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**Sales Funnel Radio**

My first 5 years in entrepreneurship was 34 painful product failures in a row (you heard me).

Finally, on #35 it clicked, and for the next 4 years, 55 NEW offers made over $11m.

I’ve learned enough to see a few flaws in my baby business…

So, as entrepreneurs do, I built it up, just to burn it ALL down; deleting 50 products, and starting fresh.

We’re a group of capitalist pig-loving entrepreneurs who are actively trying to get rich and give back.

Be sure to download Season 1: From $0 to $5m for free at https://salesfunnelradio.com

I’m your host, Steve J Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio Season 2: Journey $100M

Latest Episodes:

SFR 206: Is Your Red Ocean Even RIPE? Jan 08, 2019

Show notes

Red ocean strategy" "how to succeed in business" "market research" traffic temperature

Do not choose an ocean that isn't red. Here's how to know if yours is...

Not all oceans are red, and not all red oceans are ready to birth a blue ocean. The Red Ocean is your market.

So how can you tell which Red Ocean is ripe to be picked… and how to position yourself in that ocean for success?

MY RED OCEAN STRATEGY

...Keep reading and you’ll discover the #1 biggest reason I see that people DON’T have a successful sales funnel that has nothing to do with your:

Sales Message

Offer

Funnel

Traffic

I’m gonna show you HOW to know if a Red Ocean is ready to have a Blue Ocean come out of it… and WHY it matters.

Let me tell you a story…

I watch a lot of people get up on stage to talk about their thing.

I remember this one guy who was making loads of money in real estate. He was showin' the numbers and all this cool stuff.

However, the sales letter that he was using was NOT that impressive. I don't mean that in a mean way. He just wasn’t an amazing sales message writer.

BUT he was making a lot of money because of WHAT he was in.

A little bit later, I was coaching somebody who was an amazing sales message writer. Their offer was so incredibly sexy. They had an amazing sales funnel and their traffic looked great…

BUT they were hardly making any money because of MARKET they were in.

WHAT they were in was the problem:

Not the sales message

Not the offer

Not the funnel

Not the traffic

... nothing else.

It was WHAT they were in.

I went through this red ocean strategy at my OfferMInd Event. If you want to get tickets for next year you can go to offermind.com. It's gonna be awesome.

… but listen up, cause I’m going to be dropping some gold here for you too.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS

If you aren’t making money the problem is often, NOT that you don't have an amazing offer - it’s that you're literally in the wrong market.

Money is not known to exchange hands at a high rate.

People don't like spending money on the kind of solution that you've created.

So, ahead of time, there's a checklist I go through to make sure that what I create is gonna sell.

When I started in this game, I’d always start with a funnel. I'd be like, “Oh, sick. Here's this sweet funnel.” And I’d run into some serious snags and really big issues along the way.

So I started thinking, “Oh, crap. I can't start with the funnel anymore. I need to start crafting the sales message.” I was like, “Oh, sweet.”

BUT then I learned that that's not even true either...

Now, before I even start the sales message, I think about positioning. It's all about the WHO. I call it “The History of the Who.”

So I dive deep into the Who and the Opportunity to help me determine the likelihood of me building a successful sales funnel before I ever pursue writing a sales message.

I want to stack as many cards in my favor as I possibly can to make it a win. Why wouldn't I? And you should too!

TO BE THE CATEGORY KING?

A lot of people ask me:

Q: “Stephen, why on Earth are you not providing more sales funnel educational programs? Why are you not building more courses about sales funnels?”

A: ...Because there are SO MANY people doing that. It would be suicide for me to go do that. It'd be dumb.”

It would be a dumb move for me even though I was the lead funnel builder at ClickFunnels.

Why? Because Russell Brunson is the category king in that space.

I'm not gonna go fight over scraps in that area.

I'm not gonna compete with Russell. That'd be stupid. Does that make sense?

QUESTIONS INVITE REVELATION

So before I ever decided to start sellin' Offer Creation stuff or anything in the funnel world. The question I asked was: “Where do I fit in the ecosystem of all the markets that are out there?”

And that's what I'm gonna walk you through here.

This is super crucial stuff, but a lot of people don't ask this before they jump in and decide WHAT to sell… and that’s a HUGE mistake.

Here's the concept…

IS YOUR RED OCEAN PREGNANT?

Before I start building out a NEW value ladder, the first thing I want to do is identify a Red Ocean that’s ripe and ready give birth to a Blue Ocean baby because:

NOT ALL markets are created equal.

NOT ALL markets are at a price point with a history and a customer education level that’s right.

...

SFR 205: How To Increase Your Speed... Jan 04, 2019

Show notes

"how to be productive" "growing business" "entrepreneurial skills, value ladder, team building

This is the one question I ask every quarter that always CHANGES my business...

Answering this question ALWAYS results in me growing my business. Each my business changes for the better... NOT my funnels, my business.

...if you’re wondering, “...but, Steve, aren’t your funnel and your business the same thing?” I totally get why you’re asking that. I used to think that it was too… until the strangest thing happened to me...

Here’s how it went down…

HOW TO BANKRUPT A BUSINESS

I was building cool funnels for a company:

Day #1: We launched the funnel, and the sales start pouring in. I get a call from the owner: "This is awesome, this is epic, this is incredible. Are you serious! I can't believe this."

Day #2: I get another call: "Wow! The sales are still coming in. This is really still cool... I think..." (This time they sound a little more unsure)

Day #3: The phone rings: They're like, Help! The sales are still coming in. Turn the funnel off. TURN IT OFF!"

The first time this happened, I was shocked that anyone would want less sales?

But the company was like, "You're gonna bankrupt us." I was like, “Oh, crap!”

Until that point, I didn’t realize that the funnel was different to the business.

It sounds silly to say that now, but I just didn't know that at the time.

A massive amount of sales sounds fantastic, right? But if your business doesn’t have the systems to cope with a massive amount of fulfillment, then you’re in trouble.

So what do you do about it? *ANSWER* You ask yourself the question:

How do I increase my speed?

ASKING A POWERFUL QUESTION

When I ask THIS question it ALWAYS provokes the most change and the most progress in my business.

It actually happened this way…

I was coming back from a speaking gig where I’d sold a ton of stuff. It felt awesome and I was excited about it.

...THEN I had to spend the entire night fulfilling on what I had sold. Which was great, but I’d only slept four hours the night before and I was exhausted!

So sitting on the plane on the way home the thought came to me, “Stephen, how can you increase your speed?” And I wrote it down in my notebook.

I started listing out all of the ways that I could possibly increase the speed of my business.

My funnels, do great, but the business needed some work so that I could leverage all the opportunities that were coming my way…

The BEST way for me to show you how I answered the question:

How do I increase my speed?

… is to let you in on a Q&A session I did with my OfferLab Group.

These are the high-level killers who work with me directly, one-on-one.

Each week, I do training sessions with them. Look at their stuff to help them design their:

Funnels

Offers

Message

I haven't officially launched OfferLab, so unless you came to OfferMind, this is probably the first time you’ve ever heard of it.

I'm not selling anything else. Offer Lab is not open to anybody else because we're fulfilling. We're putting in the processes and the systems in place.

… So this is kinda like a sneak peek behind the scenes of Steve Larsen.

HOW TO BE PRODUCTIVE & INCREASE SPEED

We had a cool chat with the CEO of Pruvit (the MLM I’m in). And, like a lot of people, he asked me to build funnels for Pruvit.

I was like, “Well…”

My first thought was, “Sure, that would be honoring, but I don't have the team in place to handle that.”

That's why I initially went back to Tony Robbins and told him, “No.” I didn't have the team in place to build the front revenue, or the team in place to support it after it was built.

After talking with CEO of Pruvit, Colton and I just stared off into eternity for a little bit. Our heads were spinning.

We had a tremendous opportunity in front of us. But first, we had to answer the question, (...and here it comes again): “How can we increase our speed?”

So we've been asking that question in TWO areas:

How do I increase my speed on fulfillment?

How do I increase my speed on sales?

*NEWSFLASH* Answering those two questions, usually, does NOT involve MORE of YOU as the entrepreneur.

ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS & PLAYING BIGGER

Play Bigger teaches that in order for you to really make a lasting business that's awesome, you need to design a category, a product, and the business, at the exact same time.

Well, I've gotten really freakin' good at designing:

Categories

Products/Offers

I'm getting far better at the business side, as well.

It's the reason why I’m able to create so much the content …

But what do we have in place on the fu...

SFR 204: The Death Of Stephen... Jan 01, 2019

Show notes

"sales letter" "then vs now" "get out of your own way" the attractive character

Ironically, the only real way to "know thyself", is to continually "sculpt thyself"...

...Don’t worry, I’m still here.

I did kinda die, but only in a metaphorical way so that I could birth my attractive character - and create a then vs now sales letter story to sell my upcoming Mastermind with James Smiley and Rachel Pederson.

Here’s how I announced my death on Facebook:

… it was an attention-grabbing way to tell my audience about the Mastermind that’s gonna be happening the day before Funnel Hacking Live on Feb,18th in Nashville, Tennessee.

I didn’t just blast an email out to everybody saying, “Hey, I’ve got this mastermind. You wanna come? Click the link."

...Because that's the easiest way to promote like an idiot. It’s annoying and not at all entertaining.

Selling is much show business as it is anything else.

When I see somebody promoting their stuff by saying; ”Here's the link, Just buy. Click, click, click, click, click!” I don't want to buy. I HATE that crap.

If I don't see that from somebody it makes me wanna buy without even knowing what it is - because they get it.

I get asked all the time, "Stephen, what's the one thing people can focus on to be a good funnel builder?" My answer is always: “TELL STORIES.”

Quite often it doesn’t sink in, and they ask again, "No, no, no. I mean funnel building. I'm talking about ClickFunnels editor stuff!" I'm like, "Yeah, storytelling..."

I'm telling you right now. the editor is so freaking easy. If you can't sort the editor out, you probably shouldn't be on the internet.

The ClickFunnels editor is so simple. That's NOT where people struggle. Take it from the dude who’s coached thousands of people in this.

People don't struggle with funnels because of ClickFunnels. People struggle with funnels because they have no idea how to sell and they have no idea what makes a sale happen...

HOW TO LOSE A SALE

The day after OfferMind, I had a cool opportunity to train the new speaker team for ClickFunnels.

The biggest thing I helped them realize was that the thing that will screw your chances of a sale up is believing that the sale depends on how well you know ClickFunnels; what it integrates with and all the features.

The quickest way to NO SALES.

If you’re mentioning your product a lot, my guess is that you're focusing on the features of your product. #You’re selling with the wrong script. In fact, you're probably not using a script.

People will fight you on features, so instead, you need to cause an emotional epiphany in your potential buyer's brain.

So now, I want you to start thinking about what you're doing when you sell... "Do you actually know what causes the sale? And can you craft a sales letter that helps you to close your sale instead of hindering it?"

One thing you’ll notice as I go through my sales letter is how little I actually mention the actual mastermind.

I don’t talk about:

Who’s speaking first

How long they're gonna talk

Scheduling

The time of the event

The exact location

....because the sale always happens without too much focus on the actual product.

GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY

If you guys are ever in a pinch and have to write a script fast, then the script that I followed was the "then vs now theme." It took me about two hours to write my story - which is pretty standard if you're gonna cover all the stuff...
Honestly, there are some things I would change, but it's good enough. And it's good enough because I used the Epiphany Bridge script.

I want you to understand that making money has nothing to do with how well you know the thing you're selling. It has everything to do with the script itself and the emotional connection it creates.

The sales message is where you make the money.

I love the webinar script... I use it for all kinds of selling.

There's a crucial part right at the beginning of the webinar script which I call the two introductions:

First of all, we need to introduce the subject, and then you need to introduce yourself as the speaker.

These introductions are NOT always:

At the beginning

Together

In the same order

But, at some point, you have to say:

"Hey, this is who I am."

“This is the topic.”

Every once in a while I've seen scripts where people combine the two introductions - and that’s totally fine.

After you’ve done the two introductions, you can use the “then vs now” method. It's one of my favorite themes inside of any sales scri...

SFR 203: Hacking The Value Ladder... Dec 28, 2018

Show notes

"value ladder" "growth strategy" "money making business"

These are some of the elements I look for when I'm deciding if I should enter a market. I only want the Red Ocean's where the cards are truly stacked in my favor. Here's how…

Today, I’m gonna teach you the method I use to make sure that my value ladder crushes it…

And “Yep, you’ve guessed it.” There’s a science behind the way I make sure that I have the right products at the right price points to sell at. If you want a money making business… and not just an expensive hobby, then listen up!

There’s gonna be a bit of Papa Larsen love, and I hope it’ll help you understand why your business may not be doing that well - even though you seem to have all the pieces.

...Just picture me in a Santa Hat, if it helps to ease the blow.

THE VALUE LADDER

Hacking The Value Ladder was a specific section that I taught during my recent live event OfferMind.

If you don't know what a value ladder is…

A value ladder is a way to design a business and map out your customer:

Acquisition

Ascension

Monetization

Continuity

In college, I was encouraged to write monstrous 35-page business plans, which were not even that executable by the time you were finished plowing through them.

Now, what you may not know is that the value ladder was kinda pioneered by Russell Brunson who did a whole lot of work to help figure out how to plot all those things on one graph - value ladders are a huge deal.

I never write business plans; I ‘value ladder.’ It’s a way to simplify everything I'm doing.

HACKING THE VALUE LADDER

I have a value ladder for both of my businesses which means I know the exact next step I’m building at all times - which is cool because it also means I know exactly what I'm NOT building as well.
If you’re thinking, “Ok, Stephen, value ladders are awesome, but they’re nothing new...”

I want to show you the specific order I use to attack a value ladder that allows me to create cash flow and build my business at the same time as acquiring customers.

But first, I’m gonna cover the basics…

Traditionally, a value ladder looks like this:

There are value ladders with more steps, but typically we draw them with three steps...

There are two axes:

One across the bottom

One that goes up the side

On one side we have "value" and the other side we have "price."

Now, you might be a bit confused by this if you're brand new in this game... However, Price and Value are NOT the same thing.

(This is a completely different topic which would be fun to rant on about sometime in the future.)

The more value you give, the more money you can charge moving up the top.

So when I'm planning how to actually tackle a red ocean, I always look at:

The likelihood of me making money?

How many cards can I stack in my favor, before I even start?’

To do this, what I like to do is tier the price points that are already in existence inside the market I’m hacking.

I look at three different categories inside the market, and ask:

What’s the area of the cheapest price range?

What’s the area does the middle price range fall into?

What’s the area of the price range that’s towards the top?

Let’s take a look at a hypothetical value ladder...

A REAL ESTATE VALUE LADDER

Let’s say I look at the three price points inside the real estate category and I find that:

Super expensive = $10,000,000 houses

The middle = $1-2,000,000 houses

Down at the bottom = $100,000 - $300,000 price range.

Now I have my market and the different price points that the industry is used to bearing...

Next, I look to see, “How frequently does the average real estate agent make a sale inside each of those categories?"
Based on what I discover, I can work out, “How much can I expect to make if I enter that market?

If you’re sitting back thinking, "Oh crap, this is really, really simple." It is, but, “Man, I'm shocked at the number of people that don't do this.”

They start selling some freaking knick knack and then ask, "How come I'm not making any money?"

I'm like:

Your funnel's great, your sales message is awesome, your offer is fantastic, but the industry you went into is not used to the price points that’ll actually make a lifestyle for you.

I swear if someone tells me they're selling “Homeopathic Life Coaching” to College Students, I'm gonna go nuts!

This exercise helps you to determine whether or not you even want to enter a particular market.
Just because I could enter a market, it doesn't mean I should. If that market isn’t a good fit for the lifestyle that I want, then I won’t go there.

I'm not trying to throw rocks here, but I am trying to get your freaking attention.

A “CHANGE YOUR WORLD” VALUE LADDER

A quick story…

SFR 202: 7 Business-Changing Lessons... Dec 21, 2018

Show notes

"business development" "business process" "strategic framework" OfferMind, success framework, offer creation

These are some of the BIGGEST needle-moving lessons I've been applying in the last year…

When I did my live event OfferMind, I didn’t just jump straight into the marketing bit… I started out by walking through some mental attributes that have really shifted the needle for me.

This isn’t something that I’d normally do, but after coaching thousands of people, I’ve noticed that if somebody doesn't have these sign posts inside their brain, a lot of times their business won't do very well.

So I want to share with you seven of the most life-altering lessons I've learned in the last three years.

These are especially potent when it comes to being able to function as the entrepreneur inside your business.

ARE YOU WILLING TO LISTEN?

A few weeks ago, Russell was doing a big push for Cyber Monday and Black Friday. I was watching the way that some people were reacting to the Funnel Hacking Live tickets being sold…

I was like "Dude, let me teach some things to help people actually make 2000 dollars in a day."

I woke up the next morning, and looked at my phone, and I was stoked to see my an email with my name there next to Russells.

I've pushed really hard in the game, and to see that he'd blasted his whole list about the training meant a lot to me.

I taught for three and a half hours, and it was really funny what happened…

There was a group of people who really appreciated what I was teaching, BUT it was not necessarily a marketing education, and I think that threw some people.

There was a small group of people who were very unhappy with the fact that I was not teaching my usual content.

It was amusing to see the stark divide.

However, there are some patterns that I've noticed inside of somebody's brain that makes them successful.

These are some of the biggest lessons I've distilled down, especially in the last year.

These aren't flash in the pan things - they’re the lessons that have made the BIGGEST difference for me in my life and my business as I've moved forward.

So, I'm gonna walk you through each of them real quick:

7 BUSINESS CHANGING LESSONS

(An early Christmas present from Papa Larsen)

LESSON #1:

FOLLOW THE FRAMEWORK

It’s really common for people to ask me, "Hey, Stephen, I'm gonna start building a funnel. What's the what's the checklist I need to make sure that my funnel gets off the ground well?" I understand what they're asking, but the biggest thing I've noticed is that people will get distracted by the creative process.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a:

Funnel

Business

Product.

… the creative is the cherry on the top. It’s the exact opposite of what you need to focus on to succeed in this game.

You add the cherry AFTER you’ve made the cake… NOT before!

Let me explain…

When I was in college guys, a lot of times I was taught, "Make something that's brand new and completely prolific. Something that no one's ever seen before."

That’s some risky crap, and I never would follow that advice ever.

Instead, you need to follow the 80% framework. 80% of this entire game is just following the pattern. It's the 20% that allows you add your little glaze on top.

I get stressed out when people wanna know about “this little trick or gimmick.” They have no idea that they're focused on the 20% instead of the 80 that makes it work. You understand what I'm saying?

You can get an F in funnel building or make a design that's crappy, and still make enough money to have a fantastic lifestyle just by understanding the 80% framework.

If you are NOT a creative person, that's not a handicap. You just need to follow the framework to the ‘T.’

So, here's my lesson to you:

If you can't name, or tell somebody what framework you're following, then you’re spinning your wheels.

If you’re frustrated because you’ve been doing this game for so long, and tried tons of stuff..." But you have no idea what model you’re following, and I'm not talking about funnels, I'm talking about business models….

If you can't say this is the 80% framework l that I'm following, that’s your problem, right there!

For years, I felt like I was spinning my wheels. I was like, "I know what I'd do in that guy's business, I know what I'd do in that guy's business... Why aren’t I making any money?"

And it's because I would always go out on the cusp to these places where I was trying to learn the 20%. And that's the 20% doesn't matter.

It's so much better to learn the 80% framework that causes cash. I only care about the frameworks that cause cash by a rule.

If you haven’t checked it out already there’s a really powerful episode called Cash Causing Models that talks about this in detail.

I don't wanna have to learn the exception to the rule in order to make money.

I'm not throwing rocks at the financial market, but I don't do much stuff in the stock market or stuff like that anymore because I felt like I had to learn exceptions to the rule to make money.

It was the same with a lot of the things I was trying back in the day… that’s why I was broke :-(

The thing I like about funnels is that you can learn the 80% and then just build them and make money. You don't have to learn these crazy flash in the pan strategies in order to make it work out.

WANT A STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK?

Ok, well, what I recommend to find a framework that works is this...

(I'm gonna teach you right now how to shortcut your time to success)

For example:

...

SFR 201: How I Made My First Event, OfferMind... Dec 18, 2018

Show notes

Boom! What's goin' on everyone? It's Steve Larsen from Sales Funnel Radio.

Today I'm gonna teach you guys how I was able to pull off OfferMind so grandly as my very first event.

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?

Hey, I'm excited for this episode. I'm excited for today, I'll be honest. So, just know that what I wanted to do, is I had OfferMind happen just very recently. OfferMind was my event that signified me moving into the offer creation category.

No one has become the category king of offer creation. I am trying to make my stand there as being the best and the first in that area as the solution provider for that area. You know what I'm talking about?

So anyways, I'm really really excited about it and all of it. OfferMind has signified a lot.

What this episode right here is not about is the content about OfferMind. What I wanted to do is take a kind of an objective look at how I pulled off OfferMind so grandly as my very first event. Anyways, it'll be fun. It'll be really really cool.

I love events. Events are very special. If you guys think about it, there are seven phases of a funnel - we learned that from the book, Dot Com Secrets. The seventh phase of a funnel is to change somebody's environment. That's why events are so powerful.

If somebody is agreeing to come to an event - they've gone through the first six phases of a funnel. I'm not gonna go through all those right now, but you can look them up in Dot Com Secrets. The seventh phase of a funnel, the last phase of the funnel, is to change somebody's actual physical environment, and that's why it's so awesome when they show up... but it's also why it's so hard to get them to the event.

So if you're about to throw an event, and you're like, "It is super hard to get people to an event." Yeah, I totally get it. I completely understand.

I was at this Inner Circle meeting a little while ago. It was probably like six month ago, I think... I dunno, my timetable is totally messed up now...

It was a while ago, and I was at this inner circle meeting, and I learned from some people, that what they've been doing is in some of their products, is giving away a free ticket to their event.

So when you buy the book or the program or whatever, included in that is a ticket to the event. That's clever. Now let me ask you a question though...

Do you think the person who shows up with a free ticket has the same mentality as the person who shows up with a paid ticket? No! Totally different.

In fact, if you give away a thousand free tickets, I would guess maybe 200 would actually show up. That much of a drop-off, okay? Huge drop-off. And a very different mentality; you will attract a broke room, a poor room if you're going to be selling something. Not to offend anybody, just being honest okay.

If you pay to get to an event, what do you think the attendance rate is gonna be? A lot higher.

It's pretty standard inside of events that have a 10% drop-off rate. A 10% no-show rate. They just don't show up. Baffles me. Blows my mind. I have no idea why it's that way, but it is. Even with the high ticket events, paid ticket events, whatever.

When I was running a lot of FHAT events, or Funnel-Hack-Athon Events... Guys, that was a 15000 to 25000 dollar event for people to show up. That is how much they paid, and still, we'd have people who would not show up after paying that much money. Yes, I'm serious. It's like, "Holy crap are you serious?" Yeah, I am. And that's what's interesting about this.

There's always a no-show rate.

There is gonna be a different mentality of person that shows up when you gave away free tickets versus the mentality of a person who showed up with paid tickets.

So I was like, "Well, I need validation to even move forward on this idea. How can I validate throwing my own event?"

I mean I've always wanted to throw my own event. And so what happened was, about four months ago when I knew that Russell was gonna be doing the, (wait, it's November isn't it? November/December by the time you see this episode it will be December? Okay, but right now, recording this, 'cause I match my content, practice what I preach here, right.)

...It was back in February when Russell first started talking about doing this book. The 30 Day book. When he first started talking about that, and he started reaching out to all the people for it, I was like, "Sweet, this is gonna be so cool." And I went in, and I got to write my chapter - it was really exciting and awesome.

What was cool, is when he wrote this book, when the idea came out for this book, I thought to myself, "That's it. That is how I can fill a room. That's the vehicle that I can give a free ticket away with when I sell it." So that was super exciting.

I knew that OfferMind was gonna be comin' up some time in the future. I didn't know when, but I knew it was there. Most people will stop because they don't see all the details yet. Don't stop... if you've got a sweet idea, just know that clarity will happen as you move, not before you move. Little nugget there, just threw it out.

...So when I saw Russell go out and say, "You know what, we're gonna give away, for everyone who promotes the book, we're gonna give 100% commissions." He's like, "I'm not gonna take any commissions on that book." I was like, "You're kidding. Oh my gosh, this is actually really really big. Okay, okay, dude, can I interview you on my podcast?"(Russell was on the podcast a little while ago.) "Dude, can I get this, can I do that." Alright?

And I started structuring a campaign around this book. Knowing that when I drop out a free ticket with the book, I'm gonna get more sales because the perceived value of my offer is gonna go through the roof.

I also knew that people were gonna be like, "Oh my gosh," and it was gonna be more talkable.

I sold 375 books, and I was like, "I bet a third of those people will actually show up." And that's about what happened. About 120 RSVP'd, but I think ab...

SFR 200: How To Win An Affiliate Contest... Dec 14, 2018

Show notes

Boom! What's going on, everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio.

Today I'm going to teach you guys how to win affiliate contests. Not as hard as you'd think.

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? I'm excited for this episode. Okay, two quick things real fast. So you guys saw a little bit ago, I went in and I was promoting really hard the 30 Days book.

I was able to win this affiliate competition, which is really fun. I sold 375 books and got first place. There was an offer created around that. There was a special thing that you guys got from me when you bought the book through my link; I gave a free ticket to the OfferMind event along with a bunch of other stuff. It was really really cool. It was sexy. Very exciting to get that kind of a thing.

Just last week, I threw the event, and what was cool was I knew Russell was selling this thing called 10X Secrets while the event was going on.

Now, I did not have any time to promote Russell's cool thing. I like promoting Russell's stuff, he's got obviously fantastic stuff, obviously. I don't need to tell you that. But I realized, like crap. I don't have time to promote this thing.

Then Miles, he helps run a lot of the affiliate stuff over at ClickFunnels, sends me a message and he goes, "Hey dude, I just want you to know that because of sticky cookies, you are in 16th place. If you get in the top 10, we're going to take you on a private yacht from Miami down to the Bahamas right after the 10X Growth Con in February." I was like, "Are you serious? I didn't know that was the prize. That's crazy!"

It was Thursday night that he told me that, and it was closing in two days. I was like, "Holy crap." And so what I did, and guys, there's a point to the story here and I'm not just like rrrrr. I want you to know the story...

I went in, and I was like, "OK. How can I provide value?"

This contest had already been going on for a week - which means all the people who were really looking forward to purchase, all the people who wanted to purchase, have most likely purchased from the get-go.

Which means I have to sell a portion of the audience that was not planning on buying it. You guys hear what I'm saying? That's a harder sale. I was like, "Oh, crap!"

So what I did is, and this is the big lesson here... I decided, like,"OK, what if somebody bought 10X Secrets through my affiliate link, what problems do I cause for that individual?" What problems does that cause when they buy 10X Secrets? What else might they want to know?

I was like, well, funnels, right?

10X Secrets is all about selling. Russell's the funnel guy, but that product is all about sales specifically. Specifically, stage selling.

When you learn how to do that skill, it's very powerful. It's one of the reasons my funnels work really really well. It's one of the reasons why I do what I do. I can do what I do because I study stage selling.

Funny enough, selling in a funnel is like very similar to selling on a stage. As far as the delivery, they're a little different. The way you speak, the way you present, the way you're talking and pointing and all this stuff. Like that's its own skill set. But the psychology, it's very similar of what you're doing.

So anyways, I was like, well, what else do they need? What else would somebody need if they bought 10X Secrets through my link? "OK, funnels."

Well, I got this cool product called My Funnel Stache.... What if I just let people choose one of those funnels? So every asset I have about the webinar funnel, e-com funnel, supplement funnel, or info product funnel. Whatever it is... there's lots of them.

And I will give them the training on how to build it.

I'll give them the share funnel, so it's pre-built.

I'll give them the email sequence. I'll give them the video that shows them the strategy of what makes it work.

There's all this stuff. I was like, "OK, cool, that's sexy. That's really sexy." But what else?

And I started thinking through, and I was like, "What if I sent out some leftover OfferMind swag to people?" We had some extra swag leftover - and this is the kind of swag we had:

We had a water bottle. This is the famous, iconic orange water bottle that a lot of you know.

A lot of you guys will be on my live funnel builds and watch me, I always have this thing with me. A lot of you guys ask me where I get it, where I have them.

So we talked to Nalgene, and they custom created some with Sales Funnel Radio on the bottle - which is kind of cool.

And so I was like, you get the bottle. (Actually, I can't remember if we did the bottle or not. Anyway, it's part of the swag.)

The notebook - it says Sales Funnel Radio across the top.

The cool branded pen.

I write a lot, probably more than you guys think I do. I listen to books and podcasts, and stuff like that less than you guys probably think I do, and I write probably more than you think I do. There's a big lesson in that.

So anyway, we got this sweet notebook for them, so people can take notes - because I know I talk a lot - and talk fast.

Then there's the famous Capitalist Pig shirt that everyone loves. On the back, it says Sales Funnel Radio.

My favorite is to wear those in airports and busy public places where I get the most dirty looks.

There's the "It's Monday, Baby” t-shirt.

If you guys follow me on Instagr...

SFR 199: How Gurus Write Books... Dec 11, 2018

Show notes

Boom! What's up everyone, Steve Larsen from Sales Funnel Radio. Today I'm gonna teach you guys how gurus write their books.
I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my 9 to 5 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?
Hey, I'm excited about this topic. I did a Facebook Live recently, and I went through, and I started showing you how gurus write their books.
Now, right off the bat, I want to acknowledge the fact that yes, I understand that people write books in a week or whatever. I'm not talking about that.
This is not to offend anybody, but when somebody says, "Oh my gosh, "why do you take so long to write a book, Stephen? Why does Russell take so long? Why do all these people take so long?" The reason is that we want them to be really really good, right? That's the only answer.
We want them to be super super epic, super fantastic.
Shortly after I got to ClickFunnels, Russell started drafting the Expert Secrets book...
If you've never had a chance to read that book, go to expertsecrets.com, pay for the shipping, and just get the book. That book changed my life. Awesome stuff.
...So he started drafting that book, and I'm right next to him. He'd be drafting stuff and drafting stuff. At the beginning, I'd just be typing, like "Holy crap, history is in the making, right now three feet from me." I was like "This is super cool."

As time went on though, we started going back and forth on different concepts. I had a lot of fun being involved in the creation of some of the ideas. You know, it's obviously his book, he wrote it, it's all his.
I'm not gonna say, "Yeah I did that." Not true at all, okay? But I did have an amazing opportunity to be a part of a lot of things that were created for that book - to see the process, not just the content, the process that he was going through to make sure that what he was teaching about was prolific, was amazing, right? Was incredible. Was received well.
One of my favorite quotes is, "The destruction of information is the essence of intelligent work," or something like that.
You should not seek complexity. Complexity to make you sound smart does nothing for the person who's hearing the content - which is why at Offer Mind, I didn't go huge into tons of stuff. I didn't go to the nerd zone.
I tested material like crazy to see how you received it and then watching you and your reaction to what I'm saying, I can go back, and I can adjust. Go back and adjust, go back and adjust. I'm holding something in my arm here. I'll show you that in a second, okay?
What I need you to understand is a lot of gurus that are out there who truly understand this game, I gotta be careful the way I say this, but whatever, I'll just be honest about this...
I get so nervous when someone's like, "Hey, I wrote my book in like a week." I'm like, "Is it any good? Have you tested it? Is the material in there fantastic?" A book will either make or break you. I don't want to write something that's not good, not amazing. I wanna write a book that's incredible, a groundbreaking book.
A lot of you guys have been asking me, "When are you going to have a book? When are you going to teach this concept?" What I've been doing, and a lot of you guys don't know, is I've been teaching a lot of this stuff for the past eight months, nine months with the intent to figure out if it's good material for a book.
I've been teaching this stuff, though, for years. I've been teaching it, I've been testing it, I've been seeing how you guys would react to it, and then I go in and coach people on those principles:
"Sweet, okay, that was received well. Oh my gosh, that one thing there worked really well. Oh my gosh, that plus that, boom. That made the money happen. That plus that, boom, that made the money happen. That plus that, in that scenario, that doesn't work very well." You know what I mean? I've been able to go in and test like crazy.
I am not trying to write a book for the sake of writing a book. I'm trying to write a book that's incredible. You know what I mean? It's not about speed for me in this area, especially with books. Books are very final.
In a members area in a course, I can go in and just switch out the URL, bam, new video, but with a book, it's there. It's printed. It stays. It's shipped. It's more permanent.
In this episode, we're going to cut over to the Facebook Live and what I want you to see is the process that I had a chance to watch Russell go through when he wrote the book Expert Secrets. Same process he went through when he wrote Dot Com Secrets. Same process he went through when he was writing Traffic Secrets. Same Process that I have been using to write my book. That was one of the real purposes of the event Offer Mind, was that.
So what we do, is, I've been coaching, I've been using this material, I've been testing it, but then I go through, and I write...
This is I think four or five legal pads worth of paper. It's a lot; I don't know if the camera can pick that up. It's a lot of paper; it's very very thick.
I draw one major diagram that represents all of it. Then I take little pieces out and say, "Okay, let's teach that and that. That and that sequentially. How should I digest this to understand it the best?" And that's what I do. That's what I've done.
Okay, now those are the principles, the major core things, now I need to go through and figure out the actual principles that teach that topic.
Now I need to think through the ...

SFR 198: The SECOND Origin Story... Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

Boom, what's going on everyone?
It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio.
Today I'm gonna teach you guys about the origins of the offer.
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 in 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, okay. So I was at the Traffic Secrets event. Traffic Secrets was an event run by Russell Brunson, just for the Two Comma Club X people.
If you don't know what that is, Two Comma Club X coaching is a program where we take people and we help them make their first million. Tons of fun, and it is successful. It's lots of fun. It's a fun group. There's a lot of events that come with it.
I'm a Two Comma Club X coach. I've now brought, at the time I'm recording this, about 2,000 people through this process now. There are patterns; and when people follow the pattern, they have success.
This event was called Traffic Secrets, it was over in Phoenix. Getting to Phoenix was pretty crazy. There was something messed up with the airplane, so they had to get us off and get a new plane. There was like, a bolt coming out of the side of the airplane, and no one could figure out what it was. It was really freaky.
We got off the plane to switch planes, and that is the moment, my friends, when adults become children and start whining and complaining.
Anyways, I get over to Traffic Secrets, it's a bunch of fun. It's a lot of work.
I remember growing up, my dad traveled quite a bit as well. I always had this perception like, "Oh man, Dad, is it so cool going out?" Like, "You're traveling like a beast, do you have so much fun? What, did you see while you're there? Did you see this while you're there?"

It wasn't until I was a little bit older that I realized, it's pretty much straight work. I only see my hotel room, the event room, and the walk in between, that's it. And then the shuttle ride back to the airport. That's kind of all I see any event I go to.
Anyway, so, Russell got up. He talked for two days. I had a ton of fun. Right before that, I got a chance to go and hang out with him in his office just he and I, until about 2:00 am, to structure a lot of the content and things like that. It was just a ton of fun.
I'm going off script here real quick, okay? It's funny, 'cause my wife kinda laughs, she'll be like, "Hey, did you have fun with Russell tonight?"

I'm not teasing her, I just think it's funny, and I get it, you know. She'll be like, "Why do you like hanging out so much?" Well, besides the fact that it's Russell Brunson and we are good friends, the more you learn about the thing that you're doing, the less people you can relate with about what you're doing. You know what I mean?
And that's why the game can sometimes be a little bit lonely. So I always have a bunch of fun going and doing that. It was cool to be behind the scenes and be back structuring content and putting ideas and concepts together, and then go sit back and watch the audience as Russell executed that plan. Cool education right there.
Russell talked for two days. Lots of energy. "Rah, rah, rah," right? He's all over the place - lots of energy. At the end of two days, we go, and we're having dinner with the ClickFunnels crew, the staff and all the coaches were there. We were just shooting the breeze, just chatting for a little bit.
Most people left, and there's only five or six of us left, and we're like, "Hey, let's go see that movie, Venom." Which was super cool by the way, it was a good movie.
Just before we left to see the movie, Russell leaves for a second. He comes back, and he goes, "Dude. Do you know who Claude Hopkins is?" I'd heard the name, but I hadn't studied him yet.
I'm making the rounds on who I'm studying right now. I haven't gotten to Claude Hopkins yet. And I said, "No, heard the name though." And he goes, “Dude, you are going to love Claude Hopkins." I said, "Alright, cool." So he starts telling me a little about Claude Hopkins...and he said, "...basically, he's like the godfather of what you do." And I said, "Please tell me more."

This is a picture of Claude. I went and printed out a picture of him. It's gonna look really blurry. This is the man himself. What's up, man? Alright, Claude Hopkins?
Claude Hopkins (1866–1932) was brought into companies to create the equivalent of an offer. In 1907 he was paid a salary of $185,000 a year. That's like getting paid 1.3 million in today's dollars. This is a highly paid guy. And all he would do is go in and create offers. That's what he was known for.
Companies would hire him to come in and help construct the offer as part of the sales message. So he goes in and he would create the offer, but then also pieces of the sales message that would make it sexy.
I was like, "Russell, dude, that was like the greatest gift you could give me. Are you serious? You just taught me about how my market came to be."

I've been looking around trying to find the history of what I do? And it's not been an easy thing to go figure out. Not many people teach what I teach, which is one of the reasons why I'm stepping into that zone and being the category king of offer creation. That's my goal, that's what I'm going for.
You wanna see my second shot I'm calling? I'm calling it! My podcast introduction is all about, "Hey, I'm calling my shot!" Well, I'm doing that:
I'm on track I hope, for a million dollars this year. It's gonna be close; it's gonna be really, really, tight. But we're getting close. Some of you guys have reached out and asked, so I'm just telling you.
I'm trying to make my first million dollar business...

SFR 197: HINT-The Path Doesn't Matter... Dec 04, 2018

Show notes

Hey, what's going on everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. It's kind of a special, unique episode.
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, I am here at the JW Marriott over in Phoenix, Arizona at the Traffic Secrets event. It's been a ton of fun to watch Russell go in and teach traffic, which is interesting, I mean think about it...
The dude's running an almost near billion dollar company and doesn't know how to run a Facebook ad... BUT he's doing a traffic event.
The perspective of somebody like that that's really, really interesting. And so the things he's been teaching have been quite fascinating.
The trip here though was pretty crazy:
We're getting on an airplane, I was flying to Salt Lake. We get on this airplane at Salt Lake and everyone goes and they sit down obviously it's a full flight, totally loaded up.
The time for us to take off comes, and then it goes, and we're still sitting there. The plane hasn't even moved at all.
Pretty soon the captain comes on like all cliche captains; you know, "How you doin’ everybody?" It sounds like the microphone is in his face. Anyways he goes, "The update is that there's no update. I'll tell you when there's an update." I was like, "Okay, that was weird."

A few minutes later, he gets back on and says, "Hey look, the luggage guy was filling up the airplane and there was a huge bulge coming out of the side of the airplane. And no one can figure out what it is. The maintenance guy is here and they can't figure out what it is... so we'll give this a few more minutes here. We'll see what needs to happen." And he leaves, and we're all just sitting there like, "What on Earth?"
... And it's funny because a few minutes later he comes back on. (We now should've taken off like, 20-30 minutes ago.) "Hey, no one can figure out What the heck the bulge is coming out of the side of the airplane. We've got to get off and change airplanes. It will probably be another 10-15 minutes because that plane's not even here yet... go to gate C10."

Those kind of scenarios are always fun because that is when adults turn into children, right?
People start doing things like, "Oh, are you serious, ugh!"

I was like are you freakin' kidding me? Like, "Let's see, Alive? Or dead with bad plane? Alive? Dead with bad plane?" It was like, "Come on, are you serious? What are the alternatives here? There's not many alternatives. Not many options. Chill out."

Anyway, super funny!
So I get to the actual event and last night, at like 5:00 a.m. somebody pulled the fire alarm for the entire JW Marriott - which is extremely alarming to wake up to!
It reminded me of several basic training days. It's like "Whoa!" You wake up real fast and you're like, "What's up???" And again, it's when adults become big kids and start complaining like crazy.
I'm not saying you can't ever have a negative feeling towards things that are going on in life, but there's been this pattern that I started seeing in my coaching, and things that are going on in life. I'm not saying not to feel emotions, but holy crap, if you can't handle something unexpected in life, and react to it well... If you can't be response-able - "able to respond," like the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says...
If you're not response-able I don't think you're gonna be a good entrepreneur.
The set of problems that I woke up to today was different (and not foreseen) to the problems I woke up to yesterday. And that's the game of freaking entrepreneurship.
So many people get so mad about stuff like, "Well, I didn't think it would be this way." "Give me a refund, this kind of treatment is unacceptable..." I'm like, "Really? Are you kidding? You could die." Like, "Shut up you big baby. Literally, you're a big baby." ...I always laugh at that.
I'll be coaching somebody, and I'll be like, "Alright, hey, now it's time for you to start publishing," and they'll be like, "Oh man!" And they start doing all this crap... "

“Are you freaking kidding me? In the last episode, I talked about Cash causing frameworks, and you're not willing to do it? Holy crap!"

It was interesting because I was sitting listening to Myron Golden... You know, I was doing my One Funnel Away Challenge stuff. I got up early, I went into the event room. No one was in there, just a few people setting up. I did my One Funnel Away Challenge coaching. Which is a challenge where I help people get a funnel out the door in one month...
I wanted to sit around with the lights, and I wanted to sit around with all the noise and the music in the background and do my coaching right there...
(Sorry, there's a big something coming. I'm gonna walk this way.)
...But it was interesting because Myron Golden walked up. And he goes, "Dude, I just read the most impactful book that I've ever read in my life since Expert Secrets." And when somebody says a phrase like that you know it's time to shut up and listen...
He said, "It was a book called You Squared." It's not long. It's actually a super short book, and I believe the audiobook is on YouTube for free. I'm excited to go listen to it.) But the basic principle and premise of it...
(Sorry for the sound of that guy right there. I'm trying...

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