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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 ClickFunnels, helping over 100,000 brands to grow their companies with funnels. And the other 50% of my time, I'm actually in the trenches using ClickFunnels to grow the startups I believe in. During this podcast, I'll take you behind the scenes and show you how we are bootstrapping ClickFunnels and my other businesses from startup to nine figures and beyond. Welcome to the show.
What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson. We're welcoming you back to the Marketing Seekers podcast. And I'm actually streaming today from beautiful Miami. Yes, I've been singing the Will Smith Miami song over and over again.
But anyway, Miami. And the funny thing is this is the second time I've been to Miami this week. So last week was my birthday. I turned 44 years old, which is crazy. And for my birthday, I was like, I'm going to do something cool, but I don't know what to do. And I saw that UFC 299 was happening in Miami. And so I thought, Colette, let's fly to Miami. We'll spend a day doing nothing because we always do something. Let's do nothing. And the next day, let's do nothing. And then we'll go to the fights and then fly home. So we did. So we did the whole thing.
Went to fights. It was crazy. We were, like, on the ground floor. I think it was fifth row seats. We're sitting there. I had, like, three or four funnel hackers come up to me and said, hey, which was kind of cool. And then, like, halfway through the main card, all of a sudden, Donald Trump comes out. It's just, like, it's so cool. You see, like, Trump come out, Dana White behind him, Secret Service, and, like, cameras are on him. Everyone's going crazy. And it was just kind of a fun spectacle. Then we saw Mr. Beast was there, Logan Paul, Damon John. Like, it was just kind of fun seeing, like, who's who, everybody, and then watching a fight that close, which...
Part of the thing is it's really cool because you're like right there, you're like, oh, these guys could bleed on me, which is kind of cool in a weird, distorted way. But then also, it's harder to see. You're looking up the whole time. And, you know, normally you would see you watching TV
the camera you know watching tv it's like the cameras like they think they're in the reads like you feel like you're right there it's just like most time you're actually looking up these big huge screens even though you're that close so i think if i went to another usc fight i wouldn't want to sit on the floor other than there's a cool vibe with like all the people who you know all the people down there together um but there's something cool about being able to like see it a little better from a little higher up so anyway who knows
but that was like that was fun that was my first time being a ufc fight it was probably the best cards ever and um that was awesome so then we flew home and um the reason i flew was because monday and tuesday had two things happening at a partner meeting happening in boise and we had our inner circle um category kings claim your throne event happening monday tuesday as well and so we're flying home and sure enough our flight gets delayed which means we miss our connection flight and it was crazy some of us have lived this before we end up
Stayed in a hotel and then booking other flights and all sorts of craziness. I had a flight one way, I flew a different way and eventually got home just in time to get everything done. That's been two days with our partner meeting planning. And then we jumped on a plane the next morning and flew back to Miami with our kids because that night, last night, Wednesday night, we went to a Messi soccer game, which was cool and saw Messi play. Found out why he's worth $450 million a year, I think, is what they're paying him, which is crazy.
I don't even know. That's insane. But we went to the Messi game. They won. Messi scored. And yeah, our kids loved our kid. We had two soccer players in our family, so it was pretty fun. And now we're hanging out in Miami for a couple of days before we head off on the cruise for spring break. So that's what's happening in my world. What's happening in your world? I caught you guys up in less than three minutes. That's kind of crazy. So I do have a lesson from all this. You want to know the lesson? Here's the lesson. So we're preparing for the partner meeting.
And I just want to talk about how cool brains are. Like all of us have these really cool brains, but if we use them incorrectly, they don't really help us. So anyway, you know, I obviously am like always working on my projects and thinking about trying to make it better. And I'm writing my book and working on ClickFunnels, working on Secrets to Success and just all the fun things that's happening, right? I'm trying to build a library, trying to, it's just, there's a lot of fun stuff happening all at once, you know?
And so your brain kind of thinks about what's most exciting at the time. And it's actually as I was packing to fly out to the UFC fight, Todd messaged me and was like, hey, we have this big problem. So I had clip funnels that I wasn't really aware of and he explained it to me. And the point where I was like, anyway, I was like kind of sick to my stomach, like, oh crap, how are we going to solve this problem? You know, I remember actually I messaged him back afterwards. I was like, oh man, I'm like, I'm packing my bags right now. I don't even know. I have no idea, but I'll think about it. I'll get back to you.
So then, um, I start packing and within like 10 minutes, like almost perfectly the, the solution appeared in my head. Just like, here's the answer. Oh, you know, like whatever. And I was like, what in the world? So I messaged Todd back and I was like, uh, what about this? He messaged back. He's like, that's amazing. Like, holy crap. Like, yes, that's exactly what we need. I'm like, okay. And the partner, we would sat down and basically showed it to him, mapped them all out, told him that the vision and everyone's freaking out. And it was crazy. Cause like,
All it took was for me to focus on the right problem. And this is the lesson for today. Because I think, for me, there's a million problems I'm solving every day. I'm sure the same thing is true for you. You're an entrepreneur. You're a creator. You're a prime mover in society. You're doing a lot of stuff, which means we solve problems for people. We think for a lot of people. We solve problems for a lot of people. But our brain usually can, if we put a problem in front of it, it can figure out the answer. It's one of the amazing things about thinking, which is why I'm obsessed with all these books I buy. They're all about thinking.
thinking to change your life, thinking to grow rich, thinking, you know, whatever things are, just like getting better at thinking and thinking strategically and how to think right and how to think about the right things. And so the big aha for me was just like, like I was solving all sorts of problems. I was thinking about all sorts of things, but the thing that was most important for me to think about, like the thing that was most crucial in ClickFunnels and our journey and everything we're doing, I wasn't aware of it. So I wasn't thinking about it. And so when I sat down, I was like, well, here's the problem.
literally within minutes, the answer showed up my head and it's like, oh, there's the answer, right? And so it started making me think about this. I'm thinking about this a lot this last week. It's just like, usually I'm like, I'm thinking about the problem that's right in front of my face all the time. And I think...
I said the word think like five times now, I know. But I think what the key is, is to slow down and stop. And not just to like think about the solution for every problem that's in front of your mind, but to stop and actually spend time thinking about what is the most crucial problem I need to solve? What is the problem? I remember Tim Ferriss, I was at, man, this is pre-ClickFunnels, pre, it's probably 17, 18 years ago now. Dang, a long time ago. I was in New York at this event and Tim Ferriss was speaking at it. He was like the keynote, you know, so they did a Q&A with him and
I still remember this, this day was really interesting. Uh, at the end, you know, the, the host was doing Q and a with him asking questions and, and,
And asked him at the end, like, you know, it's a question I should be asking. I'm forgetting. And he kind of smiled and he said, you know, um, the, the question a lot of people want to know is like, what's a day in the life look like of Tim Ferriss? And he says, you know, if you looked at my life, he's like, it's actually not very exciting from the outside. He's like, what I'll do is I wake up in the morning and it's like, I make a cup of coffee. And then I, and then I sit around and I read and then I walk, you know, go on a walk and I do some stuff. And he's like, what I'm doing to do is like, I'm trying to spend enough time
Like going through all the things in my head, I can figure out what the big domino is. He said, there's always one big domino. If you can push down that domino, it knocks down all the rest of them or makes them irrelevant. And, and it was interesting. Like that thought's kind of repop in my head as this whole experience happened. Like so many times I'm running around knocking on this domino, this domino, this domino, but I'm not even focusing on the big, I don't even know the big one exists. Right.
And slowing down, which I'm not good at doing, slowing down long enough or have somebody else you love bring it to you like, hey, this is a big domino we should knock down, you know? Which is funny because, you know, at least for me, maybe it's not the case for you, but I'm always running so fast that I'm knocking down dominoes left and right, having a good time with it. But I'm not doing what Tim Ferriss taught me, you know, which is like slowing down and spending time to look around and find the right domino, find the right problem.
Because there's a problem out there that you could solve that would solve most of the other ones that you're dealing with, right? So for me now, I'm trying to weave that more into like when I wake up in the morning, I'm not like, oh, here's what I do today. But it's like, okay, of all the things I got to do, what's the one, like, what's the problem that if I solve that one is the biggest, right?
It was interesting too in the partner meeting, you know, we had this two day partner meeting and we're going through all this stuff and there's like a million different initiatives and things and all this stuff we're thinking through. Um, but when it was done, we're like, okay, of all these things, like what are the, what are the big ones? And it was crazy because two of them were who's, so you have who not how, right? And so like we could go and, you know, spend the next six months to a year focusing on creating this thing. But if we get the right who in place, this problem disappears. And then we're like, well, who could it be? Boom. Also we started thinking about the correct problem and literally within a
I don't know, two minutes. I was like, Todd was explaining me the role of someone they needed. I was like, Oh, what about so-and-so? And they're like, Holy crap, that'd be actually amazing. And there's other role, right? Ah, there's like, if we had the right, who this should be perfect. And also Andrew, who's, um, one of our partners and lead developers, like he was like, Oh, what about this person? And it was like the perfect person. Like it was just insane. But it came back to us, you know, making lists of the thousand things we need to solve this, these issues in the company. And then coming back and saying like, what, like,
who's the person that can actually solve these for us right and then answering that question became easy you're answering how to solve the thousand little things was like overwhelming and daunting i don't know about you guys but you know at the end of the day i usually have decision fatigues i've had to answer so many questions inside so many things um but two of the two of the things were just turned out to be who's that solved you know 80 actually there was a third person also who was some big thing on my side trying to figure out okay i don't literally just say oh well
What if we had so-and-so do that? And it's like, oh my gosh, I didn't even think about that. I'm so busy trying to solve the problems. I don't step back to try to think about the right problem. You know, how do I solve this without me being the person? It was interesting. I was looking at Todd, the way that Todd does his to-do lists and things like that. And he had a section where it was just like delegating, like, like trying to think through all of his to-dos he could delegate out. And I was like, oh, I never think about those kind of, like, I'm pretty good at delegating, but
but not from the beginning of the project. You know, instead of like, you just, I'm gonna do all these things or say, he's like, here's the project. Here's what we're gonna delegate all these pieces to. I'm like, ah, it's so much smarter. It's such a better way to solve the problem versus like, here's what things I need to do. I need to do, I need to do right. Anyway, just fascinating. So I'm really enjoying just like how our brains work, how it can come up with solutions, but you got to put the right inputs in, you know, I think most people spend their lives putting the wrong inputs in, right. They're thinking, oh, I'm,
I'm not ready. Oh, I'm tired. Oh, I'm hungry. Oh, and like, you know, and so your brain will solve it. Like, you're hungry? Okay, let's go to McDonald's. Oh, you're tired? Let's take a nap. Let's watch a movie. Let's eat some more sugar. You know, like, our brain, like, we ask it the dumbest questions and it finds the answers for us versus stopping that and being like, okay, what are the questions I got to answer? If I really want this thing or trying to get to this place or whatever the thing is, like, what's the real answer? Sorry, the real question I got to answer.
I got to answer to get my brain to give me the right thing in response. Our brains are amazing. They really are. I think about how come Elon Musk can make so much more money than me. Why is he doing so much better than me? It's like, well, he thinks differently. He asks the right questions. He's solving problems at a level that I'm not capable of yet. It's because I haven't thought about it, right? I'm trying to solve my problems. I think about myself 10 years ago. 10 years ago, I was trying to solve a problem. How do I make money?
you know a million dollars a month like you know five years before that's like a hundred million dollars a year right um then now it's like you know we're over 10 million a month how do we get to 100 million a month you know it's just like it's just but like back then i probably could ask the same question like how do i get to 100 million dollars a month my brain would have figured out an answer but i was i didn't think that was possible right like i didn't believe it was possible like it took me a while to get to the spot where i could believe it so anyway it's just kind of interesting
fun thing to play with so i want to encourage you guys just even right now after the listeners podcast is to pause this for a minute and just start thinking like thinking all the little dominoes you're chasing right now and stop like what is the big one like what's what's the bigger thing the bigger question if i can start asking my brain that it would solve everything else right and then just spend time thinking about it um yeah think about it talk about it um it's interesting they um
again i'm reading so many books right now all of them about subconscious mind and how it works and things like that which is really fun but um one of the big things um in fact ben benjamin hardy talked about about a bunch of people's like before you go to bed at night is to ask your brain the question like hey i'm trying to figure out this thing like go through the problem is and then fall asleep and forget about it and then from there um your brain will go and like find the answer for you come back wake up in the morning you have these answers it's the reason why a lot of times you
you know, when you're in the shower and you're not thinking anything, often the answers come like, Oh, I get the best ideas in the shower. I get the best ideas and I'm falling asleep at night. Right. Cause you're not actively thinking about it. Like you put the thought into your mind and then you let your subconscious mind kind of go and figure it out. Anyways, it's fascinating. I love this stuff. Um, I'm also, some of you guys know I'm working on this whole new book that goes deep in these things. And so a lot of my thoughts aren't perfectly engineered. Um,
I'll get clear talking about these things as the book gets clearer and clearer, you know, and more and more finished. But it's just a thing that's so fascinating to buy right now and I'm loving it. So anyway, that's what's happening over here.
I'm trying to find one more thing for you guys real quick. So this is a quote from Robert Collier. He's one of my favorite authors inside of a book set called Life Magnet, which will be coming soon to Secrets of Success. If you don't have an account yet, go to secretsofsuccess.com. Anyway, this is, he's talking about how a new thought or idea, how it is created and what it does. So he says, according to the English psychologist Graham Dallas, a new thought or idea passes through four definite phases. It's number one,
Number one, preparation. You have a problem to solve. You study everything related to it that you can. You fill your mind with all the facts pertaining to the problem, right? So that's the first thing we're talking about. Like you prepare your mind and like try to solve it out in your head, right? Number two, incubation.
So number one, we figure out what's the problem we got to solve. Think about it.
You know, try to study, try to figure out what we ever can use our five senses to go out there and get those things. Number two, then you let it go. You go to bed at night. All right, brain. So try and figure out I'll be back. Right. For me, I do it through prayer. So I'm praying to God and I'm asking for help for my subconscious mind to like bring these things into my, into my consciousness. Right.
Okay, now step number three, it's called illumination. Those who do not understand the process of the mind tell you of the wonderful idea that suddenly dawns upon them solving the problem they have been working on over for hours or days or weeks. What actually happens is their subconscious has weighed all the facts, come to its conclusion and pass that conclusion back to the conscious mind.
Ooh, you getting this?
So again, it says that most people don't understand that like when you're in the shower and all of a sudden the idea dawns upon you that that's the subconscious like handing you the answer. Like, hey, I figured out. What do you think? You know, your conscious brain is finally quiet enough that you can like listen to me. And then the next part is so cool. We sing that like most of us be like, oh, I can't figure this out. Oh, my brain, I can't figure this out. When you start saying that, your brain is like, oh, we can't figure it out. And it believes whatever you tell it to, right?
It's kind of interesting. All right, step number four, verification. When the conscious mind receives the conclusion, the good idea from the subconscious, it analyzes it in the light of all the facts it has to see if the answer is correct and it tests it. Perhaps the answer is negative because of the fear and the worry of the conscious mind. In that case, the problem may be sent back to the subconscious with confident assurance that there is a solution, that the subconscious has it and can speedily find it.
Perhaps the answer is incomplete, solving only one phase of the problem. Refresh your mind again with every angle and send it back for further developing. Don't talk about the new idea too soon. Let it ferment until it's complete.
until it becomes so strong it pops out of itself full born and perfect steam has little power as long as it escapes freely from the spout of a kettle but stop up the spout and will presently blow off the lid thoughts have little power as long as they escape through the mouth as fast as they are formed you must damn them for a while set them some definite tasks to do before they generate real power the trouble with many people is that they do not appreciate the difference between remembering and thinking
Yeah.
If not, they wait helplessly for someone else to solve the problem. That is not thinking. That is merely passing your memory cells in the kaleidoscope review before your mental eye. Real thinking, connecting all these related items of information and drawing logical conclusions from them is something entirely different. It's like holding two pieces of electrically charged wire close to each other and letting a spark spring between them. If it takes two memory cells, holding them before your mental eyes and connecting them with a spark of related ideas,
Of course, that is an effort, probably the greatest effort there is. And many people are too mentally lazy to make such an effort.
Boom. Robert Collier's the man. So that's the way I think he works. Isn't that fascinating? So cool. Anyway, I'm going to talk a lot more about this kind of stuff in the future. In fact, I have a new podcast coming out specifically on this kind of stuff. Personal development, brains, minds. Anyway, that's all I'm going to tell you right now, but it's coming soon to a podcast. Anyway, I hope this was helpful for you guys. Hopefully helps you guys to start thinking about things differently. It helps you solve the problems in your life that get you to the finish line faster.
Anyway, it was just a big realization to me as I was, again, this week. I focused on the right problem. The solution popped in my head and we were able to run with it. And it's going to be a game changer for me and for ClickFunnels and everything. So anyway, with that said, I appreciate you all for listening. Hope you're all doing awesome. And we'll talk to you all soon. Bye, everybody. Bye.