Sales Funnel Radio

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SFR 257: Book Review: Influence And Income Online... Jul 05, 2019

Show notes

Once you know what you sell, your DUTY is to spread your message. This chapter will show you more about my tactics to increase my influence and income online…

I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this publicly….

But before I bootstrapped my way to my first Funneling Live event, I started having conversations with my wife, and all I would focus on was telling her how intimidated I felt...

Nobody knew who I was

I didn't have a list

I’d been doing funnels for other people, but I hadn't learned how to charge yet.

I was still overcoming a lot of money-based objections in my own head.

In all the promos, Russell was saying things like, “You're gonna be around millionaires...”

Immediately, I my mind started thinking, “I Arrgh, 'm outclassed. I can't go perform in this game. There's no way…”

Finally, my wife was like, “Don't tell anybody that you're not a millionaire yet. Who needs to know?”

… and I felt like I had to hide.

BUT LET ME TELL YOU…

First of all, understand, that was the most absolutely wrong mentality that I could have taken, I just didn't know any different.

Second of all, I didn't understand that during those first few years, when I didn’t have influence or income, I was actually in one of the most powerful positions of my entire life.

INFLUENCE & INCOME ONLINE

Looking around now, I see it a lot of people who (like me) have their own dreams... but as they start to pursue them, they look at the assets, the influence, and the authority of others ahead of them in the game, (and just like I did), they feel:

Disqualified

Unworthy

Outclassed

...which is one of the reasons I really feel like I understand where the mind of a brand new beginner is - because I walked the path and it sucks.

I felt VERY outclassed.

But if that’s how you’re feeling at the moment, I want you to understand that…

You don’t need to start with Influence and Income in order to get them.

… I certainly didn’t.

HOWEVER…

The good news is that there are a few simple plays that you can use to help successfully increase both your influence and income where you’re a beginner, or further down the road.

HOW TO BE INFLUENTIAL

So anyway, about eight months ago, I was asked to be a part of this project and because of how long the project took, (I'm not complaining at all, it's just the nature of the project), it took a long time to come to fruition…

… it takes a long time when you're working with the kind of people that are involved in this kind of project.

A lot of the BIG guys have launch calendars with their time planned out for months in advance.

I already have a launch calendar; I know exactly what I'm gonna be promoting in five months from now.

Another Example:

You may not know that the One Funnel Away, 30-Days Book was in the making for like six months, but no one knew…

It’s the same with some other projects that I can't talk to you about… ;-)

But…

The book that I was asked to be a part of, about eight months ago, is called Influence and Income Online…

And the prompt I was given for my chapter was:

What are some of the steps somebody should take to master influence and income online?

I do A LOT of coaching… (the One Funnel Away, Two Comma Club X, OfferLab, and OfferMind)… and *that* question actually comes up frequently.

DO YOU HAVE THIS FALSE BELIEF?

One of the most common false beliefs out there is that:

“ Stephen, no one will buy from me because I don't have any following. I have no influence or no authority on the internet.”

And I got to tell you, ...that's just a completely false statement.

You have to understand that three and a half/ four years ago, no one knew who I was…

*NOBODY*

I haven’t even graduated from college when I went to that first FHL…

Then I started working for Russell... and still, nobody knew who I was for a little while.

And that's okay - that's a part of the game.

That’s why I tell everyone to ‘freakin’ publish’ - because it gives you instant authority.

So anyway, I wrote this super thick, incredibly juicy chapter to answer the question of how you get influence and income

I write for a lot of books now. I actually love writing.

You guys may not know, but I was actually the head editor of the yearbook in high school, and I got three Colorado State Awards for my layout designs.

I was NOT a writer, but I did a lot of layout design.

I've always liked writing about the topics ...

SFR 256: How I 'Earn' The Chapter... Jul 02, 2019

Show notes

This is the process I went through to write my chapter for the new Affiliate BootCamp book...

I actually didn't know that writing books would be part of the journey, but I’m here to document my journey, so I have to tell you that…

When you start publishing a lot, people start to ask you to publish in other fashions as well

… so, quite unexpectedly, I've found myself writing A LOT of guest chapters in some REALLY cool books.

So today, I want to show the process of how I write chapters for books.

..honestly, I NEVER thought I’d be giving book writing advice ;-)

BOOK WRITING ADVICE, LARSEN STYLEE

Now, some of you guys may have seen this in the past, but you might get new insights on:

How I write chapters

Why I do write chapters in the way I do.

https://media.giphy.com/media/SRlH6uLa5zI3FPBaLK/giphy.gif

The chapter that I’m gonna show you is for Russell Brunson's New Affiliate Bootcamp Program - which comes with a book.

Russell had a ton of us write an answer to the question:

How do you become a ClickFunnels Super Affiliate and make enough money that you can do kinda what you want to in 100 days?

I was like, "Oh, that's a sweet prompt."

I spent most of Christmas writing it…

I think you’ll enjoy seeing the process I use... 'cos I don't write crap, and it takes A LOT for me to write how I do.

In fact, some people have reached out saying things like, "Stephen, you could do it faster than that!"

I'm like, "Yeah maybe, but it might be way less cool!"

WHY I LOVE AFFILIATE

My first big money came from affiliate marketing

I wanted to build a team and products when I was working at ClickFunnels, but I didn't have discretionary income or time…

Working at ClickFunnels is not a 9-to-5 job - it's way more than that.

I was like, "How can I crap done when I still have an actual job?”

So I started droppin' out these cool little affiliate promos, and I'd make money, but I wouldn't take the money as profit…

I never take money from affiliate marketing as profit.

I'd go in and dump it back into hiring a team or getting a piece of a product done…

I remember the first time I hired a coder to go in and code the first version of the blog for Sales Funnel Radio…

I ALWAYS used affiliate cash to build my business it was NEVER my own money.

I don't ever use affiliate cash for profit, it's ALWAYS an accelerant to do expensive projects I've been waiting to do.

So I want to share with you what I've been doing.

So check this out…

I relaxed the first few days for Christmas, and then after that, I was like, "I have got to work,” like, I can't not work.

It's the same method and pattern that I use to write my own book, to come up with stuff for the 30-Days chapter that I wrote.

METHOD IN MAY MADNESS?

First of all...

I start with the main image that kinda represents EVERYTHING right from the top, and I set that at the top.

(For 30-Days, I didn't draw a picture, it actually would have been easier to write.)

Down the left side, I write all the major topics of what should actually be in the book.

Shooting off to the right is every one of the deep-dive strategies.

Next, I think through those four major topics down the side, and just start dumping in topics with legal pieces of paper:

"Oh yeah, let's talk about that. Hmmm, that's about that. So is this, so is this, so is this…."

I make a big stack of yellow pad papers, organize them, and take out any of them that don't make sense.

… so it's a BIG process.

I don't write crap.

Then what I do from there is, go week by week and write it on my whiteboard.

I wrote out it wants you to do it in 100 days, well 100 days is 14 weeks, so I said, "Well, this is what I'd do week by week."

It's an aggressive plan, but it's very similar to what I've actually pulled off.

I almost felt like I was documenting - it's not so much theory because it’s what I actually did...

And I did most of it while working aggressively for somebody else - so you guys can totally do this as well - it's the reason I wrote it that way...

So I went through week by week…

We have the 'Who' in 'Wealth' - I'm gonna help you guys figure out where the 'who' is.

Then I'll help you guys choose what kind of ClickFunnels product to promote, 'cos NOT all of them are created equal, NOT all of them create the best ClickFunnels user either.

I literally went through week by week saying, “This is what I'd do.”

What's fascinating to me, is that nowadays I feel like people forget... like, they build the funnel, they get the traffic, but then after that…

It's almost like we've forgotten or neglected what campaigns are.

It’s interesting that guys like Bill Glazer and Frank Kern talk about campaigns.

Frank Kern just came out with a campaign-based book to teach this stuff - I wonder if they've noticed the same things that I have?.

I was careful to NOT ...

SFR 254: My Dream Customer Criteria... Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

Today, I wanna share some of the criteria that I personally use to choose my Dream Customer.

I have an actual list that I go through to find my Dream Customer. Knowing my ‘WHO’ helps me on multiple levels so that I can:

Create the sales message

Serve the right customer for my business

Choose the dream customer for my personality

Now, when you think about the phases of this whole game, it goes like this:

I pick my market - a red ocean market.

I choose a dream customer inside that market.

I choose a core problem that my dream customer is experiencing.

I choose the core solution.

I turn that core solution into an offer.

The actual launch/ or campaigns in general - which includes funnel building, content creation and a bunch of methods like that.

...that's a lot of steps, but I've gotten really good at making each of those steps crazy simple.

And those are the six steps I use to get things out the door.

Its kinda like if someone was asking, "Hey, can we make building cars more simple?" Yes, they're still complicated, but the building of them can be simple.

You see what I'm saying?

There's a lot to what we do in this game, but it doesn't need to be complicated, per se.

FINDING YOUR DREAM CUSTOMER

So I wanna share a few of the criteria I use to find my Dream Customer… and WHY it’s sooo important to me!

I didn’t ALWAYS have these criteria…(and it kinda made me broke and miserable)...

In fact, this is a pretty recent list... and I've gotten clearer as I’ve gone along…

Let me tell you a story…

MY MONEY BARRIERS

Back when I was doing door-to-door sales, I'd wake up excited… I'd literally run from door-to-door just get more doors in for the day.

I would knock on doors and sell ANYBODY who had the cash to pay.

If somebody said, "Here's my credit card," you’d just take it.

BUT…

there are some major drawbacks to that kind of a thing - HUGE drawbacks.

In fact, I'll tell ya, I was soooo scared… (a little bit chicken even 😉 )

I had a lot of money barriers that I hadn't overcome at that time.

Six years ago, I was doing door-to-door sales...

We’d drive around in these areas, (selling pest control), basically tryna see spots that would be the easy laydown sales... and they would spend a lot of money.

We'd drive around, and look at these different areas... I remember, there was this particular area…

I don't wanna offend anybody when I say this, (you have to understand, from my perspective as a door-to-door sales guy)...

... but I’d be like, "I don't know that these people are gonna have cash to buy pest control - Pest control may not be the biggest thing on their to-do list right now.”

… we weren’t judging, but that was the reality.

Then we'd drive through these really rich, affluent neighborhoods, and we'd be like, "Man, these guys would spend a ton of money on pest control. Holy crap! So cool"

But I had so many money fears that I would not go to the affluent areas.

Instead, I’d go to these areas where I’d sell cheaper contracts... 'cause I was cheap in my head.

I would sell cheaper contracts and I would sell cheap… and it was on purpose - I’d literally seek out kind of low-income housing areas.

Now there's a BIG lesson in this…

STAYING BROKE

So here’s what happened…

I sold A LOT of pest control… 'cause I was able to give the first treatment for free, and then say, “...it's only this much per month.”

I was literally fighting and competing on price.

The first half of the summer I did really well…

The second half I started learning what the internet was... and it kinda messed me up, and I lost all my focus.

But I still did a lot of sales...

The way a lot of these door-to-door companies work is that you get paid four months after the summer's over...

'Cause they wanna make sure that the accounts just aren't gonna fall out or whatever.

Which makes sense, right, from the business side/cash flow side of things…

Anyway, the day came, and I get a message saying, "Your check's on the way," so I run to the mailbox excited.

I’d worked the whole summer, and we were super pumped about it.

“This is gonna be the check that save us.”

This is gonna be the check that's gonna give us security for the next two semesters of college.

But when I opened up the check, I was like, "This can't be right. Are you serious?"

There was ONLY $1100.

I was like, "Are you kidding me? There's gotta be some mistake here. I worked a whole freaking summer and I only have $1100?"

I have chills right now thinking about it - it freaked me out so bad, 'cause I realized that the sprint we were living in gonna keep going.

SFR 253: Dave Woodward Shares The New Affiliate Bootcamp Book... Jun 21, 2019

Show notes

Dave Woodward helped shape the entire affiliate program at ClickFunnels. He's a personal mentor, friend, and brother.

It's long overdue that I invite him to come on Sales Funnel Radio to share his wisdom...

I'm really pumped about this. Frankly, it's been in the planning for, like, seven months now…

I have wanted to get interview Dave Woodward for a very, very long time.

If you guys don't know anything about him, he is one of the backbones of ClickFunnels...

… so you’re in for a treat.

I think it was October-ish 2018, just after the 30-Days Book went out. I was approached by ClickFunnels to write a chapter for a NEW book...

And, NEWS FLASH…

In case you’re slow to catch on ;-) this is me, announcing the release of the NEW Affiliate Bootcamp Book!

And of course, in true Steve Larsen fashion, I'm gonna over-deliver bonuses to the hilt, so you’ll wanna buy the book through my link…

THE NEW AFFILIATE BOOTCAMP BOOK

The book asks the question:

“How would you retire as a ClickFunnels affiliate in a hundred days?”

I spent pretty much all of my Christmas break writing my chapter.

...it's NOT straight theory kinda stuff.

This is A LOT of the strategies I’ve used to crush it in affiliate contests.

So, I'm really excited about this.

For the 30-Days Book, I interviewed Russell…

For this one, I thought I would interview one of the backbones of Clickfunnels and the reason why:

Stuff gets done

There's an affiliate program that's run well.

The Dream 100 program is killin’ it.

...and the name of that individual is Dave Woodward. He's a beast. He's the man...

Dave has become one of my favorite people on this planet, a mentor, a friend, a brother, and I look up to him like crazy.

I care dramatically what Dave Woodward thinks about me.

Maybe I shouldn't... I'm NOT supposed to say that, but it's true.

I really appreciate him, and everything he's done for me, and my family.

I am very, very excited, and completely, (in full transparency), extremely honored, to have our guest today.

This has been an interview I have been planning, and looking forward to, for a little over a year and a half now. I'm excited and to be completely honest, a little bit nervous.

I have tremendous respect for Dave Woodward. - tremendous respect.

If you guys don't know who Dave is, you should!

INTRODUCING DAVE WOODWARD

Dave is one of the cornerstones and keystones of all of ClickFunnels, and why it works…

...please take that from a guy who sat across, and watched, and was very much a part of the intimate workings of what ClickFunnels is, and how it works.

Dave is one of the reasons why ClickFunnels is where it is.

He is one of the reasons why relationships are the way they are.

And, in my honest opinion, the reason why Russell can even get his message out there…

I have a ton of respect for Dave and for what he does.

He has gone from a friend to an incredible mentor to me. I so appreciate and love him, and I'm very honored to interview him today.

Dave, thanks for being here.

DAVE: Well, I'm extremely honored, and I'm very nervous myself, so that makes two of us.

Thank you for allowing me to come on your show. I have such huge props for you, and I just admire all your work, and everything that you've done…

No one implements like you implement.

I love seeing it, you're such a role model to my kids, it's just fun, and I love seeing the impact that you're literally having across the entire world... so, it's an honor to be here.

STEVE: Oh thank you very much, man. I'm glad to have ya.

Now a lot of people may not know….

Dave sits, literally across from his seat, he literally is looking into Russell's office - I mean he's like right there…

There's this tradition, (at least when I was there), it looked kinda like this…

So Dave and I, right, we're working, Melanie's there, we're getting our stuff done. Usually, there's some music going.

We're sitting around, and then all of a sudden Russell goes,”“UHHH!”

Which means…

“Get up and run to my desk.”

So Dave and I, would get up and run over to Russell's desk, and we'd basically watch the zeroes and ones God pour down wisdom into Russell's marketing brain…

https://media.giphy.com/media/3JSGn9bSDpzAFutb6W/giphy.gif

... and gold would just fall out.

Dave and I, would both try to keep up, while at the same time validating, “Oh my gosh, that is a cool idea, better catch on to it...”

... it's like really, really fun. One of the funnest environments. I miss it terribly.

Now, but a lot of people don’t know that you had a history with Russell and, pre-ClickFunnels. Right?

I mean, what were you doing before coming into ClickFun...

SFR 252: Make Affiliates Great Again Jun 18, 2019

Show notes

There’s is a project that’s been in the making since October, and I haven't been able to talk about it...

FOR A VERY LONG TIME…

‘Mum’ has been the word…

But now, I can reveal EVERYTHING ;-)

THE NEW AFFILIATE BOOTCAMP

During Christmas, I wrote a chapter for a cool book.

Now, you might remember the 30-Days Book…

The hook for that book is:

“Hey, if you were to lose everything, how would you get back on your feet in 30 days?”

I wrote a chapter for that book…

But there are also other books that I've secretly written chapters for…

Recently, I shouldn't say 'recently,' (what month is now? I can't remember... May? June?)

Anyway, around October - ish, Russell reached out and asked if I wanted to contribute a chapter to an affiliate book.

Russell had gone to some of the biggest ClickFunnels affiliates and asked: “How would you retire as a ClickFunnels affiliate (or an affiliate in general) within four months?” ...

https://youtu.be/XAs4LjErbtQ

*Cool Hook* Huh!

It was a very challenging chapter to write…

There's so much that goes into affiliates, and I had a ton of fun answering...

BUT NOW, IT’S TIME TO PROMOTE!

I’d literally just finished drawing the funnel for My Team, but instead of erasing it, I decided to show you how I create ANY Funnel that promotes someone else's product…

‘CAUSE… there’s a right way and a WRONG way to do it…

LINK BARFING

Affiliate Marketing is NOT 'link barfing'.

Just because someone else made the product, doesn't mean you get to skip the marketing.

You still need to create the actual marketing for the affiliate product...

A lot of you know that:

I'm definitely an affiliate
I’m definitely in MLM

… I'm in A LOT of scenarios where I don't control the product; it's NOT my product.

So how on earth do you promote something that’s NOT yours?
How do you build a Funnel for something that’s NOT yours?

… that's what I'm gonna teach you here.

AFFILIATE MARKETING 101

I knew the strategy existed, but I’d never witnessed it until I worked at ClickFunnels.

One morning, I walked in to find Russell writing ferociously on a whiteboard.

I was like, “What's up? How can I help? What are we doing?”

Russell was about to promote Stu McLaren's product, Tribe... and he was creating an affiliate offer to go with it.

Tribe was about members areas... so Russell was brainstorming all these cool things to do with members areas.

He asked himself the question:

“What is it that everyone is gonna struggle with after they buy Tribe product through my affiliate link? How can I answer those problems with my own products?”

Russell had a ton of products to help with that…

So he was like:

What if I gave those things away if they buy through my affiliate link?

We'll give them these Funnels
We'll give them these products
We have these pieces of training…

...and that's what we did.

I ended up having to create, ( let me do the math...it was 89 Funnels x2) … 188 Funnels in the next two weeks - it was CRAZY.

It's the reason why I say that I built around 500 Funnels while at ClickFunnels... not all of them were revenue Funnels.

There were probably near 100 revenue funnels, but the other 400 were were based on fulfillment. Anyway, that’s beside the point…

Russell created a single page for people to see, “Oh, my gosh, this is what you get when you buy through Russell.”

He's done that strategy so many times that it’s ridiculous.

He will swoop in at the last moment and just like win these massive contests.

Does it help to have a huge list, of course, but you don't need one.

This strategy I'm about to walk you through is one of the major reasons why you don't need a huge list... and you can still make a ton of cash.

ONE FUNNEL AWAY

When I was promoting for the One Funnel Away Challenge - the 30-Days Book specifically, I was the number one affiliate, and Julie Stoian was hot on my heels…

I was like, “I gotta win this.”

She and I have some pretty friendly competition, back and forth, “Who's gonna be the top affiliate?”

I had this cool bridge page, and so I basically asked myself the same question as Russell asked when he was promoting Tribe:

“When you get this 30-Days Book through Russell, what can I give that will add MORE value and benefits to it?”

I asked myself:

“Well, what is it they’re still gonna struggle with if they go buy the product through my link?”

If you guys wanna see the live example of this, go to 30days.com/stephen or ofasignup.com - both of those will forward you to the bridge page.

It's a page that I built real fast in a hotel room in one morning before the Two Comma Club X Cruise at the beginning of last January…

It's insane how much cash came off that page.

That one single page has made 110 grand since October - which is awesome - it’s A LOT of cash.

I don't consider myself a professional affiliate, but the reason it works is because of the strategy that I'm about to show you guys.

It’s the same principle if you're in MLM...

SFR 251 - 3 Easy Ways To Create An Offer... Jun 14, 2019

Show notes

When you go to the Inner Circle works, everybody takes a turn to teach something awesome to the group, and then they say, “Hey, I have some things I need help with.”

Then the whole group kind of analyze this person's business and give feedback…

You get advice from a lot of heavy hitters, and everyone is focused on you until the timer goes off - it's intense…

It’s mentally exhausting, but it's a lot of fun, and totally priceless!

Before the Inner Circle, I could not sleep. I woke up at five dreaming that I was on stage...I was like, “I can't sleep anymore,” so I spent three hours pacing and working this out…

MY OFFER CREATION PROCESS

One of the things I want to teach you today is three simple ways to create an offer.

We all think that creating an offer means that we go and add a whole bunch of products together…

And that’s definitely an awesome way to create an offer…

...but it’s NOT the ONLY way.

Anyways, I want to teach you three of those methods today.

THE DREADED QUESTION

On top of that, another thing I think you’ll really find interesting is seeing me answer the question of what I actually do.. *that* is NOT an easy question for a lot of entrepreneurs to answer…

“What do you do?”...is kinda the dreaded question!

When somebody asks, “What do you do,” and you have to answer - sometimes that sucks.

But now, I can answer that question; I know exactly what I do…

There are some things that, (like I said in the past), you have to design, and there are other things that you have to discover…

Sometimes explaining what you do is something you have to discover, and that's been the case for me; it's not the case for everybody, but for me, it's been that way...

...and I’m gonna share that with you in a single sentence!

https://youtu.be/mwj8UkCVSds

So you’re gonna find out:

Three ways to create an offer
What it is I that actually do for the marketplace
Why we have so many people reaching out to ask to be in our programs.

If you want to watch the actual presentation, you can do that here.

I have chopped out a certain piece that I don't want you to know about yet… ;-)

We have a product that we've been doing for a while now, and we have a lot of people in it now - which is great, it's done quite well…

It’s made a lot of money for us, and made A LOT of money for the students, I chopped that piece out, and I’m gonna keep that hush-hush for just a little bit longer while I finish a few things of…

YES, THIS WILL WORK FOR YOU!

One of the most challenging things I have to deal with is when people ask, “Stephen, that's really cool, but how does it work for me?”

They say things like:

I'm in high ticket B2B sales that are multistage sales that are multistage sales/ contracts…
I'm in retail…
Stephen, I'm in…

So, I think one of the things that’ll be helpful is for you to see three ways to create an offer… that you can tweak to apply to whatever business you’re in…

You can use them all together, (which is very powerful), but you also can use just one or two to add immediate value to whatever you sell.

So let's talk about value creation and how that actually happens…

JUST DO IT

This is my third inner circle meeting as a member, and I think those of you guys who saw me that first time will agree that I’m really very different…

One of the things that I've been focusing on is showing up as my authentic self and being unapologetic about that, and it's been very fun to start doing that…

… and I've noticed when I can do that for customers and help them arrive, they do all kinds of stuff on their own. That’s literally what the One Funnel Away Challenge was meant to do…

If I can get them to say, “ I am an entrepreneur, I am a funnel builder,” they'll suddenly go do stuff without me yelling, “Just take the next step...”

The amount of forcing I have to do drops like crazy.

BUILDING MY WAFFLE

I have been building my waffle, and it is awesome:

I have to content teams
I have a funnel team

… I don't have quite the executive team yet, but it's been awesome. I mean, stuff's getting done without me all the time.

A lot of people asked me, “Stephen, how are you doing all that you are?” I'm NOT, my company is. I'm building an actual asset…

... and that's been a major big piece for me in the last six months.

Other cool things that we've done:

We did a cool 7-day launch (following what Russell did) - it was so good, it was awesome. It launched my event, and opened the tickets - it was a 6-figure launch.
I did my first quarter-million-month last month - that was awesome, that was a cool one.
10, six-figure months in a row - yeah, stuff’s going good.
We have 3,000 downloads a day on the podcast, which is so fun.
I'm speaking of Carnegie Hall - how cool is that! That's gonna be with Martha Stewart, Dan Kennedy, Michael Gerber in September.
My main product OfferLab - there's not even a funnel behind it - started at a quarter million, (softly just word of mouth), there's not even a funnel yet, it's been really validating.

The Carnegie Hall<...

SFR 250: Living Legends... Jun 11, 2019

Show notes

I have the incredible honor of speaking at Carnegie Hall in September with MARTHA STEWART, MICHAEL E GERBER, DAN KENNEDY, HAL ELROD, and other beasts. I'm beyond humbled by this. Here's the full scoop...

Frankly, I just love being on stage speaking and teaching.

Some of the early stages I got to talk on were Russell's - I did a lot of fulfillment for the original Two Comma Club program.

Back in the day, we did something called the FHAT Event which lasted for 3 awesome, intense days.

We’d go from:

Day #1: 9:00am to 6:00pm

Day #2: 9:00am - 1:00am(ish) - it was a long day.

Day #3 :9:00am - 6:00pm

By the end of the event, everyone was just exhausted.

Russell did the first event because he was testing materials and seeing where we needed to change things…

Then after that, he largely handed it over to me, and he just came in for a few one or two-hour guest speeches.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT ENTREPRENEUR EVENTS

I remember there was this one particular FHAT event…

On the second day, I took a break to grab some food and went to Russell's office to sit down. Russell was like, "How are you doing?"

I was like, "Wheeew….” I was just bringing it down... and trying to relax for a second…

... THAT was a very aggressive fast-paced stage for me - I loved it.

Russell goes, "How's everyone doing out there?"

We’d always talk about how the audience was responding:

Were they getting it?

Did they understand?

Which principles had tripped them up?

Had we managed to bridge the gap for them?

We’d chat back and forth exploring all the scenarios, but this time, when Russell asked, "So how are you doing?"

I kinda paused for a second…

https://media.giphy.com/media/1qXJDYI8lTG8SVhUZW/giphy.gif

Russell noticed and asked, "What is it?"

He may not remember this, but I said, "Dude, I can see those who are getting it and those who aren't. They're not telling me. I can see it."

And he goes, "You're getting that already, huh?"

I was like, "That's a thing?"

Russell said, "Yeah, yeah, I can stand up at any moment and, I've been doing it so long, I can see those who are with me and who it's clicking for and those who it’s not - so I'll stop and I'll cater to those people who aren’t getting it."

https://media.giphy.com/media/7YCVWDMbIWTBNuTD9c/giphy.gif

I was like, "Okay, that's what that is. I'm starting to see that.”

MY FAVORITE MOMENT…

My favorite moment on stage, (and this may sound a little cheesy), is the moment when I see in somebody's eyes that they suddenly realize, "Oh my gosh, my capacity is greater than I thought it was and it's actually always been there."

It's funny to watch as people…

Have personal breakthrough moments

Suddenly see the road map and things start to click.

They're like, "Oh, that dream I've been going for all along is actually possible now."

I don't know. I don't know how else to describe it besides that…

But it's a thrill for me because you can see it happen in peoples' eyes as they listen to you.

Those of you guys who educate, teach or get on stage, you know what I'm talking about.

There's that moment where you can look at them, be like, "Bam, right there... I just caused the epiphany."

About 6 months ago, during the Two Comma Club Cruise, I’d just finished a big session, when a guy walked up to me and goes, "You're a really dynamic speaker."

People have told me that before, and I still don't know what that means...

So I said, “Cool! Thank you," but what he said next made my jaw hit the ground…

He looked me straight in the eyes and asked "Do you want to come speak at Carnegie Hall?"

I was like, "Are you completely serious right now?"

He said, "100%. We're going to see if we can get all these huge names," and I was like, "All right. Cool. Just keep me in the loop."

Six months later, it's happening - it's in the bag - it's an event called Living Legends, which is extremely honoring.

So I'm going to share an interview that explains EVERYTHING to you…

BECOMING A CELEBRITY ENTREPRENEUR

I have a very special guest…

His name is Clint Arthur.

Clint and I, have frankly only known each other personally for probably six months, but I am blown away and just completely floored with what he does, his skill set, and who he helps.

What he does, when you're in a certain place, is completely magical and I'm very, very honored to have him on here.

So Clint, thank you so much - welcome to the show.

Clint: BOOM!

Steve: In the middle of Carnegie Hall. What?

Clint: Yeah.

Steve: It's a proxy BOOM! Oh man.

Clint: That's a Carnegie Hall ‘BOOM!’ for you - that's what that is.

SFR 249: Leverage Information... Jun 07, 2019

Show notes

This is honestly the easiest way to make money from what you already do...

I've coached a lot of people now, but there have been a few times when I’ve heard the objection: "Stephen, I don't know that this could work for me?"

So, it’s time to do some excuse busting because the truth is...

You can leverage information, whatever your field of expertise is.

...and the fantastic news is, you don’t have even have BEST in your field or EVEN the best marketer to make a decent amount of money.

In fact, there are plenty of people who are really bad at selling, but who have a good product and make great money.

Enough money to...

Massively supplement their income

Pay bills

Give up the 9-5

You can be quite bad at this and still make good cash.

… which is why this is such a HUGE deal.

So this is for EVERYBODY who says, “I don't know if this would work for me?”

My GOSH, *YES IT WOULD*

Whatever expertise you carry in this world, teach it and make a course about it.

If you're like, "...but I don't know how to do that."

There are a million things out there to teach you how.

The question is no longer, "Are the models out there?"

The question is no longer, "Do I have the tools out there?"

The question is more about belief.

I want to help anyone who hasn't launched anything yet…

If you've been following me for six months, and you still haven't launched a product yet…

Let me give a little tough love and make you aware of that.

Can I say, “Sack up?” Is that all right?

Just go for it. Launch something. Just get it out the door. You're not gonna make it perfect. You can't. You're not the one buying.

Get it out the door and start measuring feedback...

Take the pressure down and understand that all of these choices don't actually sit on your shoulders...

It's such a good thing to realize as an entrepreneur.

My ability to be successful with this is not so much on my shoulders - as far as the decision making…

All I have to do is learn how to listen to what the market's telling me to do and then put it in these frameworks and just move.

So if you’re ready, let me show you how you can leverage info to make MORE money, listen up!

THE EXPERTS SECRET

First, I want to bring your attention to a section in Expert Secrets.

I LOVE this book…

But there’s a strange phenomenon I’ve noticed.

When people quote from this book, there's an area that doesn’t get much attention… and it's this freakin’ gem that MOST people will just skip over…

I’m not making fun of anybody, but I just want you to know that there’s a piece right at the very beginning, (actually it's not even technically chapter one, it’s in the introduction)... where a gem is dripped out that I most people don’t understand...

TWO TYPES OF EXPERTS

There are two kinds of experts…

The first kind of expert is the expert who's selling information about their expertise itself. That's all they do - they just sell information products.

The second type of expert is someone who is leveraging information products for an existing business.

Information products are amazing because there are such huge amounts of margin in them.

The major con is that people understand that there's NOT a lot of cost to fulfill.

If you’ve followed me, you’ll have seen me talk about the benefits of info products versus physical products before…

There are heavy pros and cons pretty between the two of them. I don't think that it's one or the other. I think that they should work together.

But the second kind of expert leverages info in a certain way that most people do NOT understand.

One of the fastest ways that I know to blow up a company is to create an info product that sits in front of the actual thing that you do.

Now I want to share some quotes direct from the Expert Secrets Book

On page XXIII, it says:

Complicated sales will come easy because the information products will indoctrinate potential customers about why they need your products.

… I've found this to be 100% true.

For example:

People who listen to my podcast consume my sales messages waaay easier later on. That's no surprise…

Because they’ve spent time with me, watching or listening to me speak.

I’ve already given value and created a relationship, so the next step to buyer is much easier to take.

Expert Secrets goes on to say…

You'll be positioned as an expert instead of a commodity. People will pay you more for the same thing they could get somewhere else. All other options will become irrelevant. Price resistance will disappear and future sales will become easier.

That’s a very powerful point!

HOW TO INCREASE SALES

The book goes on to say...

You will be able to acquire unlimited customers for free.

...which is very true!

SFR 248: Kill The J Curve... Jun 04, 2019

Show notes

I'm going to throw rocks here a little bit. Ermmm, ‘NO,’ actually it's going to be mountains, boulders and things that are VERY heavy…

I'm vehemently against this idea that we need to take on funding in order to start a company.

The J Curve is what's taught in most of our education and mainstream entrepreneurship today.

Case in point, the J Curve is the very model that Shark Tank operates under.

And while I love the show, I’m vehemently against the concept of the J Curve...

In fact…

It’s time to kill the J Curve.

If you don’t know what the J Curve is, all will become clear… but first, let me tell you a story of about how to make a million bucks…

THROWING A J CURVE…

I was working with Russell on a project for one of his personal clients…

For every dollar we put in an Ads, they were getting $1.30 back out. For every dollar they were putting in an Ad, they were getting $1.30 back out.

However, one day they called, us a bit ticked off, and said, "We're barely breaking even on this?"

I was like, "You're NOT breaking even. You're actually making 30 cents for every customer that comes in."

They weren’t happy with that answer, and they said, "Exactly, we're not going to make a ton of money on that."

We were like, "You guys are missing the entire point here. You now have a machine where you're acquiring customers for free."

We’d created a bottom of the value ladder offer that was expanding their current customer base.

They already had their middle of the value ladder product and they had an expensive club as well…

But what they needed was MORE blood in their value ladder to bring people in and ascend them to their more high-end offers.

We were putting a $1 in and they were getting $1.30 back out… but they were mad about that.

We asked, “What are you mad about? This is a success."

They were like, "It's NOT a success."

We were like, "Yeah, that's a HUGE screaming success."

BREAK-EVEN WINS

… we said, "Let's think about this for a moment…”

“You have a machine that’s giving you customers for FREE and you’re even gaining 30 cents …”

We told them:

“Anything you sell to those customers afterward is pure profit!”

Break-even is a million dollar scenario.

… AND now, these customers are also MORE likely to purchase anything you tell them to buy.

Still, they weren’t convinced… they were like, "What are you talking about?"

Here’s a FACT:

Second money is ALWAYS easier than first money.

A percentage of your list will ALWAYS purchase simply because they like you and they’ve had a good experience previously

We're not just tweaking:

Your offer

The way you position your messaging

But what's so incredible about the way this works is this...

STARTING A BUSINESS THE WRONG WAY?

In college, I was taught that the first things you do when starting a business are:

Write a business plan

Gather the who’s who and get people on your team

Think more about your idea and do some market research

Competitive and SWOT Analysis

Look into the probability of success and do lots of analytics.

Probably my least favorite class was Quantitative Marketing research.

I HATED that class…

And that’s literally where the phrase ‘J Curve’ comes from...

When you start your business, since there's no revenue yet, you are expected to go into debt in order to fund the business, the people, and the systems.

There are a series of systems in business...

For example:

There's a system for:

Support

Fulfillment

Helping people actually have success.

All that stuff costs money.

At first, when I started my business, it was just me... but that's NOT the way I was taught in college.

SAY ‘HELLO’ TO THE J CURVE

In college, I was taught to get a loan and go into debt.

#EyeRoll

I would expect to be in debt until a magic moment three to five years away when I finally become cash flow positive.

Meaning, I'm not losing money faster than I'm making it.

I’m NOT breaking even; I'm just finally going in a straight line.

I'm NOT making any money, but I'm NOT losing anymore.

Then you keep tweaking and tweaking until you reach the mark where... *hopefully*... you’ve made more money than you took on to fund the business.

And *this* is literally what I was taught in college…

When the curve moves upwards enough, then you're profitable.

The moment the curve starts to get to a certain zone (see below) you can take profit - which is great. You make a lot of cash...

But as soon as you start increasing at a decreasing rate, meaning the curve starts going level, you're taught to sell.

You go into the stock market with an IPO, and you sell off your company and you no longer own your baby.

That SUCKS!

You work your face off, but then most of your decisions will be made by a board…

Y...

SFR 247: Acts Of Marketing... May 31, 2019

Show notes

"How to market your business" "marketing strategy" "product launch"

You walk into a group of people (your dream market)... what do you say and do to get their attention?

STOP!

Before you read any further, I wanna drop a truth nuke…

Reading this article could either be the best thing you do all day… or a MASSIVE distraction.

ARE YOU READY FOR A PRODUCT LAUNCH?

So before you continue, I want you to answer these quick questions, (and here they are):

Have you studied Market Selection?

Do you have a Product?

Once you have a product, these are some of the Acts of Marketing that you can use to create a ton of noise when you launch.

I've been at this game for six years now, and hindsight’s 20/20... so looking back, if I give one piece of advice, it would be:

Stop obsessing over:

Funnel types - until you have a product

Offer Creation Methods - until you’ve chosen a market

Your Dream 100 List - until you know who your dream customer is

What to build - until you know who to sell.

Last episode, I talked to you guys about how to select a market, and it's super powerful - I believe it’s where EVERYONE should start when they're trying to decide what to sell…

The big issue that I ran into in college was I was that I knew a lot of strategy... but I didn't have a product…

AND THAT’S WHY I WAS BROKE!

So if you're studying Acts of Marketing without a product…

Stop getting distracted with campaign styles of marketing. If you don't have a product yet, don't worry about this crap.

This is powerful stuff, but you don't have to know EVERYTHING at once.

CASH FLOW IS KING …

First of all, you need to learn:

Market Selection/ Market Design, i.e., How to choose your market…

Start selling before you create the product (which is totally possible).

I made six figures before my product was even done - which is super powerful. Events are the same way. The next OfferMind event hasn't happened yet, but we've already cash flowed a lot on that thing.

You can study market selection without a product, but studying acts of marketing is a distraction.

INSTEAD...

Study product creation.

Study The Seed Launch from Jeff Walker.

It's a great way to get a product out there that you don't even have built yet to get paid for…

There’s no bait and switch, your customer knows that the product isn’t created yet.

What I'm trying to help you understand is…

Acts of Marketing are very different from Market Selection

I believe acts of marketing are the second thing that you need to study. Too many people get distracted by the acts of marketing...

...and I'm teaching Acts of Marketing today.

I’m gonna teach you how to get your product out there.

So if you don’t have a product yet, I’d figure out how to choose your market first.

MY NEXT MARKETING STRATEGY?

The BIG QUESTION that I’m trying to answer at the moment is:

How do I sell more OfferMind tickets?

… that’s the thing that I'm trying to figure out right now, and I'm not quite sure on the answer yet; I've got a few places I can take it…

So in this instance, I'm NOT talking about Market Selection, I'm talking about Acts of Marketing… and I’m specifically talking about Launch Campaigns.

There are launch campaigns, and there are evergreen campaigns.

A launch campaign leads to a single day/ event/ time, where all the pressure is released in ONE go.

A launch campaign introduces a product to the market in much the same way Hollywood does with a movie.

(I’ll cover evergreen campaigns in another blog)

But for now, let’s take the Avengers: Endgame…

There was a lot of pressure and a lot of build up.

There were even whole movies ahead of time setting it up.

On the radio, I heard that Endgame is the fastest movie ever to gross $1 billion, or at least they're on track to be. That's nuts!

That’s the fruits of a launch campaign...

Most of the time, people don't design a launch campaign - which is why they don't ever have this BIG injection of cash.

That's why I did the OfferMind MasterClass two weeks ago, (I needed a week to recover - it was full-on)...

The MasterClass was what we call a Seven-Day Launch and you can read about what we did here.

The seven-day launch is designed for a MASSIVE injection of cash…

And *SPOILER ALERT* - that’s what happened. We had a six-figure weekend. BOOM! A huge amount of cash came in…

HOW TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS...

So we’ve just had a BIG injection o...

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