Sales Funnel Radio

Latest Episodes:

SFR 176: Why DotCom Secrets Changed My Life... Sep 21, 2018

Show notes

Boom, what's up guys? It's Steve Larsen. This is Sales Funnel Radio, and today I'm gonna talk to you guys a little about the book DotCom Secrets.

Now, before we cut over to intro which I love, I wanna share to you guys a little bit more about why this book is so important to me. That's what this episode is about.

I actually took the video that I filmed for bestmarketingresources.com. If you haven't checked that out yet, go do it.

Bestmarketingresources.com is the resource I created. It's the page I created to share with you guys all the things that I'm using to build my business.

There's only a few of us in my company and the reason why is because how a lot of these tools interact together back and forth with the way all the automation works.

Anyways, I wanted to share a little bit though about this book, DotCom Secrets. The reason why DotCom Secrets has been so powerful for me and the story behind it.

It is not just like I went and I just bought the book, okay? I actually wanna share with you guys the story behind it. How I read it... Where I read it... And what I did with it afterward - which I think is pretty unique. I know it's one of the reasons why I've been successful with this.

I really only read the book two times, okay? But it was such on a crazy depth that made it very very effective. So anyways, let's cut over the intro here

If you've not actually picked up this book... This book is better than my entire marketing degree. Just this one alone. Let alone, the rest of the education that ClickFunnels comes out with.

So anyways, let's cut over here and I'm excited to share with you guys the story behind my first time getting the book DotCom Secrets, thanks.

I 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.

So in college, we were really poor. We were crazy poor. I kept spinning up all these little companies trying to get them to make money. It took me about 17 tries to really get it off the ground. It's funny cuz when I look back... meaning 17 actual businesses.

And it wasn't like, I was just kinda half-heartedly doing the businesses, I was full in. It was not uncommon for me to walk streets and trying to sell people on the street. I mean, I wanted it real bad.

If you're like me, I mean you want it. You want it real bad, okay? I was the kind of mentality, still am, where I would go learn something and I wanted to make sure I understood it, but I also wanted to make sure I wanted to try to make money as fast as I could as well.

I remember once I pitched the owners of Vivint. Vivint Home Security. Not the head honchos, but very very similar, very close for that regional area.

Anyway, it was an insurance company. There's a bunch of people out there too. A lot of pest control, a lot of door to door people. A lot of... And I just pitched people guys.

I didn't know what I was doing. I was pretty much breaking every single rule that you could even imagine. But, whatever, I was just running, because we were living on loans, student loans. I was in college. I was in the army.

You know I went to basic training. We had a kid. I was married. I mean already right there I was in a very different demographic place in life than a lot of people my age.

I wanted to make cash. I wanted to be a provider for my family. And I found out that few weeks into marriage that my wife was just eating just one meal a day behind my back. She was doing that because we had such little cash, she didn't feel like she could eat.

And it's kinda like crap hits the fan. This was a true story. It was a few weeks after we got married. And it was really hard. I was like crap, we gotta make some cash somehow. I've got to make money.

This was about six years ago, almost seven. What was interesting is she... She was sacrificing for me. The amount of love, It's pretty intense, okay? And it still kinda brings me to my knees a little bit. I've had a hard time talking about this story because if you were you know...

Men specifically get their identity a lot of times by what they do. And I wasn't doing anything, you know? I was trying to... but I wasn't making any money. So I was like, we gotta make money somehow. At least get a food on the table. It was literally a, "Hey, how can we get food on the table?" scenario.

She was still packing lunches for me because she'd already graduated from college. I was still going, I was still working to finish. So she would stay home all day in bed while she was packing me a lunch. She'd eat one meal in the evening with me and that was it.

She was super weak after days and days and days of doing this. Weeks and weeks of doing this. And when I found out, it wrecked me, guys. It destroyed me. My pride was gone, shot everything. I was like, "we gotta make money somehow".

And so I was like, "Hey, I found out that we can get student loans." The student loans that we could get (thankfully we could get them), but they weren't gonna be there for like four to six weeks.

There was a window for when it would show up. And I was like, "Four to six weeks, we're gonna be dead' in two". I was like, "We're not gonna make it. How're we gonna do this?"

And I went... and I did something that was culturally against the way I was raised. I called my dad and I asked him for money.

I had jobs, working like crazy my whole high school years. I had some cases multiple jobs. I worked a lot. I'm not a stranger to the hard work. I don'...

SFR 175: My Student Stereotypes... Sep 18, 2018

Show notes

Boom! What's going on everyone? It's Steve Larsen. This is Sales Funnel Radio, and today we're gonna talk about student stereotypes.

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've been excited for today. I wanna talk about a topic, you know it's...

Every evening my wife and I usually like to just sit and talk. And we'll sit and we'll talk, and talk, and talk.

Most of our dating, honestly, was talking. We would just talk for like three hours a night, every night for all of our dating and that was kind of it.

So anyways, we'll sit down and we'll just talk and we'll share with each other. We're good at that part of our relationship, which is a bunch of fun.

So anyway, we were sitting down the other day, we've got a little almost three month old baby now, and we're playing with her and we're talking back and forth, and my wife says:

"Hey, what are, like, the biggest stereotypes you see in your students?" I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "What are the reasons that people do, or do not, go forward with the things that you're teaching them? Like, stereotypically though."

She's like, "Do baby boomers react differently to what you teach compared to millennials?" And I was like, "Yeah, actually they really do."

So I thought it'd be kinda cool to go through and share with you guys what I talked about with her because it was fascinating to see that.

#1: I freaking hate the millennial propaganda. Can we cut that crap out, alright?

Baby boomers, your parents complained about you too, alright? Are we all good there? I'm just gotta get that off my chest. I hate that, I hate that: "Well you're a millennial, you can't focus." Alright, you can't use tech, so back atcha. Ya know what I mean?

Anyway, so I just wanna walk through this really quick, and just share with you guys a few of the things that I've seen stereotypically with my students.

Now, this is my own students - it's students I've had in the 2 Coma Coaching. My intent in sharing this... the only reason I want to share this is so that you can hedge yourself to not be one of these stereotypes.

So everyone raise your right hand right now, and be like, "Hey Steven, I, (state your name), will not get offended."

Don't get offended about what I wanna go through and share with you guys right now. I'm talking in massive generalities, 'kay? Cause I've seen a lot of things across the board.

And then, at the end of this episode, I want to share with you guys what I do to combat these stereotypes myself. I have my own routines. And some of my routines I didn't realize were my routines, you understand?

I didn't know, that I was literally creating my own solutions around some of these things. But I did and it's been working. And it's really awesome.

If you follow my Instagram, you already know what some of them are...

First of all, let's just set the stage here:

There has never been a time in the history of the entire world, where so much information and so many answers are prevalent and accessible with such a crossover with a lack of discipline. Mind-boggling.

There's so many answers out there. There's so many things out there that are already solved for you.

Yet people don't know how to go and just look up stuff on their own on Google and YouTube and just learn something for 30 minutes. We're not a culture yet of self-teaching. And that's why those who can self-teach, just blow-up so much.

Number one, we've never been in a time period where so many, so much information is available, but there's such a lack in discipline personally with people.

There's lots of addiction out there now. There's lots, and that's not to say it wasn't there before but I mean, we live in a very stimulated society now. We live in a very stimulated community now, alright?

There's such a lack in discipline, daily routines. I'm not saying I'm perfect at it. But I try to have one. I try to live with intent day by day, by day.

There's such a lack in discipline, there's such a lack in just getting up and getting crap done regardless of how you feel about it. There's such a lack in people knowing that in order for me to get where I'm trying to go, there's work involved, right?

We get sold on this concept, "Oh yeah, I should get that, I deserve it." Man, that is bull crap. No one owes me anything. And I try and live like that.

I hate when people say, "Here get this product, you deserve it." It makes me wanna throw up and not buy their product, no matter how good it is.

When somebody says, "You deserve it," that's garbage. It is a lie. It's a lie of this generation. It is a lie of our communities now.

In my opinion, (which I believe is correct), no one owes you anything. You don't deserve anything.

And when I look at worlds that way, and when I look at my life that way...

The reason why I try and do that is if I think that "my customer owes me money, I deserve this success." That is freaking garbage. Try and do that. Try and leave. Try and do that and try and tell me how long you're in business. That's not true.

No one owes, nobody owes me anything. No one owes me a dime. No one owes me any kind of credit. No one owes me. I will tell you that you will relieve a lot of mental stress in your life.

And I'm stereotypically talking to the millennials right now when I say that. Cause I am one, okay? And I had to have a huge wake-up call with myself and say, "look, no one owes you anything. Nobody owes you anything. I am not deserving of anything. I need to work my tail off."

Now I'm gonna walk around and I'm gonna try and work my face off.

It's kinda like what Will Smith says. He walked around, and he was, and he walked around like he was deserving of what this life had to offer. But he was not a ghost to knowing that he had to work for it. And I'm the exact same, guys.

Like man, I'm gonna run hard. I'm gonna run as hard as I can. I'm gonna try and do everything I can. I'm gonna try and live the best life I possibly can with the fullest, having the best of the best. Being the best of the best - and that's my mentality.

And, like, ya gotta fight to do that, right?

So nobody owes me anything, and when you think about that with like, "Hey there's so much information out there with such a lack of discipline in how to use it all.

...

SFR 174: Why Entrepreneurs Are Paid More... Sep 14, 2018

Show notes

Boom! What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen. This is Sales Funnel Radio, and today we're gonna talk about why entrepreneurs get paid so much.

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've been really excited for this episode actually I put up my little trello board, and I was taking notes on it. I've been really excited actually to dive through this with you guys.

I've got my whiteboard here, for those of you guys that are on iTunes, I'm actually drawing this out, but I'm sure it'll also be in the blog and other places anyways.

Guys, thanks so much, wherever you're tuning in, thanks so much. Sales Funnel Radio has been blowing up like crazy thanks to you guys, and I really just wanna say "Thank You."

When I left my job, actually let me go further, let me go further back...

A while ago, I don't even know how long ago it was, it was over a year ago. It was probably a year before I left ClickFunnels.

we were launching this program, and I was really excited because it was one of the first projects where I was able to get a little bit of cut of the action, and I was like, "Yeah, what's up? This is super cool!" Right?

I was just working my guts out for this thing. I worked so freakin' hard, I don't even know how many hours I put into this thing... It was an ungodly amount of work. 'Cause I wanted to... You know, man, it's freakin' Russell Brunson... I wanted to make sure it was awesome stuff.

And we killed it. The sales were awesome, but when my cut came into my bank account, I was like, "What?!"

I had calculated all these sales, and I was like, "Holy crap! Check this out, we're gonna hit all these financial goals." All these financial goals my wife and I had, we were gonna hit 'em so fast, I was like, "Holy crap, this is so cool! Holy crap!"

And when the check came in it was about half of what I expected. I was like, "What the heck? Who? Where's all the cash?" I was like, "There has to be some mistake!"

And I start going, and I'm looking through the pay stub and everything, and sure enough, greedy, disgusting, nasty, filthy Uncle Sam had his just molded, gross, fleshy hand all over that check, and I got taxed 42% on that thing.

I was like, "Where did all the cash go?! Oh my gosh, what?! This is ridiculous!"

It was my first big encounter of getting paid a huge lump sum and only getting really about half of it. And I was like, "That sucks."

And I can see where there's a lot of dilemma that goes back and forth, where entrepreneurs are like, "Well, should I not make more money because I gotta pay more taxes?"

...Man, just pay the taxes, and make more money. Make your wallet fatter.

I'm not a financial adviser, but that's what I do. Just pay the taxman, just move on forward.

And I was like, "That's crazy." And what was interesting to me is when I ended up leaving ClickFunnels, cash started coming on in, quite a bit right at the beginning, like "Bam! Huge flood of cash," 'cause I had built up this big campaign and the doors opened, and a big old flood came in. There was this big surge of cash, and we kept almost all of it, and I was like, "Hmm, why did that work that well that time?"

Alright, I'm a W-2 of my own business, that's how I set it up, a W-2, anyone, so I'm an employee of my company, so we were still paying ourselves, we paid ourselves a small amount.

I didn't take a paycheck from my company for quite a while, alright? 'Cause I was just rolling cash on it, we were living on savings.

And what was funny is when we started paying ourselves, it ended up being about the same tax rate as when I was working at ClickFunnels. But suddenly I could expense things like the car.

So while we were still at the same tax rate, I could go in, and I could grab...

And this is not to be like a financial, you know, strategy session. I would not say I'm a guru of that at all. I hire other people out for that, kay?

But I started expensing out all this other stuff and now suddenly, with the same amount of cash coming in, we were keeping more of it, right? We had greater amounts of discretionary income because of the fact we run a business and had an actual company.

And I was like, "That's really fascinating, Why is this working so well?"And I went back, and I started looking at it, and sure enough, all these other guys kept telling me, "Man, if you are a W-2 employee you are getting eaten alive with taxes." And I was like, "Ah, what do you mean? "

I had no idea until I actually jumped ship how much a W-2 employee gets gouged. I mean straight up murdered with taxes. Holy crap, it was nuts!

It actually made me sick to my stomach to think about how much money I had given away to the taxman which I legally did not need to do if I was simply a 1099, right? Or something else like that.

So anyway, one of the first moves I ever made...

And again, I'm not a tax person, I'm not your financial adviser. *Disclaimer, Disclaimer* Does everyone feel disclaimed? Nice. Alright, now that you're all disclaimed, I'm just gonna tell you what I did...

I went in, and I immediately took every exemption I could for my own company, the full nine, if that's the full amount, hopefully, it is, 'cause I took the full amount.

And then I started figuring out what other ways we could put more expenses back on the business - not that I'm gonna live off the business solely -I would not do that, but what made sense to make the business run we started doing that.

I was like, "Sweet, okay, this is super cool." And it was crazy to get paid the exact same amount, but we were keeping way more of it. So my wife and I could go hit these other goals we wanted to...

"Alright we got this much to put in our little emergency fund” - I call it the "oh craps," like if a water heater goes out, which it did a little while ago, right, "Oh crap!" That comes from the "oh craps." So we've got an "oh craps acc...

SFR 173: How I'd Get It All Back In 30 Days... Sep 11, 2018

Show notes

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

And today I'm going to show you my 30-day plan for how I'd get everything back if I lost it all.

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 excited about this episode. Now, if you haven't seen the last episode, I talked to Russell Brunson - he was on the show which is super fun. I interviewed him specifically about this new book that he just came out with called 30 Days.

In the book, Russell asked all these marketers, "Hey look, you lose everything, you have nothing, except an internet connection and your ClickFunnels account. Your bills are paid, but for one month only, "How would you get it back?"

Which is, it's a fascinating question. How would you get it all back? You have no list, you have no reputation, nothing. You start from scratch, all you know is your little, your marketing know-how, how would you restart?

I was kinda laughing when he asked me to write a chapter for the book, and give my take on how I would do the whole thing - because I just did it for real! At the beginning of this year left my job. I left ClickFunnels.

I didn't have a business, I didn't have a funnel, I didn't have a script, there was no product. What's funny is, I felt like my chapter was documenting what I actually did.

If you want to see what it is, go to 30days.com/stephen. 30 as in three zero. 30days.com/stephen. My name is S-T-E-P-H-E-N. You'll see my chapter, you'll see me, I'm on that page, that's my page, and you can see the plan that I detailed, that I outlined, for 30 straight days.

Look, on day one, this is what I do. Day two, this is what I do. Day three, this is what I do - it's literally laid out, piece by piece by piece.

But I wanted to give you at least a little bit of an overview of those things, and kind of describe why I did what I did there.

How many of you guys are in the 2 Comma Club X Coaching program? I'm one of the coaches. I was in San Diego, and in two days, I was about to get on stage. I showed up a little bit early, and the whole first night I was just finishing this chapter.

I was up 'til like two a.m., eyes bloodshot, you know, classic funnel hacker style right there.

The second night, I went in, and I had to finish the actual presentation. So, long story short, I finished in San Diego, and I was super proud of it. 'Cause I put a lot of time into writing that chapter.

I actually really like to write. I've got a few books coming, which I'm really excited about, woohoo! Draft is almost done. Anyway. So, I want to walk through and I just want to share with you guys why I did what I did. And funny enough, this is actually how I created a business...

Agh, sorry the freaking battery camera died again...

Anyway, I'm excited to walk through. I want to detail out what I did in this chapter, and why it worked. I'm not gonna go into huge amounts of detail, but I am gonna dive into the strategy for how I knew that this would be a good thing.

One thing that I want to point out is that you're gonna watch while I kinda walk through this... I launched when I didn't have a product. Okay, and that might be freaky.

And honestly, the first time I heard of entrepreneurs doing this, I was like, is this okay to do? You know what I mean?

The first time I launched an info product, it took me eight months to build, and nobody bought it. No one bought it. No one bought it for like another four months. And the reason why is because I thought success had to do with the product. Right? I thought sales had to do with the product.

There was a story I told on stage a while ago about this book, and I know a lot of you guys have heard this story, now, but it was about a book. I sold this book, and I was telling everyone how cool the book was.

I told this awesome story behind it, and it was all fake. I didn't tell 'em it was fake. It was an entirely made up story, okay.

I made up the story, - but it made people want the book so bad -that the people in the audience were buying it off Amazon.

I found out that one of the ladies who helped with the authorship of the book was in the audience, and she bought the book again.

It was a freaking good story. And then at the end of it, I let everyone know, "Look, I've actually never read this book. It's a random book off my shelf. I have no idea who this author is. I have no idea what the chapters are."

Then I asked, "Did I tell you what the chapters are?" They're like, "No." I was like, "Huh, so you bought this thing from me, and I didn't even tell you what was in it."

"Wait a second, wait a second. You bought this thing from me, and I didn't even tell you what was in it. I didn't tell you the names of the chapters. I didn't say the names of like the authors on the back."

So what does that tell you?

It tells you that sales has nothing to do with the product. This was the point I was trying to make - that's why I did it. To show you that sales have nothing to do with the product. Your product does not sell itself.

I hate it when somebody's like, "Well, this thing sells so well, all you gotta do is you gotta get it in front of people, and it sells itself." Bull crap! That's garbage! If you follow that path, you will do far less in sales.

A sales message is a different asset than a product. They're both assets, but they're not the same asset.

A sales message is an asset. A product is an asset. But again, they're not the same asset. They are separate things. And when you think the roles of both are the same, your sales suck, okay. That's what happens to it. I just want to be open with you and forward with you about that.

So let's just start walking though this here. You'll notice, now I don't remember off the top of my head what I said each day I would do - it was very meticulous though, very methodical. Go get the actual thing, and you can watch what I actually did - it's so good, oh my gosh - if I say so myself, okay.

But the first thing I had to go do was, I had to figure out...

So I'm just gonna break these up into weeks. Week one, week two, week three, and week fou...

SFR 172: Russell Brunson Tells The Shortcut To Learn Marketing... Sep 07, 2018

Show notes

Boom! What's going on everyone. This is Steve Larsen and this is Sales Funnel Radio. And today you're going to hear my interview with the one and only, Mr. Russell Brunson.

Now, I've been wanting to get him on the podcast for quite some time, but I wanted to do it when I could actually promote something that he was interested in as well.

Russell is the guy that originally started teaching me offer creation, and I wanted to make sure that there was as an offer for him, but also for you guys.

What you're going to hear in this episode is behind the scenes of why he's come up with his latest book.

A lot of you probably don't even know that he has a new book?

It's not Traffic Secrets, it's not Expert Secrets, it's not Dot Com Secrets, it's another book.

It's literally 550 pages, and he had 30 gurus come in and contribute to this book.

You guys are going to hear why he set it up, where he got the inspiration from for it. Why he rehashed the idea, and why he's gonna actually produce it for everyone now. This is really awesome.

This is obviously my favorite interview I've ever done for obvious reasons. He is my friend. He is my mentor. I look up to him like crazy, and love hanging out with him. Anyway, I am very honored, very thrilled.

Russell and I are just going to shoot the breeze for little while, and then we’re gonna dive deep into some reasons why people are NOT successful as funnel builders. We see these reasons all the time, and luckily we talk about them a lot in this episode.

You guys are going to learn from the CEO of ClickFunnels himself about what makes a funnel builder successful, and what makes them destined to not be.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this. Let's cut to the intro and we'll get straight on to the interview.

Guys, thanks so much and if you enjoy this, please go thank Russell.

THE RUSSELL BRUNSON INTERVIEW:

Stephen Larsen: What's up, guys? Hey, I am excited. You guys obviously see the video right here, and you see who I have on. I'm very, very excited about it, though.

I am, uh ... Frankly, I've had a hard time coming up with words to describe how I feel about this interview. I've been wanting to do this for a very, very long time, and, um, obviously ... It's Russell Brunson. He's the man. He's the CEO of Click Funnels obviously.

He has gone from icon of mine, to boss, to mentor, to friend, and I'd say brother now, and, uh, love him like crazy.

(Turns to Russell) Just really thank you for taking the time to be on here. So, obviously, just welcome to the show. Thanks for being on Sales Funnel Radio.

Russell Brunson: Yeah, man. This is an honor. I was hoping you were gonna ask me eventually. I'm like, “Gosh, this is only funnel show I've never been on!" Anyway, I'm just kidding. I'm super excited and proud of you man.

It's funny 'cause I think the event that we first met at was where I was like, "Everybody's needs to be publishing! Everyone needs to do a podcast.”

And you were like, "NO!" And then you went and did what most people don't do. You did the thing that you knew you needed to do but didn't want to do. You just did it, and now it's been like …Yeah, that's such a good lesson there for everyone.

But that was the first day we met, it was probably the day or the day after that.

Stephen Larsen: Yeah.

Russell Brunson: And now look ...Fast forward two or three years later... it's amazing what you've accomplished, and where you've come. It's awesome.

Stephen Larsen: I appreciate that thank you. A week later I was sitting next to you, working there, and I was like, "I don't want to publish. I'm not going to publish." And you're, like ... taking your phone, "What's up everyone? It's Russell Brunson." And, you know, then you're on your podcast, "What's up? I'm Russell Brunson." On your blog, "What's up? It's Russell Brunson."

And I was like, "There's something to this." And I tried ... I don't think I am ... Hopefully I am, but I am trying to be your best student. I really appreciate it.

Hey, I just ... I wanted to ask a few questions. It really means a lot that you're here ... You're changing the world. You're changing people's lives. You changed my life; my family, my immediate family. And now my extended family are all soaking up your stuff.

We have our own little groups. They're like, "This guy's amazing. Who is he?" I was like, "I know. I told you I wasn't crazy." You know? Like, "Listen to him! He's awesome!"

Anyway, ClickFunnels has grown. When I first got there it was at like fifteen thousand members, and I left when it was about sixty-five-ish.

It's been interesting to watch how the audience has grown. Both in terms of being funnel builders and marketing skills.

What do you say for the audience as a whole, the ClickFunnels' audience? Because, guys, if you're listening to me and you don't know about Russell and ClickFunnels ... I think you're a liar.

Every episode I talk about Russell and ClickFunnels ...

What would you say is like the recurring holes that people keep missing? What would make them successful if they just did that one thing?

Russell Brunson: Yeah, ... it's funny, 'cause ... And I almost feel like this has been part of my mission, 'cause I remember when I got started ... It's almost 15 years now ...

I started learning this stuff. And I'm reading these books from these dudes who are all dead now, and I'm like, "What? What?" Like, “Freaking, right?”

I'm learning all this stuff, and I'm like, "This is the most amazing thing ever." And I’d go to all these conferences and these events. I show up and everyone's got a suit and tie, and they're all business-y and they're like boring as can be.

People are on stage talking about direct mail ... These things that are super exciting, and they talk about it. But they're so boring. Everyone's so boring. But I was excited by it.

So I'm listening to these boring people thinking, "Why is nobody freaking out here? This is so exciting." Like I can see the vision of it. And it was weird.

...

SFR 171: How To Recycle Sales Stories... Sep 04, 2018

Show notes

Boom, what's up guys, this is Steve Larsen.

Today we are gonna talk about recycling stories.

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 guys, thanks so much for tuning into to Sales Funnel Radio. I was on stage a little while ago, and I was teaching, and there was one question that comes up every single time when I'm teaching script building, when I'm teaching any kind of story-telling, anything like that.

One of the things that always comes across is, "Stephen I don't know what stories to tell that will break someone's belief patterns and make them want to cause a purchase to happen?".

And I say, "Okay cool cool cool, that makes total sense everyone goes through that first of all. So if you're feeling that, don't worry about that."

Second of all though, what you gotta understand is you don't always need to come up with new stories, right?

So this episode is called Recycling Stories because what I want to do is share with you guys how I do that. So what better way to actually teach you to do that than show you actually me doing that. Does that make sense?

So what I did is, a little while ago I actually decided, this is something I've never done before in front of a live group. I've done a lot of funnel building but live script building!

Guys script writing is hard. Just know that it's one of the hardest parts of funnel building overall.

Putting the pages together, that's some easy stuff man. That's easy stuff. You drag and drop, you're done. Script writing though, that's not easy. And so what I wanted to is...

I thought how cool would it be if I actually went and built a script live in front of an audience, and it made me a little bit nervous - I'm not gonna lie -because it's not an easy thing to do.

We'll spend days coming up with one headline, you know what I mean? And so to write a whole script, not just the headline? That was really challenging for me to do that. It was a lot of fun though.

It took me 12 hours. It was in front of an audience of about 75 people, and I built an entire webinar script from top to bottom. The whole thing, top to bottom. And what I was trying to teach them and share with them in this part, I just ripped it out, and I'm gonna share with you guys here.

I'm building the actual webinar slides live. I recorded my screen doing so and walking through and talking through each slide. So that's actually what we're gonna cut over to in here in just a moment.

But what I want you to understand, see and notice is that for a lot of what I'm doing for that webinar - this is for my product - it's called My Funnel Stash...

"Oh crap, wait just a second. Eh, there we go!" (Stephen goes to get something - he comes back with a fake mustache and some red and green sunglasses - He puts them on and continues to talk).

...I'm doing it for a product called "My Funnel Stash." It's a play on words. It's all the funnels that I've been building, and that I built over at ClickFunnels.

It's gonna sound a little conceited, kay? But no one really else is gonna have the opportunity to sit next to someone brilliant like Russell Brunson and learn right at the feet of a master for that amount of time.

When I left, one of the things that Clickfunnels did which is brilliant, is Russell was like, well I don't always wanna be just the one funnel builder, so they created an internal agency.

I don't know that ever anyone else ever is gonna have the opportunity to do the kind of thing I did. For that reason I feel a little bit of a mantel to share with you guys some of the things that I was doing over there.

Please note, that's one of the reason why I talk so much about Russell Brunson is because I feel a little bit of a responsibility to share with you some of the things that made funnel building successful. And why someone like me, I was building funnels ahead of that time, but the finer points of it that made it actually work and stick.

This is super cheesy I know, but I actually sent out Clickfunnels colored glasses and a funnel stache, stash with the actual stash of funnels that I used to build 500 funnels next to the guy.

What was interesting about this, after doing the amount of funnel builds that I did at Clickfunnels, I need you to know and hear me now: "Funnel building success has very little to do with the pages, okay?"

You can have a funnel that is limping along on one leg and be totally fine, very successful. Completely fine.

Now please go in and make your funnel tweaks, make them good, but if your funnel is only working because of little tiny tips and tricks inside the funnel, then your offer sucks. Right? Your script is terrible. That's just the fact. Take it from a guy who's made a lot of them. Understand what I'm saying here.

So what I need you to get, this is a longer episode, but I'm trying to share with you guys how I'm recycling my origin story in different products, and how that's totally okay to do.

Scriptwriting, that's really where the rubber meets the road. Before Clickfunnels existed, that was the always the most expensive part of building a funnel with a traditional team - because copy is what does the selling.

I can feel my stache starting to fall over here. I'm getting animated, it's like sweating. Anyway, so guys this a little bit of a longer episode, but we're gonna cut over to a segment that I've chopped out where you're gonna see me recycle the same story for different things, and that's totally fine.

My origin story is still my origin story. So if I'm gonna go sell a product over here, or sell product over there, or sell product over there - those are different products, but I still have the same origin story. I can't change my background.

So how do I recycle my story in a way that fits the other things that I'm selling without making it obvious? And so that's what I'm doing. I'm actually script building. I'm live script building, and I'm taking from a lot of other webinars that I've built to go in and rip out different things and elements to fill out the requirements to make a good origin story.

So again, what is that?

Let's wait again, one more...

SFR 170: Emotional Selling... Sep 01, 2018

Show notes

Boom, what's up guys? This is Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio.

Today we're gonna talk about why selling is emotional, and how you can take advantage of that ethically in your own business.

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'm excited for this, okay. This episode comes to you today... Okay, the next two or three episodes that I've done are things that I've been ripping from other places, and I think you're really gonna enjoy it.

This one's a Facebook Live that I did. There are a few people - really, really sad... I don't know if they're sad or mad, or they're fighting me, for whatever reason, on the fact that selling is emotional.

What I want you to understand is that there are three different phases in the sale cycle. There's the marketing phase. There's the selling phase, and there is the closing phase.

If you are not getting the cash you want to, but you're still closing people, it's 'cause you don't know how to close.

I'm gonna walk through and share with you guys why selling is emotional and what you're doing in the brain.

I don't know how you can get good at marketing, selling, or being a salesman without learning about psychology - actually learning about the brain and what happens there.

We are all different people, yes, but we still have a brain that very much comes from the same kind of area - we have the same kind of tendencies, okay?

And so, what's cool about that is as soon as you learn the patterns of how to actually go out and be influential to your people and your customers, prospective customers, you actually can get them to do a lot of great things that will benefit them, that will benefit you, and help you be more persuasive in life.

So, what this episode is specifically about is ... First of all, I gotta teach you what's happening in the brain. I've never taught this before, ever!

I'm in this area right now where I've kinda been lookin' back, and be like "Hey, why did that work? Why did that work? Why did that work? Holy crap, look at that pattern." And so, what I'm tryin' to do is I'm tryin' to teach you guys the patterns that I was going through, seeing and doing, not always on purpose, okay?

And so, I'm gonna go through and I'm gonna teach you about chemicals in the brain, and I'm gonna teach you about what's going on in the brain psychologically when people start to hear about your pitch.

I'm gonna teach you how to actually go in and get around those things. I'm gonna teach you what you're actually pitching when you actually pitch somebody. What part of the brain are you actually pitching, okay? All those answers are gonna be inside this Facebook Live.

Again, I think this was like a 15-minute thing, but anyway, I'm a little fiery in it - just so you know - which I know is hard to imagine. I'm a little intense. I'm excited to be able to do this and actually get this out to you guys.

So anyways guys, thank you so much for watching this.

Please, I actually encourage you to take notes on this one. I don't necessarily always go very tactical inside this podcast, but this one, THIS has had a direct influence on my wallet, and I mean that in all seriousness. It has had a direct influence on my wallet, meaning getting much fatter.

It was when I learned what was actually happening in the noggin', and this comes from me studying a lot of different books, listening to a lotta gurus, going through a lotta courses, and a lot of my own personal experience.

There's really like two or three things specifically I'm gonna walk you guys through in this episode. So, honestly, I would grab a piece of paper for this episode... And if you like it, please share it.

All right guys, thanks so much and please enjoy the lessons in this. They have been life changing for me and I'm excited. If it changes your life also, please, please...

Or if there's any piece into it that makes you go you go, "My gosh, I had no idea!" Please, please reach out and tell me. It means a lot.

You could even consider leaving a review on iTunes. Thanks, guys, bye.

Oh, what's up? How's everyone doin'? Hey, guys, I just finished a webinar. I am all sorts of hopped up on Goof Balls. My left eye's got the twitch which means this is gonna be good, all right!

Hey, real quick, I just wanna do a drop this thing, oh, I actually dropped my phone while I dropped it in. I just wanna drop this in the group, okay. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna do some edumacation!

When I was in college, I wanted to make sure that I knew how to sell, so I explicitly went and started selling...

Steve Comments to the FB Audience: (I'm driving, the cars vibrating the steering wheel which is making this thing. I'm trying to make this thing stick and stay right there. Yeah, yeah, okay, all right. I know Facebook is still telling you guys that I'm live and I'm here, okay.)

...I went and I started selling door-to-door and started doing telemarketing for the explicit reason of learning how to sell. I wanted to learn how to sell. I had no idea how much went into it. It was nerve-racking.

I remember the first time I walked into my first door for door-to-door sales. It was one of the freakiest things I've ever done in my entire life.

I walked up and I knock on the door and I forgot the script, everything left my brain. I did not remember what I was saying and, it was an awkward conversation. I just was looking for reasons to get off the door. They didn't have to kick me off. I turned around, and I walked away. I got off the door.

It was a terrible experience, and I was like, "This sucks," and I immediately was like, "Why am I gonna do this? Why on earth am I doing this door-to-door sales thing?" And, it became a challenging thing for me.

So, what I did is I started trying to learn more about why sales psychology is the way that it is. I started learning about different chemicals in the brain. I don't know how you can get good at sales without learning a little bit about the brain? You gotta learn a little bit about that noggin and what drives people, what drives human interaction.

Steve Comments to the FB Audience: (And, I was trying to get this thing to stay inside my steering wheel. It's not gonna do it, so I'm just gonna hold it.)

Okay, this is what's interesting. This is what was fascinating about the whole door-to-door thing and about selling:

SFR 169: Good Cash, Bad Cash... Aug 28, 2018

Show notes

Boom what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen.

This is Sales Funnel Radio, and today we're gonna talk about the difference between good cash and bad cash from your business and why you should never accept bad cash.

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 actually, I love funnel building live in front of a lot of people and for some reason. I don't know why, but usually eight hours into it I start...

I don't know if I get a little chip on the shoulder attitude, or if I get a little, I don't know what it is, but for me, that's where I usually have the most prolific things coming out my brain. Luckily, I screen record all of them.

I want to share with you guys my strategy for when to take on cash and when to not.

I know right now how to go make 100 grand in the next month. Even far more than that, that's not a hard thing for me to do anymore, that's an easy thing for me to do now. That's not to showboat, but the reason why I don't go grab it is the thing I want to explain to you guys in this episode.

Now that might sound crazy to you. I know I'm gonna get some backlash for this episode, but you need to understand the difference between good cash and bad cash. My business works for me, okay. I don't work for my business, you understand.

Now obviously, I go set stuff up, I go put things together, but as quickly as humanly possible my whole goal is to set up systems that replace me as the operator in my company.

So what I'm gonna do is I wanna be able to walk through and share with you guys why...

Okay, one of the major reasons I'm doing this right now is because several times in the last two or three months, I've been offered a lot of money to go and do a funnel for somebody, and I've said no. It's gotten out that I said no, and I wanna address that.

I want you to know why I said no to certain scenarios. I want you to know why I say no to certain cash even though it's easy cash, even though I know, and they're like begging, but I still say no.

We're gonna flip over here in just a moment, and this is the fifth segment of a seven-part series that I did I think about a month ago where I went through, and I was building a funnel live. Not just the funnel though, literally from the ground up. I designed and wrote the actual sales message, I actually wrote the actual message live, screen recorded in front of like 75 people, okay.

What you're seeing in this next piece, I'm building out, and I'm finishing the last few pieces of the funnel, and I'm building what I call, I don't know anyone else who's made it, I call it a waiting list funnel. It's literally its own funnel on the side when someone doesn't take action.

Somebody is asking me, "Steven why do you have a waiting list funnel and why do you remove the option for somebody even to purchase?"

That might sound crazy, but please listen to my answer here. This might be a little bit of a longer episode, but I think it's gonna really, really help you as you see what I see as I do this.

Remember I brought 1800 people through this process now. Paying people, okay you understand? Who paid to specifically learn that thing. That's just not like episode listeners, okay. They specifically came for that, and what I want you to see is...

I got a unique position looking down and seeing all these different funnels that are out there. Which ones make and which ones don't, okay. And I want you to understand how powerful of a concept this is.

If you're like, "Oh my gosh, Stephen, there's so much opportunity out there," I completely get it. Please know this is how I handle that, and how I don't get distracted. The answer to all that is in this next episode. I'm very excited for you guys to be here.

So again guys, thank you so much. This is good cash, bad cash, please keep that in your mind when you have opportunities come to you. They will only increase as you increase in your success.

You have got to get good at identifying good cash versus bad cash. Cash that is progressive versus cash that is a distraction to you.

Anyway, this is gonna help you see how I go through that process, and how I know whether or not I should accept cash from this opportunity or from that opportunity.

If I should say no to it, how should I say no to it, and why and what things, you know what I wish I could say yes to - but what should I do to get my business ready for it? All those answers are inside this episode.

Guys thank you so much for listening. If you like this, please, please like and share and subscribe to this. It really means a lot to me. I have a ton of fun reading reviews, they keep me motivated. You pump me up, and I really wanna keep doing that.

So anyways let go over the episode, and please enjoy.

Comment to Steve on FB: "Your waiting list is just filtering BS and creates agony or something?"

Steve Speaking: Yeah, quite literally. The two tools that you have, two tools that you have as a marketer, you've got scarcity and urgency, right.

So I know my product's amazing and you guys all know your products are amazing, so what keeps people from acting? What keeps people from acting and actually buying even though you know your product's amazing and you know that it can help them?

What keeps people from buying is that people don't close. So I'm trying to close them;" buy it, buy it, buy it," you know what I mean? I'm trying to close them. If I don't close them, my system literally cookies their IP address, not their email, does that make sense?

They can't just even go get in with another email address. They will not get there. It actually auto forces the entire session to go the waiting list. It says:

"Sorry, I work with action takers. Get on the waiting list. We open up to people in my own list anywhere from... Sometimes, it's twice a year, usually once a year, so pay attention to your email. I'll let you know when a few seats open up."

How long do I make them wait, depends. I mean sometimes I literally do make them wait six months to a year, man. Like I'm serious. If I'm gonna have scarcity and urgency, it's gonna be real scarcity and urgency. I don't pull fake scarcity and urgency on people.

I'm like if it's open, then it's open. If it is closed, they cannot purchase. I don't even care if they want to. I make it that way because I'm training my buyers. I'm training my audience and when I say it's time to jump...

And this part, you gotta understand:

I know exactly how to ...

SFR 167: My Favorite Traffic Methods (AND WHY)... Aug 24, 2018

Show notes

Ho, oh, boom! What's up, guys? This is Steve Larsen. This is Sales Funnel Radio. Today we're gonna talk about my four favorite traffic methods.

I 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 V.C. 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 know it's already right on the whiteboard right here... (for those guys who are listening, obviously I'm going to explain everything as well.)

I wanna walk through this here real fast. It's a question I've been getting more and more frequently, and if you guys don't know, I actually don't like driving paid ads.

Now, please understand what I'm saying, we drive paid ads. But I don't want to learn how to do them.

When launched one of my first products I went and I put it out there, and I was super excited, super stoked. I was like, "Look! I birthed this amazing thing, World! Hey, this is incredible, it's amazing!" I was so proud of myself because after a year it had done 60 grand with no ads spend. It was a little over a year, but I was like, "Oh my gosh, check this out!" I remember feeling really excited about that.

I was like, "I am the freakin' man, everyone bow to me!" I wasn't saying that but, in my mind, I was like, "I finally did it" I finally made something work. It was after a lot of tries. A ton of tries... and finally something worked, and I was proud of it. I was really proud of it.

I remember feeling so proud that I hadn't spent any ad spend, and it was still doing that well.

I don't remember who I was listening too, I think it was a Joe Polish thing, and some of Russell Brunson's stuff. Anyway, all of a sudden I had this epiphany: "Shame on you, Shame on you, you're not spending money on ads, right? I started realizing that a real marketer would wanna be able to spend as much money as possible to acquire a customer, right?

If you think about those massive marketing phrases: "Whoever can spend the most money to acquire a customer wins." Those are like, laws of marketing. And I was like, "I'm not even spending any money. Crap! That means I'm not actually a marketer... I kinda accidentally came into that cash." I was like, "I need to be able to spend as much money as possible in order to actually acquire customers." So it changed everything for me.

I started going through, and instead, I started building out funnels where not only the price point allowed me to dump cash back into it, but I started structuring to remove my ad cost.

But I was like, "Wait I don't actually wanna learn how to do this ad game." And I know that might sound crazy, but I really wanna just stay on just the funnel-building offer creation peak. I wanna stay on top of that peak.

I used to climb a lot of mountains we did a lot of backpacking growing up. I grew up in Colorado. I loved it, absolutely loved it. Time with nature. Super cool. Teaches you a lot of stuff. But I never once, funnily enough, climbed two peaks at the same time. It's a weakness of mine to try and do lots of things. But I started looking at what I was focusing on in the same way as climbing mountain peaks.

Now I don't want to be a renaissance man. Renaissance men don't get paid anything. Obsessers get paid. So, I'm gonna stay on my obsessing peak of just being the offer creation guy, and teaching people how to build inside of a funnel. That's really what I do. And that's what I'm really freaking good at.

So I'm gonna stay there.

If I go and learn something like ads, that's gonna distract from my peak. That's gonna require me to come off my peak and try to climb another one high enough to make the other one successful. That doesn't make sense.

I know many times I've dropped the fact that I'm going to interview my amazing team. There's one specific thing I've been waiting for in order to do it, and I'm so excited for it. It's gonna be really, really cool. Soon as it happens I will get my team in here and I will interview them.

I found an amazing ads-driving individual, and she's incredible. She's absolutely amazing. I'm like, oh my gosh, blows me away. Very, very good...

I personally like to obsess. She obsesses over the act of driving Facebook ads to the degree that I obsess over building funnels. I wanted someone like that, and you should find someone like that.

If someone's like, "I don't know... Hmmm, I can do it." Don't hire 'em. Hire someone who's ridiculously obsessed. Somebody who, it's not logical how obsessed they are. That's the kinda person that you want. It took me a long time to find, a long time to find her, but I found her. She's amazing.

But what do I obsess over traffic-wise? I know you guys can see right here, but I'm gonna walk through real fast these four things to show you guys how I actually get traffic.

These are my four favorite methods of getting traffic. These are my four favorite methods of getting sales, specifically. I don't like to obsess just on the act of getting traffic, I obsess over how to get sales. That's a different question. Now, traffic is money, but I don't just wanna get eyeballs.

I actually started out as a traffic driver - you guys might not know that? I was driving traffic for Paul Mitchell. It was right about the time I started learning what a funnel was. I was like, "This is really interesting, huh."

My buddy and I, (I actually I think it was Colton, he's sitting right over there) we were driving traffic to the first funnel that we ever built. That's how we got Clickfunnels.

It was called Fixed Insurance and it was for smartphones. It was smartphone insurance, and it's literally what we used to get our Clickfunnels account paid for. It was really, really cool. We didn't make any money, but we broke even, kinda. Anyways, it was good.

I started experimenting with different traffic methods and I remember once I got 53,000 people to a website in two days. And I was like, "This is awesome! I must be really good at this!" I could get a lot of eyeballs, guys. But then I started thinking: "Wait, how come I didn't get 53,000 sales?" And I started learning about conversion, and squeeze pages, order pages, and opt-ins.

Anyways, that's one of the ways I got into it. So yes, traffic is money but only if you have a good funnel.

So I like to obsess over the sales methods, not just traffic methods. So please look at what I'm sharing today with that in mind.

All these methods will get you eyeballs on what whatever funnel or event, or whatever thing you're doing. But there are specific ones I like to use that I know will give me sales. And that's the reason that these are the four that I use. I've been very methodical about this for years and I want you to see why I do what I do here.

SFR 168: Natalie Hodson Teaches Power Through Vulnerability... Aug 21, 2018

Show notes

Haha, what's up, guys? This is Steve Larsen.

This is Sales Funnel Radio, and before we cue the intro here, I want you to know, this episode for me was really special.

I interview an incredible entrepreneur. Her name is Natalie Hodson. She's fantastic. I love learning and studying from her.

She's gonna talk about some things that went on kinda crazy in her life, and how to leverage the crazy things inside of your life for your audience - particularly around the subject of vulnerability.

So this is how to be vulnerable without looking like you're weak, right? And for a lot of guys, that's super important.

For a lot of selling in general, that's super important - the purpose is not to look like you're weak.

So anyways, let's cue the intro here. I hope you guys enjoy it, and if you have liked this, please reach out to her and say thank you. She puts some really amazing things out.

Thanks, guys, so much, and see you on the 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 going on, everyone?

Hey, it's Steve Larsen, and I'm really excited to have you here today.

Stephen: I have someone that I've been trying to get on the podcast for a very long time - because I just think the world of her. It's been super amazing to get to know this person. Anyways, I'm excited about it.

The first time that I got to hear this story, it was heart-wrenching for me to see, not just everything that had happened, but the inspiration that it's causing in other people's lives.

The way it's changing other people's lives is a huge deal.

It was fascinating for me to see that this is real, you know, this is a big deal.

I already knew that, but just to continue to watch it in application... I was like, "Gosh, the thousands and thousands and thousands of lives that it's changed."

It's my incredible honor and privilege to have you on the show. Guys, I wanna welcome Natalie Hodson. How are you doing?

Natalie - Hey, thank you so much, Stephen. That was an amazing intro.

Stephen - I mean it.

Natalie - I'm so excited to be here too. I've watched your stuff, and I've binge listened to all your podcasts. Your advice has helped me so much, so it's like a win-win. I'm excited - you're excited. It's awesome.

Stephen - Oh, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. I know a lot of people may not know about you yet, and frankly, it's just a matter of time... I think everyone's gonna know who you are.

Natalie - Aw, thank you.

Stephen - Could you tell us a little bit about your story, and kind of the background, 'cause it's inspiring, and...

Natalie - Yeah.

Stephen - There's obviously funnels in there, but that's a vehicle for this whole thing. You're changing people's lives, and I'd love you to grace my audience with that... that'd be great.

Natalie - Totally. Well, there's a long version and a short version. I'll try to keep it towards the short version, but I tend to be long-winded.

So at any point, if you're like, "Natalie, take it this direction," you know...

Stephen - We have happy ears.

Natalie - So I'm in the fitness space. But I always say that I accidentally fell into the fitness industry because I was a history major in school. I didn't know:

#1: That there even was a fitness industry

#2: That I ever wanted to be a part of it.

After I had my son, I gained 70 pounds when I was pregnant with him. I was like big, out here. He was a 10-pound baby.

Stephen - 70 pounds?

Natalie - Yeah, I was really big. And after I had him, I remember feeling lost. I remember looking in the mirror and feeling like, "I don't even recognize myself... I just wanted to feel like myself again," and it wasn't even so much about the weight. I just didn't feel like me.

So I started a blog, and honestly, it was like an online journal - just as a way to keep me accountable for my fitness stuff.

I didn't tell a single person that I knew in real life, because I was embarrassed. I didn't want the people I knew to know what I was struggling.

This was when Pinterest very first got started, about eight years ago. I just started sharing...

I like to cook, so I started sharing healthy recipes, and I started putting them on Pinterest.

And honestly, if you look at my first pins back then, they were taken with a flip phone, just awful photos, but luckily for me, now people are taking gorgeous pictures for me.

So I started to get a lot of traffic to my website.

Stephen - You were just kinda documenting what you were doing?

Natalie - I was just documenting what I was doing and sharing.

This was right when Facebook groups weren't even a thing, and I started a Facebook group with this training program I was doing. I started sharing my ups and my downs, just because I felt like it was a safe space.

I was really vulnerable and telling, you know, my struggles; like I got called out of the gym daycare again - just like real struggles, you know?

I was struggling with all this stuff. And so, I did that 12-week program, and had awesome results, and got some recognition from bodybuilding.com.

I was getting a lot of traffic to my site. So I was like, man, if I'm getting traffic, I might as well monetize it. So I got certified as a personal trainer and started writing - I wrote a couple of ebooks. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't how to write an ebook. I just kind of figured it out as I went.

Stephen - Yeah.

Natalie - And then, I started recognizing, basically, like, long story short, what happened is one day...

I was at an event, and this girl came up to me. And she's like, "I love following your stuff! I could never do what you do, because I have stretched skin after I had my babies, and I could never look like you."

I got really confused in the moment, 'cause I was like, "What are you talking a...

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected