Boom, what's going on everyone? It is Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna talk to you guys about food stamps.
I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.
The real question is how will I do it without VC funding or debt - completely from scratch. This podcast is here to give you the answer.
Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business, using only today's best internet sales funnels.
My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.
What's up, guys?
Hey. Alright. Right off the get go, okay, just gotta tell you I'm probably gonna offend some people, and I'm gonna speak a lot of opinions on this thing, but I wanna share with you guys really how I was able to get through like the first year or two of failing entrepreneurship.
There's nothing wrong with being in that failure zone, by the way, right. I think that's one of the things that people get self-conscious about. They're like, "I'm not a successful entrepreneur yet, or I've been going in the game for a while now, and I haven't really made anything." I totally get it, first of all.
In college, my wife and I, we were freaking poor. I mean, we just, we were literally living paycheck to paycheck, but really it was loan to loan. Because like I was just getting student loans.
I was supposed to get paid by the Army, and through some stupid crap, I ended up getting paid half of what I was supposed to the entire time I was in it. And so I was like crap, "I at least wanted some security with that vehicle, with that job, right, of being in the Army." And it wasn't that way.
And I will tell you, looking back, that was one of the biggest blessings I've ever had in my entire life. The fact that we did not have enough, okay, the fact that we did not have any money.
What happened was when we first got married, a lot of you guys know the story, right. I found out that my lady was eating one meal a day behind my back just because we didn't have enough cash - and I didn't realize that she was doing that. That really cut me to the core.
I kept coming home every day, I was like, "Why, she's still in bed?" I was like, you know, "What's up, you okay?" and she's like, "Yeah. Oh, it's nothing."
She's already been graduated - I wasn't graduated yet. And I'd come back the next day, and she'd still be in bed. We had just barely gotten married like a few weeks ahead of time, and I was like, "Is it me? What's up, you okay? Are you alright?" And she's like, "No, no, it's totally fine. It's totally fine. We're good."
And I'd come back the next day, the same thing. Next day, same thing. Next day, same thing. It was like, "What is going on?" She told me that she'd only been eating one meal a day and as a man, that wrecks you. Right? That'll destroy anybody, but especially most men tend to get their identity based on what they do.
Many women tend to get their identity based on their environment. That's a huge stereotype.
So for me, it wrecked me, okay. I was super, super sad about everything that was going on. Not just sad, but like, my self-esteem dropped. I was having a hard time functioning in classes knowing that my wife was so weak at home, and I was in classes. I mean, really think about that.
The scenario was really, really intense.
So about two years prior, I was living in North Carolina. I was on one of those missions - I was one of those missionaries riding a bike around. We talked to a bunch of people - I was one of those guys in a suit, tie, little badge. I mean, I'm sure you guys have seen them around, right? I loved it, great time of my life...
Well, I was put in a lot of spots and a lot of areas where it was people's sole plan to live on food stamps. It was their plan, and they literally would not show up to work so they couldn't make enough money so that they could get on food stamps.
That, in my opinion, is extremely wrong.
I know this is where I'm gonna ruffle feathers. But if you don't like it, this is my channel, you can leave. I'm gonna tell you what I think. Capitalist pig baby, alright, here we come. Okay, here we go...
I'm gonna be sensitive to this 'cause there are tons of people who need it, and that's great. But when it's your freakin' plan to suck on other people's hard work, I do not agree with that. The door is right over there, actually! And I'm serious about that.
With that mindset, of seeing tens of thousands of people where that was their plan, okay, I was like what? Like, you're going to go on welfare, that is your career path?
I'm just letting you guys know, that's my backstory, that was where I was coming in from to the scenario with my wife from. The scenario of, "I will never do that." If I get hurt, if something happens to me, sure. If I need it, legitimately, but after I've done everything that I can. That's my personal opinion on it.
I think it is wrong to have a plan that way. You're getting something for nothing, I don't agree with it.
So again, if I've offended you, I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry. I really believe that.
So I came into our new marriage, our relationship, with that mindset. And I'm like holy crap. I need to do something now. I just didn't know, I had no idea that's what was going on.
And so the moment I found out, first of all, it crushed me, and then I had several choices...
And I am so thankful for how I chose. I try not to get emotional on this one, okay. It was one of the hardest things I've ever gone through in my life. I called my dad, and he taught me... I worked multiple jobs my entire childhood, okay. I started mowing lawns when I was eight years old. I know how to work, and I know how to work hard.
I know how to do crap that I don't want to do. Which is a huge lesson of itself. That's totally thanks to my dad, he's the man, he's totally taught me everything on that, okay.
When I got into college, I called my dad, and I was like "Hey," (super not with the culture of how I was raised), I was like, "Hey, could you give me money?" And he said "No."
A lot of you guys have heard this story here, but I'm just giving a little more detail behind it because of where I'm trying to take us. Just follow me here for a second...
He said "No." He said, "If I give you this money, you will not exhaust the resources you didn't know you had." That's huge. That's huge. That's when he told me that.
I was like, "Oh, crap!" So my back's against the wall, and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna make this. I can go get on welfare stamps... we certainly qualify for that. I could go get loans. I could get a job, but then I'm probably gonna do bad in my classes.
What's hard is in a college town, people were working for $3 an hour just because there's so much labor available. Everyone's trying to get jobs. And that's totally accurate.
My wife got a job finally, after trying super hard trying to find something, for $3.50 an hour. $3.50 an hour! Dude, guys, crap was hitting the fan. You understand?
When people are like, "We don't have any money," like, I get it, okay, I have been there. Or like, "I don't have any time," - I was in college, I eventually joined the Army, we had kids - freaking I had no time either. And I get it, and I get it...
And the answer is to not, don't turn on freaking Netflix. You gotta look at your discretionary time and where you're spending it and squeeze every ounce of it out that you can.
And the choices that I had, I could get food stamps, I could get loans, I could get a job... but that probably wouldn't even pay for our bills anyway. So I was like, "Crap. We can't even get a freaking job for more than $3 an hour." That was legit. Which means I couldn't do anything in class anymore.
I was like I gotta do something...
My wife, she went and she started looking into this WIC program which is like food stamps. And she looked into it. She and I had a conversation, and it was very, very challenging. We were like, "What if we don't get on the food stamps?"
I'm not saying that people don't need it. But what I'm saying is the willingness to go through it and figure it out without taking the out. Man, that will turn you into something you're not...
And so, we decided we wouldn't take them - which was very challenging. It meant additional suffering, you understand? It meant additional, being willing to go through crap.
When people tell me things like, "I don't have time." Bull crap, I don't believe you. "I don't have money," - then you've not become resourceful yet.
I actually feel so thankful when people are like, "I don't have enough money," - like "Oh good, you have a trial. Good. Lean into it." I'm so thankful for the scenario that you're in. That's how I feel about it.
They're like, "Oh, I don't know how to do this?" Perfect, YouTube it. "I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to do that, I don't have enough money." I'm like, "Oh my gosh." Like, you gotta call your own BS out. Because I have like "this much" sympathy.
It's one thing to be in active pursuit and fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, right... Then I want to swoop in and be like, "Alright, structure this way and do it this way." It is only because I've done it 100 times, right. Out of desperation. You know how much crap you figure out when you got a few minutes for.
Case in point, right. I remember when I was in basic training, which certainly, there are far more intense programs than basic training, I understand that. But we were in a special scenario. We were in the last spot on the base where there had not been renovated yet.
It was really far away from any kind of mess hall, any chow hall. And so they had to drive the food into us.
Well, a lot of the time they wouldn't end up actually driving any food into us. We couldn't actually go to any chow hall. So we ended up getting about half of the calories of everybody else who was in basic. It was crazy.
There'd be like a pancake, little tiny sausage, and there'd be like half an egg because that's all the truck could fit in to feed any entire 200 person platoon.
Man, I lost 15 pounds I did not have at that time. I got wicked skinny. And oh man, it was so, so challenging, right. Going through that kind of garbage, super, super helpful. Really, really helpful when you start going through those things.
What I'm trying to say is, I have learned to be thankful for the trial - not that I always remember to be thankful in the middle of it - that's very, very different.
What I'm trying to help you guys understand and see is that whatever the trial is, whatever the challenge is...
And that's one of the reasons why I went into the Army. It was part of my, it was part of what I, "I'm gonna be a tough guy," right. I wanna go do that. Yell at me, I want that. Let me throw some grenades. Let me like shoot some machine guns and stuff. I wanted that kind of thing. And I did for a long time and most of my childhood...
But it also became the way to get paid.
But then we get in, and we find out that we're only gonna get half of what we're actually promised. I was like, "We're still in the freaking same situation. What is going on?"
But now I've lost half of my time again because if I'm not doing full-time school, like 14 credits, I am doing Army crap. "How do we eat?" It was years of that. Years of it.
I decided that I would lean in. There were some things that happened to me and some mentalities that were taught to me by being in the Army, by being in uncomfortable scenarios that taught me to lean in.
We say, "Embrace the suck!" all the time. "Embrace the suck." Embrace the suck, right. And that's totally what I started learning how to do.
So while we were just barely surviving, the loans luckily came in. I mean we were down to... like sometimes it was super tight. And then the next semester worth of loans would come in, and I'd be like, "Oh gosh, oh thank you."
It was a huge deal for me to go and get a $97 subscription to ClickFunnels every month. It was a huge deal for me to try and find a way to get to Funnel Hacking Live. It was a huge deal for me. Does that make sense?
It was a very stressful scenario... And it was prolonged! It's not like it was short. We leaned into it. It was three years before my funnels started working - before all the things started...
I remember I got that first $1500 check. It was not a lot, but like, on a monthly basis- 'cause I built these funnels for companies, and they were working, and I was like "Oh my gosh. Babe, let's like, take a drive somewhere. We can afford the gas." You know what I mean.
I was so elated. That changed everything. Just a thousand bucks a month. It's like, "Oh my gosh, this is so crazy." It was so nuts.
I'm a very introspective pattern driven individual- so now, looking back... Obviously, hindsight's 20/20 - but I want to encourage you to not study food stamps. I wanna encourage you to study money.
Don't study food stamps, study money.
And funny enough, I had to do that outside of college, even though I was in a marketing degree. I was in getting a business degree in marketing. And I was like, "I'm not learning how to make money here." And what's funny, the training is not, it's typically not vocational training. It's not any kind of training that's out there or any courses or any classes or anything like that.
Colleges don't teach you how to make money - they don't know how to make money. Most of the time, teachers, you know what I mean, they're not making much either. They can't teach you that. Don't learn from poor people how to make money. That's stupid.
You gotta look outside of your network most of the time to start learning how to make money.
The scariest moments come when you don't know what to do next. I have been there on a yearly basis. I did that for a while. There are two quotes that I like a lot. One of them is by Julian Barnes, which I think is like the same Barnes as Barnes and Noble Barnes, which is awesome.
It says, "The more you learn, the less you fear. The more you learn, the less you fear."
It's actually written on my wall over there. "The more you learn, the less you fear." And so what I decided to do was to get obsessed over the study of money.
I decided to do that shortly after joining the Army and realizing that I was only gonna make half of what I was told I was supposed to. It was very frustrating. Very frustrating.
But I decided to make, I decided to study money. Which meant I had to look in places that were not obvious in front of me.
And that's when I started actively seeking money making guys out, and that's when I first ran into a guy named Russell... and I was like "He looks like he's 12 years old, should I even believe what he's saying? Does he know?"
And that's when I started getting in the habit of learning from rich people. "How do I make money?" I'm not gonna ask poor people that. That's like going to the gym and asking someone overweight how to lose weight. I hate that.
Anyway, so what I'm trying to say is "the more you learn, the less you fear."
Most of the time, people just don't know how a dollar's actually made. We know how to do that very traditionally from our parents with a "time for dollar model," but when you learn how to do a "value for dollar model," - that's the model to go study.
The other one I really like is; "Competence leads to confidence."
Competence leads to confidence. And that's the whole purpose of this episode, and the only reason why I'm saying this is because we just launched the Affiliate Outrage program. It's completely free.
The reason I did it is because affiliate marketing is great training wheels for the business game in general. You don't have to worry about making the product. You just worry about what actually sells stuff.
Most of the time I see people, and they're like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go learn how to do this game, what product can I sell?" Wrong question!
Ask, "What's the sales message that sells? What's the sales message that sells?" And then worry about the product.
That's why I like affiliate marketing because the product side's taken care of for you. You can just focus on the sales message. You can just focus on marketing - just sell.
Just because somebody made the product does not mean you get to skip creating the marketing.
That's why I like affiliate marketing. It's like training wheels for this game.
So that's why I launched Affiliate Outrage. Affiliate Outrage is free. Affliliateoutrage.com. There's no upsells, nothing else in there. It'll get you off the ground and doing this kind of stuff.
I also launched the OfferMind. Almost 400 tickets already are out for that - which is crazy cool. I'm excited to see you guys here in Boise soon.
I gave away free tickets when you guys bought Russell's new book through my affiliate link, just as a thank you - which is awesome. I'm trying to do a few free things.
My customer who I really serve, I charge 30 grand a day to go in, set up, and design the actual sales message, design the offer, design the actual funnel, right.
I don't build the funnel, but I create all the assets ahead of time. I charge 150 grand to do it for actual.
My customer who I actually serve and exchange with - they're expensive because I'm good, and my crap works - I know it does... And you have hopefully seen that.
...But I don't want to neglect the fact that I have an affinity for, I have empathy... because I've been there in the trenches. You're still in the mud, and you're like, "That extra $1000 would change my life." I know, I have been there. And so that's the reason why I've been doing these different things.
So if there's anything I can... It's out of passion - this episode.
I want you to obsess over the study of money.
It's not normal - it's not taught. You don't stumble on the study of money. The fastest ways for you to learn how to make cash - study marketing. That's why I sink my teeth into it. Marketing is the activity where money gets exchanged.
Money is the by-product of marketing. That's why I study marketing. That's why I'm a marketer. That's why I'll always be a marketer. I'm a marketer first before any product I'm actually selling. Always, marketer. I am a marketer. I am excited about that.
That does not mean logos. Does not mean color schemes, slogans, business cards. That's not marketing.
It doesn't even mean Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads, that's not marketing.
And if you're like what are you talking about? That's exactly why I'm saying you need to study it... That's not marketing.
Anyway, so, what I'm trying to say is: if you're in that phase, first of all, I feel ya. I've been there. I was there for years. I totally get it. I want you to lean into the challenge. I want you to lean in to and let it sculpt you.
Many of you would not follow me if I did not have the background that I do. That's super key to understand. Be willing to live the very hook that you are going through. You are the future hook.
The fact that I went through 17 businesses before one went off - that's so bonding. That lets me be followable.
Understand that even if something's not working, you are still crafting the foundation and framework for you to get massively paid in the future. Lean in is what I'm telling you. Lean in.
I got that coin on my desk, many of you've seen it now. It's: "the obstacle is the way." The coin says: "The obstacle is the way - The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." That's what the coins says. It's one of my favorite quotes. It stays on my desk for that reason.
Whatever I know I need to be doing, but it looks the most sucky - that's what I make sure I lean into.
So I'm begging you not to study how to game this food stamp way. Don't study food stamps. Study money. Study how money gets made.
Funny enough, I have the biggest time getting over the internal hurdles about studying money for the longest time. I felt like I was being greedy.
It's really weird when I look back to when I read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which I'm sure many of you have... Rich Dad, Poor Dad, is like the gateway drug for most entrepreneurs - it totally was for me. That and like Four Hour Work Week and a few others.
But anyways, Rich Dad, Poor Dad talked about three asset classes. There's business, there's paper assets, and real estate, or real assets in general. Those are the three.
This was my thought: "I'm not gonna go do business because I don't want to be greedy, I'm not greedy." That was literally my belief pattern, guys. You understand like only five years ago. Seven. I remember when I read that. Seven years ago. That was my belief pattern:
"I'm not going into business because I don't want to be greedy."
How stupid of a belief is that? Right? Plus, "I'm not really a professional guy. I don't even own a briefcase." I don't really like to put suits on too often. I'm not wearing shoes right now. I don't like to in general. That was my belief. How stupid, how stupid? That's a dumb belief.
Learn to call out the BS that you're telling yourself.
So I was like man, I'm gonna go into the financial markets area, and I borrowed 15 grand to go through these courses. I found out down the road that they knew they were outdated strategies... and I was like, "Oh, that's exciting."
Then I went into real estate. Not business 'cause I don't want to be greedy. That was my thought. That was the reason, you guys. That was literally the reason.
Then I was like, "Fine we'll do the business game, but I'll just go do sales 'cause I don't wanna make a product. I don't wanna be the entrepreneur 'cause entrepreneurship..."
I actually had my wife tell me about three months into marriage, she said: "How come every time someone starts to ask you what you want to do and it's entrepreneurship, you're like really weird about it?"
It'd be fun actually to bring her in. I can hear her vacuuming right now, if you can pick it up on the mic, you probably can.
She's with our kids, she's awesome. Total rockstar. She's incredible. Sacrificed like crazy for all of us. And inadvertently for the rest of you as well. She's amazing. She'll be at funnel hacking live, I'm really excited. She's gonna come this year.
I am super stoked about all this game. I'm excited for all this stuff. I want you to understand this game.
When I started coaching, especially when I started coaching a lot of two comma club coaching, stuff like that, if you guys are in those programs. I went in with the anticipation and with the belief that I would be coaching people on marketing. I spent maybe 40% of the time actually coaching on marketing.
I had no idea that I would be spending the majority of my coaching time on just people's mentalities and their beliefs and their attitudes towards money. That's been the big massive hurdle.
I'm like "You can do this.” They're like "I'm not good enough." "You can do it." "Okay, maybe I'm a little bit good enough." I'm like, "You can do this." "Alright, fine, I'll go do it."
I do that kind of crap more. I shouldn't call it crap. I'm not saying it's crap. Stuff. I do that kind of stuff way more than talking about marketing strategies.
I had no idea that I had done those things to myself along the way to even pull off the marketing strategies that I teach and do.
So I'm trying to help you understand. If there's anything that you can study to really make you move forward, you gotta study money. Don't study the way out.
There's an amazing quote by Will Smith, he says, “There's no reason for plan B because it distracts from plan A." Totally agree with that. I don't have a plan B, "I'm all in on A, baby." I just want a plan A, that's it. I don't want a plan B. I don't even want to think about a plan B.
Too many times people are like, "What's plan A? What's plan B? What's plan C?" Like, that's freaking distracting: "Well, I'll go try this entrepreneurship game. If it doesn't work out, we can always do food stamps."
If you think about it, it is very hard to fail in this country. It's extremely challenging to fail in America. I could get government housing, I could get food stamps.
You are not going to die. It's hard to die. You have to try. There are so many freaking safeties in our society now. Mediocrity is celebrated:
"You're good enough, you're trying, you're doing everything. Just be happy with where you are." Bull crap! No, I don't want the mediocre life. And I don't want you to get seduced by that mindset.
Mediocrity is celebrated and it's very hard to fail truly in our society. There are so many lock aids, you could do bankruptcy, you could do government housing, you could do the food stamps, there's a lot of things you can do before you really truly actually hit rock bottom in America.
But because of that, people get soft in their heads -they got no discipline in their head. Man, I'm totally on a soap box now. Reeling it in, baby. Here it comes:
It is very, very, very, very easy to win in this game now. It's so easy for me to dominate. It's shocking!
I was voxxing Dave Woodward the other day. It was like two nights ago. I just won the affiliate contest for 30 Days -which is exciting. How cool is that? ...Using the exact same principles, I teach you guys. And I won that contest by a lot, which is fun and very, very exciting.
And I was voxxing him, and he goes, "Hey, congrats man. That was really cool. You could do a whole course just based off of what you did here because that was brilliant." And I was like "Hey, thanks man, I really appreciate that." I said, “You know what's fascinating…” and I told him exactly what I just told you guys:
"I thought I'd be teaching all this marketing stuff. I can't even get people to that part because it's so in their heads."
There's such a lack of discipline. It is so easy to dominate in this space because of the lack of discipline.
If you have the smallest inkling of being able to go through things that are just a little uncomfortable you're gonna be fine, you're gonna be fine.
I encourage all of you guys to start orchestrating challenging things in your life to callous the mind.
I invite you to lean in to your obstacles. I invite you to say, "You know what, I'm totally cool with a little bit of discomfort in my life. I'm willing to experience voluntary pain." Not like a freaking masochist...
I'm saying, "What things which are not comfortable can you orchestrate in your life to get going and moving off the ground?"
This was as much about studying money rather than food stamps as anything else. Right, just being willing to just run forth and be uncomfortable along the whole way.
Okay, I feel like I'm opening a different can. I just opened one can and that was a good can. Just drink that down, I'm ready to come over here to another can, but I'm not gonna keep going here.
I just want you to know, like I want you to feel me on this, "Do not study the out. Do not study plan B." Who cares? "Don't study food stamps. Study money."
Be willing to go through stuff that's a little challenging. If you're going through it, I applaud you. I'm excited for you because of what it will let you do in the future.
If you let it, it can sculpt you into something you could not have become on your own.
Anyway, this is a bit of a firey episode, but I'm totally against people planning for plan B. I don't agree with it at all. I think it's stupid.
It's like, "Man, well, maybe, you know, I'll go get in the Olympics but, you know, instead I could just go be blah..."
You're literally trying to plan "the out." I don't give my customers the out because I know my products are good. I don't give myself the out.
I know I've talked a lot about Darren Hardy. You know he's got a good book, Willpower Doesn't Work. Really, it's environment. So I orchestrate events, things in my life, things that are uncomfortable with the purposeful intention of getting uncomfortable.
Willpower doesn't work. If your like, "Hey, I'm gonna go will myself into becoming this person Steve was talking about." Uh-uh!
That's why we invite you to buy other coaching and products and things like that because you need an environment. Environment is where things really switch, not willpower.
Willpower's like a muscle. It will literally actually fail after a while.
Anyway, hey guys, I appreciate you guys taking the time, and I appreciate you guys being here.
Thanks for letting me have a little bit of real talk with this. This has been a fun episode. This is one I've been wanting to say for quite a while. Do not study food stamps, study money.
Those kinds of things are what actively increase you as an individual.
The personal development you experience through entrepreneurship is ridiculous, better than any personal development course I've ever taken in my entire life. Entrepreneurship.
Anyway, guys, thank so much. Appreciate ya, love ya all, and very much think about where you guys are because I've been there and I have a lot of empathy for it.
A lot of you guys are extremely successful too, which is great. You've probably have resonated with a few things I've ranted about here.
Anyway, guys, thanks so much. I'll see you guys at the OfferMind - those of you who are coming.
And go through Affiliate Outrage program if you wanna learn more about kinda the training wheels of marketing itself. Things to get paid for, but not get distracted over product creation.
And I will see you guys next episode. Please, please, please, share and review the episode. It helps me a lot, and I actually do go read the reviews. They keep me motivated.
Hey, thanks for listening. Many don't know that I actually made my first money online as an affiliate marketer. If you wanna know how I funded my entire company without using any of my own money EVER, you can learn to do the same for free at AffiliateOutrage.com