Is This One of Our Final Podcast Episodes?
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What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson, and welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. And I don't know yet, this may be one of...

the final episode. So I don't know. I'll talk about that here in a minute. Welcome to the marketing seekers podcast. My name is Russell Brunson and I'm what you call a serial entrepreneur, but with a twist, you see 50% of my time. I'm the CEO of click funnels, hoping over a hundred thousand brands to grow their companies with funnels. And the other 50% of my time, I'm actually in the trenches using click funnels to grow the startups. I believe it during this podcast, I'll take you behind the scenes and show you how we are bootstrapping click funnels and my other businesses from startup to

to nine figures and beyond welcome to the show all right everybody so man it's been a little while since i recorded an actual podcast i've had a couple of replays last month or so and as time i'm recording this we're less than a week away from christmas which i'm excited for but man i i am not gonna lie this has been one of the most difficult um seasons of my life like this year's been hard as a whole so i was just thinking back about it was basically 12 months ago

a little over 12 months ago that my closest friend, my business partner, Dave Woodward, passed away. And it's crazy because that came on the back of us launching ClickFunnels 2.0, which has been a crazy ride as well. And then it's just been a tough year. I'm not going to lie. We've had some big ups, some low downs. I think...

I was at a wrestling tournament this weekend with my son and I was talking about wrestling. I said, wrestling, I love it because it has like the highest highs and lowest lows. Like when you win, you win. It's like the greatest feeling in the world. And when you lose, it hurts so bad. But it's what makes the pursuit and the win feel so great. You know what I mean? So this year has been similar. We've had some great wins but also some big losses. And obviously the biggest and hardest one for me has been

um dave um he was one who i would talk to every single day he was one that i brainstormed with he's one i have crazy ideas and he helped me implement them he was the one that you know was my biggest cheerleader and i don't know it's it's crazy how how hard that is when you lose that you know and still having the same mission the same everything but missing that person who was such a big just a big part of of it all so anyway it's been an interesting year and you know we launched click phones 2.0 and um

I don't know. It was a crazy, I don't know. Launching new software is always hard, right? We have, you know, we've been working on it for over two years. We've been talking about it for a year. People were anxious. They were waiting. And so we, we launched it and, um, it's crazy though. Cause you know, we'd spent a year using it. We built out membership sites, built out funnels, built out, like it was working great. It worked great for us. But you know, when you launch it and day one, you know, we had 18,000 people sign up in the first week and,

Um, all of a sudden you start finding out what's working, what's not working. And, you know, and, um,

And I'm so proud of our team. They've killed themselves to, you know, do an amazing job of support and the dev team fixing things and adding things and improving things. And that's what this year's been. This year's been reactionary of, you know, we launched this thing and then the reaction of just keeping up with it. You know, when we launched ClickFunnels the first time, we launched it and there were 10 customers and 50 customers and 100 customers, you know, and we were able to fix things in real time as we're growing. But man, starting a startup...

where day, you know, we, the first week you get 18,000 customers is hard. It's something we were not prepared for and ready for. And, um, definitely harder than I thought. And it was crazy. We launched. And then right after that Dave passed and then,

just it was hard i think because a lot of people who i consider friends um people who had you know we had we had helped grow in inside of click funnels people who had had struggled they came into our training they had success they went to comic clubs and then um to see the negativity and it was frustrating because like your thought was like we gave everyone 2.0 which is beta software we let them keep 1.0 so they got both the same price and

inside of that it was it was still hard made a lot of uh frustrated people which you know is my fault and i've been working hard to remedy that and fix things and but i love it i mean click from superman was awesome i think there's a learning curve that we're trying to simplify and clean up and stuff like that but man we've been running click forms on it now for two years we've been running our own stuff on it and it's it's amazing you know we just did the big secrets to success launch on it and like it's it's really amazing it's just kind of

I don't know. It was just, man, it's just, anyway, launching a startup for that many people is, is hard. So that year, this year has been, been kind of tough for that and trying to figure out the right decisions, right moves. And anyway, so I don't know what I'm telling you other than, I think a lot of times my podcasts where I wrestle all my energy and excitement and stuff like that. And I am excited to have energy, but, um, especially today, especially tonight, I'm just worn out and tired and,

Actually, I came over to the book office just to go and spend some time organizing books because that sounds like the most fun thing for me to do and spend time. You probably know the last two years, almost three years now, I've been buying these old books and

It's crazy. I had a handful, a small collection. And then when Dave came down with brain cancer, it was crazy because nights I couldn't sleep. And so what I would do is I'd jump on eBay and I'd search for books. It was the thing that brought me peace and happiness and a relief from the real world. And now I've got these two different offices full of – it's kind of ridiculous if I'm honest with myself. But, man, it's just crazy how much happiness it brings me looking at these books. People have passed on. Most of these are – I'd say 95% of my books are more –

uh for people who passed on and so it's just fun for me to sit here and realize all these people you know one time were just like me trying to take over the world trying to change the world trying to do the best they could they're writing books they're publishing stuff way back when it's so much harder than it is today you know before google docs and things like that anyway i get comfort just looking at like how excited they must have been when they were publishing these and writing and getting them out there and then they had people who read the books and changed their lives and just how they must have felt you know

For me, that's the thing that's kept me going over the last decade of doing this whole ClickFunnels marketing secrets thing is just seeing people's lives change. And so...

Anyway, I don't know what it is. I love this. I love being around these books. I'm sitting on the floor right now next to a whole bunch of them. Some of my favorite authors are right here next to me. Charles Hanel is one of my favorites. Robert Collier. Robert Collier, man, a lot of the marketing guys and gals in my world, you'll know him from the Robert Collier letter book. But that was a book he talked about his advertising principles. But he learned that by advertising his personal development books. And he's got dozens of books he wrote that are so good. And magazines. He published two different magazines that...

There's only seven issues out. I found four of the seven. I'm still trying to find the last couple. And then a second magazine that he published. Each issue is like these little books. Like, they're so cool. And then all these other cool things, you know. And I think about like, you know that scene from Dead Poets Society? I played it at Final Hockey Live where Robin Williams is sitting there with this new class and he's talking about their future. He shares the poem. In fact, I found an original first edition of this book after watching it again. But yeah.

The poem is like, it says, gather your rosebuds while you may. It's like he starts talking about why is it so important for you to pursue these things now? Gather your rosebuds while you may. They're doing it right now. It's because soon we're going to be gone and this life is such a short glimpse. And then he shows the – he has all the class leading to look at the pictures of these people on the wall. And they're like these old – they're not old. They're young people with their black and white photos. He said, look at their eyes. Look at the – they were just like you. They were –

They were excited about their future, what they were going to create, what they were going to do. It's like, look at him now. He's like, they're worm food, you know? He says, but right now they're calling. They're whispering something from the ground. Listen in close. Listen in close. So he has everyone getting close. And then from the back, you hear him, you know, saying carpe diem, carpe diem and seize the day. He's like, that's what these guys are telling you. It's like, you know, our day is over and I'll seize the day. I think when I'm amongst these books, that's what I feel. It's just like that, that feeling of like seize the day. Like, what are you trying to create, Russell? What are you trying to do?

And I think for me, I've lost vision of that for the last little while. Mostly it's because I've been, I don't know, do you guys go through this? This is like the vulnerable Russell. I'm one of those episodes I shouldn't post, but it's been tough. Like, you know, when you have a partner that you're pursuing something and you're talking about it and then, and then you've got, you know, man, over two years now where you don't even want to talk about it as much as it's different. And

You know, my business partners who I love to death. You know, Todd's not in the office. He's on the other side of the country. We don't talk that often. And, you know, I think while we're so aligned in some things, we also have different visions of what we want and we're trying to do as well. So for me, I think I feel like I got lost on the path for a while. Like I was just kind of doing a lot of different things and launching different businesses. And it's so interesting. Like, do you ever do that thing where you teach somebody something and you believe something, but then you do the opposite? You know, before we had ClickFunnels, the thing that I –

I would do that. I'd create new business every 90 days and we relaunch it and launch next one, next one. And I love doing it. And when we decided to launch ClickFunnels, you know, Todd told me, he's like, we put so much into this. He's like, you need to focus on this for a year. And so I was like, okay, I'll commit to a year. I did commit for, um, man, eight plus years before COVID hit and COVID, I got bored a little bit, you know, Todd was coding ClickFunnels 2.0 and I didn't have as much to do. And so, you know, it,

I'm trying to figure out what can I do. And I bought a supplement company, then a second one, then this and that, and then all these projects we started working on. But they weren't my core focus. They were just things I was excited by. And so because of that, none of them got done. Now I'm looking at the year 10 of ClickFunnels, and I need to be focusing 100% on ClickFunnels. And I've always started projects that are just taking time and energy from me and from our staff and our team. And so I laugh because when Inner Circle would come in and they would try to

They would have some projects, all the projects. The very first thing I'd do, they'd tell me all the different projects they have. I'm like, okay, number one, you have to kill all your babies. You're allowed to have one business and one only. I'd force them all to kill their businesses and people would fight me every single time. Then they'd come back and like, I killed all my businesses and I was able to focus. It was crazy because now I made... Our business exploded. It's just so funny because the advice I gave everyone else, in fact, just even last year, I gave people that same advice. They're like, well, how come you have so many businesses? I'm like, oh, well, you know.

Do what I say, not what I do. But then looking back and I was, you know, my advice was correct before. It's just funny. So I'm in the process right now of killing a whole bunch of businesses that suck, that I've put time and energy and money and effort into that just aren't producing and are sucking away time from my number one opportunity, right? We all have one core opportunity that we can and should be pursuing. And so...

Yeah. So for me, obviously it's ClickFunnels. That's my core thing. So I'm committed to. And so I'm actually really excited. Today, I started looking at if I'm going to put 100% of my effort in ClickFunnels, what's the thing that I can or should be doing that'll have the biggest impact that's going to change things the most? What does that actually look like? And I can't tell you yet, but there are four things. I was like, holy crap, we have these four things. We will crush everybody else. It'll be

They don't even know hit them. Like it's going to be really fun. And so I got excited by that, energized by that. And so I'm going to be pursuing those things and working towards them. I think you'll see most of them. And actually what's funny about these is, well, you'll see a couple of them. There'll be a couple you'll see. There'll be a couple you will not see for like, you're most likely won't see, but they're going to be big and they're going to be, they're going to be moving very, very quickly on them. And I'm excited. Like, you know, it's just one of those things that I don't know. I'm just like really excited to jump back in and,

and really see what I can do over the next couple of years and, and see how big we can grow ClickFunnels. And so that's, I think the really good news, but also, you know, these books and my vision and what I want to do with the books are still here as well. And,

So secret success will continue to be my side business. I'll have one, one that I'm passionate about and I love partially because it lets me use ClickFunnels every single day. You know what I mean? Like I'm in there and building stuff. I'm trying stuff. We're finding the bugs, we're finding the errors, we're finding what's not working. And it's giving us a really good loop back. Plus all the two CCX training, all my other trainings are based on us growing that company. So yeah,

But those would be the two things I'll be focusing on. That's it. You know, the core focus would be ClickFunnels, obviously. And then the side will be my little side hustle, which is these books and what we're doing with them. And for the time being, that'll be the focus. And who knows, maybe in three or five years from now or whenever it makes sense, maybe I'll...

step down and hand over ClickFunnels to someone smarter than me and, you know, focus just on the side business where I'm hanging out with books and all that kind of thing. But definitely for the short term, it's going to be 100% focused on that. And so I'm excited for it. And so for any of you guys who are listening to this, I think that'd be my aha or my takeaway. Hopefully I can give you this year of, you know, stress and anxiety and whatever you may be going through because I

I don't know. We're all going through stuff, right? You know, and we've got stuff we're going through business stuff, but also we're having a lot of teenager issues that we're struggling with right now. Anyway, it just, it all kind of adds up and I know that we all go through those things. But anyway, uh, that's my, if I can give you a gift that I'm giving myself right now is to kill all your babies and focus on one.

Focus on your best opportunity. And I think especially over the next, I don't know, the next 12 months is going to be crazy with elections and chaos and AI and all these things that are happening. Like, you know, I think now it's time to really focus on one thing and try to do your best to capitalize on it. And yeah, so that's my goal. So my goal is in the next 90 days is to at least 2x, maybe 3x the lead flow of people that join ClickFunnels every day. You know, we're over a thousand people a day that still join ClickFunnels.

And I want to dramatically increase that while increasing stick rate and a bunch of other things. And so it's gonna be fun. I'll keep in the loop what we're doing. I'll share with you the, the ideas and what's happening. And I mentioned this may be one of the last Marquee Secrets podcasts, not because I'm going to stop podcasting, but we're kind of relooking at my content strategy as a whole. You know, we spend so much money on paid ads and paid ads are getting so much more expensive. Even with us, we've got

the deepest funnels in the world. You know what I mean? Um, we're pretty good at that. That side of things is still getting harder and harder at scale. And so, um, that's one of the things that I'm trying to focus on is, is really getting more, um, focus on, on organic traffic. And so, you know, with that, I'm like, well, this podcast is great, but, but it could do more, could do a lot more if I looked at it differently. I remember talking to Rachel Hollis last year and

And she's like, you know, I look at all my businesses and they're all doing well. And she's like, I have this podcast I put almost no effort into and yet it makes me, you know, X amount of dollars a year. She's like, if I focused much effort there as it is other places, like what would my business take? It would be insane. And so she doubled down. I saw her going from, you know, one podcast episode a week to three or four a week and, you know, selling ads and sponsorships and making great money off it and building that as her primary business, you know.

And anyway, I just keep coming back to like, man, if I focus on the organic side and really put a year or two years into it, it could and should be the spot where it can overtake what we're doing on the paid side, which would be insane. That'd save me a million bucks a month, you know, two million bucks a month, probably. So $20, $30 million a year if I can replace that. Maybe I can't, maybe I still keep paying that, but now I get other traffic for free on top of it and that's even better. So you'll be seeing me going down. So I have an idea for a new podcast that will hopefully be coming out early in the new year.

and we're relaunching our YouTube channel, Instagram. We're doing a lot of things to really focus on the organic side, so that's kind of happening here. And yeah, my goal is in the next 12 months, by this time next December, we'll re-meet here. I'll be like, hey, guess what? Right now, ClickFunnels has 250,000 active members. Booyah, we did it. So despite the storms, despite the elections, despite all the craziness. So anyway, it'll be fun. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it.

simplify my life and my stress and my anxiety and still try to figure out the details on how to do that but I think it'll be amazing so alright with that said I appreciate you guys listening and hopefully a little more raw vulnerable version of the podcast is helpful for some of you guys who may be struggling this time of year as well I appreciate you all thanks for listening I'm cheering for you I'm rooting you on and let's hit this next year at a level we never had before and have some fun so with that said thanks you guys so much and I will talk to you soon