels is just for information products.
#No! #Done.
One of the reasons why I'm doing the One Funnel Away Stories is because I wanna take the experiences of people who are doing the work we're telling them to... and share with them with the world.
The fact that I'm creating the One Funnel Away Stories is actually helping the ClickFunnels market survive with an even stronger ecosystem.
.... I'm doing it on purpose.
If no one is talking about these successes, no one would know or think that it works - so I'm gonna talk about it.
So real fast, I just wanna share a few ways that I'm creating the show - so you can see how I actually do this stuff.
I wanna share with you how I pull this stuff off.
MY CONTENT STRATEGY
Q: So, Stephen, how are you gonna create the OFA Stories show?
A: Well, first of all, I need to treat the show like a product - 'cause it is.
So I say:
The show is NOT gonna be a One Funnel Away commercial... that's NOT what the show is.
If the show was a continual promo of One Funnel Away, that would be so annoying.
Instead, I'm taking the entrepreneurial stories of people in the OFA and I interviewed 'em (split-screen) deep on their journey and business experience.
WANNA JOIN ME ON ONE FUNNEL AWAY STORIES?
If you've taken the One Funnel Away Challenge and you’re thinking, "Hey, I'd be interested in being interviewed on that show," I'd love to have you.
You gotta reach out to Shane Larson - he’s the guy running the One Funnel Away Challenge…
(Shane, you don't know I'm doing this - sorry, buddy, you're about to get a lot of people pinging you. 😂 )
I use a template to ask very similar questions to every person that I interview.
(If you're not on YouTube right now and you're listening or reading this, I would strongly encourage you coming over to watch this one. A few of these episodes are better when seen.)
MY CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY
Here’s how it goes…
There are Kingpin categories…
Everything gets syndicated and pushed all over the place.
My role is to…
...
...so now, this becomes the episode.
Q: And then what do I do?
A: I shove it at my audience and at all the other audiences that ClickFunnels serves - that's who I’m targeting.
Now the reason I'm sharing with you is that if you were to say,
It's NOT meant for them.
You understand that, just like a product, you have to have the base questions for the show…
And you position it so it's targeted at very specific people.
I'm gonna go for this person and then this person and then this person. I'm gonna go with these individuals, and the ClickFunnels space - that's who it's for.
PUBLISHING MAGIC
There's this magic that happens when you create content or decide to continually publish - I promise it will change your life.
...it's incredible.
The magic thing is that when you have laser clarity on who you serve, only then do you…
By having ultra clarity on who I serve, I actually get people that are out on the fringes, the people that aren't necessarily the ones I was gonna go for.
If I try to target everybody I don't get anybody.
You understand how targeting works like that?
You have to be hyper clear on who you serve and who you don't.
And funny enough, people work to try to qualify to fit in those categories and they work hard to be with you.
My Best Buyers Always Come From My Content, Not My Ads
HOW MY CONTENT STRATEGY STARTED
When I first launched Sales Funnel Radio (my first show), it was just me and it was a $5/month account at libsyn.com…
I’d ride my bike into Russell Brunson's office 'cause I was still broke, (I was just out of college and really haven't any money at that point)...
My goal was to be in the seat at 6:00 AM - sometimes I was a little late (like 6:10) but usually, at 6:00 AM, I was there.
I would unplug Russell's microphone from his computer and plug it into my little laptop (which I traded funnels for in college)...
… and just started talkin' and tellin' stories.
The reason I'm bringing this up is that all this looks really complicated…
And if you're like, "I don't understand this!”
I don't want that to be the reason you choose NOT to publish.
So I'm sharing that with you because the success of the show has come out of the consistency of it and me trying to…
… it’s this amazing thing.
And so, if you're like, "I don't understand this?”
I'm just understanding it myself
So think of it as like Publishing 4.0... but as I've seen these different patterns come together now I'm like:
"Well, crap. My whole role here is to know who I serve, where they're going, the problems they're hitting along the way”
That's NOT just true for products or offers, it’s true for content too.
And I was like: "Oh, my gosh, that's amazing.
Oh, and by the way, that's how ClickFunnels exploded by knowing who they serve and only doing one market at a time - holy smokes!”
I learned more and more as I went along the way.
So this is certainly more of a techy episode but I'm hoping it's shown you like, "Oh, my gosh, that's why he's launching MORE shows."
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER SALES FUNNEL RADIO GETS THE AXE?
I don't know another person that's as big a fan of ClickFunnels as me.
If you go to onefunnelawaystories.com you can get on the waiting list for that.
Yes, you can go to that show, it’s gonna be super cool.
And then also targeted this community (because we're all made up of different people and we have different likes, dislikes, tastes)...
I love my crowd here.
Be real with me here, how many of you guys have actually tried a multilevel marketing or network marketing thing in the past?
(Which is totally fine, if it's not your thing - whatever then, don't do it.)
But if it is, I grow mine without looking at it because of funnels - so that's the focus of the show.
I’m gonna teach modern downline and product sales growth strategies.
It's cool because a lot of it's like case study stuff -'cause that's what I do right now and I don't really do any work for it...
(I did at one point but the work is perpetual.)
I’M NOT THE FUNNEL GUY!
I'm not trying to position myself as the funnel guy.
That's the other reason why Sales Funnel Radio is going away for as far as my involvement with it - the content will stay up 'cause, come on, that's part of the power of the content.
Secret MLM Hacks Radio is dropping out for several rebranding reasons, which is why the other show’s coming out.
I'm so excited for Pursuit of Profit - it's a studio show, it's gonna be side-by-side similar to Impact Theory.
I wanna fly people in and sit down side-by-side with them in a studio to ask them about their profit models.
I wanna know because most people are like, "What's your business model?"
But most people don't know what a business model even is.
And so I wanna ask 'em what that is and have them come in and teach that - it's gonna be super cool.
Take a lot to get off the ground on that one, but I'm super pumped about it.
We're working to launch One Funnel Away stories, January 1st, (or at least that first week-ish)...
I actually just got off of Voxer with Russell…
The show itself will probably start with Russell telling more of his story of being One Funnel Away.
We'll most likely have also Julie on as one of the other coaches.
We'll have me on here as one of the other coaches with my One Funnel Away story.
TAG ME!
Hopefully, you enjoyed the blog?
I’d love to get a review if you guys wouldn't mind - I’ve poured a lot into the show and it’s been super, super fun.
Certainly, I’m sad to part ways but at the same time, it's the natural evolution.
So let me know what you liked about the show, and please do me the favor of screenshot-ing any part of it, then tag me on social media, and say...
"Steve Larsen, this is my favorite thing about that episode."
Your feedback has actually has helped me see more of what you like than pretty much anything else.
So I wanna keep making the stuff that's helpful to you.
Thanks so much… and I'll see you in the next time.
CAPITALISM SWAG.COM
“Stephen, why do you call yourself the Capitalist Pig?”
Ahh, there are several reasons...
I had a lot of beliefs around money that were NOT correct, and eventually, in order to actually launch, I needed to change my relationship with money.
It's one of the BIGGEST steps that most entrepreneurs need to take.
So I wear this shirt that says Capitalist Pig, loud and proud, as a reminder of the power and responsibility that we've been given as entrepreneurs.
I defend my message that you should get rich on purpose, and it's NOT evil, and I am vehemently against socialism.
I believe true change will come from entrepreneurs and society, NOT the government.
In the words of Grant Cardone, "Money can't buy happiness, but broke can't buy anything."
Capitalism fosters personal growth, and God has been all along this journey.
I believe the pursuit of riches creates strength of mind.
In the words of Mark Cuban, "I don't care what anyone says, being rich is a good thing."
Money doesn't change me. Money amplifies me.
If this is resonating with you, and you believe the same, go get your Capitalist Pig t-shirt, at capitalismswag.com.
My friends, Get Rich, Give Back.